1.

Chinese tian ming is essentially equivalent to the “Divine Right of Kings” doctrine
from Medieval Europe.
This statement is wrong. The concepts of tian ming and “Divine Right of Kings”
doctrine are different that the former is naturalism and the latter is supernaturalism.
The function of tian ming is to justify the authority of the king while the “Divine Right
of Kings” doctrine is to appoint a person to be the king. Tian ming is about nature
which is unpredictable like we do not know when will the natural disaster occur.
There is no certain information to tell us the exact date of the occurrence of flooding
or drought. The natural environment is unstable that the calm situation cannot last
forever. The ruler who is justified by tian ming is naturalism as it is his fate. When a
person born to be a ruler he has the natural role of it to connect the sky(heave) and
the earth (human society). Being this role, he should use 德 de to maintain and
balance the sky and earth. The Analects 2.1 stated that The Master said, "He who
exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar
star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it."1, it shows that the rule
should govern the society by moral than people will be willing to assist the ruler, and
thus the society can be maintained. Otherwise, the sky and the earth will become
imbalance that results in natural disaster and famine. In addition, tian ming shows
the cycle of a dynasty to rise and decline. When there is a natural disaster, a dynasty
usually falls, and then it will be replaced a new ruler. Then, a new dynasty formed,
after the developing stage and the prosperity, it will fall due to the natural disaster.
The cycle follows the natural movement of the sky as the precipitation determines
the flooding or drought. Therefore, the tian ming’s doctrine shows the concept of
naturalism as it presents the dynasty cycle and the role of ruler comes from the
natural which 德 de is needed for guiding the society. On the other hands, the
“Divine Right of Kings” doctrine shows the concept of supernaturalism. The ultimate
source of authority is the god that presents the idea of the god appoints a person to
be the ruler. Since God is perfectly good who know everything, once a family has
been chosen to rule the society, it is always right for this family to be the rulers and
the ruler will not change because they are appointed by the god. The period of the
ruling family is eternal. Therefore, naturalism and supernaturalism show the different
of tian ming and “Divine Right of Kings” doctrine. The former represents the cycle
and the change of the ruling family that follows the natural movement of the sky,
emphasizes the natural source of political legitimacy, while the latter illustrates the
authority of a ruling family is forever.
However, some may support this argument as tian ming and “Divine Right of Kings”
doctrine share the similar feature. Both present that the ultimate source of authority.
The western interprets that tian is the meaning of God which equals to heave. So
that, tian ming justifies the ruler like the god appoints a king. This is the command
that comes from the heave, from the god, a human cannot influence the decision.
People must comply with this decision. They are the ultimate source of legitimacy,
authority, and guidance, so they are equivalent.

Although tian ming and “Divine Right of Kings” doctrines are the ultimate source of
authority, the meaning behinds of tian do not equal the god in the western. The

1 子曰：「為政以德，譬如北辰居其所而眾星共之。」

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 meaning of heaven of tian contains the concept of nature. The movement of natural
objects in the sky follows a constant path. For instance, the sun, stars, moon, and
planets have a regular path to move. The regular and constant path gives the
guidance to us, like the time to harvest, to fallow, to take a rest and to work. We
follow this guidance to live. Therefore, tian provides the guidance to us. However,
“Divine Right of Kings” doctrine presents that god apart from being the ultimate
source of legitimacy, it also comes with command and punishment while tian ming
does not. So, tian and god are different as tian just provide the guidance to all the
living things, it does not provide the power to the ruler to command and punish. Tian
ming bases on the natural source and emphasizes 德 de to maintain the society while
“Divine Right of Kings” doctrine based on the supernatural source – the god and
comes with the right to punish and command. Therefore, they are not equivalent.

