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! ==Governance== [[File:君臣魚水 - 劉備與諸葛亮.jpg|thumb|Statue of [[Liu Bei]] and [[Zhuge Liang]], considered the ideal example of the loyalty, integrity and shared governance between a lord and [[Grand chancellor (China)|minister]] in Chinese history<ref group="note">The phrase "{{lang|zh-hant|魚水君臣}}" ("Fish (and) water lord (and) subject") refers to the term "{{lang|zh-hant|君臣魚水}}" from [[Records of the Three Kingdoms]], where Liu Bei refers to gaining Zhuge Liang's service as if "a fish gaining water".</ref>]] [[File:Yushima Seido 002.jpg|thumb|[[Yushima Seidō]] in [[Bunkyō]], [[Tokyo]], Japan]] {{Poem quote |text={{lang|zh-hant|子曰:為政以德,譬如北辰,居其所而眾星共之。|size=115%}} The Master said, "He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it." |source=''Analects'' 2.1 (Legge translation). }} A key Confucian concept is that in order to govern others one must first govern oneself according to the universal order. When actual, the king's personal virtue (''[[De (Chinese)|de]]'') spreads beneficent influence throughout the kingdom. This idea is developed further in the [[Great Learning]] and is tightly linked with the [[Taoism|Taoist]] concept of ''[[wu wei]]'': the less the king does, the more gets done. By being the "calm center" around which the kingdom turns, the king allows everything to function smoothly and avoids having to tamper with the individual parts of the whole. This idea may be traced back to the ancient shamanic beliefs of the king being the axle between the sky, human beings, and the Earth.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}} The [[emperors of China]] were considered agents of Heaven, endowed with the [[Mandate of Heaven]],<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Tianming |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/tianming |access-date=2023-04-28 |date=2008}}</ref> one of the most vital concepts in imperial-era political theory. Some Confucianists believed they held the power to define the hierarchy of divinities, by bestowing titles upon mountains, rivers and dead people, acknowledging them as powerful and therefore establishing their cults.{{sfnb|Feuchtwang|2016|pp=146–147}} Confucianism, despite supporting the importance of obeying national authority, places this obedience under absolute moral principles that curbed the willful exercise of power, rather than being unconditional. Submission to authority was only taken within the context of the moral obligations that rulers had toward their subjects, in particular ''[[ren (Confucianism)|ren]]''. Confucians—including the most pro-authoritarian scholars such as [[Xunzi (philosopher)|Xunzi]]—have always recognised the [[right of revolution]] against tyranny.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wood |first=Alan Thomas |url=https://archive.org/details/limitstoautocrac00wood/page/149 |title=Limits to Autocracy: From Sung Neo-Confucianism to a Doctrine of Political Rights |date=1995 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=0-8248-1703-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/limitstoautocrac00wood/page/149 149–154]}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page