Confucian Ethics

Who is Confucius?

- Confucius exemplified benevolence and integrity, and through his teaching became one of
China’s greatest philosophers.
- Born to a nobleman but raised in poverty from a very young age, following the untimely death
of his father.
- Confucius developed what would become a lifelong sympathy for the suffering of the common
people.
- With the help of his wealthy friend, Confucius was able to study at the royal archives where his
worldview would be formed.
- Ancient texts were regarded by some as irrelevant relics of the past, Confucius was inspired by
them
- Confucius believed that human Character is formed in the family, and by education in ritual,
literature, and history.
- A person cultivated in this way works to help others, guiding them by moral inspiration rather
than brute force.
- In Accordance with his philosophy and contrary to the practice of the time, Confucius dissuaded
rulers from relying on harsh punishments and military power because a good ruler inspires
others to spontaneously follow him by virtue of his ethical charisma.
- He also believed that because the love and respect we learn in the family are fundamental to all
other virtues, personal duties to family sometimes supersede obligations to the state.
- During his travel, Confucius almost starved, he was briefly imprisoned, and his life was
threatened at several points, but he was not bitter.
- Confucius had faith that heaven have a plan for the world, and he taught that a virtuous person
could always find joy in learning and music.
- He returned to Lu and became a teacher and philosopher so influential, that he helped shape
the Chinese culture and we recognized his name worldwide, even today.
- For the disciples of Confucius, he was the living embodiment of a sage who leads others through
his virtue, and they recorded his sayings, which eventually were edited into a book we know in
English “The Analects.”
- The summarization of his teachings in a single praise, Confucius himself said, “Do not inflict upon
others that which you yourself would not want.’’

EASTERN PHILOSOPHY

CONFUCIUS

- Born in 551 BC in China. He may have been a student of the Daoist master, Lao Tzu.
- Began Government service and served many roles, including: Minister of Crime.
- Golden rule “Do no do unto others what you don’t want done to yourself.’’
- This serves as an antidote to the troubles we currently face.

FEW EXAMPLES THAT CONFUCIUS WANTS US TO REMEMBER

1. Ceremony is important
 Example: Tsze-kung wished to do away with the offering of a sheep. Confucius said, ‘Tsze, you
love the sheep, I love the ceremony’
Why not save the sheep?
Answer: Confucius is reminding Tsze, and us about the importance of ceremony
- Confucius believed in the value of ceremony over sheep because he valued what he called
‘Ritual Propriety (Li)
- We understand that certain premeditated, deliberate, and precise gestures stir our emotions
deeply. Rituals make our intentions clear and they help us to understand how to behave.
2. We should treat our parents with reverence
- Confucius have a very strict idea about how we behave towards our parents.
- He believed that we should obey them when we are young, care for them when they are old,
mourn at length when they die and make huge sacrifices in their memory thereafter.
- He even said that we should not travel far away while our parents are alive. And should cover
for them if they steal a sheep.
- This attitude is known as ‘Filial Piety’ (Xiao)
- Confucius recognized that in many ways moral life begins in the family. We cannot be truly be
caring, wise, grateful, and conscientious, unless we remember mums birthday and meet dad for
lunch.
3. We should be obedient to honorable people
- We believed that all people should be equal
- We reject many rigid hierarchical roles.
- Confucius told his followers: Let the ruler be a ruler; the subject a subject, a father a father, and
a son a son.
- It is important to realize that there are people worthy of our deep veneration, even our simple
and humble obedience. We need to be modest enough to recognize the people Whose
experience or accomplishment out weight our own.
- We should also peaceable doing what these people need, ask or command.
- Confucius explained: ‘The relation between superiors and inferiors is like that between superiors
and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass: the grass must bend when the wind
blows across it.”
- Bending gracefully is, in fact, not a sign of weakness, but a gesture of humility, and respect
4. Cultivated knowledge can be more important than creativity.
- Confucius was adamant about the importance of the universal wisdom that comes from years of
hard work and reflection.
- He listed: Benevolence (Rei), Ritual Propriety (Li), Righteousness (Yi), Wisdom (Zhi), Integrity
(Xin); as the five constant virtues.
- Confucius believed that people are inherently good. He also saw the virtues like these must be
constantly cultivated
- He spoke about moral character and wisdom as the work of a lifetime
- Confucius died without reforming the decadent officials.

CONFUCIAN ETHICS

Three aims of Confucian Ethics

 1. Reform government and society
2. Educate the people
3. Transmit the Chou culture
- The moral aim of moral education is for the person to become a junzi, a gentleman or a superior
man.
- To become a superior man, one must follow the Dao (Way), which consists of four cardinal
virtues: Ren, Yi, Zhi, Li

Li: Propriety

- Li means ritual, good manners and right conduct

- There is a proper way of behaving in every occasion
- All listed in the book or Rites, Li Chi
- For Kong Zi, what is important is the spirit of sincerity and respect for others and the spirits.
- Li is for the sake of Li, meaning order and principle of society.

What is the purpose of Li?

