Confucianism a Chinese school of thought and set of moral, ethical, and political teachings usually considered to be founded by Confucius. Before the time of Confucius (sixth–fifth century . .),a social group, the Ju (literally, ‘weaklings’ or ‘foundlings’), existed whose members were ritualists and sometimes also teachers by profession. Confucius belonged to this group; but although he retained the interest in rituals, he was also concerned with the then chaotic social and political situation and with the search for remedies, which he believed to lie in the restoration and maintenance of certain traditional values and norms. Later thinkers who professed to be followers of Confucius shared such concern and belief and, although they interpreted and developed Confucius’s teachings in different ways, they are often regarded as belonging to the same school of thought, traditionally referred to by Chinese scholars as Ju-chia, or the school of the Ju. The term ‘Confucianism’ is used to refer to some or all of the range of phenomena including the way of life of the Ju as a group of ritualists, the school of thought referred to as Ju-chia, the ethical, social, and political ideals advocated by this school of thought (which include but go well beyond the practice of rituals), and the influence of such ideals on the actual social and political order and the life of the Chinese. As a school of thought, Confucianism is characterized by a common ethical ideal which includes an affective concern for all living things, varying in degree and nature depending on how such things relate to oneself; a reverential attitude toward others manifested in the observance of formal rules of conduct such as the way to receive guests; an ability to determine the proper course of conduct, whether this calls for observance of traditional norms or departure from such norms; and a firm commitment to proper conduct so that one is not swayed by adverse circumstances such as poverty or death. Everyone is supposed to have the ability to attain this ideal, and people are urged to exercise constant vigilance over their character so that they can transform themselves to embody this ideal fully. In the political realm, a ruler who embodies the ideal will care about and provide for the people, who will be attracted to him; the moral example he sets will have a transforming effect on the people. Different Confucian thinkers have different conceptions of the way the ethical ideal may be justified and attained. Mencius (fourth century . .) regarded the ideal as a full realization of certain incipient moral inclinations shared by human beings, and emphasized the need to reflect on and fully develop such inclinations. Hsün Tzu (third century B.C.) regarded it as a way of optimizing the satisfaction of presocial human desires, and emphasized the need to learn the norms governing social distinctions and let them transform and regulate the pursuit of satisfaction of such desires. Different kinds of Confucian thought continued to evolve, yielding such major thinkers as Tung Chung-shu (second century B.C.) and Han Yü (A.D. 768–824). Han Yü regarded Mencius as the true transmitter of Confucius’s teachings, and this view became generally accepted, largely through the efforts of Chu Hsi (1130–1200). The Mencian form of Confucian thought continued to be developed in different ways by such major thinkers as Chu Hsi, Wang Yang-ming (1472–1529), and Tai Chen (1723–77), who differed concerning the way to attain the Confucian ideal and the metaphysics undergirding it. Despite these divergent developments, Confucius continued to be revered within this tradition of thought as its first and most important thinker, and the Confucian school of thought continued to exert great influence on Chinese life and on the social and political order down to the present century.
See also CHU HSI, MENCIUS, WANG YANG- MIN. K.-l.S.