Good Confucianism book (pdf) - Department of Physics

Teachings II: The Foundation of a Good Society 49When people see themselves as part of a common whole, sharing goodtimes and bad times with their ruler, they are more likely to trust theirruler. If people believe in their government, they will put up with all sortsof hardships. It is the ruler ’ s job to build that trust. He does that by cultivatinghis virtues and being a gentleman. As the people see his behavior,they will model themselves on it. The ideal situation would be a ruler whowas actually a sage – a perfectly moral human being. Confucius thinks thatthis is why the sage - kings of the past were so successful: they combinedhumanity and ritual in such a way that ordinary people followed themwillingly.Even if a ruler is not a sage, he can appoint wise ministers, Confuciangentlemen, who will give him good advice and serve him loyally. For theirpart, cultivated gentlemen should take office in states where they have achance of influencing the ruler for the good or in states where the ruler wasalready good. To accept a salary from a bad ruler is a shameful thing 8 andgentlemen were to stay away from states that were so badly ruled that theywere about to collapse. Real power should be given to educated, trainedgentlemen who would be government ministers. They would care for thecommon people and advise the ruler wisely. They are the ones who willguide ordinary people and establish good government.Ordinary people cannot manage on their own. We have already seenConfucius say that common people can be led so as to follow a path, butnot so that they understand it. 9 Care and guidance must be given by governmentto bring people into the right path, and that is why the gentleman asgovernment minister is so important. When Confucius talked about governmentfor the benefit of the people, he was not talking about democracy. Hisview of government is a paternal kind of government: the government actstoward the common people as a father acts toward his children, guiding,caring, and disciplining. As far as Confucius is concerned, only the educatedelite really understand the moral, social, and political objectives involved– they are “ inner - directed ” ; that is, they are able to maintain their moralstance in good times or bad. Ordinary people, on the other hand, need agood environment, with good models and a good economy, before theycan act properly; they are “ outer - directed, ” changing according to goodor bad times.LawsIt is also important that these gentlemen - ministers are models of virtueso that ordinary people can follow them. Simply enacting laws does notprovide that kind of guidance. Laws may be necessary for those who, nomatter what kind of government is in place, will never behave. But laws and