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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 righteousness 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
