英语文章：论语中看孔子思想(共5页)

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1、精选优质文档-倾情为你奉上Xiaonan JiangMidterm Paper (Confucius and the Analects)The Analects is a famous book that has influenced Chinese thoughts for thousands of years. As the saying goes, half Analects rules the world, thus it can be seen that the Analects is very important to the political field. Now I will

2、 characterize the political philosophy of early Confucianism as it is expressed in the Analects.First, the Analects suggests that the government should build a good leadership. Confucius attaches great importance to the leadership in the function of the political field, and he asks the leader must f

3、irst make some achievements in morals, otherwise will be unable to lead the lower class of people. Confucius divides people in the society into two classes, namely junzi and xiaoren. Before Confucius, the original meanings of these two words were leaders and their subordinates. In the era of Confuci

4、us, these words began to having the moral sense. The Analects says: The relation between superiors and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend, when the wind blows across it. Combing the moral elements into the words which represented the the regulators and the reg

5、ulated previously, the Confucians thinks that a leader should be a virtuous person. Also, Confucius suggests that the leader should set a good example to the masses. When Chi Kang asked Confucius about government, Confucius replied: to govern means to rectify. If you lead on the people with correctn

6、ess, who will dare not to be correct? Confucius also said that if a person was not covetous, although you reward him to do it, he would not steal. These examples illustrate that the governor should lead his men in a charge and take the lead in doing good.Then the Analects proposes a right strategy o

7、f administering the country: Ruling the country by virtue. The Mater says: If the people are led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they are led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them propri

8、ety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good. Confucius here compares two kinds of ways to run a country: ruling the country by laws and by virtue. He thinks using laws to deter citizens from crimes will only scratch the surface. But through the rule of virtue, people will e

9、stablish the view of honor and disgrace, having the sense of shame, so they will measure their behaviors with this standard before doing anything. Obviously, leading by virtue is better than leading by laws because of its effect of a permanent cure. Particularly, I summarize three specific methods t

10、hat Confucius advises. First, the government should win the trust of the people. When Tsze-kung asked about government, Confucius said that from of old, death has been the lot of all men; but if the people have no faith in their rulers, there is no standing for the state. In Confucius view, the fait

11、h is more important than economy and military and it is the fundamental factor of ruling a country. If we have to abandon two out of three, we should hold the faith. Second, the government should appoint officials on their merits. Whether an official is talented or not is suggested by the will of th

12、e people. According to the Analects, an official should advance the upright and set aside the crooked, then the people will submit. If he advances the crooked and set aside the upright, then the people wont submit. Third, it is very important to civilize people. Zan Yu asked Confucius when the peopl

13、e have been enriched, what shall be done? The Master answered: Teach them. If everyone improves his spirit level, having a good character, then the ultimate goal of forming a moral society will be achieved.The core idea of running a country by virtue I think is carrying out the concept “ren” which m

14、eans humaneness. There are many kinds of characters stated by Confucius as virtues, but the most important one which Confucius focuses on is humaneness. “Ren” is a very complicated concept in Confucius philosophical system because when I read the Analects, I found Confucius once explained the concep

15、t of “ren” in many different ways to his six students such as Tsze-kung, Fan Zhang and Yen Yuan. But generally, in my opinion I think the main point of “ren” is the love between persons or human affectivity. The benevolent loves others. Love can form a harmonious society, so “Ren” is the spirit of t

16、he virtue.The practical social norms to rule the country by virtue is performing “li” (礼). The Confucius says: If a prince is able to govern his kingdom with the complaisance proper to the rules of propriety, what difficulty will he have? He also says that the superior man in everything considers ri

17、ghteousness to be essential and he performs it according to the rules of propriety. So I have the reason to believe that Confucius thinks ruling a country should be based on “li” and “li” is a form of expression of the virtue. Confucius lived in the late spring and Autumn period with much political

18、chaos. Since the Zhou dynasty moved to the east, it declined gradually to the extent that didnt have the strength to contend with loca. Military states waged war with each other to fight for land and small stats were swallowed up by rising states. Within the states, the powerful bureaucrats often we

19、nt against their superiors and overthrew the previous leader. Unrest occurred from time to time. Confucius says in the Analects: When good government prevails in the empire, ceremonies, music, and punitive military expeditions proceed from the son of Heaven. When bad government prevails in the empir

20、e, ceremonies, music and punitive military expeditions proceed from the princes. Under these circumstances, because it was the times that emphasized on the strength, the ancient ceremony and music system descended from King Wen and King Wu of the Western Zhou dynasty collapsed. The society was moral

21、ly bankrupt. So it led to Confucius to restore the past system of rites and music. He wants to reconstruct a harmonious and moral society resemble the early Zhou dynasty. So we can say that the social problems closely relate to Confucius political philosophy.As for Confucius and his followers social

22、 background, they all have the strong will to enter politics although Confucius own political career was not very successful. Because of his unsuccessful political career, Confucius spends more time in education. So his political thoughts are tremendously educational. Also it is worthwhile to note t

23、hat Confucius is a native of the state Lu（鲁）. One of the characteristics of the state Lu is that it completely retains the ritual of the Zhou dynasty. And I think the environment may affect Confucius idea of restoring the ritual and performing “li”.Although Confucius has gone for more than two thousand years, the precious spiritual wealth he left still has significant meaning to modern people. We should carry forward these achievements and cultivate our morals. 专心-专注-专业