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Confucius On Government Summary

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Confucius on Government Analysis
Amel Al-kilany
Confucius (551-479 BCE) is the Chinese philosopher who founded the system of philosophical and ethical teachings known as Confucianism. While he was best known as a philosopher, he was also an educator and a political figure. His goal was to form a society that returned to its roots by participating in old customs and traditions such as filial piety and ancestral worship to succeed. Confucius also recommended to several leaders that good government was only possible through good leaders, and harmony and justice were not possible without virtuous government. Although Confucius never wrote down his own philosophy, a majority of his teachings were preserved in the Analects by his followers who recorded …show more content…
“Duke Jing of Qi once asked Confucius about government and Confucius replied, ‘Let the ruler be a ruler; the minister, a minister; the father, a father; the son, a son… Truly, if the ruler is not a ruler, the subject is not a subject, the father is not a father, and the son is not a son’” ("Selections from the Confucian Analects: On Government”). This excerpt shows that Confucius wished to design a society with clear hierarchical order set in place within both China’s government and society to maintain a balance of power. While the design had not been achieved in his lifetime, he believed that if the ruler did not carry out his roles then no one below him could carry out their own social roles. Consequently, if each individual role is not carried out, then both government and society would fall apart. Confucius’s theory ended up being correct, and Chinese government and society did fall apart. A thirst for power led ministers to kill rulers, sons killed fathers, brothers killed brothers, and wives killed husbands. This need for power led China to collapse; however, it all could have been avoided if civilians and rulers had carried out their individual social …show more content…
Throughout his life, superiority was clearly a characteristic determined by a person’s social status, and by belonging to a certain class some people were more superior than others. Confucius challenged this idea by stating that being morally superior had nothing to do with the social class a person was born into, but with character and personal development. When asked about superiority the Master said, "The progress of the superior man is upwards; the progress of the mean man is downwards" (Stevenson). This excerpt from the Analects shows that in order to become superior, a person needs to encompass his full potential and always strive to do better. Therefore, in Confucianism, to become superior, a person had to believe in the perfectibility of man which stated that a person could achieve perfection on earth through natural means by being ambitious, loyal, righteous, and altruistic. Belief in this inherent goodness, perfectibility of man, and opposition of superiority had strong consequences for the Chinese political

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