Name: ___________________________________________________________________Period: __________ Date: __________
Confucianism
Standard : Identify the major achievements of Chinese and Indian societies from 1100 BCE to 500 CE.
Essential Question : What were the major achievements of Chinese and Indian societies from 1100 BCE to
500 CE?
Explain the impact of Confucianism on Chinese culture; include the examination system, the Mandate of Heaven, the status of peasants, the status of merchants, and the patriarchal family, and explain diffusion to Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea.
The Family in Ancient China
Family: Roles:

Young children
Farm Life:

Older sons

Men
Filial Piety:

Women
Confucius

Essential Question : What were the major achievements of Chinese and Indian societies from 1100 BCE to
500 CE?
The Importance of Confucius
Confucianism:
Role of the Government: Five Constant Relationships:
 relationships:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Examination System:
Social Order:
Diffusion:

Confucianism
Standard : Identify the major achievements of Chinese and Indian societies from 1100 BCE to 500 CE.
Essential Question : What were the major achievements of Chinese and Indian societies from 1100 BCE to
500 CE?
Explain the impact of Confucianism on Chinese culture; include the examination system, the Mandate of Heaven, the status of peasants, the status of merchants, and the patriarchal family, and explain diffusion to Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea.
The Family in Ancient China
Family:

 the basic economic and social unit a symbol of the social order
Farm Life:

 made families important many people were needed to work the farms patriarchal family:
 important to ancient Chinese family life
 every member has his or her own place
 the needs of the family members comes second to the head male
 an important Confucian concept
Roles:

Young children worked in the fields

Older sons o expected to undertake physical labor o to provide for their parents

Men o responsible for providing food for their families o governed society o were warriors and scholars

Women o raised children o stayed at home
Confucius

Kung Fu Tzu (551-479 BCE)
 a Chinese philosopher
 his teachings were recorded and studied by his students

Chinese pupils continued to study Confucius’s teachings until the twentieth century
 developed a code of ethical conduct
 wrote “The Analects”

Essential Question : What were the major achievements of Chinese and Indian societies from 1100 BCE to
500 CE?
The Importance of Confucius
Confucianism:

Confucius code of ethical conduct o developed as a result of the time of Warring states after the fall of the Zhou Dynasty o to restore order and moral living in China o society was organized by right relationships
 believed that if humans acted in harmony with the universe, then their affairs would prosper

Dao (Way) - key to proper behavior o careful observance of ancient traditions o reverence for learning o cherishing of honesty o devotion to parents, family, friends and obedient to rule
 individual needs second to the needs of family and community
 urged people to “measure the feelings of others by one’s own” (Golden Rule)
Five Constant Relationships:
 governed everybody
 each individual has a duty to all others
 relationships:
1.
2.
3.
4.
husband & wife father & son (filial piety) older & younger brother friend & friend
5.
ruler & subject
Role of the Government:
 if each individual worked hard to fulfill his or her duties, society would prosper
 rulers must set a good example and rule virtuously if society is to prosper
 dominate relationship is the family
 strong, efficient government begins with the family
Examination system:
 civil service positions were not to be chosen through special or inherited privilege, but through an individual’s own abilities
 began in the 6th century
 required government officials to pass tests
 included civil laws, revenue and taxes, agriculture and geography, military strategies, and classics of
Confucianism
 led to the development of a bureaucracy - a trained civil service, or those who run the government on day to day bases
Social Order:
 "Let the ruler be a ruler, the subject a subject”
 supports idea of the Mandate of Heaven

Devine Right Ruler highest class in society
 peasants made up the second-highest class

Merchants occupied the lowest class because they merely bought and sold what others had made
 social division did not indicate wealth or power

Peasants were still poor and merchants were still rich
Diffusion:

Confucian scholars opposed war and other coercive measures
 lead by moral example
 not by conquest or conversion
 legacy of Chinese regimes in Vietnam(southeast Asia) and Korea
 embraced in Japan

o Tokugawa shogun's warrior government (1603-1868 C.E.) o the restored imperial government of the Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa periods (1868-
1945 C.E.)