Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Epsilon
10/18/07
In Benevolent Service of
Western government’s are prone to be built on reason and believe that the
individual and the state are two different entities. The government works off of strict
codes of conduct that are created to help society, but the people whose hands hold the
government are never trained and developed spiritually as an individual. The officials are
split into the development of the government and on the other hand continuing their own
personal journey, which can cause confusion and confliction. And so, when a
government is developing it is done without a whole heart and with a divided attention.
But, Eastern governments are built with an emphasis and based on the individual. The
writings of Confucius started the train of thought that personal development through filial
people or compassion and that will lead to a righteous and benevolent government. And,
those without these ideals ultimately succumb to failure due to the lack of attention and
the concepts that Eastern Nations focus on; since the goal of a culture, society, dynasty,
and nation is to preserve their time of rule, then it is best to have the ideals of Ren Ai.
Filial Piety is the love and respect for one's parents and ancestors. Filial
piety is one of the core ideals of Confucius and Mencius because it creates and
responsibility and traditions because performing the traditions will mold the personality
into one that is unwavering, steadfast, and responsible. For example, a child is mandated
to take care of, honor, love, and respect his or her parents but those ideals aren’t forgotten
after the parents pass. If the child stops acting as they should after the death of their
parents that is not considered Filial Piety, “Confucius said, “Observe his aspirations when
his father is alive, and observe his actions when his father passes away. He may well be
called filial if he sticks to his father’s way for three years after the latter’s death”
(Confucius, 8)
In this case Confucius gives an example of what true filial piety is and is not. By
continuing his father’s ways even after his passing shows that the son has developed the
intended personality traits, love, respect, honor, and care as well as being, steadfast,
unwavering, and responsible. Then through this that person will slowly obtain
compassion because they will not only have a solid base but also they will be able to be
selfless and put their pride aside, for the betterment of society or in this case their
deceased father. But, by not following his fathers’ ways he has not gained anything and
everything he has done has been meaningless, “Zi You (a disciple of Confucius’) asked
about being Filial. Confucius said,” ‘Nowadays, one is called a filial son only because
one is able to support one’s parents. Actually, however, even dogs and horses are no less
able to do this. If one does not treat one’s parents with reverent respect, what is then the
difference between him and animals?” (Confucius, 16) Filial piety is not a concept that is
a random assortment of tasks and traditions that are to be carried out by the younger
generation nor is it a selffish mentality inflicted onto children by their parents so the
latter don’t have to work. But, it is a set of traditions that if harnessed can produce a
benevolent, filial, and compassionate person that can then go on and help create a
righteous and benevolent society. If a person does not go through this type of learning
and training, they will become the opposite of the ideal person, and no matter what this
person does in the future it will not be complete and righteous, for example western
governments, they are created with text book academia but no personal training, and
those officials will not become the Confucian ideal people, and no matter how much they
try to create a benevolent society it will never happen because they do not have a basic
foundation.
Filial piety that is mandated in the home of the young person can be taken and
applied to his or her views of society and the government when older. By doing so, this
society of people will have a righteous and harmonious society, “ You Zi (a disciple of
Confucius’) said, “It is rare for a man who is filial towards his parents and respectful to
his elder brothers to go against his superiors; never has there been a person who does not
like to go against his superiors and at the same time likes to start a rebellion. A
gentleman devotes himself to the basics. Once the basics are established, the principles
of government and behavior will grow therefrom. The basics are to be filial toward one’s
parents and respectful to one’s elder brother!” (Confucius, 2) In this instance, the
government can be looked at as a parental figure, and if the person has that base
personality in place, then he will help serve his “parents” the best he can, and the same
can be said for the government officials, they can look at society as their parental figure
and find ways to best serve them. But, Filial Piety is not a philosophy that is meant to
subdue people into obedience, there are also criteria that the government and parents
must meet, “King Xuan of Qi asked, ‘Is it the case that Tang banished Jie, and that Wu
struck down Zhou?’ Mengzi (Mencius) responded, saying, ‘There are such accounts in
the historical records.’ The King said, ‘ Is it acceptable for subjects to kill their rulers?’
Mengzi said, ‘ One who violates benevolence should be called a ‘ thief.’ One who
violates righteousness is called a ‘mutilator.’ A mutilator and thief is called a mere
‘fellow.’ I have heard of the execution of a mere fellow ‘Zhou’ but I have not heard of
killing one’s ruler.” (Mencius, 125) In this quote shows that in order to be a benevolent
ruler they must also act in accordance to the traditions and the ideals of filial piety and if
that ruler does not, then his subjects do not have to treat him as a parent and they can
rebel. Zhou is a tyrant and is compared to nothing but a mere thief because he does not
have any filial piety or compassion and killing him is not killing a ruler. But, if a ruler
does act with benevolence and filial piety then he and the government should be followed,
revered, and supported, “ Confucius said, ‘He who rules his state on a moral basis would
be supported by the people, just as the Polar Star is encircled by all the other stars.”
