What are the main elements of Confucian political doctrine

Characteristics of Confucian Political Thought

The founder of Confucianism was Confucius. After Confucius, Confucianism became the name of a school of thought formed on the basis of the teachings of Confucius. Confucianism refers to Confucius and his disciples. Confucianism refers specifically to the ideas of Confucius and the doctrines developed by his disciples. Confucius was the greatest figure in the history of Chinese political thought, and from Confucius onwards, Chinese political thought entered an era of complete system. The contribution of Confucius to Chinese political thought lies in the fact that he systematically organized, inherited and enriched the historical legacy of the past, and created a political thought centered on benevolence and propriety.

Confucius' doctrine of benevolence embodies the spirit of humanism, while Confucius' doctrine of propriety embodies the spirit of propriety, which is the modern sense of order and system. Humanitarianism, which is the eternal theme of mankind, is applicable to any society, any era and any government, while order and system society is the basic requirement for the establishment of human civilized society. This humanitarianism and spirit of order of Confucius is the essence of ancient Chinese socio-political thought.

Confucius, whose name was Qiu and whose initials were Zhongni, was born in 552 BC and died in 479 BC. He was born in 552 B.C. and died in 479 B.C. His ancestors were from Song, but he later took refuge in Lu. His father, Shiliang Ji, was a governor of Zhonyi in the state of Lu. When Confucius was three years old, his father died, and the family was left poor. When he was about twenty years old, he worked as an official in charge of warehouses, and as an official in charge of cattle and sheep in Yutian, and also as a Confucian priest, i.e., an official in charge of marriage and funerals for the rich and noble families. He probably began to teach when he was thirty years old. After fifty, he became an official, a zhongdu zai in the state of Lu, and later became a xiaosikong (engineering and construction) and sikou (administration of justice). Later on, Confucius traveled around the world with his disciples and lobbied the rulers of various countries in an attempt to develop his political career and fulfill his political ambitions. However, he was never able to do so.

Confucius was mainly engaged in teaching for more than forty years, and cultivated a large number of talented disciples. He broke the tradition of learning in the government and created the wind of private schooling. He had a large number of disciples, and it is said that he had 3,000 disciples and 72 sages. The so-called "wise men" are those who are y involved in Confucianism and who have made achievements in their career or academics. Thus, they cultivated talents and formed an academic community with Confucius as the core.

Confucius's political thought is mainly reflected in the book "Analects", a collection of speeches he made with his disciples, and the six sutras compiled by Confucius also reflect Confucius's basic political thought. Confucius established a systematic and complete theoretical system, including philosophy, ethics, politics, education, economy, history, literature, aesthetics and other aspects. It was formed through the two aspects of his work, namely, his systematic organization of the ancient literature before the Zhou Dynasty, and his compilation and deletion of the Six Classics: the Poetry, the Book, the Rites, the Music, the Book of Changes, and the Spring and Autumn Annals. The main work is Confucius' own writings, mainly the Analects of Confucius.

After the death of Confucius, his disciples, due to ideological differences, or different understanding of the teachings of Confucius, appeared to set up their own families, and the Confucius Sect was divided. In the case of the division, Han Fei said in "The Hierarchy" that Confucianism was divided into eight, i.e., into eight schools of thought. Most of the details of the eight schools of thought have not been handed down, but the Si-Meng and Xun-Zi schools of thought have been widely publicized in later generations. Confucius was the most influential thinker in Chinese history. After Confucius, Confucianism became a prominent school of thought, and many scholars in the Warring States period came from the Confucian school, such as Mo Zhai, the founder of Mohism, and Han Fei, the master of Legalism. After the two Han Dynasty, Confucianism founded by Confucius gradually became the dominant ideology in Chinese society and the backbone of our nation's traditional political views. As a result, it has had a significant impact on the formation of the spiritual character of the Chinese nation. The main features are as follows:

