A Philosophical Understanding of Man

Through Kong Zi’s Political Thought

A Term Paper
Presented to
Professor Emeritus Alfredo P. Co
University of Santo Tomas
Españ a, Manila

In Partial of Fulfilment
Of the Requirements in
PHL210
Chinese Philosophy
 Timothy Joseph C. Gonzales
19 / 4PHL1
September 29, 2017
Kong Zi is one of the many influential persons that have ever lived during the
Period of Ancient China, along with Lao Tzu, Mencius and many more. His thoughts,
ideas and teachings are purely concentrated on the role of man to his family,
society and the state where he belongs to, thus he values the importance of man not
just a part of a whole but rather he sees man as a political and social animal and is
in dire need of social interaction to further discover himself not only through his
own efforts, but also gradually recognizes also the importance of others to aid him
in finding his identity as a person and as a part of the society he is living in.
It will not be a surprise that as we go deeper into his thoughts, we may
always find ourselves in the sphere where man is the center and focus of his ideas,
which is opposed to the idea of westerners, where they begin with the universal
and slowly proceeds into the level of particulars, but for Kong Zi, we must begin
first on the question of “What does it takes to be a man?, “How should a man view
himself on earth?” and the very important question for him, “How can a man be a
man of virtue?” These are only some of the many questions that Kong Zi has in
mind, it is in these questions that we can already grasp his whole point of creating a
number of teachings and lessons, it is very important for him that a state, country
or society can only live in harmony, peace and solidarity if the essential qualities
and characteristics that we are looking for in a leader are embedded in each of the
citizens, and this can only be achieved if they are to be disciplined, raised and
taught in the right way.
In his book, The Analects, we will be drowned and introduced into the words
of Kong Zi himself, as he gives us directions and the path towards the perfection of
our attitude, the transformation of our knowledge into wisdom and the change of
our course and perspective of life into optimism, refinement of our virtues and the
pursuit of legitimate happiness that can turn the tides of not just being a common
man or normal man, but can lead us also to the truth and discovery of our true
nature and identity as a man.
Man as a part of a family
One of the themes that make up the Chinese thought is their great respect for
the importance of family in forming man’s consciousness, behaviour and actions.
As this practice continues to be lived out by the Chinese in the current era, it is also
of utmost importance that we should pay our tribute to the great master Kong-Zi,
who among in all of people valued in his philosophy the necessity of a man to have
a family before becoming a great servant of the people. It is imperative in his
writings that before we can see a good and honest politician, his formation from a
child to a man is a large factor of what kind of a person will he be in the society, this
is of course depending on how he was raised by his family and the values and
lessons brought up to him by his family.
In the first book of the Analects, he discussed the necessary values that a child must
have, and one of this is filial piety. Kong-Zi said, “A young person who is filial and
respectful of his elders rarely becomes the kind of person who is inclined to defy
his superiors”1, in this statement of the great master, we can see that a child who
were taught by his parents to practice respect for anyone especially the elders,
were the ones who will develop a deep appreciation to everyone’s individuality and
position in life, for Kong-Zi, it is necessary that even in his little age, he must
already know that his knowledge of the world is not yet enough compared to the
knowledge of those who are older than him, thus he needs to accept that he still
needs some kind of guidance, a large span of patience and the sincerity of heart to
accept his mistakes and his agreement into the words and advices that are given to
him either by his parents or other older people because he knows these are not just
words to complied with or obeyed, but rather these are also wise words worth of
remembering for and words that will lead him to perform wise actions and
1
Confucius. The Analects. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 2003.
decisions whenever he decides to serve people or become an emperor for his
people.
Filial piety for Kong-Zi basically is not just an ordinary trait that can be
developed or acquired easily, but rather it is a trait that comes from the process of
how the child was raised, in other words, it requires process to possess this kind of
attitude of a person, but this process does not only involve the child himself, thus
the child needs teachers who will teach him on how to acquire this trait and it
comes from the guidance of his parents on how they will conduct to the child the
ways on how to acquire this trait. One thing that we should always take note is that,
Chinese philosophy is not fond about defining or describing things but rather they
are after experiencing and living out things2

2
Co, Alfredo P. The Blooming of a Hunderd Flowers: Philosophy of Ancient China. Manila: Ust Publishing House,
2009.