Confucianism what do they believe

The concept of Jen is based on human nature and benevolence. Li is a principle of respect and propriety. Xin refers to faithfulness and being honest towards oneself and others and helps the individuals to earn admiration.

Chung, one of the important Confucianism beliefs, upholds that loyalty strengthens the bond between the rulers and the citizens of the country.

Righteousness is believed to be the base of human virtue. One must always follow the principle of Yi and able to differentiate what is right and wrong.

Confucianism beliefs are not only followed in China but also in other countries like Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Taiwan. Nakshatra Gujrati.

Akshay G Paraskar. Abinaya Suresh. Confucianism is an ancient Chinese belief system, which focuses on the importance of personal ethics and morality.

Whether it is only or a philosophy or also a religion is debated. Mencius or Meng Ke who lived from to B. Confucianism is a philosophy and belief system from ancient China, which laid the foundation for much of Chinese culture. Confucius was a philosopher and teacher who lived from to B. His thoughts on ethics , good behavior, and moral character were written down by his disciples in several books, the most important being the Lunyu.

Confucianism believes in ancestor worship and human-centered virtues for living a peaceful life. Confucianism is best understood as an ethical guide to life and living with strong character. Yet, Confucianism also began as a revival of an earlier religious tradition. There are no Confucian gods, and Confucius himself is worshipped as a spirit rather than a god. However, there are temples of Confucianism, which are places where important community and civic rituals happen.

This debate remains unresolved and many people refer to Confucianism as both a religion and a philosophy. Natural disasters and conflict are the result of straying from the ancient teachings. Confucius believed in the importance of education in order to create this virtuous character. He thought that people are essentially good yet may have strayed from the appropriate forms of conduct. Rituals in Confucianism were designed to bring about this respectful attitude and create a sense of community within a group.

The family was the most important group for Confucian ethics, and devotion to family could only strengthen the society surrounding it. While Confucius gave his name to Confucianism, he was not the first person to discuss many of the important concepts in Confucianism. Rather, he can be understood as someone concerned with the preservation of traditional Chinese knowledge from earlier thinkers.

The most famous of these disciples were Mencius and Xunzi, both of whom developed Confucian thought further. Confucianism remains one of the most influential philosophies in China. During this time, Confucius schools were established to teach Confucian ethics.

Confucianism is often characterized as a system of social and ethical philosophy rather than a religion. In fact, Confucianism built on an ancient religious foundation to establish the social values, institutions, and transcendent ideals of traditional Chinese society. It was what sociologist Robert Bellah called a "civil religion," 1 the sense of religious identity and common moral understanding at the foundation of a society's central institutions.

It is also what a Chinese sociologist called a "diffused religion"; 3 its institutions were not a separate church, but those of society, family, school, and state; its priests were not separate liturgical specialists, but parents, teachers, and officials. Confucianism was part of the Chinese social fabric and way of life; to Confucians, everyday life was the arena of religion.

The burning issue of the day was: If it is not the ancestral and nature spirits, what then is the basis of a stable, unified, and enduring social order? The dominant view of the day, espoused by Realists and Legalists, was that strict law and statecraft were the bases of sound policy. Confucius, however, believed that the basis lay in Zhou religion, in its rituals li.

He interpreted these not as sacrifices asking for the blessings of the gods, but as ceremonies performed by human agents and embodying the civilized and cultured patterns of behavior developed through generations of human wisdom.

They embodied, for him, the ethical core of Chinese society. Moreover, Confucius applied the term "ritual" to actions beyond the formal sacrifices and religious ceremonies to include social rituals: courtesies and accepted standards of behavior-- what we today call social mores. He saw these time-honored and traditional rituals as the basis of human civilization, and he felt that only a civilized society could have a stable, unified, and enduring social order.

Thus one side of Confucianism was the affirmation of accepted values and norms of behavior in primary social institutions and basic human relationships. Starting from individual and family, people acting rightly could reform and perfect the society. The blueprint of this process was described in "The Great Learning," a section of the Classic of Rituals:. Only when things are investigated is knowledge extended; only when knowledge is extended are thoughts sincere; only when thoughts are sincere are minds rectified; only when minds are rectified are the characters of persons cultivated; only when character is cultivated are our families regulated; only when families are regulated are states well governed; only when states are well governed is there peace in the world.

Confucius' ethical vision ran against the grain of the legalistic mind set of his day. Only under the Han Emperor Wu r. From that time on the imperial state promoted Confucian values to maintain law, order, and the status quo. In late traditional China, emperors sought to establish village lectures on Confucian moral precepts and to give civic awards to filial sons and chaste wives.

The imperial family and other notables sponsored the publication of morality books that encouraged the practice of Confucian values: respect for parents,loyalty to government, and keeping to one's place in society—farmers should remain farmers, and practice the ethics of farming.

This side of Confucianism was conservative, and served to bolster established institutions and long-standing social divisions.

There was, however, another side to Confucianism. Confucius not only stressed social rituals li , but also humaneness ren.