Dr. John Renard informs us that Confucious was born around 551 B.C. and died in 470 B.C. This would make him a contemporary of the Buddha. His name is a Latinized form of Kong Fu Zi. Tradition informs us that his mother Yen Zheng Zai had prayed on Mount Ni that she would have a child. Confucious' father, Shu Liang He died when the child was three years old, and his mother raised him under difficult circumstances. Confucious married when he was nineteen, and his unhappy marriage ended with the death of his wife, and then later on, his son also died. At twenty-two, he began the first of several jobs working for the state of Lu. Four years later, he went to the Zhou dynasty's imperial city of Lu to study royal ceremony and seek a government position. Tradition says that it was there that he met an aged man by the name of Lao Zi. There are traditional accounts of that meeting, in which Lao Zi took Confucious to task for wasting effort on formal study and reliance on ethical absolutes. Confucious pursued his own path. He went into a thirteen-year self-imposed exile, wandering in and out of nine provinces. He returned home at the age of sixty-eight, and there he spent his last five years studying and editing the Classics. (Renard, p. 419)
"Confucianism" refers to the system of social, ethical, and religious beliefs and practices associated with Confucious. The term does not imply the worship of Confucious as a supreme or central deity, but it does acknowledge his foundational and pivotal role. (Renard, p. 420).
The sacred texts of Confucianism are:
The Five Classics ( Wu Jing), which include the Classic of Change, the Classic of History, the Classic of Poetry, the Classic of Rites, and the Annals of Spring and Autumn. There was a lost Classic (the Classic of Music) which would have constituted a sixth Classic. There is a tradition that Confucious himself had compiled the material from a larger collection of over three thousand pieces.
The accuracy of this is questionable. For further details on the Classics, the reader is referred to John Renard's book, the Handy Religion Answer Book.
Confucianism has never formulated a specific creedal statement to which all members are expected to confess their allegiance. A century or two ago, Confucianism would be understood in terms of the "Mandate of Heaven," i.e. the notion that Heaven rules all things through a "mandate" made known to a "Son of Heaven" called the emperor. The emperor in turn governs all earthly affairs by enacting that mandate, whose hallmark is justice and equity. It is the emperor's duty to make timely and appropriate offerings to Heaven and Earth to insure the coordination of all cosmic events for the benefit of humankind. Confucious, as one of the Sages (person of wisdom), represents a revered tradition of practical wisdom to which a sincere emperor subscribes. All good subjects too, will acknowledge the Sage and those of his stature, and will venerate them along with their own ancestors. All this, they might add, fits into the larger picture of the ultimate harmony represented by the balance of all things under the power of the Dao, which is manifest in Heaven and Earth (Renard, p. 430).
Unlike many great theologians who have constructed their system of thought by beginning with the existence of some divine reality and working their way down, Confucious was interested primarily in the ethical implications of traditional teachings that he had inherited. He apparently thought of Heaven as the ultimate moral authority or principle. Heaven makes its "will" known to, and through an upright sovereign. What Heaven discloses is, in turn, the Dao. Confucious thought of the Dao in terms of two fundamental ethical components, responsibility or loyalty, and reciprocity. (Renard, p. 431).
Confucianism does not deny the possibility of miracles or events beyond the ordinary. It merely suggests that people who are genuinely attentive to life as it unfolds have more than enough to occupy them. In Confucianism, when relationships and the cosmos are as they ought to be, these are considered the great wonders. (Renard, p. 432).
According to a prevailing classical Chinese view of human nature, people are naturally capable of choosing either good or evil. A central concept in Confucian teaching is that each human being has the innate capacity for moral improvement. A disciple of Confucious, Meng Zi, took his Master's teaching a step further, for he was convinced that human beings were essentially good and inclined to ethical betterment. Confucian tradition has no emphasis on notions like salvation or redemption. It does not talk of savior or redeemer figures, but of moral leaders who teach by example (Renard, p. 434).
Confucious did not focus on life after death as though it were the ultimate standard against which to measure the success of life on earth. With the majority of his fellow Chinese, the Teacher shared thee conviction that biological death did not signal a definitive end to life. Death did not mean annihilation and loss in some great void beyond the grave. Confucious clearly believed in some form of spiritual survival, and in the ongoing presence of those who have departed this life (Renard, p. 438).
Now that you, the reader, have been exposed to the some of the basic concepts of Confucianism, I challenge you to consider responding to the following questions:
1. What similarities do you find between Confucianism and Christianity?
2. What differences do you find between the two?
3. Are there elements of Confucianism that you as a Christian can embrace and affirm?
4. Do you as a Christian believe that Christ is present in some way in the Confucian community?
Please share with us your perspectives on these four challenges. Your contributions will be considered very valuable.
Grace and peace,
Dr. Juan A. Ayala-Carmona
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