Confucian Harmony

A The superior man or the Chun-tzu is a man that stands in awe of three things. First he stands in awe of the ordinances of heaven. By doing this he knows where his power and influence stops and heaven’s surpasses his. Second, he stands in awe of great men, so the superior man can recognize when his contributions end and the great men supersede him. Third, the superior man will listen to the words of the sages. By recognizing the greater knowledge of the sages, the Chun-tzu will be in a constant state of reception of their wisdom. The mass man, on the other hand, seethes in mediocrity and is content with it. The mass man can’t live by the laws of heaven because he doesn’t know them. Mass man will disrespect great men and shrug off the words of the sages. The mass man won’t strive to attain anything greater than the average. He believes anyone above average is only there by social constructs and other external factors such as wealth. The mass man sees the norm of a person in the middle of the bell curve, while the superior man sees the norm of a person in the great men, or full manifestations of humanity. The mass man only tries to be average; therefore he will have no shame for his lack of education or wisdom.

A superior man is Thomas Jefferson. He stood in awe of the ordinances of heaven, so much that he felt compelled to draft his own version of the Gospels. Jefferson also stood in awe of great men and heeded the words of the sages. This can be seen in his writing which is heavily influenced by John Locke and Montesquieu. One day, a student in history class will be in awe of Jefferson and exclaim, “Jefferson was a genius.” Another so-called student, a mass man, may sneer and say “Jefferson was an elitist.” The mass man will throw the word elitist at anyone extraordinary. They seem to dislike it when greatness is juxtaposed against their averageness. Being content in the mundane bell curve, they will reduce the outliers to their socioeconomic status, the century they were born in, and terms like “elitist.”

B Confucius believed we were all born with a fate. Fate is what is given to a person, like ones sex, class, parents, and other unchangeable factors received at birth. With each fate there is a destiny. Destiny is a call to go beyond fate to a higher quality of living. This will raise a person above the mundane fated life into the spiritual life. The original state of a human was spiritual, which then became complicated in the mundane world and created an imbalance between the tranquil spirit and the phenomenal self. To balance the complications, one must use sincerity to reach harmony between the two. This is essential to one’s destiny, which becomes realized when harmony rises to the surface in all of your actions. Sincerity is a pure act of attention that will give you a singleness of mind when responding to the other. This attention is not spent on the personal or social level. These levels focus on the self. For instance, the personal level would only focus on the individuals own feelings, not the other’s. The social would only reveal something about a person against the backdrop of society. The attention Confucius writes of is spiritual attention. This is a non-attached attention, which lets a person objectively attend to the other. By having a singleness of mind when listening to the other, a person sheds their own biases. This will bring out the good in people and the self, creating harmony.

Fate and destiny can be exemplified in Siddhartha Gautama. He was born a prince with wealth, women, and a father willed him to become a world conqueror. His father blocked him from the outside world so he could never see death or suffering. This did not work and Siddhartha Gautama took the journey to realize his destiny. He had to walk away from all the riches to rise above his fate to his destiny. After finding the right path, he took what was offered by the cosmic forces and reached a new level of enlightenment. His fate as a prince was rooted in the mundane world, but his destiny allowed him to live the ordinary life in an extraordinary way. When it comes to the three attentions, we start with the personal level. Someone operating on the personal level of attention is only focusing on their self. This leads to them judging the situation with their feelings, not objectively. The social level of attention can be seen in someone who constantly worries about his lot in society. The person will only judge their position in society against others. The spiritual or non-attached attention is attained when the self lets go of his or her biases and objectively listens to the other.

C The doctrine of the rectification of names originated from Confucius’ belief that words had lost their essecial meaning. He thought the word must symbolize the essence of the thing it names to embody it and truly be a name. Words are not used as a simple communication tool; they must be used analogous to the thing. This doctrine lends its hand to the 5 relations, which are friend to friend, sibling to sibling, husband to wife, parent to child, and ruler to subject. By rectifying names, it gives these five relations meaning. By knowing the right word for father it leads to the essence of it. By knowing the essence of something, a child can be a better father or relate to your father. It allows a person to pay attention to the essence of fatherhood. By knowing the essences of the five relations one can better embody those roles in life. By embodying these roles li can fully operate in the relationships, which leads to harmony. Harmony comes from li bringing out the latent spirit within a relationship.

When I think of the doctrine of the rectification of names, the word mother comes to mind. It is usually one of the first words expressed as a child in short form as mom. The word gets to the essence of what a mother is. When said, it inspires a feeling of security and warmth. This word reveals the essence of a mother, which gives a child’s first words merit. If anyone understands what a mother is, it is her child. The mother also knows what her title entails and acts out on the parent to child relationship sincerely. If all people could get to the essence of what it is to be a friend, a parent, a child, a sibling, or a ruler there would be harmony in all relationships.

Critique of A:

The mass man could be right about everyone being equal. No one’s exploits of opinions should be held higher than their own, because everyone is entitled to their own feelings. Hard work has very little to do with success. It is mostly determined by socioeconomic status and other social factors. By saying that, anyone who is not equal in tastes or ability is elitist. The mass man would say that his tastes are just as good as someone who has sought after good taste in a subject.

Critique of C:

Sociologists argue that language is a tool for man to operate as a social creature. Words are just labels we assign to objects and are only valid through social consensus. In this view, there is no way to go beyond language, because it constructs our reality through labels. They would say any spirit we feel from a word’s relationship with the object is from the constant use of the word in our society. We just start to recognize an object by the word so much it seems to touch it essentially, but it is actually just from habitual use.