Key Chinese Values: Confucianism

This reading is from The Analects of Confucius, translated by Arthur Waley. 

Confucius was born in 551 B.C.E.  A philosopher of life and government, he hoped that his moral Way would essentially restore to Chinese society the values and practices of the age of the duke of Zhou, a twelfth-century B.C.E. leader whom Confucius deeply admired. For his efforts, posterity accorded him the elegant title Kong Fuzi (Kong the Philosopher), which Western scholars have Latinized into Confucius. He died in 479.

Confucius claimed to possess no special genius or knowledge. He simply saw himself as someone who revered the old ways and followed them zealously. As far as we know, nothing he wrote or edited survives. Early Confucian disciples, however, managed to preserve several sayings ascribed to Confucius and his immediate pupils. In time these were gathered into a book known as The Analects (Lun Yu). We do not know which of these maxims Confucius actually uttered, but collectively they provide us with the best available view of Kong Fuzi's teachings as remembered by those who knew and followed him.

There is no question that much of what Confucius taught was already part of Chinese culture. However, he took such traditional values as filial piety (respect for ones parents and ancestors) and propriety (regard for proper decorum) and turned them into moral principles. He insisted that human beings are moral creatures with social obligations. He also believed that humans, or at least men, are capable of perfecting themselves as upright individuals. His ideal moral agent was the superior man (zhunzi) who cultivated virtue through study and imitation of the moral Way of the past. As you study the following selections, note the role that propriety (li) plays in Confucius's system. For him propriety meant much more than good manners or proper etiquette. It was the primary interior quality that set the superior man apart from all other humans.

For a transcript of the reading please go to Mr. Keatley's Primary Source Page.