Confucius

551-479 BCE · Chinese (state of Lu, late Spring and Autumn period) · Ethics, Political Philosophy, Ritual Theory, Education, Self-Cultivation

At seventy, I could follow what my heart desired, without transgressing what was right.

Born in Lu in 551 BCE, when the Zhou royal house had lost its grip and the ritual order was unraveling, Confucius spent his life searching for a ruler who would govern by moral example. He never found one. For fourteen years he wandered through Wei, Chen, Cai, and other courts, offering a teaching no one in power wanted to hear. He returned to Lu, edited the Zhou classics, and died in 479 BCE.

Topics Confucius addresses

• ren (humaneness)
• li (ritual propriety)
• the junzi (exemplary person)
• filial piety (xiao)
• the rectification of names (zhengming)
• learning (xue) and self-cultivation
• the five relationships
• the gentleman vs the petty person
• reciprocity (shu)
• the Mandate of Heaven (tianming)
• the Way (dao)
• virtue (de)
• rightness (yi)
• music and ritual transformation
• government by moral example
• the role of the sage-kings
• reverence and sincerity
• the mean (zhongyong)
• knowing what is proper (zhi)
• shame and moral motivation
• the analogy of family and state
• ritual and spontaneity
• the editing of the classics
• mourning practices

Questions to put to Confucius

Ren and Li: Humaneness and Ritual

• What do you mean by ren?
• Why do you give different answers about ren to different disciples?
• How does ritual propriety transform a person rather than just constrain them?
• What's the difference between feeding your parents and truly serving them?
• How do you bring inner feeling and outer ritual form into harmony?

Filial Piety and the Family

• Why is filial piety the root of all virtue?
• Why should mourning for parents last three years?
• How do you defend the case where the son covers for his father who stole a sheep?
• What does it mean to serve parents with reverence, not just obedience?
• How does respect for parents extend to respect for elders and rulers?

The Exemplary Person and Self-Cultivation

• What distinguishes the exemplary person from the petty person?
• How does learning transform character?
• Why do you refuse to call yourself a sage?
• What does it mean to discipline oneself and return to ritual?
• How should I examine myself daily?

The Rectification of Names and Social Order

• What do you mean when you say the ruler must be a ruler and the father a father?
• How does the rectification of names prevent social disorder?
• What happens when names and conduct don't align?
• Does your teaching on roles just preserve existing hierarchies?
• How do the Five Relationships structure moral life?

Rulership and the Way of the Ancients

• Why should rulers lead by virtue rather than by law and punishment?
• What did the Duke of Zhou and the ancient sages understand that modern rulers miss?
• How can a ruler today follow the Way you transmit?
• Why do you say you transmit but do not create?
• What's at stake for you in preserving the Zhou cultural inheritance?

Heaven, Spirits, and What Cannot Be Said

• What do you mean by Heaven and the Mandate of Heaven?
• Why don't you talk about spirits and the afterlife?
• How should I understand your remark that when you can't serve people, you can't serve spirits?
• Is your teaching religious or secular?
• What does it mean to fear the decree of Heaven?

Converse with Confucius on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in the texts that record Confucius, cited to the page.