Directions: Read your assigned section, led by your elder
Elders: Ask your group to answer the questions
Every group member must be able to answer the
questions aloud
Group 1What was Confucius’ view of teaching?
What are the Analects?
How did Confucius believe fighting could be ended?
Confucius was born in the state of Lu and lived from about 551 to 479 BCE (about the same time as Buddha). Confucius taught by answering questions instead of composing long essays on how to govern or how to act. His students collected his short, pithy statements in a book called the Analects. Confucius said in the Analects:
I’m a transmitter, not a composer. I really have esteemed the Ancients…I have listened in silence and noted what was said. I have never grown tired of learning nor wearied of teaching others what I have learnt. (Analects VII.1)
When Confucius spoke about the ancients, he meant the aristocratic leaders of the early Zhou Dynasty. Confucius longed for the early Zhou, around 900 BCE, because he believed Zhou leaders at that time had been moral and each person had performed his proper role. He believed fighting could be ended if the present leaders followed the Zhou example. His solution to the turmoil and chaos all around lay in selecting the most qualified people to rule, not in devising new forms of government, dropping out of society, or stockpiling more weapons.
Group 2What is ren?
What is li?
Why do you need to have both ren and li?
Ren and Li were two of Confucius’s main concepts. Ren is humaneness, the appropriate feelings people should have toward one another. The character in Chinese for ren is composed of two other characters: man and two. Ren, therefore, has to do with people in relationship to others. It suggests the ability to feel empathy for others, to feel compassion. “Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire” Confucius taught (Analects XV.24). People sometimes call this the negative Golden Rule (The Golden Rule says, “Treat others as you would like to be treated.”)
The character for li is composed of “one who knows the rituals” or “one who performs the food offerings, the sacrifices”. It is translated as civility, decorum, etiquette or politeness. Li refers to actions that a person performs: being polite, knowing your place, and saying the right thing to both those who are above you and those who are below. Ren (appropriate feelings) and li (correct actions) belong together because actions without the proper feelings are empty and feelings without the suitable show of respect are discourteous. For example, if your elderly aunt entered the room, the proper li would be to stand up and offer her a seat. But you must not be thinking, “The old hag; she looks like she died and forgot to lie down”. Instead your mind should be filled with respectful and loving thoughts.
Group 3Why do people need to be educated?
What are the 5 relationships?
Why are family relationships important?
People are not born knowing how to act and think in each situation. They have to be taught how to feel humanely and act properly. For that reason, education is critical. How to act properly depended on who had the most status in any given relationship. Status was determined by whether you were male or female, how old you were, the position of your family, and how much education you had. In every situation there was an ethical way to behave, but no single standard could be applied to all situations.
Confucius taught 5 basic relationships:
ruler/subject;
father/son;
husband/wife;
elder brother/younger brother;
friend/friend.
The first four are unequal relationships. One half of the pair deserved more respect from, and assumed more responsibility for, the other. Only among close friends might the relationship be equal. If each person acted as he or she should, then the relationship and by extension, the family and the whole society, would prosper and function.
The most important relationships were in the family, Confucius taught, and one learned proper behavior by living in a family. It was clear that a child did not deserve as much respect as his or her parents. On the other hand, the parent must take responsibility for the care and nurturing of their children. Parents taught their children by their example and through their home atmosphere. By their loving concern for their children, they awakened in them a sense of humaness and love.
Group 4What is filial piety?
What is a child’s responsibility to his/her parent?
How is a family compared to society?
Filial piety, which means reverence and respect for one’s parents, is perhaps Confucius’ most important concept. The essence of filial piety is summed up in the statement:
Behave in such a way that your father and mother have no anxiety about you except concerning your health. (Analects II.6)
Health tends to be out of a person’s control. Other actions that might concern one’s parents were things Confucius believed a son or daughter could control. A filial son and daughter should make sure one’s parents were always proud of them and never had any reason to be anxious. There was no way a child could adequately repay the gift of life and the loving care that he or she had received. However, when one was older and one’s parents were old, one could attempt to lessen the debt. Eventually aging parents became like children to their children, and the relationship was complete.
Confucius taught that family was the model for the larger society. “If fathers are fathers and sons are sons, the country will function smoothly,” Confucius taught. If you set the family right, you will set the whole country right. For Confucius, filial piety was the key to ending the constant fighting by creating harmony in the society.
Group 5What is a chunzi?
How did Confucius describe a good leader?
What was Confucius’ advice about the best ways to rule?
Confucius said the ideal leader should be a superior man, a chunzi. When asked to define chunzi, he gave concrete examples:
The chunzi does not preach what he practices till he has practiced what he preaches. (Analects II.13)
A gentleman calls attention to the good points in others; he does not call attention to their defects. The small man does just the reverse. (Analects XII.16)
Although Confucius appreciated the past and claimed he was not suggesting anything new, he introduced the possibility of social mobility (moving up in the hierarchy) within society. Unlike Zhou times when the aristocracy was hereditary, Confucius believed that no one was born a good leader. Instead, all men and even a poor farmer’s son could grow up to be a leader if he learned to think and act like a chunzi. This was a radical idea at the time and a fundamental shift from the idea of one’s status being related to the family one was born into.
Confucius rejected both rule by force and rule by law. Instead, he said, the people would willingly follow someone who behaved properly and led by moral example.
Govern the people by regulations and laws, keep order among them by punishments, and they will flee from you, and lose all self-respect. Lead them with virtue and regulate them by the rules of propriety and they will keep their self-respect and come to you of their own accord. (Analects II.3)
If you rule by force, Confucius taught, people will follow only as long as they must. If you rule by laws, people will learn ways to evade them, he claimed, pointing to the turmoil all around. Rule instead, he advised, by moral example. Give people self-respect and they will control themselves.
Summary Question: Confucius hoped his advice would help end the conflicts of the Warring States Period. How would he suggest that people resolve their conflicts?
Reflection Question: Why would his ideas help end the conflict? Why might they fail? Explain your answers.