The Ideal Confucian Character

The ideal Confucian character consisted of the principles as follows which were mainly established by Confucius.

One. Tao and Righteousness. It mainly centered on righteousness and profit and included three rules.

1. Righteousness as the most important. Confucius said, "A gentleman gives priority (Shang) to righteousness." (The Analects, Yang Huo) Here, Shang meant "the first place." Xun Zi further indicated, "A gentleman can be insulted by power but not by the loss of righteousness." (Xun Zi, On Righteousness) Tao and Righteousness were so important that Confucius overstated, "I can die in the dusk as long as I know what Tao means in the morning." (The Analects, Li Ren)

2. Valuing righteousness and underestimating profit. "Righteousness as the most important" meant "Profit as the least important." Confucius said, "I remind myself of righteousness when facing profit." (Xian Wen) and "It is meaningless to me when I obtain wealth and power but act against righteousness." (Shu Er) However, Mencius overstated the value of righteousness, "It is unnecessary to mention profit as there are only benevolence and righteousness." (Mencius, King Hui of Liang I)

3. Satisfied with poverty and devoted to Tao. How should one act in face of poverty? Confucius stressed, "Wealth and power are what man desires, but he must not enjoy them if he obtains in improper manner. Poverty and humanness are what man dislikes, but he must not abandon them if he abandons in wrong way. How should a gentleman be called a gentleman if he discards benevolence? A gentleman cannot live without benevolence even when he has dinner, when he faces urgency, and when he suffers homelessness." (Li Ren) Confucius took Yan Hui, his disciple, as an example: "Yan Hui, so virtuous! Live with a bamboo dish of rice and a gourd of drink in a remote lane. When others worry him, he does not change his devotion. Yan Hui, so virtuous!" (Yong Ye) Here, Confucianism opposed gentleman to petty man.

Two. Principe for ideal. It based itself on moralism and included four rules.

1. Improving oneself. If the rule "satisfied with poverty and devoted to Tao" the choice man made in face of poverty, the rule "improving oneself was one should choose when he faced the goodness and evilness. Confucius said, "One should serve the ruler when Tao is practiced and seclude himself when Tao is not practiced." (Tai Bo) and "One should take a small raft and live a secluded life when Tao is not practiced." (Gong Ye Chang) Mencius also stated, "In poverty, one should maintain his integrity; in rise, one should make perfect the whole country." (With All Heart 1)

2. Adhering to goodness. It meant to uphold truth, as Confucius said, "One should adhere to benevolence and even surpass his teacher. (King Ling of Wei) and "One should be devoted to honesty, learning, and goodness with whole heart." (Tai Bo)

3. Maintaining integrity. Confucius said, "One can carry off the commander from a while army, but cannot take away the will of a common folk." (Zi Han) Zeng Sen said, "Could a man called gentleman, to whom a ruler can entrust the young successor and the whole country and who does not change his will in face of peril? He must be a gentleman." (Tai Bo)

4. Devoting life to Tao. The final stage of the above was to devote one's life to Tao. Confucius said, "One with ideal sacrifices himself to practice benevolence rather than harm benevolence for survival." (King Ling of Wei) Mencius said, "One with ideal does not fear if he is deserted in the wild; one with valor does not fear if he is killed." (Duke of Wen of Teng IT) and "One should devote himself to Tao when Tao is not practiced." (With All Heart I) The rule upgraded Confucian morality to the highest level, as life was the most valuable and to practice at the cost of life must be the loftiest.

Three. Principle of perfectness. It included three rules.

1. Honesty and tolerance. It was the embodiment the spirit of benevolence and took others into account. It had two meanings: "One cannot give what he dislikes to others." (King Ling of Wei) and "One who bears benevolence to others will obtain benevolence from others; one who bears tolerance to others will obtain tolerance from others." (Yong Ye) The former meant that one should not require others what he could not achieve .The latter meant that one should extend the morality he practiced to others. In fact, the rule had multiple meanings: strict with oneself and tolerant to others, putting oneself in other's position, and thinking of others from oneself.

