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Confucianism impact on chinese culture
Confucianism and its bearings on the modern society
The impact of confucianism on society
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Confucianism is distinguished as a system of moral philosophy rather than a religion, and it plays an imperative part in the Chinese society and culture. Confucian beliefs primarily address ethical principles and propagate the ideals of a virtuous community. In the Tale of a Chinese Weaver, a Chinese scholar narrates an interaction she had with a weaver, who worked in a merchant workshop. Even though the primary source reflects a short moral story, it gives an insight to how Confucian values dominated the Chinese society in 1400 CE. The Tale of a Chinese Weaver emphasizes the principles of Confucianism: attaining contentment, prioritizing family, and maintaining social order.
Despite the popular belief that to attain contentment one must
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Confucianism addressed that family should be a priority for every member in the society. Confucius taught that there are mutual obligations between social relationships in a family, and each individual has the responsibility to contribute to the function of the family. Proper conductions of relationships between the members of the family serve as a basis for an effective society. In the short moral story, the Chinese weaver said that he “uses my [his] wages to support my [his] parents, wife, and children” (235). The fact that he goes through the hardships of his job for a meager salary to support his family, exemplifies Confucius’s etiquette for the social structure of a family. The weaver’s, the Man of the house, responsibility is to provide for his family despite the adversities he has to overcome. The weaver said, “We are far from having delicious food, yet neither are we suffering from hunger or cold” (235). The weaver used the pronoun “we” to describe his style of living, it exhibits how he considers his family to be united even through poverty. The Chinese weaver considers that the family functions as a single unit and they support and be thankful for each other. Confucius instilled family values into the Chinese society that developed a positive and harmonious community. Moreover, Confucius believed a society built on strong household will influence the society to uphold communal
To begin, Confucianism is a system of philosophical and ethical teachings founded by Confucius. Confucianism was the code of ethics accepted as the certified religion of most of the immense empires in the territory since the Han Dynasty. Confucianism provided an outline of ethical and religious beliefs that most of the Chinese expanded to make other religions such as Daoism and Legalism. To expand, Confucianism was founded by Confucius and his beliefs on the political and social order of China. Confucius believed that everything would fall into place if children had respect for their parents and if the rulers were honest. In Confucianism, specific roles were followed by each person in the family. The head of the family, the father, was the one primarily in control and then it was the oldest son that was next in line. Confucius had the belief that a ruler has to be everything he wants
Confucius’ impact on Chinese culture has withstood numerous generations and continues to be one of the most prominent philosophies found in Chinese culture. Firmly rooted in years of education, Confucius spent considerable time developing his set of values and principles. In his article entitled “Confucius and the Effortless Life of Virtue”, author Hagop Sarkissian adds to this by saying, “Confucius set his mind on a course of study or cultivation at the age of fifteen, and pursued such studies for a span of fifty-five years, and was thereby able to cultivate a state of being such that he could follow his immediate inclinations in all of life’s predicaments without transgressing social norms” (Sarkissian 1). Confucius’ extensive studies only added to the philosophy represented in the Analects. This includes the pas...
The philosophy taught ‘The three submissions and four virtues’, where women were to submit to males in all stages of their lives as a daughter, wife and widow. Emperor Hsuan (73-48 B.C.E) stated that “a wife does not commit a crime if she attempts to conceal the crime of her husband….a husband is not allowed to conceal a crime committed by his wife…” portraying clear prejudice against women that is still a current underlying issue in China. The greatest duty of women was motherhood for which they were respected, however in all other aspects of their lives, they were essentially tools of society. Men were expected to be the head of their households and take on physical occupations, or intellectual pursuits in the case of higher class men. These established gender roles promoted gender stereotypes that continue to restrict Chinese perceptions on both sexes. Children were subject to the absolute control of their father who could order them to execute any tasks, determine their profession and education and physically punish them. Although Confucianism remained the official state philosophy until the end of Imperial China, the sexist views and family hierarchy remain rooted in the mindset of many Chinese
Cao Xueqin’s Story of the Stone is a classic in Chinese literature, showcasing the life and exploits of the wealthy Jia clan during the feudal era. Through Cao’s depiction, the reader is afforded a glimpse into the customs and lifestyle of the time. Chinese mode of thought is depicted as it occurs in daily life, with the coexisting beliefs of Confucianism and Taoism. While the positive aspects of both ideologies are presented, Cao ultimately depicts Taoism as the paramount, essential system of belief that guides the character Bao-yu to his eventual enlightenment. As was the case in China, Cao depicts the two forms of belief existing alongside one another, and not necessarily practiced exclusively to one another.
