Introduction

This page is intended for people who are interested in Confucianism or Chinese Philosophy, or who are curious about a more philosophical approach to modern living. It isn't for academic scholars of philosophy. I could write for that audience, and have done, but the its a lot of work and its for a very small, very contentious audience.

This is for the layman who doesn't have access to a University library, who hasn't been steeped in academic technical language and who doesn't have the time to devote to it. Original Confucianism wasn't philosophically demanding, and so writing stuff that is comprehensible to the intelligent layperson seems somehow fitting.

This first page is a sort of encyclopedia-style intro to Confucianism, kind of like the label on a food package. It might whet your appetite, but it isn't very satisfying in itself. Follow the links to other topics. Some of them address historical issues in Neo-Confucianism, some take a Neo-Confucian look at modern problems. In all cases, these are not the words of a sage. They are my own opions, and come out of extensive study of Confucian material, but out of only modest success in living out the philosophy.

What is Confucianism?

Confucianism is a Chinese system of thought created around the teachings of K'ung Fu Tsu (known as Confucius in the West), who lived around 500 bc. Confucius taught that a harmonious state could only be brought about by virtue and benevolence, not by rules and punishments. He stressed a reverence for family, a devotion to honesty, integrity, learning, humility and generosity.

Around 200 bc., Confucianism became something like a state doctrine for the Chinese Empire. In order to get anywhere in the official power structure,you had to take a particularly gruelling examination on the Confucian classics. A result of this is that many scholars call any person or doctrine remotely official in pre-Communist China Confucian.

Now, you've taken exams before, and you know the difference between material you've crammed in order pass and knowledge you take as guiding principles. Later Confucian thinkers hated the system, and Confucius himself wanted promotions based on virtue, not good grades. But still, if you see someone or something referred to as Confucian, you can bet it has more to do with the examination system than the teachings of the master and his followers.

Nowadays, there's no examination system at all, of course. So Confucianism is back to being a philosophy. I've looked at a lot of philosophies, and this is the one I like the best. I think that maybe if people started following the instructions Master K'ung, we might be able to get ourselves out of this big mess we've made of the world.

So What is Neo-Confucianism?

Around the 10th century ad, Confucianism went through something of a renaissance, and thinking that emerged from it was called Neo-Confucianism. It was inspired by the growing popularity of Ch'an Buddhism (what you guys probably call Zen Buddhism). The Neo-Confucians were deeply critical of Ch'an, but they were also able to learn from it. The result was a Confucian system that was more metaphysically profound than the original.

Many Confucians didn't like the change. The master hadn't been interested in metaphysical questions, and we shouldn't be either. They had a point. But there were a lot of people who assumed that because Confucianism hadn't addressed these philosophical problems, it didn't have the resources to do so. Chu Hsi and the other Neo-Confucians proved them wrong.

The Neo-Confucian revival in the Sung and Ming dynasties weren't just systems of thought. They were vital social theories. The Neo-Confucian Sung dynasty had more social mobility than Europe achieved until the 18th century. Tokugawa Japan adopted Neo-Confucianism as a basis for their reforms as well, and were able to use it to establish civil peace. You might not want to have lived in society like Sung China or Tokugawa Japan, but if you had the choice between those and their Buddhist-dominated predecessors, I think you'd be able to see the improvements.

Currently, Neo-Confucianism is pretty much restricted to the types of intellectual autopsies they perform in academia. Maybe that can change.

But Isn't Confucianism Just a Sort of Regressive, Repressive, Conservatism, Like You Might Expect if Rush Limbaugh Were Chinese?

No, actually. It's not. That's the stereotype that most people have, because of the confusion between the teachings of Confucius (and his followers) and the institution that grew up around his teaching. Master K'ung considered the first job of the prince to enrich his people, and the second job to educate his people. He was the first recorded advocate of a policy of sustainable harvest. He believed that harsh laws were only necessary in a state where leaders were incompetant.

Which isn't to say that there aren't conservative elements to the philosophy. But these days, any philosophy which makes personal demands (outside of diet and lingo) is going to be a conservative one. Moral commitments are pretty old-fashioned. Confucius advocates taking responsibility not only for your own actions, but to a degree, the actions of those around you. That's a fairly conservative, unpopular view.

That isn't a rational reason to decide its a lot of crap, but then demanding that we have rational reasons for our actions is pretty conservative, too. And isn't one of the reasons that we dislike Rush Limbaugh because he dismisses anything he disagrees with without taking the time to look into it?