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 5. Confucius’s ethics, as presented in The Analects is better described as
consequentialism than deontology.
This statement is incorrect as it is better described as deontology than
consequentialism.
Firstly, the rectification of names shows what thing we should do. Everyone has his
identity. For example, male, female, father, mother, teacher, and so on. Each role has
different responsibilities, and the duties of the roles are determined by rectification
of names. We must have a proper name and reason to do one thing so that we can
finish the task if not, it is the resort of sophistry, it is unreasonable to do a thing.
Therefore, we have our names and roles, and each of them has their own duties, the
names tell us what thing we should do. As this is our duty, we do a thing because
that is what we should do, we fulfill our responsibility. In term of the Confucius’s
ethics, it emphasizes righteousness. Righteousness means what things we should or
ought to do. As we have our names, so we have certain of things that we should do
to complete our duties. In The Analects 4:16 The Master said, "The mind of the
superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is
conversant with gain." 2, a superior man is a man who has virtue and behaves in a
moral way, the superior man is always acting for yi means the righteousness while
the small man who does not have morality is always acting for benefits. It is clear to
show that in the Confucian, a moral people will do the things that they ought to do
as this is their duties. Therefore, the Confucius’s ethics is better described as
deontology.
Secondly, the concept of ming present the Confucius’s ethics is deontology. According
to the Confucianists, they stated an idea of “do for nothing” from the concept of
righteousness. Righteousness states that we do things what we should do. Simply, we
do that thing since it is right to do and it is moral and ritual. This is our ming which
we born to have to do this, we do not consider the consequence before doing it. In
The Analects 20:3 The Master said, "Without recognizing the ordinances of Heaven,
it is impossible to be a superior man. Without an acquaintance with the rules of
Propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established. Without knowing the
force of words, it is impossible to know men." 3, it shows that the superior man needs
to know ming. When he knows about ming, he will understand that he will do
everything for nothing, he does not care about the results. No matter a good or a
bad result, it doesn’t matter. Therefore, the concept of mings shows the message of
“do for nothing” clearly and a moral person should need to know about, the
consequences are not be considered for any action. Therefore, it is better to describe
the Confucius’s ethics as deontology.
However, some may argue that there is a reason behind to act in a moral way. In the
idea of the Confucius, he thinks that rectification of names is crucial to maintaining a
well-ordered society. It seems that there is a benefit, so we do it. On the other hand,
the concept of Zhong and Shu also show a certain level of considering the
consequence. According to The Analects 15:24 “What you do not want to be done to

2 君子喻於義，小人喻於利

3 子曰：「不知命，無以為君子也。不知禮，無以立也。不知言，無以知人也。」

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 yourself, do not do to others.”4, it means that do not do what you do not want
yourself to other. Oppositely, do want you to want to others. In this idea, we can see
that we first think of ourselves, if we want it, we do it; if we do not want it, we do not
do it. We do the action because there is a reason behind that the action is what we
wish. Therefore, this consideration contains a certain level of consequentialism.
Although there is a reason behind the idea of Zhong and Shu, the reason is about the
way to practice ren. The motivation of this action is the consideration of others and
to implement righteousness. We care about people and consider what they want and
what they do not want, then we do their wish to them and avoid doing the things
that they do not want. We first think of ourselves as we need to know the others
thought. We use ourselves as a standard. We push ourselves into another’s position
that to be considerate5. In the process, we try to behave in a moral manner to affect
other’s behavior conduct. Therefore, this idea is about the consideration of other and
it is the way to practice ren. It does not about the consequentialism.

Word count: 2695

Reference
Chinese Text Project, (2016, October 10). Confucianism. Retrieved from
https://ctext.org/confucianism

Hansen, C., & Tam,A. (2018). Humanity and nature in Chinese thought. Hong Kong:
School of Humanities of the University of Hong Kong

University of Hong Kong, (2017, January 25). CCCH 9025 humanity and nature in
Chinese thought. Retrieved from https://learning.hku.hk/courses/course-
v1:HKU+CCCH9025+201718/info

2. Mencius is not a naturalist because he believes our xing is perfectly good.

This statement is wrong.
Firstly, Mencius is a naturalist as he emphasizes the psycho-physical heart-mind. Take
the character of 德 as an example. This character contains the path, the eye, and
the heart. The eye is a transmitter that transmits the information of what we see,
and the heart is a guidance that guides us to walk on the path. Mencius believes
that our heart-mind will guide us to the moral way. This phenomenon is natural
as the heart is the natural, physical organ that everyone has. Everyone has a
heart-mind to make choices and guides them to walk the path. When we have to
decide the way to walk, the heart will guide us and to tell us what should we
choose, and the 氣 qi will go through our body to give a signal. Therefore, our
action will follow the guidance which is given by the heart. This process is natural
as we all have a heart and the 氣 qi transmits the signal, then we behave it. So,

