What are the characteristics of Confucianism

Confucianism is characterized by benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, trust, forgiveness, loyalty, filial piety and fraternal duty.

1. Ren: love of people. The theoretical core of Confucius' thought system, which is the highest ideal and standard of Confucius' social politics, ethics and morality, and also reflects his philosophical viewpoints, and has a profound influence on the later generations, Ren is embodied in the thought and practice of education, which is "to teach all without discrimination.

2. Righteousness: originally refers to the "appropriate", i.e., behavior appropriate to the "rites". Confucius used "righteousness" as a moral principle for judging people's thoughts and behaviors.

3. Ritual: The political and ethical category of Confucius and Confucianism. During the long period of historical development, "rites", as the moral norms and code of life in feudal China, played an important role in the cultivation of the spiritual quality of the Chinese nation. However, with the change and development of the society, especially in the late period of feudalism, it has become more and more a rope binding people's thoughts and behaviors, and has affected the progress and development of the society.

4. Zhi: the same as "know", the basic category of Confucius' epistemology and ethics, refers to knowing, understanding, insight, knowledge, cleverness, wisdom, etc. The connotation mainly involves the nature of knowing, the source of knowing, the content of knowing, and the effect of knowing, etc. On the nature of knowing, Confucius believed that it is important for people to understand the nature of knowing, the source of knowing, the content of knowing, and the effect of knowing. Regarding the nature of knowing, Confucius believes that knowing is a moral category, a kind of knowledge of human behavioral norms.

5. Faith: It refers to the honesty in dealing with others and the consistency of words and deeds, and is one of the "Five Constants" of Confucianism. Confucius will be "letter" as an important embodiment of "benevolence", is the necessary virtues of the virtuous, where in speech and behavior to do true without delusion, will be able to obtain the trust of others, the powers that be to speak credibility, the people will also be treated with true love and not deceive the top.

6, forgiveness: contains the meaning of forgiveness, tolerance.

7. Zhong (忠)：Confucius believed that Zhong (忠) was the expression of loyalty and honesty in dealing with others.

8. Filial piety: Confucius believed that filial piety and fraternal duty were the foundation of benevolence, and that filial piety was not limited to the support of parents, but should be emphasized on the respect for parents and elders, and believed that if one lacked filial piety and respect, the support of one's parents would be regarded as the same as keeping a dog, which was a great treason and unfiliality. Confucius also believes that parents may have faults, children should be polite advice, and strive to correct their parents, not absolute obedience to parents. These ideas are the embodiment of ancient Chinese moral civilization.

9, brotherly love: refers to the feelings of respect and love for older brothers. Confucius attached great importance to the virtue of brotherly love, and put "brotherly love" and "filial piety" together, and regarded it as "the basis of benevolence".

Expanded Information

Background of Confucianism

Confucianism was founded by Confucius, a thinker at the end of the Spring and Autumn period, after nearly 1,700 years of the history of Chinese civilization, which included the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. Confucianism, founded by Confucius, is a complete system of thought formed on the basis of summarizing, generalizing and inheriting the traditional culture of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties of respect and kinship.

During the Eastern Zhou period, Chinese society was in the midst of epoch-making historical changes. The Zhou royal family was in decline, the vassals were in power, the Zhou rituals, which upheld the feudal patriarchal hierarchical system, had been greatly undermined, and the feudal lords were fighting for supremacy, leaving the society in a state of turmoil. At this time, the intellectuals representing the interests of various classes were exceptionally active and became an important social force, they have ascended to the stage of history, wrote books and put forward solutions to the real problems of the society, forming a prosperous situation in which a hundred schools of thought competed with each other.

The most influential of them were Confucianism, Legalism, Taoism, and Mohism, each of which designed a set of governance programs for the emerging landlord class to end division and achieve unity, laying the foundation for the choice of social governance ideology after the Qin and Han dynasties.

During the Spring and Autumn Period in which Confucius lived, the deep crisis caused by irreconcilable contradictions within the society shook the authority of traditional culture, and the spirit of skepticism and criticism of traditional culture increased day by day, so that even Confucius, who was "an ancestor of Yao, Shun, and the Charter of the Literature and the Martial Arts," could not help but infuse his own ideological system with the spirit of the age in which he lived and make appropriate adjustments to the traditional culture. Even Confucius could not help injecting the spirit of the times into his own system of thought and making appropriate changes to traditional culture in order to establish a new order of harmony and psychological balance in social practice. This situation was particularly prominent in the Warring States period, when great changes were taking place, because people could vaguely see the dawn of a new era breaking through the old hierarchical boundaries of inferiority and superiority on the ruins of the old world that had collapsed.

What kind of social model the future would be became a major issue of concern to the whole world and gave rise to a great debate in the intellectual world in the style of a hundred schools of thought. The hundred schools of thought, which represented the interests of all classes and strata of society, put forward their own ideas, and one of the main points of contention was how to deal with traditional culture.

The two schools of thought, the Confucian and the French, were the most representative of the ideological exchanges centered on this issue. They are equal and opposite to each other, and the English are gathered together, all of them are obvious. In addition, there are Mohists, Taoists, Yin-Yangists, military schools and so on, so it can be said that there are many schools of thought, and the enlightenment of the academic and speech has created conditions for the formation of Confucianism.

The Development of Confucianism

1. Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period: The emergence and initial development of Confucianism.

From Confucius's "benevolence," "propriety," "loyalty and forgiveness," and "mediocrity," to Mencius's "Benevolent government", "people-oriented" and the "theory of the goodness of nature"; Xunzi, on the basis of Confucius and Mencius, put forward "benevolence and righteousness", "the rule of propriety", "the rule of law", and "the principle of goodness of nature". Xunzi, on the basis of Confucius and Mencius, put forward the idea of "benevolence and righteousness", "the rule of etiquette", and "the nature of evil".

2. Western Han Dynasty: Confucianism became the feudal orthodoxy.

Dong Zhongshu established the orthodoxy of Confucianism by deposing the hundred schools of thought and revering Confucianism alone, and he set up the Imperial College to educate students in the classics of Confucianism.

3. The Song and Ming periods were a new stage in the development of Confucianism, with the formation of Neo-Confucianism.

The representatives of this period are Er Cheng, Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming. Zhu Xi's "to preserve the principles of heaven, extinguish the desires of mankind, and to realize knowledge through materialism" and Wang Yangming's "unity of knowledge and action" had far-reaching effects on the later generations.

4. The late Ming and early Qing dynasties were a period of criticism and inheritance of Confucianism.

This period saw the emergence of philosophers Li Zhi, Huang Zongxi, Gu Yanwu, Wang Fuzhi, etc., all of whom criticized and inherited Confucianism.

Li Zhi denied the authority of Confucius, put forward the "child's heart" advocating "innovation" and opposing ideological confinement; Huang Zongxi put forward "the world as the main, the king as the guest", and developed Mencius "the world as the main, the king as the guest", "the world as the main, the king as the guest". Huang Zongxi put forward "the world is the master and the ruler is the guest", which developed the idea of "people-oriented" of Mencius; Gu Yanwu further criticized the monarchical autocracy, put forward "the rule of many", advocated "applying the world to the world", and emphasized on practical learning; Wang Fuzhi was even more daring to put forward the idea of "following the principle of justice in the world". The emperor is the root cause of the loss of the way of monarchs and ministers," he said.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Confucianism