Melicet
Páginas: 4 (958 palabras)
Publicado: 5 de abril de 2011
MELICET READING COMPREHENSION 1
No other philosopher in the world has had more enduring influence than Confucius. For over two thousand years his concept of government, and his ideas aboutpersonal conduct and morality, permeated Chinese life and culture. Even today, his thoughts remain influential.
There was little in his childhood background to predict the remarkable prestige thatConfucius achieved. He was born in a small principality in northeastern China, was reared in poverty, and had no formal education. Through diligent study, however, he educated himself and became a learnedman. For a while he held a minor government post; but he soon resigned that position and spent most of his life as a teacher. Eventually, his most important teachings were gathered together into abook, the Analects, which was compiled by his disciples.
The two cornerstones of his system of personal conduct were jen and li. Jen might be defined as “benevolent concern for one’s fellow men.” Liis a term less easily translated: it combines the notions of etiquette, good manners, and due concern for rituals and customs. Confucius believed that a man should strive after truth and virtuerather than wealth (and in his personal life he seems to have acted on that belief). In addition, he was the first major philosopher to state the Golden Rule, which he presented as “Do not do unto othersthat which you would not have them do unto you.”
Confucius believed that respect and obedience are owed by children to their parents, by wives to their husbands, and by subjects to their rulers.But he was never a defender of tyranny. On the contrary, the starting point of his political outlook is that the state exists for the benefit of the people, not the rulers. Another of his key politicalideas is that a ruler should govern primarily by morale example, rather than by force.
Confucius did not claim to be an innovator, but always said that he was merely urging a return to the moral...
No other philosopher in the world has had more enduring influence than Confucius. For over two thousand years his concept of government, and his ideas aboutpersonal conduct and morality, permeated Chinese life and culture. Even today, his thoughts remain influential.
There was little in his childhood background to predict the remarkable prestige thatConfucius achieved. He was born in a small principality in northeastern China, was reared in poverty, and had no formal education. Through diligent study, however, he educated himself and became a learnedman. For a while he held a minor government post; but he soon resigned that position and spent most of his life as a teacher. Eventually, his most important teachings were gathered together into abook, the Analects, which was compiled by his disciples.
The two cornerstones of his system of personal conduct were jen and li. Jen might be defined as “benevolent concern for one’s fellow men.” Liis a term less easily translated: it combines the notions of etiquette, good manners, and due concern for rituals and customs. Confucius believed that a man should strive after truth and virtuerather than wealth (and in his personal life he seems to have acted on that belief). In addition, he was the first major philosopher to state the Golden Rule, which he presented as “Do not do unto othersthat which you would not have them do unto you.”
Confucius believed that respect and obedience are owed by children to their parents, by wives to their husbands, and by subjects to their rulers.But he was never a defender of tyranny. On the contrary, the starting point of his political outlook is that the state exists for the benefit of the people, not the rulers. Another of his key politicalideas is that a ruler should govern primarily by morale example, rather than by force.
Confucius did not claim to be an innovator, but always said that he was merely urging a return to the moral...
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