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Confucius
K'ung-fu-tzu or Kongfuzi

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Confucius (551-479 BC -- Wade-Giles K'ung-fu-tzu or Pinyin Kongfuzi), or Master K'ung, whose life defines the end of the Spring and Autumn Period in Chinese history, becomes long after his death the dominant Chinese philosopher both morally and politically. In the Warring States Period Mencius (Meng Tzu) (c.390-305 BC) extended and systematized Confucius's ideas; but with Confucius's adoption in the Han Dynasty as the official moral and political doctrine of the State, the Confucian tradition became so broad that "Scholar" or "Literatus" became all but synonymous with "Confucian," and so Confucianism could simply be called the Ju Chia [Pinyin Ru Jia], or School of the Literati. As one of the "Three Ways," together with Taoism and Buddhism, Confucianism also grew into one of the traditional religions of the Han Chinese [1].

The following table gives the basic moral terminology of Confucius, with the Chinese characters. This goes a long way to explaining the nature of Confucius's moral doctrine, since each term embodies the values or disvalues considered morally important. The table is divided into categories that are familiar from the structure of ethics in Western philosophy. Indeed, while many people may think of Indian or Chinese philosophy as intuitionistic or mystical, which is rather like what we do find in Taoism, Confucianism has been said to be a hundred times more rationalistic than Western philosophy. Confucian ethics are certainly clear and uncompromising, with points of similarity to Immanuel Kant and Christianity.

BEING	DOING/MEANS		ENDS
Ren, "benevolence, charity, humanity, love," kindness. The fundamental virtue of Confucianism. Confucius defines it as "Ai ren," "love others." [Analects XII:22]	Yi, "right conduct, morality, duty to one's neighbor," righteousness.		Li, "profit, gain, advantage": NOT a proper motive for actions affecting others. The idea that profit is the source of temptation to do wrong is the Confucian ground of the later official disparagment of commerce and industry.
	The Master said, "The gentleman (chun tzu or jun1zi3) understands yi. The small man understands li." [Analects IV:16]
Li3, "propriety, good manners, politeness, ceremony, worship." Xiao, "to honor one's parents," filial piety.		Yi may be broken down [Analects IV:15] into: zhong1, doing one's best, conscientiousness, "loyalty" [2]; and shu, "reciprocity," altruism, consideration for others, "what you don't want yourself, don't do to others" [Analects XV:24 or 23].
quoted definitions, Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary, Harvard, 1972; quotations from Analects translated by D.C. Lau, Penguin Books, 1979

Confucius himself had a simple moral and political teaching: to love others; to honor one's parents; to do what is right instead of what is of advantage; to practice "reciprocity," i.e. "don't do to others what you would not want yourself"; to rule by moral example (de) instead of by force and violence; and so forth. Confucius thought that a ruler who had to resort to force had already failed as a ruler -- "Your job is to govern, not to kill" (Analects XII:19). This was not a principle that Chinese rulers always obeyed, but it was the ideal of benevolent rule. It should be noted, however, that even such humane principles are paternalistic and statist, without a hint of the ideals of individual liberty that are the basis of modern liberal society. Nevertheless, the Confucian ideal avoids the worst of modern paternalism with the principle of government by example and by "Not Doing" (wu wei), putting Confucianism closer to Taoism than to modern practices of authoritarian control. Confucius thought that government by laws and punishments could keep people in line, but government by example of virtue (de) and good manners (li³) would enable them to control themselves (Analects II:3). "The way the wind blows, that's the way the grass bends" (Analects XII:19). Self-control, indeed, is the basis of all the industrious virtues that have made the Chinese people economically successful whenever they have been allowed to prosper, whether in California, Malaya, or China proper. Unfortunately, although Confucius himself says, "Wealth and high station are what men desire" (Analects, IV:5), later Confucians turned warnings against the temptation of profit (li) into a condemnation of profit, which meant that their influence was often turned against the development of Chinese industry and commerce. Thus, Confucians themselves were perfectly happy to seek "high station," while stiffling the ability of ordinary Chinese to produce "wealth." Over time, this was an evil influence in Chinese history.

