My Perspective on the Story of Daoism and Confucianism

Introduction

In this module, we learned about the mysterious Daoism and Confucianism formed by the Chinese scholars, or more specifically, by the Hundred Schools of Thought, basically a wave of geniuses during Spring Autumn period and Warring States period. Confucianism, which created by Confucius, or Kong Fuzi, is a system of education that seeded deep within the people of East, it introduced The Five Cardinal Relationships, in short, it educated the respect that each relationship should have, especially filial piety, or the respect for elders. The Eastern way of respect has became so important that in today, each Eastern culture developed a set of special honorifics, we usually refer to it as 敬语(Jing yu) in Chinese. The Korean call it 경어(Gieng e), and the Japanese call it 敬語(Keigo), which can be used specifically to the seniors or the elders. Here is a video for the Keigo experiences,

Exploring "Keigo" - Everyday Japan #6 - Youtube - By Tokyo Otaku Mode

Tao Te Ching,
2nd century BC,
Mawangdui

Daoism, is one of the beliefs of Chinese philosophy. Those who follow would believe deep and practice in "Dao," which can be translate to the "way" or the "road." The text explained this about Daoism, "Daoism is founded on a deep love of nature, a love of the harmony and organic wholeness of nature. Mankind—that is, human society—is seen to be an integral part of the natural order, and as such, human life is potentially a perfect expression of the play of Dao."(Bresnan 338)

There's also one text that represents Daoism, it's called Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing), written by Lao Zi during the Spring Autumn period. One passage in Tao Te Ching is very well-known by Chinese people till this day, for how much it represents Daoism, "Dao begets One (nothingness; or reason of being), One begets Two (yin and yang), Two begets Three (Heaven, Earth and Man; or yin, yang and chi), Three begets all things."

Chapter 13-Confucianism

Portrait of Mencius,
National Palace Museum

For my question in Chapter 13, I selected "In what fundamental ways are Confucius and Mencius in agreement, and disagreement? What is your reaction to the suggestion that Mencius took the teaching further?"(Bresnan 333) The answer to this question can be found when Bresnan started to introduce Mencius to us, "He was far more doctrinaire than Confucius, seeming to want to proclaim the truth, rather than search for it. But he loved the teaching of Confucius deeply and was largely responsible for it becoming a permanent part of Chinese culture. And, also like Plato, his thinking built on the teaching of the master, developing what was only implied in it, and taking it further."(Bresnan 317) My reaction to the suggestion is glad, because knowing how effective and important it is today to the Chinese culture, I think it's beneficial and special, which could identiy much about the respect of Eastern culture.

Chapter 14-Daoism

For my question in Chapter 14, I selected "The very first line of  the Dao De Jing declares that 'The Dao that can be spoken is not the true Dao.' What does this mean."(Bresnan 359) I think it suggests that the Dao is something that cannot be merely described with words, the nature of Dao is far beyond what words could tell, just like the text explained, "The meaning of Dao lies beyond the power of language to describe; it is ineffable. We can only suggest, aluude, imly. One must learn to sense the presence of Dao, to grasp it intuitively."(Bresnan 340) This first line of Dao De Jing is connected in the same idea with the famous line after, where it expresses that all things were born from the Dao. 

Whether it's Confucianism or Daoism, both presented one idea to us, is that the long history of the Chinese culture has came with a great amount of ideas that are unique, and how much they have shaped the Eastern societies today, as well as how these ideas show the Western culture that there is another wide world to explore and experience.

Works Cited

Bresnan, Patrick. Awakening : An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought. New York, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018.

“Exploring ‘Keigo’ - Everyday Japan #6.” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmMNz7vOcOY. Accessed 20 Apr. 2021.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Tao Te Ching.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Aug. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching. Accessed 20 Apr. 2021.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Mencius.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 May 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mencius.Accessed 20 Apr. 2021.