Confucianism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==History== ===Metaphysical antecedents=== [[File:Temple rooftop dragon in Taiwan (1).jpg|thumb|The [[Chinese dragon|dragon]] is one of the oldest symbols of Chinese religious culture. It symbolises the supreme godhead, ''Di'' or ''Tian'', at the north [[orbital pole|ecliptic pole]], around which it coils itself as the [[Draco (constellation)|homonymous constellation]]. It is a symbol of the "protean" supreme power which has in itself both [[yin and yang]].{{sfnb|Pankenier|2013|p=55}}]] [[File:Birth Places of Chinese Philosophers.png|thumb|Birthplaces of notable Chinese philosophers of the Hundred Schools of Thought in Zhou dynasty. Confucians are marked by triangles in dark red.]] {{See also|History of religion in China}} According to [[He Guanghu]], Confucianism may be identified as a continuation of the [[Shang dynasty|Shang]]-[[Zhou dynasty|Zhou]] ({{circa|1600}}–256 BCE) official religion, or the Chinese aboriginal religion which has lasted uninterrupted for three thousand years.{{sfnb|Chen|2012|p=105, note 45}} Both the dynasties worshipped a supreme "godhead", called ''[[Shangdi]]'' ('Highest Deity') or ''Di'' by the Shang and ''[[Tian]]'' ('Heaven') by the Zhou. ''Shangdi'' was conceived as the first ancestor of the Shang royal house,{{sfnb|Libbrecht|2007|p=43}} an alternate name for him being the "Supreme Progenitor" ({{zhi|c=上甲|p=Shàngjiǎ}}).{{sfnb|Didier|2009|pp=227–228, Vol. II}} Shang theology viewed the multiplicity of gods of nature and ancestors as parts of ''Di''. ''Di'' manifests as the ''[[Wufang Shangdi]]'' with the winds ({{zhi|c=風|p=fēng}}) as its cosmic will.{{sfnb|Didier|2009|pp=143–144, Vol. II}} With the Zhou dynasty, which overthrew the Shang, the name for the supreme godhead became ''tian''.{{sfnb|Libbrecht|2007|p=43}} While the Shang identified ''Shangdi'' as their ancestor-god to assert their claim to power by divine right, the Zhou transformed this claim into a legitimacy based on moral power, the [[Mandate of Heaven]]. In Zhou theology, ''Tian'' had no singular earthly progeny, but bestowed divine favour on virtuous rulers. Zhou kings declared that their victory over the Shang was because they were virtuous and loved their people, while the Shang were tyrants and thus were deprived of power by ''Tian''.{{sfnb|Fung|2008|p=163}} John C. Didier and David Pankenier relate the shapes of both the ancient [[Chinese characters]] for ''Di'' and ''Tian'' to the patterns of stars in the northern skies, either drawn, in Didier's theory by connecting the constellations bracketing the north celestial pole as a square,{{sfnb|Didier|2009|p=103, Vol. II}} or in Pankenier's theory by connecting some of the stars which form the constellations of the Big Dipper and broader [[Ursa Major]], and [[Ursa Minor]] (Little Dipper).{{sfnb|Pankenier|2013|pp=138–148, "Chapter 4: Bringing Heaven Down to Earth"}} Cultures in other parts of the world have also conceived these stars or constellations as symbols of the origin of things, the supreme godhead, divinity and royal power.{{sfnb|Didier|2009|loc=''passim'' Vol. I}} The supreme godhead was also identified with the [[Chinese dragon|dragon]], symbol of unlimited power (''[[qi]]''),{{sfnb|Libbrecht|2007|p=43}} of the protean primordial power which embodies both [[yin and yang]] in unity, associated to the constellation [[Draco (constellation)|Draco]] which winds around the north [[orbital pole|ecliptic pole]],{{sfnb|Pankenier|2013|p=55}} and slithers between the Little and Big Dipper. ===Zhou traditions wane=== By the 6th century BCE, the power of ''Tian'' and the symbols that represented it on earth (architecture of cities, temples, altars and [[Chinese ritual bronzes|ritual vessels]], and the Zhou system of rites) became "diffuse" and claimed by different potentates in the [[Ancient Chinese states|Zhou states]] to legitimise economic, political, and military ambitions. Communication with the divine no longer was an exclusive privilege of the Zhou royal house, but might be bought by anyone able to afford the elaborate ceremonies and the old and new rites required to access the authority of ''Tian''.{{sfnb|Didier|2009|pp=xxxvi–xxxvii, Vol. I}} Besides the waning Zhou ritual system, what may be defined as {{zhl|l=wild|c=野|p=yě}} traditions, or traditions outside of the official system, developed as attempts to access the will of ''Tian''. As central political authority crumbled in the wake of the collapse of the [[Western Zhou]], the population lost faith in the official tradition, which was no longer perceived as an effective way to communicate with Heaven. The traditions of the {{zhl|l=Nine Fields|c=九野}} and of the ''[[Yijing]]'' flourished.