Crossword clues for confucianism
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Confucianism \Con*fu"cian*ism\, n.
The political morality taught by Confucius and his disciples,
which forms the basis of the Chinese jurisprudence and
education. It can hardly be called a religion, as it does not
inculcate the worship of any god.
--S. W. Williams.
Wikipedia
Confucianism, also known as Ruism, is a system of philosophical and "ethical-sociopolitical teachings" sometimes described as a religion. Confucianism developed during the Spring and Autumn Period from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (551–479 BCE), who considered himself a retransmitter of Zhou values. Its metaphysical and cosmological elements developed in the Han Dynasty following the replacement of its contemporary, the more Taoistic Huang-Lao, as the official ideology. More privately, Chinese emperors would still make use of Legalism. The disintegration of the Han in the second century CE opened the way for the soteriological doctrines of Buddhism and Taoism to dominate intellectual life at that time.
A Confucian revival began during the Tang dynasty of 618-907. In the late Tang, Confucianism developed in response to Buddhism and Taoism and was reformulated as Neo-Confucianism. This reinvigorated form was adopted as the basis of the imperial exams and the core philosophy of the scholar official class in the Song dynasty (960-1297). The abolition of the examination system in 1905 marked the end of official Confucianism. The New Culture intellectuals of the early twentieth century blamed Confucianism for China's weaknesses. They searched for new doctrines to replace Confucian teachings; some of these new ideologies include the " Three Principles of the People" with the establishment of the Republic of China, and then Maoism under the People's Republic of China. In the late twentieth century, some people credited Confucianism with the rise of the East Asian economy and it enjoyed a rise in popularity both in China and abroad.
With particular emphasis on the importance of the family and social harmony, rather than on an otherworldly soteriology, the core of Confucianism is humanistic. According to Herbert Fingarette's concept of "the secular as sacred", Confucianism regards the ordinary activities of human life — and especially in human relationships as a manifestation of the sacred, because they are the expression of our moral nature (xìng 性), which has a transcendent anchorage in Heaven (tiān 天) and a proper respect of the gods ( shén). While Heaven (tiān) has some characteristics that overlap the category of deity, it is primarily an impersonal absolute, like dào (道) and Brahman. Confucian liturgy (that is called 儒 rú, or sometimes 正統/正统 zhèngtǒng, meaning " orthoprax" ritual style) led by Confucian priests or ritual masters (禮生/礼生 lǐshēng) to worship the gods in public and ancestral Chinese temples, is preferred in special occasions over Taoist or popular ritual.
The this-worldly concern of Confucianism rests on the belief that human beings are fundamentally good, and teachable, improvable, and perfectible through personal and communal endeavor especially self-cultivation and self-creation. Confucian thought focuses on the cultivation of virtue and maintenance of ethics. Some of the basic Confucian ethical concepts and practices include rén, yì, and lǐ, and zhì. Rén (仁, "benevolence" or "humaneness") is the essence of the human being which manifests as compassion. It is the virtue-form of Heaven. Yì (義/义) is the upholding of righteousness and the moral disposition to do good. Lǐ (禮/礼) is a system of ritual norms and propriety that determines how a person should properly act in everyday life according to the law of Heaven. Zhì (智) is the ability to see what is right and fair, or the converse, in the behaviors exhibited by others. Confucianism holds one in contempt, either passively or actively, for failure to uphold the cardinal moral values of rén and yì.
Traditionally, cultures and countries in the East Asian cultural sphere are strongly influenced by Confucianism, including mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, as well as various territories settled predominantly by Chinese people, such as Singapore. In the 20th century Confucianism's influence reduced greatly. More recently, there have been talks of a "Confucian Revival" in the academic and the scholarly community and there has been a grassroots proliferation of various types of Confucian churches. In late 2015 many Confucian leaders formally established a national Holy Confucian Church (孔聖會/孔圣会 Kǒngshènghuì) in China to unify the many Confucian congregations and civil society organisations.
Usage examples of "confucianism".
The best authorities seem to think that though Confucianism is in one sense agnosticism, it does not directly contradict the old theism, precisely because it has become a rather vague theism.
Confucianism naturally imbued Japanese scholars with a greater or lesser degree of enthusiasm for the civilization of China: some became outright Sinophiles, and although other Confucian scholars of the early Tokugawa period, including Hayashi Razan, had gone beyond their study of Chinese philosophy to investigate Shinto and the Japanese tradition, Yamaga Soko was the first thinker of stature to claim the superiority of Japanese culture and ethical values over those of China.
During the early and middle seventh century the Japanese appear to have experimented with various ideas, drawn from Confucianism and Buddhism as well as Shinto, to justify imperial rule.
Sung China were much impressed by the general availability of printed books on a great variety of subjects, including history, Buddhism, Confucianism, literature, medicine, and geography, and carried them in ever greater numbers back to Japan.
In addition to exegetical studies on Buddhism and Confucianism, they compiled dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference-type materials that provided the groundwork for nearly all subsequent scholarly activity in premodern Japan.
Not until the Tokugawa period did they come to study Confucianism with any great zeal.
The Neo-Confucianists in China had started out to do the very same thing and had ended in producing intellectual syntheses that were far removed from the down-to-earth humanism of Confucianism and the sages of early China.
The Ancient Studies scholars of Tokugawa Japan also differed widely in their interpretations of what constituted the original teachings of Confucianism and how they should be applied to the conditions of their own country and age.
Of samurai origin, Soko earned a reputation as a brilliant scholar, delving into such varied subjects as Shinto, Buddhism, and Japanese poetry, as well as Confucianism, which he studied in Edo under Hayashi Razan.
We have observed this trend, for example, in the School of Ancient Studies of Confucianism and the Neo-Shintoist School of National Learning.
As far as he can tell, the enemy is not the emperor or the economic system or Confucianism or any abstract ideology.
When we come to Confucianism at the end of the list, we come to something in a totally different world of thought.
The New Confucianism was rooted only shallowly in the infertile soil of their natures.
Zoroastrianism lies partly in its introduction of abstract concepts as gods, and partly in its other features, some of which find echoes in Buddhism and Confucianism, and some of which appear to have helped form Judaism, and therefore Christianity and Islam.
Taoist religion is in many ways the opposite of Confucianism, though it still shares many similarities with Aristotle and the Buddha.