7. Malaysian Chinese & religion (Part 2: Confucianism)
It is 551 BCE, ancient China. A man named Confucius — in Mandarin, Kongzi 孔子 — is born, under the era of the Zhou dynasty (周朝). This was known as the Eastern Zhou (东周) period, reflecting how it was founded by Zhou rulers who had fled eastward to escape an invasion into their earlier kingdom of Western Zhou (西周). In this way, the Zhou survived, but its glory days were over, and the dynasty was a shadow of itself. While the Zhou continued to be a royal house, its power was waning. In some parts of ancient China, the Zhou ruled only in name; on the ground, local feudal politics reigned supreme.
It was in this place and time that Confucius grew up, which in turn shaped his views profoundly — views that would endure and shape human civilisation for millennia to come.
This is what today’s post —Part 2 of my series on Malaysian Chinese & Religion — is all about. Last week, I wrote about how Malaysian Chinese religion, while being incredibly diverse in tradition and practice, generally has roots in three belief systems: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. Today, we will look at Confucianism more closely. Let’s get our nerd on!
Note: As with Part 1, this post continues to reference Tan Chee-Beng’s “Chinese Religion in Malaysia: A General View”, an excellent read which you can read in full here.
Confucianism: a worldview born of nostalgia?
Confucius grew up in a kingdom that was already on the brink of breaking apart. The Zhou dynasty eventually fell around 256 BCE, but the tail end of its existence would coincide with the Warring States period (战国时代), from 481 to 221 BCE — an era of disunity and civil warfare in ancient Chinese history.
How should a person make sense of the world around them, in such a time? What should be one’s compass in navigating the chaos? What is the way?
Confucius sought answers to those questions, and he found them in the past. More specifically, it was the years of the Western Zhou that Confucius drew inspiration from. The Western Zhou reigned for hundreds of years, and seemed to provide a model of stability and order. They must have done something right, I can imagine Confucius thinking to himself.
It is from this historical context that the teachings of Confucius — termed as Confucianism — emerged. In a way, one could think of Confucius as being similar to the Western archetype of the conservative philosopher — that is, one who values things like tradition, institutions, hierarchy, custom, conformity.
For instance, Tan Chee-Beng — in the paper I previously referenced — describes Confucius as being “very much concerned with the prescribed and proper rules of behaviour”, “preoccupied with upholding li 礼 or the existing codes of etiquette, the way of the sages”, and a “rather orthodox person”.
Indeed, I’ve found ‘Confucius as a Conservative’ to be a great heuristic to tap into the underlying motivations of his teachings. However useful, I do think it does not fully reflect what Confucianism is all about. Let’s explore that a little more.
Quick note: Every now and then, I will be referencing a text called the Analects 论语. This is basically the compilation of sayings and teachings of Confucius, which is said to have been put together by his followers.
Virtuous individuals make a virtuous society
At the heart of Confucianism is the idea of virtue (德 de), and the way to achieve it 道 (dao). To that end, Confucianism speaks to five qualities of such a person — 仁 (ren, benevolence), 义 (yi, righteousness), 礼 (li, propriety), 智 (zhi, wisdom) and 信 (xin, trustworthiness).
These qualities are expressed not in an individualistic manner, but instead within the context of broader society. Specifically, Confucianism has a concept of “five constant relationships” (五伦), namely: ruler and subject, parent and child, husband and wife, siblings, and friends. With this, there are also key concepts that govern behaviour.
For example, in the realm of the household, there is filial piety (孝顺 xiao shun), which centres around obedience and dutifulness towards one’s parents, the elderly and elder siblings. In the realm of the government, there is the notion of political authority being divinely ordained through the Mandate of Heaven (天命 Tianming), which we explore further in the next section.
Consider this excerpt from the Analects (12.11):
“The duke Jing, of Qi, asked Confucius about government. Confucius replied, “There is government, when the prince is prince, and the minister is minister, when the father is father, and the son is son.””
There is a strong and clear focus on preserving harmony with the social order in Confucian thought.
Virtuous leadership, rather than forceful authority
Confucianism places a great emphasis on virtue when it comes to the ruler — or in modern terms, leadership and government. To put it simply, leaders need to lead by example, and they should lead with virtue. The belief was that if leaders do this, people will follow, and society will flourish. Consider the following excerpt from the Analects (2.3):
“Confucius said: Guide the people with ordinances and statutes and keep them in line with threats of punishment, they will try to stay out of trouble but will have no sense of shame. If you guide them with exemplary virtue and keep them in line with the practice of the rites, they will have sense of shame and will know how to reform themselves.”
