Concept of confucianism, and the comparison of confucianism to other

thoughts

Sarsenbayev Sultan
Student ID: L202126630120 Nationality: Kazakh

Confucianism has always been one of the most important philosophical

movements in China. And this is confirmed by the fact that Confucianism had a huge
impact on the development of religion and culture in China. But the question arises
how exactly Confucianism has superiority over other philosophical trends, and what
are the basic concepts of Confucianism.
Firstly, from the history of Confucianism, this philosophical trend was named
after the founder of this philosophical trend, the ancient thinker and philosopher of
China, Confucius. Confucius founded this philosophical movement around 553-480
BC. e. Subsequently, this philosophical trend was also developed by two Chinese
thinkers Mencius and Xun Kuang. All these ancient thinkers laid down the basic
concepts of Confucianism. Confucianism consists of certain principles, which made it
special among other Chinese traditional thoughts. The main principles of
Confucianism are good conduct, practical wisdom and proper social relationships.
Confucianism has made a huge impact on Chinese families, Chinese families have got
some rules from Confucianism. For example, in an ordinary Chinese family, the father
governed like an emperor, and the emperor should have taken care of the whole
family. Confucian ethical codes are described as humanistic. In Confucianism mostly
virtues are promoted. Confucianism has five contents Rén (仁, benevolence,
humaneness); Yì (义; 義, righteousness or justice); Lǐ (礼; 禮, proper rite); Zhì (智,
knowledge); Xìn (信, integrity). Confucianism advocates the doctrine of a golden
mean. The core of Confucianism is benevolence, being humaneness towards others.
Righteousness means be good and do good. Respecting the emperor is related to the
allegiance. Also very important forbearance, do not do to others what you would not
do to yourself. Filial piety is related to being respectful and having a great level of
obedeince. And the last one is rites, which means saving traditions of the culture
.From my point of view, Confucianism is a very effective philosophical trend in terms
of the formation of a healthy and kind society, since everything that relates to morality
is present in Confucianism. For example, in Confucianism there is altruism, virtue and
also equality. All this helps to form a society in which each participant helps each
other. As you already know, Confucianism greatly influenced China. You can see that
the society is formed harmoniously, and there is less crime when compared with other
countries. Of course, it is incorrect to assert that all this appeared thanks to
Confucianism, but we can say for sure that Confucianism had a contribution to the
formation of this society. Also in Confucianism there is equality, especially equality in
education. I think it is also an essential concept in forming equality in the society,
because in a country where all people have access to education, there will be healthy
competition, which could decrease poverty overall in the whole society. If we
compare Confucianism to Daoism, there are many differences in concepts. While
daoism is focused on achieving balance in life, confucianism is focused on social
harmony. In my opinion, achieving balance in social harmony is much more
important, because after achieving harmony in yourself, life becomes easier, because
you already understand yourself, and achieving harmony in life will be much more
easier. Compared to Mohism, Confucianism also has some advantages. Mohism’s
main concept is giving unconditional love to everything, but from my point of view
love could not always save from some dangerouses like inequality or morality. It is
because love is not always teaching some moral lessons, while Confucianism teaches
the full pack of morality.
Overall Confucianism is Chinese thought which has its own concepts that are
related to kindness, equality and more others. This thought was among the most
popular thoughts in China, also this thought had a big contribution in forming society
in China.

References:
mohism
https://www.chinafetching.com/chinese-philosophy-mohism

https://armstronghistoryjournal.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/justification-by-heaven-a-comparative-
analysis-of-political-legitimacy-in-confucianism-and-mohism/

confucianism

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Confucianism
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/confucianism/
https://www.chinafetching.com/confucianism