confucianism Flashcards
(25 cards)
benevolence (humaneness)
- ren
- internally having respect and concern for people
- must be sincere
- may be translated into humanity
Junzi (“superior person”
- “noble men”
- the five classics provide a humanistic education that transforms men into noblemen
Mengzi/Menzius
- disciple of confucius
- adviser for the rulers
- believed that without teachers, people would lose their “child’s heart”
- believed that human nature was fundamentally good, always retain your child heart - live in according to the dao
- est. public education
xiao
- filiality
- adopting the behavior of a son/daughter towards his/her parents
- should be respected
- reciprocal relationship, but appropriately
tian
“heaven
- principle that governs the universe
- change our luck if we live according to heaven
rites
- religious rituals
- one of the five classics is the classic of rites (Liji)
- shang burial rites
- people buried themselved with that they need, burried w horses w chariot
Zhou dynasty
-“ideal time”
-removed the excess of shang dynast
-8th century - dynasty split
+tried fighting each other for control
+500 years of nonstop war
-contained the classic age
five relationships
- father to son: kind father, filial son
- elder brother to younger brother: gentility w elder, younger w humility
- husband to wife: righteous behavior, obedient wife
- elder to junior - elder w consideration, junior w respect
- ruler to subject: benevolent ruler, loyal subject
- confusius found this key, correct family behavior should extend to kingdom
- developed during the spring and autumn time period
oracle bones
- bone divination
- used tortoise shell/ox bone
- carved questions formed as statements
- superheat bar, touch question, cracked, emperor explained what it meant
- represents new written language
propriety
- li, ritual/rites
- taking right ritual behavior on an individual level
- how to conduct everyday behavior
- confucius believed that it is a key principle for success in life
yin-yang
- yin: negative, female, night, passive, moon, intuitive, cold, soft
- yang: positive, male, day, active, sun, logical, hot, hard
- when in balance, there will be a lot of benefit
xunzi
- born at the end of mengzi’ lifetime
- believed that humans were innately bad
- people need strict guidance - forced into civil conduct
li
- propriety, ritual/rites
- taking right ritual behavior on an individual level
- how to conduct everyday behavior
- confucius believed that it is key for success in life
tianming
“heaven”
- refers to less personal god
- benign principle, guides universe
- can have person characteristics, but more abstract
- with blessing from tianming, ruler can seem more legit
yijing
- classic of changes: book of divination
- ways to understand the relationships/forces of yin-yang
- assigns different values to different trigrams
- indicated the natural phenomena of the world
Lunyu (analects)
“book of conversations”
-taught the main confucian ideas
+xiao (filial piety), genuine human (junzi), propriety (li), heaven (tian), benevolence (ren), 5 social relationships, the way (dao), virtue (de)
dao
“the way”
- human/society should be
- focuses on our world, not godly forces
- wants people to behave the best way they can to improve existence
- tien (heaven) moral force that governs the world
- follow dao, one will have success
shang dynasry
-written documents
-evidence for more developed ceramics, bronze, chariot, writing system, political system, traditional architecture
-chief priest
+theocracy, political ruler and top priest
filial piety
xiao
- adopting the behavior of a son/daughter towards his/her parents
- should be respected
- reciprocal relationship, acting appropriately in role
confucius
-dressed as a scholar, low level aristocrat
-achieved wisdom, learned that wisdom was the key to improve society
-failed at being a gov’t adviser, became teacher
-teachings: annalex, people are falling away from moral code, moral people come from those who are educates
+stems from rulers
ren
benevolence
- internally having sincere respect/concern for people
- may be translated into humanity
mandate of heaven
-theory/religious/political idea
-blessings from tianming (heaven) the ruler seems legit
+begin to lose sincerity, no longer have moral authority
+gives people people who are suffering under allowance to begin a new dynasty
+emperor represents heavens intentions in human form
warring states period
-aka spring-autumn
-arrows developed
-bronze used for spears/weapons
-people are questioning the rulers
+mandate of heaven: why are we suffering if the heavens are watching over the rulers
divination
channelled their ancestors
-ancestors of the ruling family are the most important
-older = more authority
-must be persuaded to help humans through sacrifice
-bone divination
-divination of the yijing
+way to understand the relationship of yin-yang
-trigrams: different combinations lead to different states
