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Confucian Family Values: Lessons for the West
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18178 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1990 |
5,003 Words |
| Author
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Gilbert Wong and Sally Stewart
Gilbert Wong is a lecturer in the Department of Management
Studies at the University of Hong Kong. His main research
interest is the cross-cultural studies of management practices
and human resource management in Asia. Sally Stewart is a
senior lecturer in the Department of Management Studies at the
University of Hong Kong. She was formerly on the staff of the
University of Malaya and has lectured and traveled extensively
in china. |
Barbara Bush in her Wellesley College speech in June 1990 said to the graduating class:
You have three very special choices.... The third choice that must not be missed is to cherish your human connections. You are a human being first, and those human connections with spouses, children, and friends are the most important investment you will ever make. …You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child or a parent. …Our success as a society depends not on what happens in the White House but on what happens inside your house.
Confucius would have approved of Mrs. Bush, for he too believed that the government of the state depends upon the regulation of the family. Confucian virtues have often been compared with Western ethics and have been widely cited in recent years as an important ingredient in Asia's successful economic growth. But what is the essence of modern Confucianism as it has survived and developed through 2,500 years, and how does it express itself in Asian societies today?
The question will be examined from five aspects:
(1) Confucius the man and the Confucian view of human relations; (2) Confucian view on family; (3) Confucian familism in practice in Chinese societies; (4) Strengths and weaknesses, and economic consequence of Confucian family values; and (5) Confucianism in modern societies.
Confucius The Man
Confucius (Kung Fuzi) was born in the Chang Ping village of the state of Lu, which is located in the northeastern part of China in about 551 B.C. and was thus approximately a contemporary of such great Greek dramatists as Aeschylus and Sophocles. During Confucius' lifetime, china, like ancient Greece, was divided into a number of states, more or less equal in size and military strength, which were constantly at war with each other.
Confucius was not, as some have imagined, a theoretician remote from the world. His first professions were as a teacher, then steward of a ducal granary and later of lands. He was skilled in the gentlemanly pursuits of archery, carriage driving, and music, as well as being learned and punctilious. He dressed well but soberly.
He was out of office for many years, during which time he
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