Confucianism - Freedom and Democracy 2.0

Is Confucianism a religion?

Appendix 7. What is the individual’s relationship to leaders and family and  others?   Mutual obligations …

Chinese is a relationship culture. Who you know can take priority over regulation and law, even more so than in the US. Confucianism is part of that ancient understanding of how the world works, although it is not the hidebound, patriarchal system sometimes portrayed in the west.

Below, some brief comments on how the relationship culture works with regard to families, leaders, and strangers.

Confucianism - Freedom and Democracy 2.0

Is Confucianism a Religion?

Appendix 6.  Do You Have to Follow Rituals?   No rituals – no civil society

In a word, yes. Rites are the right thing to do – when done for the right reasons. We may say that rituals are part of what makes for a civil society.

Confucianism - Freedom and Democracy 2.0

Is Confucianism a Religion?

Appendix 5. Are there Sacred Texts?   Are they the words of god?

There are no sacred texts purported to be the word of god. The closest one could come to sacred  texts are the four Confucian classics, defined by Zhu Xi in the 12^th century - the Analects of Confucius, Mencius, the Doctrine of the Mean, and the Great Learning. But the books are said to reflect the teachings of the human Confucius, not words handed down from god. The “Confucian” ideals were present in Chinese society hundreds of years before Confucius. These Four  Books became the central texts for primary education and for the imperial exams for more than six hundred years.   

Confucianism - Freedom and Democracy 2.0

Is Confucianism a Religion?

Appendix 4.  Is there a Confucian deity?   Is tian heaven, god, or sky?

In the past, some western scholars said no, probably based on lack of reference in Chinese texts to a personal god and the historical association in China with ancestor veneration and local folk religions. But from the time of the earliest writing (circa 1300 BCE, much later than in the fertile crescent and eastern Mediterranean) 上帝 Shangdi - the Shang dynasty term for supreme deity of the Shang – was mentioned.

Confucianism - Freedom and Democracy 2.0

Is Confucianism a religion?

Appendix 3.  Is there a Teleology?   Is there a heaven or heaven on earth to aim for?

Sort of. But not really.

Confucianism - Freedom and Democracy 2.0

Is Confucianism a religion?

Appendix 2.  Confucian Spirituality   Incantations and deep mysteries?

Let’s get some things out of the way. No, there are no incantations or deep Asian inscrutability. Confucianism is not some weird Asian thing. A Confucian spirituality is grounded in the here and now and in daily life – just as in Christianity.