What is Confucianism? I don't think that it is possible to give a definition of Confucianism in just a sentence or two. Confucianism is the ideology of a man whose name was Confucius. I know that this definition is vague at best, so in order to understand the definition of Confucianism we must know something about the man and look at his ideas.
Confucius lived from 551-479 BCE. He was born in the small state of Lu that rose out of the remains of the Chou Dynasty. Being that he lived during the decline of the Chou period he was interested in bringing stability back into society. Confucius didn't have a regular teacher but he managed to get an education none the less and grew to be a scholar. By the time he was in his twenties he had already begun to attract a small following of students. He worked in his own state of Lu as a clerk for a time accounting for grains and animals in the state. In his thirties or forties he traveled to the capital of the state of Chou where he is said to have met with Lau Tsu the father of Taoism. At that time Lao Tsu worked in the archives in Chou and Confucius went there to consult him on ceremonies. It is interesting to note that Buddha, Lau Tsu and Confucius were all living at the same time. Confucius went through his life teaching his pupils’ part time and filling a variety of posts from clerk to advisor to a Minister of Public works. Many of his pupils went on to fill very high level jobs in government. Confucius was never extremely successful himself and by the time of his death, in 479 BCE, some say that he even thought of himself as a failure. This is because he never achieved a position in government that allowed him to put his ideas to work. He wanted to bring China back to the peaceful days of the "sage Kings". This was a time in Chinese History when Kings ruled peaceful organized kingdoms. They were peaceful because everyone knew their station in life and acted accordingly.
During his life Confucius wrote two works and edited six others. He is said to have written the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Ten Wings of the Book of Changes better known as the I Ching. But this is subject to debate. What we know for sure of Confucius and Confucianism comes from three books, the most famous of which is called the Analects which is a book that was put together by his pupils some time after his death. The book contains conversations that he had with his students and advice that he gave to various rulers when he was working as an Advisor. The other two books are the Great Learning and the Doctrine of Mean. His works don't speak of spiritual beings, fate, or supernatural feats. They focus instead on the importance of education, morality, moderation, faithfulness, history and filial piety. So these works put together by his students are the basis of the concept of Confucianism. Now we need to look at what was stressed in these works to understand what Confucianism is.
Confucius felt that people were naturally good but needed education and a good example set by their superiors to keep them that way. His teachings stress a set of ethical rules based on five basic relationships or moral bonds: Father/Son, Subject/Ruler, Husband/Wife, Elder Brother/Younger Brother and Friend/Friend. Confucian society is a hierarchy starting at the family level and working its way all the way up the emperor. In a Confucian society one models himself on those who are above him in the hierarchy. Everyone in the society is responsible for setting the proper example for that subordinate to them as well as having a proper relationship and being subordinate to those superior to them in the hierarchy. The Emperor is responsible for setting the ultimate example for all of his subjects. The Emperor rules by a "Mandate of Heaven" and is considered to be the son of heaven and morally perfect. In this type of society social improvement starts with the emperor and works its way down to the people. The emperor then takes the responsibly for the entire well being of the society. The Closest that Confucianism gets to the supernatural is the mention of heaven so it is not so much a religion as it is a moral philosophy. Confucius believed that when force and punishment have to be used in a society that the social system has broken down:
"Lead the people with governmental measures and regulate them by law and punishment, and they will avoid wrongdoing but have no sense of honor and shame. Lead them by virtue and regulate them by the rules of propriety and they will have a sense of shame, and, moreover, will set themselves right” ; government by example not by law and punishment.
A few centuries after the death of Confucius five of the books that he was supposed to have worked on were collected together and called the Five Classics. One book was on poetry, one was on rituals, two were on history and the last was the famous I Ching or Book of Changes. The I Ching is on cosmology and divination. By the twelfth century four more books were added to the "Confucianism" inventory. The Analects, two more books on rituals and a book by a man named Mencious who was a devout follower of Confucius. Together, these nine books were considered to contain all the information necessary to live a good, moral, Confucian life. These books were also supposed to contain a description of the Chou Dynasty, an ideal era in Chinese history when society had reached its most perfect state, about 500 BCE.
There was a school of thought that ran in direct opposition to Confucianism. This was known as Legalism. Where as Confucianism believed that people were naturally good, Legalism believed that they were naturally bad. Legalism believed that people only reacted to their craving for pleasure and the fear of pain and punishment. The Legalists believed that without a set of strong laws with harsh punishments society would go out of control. The Legalists were against self-cultivation as in education. They had a great dislike for scholars and merchants to the point that they felt they should be eliminated. In the early Han dynasty both of these schools of thought had many followers and were both competing to be the sanctioned school of thought. Confucianism prevailed in 136 BCE when his advisors finally convinced Emperor Wudi that Confucianism was the superior school. Soon, emperor Wudi set up an imperial Confucian academy to train officials.
