Analects of Confucius

In this book, Confucius provides examples of filiality and outlines the principles of the good and correct government of the people and the virtues of the one who governs best. With respect to matters of government, Confucius writes:

He said: If in governing you try to keep things levelled off in order by punishments, the people will, shamelessly, dodge. Governing them by looking straight into one’s heart and then acting on it (on conscience) and keeping order by the rites, their sense of shame will bring them not only to an external conformity but to an organic order (13). 

According to the Confucian doctrine, the best mode of governance involves the cultivation of a people who have integrated a sense of right and wrong into their everyday lives. In this way, one can govern without having the burden of issuing threats of punishment. Or again as Confucius is reported to have told Chi K’ang, “Approach them [the people] seriously, respectful and deferent to everyone; promote the just and teach those who just cannot, and they will try” (16). For Confucius, the key to achieving a good and just government of the people involves instilling the correct morals and cultivating just behaviors on their part so that the people themselves act in such a way as to uphold the social order and civic virtues. 

With respect to the matter of filiality, Confucius writes that “[p]resent-day filial piety consists in feeding the parents, as one would a dog or a horse; unless there is reverence, what difference is there?” (14). Thus, according to the Confucian doctrine, filial piety (respect for one’s elders) must be something more than merely sustaining the life of an elder. Filial piety requires this material sustenance alongside emotional and social care. Thus Confucius will eventually claim that it is by the cultivation of everyday habits such as filiality that good government is best achieved: 

Someone asked Confucius why he was not in the government [...] He said: The Historic Documents say: filiality, simply filiality and the exchange between elder and younger brother, that spreads into government; why should one go into the government? (16).

In this book, Confucius takes up the theme of rites, artistic forms, and social ceremonies that are constitutive of a just and harmonious society. For instance, when assessing the kind of music that belongs to a just society, Confucius remarks that “[t]he Shao (songs) are completely beautiful and wholly good. The Wu are beautiful, completely, but not completely good (morally proportioned)” (22). He also states, “Talking with the superintendent of music in Lu, he said: One can understand this music; a rousing start in unison, then the parts follow pure, clear one from another, (brilliant) explicit to the conclusion” (22). And with respect to the customs and proper attitudes in relations between the ministers and the prince, Confucius remarks that “[t]he prince uses his ministers according to the prescribed ceremonial, ministers serve the prince by their sincerity. [The prince to judge the propriety, the ministers (middle-heart) not to fake in the execution]” (21). The unifying thread that connects Confucius’s comments regarding the proper etiquette between prince and minister, and the artistic forms that correspond to a just society, is the harmonious relation between part and whole, between servant and governor, between the people and the music they come to enjoy and view as expressive of the virtues of their society. Thus, says Confucius, “Dwelling on high without magnanimity, performing the rites without reverence, coming to funerals without regrets; why should I bother about them?” (23).