1. Emphasis on tradition and inheritance. Confucianism has always advocated the ancestor of Yao and Shun, Charter Wenwu, appreciate the ancient past, follow the example of the late king. Confucius said that he himself described but did not write, believe and good old days. He even thought that his long dream of not seeing the Duke of Zhou was a kind of senility, and that he had really reached the level of dreaming. He also advocated the ancient way of organizing the Six Classics, but he did not refrain from making any works, rather, there were new interpretations of the ancient questions, and he gave them new meanings in accordance with his understanding, which was to make works instead of being muddy in the ancient world. Later on, Mencius advocated to follow the example of the late king, and to say few words to Yao and Shun. Xunzi advocated the law of Houyu, but Xunzi's Houwang also referred to Wenwu and Zhougong, which was the same as Mengzi's Xiwang. The later Confucian scholars also continued and developed this tradition.

2. The basic categories of Confucianism are rites and benevolence. Confucius gave a systematic exposition of rites and benevolence: it formed the theoretical cornerstone of Confucianism. The later Mencius systematized his theory of benevolence, and Xunzi fully developed his theory of propriety. While Mencius and Xunzi each developed their respective doctrines of benevolence and propriety in stages, later Confucian disciples continued to work on these two categories, in forms that may have varied with the times, with the Song Confucians developing propriety into rationality.

3. Combination of politics and ethics. To Confucianism, politics is the expansion of ethics, ethics is the basis of politics, Confucius said: his people are filial ladder, the offender is seldom. (Analects, Xue Er) Loyalty is the expansion of filial piety. They believe that cultivating one's body and keeping the family in order are the prerequisites for ruling the country and leveling the world. Ideally, the ruler and the saint are the same, and politics and righteousness are linked. Confucianism advocates rituals, which are both political guidelines and moral norms. From Dong Zhongshu onwards, the rites were crystallized into three principles and five norms, which governed the whole feudal society, and violating them was both a moral and a political problem.

4, in the strategy of governing the country advocates the main virtue, virtue and punishment complementary. How to rule the people, the ruling class has always had moral and criminal both hands, that is, suppression and indoctrination and use. Confucius advocated that the people should be guided by virtue, and the people should be organized by rituals. （He believed that it is the noblest politics to govern the people with morality and propriety, so that the people not only have shame and integrity, but also have a sense of obedience to the people. He believed that the ideal politics should be free from punishment and lawsuits, and that cruelty and murder should be eliminated. But in reality, Confucius was not absolutely free from punishment. His tendency was to emphasize virtue rather than punishment, and to use punishment only as a last resort. Mencius continued this tradition, advocating the elimination of penalties and the promotion of education. He said: "Good governance is feared by the people; good education is loved by the people. （Xunzi was a bit more dramatic on this issue, advocating the importance of law and the prohibition of punishment, but his emphasis on law was linked to the importance of rituals, and the two went hand in hand. At the same time, he also regarded the punishment as a means to punish the future, to reduce crime, and to teach others. He said, "The essence of punishment is to prohibit violence and evil, and to punish the future. （Xunzi's idea of emphasizing both morality and punishment is obviously different from that of Confucius, which indicates that Xunzi began to lean toward the rule of punishment. Subsequent Confucian scholars, in terms of how to apply the law and punishment to the people, also varied in emphasis according to the various changes in society and history, but the general tendency was to emphasize the importance of morality.

5, in the relationship between heaven and man, the importance of personnel, false to the fate of heaven. From the time of Confucius, he did not explore the mystery of nothing or nature, and the Analects of Confucius recorded that Zi Buye, strange, forceful and chaotic, God. （His disciple Zigong said, "What Confucius said about nature and the way of heaven cannot be heard. (Gongye Chang) This shows that Confucius seldom talked about the fate of the gods and ghosts. Mencius talked more about heaven than Confucius did, about the unity of heaven and man, but he moralized heaven by combining it with man, with human nature, and with the human heart. But he moralized the heaven into human beings, into human nature, into human hearts, and ultimately into the earthly ethics on the earth, not into the mysterious heaven. Xunzi, on the other hand, clearly stated that heaven and man are separate, and that we should make use of the heavenly order.