(Confucius, 12) And in order to become this polar star, filial Piety must be followed and if
the following is successful then that person will natural inherit Ren Ai. And when that
happens, the nation will be harmonious.
Han Wu Di’s purpose for change was that the rulers before him—since the
warring states—viewed the government and the individual as two separate entities. The
government had all the power and the individual followed. This type of government is
similar to the English government. The similarities of these governments are that there is
an outward appearance of power but have great internal strife and none of these
governments lasted to long. For example England, England has had great Kings, but most
of this nations history has had a lot of house changes, in a shorter period of time. The
Kingdom of today in between the 2 there have been 5 other houses(cite 5).
Each England house failed like the end of a Dynasty in China, they started to
were the direct opposites of what Confucius teaches and because they did not follow the
path to Ren Ai, they failed. But, if they had not been so concerned with the power that
they held, or were more compassionate to their people, they would have succeeded more
and there would not have been so much instability. So when Han Wu Di was crowned
King at the age of 15 his grandmother had an enormous amount of power in his reign.
But, he knew that his own Grandmother was slowly becoming power hungry and was
dominated by the old doctrine and way of thinking. And since he was a Confucian and he
knew what was wrong and right even if he had to face the fact that it was his own
grandmother that was at fault. To correct the wrongs of his reign he found young, capable
officials around his age and he took them into a close circle of advisors. Unlike other
emperors in history who carried out these techniques, he was not hesitant to remind these
advisors that he was their overlord — including punishing them severely or even
executing them if they were found to have been corrupt or have hidden secrets from him.
But, he respected officials who did not flatter him and honestly chided him when he was
comments made Emperor Wu have fear of him, but he respected Ji's integrity sincerely.
His use of Confucianism caused this dynasty to have a strong government, a united
people, and an outward spreading of culture, by following the traditions of Confucius’s
filial piety. The culmination of all of these things lead Han Wu Di the title of one of
Chinas best Emperors. Which, ultimately is the purpose of any person who wants to be in
that position, is to have their name go down in history as one of the best, and how that is
proven to the rest of the world and to the people is through harmony and peace and
providing the atmosphere of Ren Ai( Chinaculture.org,15 Apr 2008)
The reason why this road to compassion is so important is because it is genuine
and real. People learn and know how to treat one another not because they were just
taught it at school or read in a book but because it resonates with them personally. With
the personal investment things like genocides and such would not occur because they
would understand the situation on human level and not on an economic and political level
like many of the western governments do. A person who has gone down this road of
compassion will be very set in who they are and what they want to accomplish and they
will have a moral code of conduct based on something that is genuine like their
interaction with their parents and not something that was learned at school or heard
dynasties, this dynasty also fell. The fall of a dynasty is attributed to the lack of intuition,
care, precision, knowledge, and social responsibility of the Emperor. Which in turn
means failing is going against the ideas of Confucius and not embodying Ren Ai like a
leader should. “ Confucius said, ‘Regulated by the edicts and punishment, the people will
know only how to stay out of trouble but will not have a sense of shame. Guided by
virtues and the rites, they will not only have a sense of shame but also know how to
correct their mistakes of their own accord.” (Confucius, 13)
One of the greatest examples of failure was during the Ming and the T’ang
Dynasty. They fell because the Emperor became greedy; they no longer looked at the
common people as their children. They no longer took care of them and they just wanted
everything for themselves and the people became disgruntled and that’s how they fell.
The Last Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (Wanli Emperor) committed suicide—the only
emperor in history to have done so—because of how poor the nation was, how angry the
people were, and how far he had diverged from the Confucian way of life (“Li”,15 Apr.
2008). Wanli was often absent from court and the court audiences to discuss politics, he
state papers, and stopped filling vital positions of the upper level administrative
posts(“Li”,15 Apr. 2008). Scholarofficials lost power in the administration and the
eunuchs became the gobetweens of the absent emperor and his officials; any senior
official who wanted to discuss state matters had to persuade and bribe the powerful
eunuchs (“Li”,15 Apr. 2008). By having compassion in governing will help society
understand why crimes are shameful and wrong instead of scaring them into not
committing crimes. By helping them understand the government is helping society help
itself. While the government that uses the scare tactic just scares the public, but if the
fear was no longer present, the public wouldn’t know what was wrong or right. But, by
going down the road to compassion, everyone understands what is right and wrong on a
personal level.
compassion. And with compassion instilled in both the people and the government, their
society will be harmonious. Filial Piety is not just a philosophy that helps create an ideal
person but helps create a harmonious society. But, beside that, it helps create a complete
and genuine person who understands things on a personal level and they understand that
each person should be treated with respect, love, and honor unless proven otherwise.
When reapplied to a government it is one that is created with an undivided attention and a
complete heart. So, The belief in Filial Piety is needed now more than ever, where we’re
in an age of war, genocide, oppression, discrimination, and school shootings. If the ideals
of Filial Piety are followed many of these incidents would not occur because everyone
would have a personal and genuine understanding of Compassion and the antithesis of
compassion cannot occur and that will both save and change lives in the world.