Confucian Ethics

Confucius or Kong Fuzi meaning “Kong, the master” was born in a state called Lu in China, in 551 B.C. His teachings were generally known as “Confucian ethics.” After his death, other teachers of Confucian ethics continued to develop the master’s teachings. You can easily find information concerning his teaching in the Internet, threrefore I am not going into detail here. I am also not going to discuss its role in present-day Singapore because it is not my intention to attack/defend the virtues of Confucius ethics.

However, let me share some of my favourite Confucian quotes/principles with you.

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“When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them. When we see unworthy men, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.” (Analects IV: 17)

“The man of perfect virtue wishing to be established himself seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others.” (Analects VI: 28)

“To be fond of something is better than merely to know it, and to find joy in it is better than to be fond of it.” (Analects VI: 20)

“Some are born with knowledge; some know by studying and some acquire knowledge after a painful feeling of being ignorant.” (Doctrine of the Mean)

“Without friends, studying alone would result only in loneliness and limited knowledge.” (Book of Rites)

“Know what you know and also know what you know not; that is true knowledge.” (Analects 11: 17)

The Book of Mencius describes a sage as being “the same in kind as other man” and yet “standing far above the crowd”. (Mencius 2A: 2)

Wang Yangming believed that self-realisation cannot be taught. The students must first have their own will to undertake this process. (Confucian Ethics, p41)

“Confucius himself strove to become a sage all his life, even though in the eyes of others he seemed one already. Indeed, people who think they are already perfect in character and knowledge and need no further improvement are already imperfect just because they think this way.” (Confucian Ethics, p53)

“I once spent all day thinking without taking food and all night thinking without going to bed, but I found that I gained nothing from it. It would have been better for me to have spent the time in learning.” (Analects XV: 31)

“What is meant by making the Wills sincere is to avoid self-deception.” (The Great Learning VI)

“There is no greater joy for me than to find an examination that I am true to myself.” (Mencius VIIA : 4)

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Interesting? To make it more interesting, allow me to change a few words, rephrase a few sentences and we have this.

Confucius reading the latest issue from QLRS