Post 7 (week 3)

Post 7 Chinese Religions

            Confucianism

                        Confucianism is one of China’s oldest religions and still today has one of the largest impacts on the Chinese.  Confucius was born in China and was raised by his mother (his father died when he was very young).  He did well in school and when he was older he ran for office but did not do very well at it.  He later became a teacher or a tutor according to Smith.  He roamed all over China with his disciples spreading his teachings as he went.  He is known as the first teacher of China, not the orderly but the top teacher in China’s long history. 

            Confucius has five ideals that structured his philosophy: 1 is “Jen or the virtues of goodness is the ideal relationship between individuals.”  2 is “chun Tzu which is the term of jen in relations” The third ideal is “le” which means a form of property for example if you are a teacher you are to teach others and they are to learn though you, you must care for their well being and they shall respect you.  The fourth ideal is “te which means power.”  And the fifth and final ideal is “wen which refers to the arts of peace.” 

            The Confucian Project is basically the need to surround ourselves with different relationships.  If we were to have a lot of relationships with other people as well as other things we would find ourselves through our relationships.  Smith says, “The self is the center of the relationship.” 

            Taoism

                        Taoism is another important part of the Chinese culture.  There are three different systems of Taoism the philosophical, the hygiene and yoga, and the religious Taoism. 

            Philosophical Taoism is also known as efficient power meaning Taoist “try to conserver their te by expending its efficiently making it last as long as it should.  It is considered an attitude toward life according to Smith. 

            Taoism has many values some include rejecting self-assertiveness, and protecting nature, they feel that nature should not be exploited or abused.  You can see their respect for nature in their art work especially their paintings where humans are often somewhat difficult to spot, and they never over take nature.  Anther important value is the yin yang which symbolizes the opposites complementing each other the examples that Smith gives are, “life- death, male- female, - day- night.”