While the essence of morality is the limitation of self-interest, Confucius is clear that this does not mean complete denial of self. We have already seen a hint of this with Analects XV:23, which begins with the character for "self" and ends with the characters for "others" (or "persons"). If what you don't want for yourself, you shouldn't to do others, then you would like others to do for you what you would indeed like for yourself. We see a similar word structure, and stronger implication, at Analects VI:28, "If you desire to establish yourself, also establish others." This sounds more like what Mohism called "mutual profitableness," but it is clearly essential to Confucius. The idea is distilled in a modern Japanese saying, jiri rita, "self profit, profit other," or "self-interest[ed] altruism." This can, of course, also be read in Chinese, as shown. It contains different characters for "self" and "other" than Confucius uses, but these could easily be substituted, as can be seen by clicking on the image for a popup with the corresponding characters. Helping oneself and others at the same time is characteristic of what we might even call the "worldliness" of Confucianism and Chinese civilization. The Chinese have never been very big on the world-denying renunication so characteristic of India; and even though monasticism was brought to China by Buddhism and adopted by religious Taoism, Confucianism, which usually also meant the government, always remained suspicious of it: Monks and nuns were often suspected of being licentious freeloaders, an attitude we see expressed in the Judge Dee novels. The hostility to profit that can occur in Confucianism thus has to compete against this contrary sense that self-interest can be promoted by cooperating with and pleasing others -- the essence of a market exchange.

During the T'ang Dynasty, the canon of Confucian Classics became the basis for the great civil service examinations that henceforth provided the magistrates and bureaucrats (the "Mandarins") for the Chinese government. This system is still impressive, but, because of the attitude of the Confucian scholars, it was not entirely to good effect. The founder of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) Chu Yuan-chang, an illiterate peasant who rose to expel the Mongols and win the throne, was suspicious of the influence of the scholars. He tried to balance the scholarly with the military establishment so that neither would dominate the government. Later, when the Chinese sent Admiral Cheng Ho [Zheng He], a Moslem eunuch who started out as a war prisoner and slave, on seven great naval expeditions into the Indian Ocean between 1405 and 1433, it was the scholars who powerfully opposed engaging in anything so lowly as trade and dealing with such uncivilized barbarians. The expeditions, indeed, visited not only Indonesia and India, but penetrated into the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and far down the east coast of Africa. The fleets were large, heavily manned, well armed, and contained ships of nine masts (the baochuan, "treasure ships") that, reportedly, were more than 400 feet long.

But when the court faction of the scholars triumphed and ended the expeditions, they also destroyed their records and made it a capital offense to build anything larger than a two-masted ship. This crippled Chinese trade and foreign involvement; and one is left to wonder just how world history would have been different had Vasco da Gama arrived in the Indian Ocean in 1498, just 65 years later, to discover an overwhelming and technologically equal or superior Chinese naval presence.

In China itself, the scholars indeed went on to dominate the government and tip the balance against the military, which left the country so unprepared that in 1644 the last Ming emperor was forced to call in Manchuria to deal with a rebellion. The Manchus took advantage of this to take over the country; and so the final Chinese Dynasty, the Ch'ing [Qing] (1644-1912), wasn't Chinese at all. This was probably not what the scholars would have wanted, but they had certainly brought it about. Curiously, the Ch'ing Emperors adopted scholarly sensibilities and retained Ming naval and maritime policy xenophobia. This left China once again helpless when forces technologically superior to the Portuguese, especially the British, eventually arrived, irresistibly pressing for commercial access to the country. The scholars never did adapt, and the examination system was eventually abolished rather than modernized.

