The Life and Philosophy of Confucius

Perennial Lives | Stoics, Saints, and Sages

Apr 10, 2023

Confucius the fair by Nicholas Roerich (Public domain)

Perennial Lives | Stoics, Saints, and Sages

The Perennial Lives series explores the life of philosophy of 12 figures (one per week), from Socrates (470—399 BC) to St. Thomas Aquinas (1225—1274). To assist us in our journey, we’ll turn to the Lives of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius along with more recent works like Examined Lives by James Miller, Socrates’ Children by Peter Kreeft, and finally, Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.

***Today’s meditation continues our Perennial Lives series — The Art of Living: From Socrates to Aquinas. Previously, we discussed The Art of Living: From Socrates to Aquinas (Part I) and How to Live — Like Socrates (Part II).

The Life and Philosophy of Confucius

According to Peter Kreeft, in Socrates’ Children, “Confucius was the single most influential and successful social and political reformer in history.” Although Confucius’ reforms were not successful in his own lifetime, after his death, they became so popular that no philosopher in history has ever had more of a total influence over the minds and lives of more people.

Kreeft writes,

Confucius’ character was that of the ideal teacher: humble, gentle, patient, witty, open, and ever-ready to engage in dialogue and questioning—very like Socrates, without the syllogistic logic. Confucius lived in the sixth-century bc, the so-called “axial period,” during which human consciousness everywhere in the world simultaneously was becoming more self-conscious. The late Hebrew prophets, the earliest Greek philosophers, Zoroaster in Persia, Buddha, the writer(s) of the Bhagavad-Gita in India, and both Confucius and Lao Tzu in China all lived during the same century.

Confucius’ philosophy was mainly concerned with proper and harmonious human relationships. Confucius, like Aristotle, habitually chose moderation and middle positions between extremes. He deliberately chose a middle position: man is not born either good or evil but able to be good by being trained and taught rightly. Thus, education was the key to the good life and the good society.

What is Confucianism?

In his book Growing Moral: A Confucian Guide to Life, Stephen Angle says that ultimately, Confucianism offers a way to think about who we are as people and, more importantly, how we should live in relationship with one another.

To the question, “What is Confucianism?” Angle responded,

One kind of question could be, is it a religion? Is it philosophy? How should we think about it in that light? And that's complicated; if you have a very inclusive understanding of what a religion is, then it is, among other things, a religion. But I think what's important for us here is that it is a human teaching. The great thinkers of the tradition were not prophets; they were wise people who were reflecting on their traditions and on their societies and trying to think about how we humans can best live in the world. …

Confucianism offers a way to think about how we should live in relationship to one another and to the cosmos that we inhabit. That starts very much from our social embeddedness — concretely from the fact that we are born into a family. There are others around who raised us, explains Angle, so thinking about ourselves in relation to others is fundamental to Confucianism.

Another important aspect to understand in Confucianism is the power of rituals. The reason rituals are so essential for Confucians is that it is not easy to become better. According to Angle, “For the Confucians, rituals are all around us — rituals are structuring all of our social interactions, including this one right now.” Rituals give us guidance on how we interact with one another. And that guidance helps to shape the situations that we find ourselves in.

Similarly, in my conversation with Bryan van Norden (author of Taking Back Philosophy), Norden described the goal of Confucius this way, “Confucius was born like Plato into a society in crisis. For both Plato and Aristotle, the solution to the crisis that they saw their societies as being in was to cultivate virtue in individuals and then get those individuals with virtue into positions of government authority.”

On Cultivating Character

Confucians put a significant emphasis on the practice of reflection in cultivating our character. In the Analects, reflection generally means to look within oneself and backward in time. As Confucius put it, “Study without reflection is a waste. Reflection without study is a danger.” However, reflection is not an end in itself but part of a process. Since reflection always comes after we’ve acted (or failed to act), it cannot be the whole answer to living a good Confucian life — but it is a crucial part of self-cultivation.

The Chinese philosopher Mengzi observed,

It is not the function of the ears and eyes to reflect, and they are misled by things. Things interact with things and simply lead them along. But the function of the heartmind is to reflect. If it reflects, then it will attain virtue.

The practice of reflection aids us in developing character or living a virtuous and harmonious life. Confucians used the analogy of sprouts to convey this development process. Mengzi observed that if one works at cultivation, one’s sprouts can grow into full-fledged virtues. Cultivating our character requires consistent effort for our sprouts to flourish into full-fledged virtues.

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The Five Virtues

Confucius taught five fundamental virtues, each of which is deeper and more complex than any single English word that tries to translate it. In Socrates’ Children, Kreeft describes the five virtues as follows:

(1) The most fundamental is jen, which is basic goodness, good-will, benevolence, or human-heartedness. Confucius formulated its basic rule as “Do not do to anyone what you do not want them to do to you”—a result of the “Golden Rule” that has been called “the Silver Rule.”
(2) A second virtue is chun tzu, which means largeness of spirit, the opposite of pettiness. It literally means “the superior person”—the person big in spirit, not necessarily in body. This virtue makes room for everyone and expresses itself in hospitality, maturity, and taking responsibility for others’ happiness.
(3) A third virtue, li, means “what is proper, fitting, or appropriate.” In other words, proper manners. A canny psychologist, Confucius knew that careful, deliberate external acts of toeing the line and obeying the rules powerfully trained and conditioned us to personal moral virtue by constructing habits of obedience.
(4) A fourth virtue, te, means spiritual power, or the power of moral example, the power of moral heroes. (A world without heroes is a world without ideals and therefore without morality.) Instead of “might makes right,” Confucius taught that right makes its own might.
(5) Finally, wen means “the arts of peace.” Confucius sincerely appreciated the arts. Art was to be pursued not for art’s sake but for man’s sake, morality’s sake, and peace’s sake. Art trains the emotions to love what is beautiful and conditions the will to love what is good, for the beautiful and the good are almost the same thing.

Final Thoughts

There is much to learn from the life and philosophy of Confucius. Confucianism is deeply practical and rooted in the art of living. Confucius taught not only how we should live — but how we should live with others. Whether through the power of rituals, the wisdom of reflection, or the cultivation of character. The life and philosophy of Confucius is filled with sage advice for modern living!

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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful.

Until next time, be wise and be well,