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Confucianism

Confucianism is ethic system. In his time Confucius wanted to stem the rise of chaos and disorder in the political system and laid out details of how human relationships should look like.

Among other issues, Confucianism describes how people in different positions should behave towards each other. His teaching are based on six relationships:

Parents – Children
Husband – Wife
Elder Brother – Younger Brother

These three pairs result in six relationships. The two relationships of parents toward their children and of the children towards their parents are the most fundamental ones.

The others derive from it. Thus every relationship is based on filial piety, the respect that children owe to their parents and the parents’ obligation toward their children.

Over time the pattern has been applied to a wider range of relationships like:

Ruler – Subject
Teacher – Student
Friend – Friend

The latter one implies some kind of equality. However, if the one friend is older than the other then this couple of relationships tends towards those between elder and younger brother.

It is interesting to note that in this system all human relationships are based on a relationship that is inherently unchangeable – the parent-child-relationship. Parents will always be parents. This implies that all other positions are in a similar way ordained by nature, even though they may not occur within the bounds of a physical family.

This may in turn support claims of superiority or dominance based on seniority or position and thus be a source of injustice in society outside the realm of the family.

But Confucius also talked about the obligation of the ruler to do right and care for his followers. He introduced the term ‘true obedience’ to indicate that obedience belongs to a leader who does right, but not to one that does wrong. In reality  ‘true obedience’ to a wrongful ruler at times resulted in civil disobedience to the degree that the offender was put to death. There are numerous martyrs that are honored in Confucianism for following the higher laws, disobeying their direct ruler and meeting death in the process.

The concept that the leader has an obligation to do right and the follower might have the right and obligation to disagree might lead to a mechanism that compensates for injustice instigated by bad or corrupt leaders. But martyrdom on a daily basis is too much to hope for. In reality modern Asian societies are very hierarchical and individuals on the lower rungs of the ladder are mostly expected to follow the higher ups based just on position. Those higher ups in turn demand and expect obedience based on their position.

Usually people understand how to fit into existing systems and are eager to follow whoever is above. That does not mean that people are happy in these relationships. They are not. The climate resulting from demand of obedience based on position is not a happy one and detrimental to creativity and flexibility. People follow nevertheless because of tradition, because it’s safe and because there are no alternatives. This behavior is not unknown in Western societies either. However, the entire climate is much less conducive to the development of leaders than in Western countries.

Especially when it comes to dynamic environments or areas where decisions require special expertise and experience, the insistence on position is often counterproductive. Numerous examples indicate that a society based on the Confucian values of filial piety and obedience to authority has great problems to adjust to changing environments. That does not mean that they are not able to dig in and survive.

Another observation is that the value system is rather external. Unchangeable, external attributes determine the position of individuals within the system.

Also, the Confucian concept that “you should do to others what you want to be done to you” leads in reality often to expectations that every good deed should be reciprocated and consequently many people are hesitant to receive as they feel the obligation to reciprocate the good deed at the next possible occasion.
 

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