Why Confucianism Makes No Sense to Westerners (And What You’re Missing)

This is why you don’t understand Confucianism

If you’re a Westerner like me, Confucianism is kind of confusing. It doesn’t help that a lot of the people talking about it when you look it up also don’t really get it. Or they get bogged down in the ideas and forget what it looks like in practice.

As an outsider, I don’t have that ingrained understanding that comes when it’s literally beaten into you as soon as you can read.

It Starts With How Children Learn

English, at least in America, is taught without much thought. “Spot ran across the lawn” and “The sun is yellow” are the sorts of things kids first learn how to write and read.

“A dutiful son obeys his father,” “a good emperor protects his people,” “a good wife obeys her husband,” are the sorts of phrases Chinese kids first learned, at least at one point. I’m sure things are somewhat different now.

For 2,000 years, Confucianism ruled China. Even today, its roots are so deep that you can’t separate it from overall Chinese culture.

The founder of the Han dynasty made it the state “religion,” though many from the west don’t think Confucianism can be classified as a religion. That goes back to our cultural definitions. We look at Abrahamic religion and if something doesn’t follow that model, we have trouble defining it as a religion.

In the East, philosophy and religion are basically the same thing. Confucianism came at a time when China was torn into dozens of warring nation-states, before the first unification. Confucius, or Kong Fuzi, saw the chaos.

China was and still might be the leader in irrigation. They need to get a lot of water to a lot of land to grow enough crops to feed their massive population. In the Song dynasty (960 to 1279), their records state they had about a billion people. That was half of the human population at that time.

When war came to the Middle Country (literal translation of Zhongguo, what we call China) millions would die of famine.

Kong Fuzi knew his people needed a better way if they were to survive and not let them suffer tremendously throughout their lives. He looked to history. This is a fundamental aspect of Ruxue, what we’ve called Confucianism.

According to classical Chinese thought, the ancient past had all the answers. Humanity, specifically the Chinese, had achieved greatness long ago. Everything since then has been downhill. All you can ever hope to do is live up to your ancient ancestors.

The shadow is as big as it could get.

He found many works from many thinkers and compiled them. He did not invent Confucianism. Kong Fuzi was more of a historian and librarian, who found the books from the distant past and wrote commentaries on them for his contemporary audience.

It did not take off at first. It took until the Han dynasty, centuries later, for it to become the staple of Chinese society.

The Rules That Govern a Billion People

The core principles, or Cardinal Virtues, are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom.

Benevolence is kindness and not abusing other people.

Righteousness is the innate drive to stop yourself from being trod on and letting others be abused.

Propriety might be hard to grasp for a lot of Westerners. It’s about fulfilling your familial and ritualistic duties, not just in action but in thought. You must WANT to be an obedient son or daughter, or you’re a failure as a human being. Neo-Confucianism, started in the Song Dynasty, emphasized this even more. True faith might be a good way to think about it.

Wisdom is your knowledge of Confucian ethics and your ability to decide what you should do in any-given situation. If the Emperor tells you to kill your father, what do you do?

Obviously, you defy the emperor.

That’s right, unlike European medieval societies, you defy the emperor. Not even the medium between the heavens and the earth, ruler of mankind, can tell you to do that. It’s not even a question.

Family loyalty and obedience are the most important things that exist, according to this model of the universe. It’s the fabric that makes society function. You do not defy your parents, and you can beat your own kids as hard and often as you need to keep them in line.

But wait, doesn’t that contradict the whole benevolence thing? Welcome to Chinese thought. Something I learned about human nature during my research for the First Ogre King was this simple fact: to be hypocritical is to be human.

The Paradox of Confucianism

Any Westerner looking in, and many Chinese commentators, say that China is a land of paradox.

The Art of War is a Taoist text that was required reading in the military exams for centuries. Many around the world study it today. You might find this surprising, if you haven’t read it, but it’s ultimately a pacifist text. It emphasizes that true brilliance is to win before troops even set foot on the battlefield.

True victory is only achieved if you take the nation without laying siege to its citadels and slaughtering its people. You should capture an army and turn it over to your side, rather than destroy it.

True military brilliance is outwitting your enemy before the battle even happens!

On the flip side, a common practice when a dynasty fell, especially in the earlier centuries, with chaos rising everywhere, was to end your enemy’s bloodline. There is no cycle of vengeance if there isn’t anyone to enact it. Every man, woman, and child in the enemy clan would be executed.

One man who did those sorts of things was a major commentator on the Art of War from the legendary Three Kingdoms Period, Cao Cao (pronounced Tzao Tzao).

Confucianism took root, but so did Legalism. Qin Shi Huang, the first unifier of China, loved Legalism and is reported to have buried many Confucian thinkers alive. We can’t really know for sure, since he’s remembered as a despot and many later historians hated him. Its philosophy is the total opposite of Confucianism.

