International academy of Business

INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF BUSINESS THE BRIEF CONTENTS OF THE LECTURE
Philosophy Lecture 8. Ancient Chinese Philosophy: Confucianism, Taoism. – 2 hours Lecturer: Batsueva Dinah Iuryevna, senior lecturer	The Department of Business Administration

Confucianism

Chinese (Wade-Giles) K'ung-fu-tzu, or K'ung-tzu, or (Pinyin) Kongfuzi, or Kongzi, original name K'ung Ch'iu, literary name Chung-ni - China's most famous teacher, philosopher, and political theorist, whose ideas have influenced the civilization of East Asia.

Confucius' life, in contrast to his tremendous importance, seems starkly undramatic, or, as a Chinese expression has it, it seems “plain and real.” The plainness and reality of Confucius' life, however, underlines that his humanity was not revealed truth but an expression of self-cultivation, of the ability of human effort to shape its own destiny. The faith in the possibility of ordinary human beings to become awe-inspiring sages and worthies is deeply rooted in the Confucian heritage, and the insistence that human beings are teachable, improvable, and perfectible through personal and communal endeavour is typically Confucian.

Confucius' ancestors were probably members of the aristocracy who had become virtual poverty-stricken commoners by the time of his birth. His father died when Confucius was only three years old. Instructed first by his mother, Confucius then distinguished himself as an indefatigable learner in his teens.

Confucius had served in minor government posts managing stables and keeping books for granaries before he married a woman of similar background when he was 19. It is not known who Confucius' teachers were, but he made a conscientious effort to find the right masters to teach him, among other things, ritual and music. Confucius' mastery of the six arts—ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and arithmetic—and his familiarity with the classical traditions, notably poetry and history, enabled him to start a brilliant teaching career in his 30s.

Confucius is known as the first teacher in China who wanted to make education available to all men and who was instrumental in establishing the art of teaching as a vocation, indeed as a way of life. Before Confucius, aristocratic families had hired tutors to educate their sons in specific arts, and government officials had instructed their subordinates in the necessary techniques, but he was the first person to devote his whole life to learning and teaching for the purpose of transforming and improving society. He believed that all human beings could benefit from self-cultivation.

For Confucius the primary function of education was to provide the proper way of training noblemen (chün-tzu), a process that involved constant self-improvement and continuous social interaction.

In his late 40s and early 50s Confucius served first as a magistrate, then as an assistant minister of public works, and eventually as minister of justice in the state of Lu. It is likely that he accompanied King Lu as his chief minister on one of the diplomatic missions. Confucius' political career was, however, short-lived. At 56, when he realized that his superiors were uninterested in his policies, Confucius left the country.

The Analects as the embodiment of Confucian ideas

The Lun-yü (Analects), the most revered sacred scripture in the Confucian tradition, was probably compiled by the second generation of Confucius' disciples. Based primarily on the Master's sayings, preserved in both oral and written transmissions, it captures the Confucian spirit in form and content in the same way that the Platonic dialogues embody Socratic pedagogy.

One of Confucius' most significant personal descriptions is the short autobiographical account of his spiritual development found in the Analects:

at 40 I had no delusions; at 50 I knew the Mandate of Heaven; at 60 my ear was attuned; at 70 I followed my heart's desire without overstepping the boundaries of right.

At 15 I set my heart on learning; at 30 I firmly took my stand

What he demanded of his students was the willingness to learn: “I do not enlighten anyone who is not eager to learn, nor encourage anyone who is not anxious to put his ideas into words.

His aim was to restore trust in government and to transform society into a moral community by cultivating a sense of humanity in politics and society. To achieve that aim, the creation of a scholarly community, the fellowship of chün-tzu (noblemen), was essential.

“Simply by being a good son and friendly to his brothers a man can exert an influence upon government!” to show that what a person does in the confines of his home is politically significant. This maxim is based on the Confucian conviction that cultivation of the self is the root of social order and that social order is the basis for political stability and universal peace.

The assertion that family ethics is politically efficacious must be seen in the context of the Confucian conception of politics as “rectification” (cheng). Rulers should begin by rectifying their own conduct; that is, they are to be examples who govern by moral leadership and exemplary teaching rather than by force.

Confucius defined the process of becoming human as being able to “conquer yourself and return to ritual”. The dual focus on the transformation of the self (Confucius is said to have freed himself from four things: opinionatedness, dogmatism, obstinacy, and egoism and on social participation enabled Confucius to be loyal (chung) to himself and considerate (shu) of others. It is easy to understand why the Confucian “golden rule” is “Do not do unto others what you would not want others to do unto you!”

