Confucian Beliefs

The endeavor to rationalize and explicate one’s suffering functions as one of the foremost features of the human condition. For millennia, humans have habitually questioned the purpose of one’s suffering; and, with various theories and explanations, sought to rationalize it. As suffering often appears random or unmerited, many teachers, philosophers, and leaders have claimed a monopoly on the answer to this question. One would be hard pressed to find a religion or a philosophy that neither addresses nor justifies human suffering. In fact, it is in times of great suffering when people gaze upwards towards the heavens, and towards people who they believe possess the best answer for society’s ills. It is in this paradigm that both Confucian and
Confucian thought arose during the Spring and Autumn Period, “a period of increasingly bitter strife and conflict that was to last 500 years.” (Adler, 30) It was during this time of immense instability and suffering that philosophy and literary discourse flourished. Confucian thought dealt with how to create a society that prevented such disorder, chaos, and suffering to occur. More focus on the natural state of suffering and of life is found in later Confucian sages, like Xunzi. Buddhism was founded with similar intentions by Siddhartha Gautama, after forty days of meditating on the nature of suffering under a Bodhi tree. Siddhartha desired a middle way for every individual to understand the nature of suffering. In this regard, there are numerous similarities between Confucianism and Buddhism in how it approaches this question. The common thread that ties these two together is the fact that both traditions stress the importance of recognizing that suffering is the natural component of an unexamined life. This often goes unrecognized in much scholarly
Although, their method and focus to reach this harmony does differ, one would be amiss not to point out the similarities. In Confucianism, this harmony depends a dedication to Filial Piety and tenants like the Silver rule. The Silver rule, juxtaposed to the Golden rule for its negative qualities, means to “never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.” (Confucius, Analects XV, tr. David Hinto [Not Ivanhoe tr.]) This rule is clearly reflected several times throughout Buddhist texts: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” (Udanavarga, 5:18) And: “One who, while himself seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other beings who also desire happiness, will not attain happiness hereafter.” (Dhammapada, 10) These deliberations are all in response to the question of how to create a society, and craft a person, who can best handle the nature of the world, which by character, is the nature of