Month: February 2020

The excerpts from The Analects that we read for class both reinforced my prior knowledge of Confucius and his teachings, as well as providing me with further knowledge regarding his teachings. Before we read these excerpts I was under the impression that Confucius only emphasized filial piety and education, but since reading these excerpts I know there is far more that Confucius stood for as well. Confucius not only spoke about the aspects of filial piety and education that he stood for the most, but he also spoke about the way that governments should be treating their people to make society the most equitable for everyone. For example, “The Master said: “If good men were to govern a country for a hundred years, they could overcome cruelty and do away with killing. How true this saying is!”. Confucius also writes, “The Master said: “If you govern the people legalistically and control them by punishment, they will avoid crime, but have no personal sense of shame. If you govern them by means of virtue and control them with propriety, they will gain their own sense of shame, and thus correct themselves.”. So, not only does Confucius care deeply about filial piety and education, he also cares a great deal about the way that governments treat their people and how they let societies function.

As I was reading the second half of Tao Te Ching, I noticed that so many of the teachings within it are timeless and can be applied to today’s world. I think these are important characteristics to have for a philosophy, which is the reason that Taoism has endured for thousands of years.

Text 53 and 67 are especially relevant to modern day American culture. Text 53 talks about everything that is wrong with society such as, “The government is divided, Fields are overgrown….But the nobles’ clothes are gorgeous.” This is directly comparable to the political and social climate in the United States. The partisan politics have deepened tensions on many issues and distanced groups of people from each other just because of their policy beliefs. The environment is almost beyond repair just as the overgrown fields in Tao, but no worries because the rich wear designer clothes and eat at the finest restaurants as the poor struggle to make ends meet.

Text 67 addresses the thought processes’ of many classes of people today, “Nowadays, People reject compassion But want to be brave, Reject frugality But want to be generous”. I can see this reflected even in own my family and myself. My mom and I may own name-brand purses when off-brand purses would do the same job (rejecting frugality) , yet at the same time we religiously donate to Riley Children’s Hospital (want to be generous). I think that people sometimes need to remember that making small changes to their own lives can result in better lives for others. If this were to be done on a larger scale, than the return would be much more noticeable.

Just simply reading this text has inspired me to start making changes in my own life.