Confusionism Essay Research Paper ConfucianismBy Spencer J

Confusionism Essay, Research Paper

Confucianism

By Spencer J. Palmer

The Confucian focus upon moral example, as the basis of harmony in society, government, and the universe is consistent with LDS views. However, Confucius was not interested in metaphysics or theology; he did not advocate belief in God, nor did he talk about life after death. He was concerned with humans in their social setting.

Arguments that Confucianism is not a religion have often been answered by references to its sacred text. One could also point to the lives of millions who have sought to practice its teachings by honouring parents and deceased ancestors through acts of affection and piety in the home or through performances at tombs, shrines, and temples that convey spiritual belief as well as moral affirmations (Palmer, p. 16). For Latter-day Saints, morality is based upon the individual’s relationship with God as an expression of one’s faith in God and upon obedience to his will.

Confucian morality is generally expressed in social and cultural ways. Values of loyalty, virtue, respect, courtesy, learning, and love are preserved primarily through outward courtesies and formalities, including traditional family ceremonies. Filial piety is the ultimate virtue. It includes honouring the spirits of one’s ancestors not only by observances at graves and family tombs but also by striving to achieve acclaim in learning, in the mastery of sacred texts, and in aesthetic arts such as music, poetry, and painting.

The Confucian quest for sagehood, for refinement and cultivation of the ideal human, has its counterpart in the Latter-day Saint quest for eternal life. Both the sage and the true Latter-day Saint personify the transforming power of righteous behaviour (see Righteousness). In LDS scripture it is sometimes referred to as putting off “the natural man” and becoming a saint, one characterised as being “submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict” (Mosiah 3:19).

Latter-day Saints and Confucians share a mutual concern for the salvation of the extended family. Though the focus differs, both carry out devotional ceremonies in sacred places on behalf of departed ancestors. In this respect, both the LDS Church and Confucianism may be called family-centred religions. Both place importance upon genealogical research, the preservation of family records, and the performance of vicarious holy ordinances on behalf of their dead. In both instances, there exists a commitment to the idea that the living can serve the needs of departed loved ones (see Temple Ordinances).

Church members believe that Elijah, the Old Testament prophet, personally appeared to Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple in 1836 and conferred priesthood keys, or authority, by means of which the hearts of children could turn to their ancestors and to the promises of salvation made to the fathers and the hearts of forebears could turn to their children (D&C 110:13-16), with the result that families and generations can be joined together “for time and for all eternity.” Joseph Smith’s remark concerning the dead “that they without us cannot be made perfect neither can we without our dead be made perfect” (D&C 128:15; cf. Heb. 11:40) also resonates in the Confucian world.

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Bibliography

Palmer, Spencer J. Confucian Rituals in Korea. Berkeley, Calif., 1984.

Palmer, Spencer J., and Roger R. Keller. Religions of the World: A Latter-day Saint View. Provo, Utah, 1989

Confucianism

Article written by Judith A. Berling for the Asia Society’s Focus on Asian Studies, Vol. II, No. 1 Asian Religions, pp. 5-7, Fall 1982. Copyright AskAsia, 1996.

Confucianism is often characterised as a system of social and ethical philosophy rather than a religion. In fact, Confucianism built on an ancient religious foundation to establish the social values, institutions, and transcendent ideals of traditional Chinese society. It was what sociologist Robert Bellah called a “civil religion,”1 the sense of religious identity and common moral understanding at the foundation of a society’s central institutions. It is also what a Chinese sociologist called a “diffused religion”;3 its institutions were not a separate church, but those of society, family, school, and state; its priests were not separate liturgical specialists, but parents, teachers, and officials. Confucianism was part of the Chinese social fabric and way of life; to Confucians, everyday life was the arena of religion.

The founder of Confucianism, Master Kong (K’ung, Confucius, 551-479 BC) did not intend to found a new religion, but to interpret and revive the unnamed religion of the Zhou (Chou) dynasty, under which many people thought the ancient system of religious rule was bankrupt; why couldn’t the gods prevent the social upheavals. The burning issue of the day was: If it is not the ancestral and nature spirits, what then is the basis of a stable, unified, and enduring social order. The dominant view of the day, espoused by Realists and Legalists, was that strict law and statecraft were the bases of sound policy. Confucius, however, believed that the basis lay in Zhou religion, in its ritu