Confucian Renovation Four Dimensions

Confucian tradition can be defined as East Asian philosophical dialogue. Confucian philosophy is said to have begun in the middle of 9^th century. It reached its brand-new levels of social creativity and intellectual levels in 11^th century. This happened under the leadership of Northern Song Dynasty. The initial level of reviving the Confucian tradition was finalized by Zhu Xi (1130-1200), who was a great philosopher. After the revival, it became stepping stone and major topic of discussion for the upcoming Confucian intellectuals.

The most famous scholar, Zhu Xi came up with brand-new editions of four books and four classics. These materials served as the central curriculum for an examination of the imperial system for more than seven hundred years. At the beginning of the 20th century, Confucian school of prominence was brought under extreme scrutiny. Confucianism was denounced since it was viewed as an ideology that is opposite to the May Fourth Movement. It was also vigorously denied under Chinese Communism of Mao Zedong’s vision.

The descriptions and versions of Zhu Xi’s Confucian thought revival were the main philosophical developments which gave rise to neo-Confucianism, which came from the Western ideas. Other scholars would challenge, adopt, transform or modify Zhu Xi’s philosophy of the Confucian theory. Nonetheless, Zhu Xi’s Confucian version became a benchmark for all future neo-Confucian discussions for evaluating or affirming it either positively or negatively.

The most famous renovation that Zhu Xi provided was to frame the philosophy of daoxue through the complicated universal interaction of qi and li principles. In order to understand this Zhu Xi’s argument, one should understand how this question of the relationship between vital force and the principle arose as a philosophical problem to be answered.

Zhu Xi believed that all things that existed in this world after uniting two aspects of reality are universal. According to his theory, every physical object and every being have their own li: thus there exists a contact relationship in its metaphysical core with the Taiji. Taiji is used to refer to the human mind, soul, spirit, or the creativity principle as it works in its way out for every person.

Qi and li largely depend on each other, and the aspect of mutualism exists in every creature that exists in the universe. These two aspects can be demonstrated when creating entities that are substantial in nature. When these creatures’ activities are rapid, they are said to be in Yang energy. When their activity is low, then they are regarded as being in Yin energy. These two phases interact, and either of them may gain or lose dominance over the other one. In these processes, there is an evolution of the following five elements: wood, water, metal, earth, and fire. Zhu Xi had believed that li had its existence even before earth and heaven appeared.

Zhu Xi considered Xun Zi ideas wrong since he diverged from the Mencius’ idea of an innate human goodness. Although people exhibited some immoral behaviors, their supreme principle of regulation was good (Debary 20). Qi was always considered the cause of immorality. According to Zhu Xi’s theory, everything existing in the world consisted of qi and li. Li is the principle that is contained in everything governing the entire universe. Therefore, everyone’s li is perfect, and every being is supposed to act strictly according to the rules of morality. Li is underlying structure, whereas qi is rather part of everything that exists. Qi conceals our perfect moral nature. The major role of generating morals is for clearing our li. Thus, if our qi becomes balanced and clear, we can act in a perfect moral manner.

Zhu Xi clearly analyzed vital force and principle. He used them as answer to the question which requires the interpretation of the human natural tendencies, their emotions, hearts, and minds. In order to resolve these problems, Zhu borrowed the ideas from the major teachings of Zhang Zai that the mind heart effect unifies with human emotions and tendencies. He further went ahead to explain that the human dispositions or tendencies gave a particular pattern to the emerged individuals that vital force and principle unified and coordinated with their heart and mind’s actions.

Zhu Xi’s modern synthesis, which he had given a term ‘daoxue’, generally meant ‘teaching of the way’. It had its two main achievements. One is that the Confucian followers were provided with a broad vision in order to response to Chinese Buddhist schools with huge philosophical achievements. Second one was the help in outlining the Confucian universal axiology based on the Confucian texts of the classics. It went ahead to explain and help in analysis of how actual objects came about and how the events happened in the world. Zhu finally achieved this after showing way in which many concepts were inherited from the vocabulary of the Confucian philosophy. The concepts could be constructed in different models by basing them on the pattern of dynamics, unification, and form.

The second renovation that Zhu Xi gave for the Confucian philosophy was the method of gewu or the one about investigating things. He believed that all things and events in the universe occurring in the world had their own principles that helped people distinguish them from other things and events. To Zhu, this was a method of the mind and heart intellectual cultivation to be involved in both respecting the external research and introspection. In many instances, gewu was a way of finding intersubjective and objective methods of overcoming human perennial declination that makes one to be one-sided, partial in thoughts, passions, and actions. In Zhu’s daoxue, much emphasis was placed on reading so as to understand the real meaning of the Confucian way.

The way to investigate things became a major source of debate at that time. According to Zhu Xi, all things were principles that are morally accepted while their investigation was involved in paying keen attention in both affairs and books because the moral principles are more inexhaustible compared to others.

Zhu Xi put much of his energy on teaching since he was a strong believer that learning was the only way of creating knowledgeable and wise people. His main aim for teaching was to make it easy to attain for all people (Debary 28).

Investigation of things became an issue which raised a lot of controversies for the underlying Chinese philosophy and political thoughts. The major controversy among others was the one of defining the exact meaning of investigation of things aaprt from the definition stated above. This is because Zhu Xi had regarded that one of the principles to great learning was having an ability to investigate things. This did not call for an experimentation or scientific inquiry but called for the inspection and building on the principles or what is already known.

