Confucius and Confucianism

LIFE OF CONFUCIUS
Confucius was believed to have been born in 551 BC., in the state
of Lu, known today as the Shandong province. His parents, who died
while he was a child, named him Kong Qui. Confucius was derived from
the Latin word Kongfuzi which means Great Master Kong. Confucius was
the most influential and respected philosopher in Chinese history.
His ideas were the single strongest influence on Chinese society from
around 100 BC. to the AD. 1900's. The Chinese government made his
ideas the official state philosophy and many nearby countries honored
his beliefs.
Confucius wanted to gain the position as an adviser to a wise
ruler, but he failed. He hoped to do this in order to be able to
employ his ideas for reforming society. If it wasn't for the
disciples of Confucius his teachings would have never been spread
around China, and he would have never been made known. His teachings
were never written down by him, but his conversations and sayings were
written down by his disciples in the analects.

CONFUCIANISM

Confucianism was the single most important thing in Chinese life.
It affected everything in China; education, government, and
attitudes toward behavior in public and private life. Confucianism is
not a religion, but it is more a philosophy and a guide to morality
and good government. At the time Confucius was born, China was in a
conezt state of war, and rapid political change altered the
structure of Chinese society so much that people no longer respected
the established behavioral guidelines. Confucius stated that the ideal
person was one of good moral character. The ideal person was also
truly reverent in worship and sincerely respected his father and his
ruler. He was expected to think for himself, guided by definite rules
of conduct.
In the novel, the people of china was made up of a country moving backward and forward, a communist land attempting both to foster and ignore the growth of capitalism within it’s borders. For some, especially the young, the rise of capitalism was liberating. But for others, including those in power it’s unsettling & threatening.
In this fictional outing thus far, Chen Cao investigates a case that gives his government a great deal of discomfort. By any standard, Inspector Chen Cao is a novelty in the world of police procedurals. A published poet and translator of American and English mystery novels, he has been assigned by the Chinese government, under Deng Xiaoping's cadre policy, to a "productive" job with the Special Cases Bureau of the Shanghai Police Department.
Shanghai in the mid-1990s is a city caught between reverence for the past and fascination with a tantalizing, market-driven present. When the body of a young "national model worker," revered for her adherence to the principles of the Communist Party, turns up in a canal, Chen is thrown into the midst of these opposing forces. As he struggles to unravel the hidden threads of this paragon's life, he finds himself challenging the very political forces that have guided his life since birth. With party-line-spouting superiors above him and detectives who resent his quick promotion beneath him, Chen finds himself wondering whether justice is a concept at all meaningful in late-20th-century China.
Death of a Red Heroine is a book hovering uneasily between the spheres of fiction and fact, creativity and didacticism. For much of the novel, author Qiu Xiaolong seems more intent on driving home the actions and consequences of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath than on the slowly unfolding plot. Tedious repetitions of the fates, under Mao, of "educated youths" joust with both the actions of the detectives and Chen's "poetic" ruminations, which, unfortunately, are infected by precisely the stiffness and arbitrariness Qiu is at pains to decry in his historical passages. The moving couplets Chen favors are potentially fascinating insights into the interaction between ancient and modern China, but instead of provoking the reader into reflection, Qiu offers reductive explanations of each and every poem.
Throughout the book, Chen Cao weaves details about chinese life in the early 1990’s, the political atmosphere and quotes from Confucius. As Confucius said, he was expected to take “as much trouble to discover what was right as lesser men take to discover what will pay”. Confucius believed that this type of behavior by rulers had a greater effect on the people than did laws or codes of punishment.
However, Chen Cao did not believe in thus theory. Chen Cao was the chief detective of the bureau. His duty was to sought out punishment for those who committed a crime. For example, when Guan Hongying the murder victim was discovered by two men. No one knew who she was. No one reported anyone missing to the police department. Chen Cao realized something was wrong so he dismissed his inviatation to the seminar to find the identity of th evictim and to find her killer. Chen Cao went to the forensics department and asked Dr. Xia for detailed description of the victim.
After receiving the description, he posted around town, hoping that someone would identify her. Foutunately, someone from the store she worked in identified her. He sent his assistant Yu over to find clues about her that lead to her death. This shows that Chen Cao relies on the laws to seek out punishment on those who did illegal acts.

Confucius outlined a society based strongly upon hierarchy. To him women were firmly at the bottom of that hierarchy. He intended virtually all of his philosophy and ethical system to apply only to men.
There were differential aspects of th emen and women in past are viewed in the novel

Registered Members, login
Join now, it's free

Property of EssaySwap.com