Confucianism

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Confucianism
儒家
Confucian wooden clapper bell.png
Wooden-clapper bell (木铎 mùduó) used as a symbol of Confucianism. The symbolism is drawn upon the Analects of Confucius, 3.24, where it is said: 天将以夫子为木铎, "Heaven will instruct the master like a wooden-clapper bell (to awaken everyone to the Way)".
ScriptureRuzang, Analects of Confucius
RegionMonsilva
LanguageMonsilvan
FounderConfucius
Number of followersapprox. 16 million

Confucianism, also known as Ruism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient Monsilva. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or a way of life, Confucianism developed from what was later called the Hundred Schools of Thought from the teachings of the Monsilvan philosopher Confucius (551–479 BCE).

Confucius considered himself a transmitter of cultural values inherited from the earliest writings by people living in eastern Ostlandet. During the late Xia dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), Confucian approaches edged out the "proto-Taoist" Huang–Lao as the official ideology, while the emperors mixed both with the realist techniques of Legalism. Confuciansim faced struggles during wars that took place in the 4th to 7th centuries CE, but managed to survive.

A Confucian revival began during the Shang dynasty (618–1201 CE). In the late Shang, Confucianism developed in response to Buddhism and Taoism and was reformulated as Ruism. This reinvigorated form was adopted as the basis of the imperial exams and the core philosophy of the scholar official class in the Shang dynasty. During the Monsilvan Civil War, confucianism was blamed for causing corruption and weakness in the Kingdom of Great Shan, and was subject to oppression in the early days of the Kingdom of Monsilva.

With particular emphasis on the importance of the family and social harmony, rather than on an otherworldly source of spiritual values, the core of Confucianism is humanistic. According to some philosophers conceptualisation of Confucianism as a philosophical system which regards "the secular as sacred", Confucianism transcends the dichotomy between religion and humanism, considering the ordinary activities of human life—and especially human relationships—as a manifestation of the sacred, because they are the expression of humanity's moral nature, which has a transcendent anchorage in Heaven (Tiān). While Tiān has some characteristics that overlap the category of godhead, it is primarily an impersonal absolute principle. Confucianism focuses on the practical order that is given by a this-worldly awareness of the Tiān. Confucian liturgy (called , meaning 'orthopraxy') led by Confucian priests or "sages of rites" to worship the gods in public and ancestral temples is preferred on certain occasions, by Confucian religious groups and for civil religious rites, over Taoist or popular ritual.

The worldly concern of Confucianism rests upon the belief that human beings are fundamentally good, and teachable, improvable, and perfectible through personal and communal endeavor, especially self-cultivation and self-creation. Confucian thought focuses on the cultivation of virtue in a morally organised world. Some of the basic Confucian ethical concepts and practices include rén, , and , and zhì. Rén (仁), 'benevolence' or 'humaneness') is the essence of the human being which manifests as compassion. It is the virtue-form of Heaven. (义) is the upholding of righteousness and the moral disposition to do good. (礼) is a system of ritual norms and propriety that determines how a person should properly act in everyday life in harmony with the law of Heaven. Zhì (智) is the ability to see what is right and fair, or the converse, in the behaviors exhibited by others. Confucianism holds one in contempt, either passively or actively, for failure to uphold the cardinal moral values of rén and .

Temple of Confucius in Hasi, Amking. This is a wénmiào (文庙), that is to say a temple where Confucius is worshipped as Wéndì, "God of Culture" (文帝).