A little more on Confucius

Confucius (Kong Zi or Kong Fu Zi) defended the decaying Zhou order. He also talked about essentially loving, duties, the “Golden Rule” and benevolence. Kong’s words and deeds were collected by a follower or followers into one work (the Lun Yu – Arranged Sayings) usually called in English today “the Analects”. He was called Kong Zi (Master Kong - 孔子) but his actual name was Kong Qiu (孔丘). His philosophy was mostly but not exclusively moral. He thought proper conduct was dictated mainly by adherence to courtly and other Zhou traditional roles and rituals as he idealised Zhou traditions somewhat. In a sense he was therefore somewhat like the Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab of Zhou China in being a relatively uncritical traditionist (though probably not as completely uncritical as the Arabian jurist). In valuing Zhou traditions he inevitably valued shamanistic-formed legal precedents. His preaching utilised and thus valued earlier collections of ideas that he traditionally collected as texts including what came to be called the Book of Songs or the Book of Odes and the Book of Documents or the Book of History and some ritual texts (some of which he may have produced himself). Heated scholarly argument continues as to whether he actually existed or was perhaps a composite of more than one person.

Kong’s ideal social formation was a hierarchy that he valued on the basis of a form of utilitarianism. He extolled sincere filial piety (really reverence of a son towards his parents especially). What he called Ren (仁) (we usually translate it into English as benevolence or nobility) he considered to be both superior to and encompassing of all other kinds of goodness in his philosophy.

Now to some further illustrative references to the Analects:

The gentleman understands moral duty; the petty person knows about profit (Duties ought to be considered before rights).

You can be of service [to your superior] by remonstrating with them tactfully. [After that, they must decide what to do and you must] work hard [and] do not murmur against them (essentially a form of the ‘Golden Rule’ and an abjuration to work hard in a Chinese context. Much of this ‘Golden Rule’ kind of thing is contained in the Analects).

Eliminate the army (Confucianism was actually rather pacifist).

When Kong refers to the Book of Songs he often suggests that it contains examples of misrule worthy of study and stresses to rulers especially that their subjects are not their playthings. There is in fact, he asserts, a kind of noblesse oblige linked to a Mandate of Heaven.