Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius in the Hundred Schools of Thought era (c. 500 BCE), Confucianism integrates philosophy, ethics, and social governance, with a core focus on virtue, social harmony, and familial responsibility.
Confucianism emphasizes virtue through self-cultivation and communal effort. Key virtues include ren (, "benevolence"), yi (; "righteousness"), li (; "propriety"), zhi (; "wisdom"), and xin (; "sincerity"). These values, deeply tied to the notion of tian (; "Heaven"), present a worldview where human relationships and social order are manifestations of sacred moral principles.. While Confucianism does not emphasize an omnipotent deity, it upholds tian as a transcendent moral order. Quote, p. 10: "Confucianism is basically non-theistic. While tiān has some characteristics that overlap the category of deity, it is primarily an impersonal absolute, like and Brahman. "Deity" (, ), on the other hand connotes something personal (he or she, not it)." Quote, p. 12: "Confucianism deconstructs the sacred-profane dichotomy; it asserts that sacredness is to be found , not behind or beyond, the ordinary activities of human life—and especially in human relationships. Human relationships are sacred in Confucianism because they are the expression of our moral nature (), which has a transcendent anchorage in Heaven (). Herbert Fingarette captured this essential feature of Confucianism in the title of his 1972 book, Confucius: The Secular as Sacred. To assume a dualistic relationship between sacred and profane and to use this as a criterion of religion is to beg the question of whether Confucianism can count as a religious tradition."
Confucius regarded himself as a transmitter of cultural values from the preceding Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou dynasties. Suppressed during the Legalist Qin dynasty (c. 200 BCE), Confucianism flourished under the Han dynasty (c. 130 BCE), displacing the proto-Taoist Huang–Lao tradition to become the dominant ideological framework, while blending with the pragmatic teachings of Legalism. The Tang dynasty (c. 600 CE) witnessed a response to the rising influence of Buddhism and Taoism in the development of Neo-Confucianism, a reformulated philosophical system that became central to the imperial examination system and the scholar-official class of the Song dynasty (c. 1000 CE).
The abolition of the imperial examination system in 1905 marked the decline of state-endorsed Confucianism. In the early 20th century, Chinese reformers came to associate Confucianism with China's "Century of Humiliation", and instead embraced alternative ideologies such as Sun Yat-sen's "Three Principles of the People" and later Maoism. Nevertheless, Confucianism endured as a cultural force, influencing East Asian economic and social structures into the modern era. Confucian work ethic was credited with the rise of the East Asian economy in the late twentieth century.
Confucianism remains influential in China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and regions with significant Chinese diaspora. A modern Confucian revival has gained momentum in academic and cultural circles, culminating in the establishment of a national Confucian Church in China in 2015, reflecting renewed interest in Confucian ideals as a foundation for social and moral values.
American philosopher Herbert Fingarette describes Confucianism as a philosophical system which regards "the secular as sacred".
Terminology
There is no term in Chinese which directly corresponds to "Confucianism". The closest catch-all term for Confucianism is the word . Its literal meanings in modern Chinese include 'scholar', 'learned', or 'refined man'. In Old Chinese the word had a distinct set of meanings, including 'to tame', 'to mould', 'to educate', and 'to refine'. Several different terms, some of which with modern origin, are used in different situations to express different facets of Confucianism, including: – "the school of thought"; – " religious doctrine"; – " studies"; – "Confucius's religious doctrine"; – "Confucius's family's business", a pejorative phrase used during the New Culture Movement and the Cultural Revolution.
The terms that use do not use the name "Confucius" at all, but instead focus on the ideal of the Confucian man. The use of the term "Confucianism" has been avoided by some modern scholars, who favor "Ruism" and "Ruists" instead. Robert Eno argues that the term has been "burdened... with the ambiguities and irrelevant traditional associations". Ruism, as he states, is more faithful to the original Chinese name for the school.
The term "Traditionalist" has been suggested by David Schaberg to emphasize the connection to the past, its standards, and inherited forms, in which Confucius himself placed so much importance. This translation of the word is followed by e.g. Yuri Pines.
According to Zhou Youguang, originally referred to shamanic methods of holding rites and existed before Confucius's times, but with Confucius it came to mean devotion to propagating such teachings to bring civilisation to the people.