Notice how Confucius places so much weight on the conduct of the leader, and less so on things like hard rules and codes. (Side note: Later on in Chinese history, this would contrast with the legalist philosophy of the Qin dynasty — a story for another day — which believed in effecting social order through the use of force.)
As I understand it, Confucius drew inspiration for these ideals from the Western Zhou method of government — a feudal and somewhat decentralised system, which relied on a certain level of trust. This system was known as Fengjian (封建), usually translated as a “system of enfeoffment”.
That said, there was also a spiritual dimension to this idea of virtuous leadership and government. I’m sure you have heard of this phrase: Mandate of Heaven (天命 tian ming), which was the prevalent belief throughout ancient China about the divine right to rule. Who came up with the Mandate of Heaven? You guessed it: none other than Confucius’s favourite rulers: the Zhou.
One can imagine how Confucius felt that the missing link to the glory days was a virtuous leader — whose standards of conduct and morality would not only earn the loyalty and following of the people, but also the legitimacy of the divine.
Importantly, this divine right to rule came with a caveat. It was not permanent. And it was not necessarily passed down through bloodline. Instead, it was understood to be a privilege. Just as how a ruler can come to earn the mandate of heaven, they can also lose it if they weren’t doing a stellar job. As for the KPIs against which the kings were measured, people looked to signs such as famine and natural disasters. This is partly why transitions in ancient Chinese leadership sometimes — if not often — coincide with calamitous events.
Virtue through learning and scholarship
In my last post, I half-joked about how this piece on Confucianism will give you some answers about how the East Asian fixation on academic excellence.
Let’s consider some self-explanatory excerpts from the Analects:
“I do not open up the truth to one who is not eager to get knowledge, nor help out anyone who is not anxious to explain himself. When I have presented one corner of a subject to anyone, and he cannot from it learn the other three, I do not repeat my lesson.” — Analects (7.8)
“The Duke of She asked Zi Lu about Confucius, and Zi Lu did not answer him. Confucius said, “Why did you not say to him, ‘He is simply a man, who in his eager pursuit of knowledge forgets his food, who in the joy of its attainment forgets his sorrows, and who does not perceive that old age is coming on?” — Analects (7.19)
These quotes speak to the spirit of Confucianism. If there is a path to virtue, then it is a path that can be tread; all it takes is a commitment to learn how to do it, and to do so at high, exacting standards.
A Confucian life is thus a scholarly life, and a life of learning, one that accords great respect to the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. You may recall from my previous post that Confucianism can be described as ru 儒 in Mandarin. Ru literally means ‘scholar’, ‘learned’, or ‘refined man’.
In religious tradition, this manifests itself in the way in which Confucius as a person has been elevated to the status of a deity, at least by some Chinese (be it in Malaysia or elsewhere). Tan notes that this begins in the Later Han Dynasty, when Confucius was made the “patron god of scholars”, and that in Malaysia today, he is worshipped as a deity “associated with education”.
Confucianism: a religion, or not? Does this matter?
After many paragraphs, you may have noticed that the last section was the first time I’ve mentioned the word “religion” in this post. So, is Confucianism one?
If you ask me, it’s not a very straightforward question, and it depends greatly on what one takes to constitute a religion or not. What is abundantly clear, however, are two things.
The first is that Confucianism is a system of conduct and ethics, with an aspiration towards virtue, anchored on a well-defined social order. The second is that it has deeply shaped the worldview and traditions of the Chinese — and by extension, the beliefs of Malaysian Chinese about what is right, as much as what is sacred.
As I previously wrote, my sense of Malaysian Chinese religion is similar to what Tan had written about — that is, it is very much an amalgamation of various ideas and traditions, the primary ones being those of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. It is syncretic.
In that way, I personally feel that the question of whether Confucianism is a religion is ultimately academic. What is far more compelling is to understand its origins and core ideas, and how those have endured and evolved to remain relevant in contemporary society.
Coming up next
In the next part of this series, we will start looking at the remaining two components of Malaysian Chinese religion.
In all likelihood, Part 3 will be on Taoism. Want to know what the Taoist worldview has to do with how you decorate and renovate your home? Or why your mother keeps telling you that the problem is you are eating too much ‘heaty’ food? Stay tuned by hitting that Subscribe button!
As always, I welcome your questions, feedback and corrections — I am very much a beginner to all of this. Until then, thanks for reading and happy nerding!