"Lead the people with administrative injunctions and put them in their place with penal law, and they will avoid punishments but will be without a sense of shame. Lead them with excellence and put them in their place through roles and ritual practices, and in addition to developing a sense of shame, they will order themselves harmoniously. " (Analects II, 3)
See Confucianism, where I got that quote above, for a more detailed discussion of Confucianism.
Confucianism seems obsessed with maintaining order, which makes it a difficult philosophy to love. Is it really our highest goal to lead an orderly (harmonious) existence? But you have to like the way they go about it. Instead of having a bunch of laws, if you could instill in people an understanding of their role in society, and a sense of shame, then they would take care of themselves.
It's interesting how this relates to the idea of reason in Stoicism (see my earlier post on Stoicism). In the modern world, it seems that the idea of the individual rising above his environment is more prevalent, but both of these ancient philosophies promote the idea of living harmoniously with your environment.
Perhaps it has to do with the idea of progress. Progress is something we take for granted today, but in ancient societies life was much more chaotic. Any fledgling attempts to improve the conditions of life generally could be wiped out in a moment by an invading army.
But let's return to that part about roles and ritual practices (that's the Chinese character for rite, above). Ritual practices in Confucianism has a different meaning than it does in the west. It's not talking about large ceremonial gatherings like weddings or baptisms, but rather about day to day activities.
Examples of this kind of ritual practice are how a child should behave when talking to an elder, or how a guest should greet his host. Behaving properly according to these rules helps make it clear to everyone what a person's role in society is. But to be truly effective, it has to be more than lip service, you have to be sincere. When you sincerely engage in these ritual acts, you naturally come to feel the respect that the ritual calls for.
There seems to be a good understanding of human psychology in this aspect of Confucianism. It's been shown that when you act humble, or excited, or happy, then you start to feel the corresponding emotion. So by performing these ritual acts, you are improving your character by making it more consistent with your place in society.
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Now, you might not be so happy with this philosophy if you don't like the basic hierarchical model of society that it implies. It does seem to be a danger with this philosophy that it could be used to reinforce an existing model of society and work against change, even when change is needed. But there are a few characteristics of Confucianism that work against despotic tendencies.
One of these is the idea that a ruler needs to cultivate personal virtue. A ruler's virtue will be reflected in his or her domain. But if a ruler lacks humanity, then the subjects will fail to act humanely as well, and then the ruler runs the risk of losing authority and position. This idea seems to parallel Plato's ideal of the philosopher king.
The idea of meritocracy and the nobility of virtue in Confucianism also opposes to some degree the idea of a rigid hereditary ruling class. A person is noble by reason of virtue, and not by birth. Rulers should be those who are best qualified to rule.
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OK, we can't leave Confucianism without at least mentioning the Confucian version of the golden rule: "Do not do unto others what you would not want others to do unto you".
1 comment:
nice post. thanks.
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