What are the main philosophical and political ideas of Confucius how to evaluate these ideas

Confucius is the greatest figure in the history of Chinese political thought, from which Chinese political thought has 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 heritage of the past, and created a political thought centered on benevolence and propriety. Confucius's political thought is mainly reflected in the book "The Analects", a collection of his and his disciples' speeches, and also in the "Six Classics", which were compiled by Confucius to reflect Confucius's basic political thought. Confucius established a systematic and complete theoretical system, including philosophy, ethics, politics, education, economics, history, literature, aesthetics and other aspects. It was formed through the two aspects of work: "Description" and "Composition". "Description" means that he systematically organized the ancient literature before the Zhou Dynasty, and compiled and deleted the Six Classics: Poetry, Book, Rites, Music, Yi, and Spring and Autumn Annals. The "works" are Confucius' own writings, mainly the Analects of Confucius. 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, about the concept of benevolence, before Confucius, people in the early Spring and Autumn Period called benevolence honoring relatives and elders, loving and loving the people, and being loyal to the monarchs and the virtues of rituals. Confucius inherited the concept from his predecessors and developed it into a systematic statement of ren. What is ren? In the Analects, Confucius mentioned ren in more than a hundred places, with a wide range of meanings, but its basic meaning is twofold: first, to love people. His disciple Fan Chi asked Confucius what ren was, and Confucius replied, "Love people. There is an explanation in Shuowen: "Ren, pro also, from two people", which is very much in line with Confucius' thinking. Ren means that people should be friendly to each other and help each other. There are differences in love. According to Mencius, it is: "Kindness and benevolence, benevolence and love". It is to love one's own relatives first, and then popularize to the people, and then extend to the things; it is to love people first, and then inside, and then outside, both in order and in thickness. This is a kind of "difference of benevolence" from the "natural nature" of human beings. 2. The second meaning of benevolence in respect of propriety is to restrain oneself and return to propriety. In his reply to his disciple Yan Yuan, Confucius said, "It is benevolence to restrain oneself and return to propriety" ("Yan Yuan"). To "restrain oneself" is to consciously restrain oneself." To return to propriety" means to observe propriety 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 rites, so that they can achieve the state of "Do not look at anything that is not in accordance with rites, do not listen to anything that is not in accordance with rites, do not speak anything that is not in accordance with rites and do not move anything that is not in accordance with rites. Seeing, hearing, speaking and moving are all in line with propriety, which is also the realm of benevolence." Ritual" is also an ancient concept, as the Duke of Zhou formulated the Rites of Zhou. However, Confucius was the first to discuss it from various aspects. What is a rite? The meaning of "rites" is twofold: first, it is the regulation of the fundamental political system. In the eleventh year of Zuo Zhuan (左传), in the year 11 of the Duke of Yin (隐公), it is written: "Rites are those that serve the state, define the state and the country, order the people, and benefit the heirs." This means that rites are the order needed to govern and stabilize the state, to consolidate the state's institutions and to maintain society. Confucius also said that ritual was "the great scripture of the king" (Zuo Zhuan, Zhaogong 15), the fundamental law of rule, 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. Visible Confucius here said "ritual" is actually "social order and social system". The second is the etiquette, that is, about the court's rituals, the expedition, the courtship, and even the wedding, funeral and marriage, serving people and receiving things to the details of life, according to the different levels, status, there are different etiquette, which is called "Yi". Here the "ritual" is actually the specific form of "social order and social system". Confucius believes that: rites and rituals are unified, rites are fundamental, rituals are subordinate, rituals are the "section text" or form of rites, or rites are the form of action norms and rituals to consolidate and reflect the social order and system. Therefore, the realization of rites relies on both the power of coercion and the power 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 institutions", as in the Zhou Dynasty. Confucius advocated the combination of rites and benevolence, incorporating benevolence into rites and enriching rites with benevolence. This is the innovation of Confucius." Regarding the relationship between rites and benevolence, he believed that benevolence is the inner spirit of rites and rites are the expression of benevolence. Ren is the highest state of rites, and rites are the way to realize ren. As far as the nature of ren and rites are concerned, ren, in the final analysis, reflects the relationship of benevolence and love between people rooted in blood relations; rites, mainly, regulate the political order and system of society. In Confucius' thought system, focusing on the combination of ren and rites is essentially focusing on the combination of humanity and politics, thus making significant changes to the Zhou Rites. Benevolence and ritual are not contradictory, because benevolence is the content and ritual is the form, and the combination of the two is the perfection of a system. 