2013-07-30, 20:42 | Link #21 |
Ava courtesy of patchy
Join Date: Jan 2009
|
I'm interested in Confucianism myself in Chinese culture. Rituals aside, I really think there's a lot of great teaching in Confucianism on how to be a good person. I wonder why it's getting more and more left behind by modern generation of Chinese citizen?
|
2013-07-30, 21:03 | Link #22 |
We're Back
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Redgrave City
Age: 35
|
I remember my history teacher back in secondary school said something along the lines of "Confucianism is pretty much common sense" lol
Oh wait, I think it was more like why Confucianism is a Philosophy while the Others are a religion...
__________________
|
2013-07-30, 21:21 | Link #23 |
Ava courtesy of patchy
Join Date: Jan 2009
|
Indeed, yet the good value of confucianism is almost completely gone even in modern Chinese society. Loyalty is as good as gone except in name, etiquette less practiced as time goes by, xin(integrity) start getting ignored, ren(humaneness) considered less and less important than material gain.
I personally respect these aspects of confucianism myself, but I wonder as I grow up, is this virtue mentioned in the teaching get left behind because it no longer fit with our current society, or is there some other reason. |
2013-07-30, 22:55 | Link #24 |
Shadow of Effilisi
Join Date: Oct 2011
|
While I have utmost respect for Confucius as a teacher, I am somewhat skeptical of Confucianism, or at least part of it.
The Confucianism that was followed for centuries in China is not exactly the philosophy taught by Confucius. During Han Dynasty, it was selected as a tool to strengthen the central rule of the emperor because of Confucianism's idea of respecting elders and superiors. Han Dynasty basically abolished other schools of philosophy and strongly promoted a version of Confucianism that put more emphasis on loyalty. It was more or less a thought control tool, although not without many virtues of Confucianism. It was quite successful too, as most dynasties henceforth had much stronger control over the country than the early Han and Zhou Dynasties. So you can understand why early Communists hated Confucianism. They believed in class warfare and equality, and Confucianism's emphasis on loyalty and respect was opposite of that. But because of the utter dominance of Confucianism in Chinese history, other schools of teaching were suppressed or at best partly survived. It effectively ended development in many area in philosophy and other subjects. Other schools such as Legalism and Mohism could have offered much more to Chinese philosophical thinking, politics and economics. We could have seen more emphasis in rule by law and greater social mobility, perhaps even greater advances in math and engineering. |
2013-07-31, 05:09 | Link #26 | ||
I don't give a damn, dude
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In Despair
Age: 38
|
Quote:
Quote:
This custom is increasingly falling out of favour as being obsolete, though conservative families might still insist on it. I'm not sure about the certain foods or certain activities, but the no-washing-of-hair thing is just a custom for the sake of custom these days. It used to have a point when avoiding wet hair is meant to avoid the mother catching a potentially fatal flu in the chilly climate, but theses days... eh. |
||
2013-07-31, 05:29 | Link #27 | |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
|
Quote:
You can be loyal - only to the one that gives you benefits. You can have etiquette - as long as it helps you maintain a gentleman's (君子) image. You can have integrity - in any situation that is easy for you to show. You can be humane - so long as the other party isn't a complete asshole. This is called neo-Confucianism. *sarcastic*
__________________
|
|
2013-07-31, 06:49 | Link #28 | |||||||
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
|
I might as well move in this set of posts, dating back to July 2010, from the News Stories thread.
