How does confucianism affect society

S cholar. Kung Peng-cheng, a visiting professor at Peking University, has always dreamed of seeing the revival of Confucianism. Ordinary People. Bundled in gray robes and seated on round red cushions, dozens of children in a Wuhan classroom are chanting the old Confucian analect.

Confucianism means a lot not only to China, but also to the world. In , 75 Nobel prizewinners said that if mankind is to survive it must go back 25 centuries in time to tap the wisdom of Confucius.

Today, extracts from Confucianism are frequently quoted by foreign dignitaries in their speeches or talks. People around the globe can have access to Confucius ideas in Confucius Institutes and Chinese Culture Centers abroad. The institutes and centers serve as non-profit public institutions to help foreigners better understand China through language teaching and culture introduction. Confucius Institutes. To date, China has opened Confucius Institutes in countries and regions.

There are also Confucius Classrooms operating in middle and primary schools. Chinese Culture Centers. Chinese Culture Centers in Cairo, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo and Denmark, to name a few, are introducing China by opening training classes, building libraries, and holding cultural activities. Editor: Wen Yi. It is also what a Chinese sociologist called a "diffused religion"; 3 its institutions were not a separate church, but those of society, family, school, and state; its priests were not separate liturgical specialists, but parents, teachers, and officials.

Confucianism was part of the Chinese social fabric and way of life; to Confucians, everyday life was the arena of religion. The burning issue of the day was: If it is not the ancestral and nature spirits, what then is the basis of a stable, unified, and enduring social order? The dominant view of the day, espoused by Realists and Legalists, was that strict law and statecraft were the bases of sound policy.

Confucius, however, believed that the basis lay in Zhou religion, in its rituals li. He interpreted these not as sacrifices asking for the blessings of the gods, but as ceremonies performed by human agents and embodying the civilized and cultured patterns of behavior developed through generations of human wisdom.

They embodied, for him, the ethical core of Chinese society. Moreover, Confucius applied the term "ritual" to actions beyond the formal sacrifices and religious ceremonies to include social rituals: courtesies and accepted standards of behavior-- what we today call social mores. He saw these time-honored and traditional rituals as the basis of human civilization, and he felt that only a civilized society could have a stable, unified, and enduring social order.

Thus one side of Confucianism was the affirmation of accepted values and norms of behavior in primary social institutions and basic human relationships. Starting from individual and family, people acting rightly could reform and perfect the society.

The blueprint of this process was described in "The Great Learning," a section of the Classic of Rituals:. Only when things are investigated is knowledge extended; only when knowledge is extended are thoughts sincere; only when thoughts are sincere are minds rectified; only when minds are rectified are the characters of persons cultivated; only when character is cultivated are our families regulated; only when families are regulated are states well governed; only when states are well governed is there peace in the world.

Confucius' ethical vision ran against the grain of the legalistic mind set of his day. Only under the Han Emperor Wu r.

From that time on the imperial state promoted Confucian values to maintain law, order, and the status quo. In late traditional China, emperors sought to establish village lectures on Confucian moral precepts and to give civic awards to filial sons and chaste wives. The imperial family and other notables sponsored the publication of morality books that encouraged the practice of Confucian values: respect for parents,loyalty to government, and keeping to one's place in society—farmers should remain farmers, and practice the ethics of farming.

This side of Confucianism was conservative, and served to bolster established institutions and long-standing social divisions. There was, however, another side to Confucianism. Confucius not only stressed social rituals li , but also humaneness ren. Ren, sometimes translated love or kindness, is not any one virtue, but the source of all virtues. The Chinese character literally represents the relationship between "two persons," or co-humanity—the potential to live together humanely rather than scrapping like birds or beasts.

Thus if the "outer"side of Confucianism was conformity and acceptance of social roles, the "inner" side was cultivation of conscience and character. We interpret it for our needs today and continue to find value in it.

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