Zhu Xi wrote an interpretation of the Orthodox Confucian theory based on a number of concepts from Buddhism and Taoism. He adopted some of their ideas. Unlike the neo-Confucians, Zhu Xi did not do too away from the Confucian doctrine in cultivating a moral behavior. Zhu Xi found the Buddhist principles deluding and darkening the original minds of the people. He also found Buddhism as a contributor to the destruction of human relationships.

The analysis of a human was third very important renovation of the Confucian way by Zhu Xi. Zhu believed that every person was a result of a vital force allotment that was generated after the parents united. Together with allotment of li and qi, every person in the universe inherited sets of natural tendencies or what is generally referred to as human nature. The vital force’s subtlest portion becomes each person’s mind and heart. It is said to possess both affective and cognitive abilities when cultivated well. For instance, the mind-heart is able to recognize many principles in its own surrounding and in the nature of other events and objects. When mind-heart is properly educated and self-cultivated, it is able to discern various things and events. This contributes to human flourishing through actions that are considered ethical. The mind-heart, which is every person’s consciousness concern, becomes an agent for human creativity and humane reasoning.

Zhu Xi noted that his major aim for giving an account of the human portrait was a way of explaining the principles of each person and event, the vital force of event or object, and the heavenly mandate of each event and object. Zhu Xi just called this polarity or supreme ultimate.

Zhu Xi considered Xun Zi ideas as wrong since he diverged away from the idea of Mencius of the goodness of an innate human. Although people exhibited some immoral behaviors, their supreme principle of regulation was good. Qi was always considered as the cause of immorality. According to Zhu Xi’s theory, everything that existed consisted of qi and li. Li is that principle that is contained in everything governing the entire universe. Therefore, everyone’s li is perfect and therefore every being is supposed to act strictly to the rules of morality. Li being the structure that is underlying, qi is rather part of everything that exists. Qi conceals our moral nature, which is perfect. The major role of cultivating morals is for clearing our li. Thus, if Qi becomes balanced and clear, then we can act in a moral manner, which is perfect.

The fourth renovation from Zhu Xi’s selection was knowledge and action. According to Zhu Xi, knowledge and action were very important for a person who is completely intelligent. Zhu Xi believed that knowledge and action always require each other. They are like a person who has eyes but cannot walk or like a person who is blind though he or she has legs. Knowledge always goes first due to its importance, and then it is followed by action.

According to the Confucian political theory, for an autocratic leader or ruler to exist, he or she must surely refrain from inhuman deeds towards their followers or subjects. An inhuman ruler has a risk of losing hold of the heaven’s mandate right to rule. Furthermore, a ruler with no mandate does not deserve to be followed. However, a ruler who rules his subjects in a human way and takes great care of them is supposed to receive strict respect and obedience for his entire deeds show him as mandated to rule by heaven.

The “exemplary person’, ‘son of a ruler’, gentleman’, or ‘prince’ is the ideal character than Confucianism persuades every being to seek for. Hereditary talents were also wrapped up in the concept, and all gentlemen were supposed to act as guides for good morals to the entire society. The noble people were supposed to cultivate themselves morally, to show loyalty and filial piety, to perform all rituals in a correct way, and to cultivate a culture of humaneness.

When the ruler is sufficiently morally responsible, his/her deeds are widely spread generating great results to the entire kingdom. This idea of good governance can be traced back to shamanic beliefs that the ‘son of heaven’ or the ‘king’ does as a link between humanity, earth, and heaven.

In analects XV, 39, it is stated that distinction among classes should never exist in teaching. The broad understanding of this virtue led to the establishment of an examination system which was meritocratic used in selecting bureaucrats for the imperial government. The examination system allowed every person who passed the test to hold a position of an officer in the government. This position was a source of honor and wealth to the entire family where a bureaucrat came from. As time goes by, this system had grown, thus for anyone who wished to become an official in the government, it was required to do written exams and pass them very well. These exams were based on Confucian canons, that is, the four books and the four classics.

In conclusion, from Zhu Xi’s four classics, which helped in the renovation of the Confucian way, we learn that a reflection of the way can be achieved by a state of balance and redefinition of one’s morals. Also, meditation is very important since it enables one to achieve peace in mind and ample rest; this is because when one is calm, the way is revealed. Moreover, setting priorities and having the ability to know what is important is very essential for moral refinement.

It is also worth learning that every person must bring their relationships and affairs into harmony and order. Moreover, if one wishes to attain state order, he or she ought to bring their personal lives, families in order for self-cultivation and knowledge expansion, and into investigation of things. In addition to this, every person is capable of self-cultivation and learning regardless of the political, social, and economic factors. This further means that effort results into success when one is learning.

Zhu Xi put much of his energy on teaching since he was a strong believer that learning was the only way of creating knowledgeable and wise people. His main reason for teaching was to make it easy to attain for all people. Thus, one must treat education as an interrelated system since failure of one’s learning aspect will definitely lead to failure of the whole learning process.

The accepted views of Confucian way and its prevalence in the culture of Chinese led it to being eventually disseminated all over East Asian cultural sphere. Confucianism had an extensive influence, particularly to the cultures of Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Singapore as well as to many other territories which were largely occupied by the Chinese people (Bell 15).

In every territory, the social customs and ethics became greatly involved with emphasis on his four books and four classics. These books are the doctrine of the theory, analects of Confucius, great learning and Mencius as the major curriculum to the upcoming philosophers.

At his time, Zhu Xi wrote so many great commentaries which were never recognized in his lifetime. Later on, these commentaries became the standard acceptable ones. A range and depth of Zhu Xi’s thoughts was unparalleled in the Chinese tradition. Zhu Xi’s innovativeness and renovation to the Confucian philosophy is deemed so important, contentious, wide ranging; it grows globally and is of cross cultural interest.

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