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CONFUCIANISM
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Religion
of Ethics and the "Way"
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China's
1.2 billion people know Confucius fully as well as
Israel's four million know Moses. China does not have
a state religion, but it is probably still largely
Confucian.
In China there are several million Muslims, a few
million Catholics, and almost a million Protestants.
There are untold numbers of Buddhists and members of
most of the major religion of the world, subsisting in
a Marxist climate opposed to religion, foreign or
domestic, and which in the not-distant past saw
out-and-out persecution. But it is Confucianism and
Taoism that dominate the religious scene, such as it
is, and it is Confucius whom many Chinese still love,
honor, and obey when it comes to philosophy and
teaching for the inner life. He is as indigenous as
the rice fields and as much of a legend and reality as
China's ancient wall.
Confucius was born
unheralded in the province of Lu in the district of
Ch'ang P'ing in the city of Chow in 551 B.C.E. He was
an idealist, a teacher, a philosopher, and a very
practical man. His father was a seventy-year-old
soldier and family name was K'ung. Mother name
Ching-Tsai and he was named Ch'iu K'ung.
Once when he was
asked what made him most sad about the world, he said,
"The fact that virtue is not cultivated, that
knowledge is not made clear, that people hear of duty
and do not practice it, that those who know they are
evil do nothing to improve themselves. These are
things that made me sad." Although Confucius
aimed at the highest ethic, he never wanted to start
religion. "You speak of serving gods." he
once remarked to his followers, "but how shall
you serve gods when you have not yet to serve
people?" They asked him about life after death,
and he replied. "we do not yet know about the
present life; how can we know about death?"
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 An
Introduction to Confucianism
by Xinzhong
Yao
Availability: On Order; usually ships within
1-2 weeks.
Paperback
- 344 pages (March 2000)
Other
Editions: Hardcover
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Ways
of Confucianism: Investigations in Chinese Philosophy
by David S. Nivison, Bryan
Van Norden (Editor)
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The
Analects
(Dover
Thrift Editions) [UNABRIDGED]
by Confucius,
William
Edward Soothill
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