style="font-size:15px;"> Nothing says traditional Chinese ethics and etiquette more clearly or loudly than the name Confucius, the great philosopher-teacher who lived from 551 to 479 BC. In his efforts to provide principles for achieving social and political harmony, Confucius taught that society consisted of a hierarchy of overlapping relationships between people. These relationships were a ruler to his subjects, a father to his son, a husband to his wife, an elder brother to his younger brother, and a friend to a friend. With the exception of friend to friend relationships, all of these relationships involved people of different status.
In the Confucian world, everyone should cultivate yi (ee), which means “virtue”; ren (ren), which means “benevolence”; and li (lee), which means “etiquette”. Li is packed with a multitude of nuance and meaning that is not found in the English word “etiquette”. The Chinese character refers to the making of sacrifices on an altar, in the sense of offering proper respect to another person. From this, we get the idea of “rites” and “rituals”. And indeed, in traditional Confucian thinking etiquette has a very strong ritualistic aspect: The way something is done can be even more important than the final result, and the actions of an individual can be even more important than his inward motivations. So long as the proper respect is offered, then one has done his duty.
The way one shows respect is relative to the status of the individual, the kind of relationship, and the situation. For this reason, Confucius found it absurd that there could be any kind of universal law that determined everyone’s conduct at all times.
In the natural interplay of human relationships, benevolence flows from a person of higher status to someone of lower status, while respect flows the opposite direction. That is, a ruler should show benevolence to his subjects, and his subject should show him the proper respect. It is therefore a grave impropriety in Confucian thinking to ever challenge or question the motivations or actions of someone with a higher status. Confucius taught that if everyone would merely observe the proper etiquette according to his or her station in life, there would be harmony in the world, and that it is not our place to judge or correct those above us.
When it came to government, Confucius taught that government officials could cultivate virtue by studying ancient Chinese classical literature. In his view, government service should be a meritocracy, with rank bestowed based upon how cultivated a person was. In time, Confucian ideas resulted in the development of a system of imperial examinations, which any man could take. While these exams were supposed to test one’s knowledge and understanding of Chinese classical literature, in fact they just tested one’s ability to rote memorize long passages of text. A successful candidate would gain immediate employment as a government bureaucrat, with his rank depending upon his test score.
But what if a supreme ruler did not have virtue and did not show benevolence to his subjects? In Confucius’s view, a ruler received his divine right to rule via a mandate from Heaven, and this mandate could be withdrawn from an unvirtuous ruler. The signs that the mandate were withdrawn would involve some sort of natural disaster or national calamity. As people did not have the right to question authority, the only time they could rebel against a ruler was if they saw signs that the mandate of Heaven had been withdrawn, and that Heaven had chose someone else to rule.
As the generations passed, Confucius’s followers added to, codified, and ritualized the principles he originally prescribed. Because his principles addressed the most fundamental issues in all human relationships and were endorsed and enforced by succeeding imperial courts, they became deeply embedded in Chinese culture.
Over the following millennia the guidelines established by Confucius for proper behavior gradually spread to Korea, Japan, and parts of Southeast Asia, becoming the foundation for the ritualistic etiquette that has since distinguished all of these cultures.
However, in China (as well as in adjoining Korea and nearby Japan) the form and ritualistic aspects of the Confucian rules of etiquette became so pronounced they often overshadowed the original essence and purpose of the prescribed behavior. This had positive as well as negative effects.
On the one hand, profound belief in the Confucian principles and the ritualistic behavior this required served as a bulwark of support for the imperial court and government officials, and contributed enormously to the long survival of Chinese civilization.
On the other hand, the restrictive elements in the Confucian code of ethics that supported this ritualistic etiquette prevented the vast majority of Chinese from being able to think and act as individuals, stifled their ambitions, and greatly limited their options and their horizons.
China’s immense size, combined with its civilization that was more advanced than its local neighbors and its early isolation from Western nations, resulted in the Chinese looking upon their country as the center of the known world and their culture as superior to all others. This was to have a profoundly disastrous impact on the future of the country, as it led Chinese leaders to ignore the industrial revolution in Europe and the emergence of Western countries as military powers with aggressive colonial ambitions.
The World According to Lao Tzu
Although Lao Tzu (also known as the Old Master) is not as well known in the outside world as Confucius, he was one of the primary creators of China’s traditional culture—and according to some legends was a mentor to Confucius.
According to some scholars, Lao Tzu was born in 604 BC and died in 531 BC. He is credited with having written the Tao Te Ching (often translated as “The Way”), one of the most significant treatises in Chinese philosophy. This influential work discussed individual spirituality, interpersonal dynamics, political strategy, and numerous other topics. It expounded on the nature of human beings and the ideal relationships they should have with one another, their government, and with the cosmos at large.
One of his most influential teachings was that one should avoid explicit intentions and proactive initiatives—a prohibition that was to become so embedded in Chinese culture that it is still discernible.
Charles Lee, an authority on traditional and modern Chinese culture and author of the insightful book Cowboys and Dragons, writes that the teachings of Lao Tzu were and still are more relevant than those of Confucius. According to Lee, Confucian philosophy was followed by the ruling class while the philosophy taught by Lao Tzu and his successors became the ideology of the common people, among whom they lived.
While Lao Tzu was the founder of philosophical Taoism, there is another form of Taoism that centers on the worship of various gods from ancient Chinese folk religions. The highest of these is the Jade Emperor, who rules in Heaven over a myriad of lesser deities. In religious Taoism, these gods control most aspects of human life, including whom one will marry. As these deities can be at times fickle or capricious, people wanting success or good luck will offer them sacrifices.
Folk Tales And Proverbs
Along with Confucianism and Taoism, many Chinese people have found inspiration and moral instruction from old folk tales and sayings. Some of the folk tales are legends involving various Taoist deities, while some are mythical or even true stories about people from Chinese history. Examples would include the story of Hou Yi, the archer who shot down the nine suns, and his wife Chang’e, who flew to the moon; how Cao Chong weighed an elephant; how Zhuge Liang gathered 100,000 arrows; and how Yugong moved a mountain.
These old stories have often proven to be inspiration for Chinese proverbs, called chengyu (chung-yoo). Chengyu are written in classical Chinese and follow a strict four-character form. In many cases, they give such a pithy summation of a story’s moral that they are relatively meaningless unless one knows the story behind them. It is estimated that there are as many as 5,000 chengyu in the Chinese language, and many of these are commonly used in daily life.
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