Andrew Gibson.
Introduction to philosophy
Alexander Izrailevsky
Final paper-Kong Qiu.
K’ung Fu Tzu (Chun-tzu).
11.26.2013.
Chun-tzu.
Upon examining the teachings of Kong Qiu (Confucius) I found myself being drawn
toward certain aspects if his philosophy. I became very interested in the kind of “selfimprovement” aspect of his views, specifically Chun-tzu. With the limited knowledge I now
have in regards to the philosophers before our time, I have always felt a connection with
Confucius. I believe this feeling of familiarity is due to some major fundamental views
toward morality, respect, humility, honor, and kindness that he and I both share.
Prior to Confucius, Chun-tzu literally translated to “the lord’s son.” There were two
uses for the word. The first was to be the actual king himself. The second would be in
reference to a “cultivated gentleman.” Confucius used this word differently. His meaning
was “the morally superior man, the great and noble soul.” To achieve Chun-tzu would be to
become the ideal man, or the perfect gentleman. Although he was very optimistic,
Confucius questioned if it was possible to ever truly attain the level of the true gentleman.
Confucius stated, "I for my part have never yet seen one who really cared for goodness, nor
one who really abhorred wickedness." (Analects 4:6). Now according to Confucius, this is
not determined by the bloodline or ethnicity of the man. It is not determined by political
power, wealth, or geographic location. Confucius believes that chun-tzu is determined by
jen, or human virtue. The humane principal rooted in empathy and fellow feeling. It also
Andrew Gibson.
Introduction to philosophy
Alexander Izrailevsky
Final paper-Kong Qiu.
K’ung Fu Tzu (Chun-tzu).
11.26.2013.
refers to a man who is truly himself. I really like how important Confucius feels it is to be
genuine and yourself. This is something that I whole heartedly agree with. Chun-tzu’s
relationships are said to be as the following: as a son, he is always loyal; as a father, he is
just and kind; as an official, he is loyal and faithful; as a husband, he is righteous and just;
and as a friend, he is faithful and tactful. He (the perfect gentleman) lives five virtues: selfrespect, generosity, sincerity, persistence, and benevolence. The opposite of chun-tzu is
hsiao-jen, which means an un educated and vulgar man. This is a petty man. The chun-tzu
thinks first of humanity, while hsiao-jen is selfish and thinks first of himself. The chun-tzu
becomes wise and noble in order to help others. He also does not put himself above or
below others. Hsiao-jen is the opposite. He looks to his peers for help.
Confucius was a social optimist. He believed that he had found a way to build the
ideal society. He felt that in order for society to achieve greatness the goal of society
should be to make man civilized; to transform from hsiao-jen to chun-tzu. This is the key to
a perfect society. In order to fully understand how Confucius determined the way we make
this transformation, we must first gain a better understanding of his fundamental core
beliefs, and even some of his experiences. Confucius was an industrial man. He loved big
cities especially a functioning city, working like a well oiled machine. He was also very
professional, and he fully supported a formal education. I feel that his lifestyle choices and
views stemmed from root values. He believed in the precision of science and logic over the
Andrew Gibson.
Introduction to philosophy
Alexander Izrailevsky
Final paper-Kong Qiu.
K’ung Fu Tzu (Chun-tzu).
11.26.2013.
freedom of art and intuition. This is interesting because his teacher Lao-tzu, felt the
opposite. Confucius liked the thought of global society over local, and believed in industry
and production in cities over nature. I like to think of him as being a big business man.
Maybe even a capitalist, loving the idea of growing something into an empire. The best way
to summarize Confucius would be as a man who loves order. He loves the precision and
guarantee of science and math. Now it’s because of these beliefs that I feel he came to the
conclusion on how to transform humanity as a whole from hsiao-jen to chun-tzu.
In order to make this transformation into become civilized men, we need math and
ethics. I feel that he has come to this conclusion based on his natural desire for order.
Although he was very optimistic and believed it was possible to create the perfect society,
he was noted as believing that the biggest obstacle to becoming a perfect society by
achieving chun-tzu is actually love. More specifically, “the illusion of morality based on
love.” I found this very interesting. When I initially looked in to this, it confused me. I
thought “this man is so optimistic, humble, and so concerned about his fellow man, why
does he not believe in love?” but this is not the case. He does believe in love. He has no
issue with love. What he does have an issue with, is basing your morality strictly on love.
His logic behind this is very interesting. He says that love it too subjective. Love is too
fragile. How can we base our moral foundation and in turn the structure of our society on
something that is as delicate as love? It is something that can change at any minute. Love is
Andrew Gibson.
Introduction to philosophy
Alexander Izrailevsky
Final paper-Kong Qiu.
K’ung Fu Tzu (Chun-tzu).
11.26.2013.
uncontrollable. It would be irresponsible to build ourselves and in turn our society based on
something that we can’t even control. I find this very interesting when it is put in this
nature.
In 2009, Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina essentially disappeared for about
a week. He told his wife and staff he was going hiking in the Appalachian Mountains, but
later resurfaced to confess that in reality he was in Argentina visiting a woman with whom
he had been having an affair. His rationale was that he couldn’t help himself; he had found
his soul mate and needed to follow what his heart was telling him to do. He was in love with
this woman and no longer in love with his wife. He subsequently left his political office as
governor as well as his wife. He put himself first, much like the Hsiao-jen. To me, this is a
perfect example of what Confucius is saying. He based his entire relationship solely on love.
Because of this, there is no foundation for him to fall back on. As soon as he felt the love
leave, his relationship was ruined. He couldn’t control falling out of love, it just happened.
I’m sure that if Mark had the choice, he would choose to stay in love with his wife. But he
didn’t. It’s impossible to control. Because he based his relationship solely on love, when it
left, he lost his wife and even his career. Confucius has a solution to this. He believed that
the key to a decent society MUST be built on the morality of respect, not love. I completely
agree with this. Respect must be the foundation of all relationships, the foundation of life.
If Mark Sanford had built his relationships (including the relationship with his wife) on
Andrew Gibson.
Introduction to philosophy
Alexander Izrailevsky
Final paper-Kong Qiu.
K’ung Fu Tzu (Chun-tzu).
11.26.2013.
respect, his life would be a lot different. If he respected his wife first and foremost, then
when he fell out of love with her, he wouldn’t have fallen victim to his selfish desires out of
respect to her. If he no longer loves her, that’s fine. But respect her anyway. He then, in
turn, would not lose his wife, or his political career.
Now in order to build the ideal society by becoming the cultivated gentleman or
chun-tzu, we need to apply this moral of respect whole heartedly. We can’t just respect our
wives. We can’t just respect our coworkers. We can’t just respect our friends. We must
respect all men. This is interesting to me. I have always thought someone should earn their
respect before I respect them. Prove it to me. Give me a reason to respect you. According
to Confucius, this is not the way of chun-tzu. He says that is up to us to like someone or not
like someone, or to love someone or not love someone. But it is not up to us to respect or
not respect them. We have a moral obligation to respect all men. He believes that respect
is completely separate from love. We should not mix up love and respect. Whether you
love or hate the man, you must always respect him. According to Confucius, if we do not
respect each other, are doing our part to destroy society.
Confucius believes that few people can attain chun-tzu. This is something that needs
to be mastered over time. He said that he did not even achieve this. The perfect gentleman
must be intelligent enough to meet anything without fear. I feel that what this means is the
Andrew Gibson.
Introduction to philosophy
Alexander Izrailevsky
Final paper-Kong Qiu.
K’ung Fu Tzu (Chun-tzu).
11.26.2013.
more you know about any given topic, the less you will feel threatened by it. I feel like this
belief came from his deep rooted passion for formal education and humility. Even though
he believes few people can attain this, he does believe that man is naturally good. He also
believes that woman are naturally good, and that if there is a bad woman, it is because of a
bad man that she has in her life.
The last thing that is essential in the transformation from hsiao-jen to chun-tzu is
having good manners. This I feel goes along the lines of respecting your fellow man. I feel
that this is very important to apply to our lives even today. I feel that if we are in contact
with someone that has bad manners we will either subconsciously or consciously make a
preconceived opinion on them in a negative way. In this situation if this were to happen
with everyone, we would all look down on each other and have a hard time respecting one
another. This would in turn put a hold on the growth of society as a whole. I am glad that
this is mentioned because I couldn’t begin to fathom the gestures of perfect gentlemen
without impeccable manners. Along with these manners comes the personal relationship
with your fellow man. According to Confucius, personal relationships come before
everything. Even before thinking, reasoning and studying. To me this is pretty extreme. I
do however; love how important loyalty is to Confucius. I think this is one of the reasons I
was initially attracted to the philosophies of Confucius. I have always tried to live my life
Andrew Gibson.
Introduction to philosophy
Alexander Izrailevsky
Final paper-Kong Qiu.
K’ung Fu Tzu (Chun-tzu).
11.26.2013.
respecting and honoring my peers. I have always seen the importance of loyalty
since a very early age, and it always been something I can remember being important in my
life.
In conclusion I have found many of Confucius’s teachings very interesting to say the
least. Since I consider myself respectful, well mannered and loyal, I feel that I would have
been an avid listener of his teaching if I was alive in this time. I really enjoyed examining his
views on love and respect in particular. Since understanding how he believes that respect is
essential in the foundation of any relationship, I have totally change the way I see, and view
all of my peers. I feel that if society as a whole embraced this policy, we would flourish and
grow into a perfect civilization.
Andrew Gibson.
Introduction to philosophy
Alexander Izrailevsky
Final paper-Kong Qiu.
K’ung Fu Tzu (Chun-tzu).
11.26.2013.
Bibliography.
Confucianism by Judith A. Berling
Focus on Asian Studies, Vol. II, No. 1: Asian Religions, pp. 5-7, Fall 1982.
Copyright AskAsia (Asia Society), 1996.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/confucius/
http://philosophy.lander.edu/oriental/main.html
The Analects Of Confucius.
Archetypes Of Wisdom.