Five Classics and the Confucian vision
Traditionally, Confucius was thought to be the author or editor of the Five Classics which were the basic texts of Confucianism, all edited into their received versions around 500 years later by Imperial Librarian Liu Xin. The scholar Yao Xinzhong allows that there are good reasons to believe that Confucian classics took shape in the hands of Confucius, but that "nothing can be taken for granted in the matter of the early versions of the classics". The sixth classic similar to the Classic of Poetry was the Classic of Music. It was lost during the Han dynasty. Music carried an invaluable tool to induce focus in performing rituals. These were the internal (music) and external (rites) keys to harmonizing society. Yao suggests that most modern scholars hold the "pragmatic" view that Confucius and his followers did not intend to create a system of classics, but nonetheless "contributed to their formation".
The scholar Tu Weiming explains these classics as embodying "five visions" which underlie the development of Confucianism: I Ching (Classic of Change or Book of Changes), generally held to be the earliest of the classics, shows a metaphysical vision which combines divinatory art with numerological technique and ethical insight; philosophy of change sees cosmos as interaction between the two energies yin and yang; universe always shows organismic unity and dynamism. Classic of Poetry or Book of Songs is the earliest anthology of Chinese poems and songs, with the earliest strata antedating the Zhou conquest. It shows the poetic vision in the belief that poetry and music convey common human feelings and mutual responsiveness. Book of Documents or Book of History is a compilation of speeches of major figures and records of events in ancient times, embodying the political vision and addressing the kingly way in terms of the ethical foundation for humane government. The documents show the sagacity, filial piety, and work ethic of mythical sage-emperors Yao, Shun, and Yu, who established a political culture which was based on responsibility and trust. Their virtue formed a covenant of social harmony which did not depend on punishment or coercion. Book of Rites describes the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty. This social vision defined society not as an adversarial system based on contractual relations but as a network of kinship groups bound by cultural identity and ritual practice, socially responsible for one another and the transmission of proper antique forms. The four functional occupations are cooperative (farmer, scholar, artisan, merchant). Spring and Autumn Annals chronicles the period to which it gives its name, Spring and Autumn period (771–481 BC), from the perspective of Confucius's home state of Lu. These events emphasise the significance of collective memory for communal self-identification, for reanimating the old is the best way to attain the new.
Doctrines
Theory and theology
Confucianism revolves around the pursuit of the unity of the individual self and ("heaven"), or the relationship between humanity and heaven. The principle or way of Heaven ( or ) is the order of the world and the source of divine authority. or is monistic, meaning that it is singular and indivisible. Individuals may realise their humanity and become one with Heaven through the contemplation of such order. This transformation of the self is extended to family and society to create a harmonious community. Joël Thoraval studied Confucianism as a diffused civil religion in contemporary China, finding that it expresses itself in the widespread worship of five cosmological entities: Heaven and Earth (), the sovereign or the government (), ancestors (), and masters ().
According to the scholar Stephan Feuchtwang, in Chinese cosmology, which is not merely Confucian but shared by many Chinese religions, "the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy" ( and ), and is organized through the polarity of yin and yang that characterises any thing and life. Creation is therefore a continuous ordering; it is not creation "Yin and yang are the invisible and visible, the receptive and the active, the unshaped and the shaped; they characterise the yearly cycle (winter and summer), the landscape (shady and bright), the sexes (female and male), and even sociopolitical history (disorder and order). Confucianism is concerned with finding "middle ways" between yin and yang at every new configuration of the world."
Confucianism conciliates both the inner and outer polarities of spiritual cultivation—that is to say self-cultivation and world redemption—in the ideal of "sageliness within and kingliness without". , translated as "humaneness" or the essence proper of a human being, is the character of compassionate mind; it is the virtue endowed by Heaven and at the same time the means by which a person may achieve oneness with Heaven by comprehending their origin in Heaven, and therefore divine essence. In his work The Book of Great Unity (), late Qing dynasty reformer Kang Youwei considered as the means "to form one body with all things" and one can find "when the self and others are not separated... and when compassion is aroused".
"Lord Heaven" and "Jade Emperor" were terms for a Confucianist supreme deity who was an anthropomorphized , and some conceptions of it thought of the two names as synonymous.
Tian and the gods
, a key concept in Chinese thought, refers to the God of Heaven, the northern culmen of the skies and its spinning stars, earthly nature and its laws which come from Heaven, to 'Heaven and Earth' (that is, "all things"), and to the awe-inspiring forces beyond human control. There are so many uses in Chinese thought that it is impossible to give a single English translation.