Taoism

Taoism includes: the ideas and attitudes peculiar to Lao-tzu (or, “Tao-te Ching”- “Classic of the Way of Power”), Chuang-tzu, Lieh-tzu and related writings.

Behind all forms of Taoism stands the figure of Lao-tzu, traditionally regarded as the author of the classic text known as the Lao-tzu, or the Tao-te Ching (“Classic of the Way of Power”). The first mention of Lao-tzu is found in another early classic of Taoist speculation, the Chuang-tzu (4th–3rd century BC), so called after the name of its author. In this work Lao-tzu is described as being one of Chuang-tzu's own teachers, and the same book contains many of the Master's (Lao-tzu's) discourses, generally introduced by the questions of a disciple. Thus in this early source, Lao-tzu appears as a senior contemporary of Confucius (6th–5th century BC) and a renowned Taoist master, a curator of the archives at the court of the Chou dynasty (c. 1111–255 BC).

Lao-tzu's family name was Li, his given name Erh; and he occupied the post of archivist at the Chou court. He is said to have instructed Confucius on points of ceremony. Observing the decline of the Chou dynasty, Lao-tzu left the court and headed west. At the request of Yin Hsi, the guardian of the frontier pass, he wrote his treatise on the Tao in two scrolls. He then left China behind, and what became of him is not known.

The work's 81 brief sections contain only about 5,000 characters in all, from which fact derives still another of its titles, Lao Tzu's Five Thousand Words. The Tao-te Ching was meant as a handbook for ruler. He should be a sage whose actions pass so unnoticed that his very existence remains unknown. He imposes no restrictions or prohibitions on his subjects; “so long as I love quietude, the people will of themselves go straight. So long as I act only by inactivity, the people will of themselves become prosperous.” His simplicity makes the Ten Thousand Beings passionless and still and peace follows naturally. He does not teach them discrimination, virtue, or ambition because “when intellect emerges, the great artifices begin. When discord is rife in families, ‘dutiful sons' appear. When the State falls into anarchy, ‘loyal subjects' appear.” Thus, it is better to banish wisdom, righteousness, and ingenuity, and the people will benefit a hundredfold.

Therefore the Holy Man rules by emptying their hearts and filling their bellies, weakening their wills and strengthening their bones, ever striving to make the people knowledgeless and desireless.

The word people in this passage more likely refers not to the common people but to those nobles and intellectuals who incite the ruler's ambition and aggressiveness.

War is condemned but not entirely excluded: “Arms are ill-omened instruments,” and the sage uses them only when he cannot do otherwise. He does not glory in victory; “he that has conquered in battle is received with rites of mourning.”

The book shares certain constants of classical Chinese thought but clothes them in an imagery of its own. The sacred aura surrounding kingship is here rationalized and expressed as “wu-wei” (inaction), demanding of the sovereign no more than right cosmological orientation at the centre of the obedient universe.

Concepts of the universe and natural order

What Lao-tzu calls the “permanent Tao” in reality is nameless. The name in ancient Chinese thought implied an evaluation assigning an object its place in a hierarchical universe. The Tao is outside these categories.

It is something formlessly fashioned, that existed before Heaven and Earth;... Its name we do not know; Tao is the byname that we give it. Were I forced to say to what class of things it belongs I should call it Immense.

Emptiness realized in the mind of the Taoist who has freed himself from all obstructing notions and distracting passions makes the Tao act through him without obstacle. An essential characteristic that governs the Tao is spontaneity (tzu-jan), the what-is-so-of-itself, the self-so, the unconditioned. The Tao, in turn, governs the universe: “The ways of Heaven are conditioned by those of the Tao, and the ways of Tao by the Self-so.”

This is the way of the saint who does not intervene but possesses the total power of spontaneous realization that is at work in the universe; of his accomplishments “everyone, throughout the country, says ‘It happened of its own accord' (tzu-jan).”

Return to the Tao

All being issued from the Tao and ineluctably returns to it; Undifferentiated Unity becomes multiplicity in the movement of the Tao. Life and death are contained in this eternal transformation from Non-Being into Being and back to Non-Being, but the underlying primordial unity is never lost.

For society, any reform means a type of return to the remote past; civilization is considered a degradation of the natural order, and the ideal is the return to an original purity. For the individual, wisdom is to conform to the rhythm of the universe. The Taoist mystic, however, not only adapts himself ritually and physiologically to the alternations of nature but creates a void inside himself that permits him to return to nature's origin. Lao-tzu, in trance, “wandered freely in the origin of all beings.”

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