" (Confucius, The Analects p.63 2, 2.5). Confucius had also taught, that filial piety was one of the two threads that held his whole teaching together. It could be said to symbolize the inner and outer, the yin and yang dimensions of human conduct. A person needs to be faithful to both the family and the larger world (Confucianism, 62). Ancestral veneration is not something we only see in Chinese religion, in fact it is practiced in many different religions in different types of ways (Li, 594). Perhaps it could be said then that the ancestor cult might have arisen out of psychological needs or attitudes, including the fear of the deceased, as well as feelings of piety towards them.
The Chinese word for ritual is Li and it is one of the five main virtues taught. Hsun-tzu, is best remembered for his doctrine of ritual action. He provides the practical side of Confucian religion. "If you are respectful but lack ritual you will become exasperating; if you are careful but lack ritual you will become timid; if you are courageous but lack ritual you will become unruly; and if you are upright but lack ritual you will become inflexible" (Confucius, Analects, p23 8, 8.1). Ritual can be seen as the means to find harmony and balance between opposing qualities that could otherwise lead to conflict. It is through ritual that a hierarchy is formed and so everyone in society is assigned a place. There seemed to be a desire by Confucius to revive the etiquette of earlier dynasties. In fact, ritual is such an important part of Confucianism, that it is also known as the ritual religion li-chiao (Hasen, 174). It is these teachings that helped to keep alive the older cult of veneration for ancestors, and the worship of heaven. Confucius also emphasized the need to have the right inner dispositions, without which ritual propriety becomes hypocrisy.
The more important someone's rank in society was, the bigger the obligations became and thus, the responsibility increased. Mesopotamia was a region between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates where the swing of world's first civilization emerged. Various cultures occupied the region and were brought together solely by their customs and religion. Trade came in as the result of agriculture, it brought prosperity and urbanization. The rise of cities led
This method of presentation attracted several immediate attacks from enemies within the church even before a reaction from the Chinese. Sometime after 1610, one critic, Father Longobardo, said that even with all the references to that of a supreme deity, the Chinese had never differentiated the moral regularities of society and the physical regularities which were that of the material universe. The Chinese had also never understood or accepted any
Confucianism Questions and AnswerConfucianism holds that man\\\'s predicament is to maintain their original human goodness that is eroded with an individual\\\'s effort or contact with an evil environment. Some of the qualities that are held inherently are love, goodness, humanity, and human heartedness, Jen. The manifestation of these qualities is realized by remaining true to oneself. The axiom places an obligation on each individual to observe themselves to remain conscious
lying and deceit and questions its acceptability in society. Lying is something which stands at a different perspective for everyone. Every form of lying is because an individual is trying to gain or achieve something, most of people's actions are meant to deceive in some way for personal gain, and this goes on underlying, since people are so used to doing it. There is, however a possibility to change
.. The superior man is broad and fair; the inferior man takes sides and is petty... A superior man shapes the good in man; he does not shape the bad in him. It is said that a disciple once asked Confucius to define the conduct of one's entire life with a single word. The Chinese philosopher replied: "Is not reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself
When Neo-Confucianism arrived in Japan in the 16th century, it built on the pre-existing ideas of Confucianism that had already been imported into the island centuries earlier (Tsutsui 104). As far back as the 5th century, the Japanese had mixed with Confucian ideas about society and the role of the person in the world. Confucian ideas taught the Japanese about what it means to be a moral person. However, the
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