Confusion Essay Research Paper In the view

Confusion Essay, Research Paper

In the view of the Chinese common man, life on earth is but a temporary stop

on his journey to death and other reincarnations. Since death is viewed as

inexorable and inherent in the human condition, the Chinese accepts it with

composure. It was a common custom in China, especially in rural areas, for

people to have a coffin ready in their houses as a preparation for death that

may come ten or twenty years in the future. Well-to-do people used to build

their own tombs long before they felt they were approaching death. This

composure should not be construed as absence of sadness and regret. The Chinese

believe that, in spite of its seamy side, life is still better than death which

is shrouded in mystery. Death, for Chinese, does not mean total disappearance.

Only the corporeal frame is disintegrated, and the spirit survives and

perpetuates itself in a series of reincarnations. The belief of the survival of

the soul forms the spiritual basis for ancestor worship while the feeling of

gratitude ant affection for one’s ancestors forms its moral foundation. Among

the Chinese, the honest man is born amidst traditions and rites; as an

adolescent, he seeks to improve himself through culture; and in maturity, he

aims at wisdom through following the spiritual path. This pattern is not an

abstract ideal but a way of life, which often leads to an attitude of tolerance

and detachment. The bulk of the Chinese people lived for centuries in this

environment of ancestral beliefs and religious doctrines.

Confucianism is more of a religious and social philosophy than a religion in

the accepted meaning of the word. It has no church, no clergy, and no Bible. It

advocates a code of social behavior that man ought to observe so as to live in

harmony with society and attain happiness in his individual life. There is

little concern about death, the world beyond, and spiritual feelings in this

religion. Confucius, or Kung Fu-tzo (551-479 B.C.), the founder of this

religion, stressed the improvement of the moral self as the basic duty of the

individual as well as the statesman. In order to rule the world, one must rule

one’s country; in order to rule the country, one must rule one’s family; and in

order to rule the family, one must have control of oneself. Consequently, the

improvement of the moral self is the cornerstone of Confucianism. Confucius

believed that man is born with an essentially good nature which becomes

corrupted in his contact with society. In order to improve his moral self and

regain that original good nature with which he was born, man must practice the

five cardinal virtues of benevolence, propriety, loyalty, intellect, and

trustworthiness. In order to keep harmony in the nation and happiness in the

family, man must observe the three basic relationships between sovereign and

subject, father and son, and husband and wife. On the national level the basic

virtue is loyalty to the sovereign, and on the family level, the basic virtue is

filial piety. The ritual expression of filial piety is ancestor worship.

Confucius, who is at one and the same time the Socrates, the Solon, and the

Lycurgus of the oriental city, speaks often of the spirits and the souls of the

dead. It is true that in his philosophical conversations with his disciples, he

declines sometimes to give his own views as to their compositions. One knows the

response that he made to one of them who queried him on the subject: "You

do not know how to serve the living, why should I teach you to serve the dead.

You who understand nothings of life, why should I speak to you about

death." In another connection, that in this matter, the master remained

faithful to the beliefs of ancient China, traces of which are notably kept for

us in The Book of Rites. According to these beliefs, man is made up of the

living soul and the spiritual soul. After death, the living soul turns to dust

with the body. The spiritual soul rises, wanders in space, and leads an

independent, ethereal, airy life. This is the life of the spirits, of the souls,

of the departed ancestors. These then never die completely; they follow a

transcendent, spiritual life. But this life which runs the risk of becoming

ineffectual, of evaporating into nothing, is made more real, more effective, so

to say, by the memory the living keep of the dead, by the cult that it is their

duty to offer. It is thus that the dead may always participate in the lives of

the family of their descendents. One calls on them for all solemn occasions,

such as births, marriages, and so on.

According to pure Confucianist doctrine, one must honor the dead on a par

with the living; and the greatest misfortune conceivable is to die without

leaving a male descendant to perpetuate the Cult of the Ancestors. Later, this

rule was relaxed to permit daughter

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