Confucius’s Religious Outlook— Access to Religion by Morality

• Main Authors: Lin cheng-kong, 林真功
• Other Authors: Chen Jen-Kuen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/wtb4y8

碩士 === 華梵大學 === 哲學系碩士班 === 102 === Confucius’s religious outlook should be viewed from two aspects. One is from the connection between Supreme Being and human, the other is from spirits and human. The connection between Supreme Being and human involve moral sense and social order, and spirits involve worship and veneration. In Shang Dynasty and early Zhou Dynasty, Supreme Being dominated nature and humans, with the worship from Supreme Being to spirits as a whole. As for Confucius’s religious outlook, he held that the connection between human and Supreme Being was separated from the connection between human and spirits and Supreme Being was separated from worship since the domination of Supreme Being was reduced, while connection between human and spirits were classified into ceremony. This thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter one is an introduction. Chapter two is the connection between Supreme Being and human and discusses Confucius’s religious outlook, which was evolved from a primitive religion. In Shang Dynasty, Supreme Being is of domination, supremacy and great authority. He dominated nature and mortal world, gave human catastrophe or blessings. Hence, he was worshiped by people. However, in early Zhou Dynasty, the Supreme Being of domination, supremacy and great authority were gradually rich in moral connotation, looking after people, settling down the public, and making kings as agents to conciliate people and make them live a prosperous and contented life. Till the period of Confucius, Supreme Being was of fading domination, supremacy and authority, but he still retained its moral authority and creation. In Shang Dynasty, the mandate of Supreme Being is supreme call and order toward the natural universe and the mortal world. The mandate of Supreme Being in Zhou Dynasty was the Supreme Being’s appointment to the king, and the appointment criteria were the king’s morality. Confucius deems that the mandate of Supreme Being is Supreme Being’s universal demand for human morality and life subject should be awed by Supreme Being’s demand for morality. Confucius seldom talked about the mandate of Supreme Being, so the meaning of Confucius’s mandate of Supreme Being can be known more clearly from the evolution of mandate ideas. Confucius did not cancel Supreme Being or destroy the belief structure of original religion or Supreme Being, human and the connection between Supreme Being and human. Its belief structure remains the same, but Supreme Beings’ domination and supremacy faded, only with moral authority remained. He deepened the human dimension and highlighted the human subjectivity from the belief structure of original religion. Human shared sacred transcendence bestowed by the Supreme Being. Human showed nobleness and dignity of life in the belief of dual subjectivity through the presentation of inherent moral transcendence. Although human subjectivity is emphasized, human still lead to the Supreme Being while revering and knowing the Supreme Being. Confucius endowed subjectivity with inherent transcendence by the transcendent Supreme Being outside and expanded subjective autonomy to highlight the transcendence existing inside life spirit. The transcendence of Confucius did not argue subjective transcendence in cognition, but developed and demonstrated the moral transcendence of human life subjectivity in the cultivation and practice of life spirit. Chapter three is the connection between spirits and human. Confucius did not please but kept away from spirits with the rational attitude to treat. He treated ancestors and spirits with respectful and gratitude principles, just same as the attitude toward life and death and serving them with courtesy. Confucius thought that the ideal country was to run this shore to become a paradise, rather than the distant opposite shore. People still existed in some part of the world after death, which showed strong religious color on mortal world. Chapter four is the conclusion. Confucius advocated the inherent moral transcendence rooted in Supreme Being, highlighted human’s life subjectivity and showed cultural concepts and activities from inherent holy transcendence. The moral and cultural world was paved through the function of inherent holy transcendence in such religious activities as funeral ceremonies, life and death outlook and the establishment of human ideal world; his religious outlook is to highly the mortal world and remains human subjectivity with the access to religion by morality. Keywords: religious outlook; connection between Supreme Being and human; spirits; domination; the mandate of Supreme Being; subjectivity; transcendence; ideal country; thankful principle; respect spirits but keep away from it