Confucian Sages

Sages in Today’s World In both Confucian and Daoism, the idea of a “sage”, is the ultimate title an individual can get in his/her life. Being called a sage, first and foremost, means one must fulfills the moral standards set by each philosophy idea. In Daoism, the way of being is more emphasized on individual’s state of mind, and in Confucian, the idea is focused on duty and position, individual’s relation to the whole society. The ideas are taught and spread by the voice the sages, as both Confucius and Lao Zi could be called a sage. In the context of the contemporary world, however, the title “sage” is no longer applied to any specific person. People today rarely set their ultimate life goal as being a “sage”, but the ideas from these ancient …show more content…
And they are not even contradicting to each other: one can practice both ideas at the same time. The same core idea would still be a valuable lesson to individuals in the context of today’s world. In Confucian, being able to reach certain types of goals or dreams within one self is essential in being a “ren”, in addition to that, being able to help others discover their goals would be considered a “sage”. Helping other has always been a friendly thing to do, not necessarily in the way of fulfilling certain social positions the same as in Confucius time. The nature of setting a goal is being able to better understanding one self, so in this case, also helping others discover their true self would be considered an act of a “sage”. In Daoist ideas, the five senses that people normally perceive the world are only how they tends to subjectively understand the world, as well as “racing and hunting” and “rare treasures”, they cannot reflect the true nature of the world. This idea actually holds some scientific evidences, as some animals have more color receptions than humans therefore they view the world different than human, and the true nature of colors is only the reflection of lights. The idea being promoted here is not that people should not possess any fortune or fame, or perceive …show more content…
Yes, competition do brings conflicts even wars, but it also brings innovations and new ideas. Helping others reaching their goals is a friendly act, but ideas cannot be reinforced to others in any way. Just as the idea of a sage is not everyone’s ultimate goal, in that case everyone would be a sage at the end of their life, but a way to learn some ideas in understanding both themselves and the world around. For that reason, people still care about Confucian and Daoism till this day, and read and learn about these ancient philosophies, as the ideas behind these “sages” are still valuable and helpful in shaping their own