Synopsis 1) Basically, Doraneko cited academic sources showing that Cantonese — not Mandarin, ie, putonghua — was very likely the original "language" of China during the Sui (AD 581–618) and Tang (AD 618–907) dynasties. 2) Preserved "rhyming dictionaries" from both dynasties are available to prove this theory. 3) Now, the Japanese borrowed heavily from Chinese culture during the mainland's Tang dynasty. Among its imports were Buddhism and the Chinese script (hanzi, which became kanji in Japan). 4) And that is why the "Chinese" pronunciations of some Japanese kanji (ie, onyomi) sound very similar to modern Cantonese. 5) The most obvious example would be the very simple 了解 ("I understand"). It is pronounced ryokai in Japanese, which is remarkably similar to the Cantonese liukai. ========== (A) Quote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doraneko Quote:
(B) Quote:
Quote:
|
|||||||
2013-07-31, 09:14 | Link #30 | |||
Ava courtesy of patchy
Join Date: Jan 2009
|
Quote:
Which is why it's even more depressing. Even though we've been show the solution by an ancient philosopher, why is it so hard for the Chinese that's been doctrinated about it all their life to apply it. You can't expect your opposition to lower the gun if you don't lower the gun first. Someone has to start somewhere. Quote:
Instead of taking the good out of the teaching, a lot of new generation of Chinese forget xin(integrity) while practicing business, and instead of being a quite, self-reflecting, and self-improving gentleman like Confucianism advocated, lots of rich young Chinese nowadays took an arrogant boisterous attitude instead. As for Confucianism being the reason other philosophical idea such as Legalism or Mohism being surpressed and stunting the growth of ancient Chinese science and engineering, while I agree it's a shame(I'm a science person myself), but I always believe being a good person is more important then growth in science and engineering. I always believe, it's useless if people are surrounded by high-end tech and complicated understanding of the world, yet they don't have the morale to use it for good, and if the morale is being upheld, there will be no need for Legalism because people will always think for the best being of others and act on it instead of following the law because they're afraid of the punishment. In fact, it's been told that when Confucius rule a city as a magistrate, the citizen doesn't bother to close or lock the door of their house because the citizen have such high morale that almost no crime occurred in the city, and when a crime does occurred, the law enforcer do their best to catch the criminal. I know that this might be too naive, but when you can achieve such a socio-political state when applying Confucianism, Legalism might not be needed again because following the law(or norm) become everyone's expectation of themselves instead of what other expect to a person. tl;dr : The original Confucianism, while have a lot of outdated value, actually teach us how to be a good man who also will act for their belief, and IMO is the most important value needed from a person. Quote:
Taoism is indeed much more complex than Confucianism, but Taoism touch the spiritualism a little too much IMO, and spiritualism is a little harder to swallow for people because they have their own spiritual belief. Confucianism OTH, is only about social behavior teaching, which is why they are more easily accepted even by the Hui Ethnic of China whose majority are Muslims. Last edited by kuroishinigami; 2013-07-31 at 09:37. |
|||
2013-07-31, 12:51 | Link #31 |
#1 Akashiya Moka Fan
Author
|
So here's a question that I've asked a couple of Chinese professors of mine, and I'm curious as to others' views on it.
As I'm sure many of you are aware, male children have always been favored over female children, and I think there were even stories of when the 1-child policy was enacted, female children would be killed just so the couple could have another child and hope that it was male. and IIRC, one of the explanations behind this was because in marriage, you would be "losing a daughter" and therefore losing a body that could help out with maintaining a family. So the part I've never understood is this: what's the point of having/wanting only male children, when it's only the females that can actually reproduce? The way this idea works, it sounds like you'd be getting rid of the way to make more children.
__________________
|
2013-07-31, 15:15 | Link #32 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
|
Quote:
|
|
2013-07-31, 16:39 | Link #33 |
思想工作
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Vereinigte Staaten
Age: 32
|
Daughters are fine unless you can't produce any sons that live to adulthood. Economics are where it's at; daughters end up being a net loss for whoever has to raise them. Weirdly enough you even had to give a dowry to the family of the groom; if anything it ought to have been the other way around to compensate the bride's parents for losing their daughter.
|
2013-07-31, 16:53 | Link #34 | |
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
|
Quote:
__________________
|
|
2013-07-31, 17:46 | Link #35 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
|
Quote:
http://www.ibtimes.com/map-chinas-br...nly-city-where |
|
2013-07-31, 19:14 | Link #36 | |
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
|
Quote:
__________________
|
|
2013-07-31, 19:35 | Link #37 | |
Knight Errant
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Age: 36
|
Quote:
The same can also be said for Britain and Ireland (Britain has better Chinese food then Ireland though, in that several British cities have proper Chinatowns). Interestingly, the manner in which the food is "westernized" is quite different in Britain and the US. For instance, General Tso's Chicken is ubiquitous in the US, and unheard of in Britain/Ireland. On the flipside, our chinese places tend to drench the dishes in immense amounts of sauce, which is again not seen in America. Our Chinese takeaways also commonly sell "Chips" (french fries) alongside the more traditional rice, which most would find rather unusual. The "wetness" of the Chinese food is particularly interesting, because it corresponds to a predilection for foods in Northwest Britain, Ireland and Scotland for other "wet" food, namely Gravy (very common), Stew and in terms of "chip culture", Chips are often drenched in vinegar. You also have the equally strange phenomenon of "curry chips". |
|
2013-07-31, 23:45 | Link #38 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
|
Quote:
So it is very strange to say that Confucianism is easily accepted by the Hui Ethnic. That's putting things in the wrong order. They were Han Chinese who had Confucianism as part of their culture way back. Muslim on the other hand, is something acquired along the way.
__________________
|
|
Tags |
china, chinese cinema |
|
|