{{sfnb|Didier|2009|pp=xxxvii–xxxviii, Vol. I}} Chinese thinkers, faced with this challenge to legitimacy, diverged in a "[[Hundred Schools of Thought]]", each positing its own philosophical lens for understanding the processes of the world. [[Confucius]] (551–479 BCE) appeared in this period of political reconfiguration and spiritual questioning. He was educated in Shang–Zhou traditions, which he contributed to transmit and reformulate giving centrality to [[self-cultivation]] and agency of humans,{{sfnb|Fung|2008|p=163}} and the educational power of the self-established individual in assisting others to establish themselves (the {{zhi|c=愛人|p=àirén|l=principle of loving others}}).{{sfnb|Zhou|2012|p=2}} As the Zhou reign collapsed, traditional values were abandoned resulting in a period of perceived moral decline. Confucius saw an opportunity to reinforce values of compassion and tradition into society, with the intended goal of reconstructing what he believed to be a lost perfect moral order of high antiquity. Disillusioned with the culture, opposing scholars, and religious authorities of the time, he began to advance an ethical interpretation of traditional Zhou religion.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Ivanhoe |first1=Philip J. |title=Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy |last2=Van Norden |first2=Bryan W. |publisher=[[Hackett Publishing Company]] |year=2005 |isbn=0-87220-781-1 |edition=2nd |location=Indianapolis |page=2 |oclc=60826646 |author-link=Philip J. Ivanhoe |author-link2=Bryan W. Van Norden}}</ref> In his view, the power of ''Tian'' is pervasive, and responds positively to the sincere heart driven by humaneness and rightness, decency and altruism. Confucius conceived these qualities as the foundation needed to restore socio-political harmony. Like many contemporaries, Confucius saw ritual practices as efficacious ways to access ''Tian'', but he thought that the crucial knot was the reverent inner state that participants enter prior to engaging in the ritual acts.{{sfnb|Didier|2009|loc=Vol. III, pp. 96–99}} Confucius is said to have amended and recodified the [[Chinese classics|classical books]] inherited from the Xia-Shang-Zhou dynasties, and to have composed the ''[[Spring and Autumn Annals]]''.{{sfnb|Zhou|2012|p=1}} ===Confucianism rises=== Philosophers in the [[Warring States period]], both focused on state-endorsed ritual and non-aligned to state ritual built upon Confucius's legacy, compiled in the ''[[Analects]]'', and formulated the classical metaphysics that became the lash of Confucianism. In accordance with Confucius, they identified mental tranquility as the state of ''Tian'', or {{zhl|l=the One|c=一|p=Yī}}, which in each individual is the Heaven-bestowed divine power to rule one's own life and the world. They also extended the theory, proposing the oneness of production and reabsorption into the cosmic source, and the possibility to understand and therefore reattain it through correct state of mind. This line of thought would have influenced all Chinese individual and collective-political mystical theories and practices thereafter.{{sfnb|Didier|2009|pp=xxxviii–xxxix, Vol. I}} In the Han dynasty, Confucians beginning with [[Dong Zhongshu]] synthesised Warring States Confucianism with ideas of [[yin and yang]], and ''[[Wuxing (Chinese philosophy)|wuxing]]'', as well as folk superstition and the prior schools that led up to the [[School of Naturalists]].<ref name=":10027">{{Cite book |title=World Religions: Eastern Traditions |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=0-19-541521-3 |editor-last=Willard Gurdon Oxtoby |edition=2nd |location=Don Mills, Ontario |pages=169–170 |oclc=46661540}}</ref> In the [[460s]], Confucianism competed with [[Chinese Buddhism]] and "traditional Confucianism" was "a broad cosmology that was as much about personal ethics as about spiritual beliefs" and had roots that went back to Confucianist [[Philosophy|philosophers]] from over a thousand years before.<ref name=":032">{{Cite book |last=Frankopan |first=Peter |title=The Silk Roads: A New History of the World |date=March 2017 |publisher=[[Vintage Books]] |isbn=978-1-101-94633-6 |edition=First Vintage Books |location=New York |pages=32 |author-link=Peter Frankopan}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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