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1. Kongzi (孔子) 2. Mozi (墨子) 3. Mengzi (孟子) 4. Laozi (老子) 5. How can social order be achieved? <- Go BackUniversity of Michigan at Ann Arbor
Last Edit Date: 02/08/2023
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Multiple authors
"Confucianism"
Different camps, hence some contradictions
Displaced, wandering intellectuals
Ideal of Gentleman (君子)
Common Threads: tradition, focus on ritual, filial piety
In more ancient times, tian was a divine force in or controlling of nature, rewarding the good and punishing the bad.
The term for the "world" is tian xia (天下), literally, "under the heavens."
Tian is sometimes paried with eath (di 地) - together, heaven-and-earch refers to the world, the universe.
In the Analects, tian sometimes seems conscious and good but other times seems indifferent.
Heaven as a moral authority.
Heaven is protective.
Heaven is concerned with human culture.
Skepticism about praying to Heaven.
The primary meaning of dao is the way that a group of people follow, advocate, or teach.
Dao also has a sense of discourse, as the way someone tells or teaches.
These uses of dao extend from its more concrete meaning of path. The character itself shows a head (首) over a foot (辶), the latter representing moving or going.
De originally was a kind of power to influence others gained by rulers who honored their ancestors well.
It has three dimensions:
Possibly about the relation between the theory and the practice
Possibly portraying the master as humble
Many aspects:
Main Functions:
Cnosequence are irrelevant
Integrity
Fate: That we are going to lose him must be due to fate. (6.10)
Lifespan: Unfortunately, his lifespan was short, and he passed away. (6.3)
Wealth is unimportant
Wealth cannot be a direct goal
The way people acquire wealth is important
Heaven is both protective and is invested in the human world, but it is also whimsical.
Tradition (your tailor the tradition according to the demands of the time).
Graded circles of care, family is the root.
Emphasis on role clarification, hierarchy, social roles.
Emphasis on integrity, instead of consequences.
Emphasis on cultivation of good character (instead of rewards and punishments).
Taken to be recordings of one person's doctrine, especially the "core chapters" from 8 to 37.
An external standard: Benefit (利 li), basic standard of life.
Critique of nepotism, sometimes synonymous with meritocracy, not emotive.
"Strong" impartial care: Regarde other people’s families in the same way that they regard their own.
"Soft" impartial care: Young and helpless orphans will find the support they need in order to reach maturity.
Origin of our problems: Hating and stealing from people.
A way to bring greater benefit to the greatest number of people
A quality that wew already want to see in others
Should be implemented on a larger scale for it to work
There were legendary sage-rulers who were themselves impartial
Good for filiar piety as well
Should be promoted by people in postitions of power
Killing other people is bad
Wars are bad
For Moderation in Funerals and Mourning
For Ghosts (we should belive in ghosts because it can punish people if they did some bad things)
Against Musical Performances
Against Fatalism
Not a transcendent realm, refers to sky (for everyone)
Provides sustenance, resources (for everyone)
In Mozi, a moral agent
Heaven desires to have life and dislike death; desires to have wealth and dislike poverty, desires to have good order and dislikes disorder
Activist and possibly humble background
Impartial care (include fairness, merits, needs, against nepotism)
Consequentialist (ends justify the means, the ends: collective welfare)
Against aggressive warfare (Ru was against it too)
Model emulation (same with Ru)
Against fatalism
Moderation in funerals and mourning (impacts the labor force, impact reproduction)
We should believe in ghosts (make people behave well)
Against musical performances (poor management of resources)
Heaven is very predictable, and it rewards and punished
Mengzi (Mencius) is a Ru thinker and a follower of Kongzi (Confucius).
Developed moral psychology (investigates human functioning in morally relevant contexts) to support Ru ethics.
Was posthumously labeled the "second sage"
The king feels compassion for an ox that is about to be slaughtered.
Good government for the people (though not by the people).
Gentelment keep their distance from the kitchen.
Heart, heart-mind, mind
Discriminiates and distinguishes (upon which its function of thinking and poundering was bulit)
Can have stable commitment that is not easily moved by external stimuli
Benevolence (仁), righteousness (义), propriety (礼), wisdom (智)
Not seeds, but sprouts. They are visible
Not a fully-grown plant, still have some more growing to do
Fragile
Cannot force it
Usually people do not kill a ruler.
If a ruler exploits and kills his people, then his is not a ruler anymore. People can kill him.
If people's mouths and ears are similar, so are people's hearts.
Mouths have preferences, ears have preferences, this also applies to hearts.
Can you make cups and bowls from willow wood by following its natural grain or is it only after you have hacked the willow wood that you can make a cup or bowl? (6A1)
The good disposition of human nature is like water’s tendency to flow down. (6A2)
Some labor with their minds and some labor with their strength
Gentlemen keep their distance from the kitchen
Who is Mengzi?
Core idea?
How shall we understand the phrase "human nature (xing 性)"?
Heart in comparison to other organs?
How does he explain the presence of bad people?
How does he justify regicide?
Path
The way someone teaches or follows
Verbal: making a way, guiding on a way
Tentative label for the ultimate origin and source, some sort of grounding for the cosmos ("the guide")
| Mozi | Kongzi | Laozi |
|---|---|---|
| Keeps defending the idea that heaven rewards good people, punishes bad people | The idea of de breaks apart. De still relates to good behavior in the sense that you get an inspirational power out of it, but don't expect rewards from Heaven | No moralistic sense, power that comes with harmonizing with the source |
Zi (自): self-reflexive pronoun
Ran (然): to be so, to be a certain way
Self-so, so of itself, spontaneity (not determined by something else, it comes from itself)
If you do "wu wei" (so you don't interfere with things), what's left is "zi ran"
Ultimately describes the way things arise
Grounded on sex
If you label one side, you automatically involve the other side. Criticism of moralizing
Why emphasize softness?
Associated with feelings of care
Connections to family
The essence of being human
| Kongzi | Mozi | Mengzi | Laozi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highest virtue | Striving to benefit others | One of four virtues | Sagely people don’t make any effort to help or hurt. They don’t have a human-centered view of things. |
| Kongzi (孔子) | Mozi (墨子) | Mengzi (孟子) | Laozi (老子) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adhering to rituals from Western Zhou period | Impartial care, critique of nepotism | Cultivating the four sprouts of virtues | Dao and Wuwei (non-striving action) |
| Filial piety - root is the family | Focus their attention on improving the state through practical means | Justification for regicide (killing a ruler) - names matching their roles | Letting go of one's control and desires and aligning with nature |
| Adhering to the duties of social roles (names matching their roles) | Rewards and punishments (consequentialist) | Environment - people have similar preferences of the hearts and other organs | |
| Promoted collective benefit out of merit-based hierarchy | Basic needs need to be met | ||
| Model emulaton (De - Virtue - inner charisma to influence other) | Model emulation (humans tend to follow the king’s way) | Extending one’s virtues to other people (directing them in the correct place, this is possible through a constant heart) | |
| Heaven is involved in human affairs but heaven is also whimsical (fatalism) | Against fatalism - if you do good actions, then you will be rewarded practicality (ex: ghosts) | ||
| Filial piety (through impartial care, others will take care of your parents too and that is the ideal of filial piety) |