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A Mind That Is Free
A Mind That Is Free
A Mind That Is Free
Confucianism
Confucianism predated both Taoism and Buddhism and is attributed to Kung-fu-tze (pinyin: Kong Fuzi)
whose name was Latinized to Confucius. Confucianism is a complex system of moral, social, political,
and religious teaching aimed at making men worthy of respect. Confucius' ideal person, the junzi, is
not simply the man of virtue, but the man of learning and of good manners. The perfect man must
combine the qualities of saint, scholar, and gentleman. The key element, though, is his moral force.
There is a well-known Chinese herb formula named for the gentleman described by Confucius, called
Si Junzi Tang; the "Four Gentleman Decoction." This name was given because of the great respect
held for the four major ingredients, as well as for the valuable action of this formula in rectifying the
person's "center" to aid restoration of health. In the book, Confucius Lives Next Door (11), T.R.
Reid describes the term junzi this way:
It is written with two characters that mean royal [jun] and person [zi]. This tells us that traditionally
junzi referred to a prince, an aristocrat, someone who obtained a position of stature and power
through birth. Confucius accepted the basic principle that certain people have the right to hold elite
positions, but then he completely changed the rules for joining the ranks of the elite. To Confucius, the
junzi-the term has been variously translated as "the noble man," "the superior man," the "gentleman"-
was a person who had earned elite status. To be a gentleman, a person had to spend a lifetime
studying and following the rules of virtuous conduct. Just being born right was not enough.
Confucianism laid the way for the development of Taoism by emphasizing the character of the ideal
man. However, Confucianism had the tendency to fall into the nature of a legalistic approach, where
one followed certain rules of behavior, but did not necessarily have the inner nature that would lead to
good results, so the Taoists countered by proclaiming freedom from such rules, emphasizing the
cultivation of the ideal inner condition in harmony with nature. Confucianism itself appears to have
arisen as a move away from an earlier belief system in which a heavenly god ruled over humans. Thus
Confucius shifted the burden of moral behavior to the set of rules, particularly about social and family
relationships. In recent times, the influence of Confucianism on society was best seen in Japan, where
it had been introduced from China around the 12th Century.
References
1. Wu JCH (translator), Tao Teh Ching, 1961 St. John's University Press, New York, NY.
2. Kwok, MH, Palmer M, and Ramsay J, The Illustrated Tao Te Ching, 1994 Barnes and Noble
Books, New York, NY.
3. Feng GF and English J, Tao Te Ching, 1972 Vintage Books, New York, NY.
4. Porter B (aka Red Pine), Lao-tzu's Taoteching, 1996 Mercury House, San Francisco, CA.
5. Henricks RG, Lao-Tzu Te-Tao Ching: A New Translation Based on the Recently
Discovered Ma-Wang-Tui Texts, 1989 Ballantine Books, New York, NY.
6. Hinton D, Chuang Tzu: The Inner Chapters, 1997, Counterpoint, Washington D.C.
7. Kohn L, Early Chinese Mysticism: Philosophy and Soteriology in the Taoist Tradition,
1992 Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
8. Porter B, Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits, 1993 Mercury House, San
Francisco, CA.
9. Hua-Ching Ni, Hua Hu Ching: The Later Teachings of Lao Tzu, 1995 Shambhala
Publications, Inc., Boston, MA.
10.Kohn L, Early Chinese Mysticism, 1992 Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
11.Reid TR, Confucius Lives Next Door, 1999 Random House, New York, NY.