The main body of Confucius' political thought is the doctrine of benevolence and propriety, and benevolence and propriety are the core categories of Confucius' political thought. 1. The concept of benevolence has existed before Confucius, and in the early Spring and Autumn period, people referred to respect for relatives and elders, love and love for the people, loyalty to the monarch, and the virtues of ritual and literature as benevolence. Confucius inherited this concept and developed it into a systematic theory of ren.

What is ren? In the Analects of Confucius, there are more than a hundred references to ren, with a wide range of meanings, but its basic meaning is twofold: first, to love others. His disciple Fan Chi asked Confucius what ren was, and Confucius replied: love people. The Shuowen has an explanation: Ren, pro also, from the two, very much in line with the thinking of Confucius. Ren means that people should be friendly to each other and help each other. From this, we can see that the origin of the idea of benevolence comes from the primitive clan communes, when people's relationship was maintained by blood relationship, and within the clan, people were close to each other and loved each other. Therefore, benevolence starts from the relationship between father and son, and comes from kinship. This is the reason why Mencius said: the reality of benevolence is to serve one's relatives. Confucius himself also said: filial piety and brotherhood are the basis of benevolence! ("Learning and Learning") that filial piety to parents and fraternity to brothers are the basis for realizing benevolence. Is Confucius' benevolence limited to relatives? No, Confucius said that loving others applies to all people, but not to all people equally. There are different kinds of love. According to Mencius, to be kind to one's relatives is to be kind to the people, to be kind to the people is to be kind to the people, and to be kind to the people is to be kind to the things. This is a kind of difference of benevolence from the natural nature of human beings.

How to be benevolent? Confucius suggested that we should extend ourselves to others. He said: "If you are not benevolent, you want to stand up for yourself and stand up for others, and if you want to reach out to others, you want to reach out to others. ("Yongya") that is, they want to stand up and get through, but also to enable others to do this step. It is also said: Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you. （The combination of these two aspects is called the way of loyalty and forgiveness, or the way of benevolence. It is a spirit of forbearance and kindness to others. Confucius referred to it as the consistent Way, the central idea that runs through everything or the fundamental tenet of Confucianism.

2. The second meaning of benevolence is to return to propriety. In his reply to his disciple Yan Yuan, Confucius said: "To be benevolent is to be self-restrained and to return to propriety (Yan Yuan"). Self-restraint is to consciously restrain oneself. Repeating the rites is to observe the rites in all one's words and deeds. What is emphasized here is the moral self-awareness of human beings. By restraining themselves, people can reach the state of consciously observing the rites, so that they can reach the state of "Do not see, do not hear, do not speak and do not move without rites". The state of benevolence is the state of seeing, hearing, speaking and moving in accordance with etiquette.

Ritual is also an ancient concept, as the Duke of Zhou established the Rites of Zhou. However, Confucius was the first to discuss it in many ways.

What is ritual? The meaning of rites is twofold: firstly, it is the regulation of the fundamental political system. In the eleventh year of the reign of Emperor Yin of the Zhou Zhuan (《左传》), it is written: "Ritual is the service of the state, the determination of the gods of earth and grain, the ordering of the people, and the benefit of future generations". This means that rites are necessary to govern and stabilize the state, to consolidate the state system and to maintain the order required by society. Confucius also said that ritual is the great scripture of the king (Zuo Zhuan, Zhaogong 15), the fundamental law for ruling and the program of the state. Therefore, a bad country and a dead family will lose its rites (<Li Ji - Rites of Passage). If you lose your rites, you will lose everything. It can be seen that the rites Confucius is talking about here are actually social order and social system. The second is the etiquette, that is, about the court's sacrifices, expedition, courtship, and even marriage, funeral and marriage, serving people and receiving things to the details of life, according to the different levels and status, there are different etiquette regulations, which is called the rites. The ritual here is actually a concrete form of social order and social system.

