As China rushes toward a materialistic society, it is interesting to reflect on the historical importance of Confucius’ teachings. Obviously China is currently a communist state, and Buddhism and Taoism are the predominant state sponsored religions, but in order to understand the historical aspirations of the populace, their concept of a meaning of life, Confucius is the proper place to start.
There is some similarity between Confucius and his near contemporary, Socrates. Both had a profound influence on their respective societies and subsequent thought; and both were concerned with the meaning of life, specifically how the individual should live his life and interact with others.
Confucius' teachings were preserved in the Lunyu or Analects, which are a collection of aphorisms. An aphorism is a succinct statement expressing a more general truth. One famous example goes something like this: “When the stables were burnt down, Confucius said, ‘was anyone hurt?’ he did not ask about the horses.”
The point of the aphorism is that human life is of much more value than material things. This may seem obvious to us, but we need to remember that Confucius was not just teaching ordinary men; a lot of his thought and teaching was directed at the rulers of his time, men with a far different sense of the meaning of life than most of us, and for whom the lives of servants would have been held in scant regard.
That being said, I think it fair to say that Confucius was not so much concerned with defining a meaning of life as setting down tenets for allowing life to be navigated successfully. For example, he gave much thought to the forms that society and government should take if they were to be stable and prosperous. He was a firm believer in upholding customs as a fundamental starting point; but he did not believe that adherence should ever be unquestioning. The so-called "superior man" should always be concerned with doing what is right, and if that meant breaking the rules in a particular set of circumstances, then that is what the superior man should do. Confucius’ concept of "right" or righteousness was based on the reciprocal ideal that is expressed in Christian religion, i.e. "Do unto others that which you would have them do unto you."
Article comments
1 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
The coastal areas of China have been quick to industrialize. The farms and yurts inward from the coast have had much greater difficulty modernizing-maybe that is better. Frequent floods, unpredictable weather and earthquakes have made vast industrialization of the entire country harder to implement in practice.
2 - Goodadvice Chan
I have studied about Confucious and his disciples' view points. I have shared what learned in my blog I see the temptations of materialism will over rule the Chinese moral system. In the old days, what's being taught at school is about how to be a better person. Now what is being taught in business school is bout how to make money in whatever way you can think of in respective what the value system is. What a pity!
3 - Think It Over
The challenge for all of us looking in is to remember that China simply wants what we already have. However the sheer speed and size of the change has us all holding our breaths. They well and truly 'have the tiger by the tail' (or perhaps it is a dragon!), and we can only stand back and watch. Gentle reminders are all we can offer.
4 - John Lake
Confucius cared about people but not about horses? He felt that wise and knowledgeable persons could 'break the rules'? I have wondered about the way the people of China see life since the film of the baby being repeatedly run over in a narrow street came to world attention.
In modern religion, we sometimes are obligated to follow rules we either don't agree with, or don't fully understand.