2. Golden mean. It has been discussed in Chapter 2. As an ideal character, Confucius stressed that: "Golden mean was the greatest virtue!" (Yong Ye) Confucius stated that: "I shall make acquaintance with these who are unruly and upright when I cannot find one who practices golden mean. The unruly does all he wants and the upright refuses to do something. (Zi Lu) Meanwhile, Confucius suggested that a man with golden mean in practice would easily be equated as a fence-straddler (Xiang Yuan). (Note: The original sentence in The Analects said a Xiang Yuan who did not offend anyone or distinguish the good or evil was a "theft of morality")

3. Maturity. It meant the unity of truth, goodness and beauty, or idea, emotion, and will. Confucius said, "One's cultivation starts from the learning of poetry, develops in the learning of rite, and ends in the learning of music." (Tai Bo) Xun Zi further noted that: "A gentleman views what he learns incomplete or inexact as imperfect." (Encouraging Learning) These discussed the ideal character from the perspective of perfectness. The issues on emotion and beauty will be discussed later.

Four. Principle of self-discipline. To Confucians, morality could not be imposed on human with law or force. Confucius said, "One should not expect others to practice benevolence except himself." (Yan Yuan) Mencius said, "One should act in accordance with benevolence rather than practice benevolence for benevolence's sake." (Li Lou II) It included four rules.

1. Demand on oneself. It meant to make demand of goodness on oneself. Confucius said, "Gentleman demands himself while petty man demands others." (King Ling of Wei) Mencius said, "To practice benevolence is like shooting. The shooter stands rightly before he shoots. If he fails to hit the target, he should examine himself rather than complain at one who wins him." (Gong Sun Chou 1)

2. Self-examination. It meant to examine oneself. Confucius said, "When one sees a man of worth, he should think of equaling him; when one sees a man of a contrary character, he should turn inwards and examine himself." (Li Ren) Zeng Sen, disciple of Confucius, said, "I examine myself three times a day: Am I unfaithful when I give suggestions to others? Am I dishonesty when I make friends with others? Do I review what I learn?" (Xue Er)

3. Correcting one's mistakes. Human could not avoid making mistakes. What mattered was not whether a man made mistakes but whether he realized and corrected them. Confuciussaid, "If one has made mistakes, he should not fear to correct it." (Xue Er) and "It is mistake if one does not correct his mistake." (King Ling of Wei)

4. Restraining oneself in privacy. It was the rule one should observe when he was in privacy. In Doctrine of the Mean, it was mentioned that: "A gentleman must be cautious where others do not see or hear him. There is no privacy that cannot be discovered and no trivia that cannot be exposed. Therefore, a gentleman restrains himself in privacy." Self-discipline was different from discipline by others which was fulfilled by order and close to ethic. Self-discipline depended on self-examination and close to morality .

30. Compared with the more universal care in Abrahamic religions, Confucian view was flawy, as Max Weber expounded.

The ideal Confucian character as established by Confucius presented us a spirit of uprightness, loftiness, and indomitableness. It had been the spiritual support in Chinese civilization since the ancient time. It guided Chinese people, became the soul of Chinese people, and turned out to be the responsibility for society and history. In fact, many great philosophers had assumed the responsibility. For instance, Mencius said, "Today, except me, who can make the whole country peace?" (Gong Sun Chou II) Zhang Zai stated, "I would like to learn all knowledge, to serve people, to inherit the thoughts of sages, and to create a peaceful world for the future." (Quotations from Zhang Zi) These were actually the embodiment of the ideal that one should possess the sage's virtue and practice the ruler's policy. We must note that the ideal Confucian character presented strong Jun Zi or elitist color. This meant that the officials (Jun Zi) who advocated and cultivated morality excluded common citizens (Xiao Renf0. (Note: Here the words Jun Zi and Xiao Ren were people in high or low status and different from gentleman and petty man who were different in morality) This view on the cultivation of morality was not changed until in Song Dynasty, as seen in "Edification and the ethical tradition of the Chinese civilization."