Confuciunism Essay, Research Paper

Confuciunism

Confuciunism is a philosophy vased on the teachings of Confucius, a Chinese

philosopher/teacher. Confucius highly stressed ethics. It is thought the reason

for this is because the China of his time was corrupt. Confucius thought the way

to live with good ethics was to follow the five virtues: Jen; to do good on

others, yi; rightsiosness by justice, li; religious and moral ways of acting ,

chih; wisdom and hsin; faithfulness. All of these being represented by the parts

of a tree for example: Jen being the root, yi the trunk, li the branches, chih

the flower, and hsin the fruit. The most important of the five being li.

Confucius used this to formulate his plan for the recovery of china. Confucius

equally emphasized the relationship with rulers and there subjects. This is

where he combined ethics and politics. At one time Confucius was asked by Chi K ?

ang Tsu, the head of the chi clan, how to rule. Confucius replied ?To govern is

to keep straight. If you , sir, lead your subjects straight, who will venture to

fall out of line?? Confucius believed in what is called ?superior Man.? This was

someone who followed the five virtues, and abided them. Confucius was a perfect

example of a ?superior Man.? Some people believe that he was a great man, he

was indeed, but he was merely a teacher of ethics with great wisdom.