- Li is for the sake of order, and principle of society

Chih: Wisdom

- Chih means ‘’to know man’’

- When a stable was burned down, Confucius did not ask about the horses but ‘’was anyone
hurt?’’
- Knowledge is never for the sake of knowledge but for praxis.
- Wang Yang-Ming: ‘’Knowledge is the beginning of action, action the completion of knowledge’’.
- For Confucius, chih is to know human beings.

I or Yi: Righteousness

- I is doing what is right because it is right, not because of reward or profit, nor because of fear of
punishment.
- This virtue is later emphasized and elaborated by Mencius
- Importance of motivation in acting.

Ren: Benevolence

- Before Kong Zi, rarely mentioned and when mentioned referred to the kindness of the ruler to
his subjects.
- Various translations: ‘’Benevolence’’, ‘’Human-heartedness’’, ‘’humanity’’, and because it is the
most important virtue ‘’The virtue’’.
- The character is made up of two characters: the left also pronounce as Ren, stands for human
being and the left character, pronounced as erh, stands for 2.
- Thus, Ren has to do with interpersonal relationships: pakikipagkapwa-tao.
- Ren has its root in filial piety and brotherly respect.
- Ren begins in the family but extends outside to the community and the world
 - Filial piety is solidarity with the whole of humanity in the aspect of time, while brotherly respect
is solidarity with humanity in the aspect of space.
- There are two things in his teaching and that is Zhong(Chung) and Shu(Shu). These two are two
aspects of ren.

Shu

- Composed of the bottom character hsin, meaning ‘’heart’’ and the top character ru, meaning
‘’as’’. Therefore literally meaning ‘’as the heart dictates’’.
- Shu is the Golden rule: Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you.’
- Some misinterpretation of the Golden rule of Confucius:
- Confucius’s GR is negative compared to Christ’s. Positive formulation of GR: “if you want to
succeed, you must help others to succeed.
Other misconception of the Golden Rule.
- “Do unto others what they did to you.”
- “DO unto others before they did it to you.”

Zhong

- Composed of the bottom character hsin, meaning ‘’heart’’ and the top character chung,
meaning ‘’center’’ or the ‘’middle’’.
- Literally meaning ‘’put your heart at the center of what you are doing.’’
- Translated as ‘’conscientiousness’’ or ‘’fidelity to oneself’’.
- Chung is the duty to oneself.

Two aspects of Ren (Zhong and Shu)

- Chung and Shu cannot be separated just as genuine love for oneself cannot be separated from
the love for others.
- If they are separated from each other, one is bound to misinterpreting one or the other as in the
case of Kant.

The golden rule in Mencius

- Although the humanistic basis of Ren make it universal, in application, however, it admits of
gradation. One should start with the family and extend it the community.
- Ren as graded is further elaborated by Mencius, who pairs Ren with I, righteousness. Mencius
said, ‘’Ren is man’s mind-heart and righteousness is his path.’’ A path implies priorities, and
priorities involve gradation and distinction. One cannot love everybody equally, although love by
nature is all-embracing.

The golden rule in Non-confucianism

- From Chu Hsi, to Wang Yang-Ming, to Tai Chen, we cannot note the expansion of the golden rule
to include not only fellow human beings but the whole of nature, and consequently a movement
of its application from a contextual hierarchical relationship of roles in society to a more
universal relationship with the whole of nature.

CONCLUSION
 - The golden rule or the ethics of reciprocity is found in all world religions, formulated in different
ways.
- In the Eastern tradition, religion, and philosophy are interrelated, in the sense that philosophy
and life are one.
- Also there is much violence in our world today. As Imamichi has noted. ‘’we are exposed to the
threat of seven ‘untimely deaths’ Example; starvation, death from accidents, death in war, death
from pollution, death through terrorism, suicide, and murder.

CONFUCIAN ROLE ETHICS

- In the Lunyu (Analects of Confucius) Confucius describes how a ‘’true person’’ reacts if his father
stole a sheep.
- The governor of She in conversation with Confucius said, “In our village there is someone called
‘True person.’ When his father took a sheep on the sly, he reported him to the authorities.’’
- Confucius replied, ‘’Those who are true in my village conduct themselves differently. A father
covers for his son, and a son covers for his father. And being true lies in this.”

Liu Qingping:

- ‘’Foundation for the corruption and ‘mutual concealment’ in Chinese society.’

- ‘’This type of understanding causes people to see ‘filial piety principle’ as fundamentally
determinate in moral action. The love of one’s family members should, according to the text,
override all othe principles.’’
- Calls for a reorganization of Confucian ‘’principles’’

Paul D’Ambrossio:

- Confucianism may be read as role ethics.

Confucian ethics as Role ethics

- Ruler and subject

- Father and Son
- Elder and Younger brother
- Husband and wife
- Friend and Friend
- Role ethics is based on the understanding of a person as a center of the roles and relationships
they live.
- “Rather than understanding one’s self as an individual with certain duties, obligations, rights or
virtues, a person is co-relative, define through the way they interact with others’’.
- “Moral problems are then approached firstly through a recognition of the relationship of the
persons involved.”
- Confucianism offers a host of models for moral action.
- “The downside is that role ethics cannot produce clear and concise principles, equations or
definitions that would allow one to concisely summarize moral action”
- “Models are demanding in that they require knowledge and interpretation that limits their
accessibility to only those have seriously considered their background and presuppositions into
account.”