World Religions
Goals:

 Understand Confucius’ answer to the problems of
his day
 Read and understand more about his “Analects”
 Consider whether Confucianism is an ethical system
or a religion
 Explore the legacy of Confucianism on China
Three Cultural Items
(write & and be prepared to share; 10 pts)

It is your job to choose three
cultural items (films, books or
songs) which will be handed
down to future generations in
order to teach them about an
important principle (or set of
principles) they should value.
What three items would you
choose? Defend your selections.
Confucius’ Answer

 C. didn’t like either answer (Realism/Mohism)
 Reason must be guided by the heart (inverse?)
 He was obsessed with tradition and its power to civilize
 Thought that the beginning of the Zhou (aka Chou)
Dynasty was a Golden Age (the Age of the Grand
Harmony)
 The ancestors perfected the preferred way of life and
transmitted to their offspring; as natural as life itself
Confucius’ Answer

 The answer is now to deliberately create tradition
 Tradition consciously attended to and given reasoned
support
 To do this you must
connect with the past,
yet show
how past
ways are no longer
working and need to
change
Confucius’ Answer

 Shift tradition from unconscious
to conscious
 Determine the values you want
taught, and then make fill society
with them (theater, school,
readings, etc.) so that people will
behave even when people are not
looking
 A series of statements and anecdotes
(Analects) to create the prototype of
what he hoped the Chinese
character would become
The Analects: On
Goodness

"A youth, when at home, should behave
well toward his parents, and when abroad,
respectfully to his elders. He should be
earnest and truthful. He should overflow
in love to all, and cultivate the friendship
of the good. When he has time and
opportunity, after doing those things, he
should study the polite arts."
The Analects: On
Education

Anyone learning without thought
is lost; anyone thinking but not
learning is in peril."
"
The Analects: On
Religion

"Until you are able to serve men,
how can you serve their ghosts?...
While you do not know life, how
can you [hope to] know about
death?"
The Analects: The Superior Man
The 4 characteristics of a superior man:
1.

in his conduct of himself, he was
humble;
2. in serving his superior, he was
respectful;
3. in nourishing the people, he was
kind;
4. in ordering the people, he was just
The Analects: On
Governing

"If the people are governed by laws and
punishment to maintain order, they will
try to avoid the punishment but have no
sense of shame. If they are governed by
virtue and rules of propriety [ritual] are
used to maintain order, they will have a
sense of shame and will become good as
well."
Thinking Question:

What values do you see Confucious teaching in
these quotes? How effective do you think they
might be?
If Confucius was living today, how do you think
he might be his methods across instead?
The Content of Deliberate
Tradition
 Jen/Ren

 The ideal relationship which pertain between individuals
(goodness, man-to-man-ness, benevolence, and love)
 C. said he had never seen it fully incarnate
 Untiring diligence, courtesy, unselfishness, empathy, see all
men as brothers
 Chun tzu (Jun-dzi)
 Superior person (originally gentleman), Humanity at its best,
Mature person
 Self respect that generates respect for others
 Righteousness at heart---beauty of character---harmony in
the home---order in the nation---peace in the world
The Content of Deliberate
Tradition
Li (Lee)

 Propriety, the way things should be done, what is
proper?
 Rectification of names
 Our social roles should be clearly defined (what is a Father?)
 Doctrine of the Mean
 Nothing in excess, stresses harmony and balance, Golden
Rule (500 years before Jesus)
 Compromise, discourages fanaticism
 Five Constant Relationships





Parent/child
Husband/wife
Elder/younger sibling
Elder/junior friend
Ruler/subject
The Content of Deliberate
Tradition
Li (continued)

Respect for Age
Young should attend to the old
Age brings wisdom and respect
Be served and listened to more each year
When right behavior is followed according to
Confucian ideas, life becomes choreographed, a
sacred dance
Honor the Elderly
Treat with reverence due to age the elders in your own family.
- Works of Mencius, Confucianism

Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father.
- Timothy 5:1, Christianity
With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding.
- Job 12:12, Judaism
He who always greets and constantly reveres the aged, four
things will increase to him: life, beauty, happiness and power.
- Dhammapada, VIII:109, Buddhism
To honor an old man is to show respect for God.
- Islam
Thinking slide:

Americans do not value age. Think
of one way you can see this in
practice. What negative or positive
social value does this attitude
towards age cause in our society?
The Content of Deliberate
Tradition

 Te
 Power by which men are ruled
 Rulers need cooperation of people
 This only happens when people believe rulers merit their
cooperation
 Leaders must be
 People of good character
 Devoted to the common good
 Possess a character that compels respect
 The power of moral example means goodness enters society
through it leaders
The Content of Deliberate
Tradition
 Wen
 The arts of peace
 music
 poetry
 painting
 Art ennobles the human
spirit

The Confucian Project
What would life be like all this happened?

 Life is a never-ending opportunity to become more human
 Apart from human relationships, there is no self
 We must constantly adjust ourselves
 we are our relationships
 Become a Chun tzu
 a fully realized human being
 by expanding one’s empathy indefinitely
 go from family > to community > to nation > to humanity
Impact on China

 Eventually shrines were made to C. and sacrifices given
 His teachings were made the basic discipline for the
training of government officials
 The Analects still considered part of classical literature
 The Analects became not just a schoolbook but the basis for
all education
 The closest thing to a state religion in China
Impact on China

 Importance of family
 Respect for age
 Learning and art are powers that
elevate human societies and the
human heart
Thinking question:

Huston Smith used the
analogy of a bird in flight to
explain the Confucian
approach to a healthy life.
Explain this analogy and
what it means to
Confucianism.
Day 3:

Ethics or Religion
Ethics or Religion?

 The “Worldview” at the time
 Heaven and Earth were two interconnected parts of the
world
 Ancestors pass into Heaven, can communicate through
natural events and offerings
 Heaven was the more important of the two worlds
 C. shifts the emphasis
 Earth should be the focus
 Don’t remove Heaven from the picture
 C. was reserved about the supernatural, but was not
without it
Ethics or Religion?

 Somewhere in the universe there is a power that is on the
side of right
 So the spread of righteousness is a cosmic demand
 Become fully human means abandoning:





egotism
nepotism
parochialism
ethnocentrism
chauvinistic nationalism
 Need to transcend isolating, self-sufficient humanism
 Humanity is Heaven and Earth
Mencius 371-288BCE

 Mencius defined “jen/ren” as “benevolence” a more clear and narrow
meaning than what Confucius implied. (Confucius refused to define it.)
 The Golden Rule - - treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, is
the shortest way to benevolence (ren)
 By behaving as though other people were as important as yourself, you
could experience an ecstatic unity with all things
 A chun tzu no longer felt that there was any distinction between him
and other creatures
 Such a person became a divine force for good in a troubled world
Confucius Dialogue
(WWCD)

1. Get into small groups
2. Create a possible dialogue
between Confucius and his
students on the assigned
topic
3. Share with the class
Confucius Dialogue
(WWCD)
Select Topics/issues:

1. Attending a party Friday night
2.
3.
4.
5.
Fighting with a sibling
Skipping school
Preparing for a test
Cheating on your
boyfriend/girlfriend
6. Talking behind the back of a
friend