The Analects

Ancient Chinese Philosophy

After analyzing the reading of the book 1 of The Analects, it became manifest what Confucius’ main concept was, and how he wanted to assist the reader in self-cultivation so that the reader might become a moral example for others. In Confucius’s view, the three main characteristics a person should have are virtue, filial piety, and knowledge. When a person succeeds having these three elements, this person will be proficient enough to become a good leader himself. A good leader having these traits will have a good control over a government, leading to a good government in a way that the government will acquire to conduct itself with the whole world.

Confucius strongly believed that virtue had the main significance of being a good leader and having a good government. He believes that if merely laws led people, people will not benefit from laws but instead will become rebellious, trying to avoid the punishment and will “have no sense of shame”. On the contrary, if people were led by virtue and integrity “they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good” (Confucius, The Analects, 500 B.C.).

According to Confucian ideals, humanity and benevolence are the most important virtue. Humanity here can be described as how the person must be humane, kind and proactive. Proactive refers to how a person should do good things rather than just avoiding bad things. Other than that, honesty is a very important key in humanity, lies should be completely avoided, or else people will have difficulties confronting dilemmas and other issues in their own lives.

Another fundamental trait for a good government is filial piety. You can notice how Confucius emphasized on this matter by constantly repeating it in his sayings. One of the sayings that drew my attention was, “The filial piety nowadays means the support of one’s parents. But dogs and horses likewise are able to do something in the way of support; without reverence, what is there...