According to Legalism, people are like wild animals who must be put in their place with fear and punishments if you want an orderly society.

It took root, and those two ideas have been flowing together, Yin to Yang, for over two thousand years. Taoism was there too, just as long, and Buddhism came in not long after in the grand scheme of things.

You can’t truly understand Confucian thought without understanding Taoist thought. Both religious philosophies came about from the Book of Changes.

But that’s a whole other discussion for another post.

Yin and Yang, Two conflicting Philosophies living together

Today I’ll leave you with my core takeaways of Confucianism. It’s more than just a political philosophy, as some have called it. It’s not really a religion in the Western sense either. Ruxue (ru studies), or Confucianism, is a way of life.

The Imperial Examinations were the most intensive the world has ever known. Once the Song dynasty came along, anyone who could afford it could take them, except the undesirables like merchants and singers and anyone who had an “unworthy” occupation.

You studied for years. Then, in what we now would call the high school years, you take the first of three exams. This one is for the outer or lesser degree.

Up to this point, you’ve spent your entire life leading to this moment. You’ve been beaten thousands of times for everything you’ve gotten wrong until your recitations were perfect. You can recall all of your books perfectly and give your commentary on these ideas.

It wasn’t just about wrote memorization, though that was critical. You also had to reason like a Confucian, and argue your point.

Of course, if you were born a woman, you aren’t eligible, so none of this applies to you. Women were essentially property to be exchanged in family politicking deals. However, unless your husband ends up being really shitty, you’re actually treated much nicer than if you were a son. That’s true in China today too. Girls get a lot more leniency than boys.

A son must be perfect. No time for playing; it doesn’t matter that you’re 5. You will be a master by the time you’re 20 or you’re a failure and might as well kill yourself for the disgrace you’ve brought on the family.

Every mistake you make will be met with a beating until you stop making mistakes. This is true for academics, Kung Fu, piano, or any other pursuit your parents have forced on you.

I’ve listened to and read quite a lot of personal reports from people who grew up in China, or had Chinese parents. This isn’t even the norm. This is just what happens. I’m yet to come across a single example where this isn’t the case.

Once you get to the exam building, you’re strip-searched, because cheating is rather sophisticated. There are tales of ink brushes with hidden strips of paper inside the handle. Or writing the answers on the body. Or hiding notes in their hair.

You’re given a brush and paper and clothes to wear. Then they put you in what’s basically a cubicle with a bucket to use when you have to go.

You’ll spend the next three days here. Yes, days, taking the most important exam of your life. If you succeed, you’ll have a career. If you’re awarded an inner and superior degree later on, you might even become a high official in the imperial bureaucracy.

Your grandkids will benefit from the wealth and status you can achieve, even with a lowly position. There were yearly salaries of silver, rice, silk, and other amenities the higher up you got.

If you failed, you could try again next year. There was no limit to how many times you could take the exam.

But with a 1 to 3% passing rate each year, good luck. It was one of the few ways to get ahead in society. And it was pretty much the only one that was socially acceptable, meaning it’s the only option.

On top of that, all the berating you’d get when you got home would hardly be motivational. Then again, fear and shame are powerful motivators in their own way, and shame is an important aspect of Confucian society. If you don’t understand shame, you’re a failure.

What This Actually Looks Like in Real Time

Social conformity is vitally important. The Japanese have a great example of this, since China was basically the Greece of the East. Everyone stole their ideas.

One in ten kids is left-handed, yet there are no left-handed Japanese students. Why? Because it doesn’t matter if you’re left-handed. You will learn to write with your right hand. That is that. Shut the fuck up. The teacher will beat you if you disagree.

I should add that there isn’t really a concept of “honor,” which you’ve probably seen in the movies. Personal honor isn’t a thing. Family face is, which I could see as somewhat similar.

But honor is earned through personal glory. That’s my understanding anyway. Family face is maintained and grown when everyone does as they’re told and the clan rises in social status among other families. Everyone must play their part. If you disgrace yourself, you disgrace the family. If you do that, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Hierarchy is everything. The older are in charge of the younger. Superiors must lead their inferiors, and inferiors must obey.

The very language is hierarchical.

A simple example is when we talk about a location. In English, we usually say something like this—Apartment 1234, 1st Street, New York City, USA.

The Chinese language is traditionally written top down, not horizontally across the page. So it’s written more like this –

USA
New York City
1st street.
Apartment 1234

See the difference? Note how the order changed too. Most important to least important. Largest to smallest. Even the language’s structure flows in hierarchy.

I could go on and on, but I’ve written enough. If you want to explore these ideas on a much more personal and expanded level, you’ll love The First Ogre King Book 1. I spent years studying Chinese history and culture while crafting my debut dark fantasy novel. You’ll get the first five chapters totally for free when you sign up for my reader group right here.