in benevolent service of

8/14/2019 In benevolent service of

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Sydney

Epsilon

10/18/07

In Benevolent Service of

Western governments are prone to be built on reason and believe that the

individual and the state are two different entities. The government works off of strict

codes of conduct that are created to help society, but the people whose hands hold the

government are never trained and developed spiritually as an individual. The officials are

split into the development of the government and on the other hand continuing their own

personal journey, which can cause confusion and confliction. And so, when a

government is developing it is done without a whole heart and with a divided attention.

But, Eastern governments are built with an emphasis and based on the individual. The

writings of Confucius started the train of thought that personal development through filial

piety, benevolence, and traditions, will lead to obtaining Ren Ai which is the love of

people or compassion and that will lead to a righteous and benevolent government. And,

those without these ideals ultimately succumb to failure due to the lack of attention and

the concepts that Eastern Nations focus on; since the goal of a culture, society, dynasty,

and nation is to preserve their time of rule, then it is best to have the ideals of Ren Ai.


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Filial Piety is the love and respect for one's parents and ancestors. Filial

piety is one of the core ideals of Confucius and Mencius because it creates and

establishes a base personality for a person. This personality is centered on taking

responsibility and traditions because performing the traditions will mold the personality

into one that is unwavering, steadfast, and responsible. For example, a child is mandated

to take care of, honor, love, and respect his or her parents but those ideals arent forgotten

after the parents pass. If the child stops acting as they should after the death of their

parents that is not considered Filial Piety, Confucius said, Observe his aspirations when

his father is alive, and observe his actions when his father passes away. He may well be

called filial if he sticks to his fathers way for three years after the latters death

(Confucius, 8)

In this case Confucius gives an example of what true filial piety is and is not. By

continuing his fathers ways even after his passing shows that the son has developed the

intended personality traits, love, respect, honor, and care as well as being, steadfast,

unwavering, and responsible. Then through this that person will slowly obtain

compassion because they will not only have a solid base but also they will be able to be

self-less and put their pride aside, for the betterment of society or in this case their

deceased father. But, by not following his fathers ways he has not gained anything and

everything he has done has been meaningless, Zi You (a disciple of Confucius) asked

about being Filial. Confucius said, Nowadays, one is called a filial son only because
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one is able to support ones parents. Actually, however, even dogs and horses are no less

able to do this. If one does not treat ones parents with reverent respect, what is then the

difference between him and animals? (Confucius, 16) Filial piety is not a concept that is

a random assortment of tasks and traditions that are to be carried out by the younger

generation nor is it a self-fish mentality inflicted onto children by their parents so the

latter dont have to work. But, it is a set of traditions that if harnessed can produce a

benevolent, filial, and compassionate person that can then go on and help create a

righteous and benevolent society. If a person does not go through this type of learning

and training, they will become the opposite of the ideal person, and no matter what this

person does in the future it will not be complete and righteous, for example western

governments, they are created with text book academia but no personal training, and

those officials will not become the Confucian ideal people, and no matter how much they

try to create a benevolent society it will never happen because they do not have a basic

foundation.

Filial piety that is mandated in the home of the young person can be taken and

applied to his or her views of society and the government when older. By doing so, this

society of people will have a righteous and harmonious society, You Zi (a disciple of

Confucius) said, It is rare for a man who is filial towards his parents and respectful to

his elder brothers to go against his superiors; never has there been a person who does not

like to go against his superiors and at the same time likes to start a rebellion. A


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gentleman devotes himself to the basics. Once the basics are established, the principles

of government and behavior will grow there-from. The basics are to be filial toward ones

parents and respectful to ones elder brother! (Confucius, 2) In this instance, the

government can be looked at as a parental figure, and if the person has that base

personality in place, then he will help serve his parents the best he can, and the same

can be said for the government officials, they can look at society as their parental figure

and find ways to best serve them. But, Filial Piety is not a philosophy that is meant to

subdue people into obedience, there are also criteria that the government and parents

must meet, King Xuan of Qi asked, Is it the case that Tang banished Jie, and that Wu

struck down Zhou? Mengzi (Mencius) responded, saying, There are such accounts in

the historical records. The King said, Is it acceptable for subjects to kill their rulers?

Mengzi said, One who violates benevolence should be called a thief. One who

violates righteousness is called a mutilator. A mutilator and thief is called a mere

fellow. I have heard of the execution of a mere fellow Zhou but I have not heard of

killing ones ruler. (Mencius, 125) In this quote shows that in order to be a benevolent

ruler they must also act in accordance to the traditions and the ideals of filial piety and if

that ruler does not, then his subjects do not have to treat him as a parent and they can

rebel. Zhou is a tyrant and is compared to nothing but a mere thief because he does not

have any filial piety or compassion and killing him is not killing a ruler. But, if a ruler

does act with benevolence and filial piety then he and the government should be followed,


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revered, and supported, Confucius said, He who rules his state on a moral basis would

be supported by the people, just as the Polar Star is encircled by all the other stars.

(Confucius, 12) And in order to become this polar star, filial Piety must be followed and if

the following is successful then that person will natural inherit Ren Ai. And when that

happens, the nation will be harmonious.