Filial piety is as closely associated with Confucius teaching as it is one of the virtues of Confucianism. Confucius once said, “Among human practices, none is greater than xiao” (Chan, Alan Kam-Leung; Tan, Sor-hoon). There is no doubt that filial piety remained the important aspect of Chinese society, where as the philosophers such as Confucius strongly pushed forward the idea of filial piety. A ...
Confucianism is a philosophy and way of life formed in China by Confucius, an early Chinese philosopher. It began as a simple concept with ideals of personal virtue, simple filial piety, and basic gender distinctions and social inequalities. But, over time with the emergence of Neo-Confucianism it began to transform into a way of life that was degrading towards women with certain hostilities towards rivaling religions. In its early period, from around 500 B.C.E to the Common Era, Confucianism changed in that it became the leading belief system and a major part of Chinese tradition. From the transition into the Common Era to the end of the Classical time period, Confucianism was altered because of a loss of popularity following the collapse of the Han dynasty and the corruption in the governing political system. In its ending period, the post-classical era, Confucianism underwent perhaps its biggest adjustments with the emergence of Neo-Confucianism. The ideas and virtues presented in the “rebirth of Confucian philosophies” of intolerance of foreign religions and extreme filial piety...
She started working at seventeen years old to support her family. In her situation, the necessity of supporting her family is very significant in her life. In Chinese tradition, parents do not expect anything from their sons and daughters, but the sense of respect towards the hard work that Chinese parents do for their kids is a must for successful men and women to support their parents with their free-will. These people are grateful that their parents gave them existence—creating opportunities for searching for ethical values that will help them succeed.
A traditional family in China is one, in which the marriage between couples are arranged or forced by their parents regardless of whether or not the partners love each other. The wife is brought to the husband’s house and lives with her in-laws, and role of her would be to take care of her husband, household and bear a child, preferably a son. No matter how hard or unhappy the marriage is, the wife has no choice, but to tolerate with her “fate” which is formed by “tradition”. The main reason for this would be the fact that the traditional value of men is much higher than that of women.
...ut more importantly Mencius' core conception that human nature is also aware of its actions, and considers the well-being of others and that people are morally obligated to do so is also key to attaining our full potential. This conception of human nature and proper order together is what has shaped East Asian political and social thought for centuries. It is credited with creating an East Asia that is economically robust, and socially coherent and once again will be the center of human society in the decades to come. And contrary to popular Western belief, East Asian political thought does appreciate the necessity of the individual in defining society. In fact the only way to attain our human nature is to healthily self-cultivate ourselves morally and materially so we can reach our highest potential and in that way be a valued and contributing member to society.
This factor like the others is also of huge impact. This when it comes down to it is what really impacts the order in a society the most heavily. This outweighs the others who cannot be compared to family/village life. Family and village life is someone’s home life parents, spouse, children, siblings, outer family, friends, neighbors, etc. which is what holds everything together in a society. Family is the tie to order in society it keeps the families together which keeps neighbors together which keeps villages together which keeps everybody together. The discipline in a family creates rules, customs, and traditions which brings order. Confucius had taught of things on family and discipline and different relationships and their meaning. He taught on five relationships “unequal, except for friendships” (Document A). which was “a subject to his ruler, a child to his parents, a wife to her husband, and younger brothers to elder brothers”. He thought very highly of these relationships and that by people accepting their roles would live in peace and be doing their responsibility. By families following this teaching and others by Confucius they have order. They are following rules and customs and do it on a daily basis and try their best to live by it which has them doing things each day, things go accordingly which is
But one begins to detect a new theme emerging in society, especially amongst the Chinese reformers: the theme of individualism opposed to familialism. Today, would the Confucian family be more and more aware of abuse of women and children? Rituals and traditions can be seen as both positive and negative. The ways in which women suffered affirm that some rituals were abusive. There are multiple signs indeed that something has gone badly wrong with the Chinese family traditions that led to family instability.