3. On the idea of moral governance, in connection with Confucius's theory of benevolence and ritual, he advocated the idea that "governance by virtue" is the noblest way of ruling a country by using morals and rituals to govern the country. This kind of governance strategy is also called "rule by virtue" or "rule by rites". This strategy of applying morals and rites to the people actually broke the traditional creed that rites are not inferior to the common people, and broke the original important boundary between the nobles and the common people. Specific ways to implement the rule of virtue: 1) emphasize indoctrination, light punishment. Confucius believed that in order to govern a country well, it was necessary to strengthen indoctrination on the basis of satisfying the people's affluence. On the issue of rites and punishments, Confucius advocated that rites and teachings are fundamental, and that punishments must be used as a last resort, and must be used with caution. He believed that only by combining leniency and ferocity would the government be harmonized. The combination of leniency and ferocity means that both the military and the civil service should be used together, and that both moral and penal rule should be used. 2) Opposing excessive exploitation, Confucius advocated that "the people should be made to be righteous". The word "righteousness" means that the people should not be over-exploited, but should be made suitable. Confucius saw the reality of polarization and excessive disparity between the rich and the poor at that time, and believed that this was the basic factor causing social unrest and national upheaval, so he put forward the economic idea of egalitarianism. He said, "If there is a state with a family, it does not suffer from scarcity but from unevenness, and it does not suffer from poverty but from uneasiness." ("Ji Shi") 3) To govern, we need to correct ourselves. Confucius believed that in order to govern a country and be righteous, one must first be righteous, and it is only when one is righteous that one can be righteous. He said, "If one's body is upright, one does not follow orders: if one's body is not upright, one does not follow orders." ("Zi Lu") So Confucius advocates that the ruler must be a "gentleman" with high moral standing and good conduct, so that the ruler will set an example, and will be followed by his subordinates, and the country will naturally be ruled by the people and the government. Confucius put forward a certain level of morality for the rulers. 4) Lift up virtuous talents. In connection with Confucius' idea of moral governance, he believed that in order to rule the world, the ruler of the country must promote the virtuous and capable, and discover and promote outstanding talents to participate in the affairs of the country. Regarding the criteria of virtuous talents, Confucius believed that they should be "aspire to the Way, act according to virtue, follow benevolence, and travel in the arts" ("Shui Er"), that is, they should be "devoted to the Way" (述而). (Shuzhi) That is, they should have political ideals and goals, be based on the spirit of benevolence and possess noble virtues, and be able to skillfully utilize their business knowledge and skills. In short, a virtuous person is one who has ideals, morals, knowledge and the ability to govern. This is a standard for both virtue and talent. Confucius' Ren embodies the spirit of humanism, while Confucius' Li embodies the spirit of propriety, i.e., order and system in the modern sense. 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 a civilized human society. This humanitarianism and spirit of order of Confucius is the essence of ancient Chinese socio-political thought. Source: Excerpted from Zhang Yongdong's "A New Review of the Political Thought of Pre-Qin Confucianism" (先秦儒家政治思想新评)二、Confucius advocated "teaching without discrimination" in education. Before Confucius, "learning was in the government", and only the children of the nobility had the right to be educated. Therefore, only the children of the aristocracy were qualified to be officials. But by the time of Confucius, the political economy and culture and education of the society were moving downward, which provided an opportunity for private schooling. Confucius seized this opportunity and began his career of founding private schools, hoping to realize his political ideology by cultivating "scholars" and officials through education. On the issue of the object of education, Confucius clearly put forward the idea of "teaching without class"[7]. The original meaning of "education for all classes" is that there is no distinction between nobles and commoners, no distinction between national boundaries and Chinese and barbarians, as long as they have the desire to learn, they can all be enrolled in school and be taught. Confucius' disciples came from different countries such as Lu, Qi, Jin, Song, Chen, Cai, Qin, and Chu, which not only broke the national boundaries at that time, but also broke the division between the barbarians and the summers at that time. Confucius absorbed Gongsunlong and Qin Shang, who were regarded as "barbarians" by the Central Plains people, and also wanted to live in the "Nine Barbarians" to teach, which illustrates the latter point. Among the disciples of Confucius, there were those from the aristocracy, such as Nanguan Jingshu, Sima Niu, and Meng Yizi, but more of them came from commoners' families, such as Yan Hui, Zeng Sen, Min Ziqian, Zhongwu, Zilu, Zi Zhang, Zixia, Gongye Chang, and Zigong, etc. The education of Confucius is more reflective of the commoners' education. Civilian education better reflects the spiritual essence of Confucius' principle of "education for all without discrimination". The theoretical basis of Confucius' idea of "teaching without class" is his human nature theory of "similarity in nature and distance in practice"[8]. The "similarity of nature" explains that all people have the possibility of becoming talented and virtuous, and "distant habits" explains the importance of implementing education. It is on the basis of the realization that "all people can become talented and virtuous through education" that Confucius made the decision to "teach without discrimination". Therefore, Confucius' idea of "education for all without discrimination" is of epoch-making significance in the history of the development of education

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