- [Narrator] Now I'm going to talk about one of the greatest
philosophers and teachers in human history, and that is Confucius, known to the Chinese as Kongzi,
which means Master Kong, or Kong Fuzi, which
means Grand Master Kong. And once again, my apologies
for my pronunciation. The word Confucius is a
Latinization of Kong Fuzi. So you can imagine Kong
Fuzicius, Confucius. Now what's interesting about Confucius is he grew up in a time
when China was getting more and more divided. In other videos we talked
about the Zhou dynasty, which begins at the very end
of the second millennium. But in the time of Confucius we're in what's known as the end of
the Spring and Autumn period. Confucius lived from 551 to 479 BCE. And we're ending the
Spring and Autumn period and we're getting into the
period of the Warring States. So even in the time of Confucius there was more and more
tension between states. People felt less confident
in the central government, and as we'll see, in this
late Spring and Autumn period, and especially as we get into
this really violent period known as the Warring States period, a lot of philosophers started to arise and philosophies began to arise because people were struggling
with these questions of, what is the role of the state? What does it mean to be a good person? How does humanity fit in
with the cosmic order? Now, what's interesting about Confucius is by his own account he says
that he doesn't come up with anything new. It's more of him trying to
resuscitate or rejuvenate some of the traditions of the past. Most historians would
give him more credit. Even though Confucius does
look to the early Zhou dynasty for a lot of his
inspiration, and he looked to a lot of the traditions
of the ancestors, he definitely puts a spin on it which makes it a very powerful philosophy and arguably religion as we get into this Warring States period,
and especially as we get into a more unified China under
the Qin and Han dynasties. And as we'll see under the
Han dynasty in particular, Confucianism becomes
essentially the state religion. Now to get a sense of
what Confucius preached, and his life, he spent most of his life both teaching and preaching. A lot of people compare him to Socrates even though he predates Socrates. And simultaneously he was
also building a career as a civil servant, but
his legacy is definitely around his preachings,
and most of his life was here in the state
of Lu in eastern China. So there's three general themes
that you could talk about Confucius's teachings. I encourage you to go
look at his Analects, they're quite interesting, to
get many many more of them. But a lot of it is around
respecting traditions and respecting elders. Here's a quote from the Analects. "A young man should
serve his parents at home "and be respectful to
elders outside his home. "He should be earnest
and truthful, loving all, "but becoming intimate with
his innate good-heartedness. "After doing this, if
he has energy to spare, "he can study literature and the arts." And there's a lot of talk
of, if someone is to be a good citizen they need
to be a good child first. They need to be a good son. Now he also talks about, what does it mean to be a just ruler? "If you control people by punishment, "they will avoid crime, but
have no personal sense of shame. "If you govern them by means
of virtue and control them "with propriety, they will
gain their own sense of shame, "and thus correct themselves." And as we'll see, morality and ethics plays a huge role at a personal level and also at a state level to Confucius, and we'll talk about other philosophies where that might not be
as strong of a sense. Now another very big theme to Confucius was looking to yourself. Through self-improvement
you can be a better citizen, a better child, a better ruler. "Real knowledge is to know
the extent of one's ignorance. "Learning without thought is labor lost; "thought without learning is perilous. "When you see someone of worth, "think of how you may emulate. "When you see someone unworthy,
examine your own character." I like that one in particular. "Do not impose on others what
you yourself do not desire." So a very close statement
to the Golden Rule. Now as I mentioned,
Confucius and Confucianism was not alone in this period
of the Spring and Autumn period and especially as you get into
the Warring States period. During that time we have what's known as the Hundred Schools of Thought, which, this time period starts
around the time of Confucius and goes until Qin dynasty
ends the Warring States period, and in a very strong way unifies China. Now we already talked about Confucianism, which talks a lot about
ethics, but its goal, remember Confucius himself
was a civil servant. He was an administrator. He thought a lot about, what does it mean to be a just ruler? So it definitely touches on
the practical to a good bit. Now, many people say
it's an ethical system, but many would also consider it a religion because it does touch on the
metaphysical, the notions of heaven, and it borrows
a lot from China's past. Now, other samples of the
Hundred Schools of Thought, especially ones that have
had a significant role on China's history, and even modern China, include the Legalists. The Legalists have a strong pragmatism. They are dismissive of
the Confucian notion of strong internal ethics
and that will guide people and rulers. Legalists are much more about, look, we need a strong, orderly central state. We need to do whatever it takes, and it might be clamping
down on people hard, in order to have stability,
in order to have rule. And you can imagine the context in which this Legalism is coming about. This is during the Warring States period, this incredibly violent
period where the states in China are fragmented,
and so you can imagine these people who are very realistic. They're like, "Look, we've
had this Confucianism. "We have these other philosophies. "But we need strong,
super centralized rulers." And it ends up being
that Legalist philosophy that wins the day as
you have the emergence of the Qin dynasty in
221, and the Qin dynasty is what modern China is named after and it's considered the first dynasty to really unify China in a very strong way and create its administrative
and bureaucratic systems, and it really is based on Legalism and it was able to put an end
to this Warring States period by putting so much power,
central power, in strong rulers who were willing to be quite violent in repressing other people in
order to bring that stability. And it's notable that
the emergence of the Qin is also considered the end of the Hundred Schools of Thought, 'cause the Qin as part of that order started persecuting many of
the other forms of philosophy, including many of those
that followed Confucius. Now other forms of philosophy,
and this is just a sample, that have strongly influenced China. You have Taoism. Taoism is, according to Taoist belief, comes from Laozi, and the
historical record of Laozi isn't as clear as we have for Confucius, but it's believed that he
lived around the same time. Some people view him as
more of a legendary figure. But Taoism is much more
concerned with the spiritual than Confucianism. You see quotes, the Tao is really The Way. It's all about harmony with the universe. "Free from desire, you
realize the mystery. "Caught in desire, you see
only the manifestations." The Tao Te Ching. Now later on, Buddhism. It's interesting, Buddha
lives at around the same time, once again, his birth and date are under a little bit more in contention, as Confucius, and he lives in
northeast India, Nepal area, and Buddhism really comes about in Indian, but it eventually makes
its way into China, especially as we get into
the first millennium CE. And in modern day China
a lot of the culture and the philosophy and the religion is a combination in particular of Confucianism most strongly,
but also Taoism and Buddhism. But there were other philosophies. For example Mohism is a
quite interesting one. I encourage you to look at it. But it's all about this
notion of impartial love. It actually has a lot of
similarities, parallels, with the teachings of Jesus
as told by the gospels. But that notion was viewed
somewhat impractical by many of the followers of Confucius and especially the
Legalists, and Mohism really didn't last much beyond the Qin dynasty. But one way to think about
it is, Legalism allowed the Qin dynasty to really
end the Warring States period and centralize China. But then that short-lived
dynasty as a transition to the Han, the Han took over
the administrative structure and the stability of the
Qin to a large degree, but then they made Confucianism
really the state philosophy and you could even say the state religion. And to appreciate the
importance of Confucianism to Chinese culture, I'll leave you with this last quote by
the historian Huston Smith. "For though Confucius did
not author Chinese culture," as we talked about, even Confucius says, "I didn't invent anything," "he was its supreme editor."