Confucius believed that: ritual and etiquette are unified, ritual is fundamental, etiquette is subordinate, etiquette is the verse or form of etiquette, or etiquette is the norms of action and etiquette to consolidate and reflect the social order and system. Therefore, the realization of rites relies on both the force of compulsion and the force of custom, which is a combination of internal and external, so rites are also connected with music. Confucius, in fact, advocated the establishment of a ceremonial society, i.e., a society of order and system, like that of the Zhou Dynasty.

Confucius's idea of restoring the rites to the state is progressive, because in Confucius's time, the state was mostly ruled by the rule of man in the sense of punishment, and it was impossible to have a modern society of order and system, and Confucius advocated that the state should be ruled by the rites ("Advancement"). Confucius advocated that the state should be ruled by rituals. That is to say, he advocated the establishment of a system of rites, that is, a society of order and system in the modern sense. There is also a passage of Confucius' saying recorded in the Book of Rites: "Rites are the first thing in governance, and they are the foundation of governance! Confucius believed that the first thing to be done in ruling a country was to make rites, and that rites were the basis for ruling a country. And the rites that Confucius honored were the rites of the Zhou Dynasty. He said, "The ritual system of the Zhou Dynasty was based on the Xia and Shang Dynasties, and it is very rich and colorful, so I advocate the rituals of the Zhou Dynasty. （I advocate the Zhou Dynasty (see "Eight Rowers"), and therefore Ji aspires to restore the Zhou rituals. Since it was impossible to have order and institutions in the modern sense of the word in Confucius' time, it was only natural for Confucius to advocate the restoration of what he considered to be a society of order and institutions, i.e., the Zhou Rites.

In conjunction with the restoration of the rites, he also proposed the correcting of names. His disciple Zi Lu asked him: If the king of Wei is waiting for you to rule the country, what is the first thing you are going to do? He replied, "It must be the correcting of the name! (Zi Lu) The short and clear answer is that it must be the righting of the name. By correcting the name, I do not mean correcting the name of ordinary things, but the name, the duties, the rituals, which are related to the system of rituals and rites and have political content. At that time, due to social unrest and change, the original system and order was disrupted, there was a breakdown of rites and music, many things have been disorganized in name and reality, the name does not match the reality. For example, the feudal lords used the rites that could only be used by the son of heaven, and the ministers committed regicide and patricide, and so on. The correctness is to correct the disordered reality according to the original regulations, so that the name and the reality match, and everything is done according to the Zhou rituals. This shows that Confucius' political thought advocated the restoration of the Zhou state order, but it does not lead to the conclusion that Confucius wanted to restore slavery.

Confucius advocated the combination of rites and benevolence, the incorporation of benevolence into the rites, and the enrichment of the rites with benevolence. This is an innovation of Confucius. On the relationship between rites and benevolence, he said: "If a man is not benevolent, what are the rites? If a man is not benevolent, what about music? (Eight rows of dancers) The original meaning of this sentence is that rites and music can only be practiced by benevolent people, and those who are not benevolent cannot perform rites and music. Obviously, benevolence is the inner spirit of rites, and rites are the expression of benevolence. Benevolence is the highest state of rites, and rites are the way to realize benevolence. In terms of the nature of ren and rites, ren, in the final analysis, reflects the loving relationship between people rooted in blood relationship; rites, mainly to regulate the political order and system of society. Confucius' system of thought, focusing on the combination of benevolence and rites, in essence, focuses on the combination of humanity and politics, thus making significant changes to the Zhou Rites. There is no contradiction between benevolence and rites, because benevolence is the content and rites are the form, and the combination of the two is the perfection of a system.

Confucius's political thought also includes his idea of moral governance

In connection with Confucius's theory of benevolence and rites, he advocated that governance should be based on morality. He said, "The way is guided by government, the people are exempted from crime and have no shame, the way is guided by morality, the people are taught by rituals, and the people have shame. （It is clear that he believed that to govern with morality and propriety was the noblest way to rule a country. This kind of governance is also called the rule of virtue or the rule of propriety. By applying morals and rites to the people, this strategy actually broke the traditional belief that rites are not inferior to the common people, and broke an important boundary between the nobles and the common people.