An examination system spread throughout China and these books became the basis for these examinations. The preliminary examination was held at the county level. If this exam was passed the candidate was able to move on to the first level of examinations held at the Prefecture City. If the prefecture level exam was passed then the candidate would receive the lowest level degree. With this degree came the privilege of having the candidate’s social class raised to that of gentry. He would also be exempt from corvee labor and corporal punishment. Of course the candidate would now be eligible to take the second level of examinations which were held at the provincial capital. Here the candidate was locked into a cubicle with food and water and his test and he stayed there until he had finished. Only about 1 in 100 would pass this level of testing. If the candidate passed this exam then he earned a position to take the final exam that was held at the imperial capital. This exam was only given once every three years. The lucky few that passed the final exam then had an interview with the emperor who hand picked finalists for the highest official posts. A man would study the Confucian texts into his late twenties or early thirties before he would be ready to begin the examination system. This meant hours and hours of rigorous study everyday. In theory the examination system provided a non-discriminatory way for anyone to raise their status and obtain an official post in the government allowing the best qualified to move forward no matter what their status. The examination system allowed anyone who passed the test, be they peasant, farmer, merchant or the upper class to move into a position of authority. Anyone could rise to the highest ranks if they simply passed the exams. However in reality a subsistence farmer would never have enough time to study the amount needed to pass such rigorous exams. So for the most part, although success stories did exist, The gentry class stayed gentry and the lower class remained lower.
What we now today as the northern part of Vietnam was first annexed by the Chinese in 207 BCE.(fig.1) This was the beginning of more than one thousand years of Chinese rule and Vietnamese rebellion. During this long period Vietnam was influenced by China's technology as well as its culture. Vietnam never lost her self identity but she did absorb many things from China, some more than others and one of the things that she did readily accept and implement was Confucianism and the examination system. In 939 the Vietnamese rebel forces were able to push the Chinese out in one of many battles between the two, but this time Vietnam became an independent state. More than eleven hundred years of Chinese rule was finally over. At this time Confucianism shared a place at the royal court along with Taoism and Buddhism. By the fifteenth century Confucianism dominated the Vietnamese court. Since Confucianism wasn't a religion per se, many people chose to adopt Taoism and Buddhism to fulfill their religious needs. Confucianism became the foundation of Vietnam's educational system. It set the structure for family organization; it was the authority for and the confirmation of an entire way of life. Confucianism helped Vietnam to form its worldview. Once when a steam ship came into the harbor the residents ran to tell the local Mandarin. After listening to their description the Mandarin studied his Confucian books and after sometime came to the conclusion that it was a dragon and dismissed it. In Vietnam, those that passed the first level of examinations were rewarded with being exempt from corvee labor for five years. The few that passed all levels of the exams were known as Mandarins and became civil officials in the bureaucracy. There were about 3500 mandarins in Northern Vietnam in the 1700's.
In 1663 the Le court in Vietnam published a document called "The Forty-Seven Rules for Teaching and Changing". This was an effort to spread Confucian values to all the people in the country. This document called for families to regulate themselves by setting a good example for their children. Children were to obey parents. Wives were to be submissive to their husbands. Younger brothers were to show the proper respect to their older brothers. Children were to take care of their parents when they grew old and were to perform the proper rituals after they died. These were all Confucian ideas revisited.
One of the best examples of Vietnamese law codes superseding those learned from the Chinese was in the rights of women. Under the Confucian system in China wives were subservient to their husbands. Any property owned by a family belonged to the husband since he was the patriarch of the family unit. Women were treated much better under the Vietnamese legal system than that of the Chinese. In Vietnam women were allowed to inherit property along with their brothers. This was unheard of in China where all of a family’s inheritance was dived between the sons only. Vietnamese laws also ruled that the property of a husband and wife be managed equally between them and not just by the husband as it was in China. This shows the greater respect given to the role of women in Vietnamese society which is more similar to the way women are treated in other Southeast Asian countries.
Confucianism’s promotion of self-cultivation, especially the study of history, particularly interested the Vietnamese Mandarins. They were careful to keep detailed records of all past Chinese invasions. They were determined to not let this happen again and hoped that these records would help to keep them from repeating history.
In present times we have seen different political ideologies come and go through China and Vietnam. However the foundation of Confucianism remains.
