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Li and Dao - Ethics, Religion, and Government in
Ancient China
I. Confucianism: The primary philosophy of China
- A. Confucius - K'ung Fu-Tzu
- 1. 551-479 BC
- 2. most notable originally as a teacher; later adherents expanded his reputation
- 3. unclear exactly which sayings were his, which attributed to him
- 4. Analects, for example, a book that might have been constructed later
- 5. lived in a period of great political, social unrest, when might made right, not etiquette
- 6. sought to teach aristocrats "ju," meaning, roughly, "unwarlikeness"
- B. Sought to create social order based on ethics, personal cultivation
- C. therefore morality would create political harmony
- D. Also emphasized the "recitification of names" - describing actions correctly
- E. Morality and political order was founded on the li, the ritual and etiquette of society
- 1. of course this was based on old Chou feudal ritual
- 2. therefore Confucius actually wanted to revive the old, stable political order
- 3. with proper etiquette and ritual, all misunderstandings and problems would vanish
- 4. assumed that some people would always be your superiors, some always inferiors
- 5. Important to honor family, parents, ancestors
- F. Confucianism always historical-looking
- 1. believed that Truth could be found in looking at the ancient Chou feudal system
- 2. believed that Truth could be found in the tried-and-true ways
- 3. believed that history was therefore the way to understand the future
- 4. therefore not a revolutionary philosophy at all--one of conservative social order
- 5. Click here for examples of Confucian sayings
- H. Importance to Chinese development
- 1. single most influential philosophy
- 2. showed the importance of
- a. history
- b. knowing one's place in society
- c. knowing the correct way to act in a given situation
- G. Morality, li, at root of dynastic cycle
II. The Lao Tzu (AKA Tao Te Ching) and Taoism
- A. Relationship to Confucius, Confucianism
- 1. The book is chronologically later, probably. Both book and person named Lao Tzu
- 2. author traditionally said to live between 160-220 years, because of the peace of the Tao
- 3. in fact, doubtful if there was a single person named Lao Tzu
- B. Divergence from Confucianism
- 1. More mystical, magical -- some of its ideas may go back to Shang shamanism
- 2. Importance of wu-wei, or non-action, yielding to the universal forces
- 3. emphasizes simplicity, passivity, acquiescence -- retreat from the miseries of the world
- 4. realized that, no matter how perfect the ritual or etiquette, sometimes there would be
- a. differences of opinion
- b. bad people with power or in positions of authority
- 5. therefore, ritual and etiquette could not always help a person survive in the world
- 6. the complement of ritual and etiquette was the Way:
"The Tao cannot be defined, it can only be intuitively sensed or felt and heeded. When men are attuned to the Tao, they cooperate with... nature, respond directly to experience rather than reflect on it, invent no mental abstractions, and live and die quietly...."
- D. Submission and Power
- 1. always submit to power
- a. even if you win one battle, someday you will lose
- b. therefore you learn not to care about battles
- c. this would set you free from worldly cares, worldly strife and fights
- 2. therefore submission would become a power in itself
- 3. submitting to bad people would break their power over you
- a. doing good to everyone, even those who hurt you
- b. relationship to
- 4. submission would set you on the Way, the Path, the Truth
- a. this would not be temporal freedom
- b. instead it would be spiritual freedom
- E. So, one could never find the Tao unless you stopped looking!
- F. Click here for sayings from the Lao Tzu
- G. Would be a lasting complement to Confucianism for China
- 1. everything cannot be understood
- 2. the path of history, or people, could not always be known
- 3. even with elaborate schemes of etiquette and ritual, sometimes the Way was obscure
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