Han Wu Dis purpose for change was that the rulers before himsince the

warring statesviewed the government and the individual as two separate entities. The

government had all the power and the individual followed. This type of government is

similar to the English government. The similarities of these governments are that there is

an outward appearance of power but have great internal strife and none of these

governments lasted to long. For example England, England has had great Kings, but most

of this nations history has had a lot of house changes, in a shorter period of time. The

houses of England started with the House of Plantagenet(1154) to The United

Kingdom of today in between the 2 there have been 5 other houses(cite 5).

Each England house failed like the end of a Dynasty in China, they started to

diverge from compassion and care for the people. These nations like England

were the direct opposites of what Confucius teaches and because they did not follow the

path to Ren Ai, they failed. But, if they had not been so concerned with the power that

they held, or were more compassionate to their people, they would have succeeded more

and there would not have been so much instability. So when Han Wu Di was crowned


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King at the age of 15 his grandmother had an enormous amount of power in his reign.

But, he knew that his own Grandmother was slowly becoming power hungry and was

dominated by the old doctrine and way of thinking. And since he was a Confucian and he

knew what was wrong and right even if he had to face the fact that it was his own

grandmother that was at fault. To correct the wrongs of his reign he found young, capable

officials around his age and he took them into a close circle of advisors. Unlike other

emperors in history who carried out these techniques, he was not hesitant to remind these

advisors that he was their overlord including punishing them severely or even

executing them if they were found to have been corrupt or have hidden secrets from him.

But, he respected officials who did not flatter him and honestly chided him when he was

wrong. One of the most famous advisors wasJi An ( ), his offensive and brutal

comments made Emperor Wu have fear of him, but he respected Ji's integrity sincerely.

His use of Confucianism caused this dynasty to have a strong government, a united

people, and an outward spreading of culture, by following the traditions of Confuciuss

filial piety. The culmination of all of these things lead Han Wu Di the title of one of

Chinas best Emperors. Which, ultimately is the purpose of any person who wants to be in

that position, is to have their name go down in history as one of the best, and how that is

proven to the rest of the world and to the people is through harmony and peace and

providing the atmosphere of Ren Ai( Chinaculture.org,15 Apr 2008)
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The reason why this road to compassion is so important is because it is genuine

and real. People learn and know how to treat one another not because they were just

taught it at school or read in a book but because it resonates with them personally. With

the personal investment things like genocides and such would not occur because they

would understand the situation on human level and not on an economic and political level

like many of the western governments do. A person who has gone down this road of

compassion will be very set in who they are and what they want to accomplish and they

will have a moral code of conduct based on something that is genuine like their

interaction with their parents and not something that was learned at school or heard

through the grapevine. For example, The Tang Dyansty. Of course like many other

dynasties, this dynasty also fell. The fall of a dynasty is attributed to the lack of intuition,

care, precision, knowledge, and social responsibility of the Emperor. Which in turn

means failing is going against the ideas of Confucius and not embodying Ren Ai like a

leader should. Confucius said, Regulated by the edicts and punishment, the people will

know only how to stay out of trouble but will not have a sense of shame. Guided by

virtues and the rites, they will not only have a sense of shame but also know how to

correct their mistakes of their own accord. (Confucius, 13)

One of the greatest examples of failure was during the Ming and the Tang

Dynasty. They fell because the Emperor became greedy; they no longer looked at the

common people as their children. They no longer took care of them and they just wanted


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everything for themselves and the people became disgruntled and thats how they fell.

The Last Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (Wanli Emperor) committed suicidethe only

emperor in history to have done sobecause of how poor the nation was, how angry the

people were, and how far he had diverged from the Confucian way of life (Li,15 Apr.

2008). Wanli was often absent from court and the court audiences to discuss politics, he

lost interest in studying the Confucian Classics, refused to read petitions and other

state papers, and stopped filling vital positions of the upper level administrative

posts(Li,15 Apr. 2008). Scholar-officials lost power in the administration and the

eunuchs became the go-betweens of the absent emperor and his officials; any senior

official who wanted to discuss state matters had to persuade and bribe the powerful

eunuchs (Li,15 Apr. 2008). By having compassion in governing will help society

understand why crimes are shameful and wrong instead of scaring them into not

committing crimes. By helping them understand the government is helping society help

itself. While the government that uses the scare tactic just scares the public, but if the

fear was no longer present, the public wouldnt know what was wrong or right. But, by

going down the road to compassion, everyone understands what is right and wrong on a

personal level.

Confucius had created filial piety in order to establish a road to obtain

compassion. And with compassion instilled in both the people and the government, their
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society will be harmonious. Filial Piety is not just a philosophy that helps create an ideal

person but helps create a harmonious society. But, beside that, it helps create a complete

and genuine person who understands things on a personal level and they understand that

each person should be treated with respect, love, and honor unless proven otherwise.

When reapplied to a government it is one that is created with an undivided attention and a

complete heart. So, The belief in Filial Piety is needed now more than ever, where were

in an age of war, genocide, oppression, discrimination, and school shootings. If the ideals

of Filial Piety are followed many of these incidents would not occur because everyone

would have a personal and genuine understanding of Compassion and the antithesis of

compassion cannot occur and that will both save and change lives in the world.

in benevolent service of

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