Confucius: The Ideal Man

Confucius’ goal was to bring people a respect for the teachings of past generations and a virtuous way of life. After his death, many of his disciples came together to a put together a book of some of their dialogues and his statements called the Analects. Within the text, Confucius continually brings up this ideal person known as the perfect gentleman. This ideal of a gentleman is a very important concept in Confucianism and throughout Chinese history, having both a moral and political philosophical stand. Everything from how the government should be run to how one should act morally to self cultivation was based on his concept of the gentleman. Some even suggest that Confucius himself may have even been a depiction of the this “gentleman”. …show more content…
The original meaning to this refers to a son of a lord or a prince. However, in the Analects, it is used to not only refer to princes but anyone, regardless of birth status or wealth, who cultivated themselves to become a better person. Confucius depicted a gentleman as a person with an outstanding moral character. A gentleman has ren, or goodness, moral wisdom, knowing how to judge others characters, righteousness, benevolence, caring for others, humility, and proprietary. In his statements, Confucius described that anybody could achieve this gentleman status through moral training and education through a process called self cultivation. Rather than a personal task of looking inward, it’s about improving our social relationships and having positive impacts to those around you. Confucius believed that when spending time with family and friends that people should listen. Through listening to them, you would be able to identify and pick up traits specific to the ideal …show more content…
Heaven bestowed this mandate on a person that had Virtue; kindness, wisdom, and reverence. This Virtue was said to be passed down to descendants but would be revoked by viciousness and bestowed to someone more worthy and virtuous. However, by the time Confucius was born in the period of the Eastern Zhou dynasty, kings were merely figure heads. The land was broken up into states where the real power was held by the dukes and nobles of each territory. During this lack of unity, rulers were struggling to hold control over their territories especially while attempting to conquer other states. This conflicting time stimulated many chinese philosophers looking for “dao” or the way. They asked questions like “what is the best way to run a state?”, “who am I as a human being?”, and “how can I achieve happiness?”. Each philosopher had their own ideas and answers to these questions. For example Sun Zi, an influential philosopher and general of Confucius time, believed that warfare was the answer. He thought that the end justifies the means of any atrocities brought on by war since it would eventually bring unity and security. These ideas were the complete opposite of Confucius but were the general except