A curious and noteworthy aspect of the teaching of Confucius is his arm's length attitude towards religion. There is considerably irony in this, not only because Confucianism later became one of the major religions of China, but in comparison to the life of Socrates, who was born just nine years after Confucius died. Socrates, although he talked about the gods all the time, and saw his own philosophical project as a divine mission, was condemned and put to death for presumably not believing in them. Confucius, although he later became a god, to whom temples were dedicated in every Chinese city, as the patron of students and scholars, nevertheless didn't talk about the gods at all:

The topics the Master did not speak of were prodigies, force, disorder, and gods. [Analects translated by D.C. Lau, Penguin Books, 1979, VII:21, p. 88]

The term for "god" here, shen (shin or kami in Japanese) is often translated "spirit" or even "spiritual beings." We see another term in this quote:

Chi-lu asked how the spirits of the dead and gods should be served. The Master said, "You are not able to serve to serve man. How can you serve the spirits?" [XI:12, p. 107]

"Spirits" or "spirits of the dead" here are guei³. This is a remarkable passage considering the attention given by Confucianism as a religion for one's ancestors and for the care of one's family grave plot. This seems comparable to an instruction from Jesus:

[Matthew 8:21] And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. [8:22] But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

Few Christians are so unconcerned about burial of relatives, or Confucians about the service of spirits. What Confucius honored rather than pious ritual is implied here:

The Master was seriously ill. Tzu-lu asked permission to offer a prayer. The Master said, "Was such a thing ever done?" Tzu-lu said, "Yes it was. The prayer offered was as follows: pray thus to the gods above and below." The Master said, "In that case, I have long been offering my prayers." [VII:35, p. 91]

This is interpreted to mean that Confucius has been praying all that was necessary just by being good and polite. Further prayers are unnecessary.

While the practice of Confucianism was not entirely consistent with these principles of Confucius just expressed, his attitude did have a significant effect on the conduct of Chinese religion, where popular gods possessed less status in terms of politics and high culture than we see in most other civilizations. Thus, while most people have a least heard of major Indian gods, like Shiva and Krishna, I have frequently found entire classes of students who were unable to name even a single traditional Chinese god [3]. The government of Imperial China treated the gods rather like other subjects of the Empire, assigning them rank and promoting or demoting them depending on their popularity or moral wholesomeness. Confucian authorities thus never doubted their standing to judge the status and worth of the gods. The Imperial cult, like Confucius himself, was concerned with much more abstract and impersonal entities, like Heaven. Sometimes "Heaven" is therefore translated "God," but it is a principle, not a personal deity. Its reality, however, does refute attempts to characterize Confucius as the sort of sceptical and positivistic "secular humanist" who has become familiar in modern society.

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Psychological Types, Typology of Chinese Virtues

The Six Relationships and the Mandate of Heaven

The Confucian Chinese Classics

History of Philosophy

Home Page

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Editorial Note:

This page on Confucius is intended to focus on some particular issues of ethics and political economy that are important for the Friesian School and which I have stressed in my classes. There is consequently nothing here about his life, which is largely legendary anyway. Specialists may consider the detail here insufficient and oversimplified, and certainly anyone with a serious interest in Confucius should go to treatments by real historians of Chinese philosophy. But the goal here is summary and basic, and could even be regarded as tendentious. Indeed, the philosophy links are largely to pages that otherwise have little to do with Chinese philosophy. The historical links are edifying in their own way.

Both Wades-Giles and Pinyin transcriptions are used on this page because both will be encountered in academic sources on China and Chinese philosophy. There are also Chinese people, as from Taiwan, who refuse to use Pinyin because of its origin and associations (with Communist China). Pinyin has some convenient innovations (like d for /t/), but it is also is phonetically redundant (with separate symbols for palatal and retroflex intitials, which are unnecessary) and gives some letters values (like /t^hsh/, English "ch," for q) that are opaque and bewildering for those not already familiar with the system.

Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003 Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

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Confucius, Note 1

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The Han Chinese are to be contrasted, for instance, with the Hui Chinese, who are simply those who practice Islam, which is not one of the Three Ways. Since hui can also mean "Turks" or "Uigers," Moslem Chinese obviously were thought of as the equivalent of foreigners. Confucians originally thought of Buddhists as similarly un-Chinese; but Buddhism became so popular after the fall of the Later Han Dynasty (220 AD) that, by the time of the Sui (590-618) and T'ang [Tang] (618-906), it was accepted as properly Chinese.

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Confucius, Note 2

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In Japan, "loyalty," chu, comes to mean "blind loyalty," absolute obedience to a feudal lord or the emperor, regardless of whether instructions are right or wrong. This was in stark contrast to the Chinese sense, where an expression‎ of "true" loyalty might be the willingness to be put to death rather than do what is wrong. See "Zen and the Art of Divebombing, or The Dark Side of the Tao."

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Confucius, Note 3

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Examples of popular Chinese gods would be the goddess of mercy, Kwan-yin (Kannon in Japanese), who was identified with the Buddhist Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, and the three gods Fu, Lu, and Shou -- "Happiness," "Success," and "Longevity." Lu, consistent with Confucian ideas about "success," is shown in the robes of a Chinese judge, like Judge Dee, while Shou, consistent with religious Taoist aspirations for immorality, is shown with the grooming and accoutrements of a wandering Taoist sage.

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The Six Relationships and
the Mandate of Heaven

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The "Six Relationships" or "Six Relations" are supposed to be the basis of all social connections between persons, and all six are based on the fundamental relationship between parents and children. Thus they are all variations of xiao, or "filial piety" (Latin pietas filialis), the religious respect that children owe to their parents. Originally, the "six" referred to the six members of three sets of relations, as follows:

Parents	Husband	Elder Brother
Children	Wife	Younger Brother

Different versions of these three sets can be found, however, and it is possible to expand the system so as to contain six entirely different sets of relations, including the following:

Ruler	Teacher	Friend
Subject	Student	Friend

While the classic form of the six relationships did contain only three pairs, the later influence of the theory of the five elements gave the impression that there should be "five relationships." Being an odd number, five relationships would require five whole pairs, not two and a half pairs. These are given with the Chinese Elements. Teacher and student seems to be the pair that gets left out in that version.

In each of the relationships, the superior member (parents, husband, etc.) has the duty of benevolence and care for the subordinate member (children, wife, etc.). The subordinate member has the duty of obedience. The only exception might be the relationship between friend and friend, which may actually involve equality -- unless, of course, one is older than the other, which would turn it into a relationship like that between older and younger brother. The reverential attitude toward the teacher (rather like the relationship in India to the guru) may be easily seen in the Bruce Lee movie The Chinese Connection, in which Bruce Lee avenges the murder of his boxing master, whom he all but worships, by the Japanese in 1930's Shanghai.

Unlike India, where social obedience was absolute and, for instance, a wife was supposed to obey and worship her husband even if he was worthless, unfaithful, abusive, etc. (because it would be her karma to be in such a relationship), obedience in the Six Relationships in China was contingent on the superior member actually observing their duty to be benevolent and caring. Since the highest Confucian "obedience" is to do what is right, "true" obedience to parents, husband, ruler, etc. is to refuse to obey any orders to do what is wrong.

Refusal to obey the emperor out of "true" obedience could, of course, get one put to death; and Chinese history celebrates such martyrs. An emperor who was no longer benevolent, however, could also be overthrown, and that is an interesting consequence of the conditional nature of obedience. In this area, the matter is usually stated as part of the theory of the Tian Ming, the "Mandate of Heaven." This means at least four things, the first two of which are already present in the thought of Confucius himself:

1. The moral order of the universe: Thus Confucius says, "At fifty I understood the Mandate of Heaven" [Analects II:4], i.e. knew what right and wrong were.
2. Fate: Thus, in the Analects one of Confucius's students is quoted as saying, "Life and death are the Mandate of Heaven," i.e. beyond our control [Analects XII:5].
3. The right to rule: This becomes the most important meaning of the "Mandate of Heaven." Knowing the moral order of the universe and actually observing it make one a worthy ruler. Otherwise one has no business, and no right, being in power. Such an idea is quite different from mediaeval‎ European ideas about government, where the king (Pope, emperor, or whatever) often derived authority directly from God and was answerable only to God. There was therefore no right to rebellion in Western thought until the Protestant Reformation (which questioned the authority of Catholic rulers).
4. The judgment of history: This combines the "right to rule" with "fate," for the Chinese view was that losing the Mandate of Heaven as the right to rule would shortly be followed by the actual loss of power. The historical precedent for this was the brief and ferocious rule of the Qin Dynasty (255-207 BC) followed by the more benign and durable tenure of the Han emperors (the Former Han 206 BC-25 AD, the Later Han 25 AD-220). This becomes a principle that informs the writing of Chinese history: Beginning with the Later Han Dynasty, one of first acts of a traditional Chinese dynasty was the commissioning of an official history of the previous dynasty (in that case the great History of the Former Han Dynasty). Such a history in effect becomes the certificate of legitimacy for the new dynasty, showing how the previous dynasty was at first benevolent but then eventually lost the Mandate of Heaven, which means it was the obligation of the new dynasty to replace it. The history of the last Chinese dynasty, the Qing (1644-1912), was completed by the government of the Republic of China on Taiwan.

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The Confucian Chinese Classics

History of Philosophy

Home Page

Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003 Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

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The Confucian Chinese Classics

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The word for a classic text is Ching [Pinyin Jing¹, Kyo in Japanese]. The Confucian classics are the texts of the Confucian or the Ju [Ru], "Learned," School. Taoism has its own classics, including the Tao Te Ching [Dao De Jing¹]; and

The Five Classics:
1. I Ching [Yi Jing1], Book of Changes
2. Shih Ching, Book of Odes (Songs/Poetry)
3. Shu Ching, Book of History
4. Li Chi, Records of Ritual (or Book of Rites, Li Ching)
includes:	4a. Ta Hsueh, The Great Learning [1]
	4b. Chung Yung, The Doctrine of the Mean [1]
5. Ch'un Ch'iu, Spring and Autumn Annals [2]
The Nine Classics:
6. Chou Li, Rites of Chou (part of the Li Ching)
7. I Li, Ceremonial and Ritual (part of the Li Ching)
8. Hsiao Ching, Filial Piety Classic
9. Lun Yu, Analects [1]
The Thirteen Classics:
10. Meng Tzu, The Mencius [3] [1]
11. Er Ya, Dictionary of Terms
12. Kung-yang Chuan, commentary on Ch'un Ch'iu
13. Ku-liang Chuan, commentary on Ch'un Ch'iu [4]

ching is used to translate the Sanskrit word sutra for Buddhist texts, as the title of the Lotus Sutra, the Saddharma- pun.d.arika Sutra (True Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra), was translated into Chinese as Miao-fa-lien-hua-ching and into Japanese as Myoho-renge-kyo -- a title then used as a mantra by the Nichiren sect of Japanese Buddhism.

The notes in the table refer to the following glosses:

1. One of the "Four Books" of the Confucian Canon.
2. A historical chronicle of Confucius's native state of Lu.
3. Named after the Confucian sage Mencius (390-305 BC).
4. The Tso Chuan is another commentary on Ch'un Ch'iu.

The "Five Classics" were originally supposed to correspond to the Liu Yi, or the "Six Arts," including the Yueh Ching, or Book of Music, which is no longer preserved as separate work, according to Fung Yu-lan (A Short History of Chinese Philosophy, Free Press, 1948, 1966, p. 39).

The Classics are listed here as given in Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary [Harvard, 1972] under ching, character 1123, p.156.

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History of Philosophy

Home Page

Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003 Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved