Sage’s teachings still inspire much of Asia

Press, 23 October 1984, Page 16

Sage’s teachings still inspire much of Asia

NZPA-Reuter Qufu In the heart of rural China, down a dirt track, cornfields grow over a few humps in the ground. Nothing else remains of the ancient city of Lu, home of Confucius. The great sage, who lived 2500 years ago, was spumed during his life. But his philosophy was to underpin 2000 years of imperial Chinese history and now permeates East Asia. Modem thinkers believe the sage’s preoccupation with education, social order, and good government may have as much if not more relevance to the present technological age. The success of Japan’s highly disciplined industrial society has been partly ascribed to deep-rooted Confucian ethics transplanted from China over 1000 years ago. Western politicians, worried by urban decay and violence, look with envy at the Confucian-inspired cohesion and vitality of overseas Chinese communities within their own cities. Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, is an open admirer of Confucius and has applied his philosophy to create an ordered and successful city-state. Two other Asian economic “miracles”, South Korea and Taiwan, also have' a strong Confucian heritage. In China, Maoist zealots once poured into the small town of Qufu to smash and burn the home of the sage whom they blamed for everything bad in China’s imperial past. He has since been reinstated to the status of a great educationist. Confucius was dubbed the patron saint of Europe’s Enlightenment during the eighteenth century after his thoughts had been transmitted to the West by early missionaries to China.

The teachings of the Chinese philosopher reached the heart of Enlightenment philosophy. Among his Western admirers was the great French thinker, Voltaire. The main body of early Confucian writings appeares in “The Analects,” a collection of sayings by him and his main disciples, many of which are probably fairly accurate records. Confucius’ basic premise

was that man is by nature good. He preached “the way,” or what he believed were the perfect methods of government used by semimythical rulers of China, centuries before his time. His aim was the creation of an ideal State on Earth. His ideal man was the philosopher-king. At the root of his teaching was that any man could become such a ruler by learning.

His teachings on government- “He who rules through virtue may be compared to the pole-star which keeps its place while all the : other stars pay homage to it” . . . “To lead a big country, the ruler, must attend reverentially to business. He must economise in expenditure, love all men, and employ people in accordance with the seasons.” On learning: “If there is education, there are no class distinctions.” “He who learns but does not think is lost He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger." On religion: “Heaven begat the power in me. (But) if one is not capable of serving men, how can one serve the spirits? If one does not understand life, how can one understand death?” On human relations: “The disciple Fan Chi asked what humaneness was. The master replied: ‘lt is to love others’.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” On the perfect man: “He does not preach what he practises until he has practised what he preaches.” The traditional image of Confucius as an old and rather bookish sage is almost certainly wrong. But as a knight of Lu, one of the many small states into which China was divided before unification in 221 BC, he was a trained and tough warrior. Contemporary accounts say the philosopher’s manner was affable but firm, commanding but not harsh, polite but easy. He spent his life in a gruelling tour of different states, touting a philosophy which was ill-fitted to such disturbed times when treachery and violence were rife.