6 Answers

  1. Because the ultimate goal of human life, which Confucius discovered and preached-social harmony, expressed as shu (mutual sympathy, 恕), li (order, 理), li (decency, 礼), da tong (great unity, 大) – does not depend on temporary circumstances, including the circumstances of place and time, and can always inspire a person.

  2. The subject of Confucius ' ideas is the state and man.

    Statehood and people still exist, so why should they lose popularity?

    It has been very topical for the last few thousand years.

  3. Few people know that Confucius preached and promoted his vision of life in China after sixty years. After these years, he became disillusioned with his views and recognized them as erroneous. Personally, I do not see anything wise in his views on life, he preached what both the rich and the rest of China wanted to see or hear at that time. He is not a wise man, he recorded the customs and everyday rules of life in the country. It is easy to serve ideas and gods. It's much easier than serving real people. Why it is relevant now, it's just that there is nothing new in this world, everything just repeats itself. With respect.

  4. Because this teaching is based on common sense, and common sense is a thing that will never become obsolete and is the key to the successful development of any society.

  5. In one short note, it is not possible to reveal the degree of influence of Confucian teachings on modern Chinese society. It is too deep and multi-faceted, and until very recently, at least before the devastating tsunami of the so-called “cultural revolution”, it concerned many aspects of the life and activities of Chinese people, no matter at what social level they may be.

    From this huge layer of the ancient humanitarian heritage, I would like to isolate one very important and still valid mental law. It was thoroughly comprehended and formulated by the ancient thinker and philosopher of China, who was born near the town of Qufu (曲阜 – “Curved Hill”), the first professional teacher of China, Kung Tzu (子子 – Teacher Kung, aka Confucius; c.551 — 479 BC).

    This law goes like this:”Senior is senior, junior is junior.” Its meaning boils down to the need for order and strict subordination both in society and in the family. The Chinese understood before and understand well now that without a single guiding will, without a timely and strictly executed order, they simply cannot survive.

    According to the teachings of Confucius, orders always come from above, from where the superiors sit. Previously, the emperor was considered the main boss. The emperor was called nothing less than” Son of Heaven ” (天子 – Tiantzi), which said a lot. This was a sacred person, and his words had to be treated as the ultimate truth.

    The emperor was given the place of the ” people's parent “(?? – min zhi fumu). The emperor was literally regarded as the father of his people, and his subjects as his children. A career ladder ran down from the emperor. The nobles and officials standing on its steps should also be treated with the same respect as their own fathers were treated in ordinary families.

    The family for Confucius was a model of the state. The traditional image of Chinese society is a “mountain of sand”, where each grain of sand corresponds to a separate family. The head of the family is the father. The significance of the father in China is attested by the phrase attributed to one of Confucius ' most beloved and ablest students, Tseng Tzu (子子; 505-c. 436 BC): “When a noble man walks along the road, you can immediately tell by his appearance whether he has a father and whether he has a mentor. One who has no father and no mentor, looks completely different” (“君子行於道路, 其有父者可知也, 其有師者可知也. Цз, 餘若夫何哉! ” – ” Junzi xing yu daolu, qi yu fuzhe kezhi ye, qi yu shizhe kezhi ye. Fu wu fu er wu shi zhe, yu ruofu he zai!”).

    The father was the absolute ruler of his household, each of which was assigned its own place, quite clearly recorded even in hieroglyphs. For example, in Chinese there is no character for “brother” – only” 哥 “(“ge” – “big brother”) or” 弟 “(“di” – “younger brother”), the middle one is not given. Speaking about the attitude of children to their parents, Confucius instructed: “When serving your parents, talk to them respectfully. If you notice that they do not agree with you-show respect, do not cross them. Don't be offended by them even if you are tired” (“Ш, 见志志, 又敬不违, 劳而不怨” – “Shi fumu ji jian, jian zhi bu cong, yu jing bu wei, lao er bu yuan”). Those who live under the same roof, who have imbibed the idea of honoring their elders and superiors in their blood and flesh, will never, as Confucius believed, become rebels, will never leave their parents without the necessary care.

    True, real life as it was far from ideal, so it is no closer to perfection now. In traditional China, the poor died, the elderly were abandoned by everyone, not all sons were an example of exemplary piety, and the patriarchal family was not always in harmony. The black underside of real relationships between people was also demonstrated during the “cultural revolution”. But if we talk about modern China, which is moving at high speed along the path of modernization, then it seems that they are not only not going to write off one of the humanitarian components of Confucian teaching, expressed in interconnected social pairs – “older and younger”, “fathers and children”, but also give it a new content.

    Confucian teaching can still serve the current Chinese leadership quite effectively as one of the ideological platforms of the chosen course.

  6. Because the values taught by Confucius do not depend on time. A father is always a father, a son is always a son, a brother is always a brother, a friend is always a friend, a husband is always a husband, and a ruler is always a ruler. At the same time, based on a foundation that does not depend on time, Confucianism has always changed depending on the place and circumstances. This is the secret of the fact that Confucianism is still a living teaching.

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