4 己所不欲，勿施於人

5 推己及人

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 Mencius, in fact, is the naturalist.
Secondly, our xing is not perfectly good as ming may affect it adversely. Mencius used
the plant analogy to explain the development of our xing and how to cultivate
our morality. There are 4 seeds that we need to plant, in order to present our full
morality. The 4 seeds are compassion, shame, deference and “choosing this and
not that”. Just like how we grow a plant, we need fertile soil, irrigation, and
weeding. To shape our morality, we need to grow in a right political or economic
conditions and pay attention to the moral impulses. Also, the sprouts are very
vulnerable and fragile, and the weeds will compete with the sprouts for nutrients,
we need to pay extra attention to it and protect that it carefully. So, parents and
the society need to protect and care the child who has the sprouts of morality. In
addition, we need to control the weeds regularly. The weeds are our selfish
desires. We have to control them and lead the plant which is our xing to develop
healthily and completely. However, if the growing environment is poor, irrigation,
protection, and caring are insufficient, the absence of the weed control, our xing
cannot grow properly and the weeds which are our ming and selfish desires grow
up so fast. According to the Mengzi 7B:24 Mencius said, 'For the mouth to desire
sweet tastes, the eye to desire beautiful colors, the ear to desire pleasant sounds,
the nose to desire fragrant odors, and the four limbs to desire ease and rest -
these things are natural. But there is the appointment of Heaven in connexion
with them, and the superior man does not say of his pursuit of them, "It is my
nature." The exercise of love between father and son, the observance of
righteousness between sovereign and minister, the rules of ceremony between
guest and host, the display of knowledge in recognizing the talented, and the
fulfilling the heavenly course by the sage - these are the appointment of Heaven.
But there is an adaptation of our nature for them. The superior man does not say,
in reference to them, "It is the appointment of Heaven."6, it said that our selfish
desires are unavoidable, it is our ming, so to become a superior man, we need to
control them to develop our morality properly. As a result, our xing is not good as
the selfish desires may dominate it. The development of our xing follows a
natural growing basis and xing is not perfectly good.
However, some may argue that Mencius is supernaturalism. As he emphasizes that our
heart will guide us to walk on the path of morality. It means that all of us have a
perfect moral intuition that tells us the right decision in every situation. What is
the standard for the decision to make a right choice? How do we know the
concept of morality and xing, so that our heart can give the guidance? This seems
that we all have a concept of morality and a perfect xing are installed in our
heart, and nothing can explain where do they come from. We cannot use a
scientific method or natural process to explain it. Therefore, it is a
supernaturalism to explain the perfectly good xing.
In fact, Mencius has already explained about this by using the play analogy. As we
have 4 seeds in our body, that means we born to have the capacity and the ability
to learn to be moral. It does not mean that we born to have the concept and

6 孟子曰：「口之於味也，目之於色也，耳之於聲也，鼻之於臭也，四肢之於安佚也，性也，
有命焉，君子不謂性也。仁之於父子也，義之於君臣也，禮之於賓主也，智之於賢者也，聖人
之於天道也，命也，有性焉，君子不謂命也。」

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 mind to act to follow the morality. We need to be cultivated and educated to
increase our full knowledge of morality. According to the Mengzi 6A:19 Mencius
said, 'Of all seeds, the best are the five kinds of grain, yet if they are not ripe, they
are not equal to the ti or the bai. So, the value of benevolence depends entirely
on its being brought to maturity.' 7, grains are useless if they cannot grow
maturely and properly, just like our morality, our value of benevolence, the xing
should be developed maturely so that we can present our morality completely.
Therefore, we need to use the natural basis, like growing plant to develop our
mind of morality. Then, our heart can guide us to a right path. So, he is a
naturalist.

7 孟子曰：「五穀者，種之美者也；苟為不熟，不如荑稗。夫仁亦在乎熟之而已矣。」

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