英语文章：论语中看孔子思想.docVIP

Xiaonan Jiang Midterm Paper (Confucius and the Analects) The Analects is a famous book that has influenced Chinese thoughts for thousands of years. As the saying goes, half Analects rules the world, thus it can be seen that the Analects is very important to the political field. Now I will characterize the political philosophy of early Confucianism as it is expressed in the Analects. First, the Analects suggests that the government should build a good leadership. Confucius attaches great importance to the leadership in the function of the political field, and he asks the leader must first make some achievements in morals, otherwise will be unable to lead the lower class of people. Confucius divides people in the society into two classes, namely junzi and xiaoren. Before Confucius, the original meanings of these two words were leaders and their subordinates. In the era of Confucius, these words began to having the moral sense. The Analects says: The relation between superiors and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend, when the wind blows across it. Combing the moral elements into the words which represented the the regulators and the regulated previously, the Confucians thinks that a leader should be a virtuous person. Also, Confucius suggests that the leader should set a good example to the masses. When Chi K’ang asked Confucius about government, Confucius replied: to govern means to rectify. If you lead on the people with correctness, who will dare not to be correct? Confucius also said that if a person was not covetous, although you reward him to do it, he would not steal. These examples illustrate that the governor should lead his men in a charge and take the lead in doing good. Then the Analects proposes a right strategy of administering the country: Ruling the country by virtue. The Mater says: If the people are led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have