Confucianism is a moral and religious system of China. Its origins go back to the Analects, the sayings attributed to Confucius, and to ancient writings, including that of Mencius. Confucius was born a mandarin under the name Kongzi. It was developed around 550 B.C. In its earliest form Confucianism was primarily a system of ethical concepts for the control of society. It saw man as a social creature that is bound to his fellow men by jen, or “humanity.” Jen is expressed through the five relationships—sovereign and subject, parent and child, elder and younger brother, husband and wife, and friend and friend. Of these, the filial relation is most important.
As there are many different types of people, different standard of success are existing. High education level could be one of the standards of success for someone and excellent reputation could be other standards. Patriarchal period, which dominated by religion such as Christianity or Catholic, people taught various elements for success in life including morality and ethics. However, Capitalism and its market only focus on property and money so the visible wealthy becomes the only one important element for success. In fact, Hochschild illustrates the study which proves the changing of people’s preference in life. According to Hochschild, “between 1975 and 1991, the role of family in people’s idea of “the good life” declined while the importance of having money increased” (187). In this study, it is proved that having a lot of money is more important than family for the quality of life. In other words, people might be satisfied when they become rich in terms of the successful life. The money is not only productive conclusion for success, but capitalism forces to make people think in this way. For instance, Chua indicates the Chinese parents’ parenting style which might be great example how the capitalism takes important role in family and how it represents in parenting. In Chua’s article, she claims that “the Chinese believe that the best way to protect their children is by preparing them for the future […]” (56). Because of this reason, Chinese parents requires their children to get perfect grades and they cannot accept A minus or B as a children’s academic result. For Chinese parents, having excellent skill might be able to lead their children to successful life in the future. In the view of capitalism, Chinese parents’ parenting styles seems based on capitalism market system. Capitalism market system divide only ‘useful’ and ‘useless’ and its influences
Confucian culture, also known as Confucianism, was founded by Confucius during the Spring and Autumn Period, which was developed gradually after the Han Dynasty with benevolence as the core. Since the Han Dynasty, Confucianism was the official ideology and the basis of mainstream ideology in the vast majority of historical periods of China, and it also influenced many southeast Asian countries in history. After a variety of shocks, Confucianism was still the core values of China's social public, and represented the Chinese culture and national tradition in the world (Littlejohn, 2010). In the contemporary society, the Confucian culture in China increasingly spread, at the same time, its modern value is excavated by many countries in the world, and its international influence is also growing with the rise of China.
For many centuries, Confucianism has been widely revered by the Chinese for its emphasis on morality. Confucius, who lived from 551 to 479 BCE, is different to most philosophers in that he showed no interest questioning his existence, the possibility of a God, or the reality that he seemed to live in; instead he focused on the human relations side of philosophy as it was his belief that people should “give (themselves) earnestly to the duties due to men … (and) keep aloof from (spiritual beings)” (Confucius 195). By negating the metaphysical side of philosophy, he was able to devote himself to mold his disciples into ideal gentleman who were morally righteous, and were able to benefit society. He believed in the importance of individuals who knew their roles in an well-structured society, that was a feudal system. In his opinion, the ideal gentleman should be obedient to his elders, have humanness and be morally righteous. Through his teachings, he was able to reform an entire country; the Chinese found Confucianism to embody practices of humaneness that they could apply in their daily lives through his religion.