How Neo-Confucianism influenced South Korea

Confucianism places a great deal of emphasis on the family, viewing all human relationships and institutions as patterned after or based on its model. Confucian familism stands in sharp contrast to the strong individualism traditionally associated with capitalism and liberal democracy. It has also been proven that Confucianism has not been an obstacle on the road to industrialization and capitalist development, if needed it has contributed in a positive fashion. For many in Confucian families lies at the heart of East Asian economic success. By this we mean a powerful tradition of private mutual aid far stronger than anything known in the West. Children must take care of their parents. Philanthropy exist in a quite generous matter, but it’s used to serve or reflect credit on one’s clan or one’s neighborhood not society in general. It was also believed that there is no separation between private and public. If your family was not in good order, you were not adequate to work for the government. It was believed that only when families are regulated are states well governed and only when states are well governed is there peace in the world. For them cultivating yourself, regulating your family and governing the state was the same thing. Confucianism places a great emphasis on belonging to a tradition, the sense of order and hierarchy and ritualistic behavior.
In comparison to the family the Confucian state has made a much greater positive contribution to economic development. As we have seen above, the Confucian state is an extension of the family and as such is viewed less negatively than in West. Because the state is an extension of the
Confucian family, it is also the locus of rituals and ethics the realm in which Confucian morality is practiced in a exemplary fashion. Confucian political thought also places a great emphasis on providing for the welfare of the people. Because of this tradition it was relatively easy for the state to take the