Essay Available:
Pages:
7 pages/≈1925 words
Sources:
4 Sources
Style:
MLA
Subject:
Religion & Theology
Type:
Essay
Language:
English (U.S.)
Document:
MS Word
Date:
Total cost:
$ 31.19
Topic:
Han Feizi’s Critique of Confucianism
Essay Instructions:
Please use four sources in total with quotes. (two required, two of your choice)
1. Bellah, Robert. 2011. The Axial Age III: China in the Late First Millennium BCE,
Chapter 8 of Religion in Human Evolution. Harvard.
2. Yao, Xinzhong. 2000. An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge.
3. Your choice
4. Your choice
Please generate a formal and clear thesis, and use a lot of quotes to support it. Thanks
Essay Sample Content Preview:
Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Course Date Han Feizi’s Critique of Confucianism Confucius, an ancient Chinese philosopher, had entirely a different view of how the rulers should run the government. The unique view of Confucius is that the government should be run with the utmost transparency and integrity so that the rights of the governed are protected. According to Confucius, a good ruler or an excellent leader is one who serves his people according to what is right and if he cannot do so he should retire from the position. Han Feizi, on the other hand, holds a contrary opinion to Confucianism. Han Feizi looks down on people being governed and suggests that they cannot do the right thing unless laws are instituted to govern them. Han Feizi states that it is not wise for a leader to rely on people to be good on their own. Rather, people should be made to follow the laws so that they can act in the right manner. Confucius’ and Han Feizi’s philosophies are conflicting and debatable. While Confucius believes that the government should work with good intentions and should be answerable to the people, Han Feizi believes that the rulers should decide what to do. The primary point of Han Feizi’s criticism of the Confucianism is that Confucius overestimates the power of transforming people to be good and morally upright. This criticism aims at attacking the methods, and the Confucius’ suggestions that people can be transformed so that they can be self-governing. Relying on virtue ethics as a method of governance is destined to fail, and it cannot help bring order to a nation (Hutton 429). Han Feizi also states that a political order cannot be achieved by giving the citizens the right to self-determination. The proposition by Confucius about the willingness of people to always want to be good is a point of criticism by Han Feizi. The latter holds that people are always evil unless there are strict laws and regulations governing them. Confucius followers think that people will always be good if the government is always good to them. Also, they suppose that the government is supposed to lead by an example and people will therefore follow. On the other hand, Han Feizi philosophy is that people will never be good if they are given the freedom to self-govern. Precisely, Han Feizi notes that “the Confucian approach to achieving order will not succeed and that one simply cannot achieve the Confucian state in which the majority of people are good and orderly of themselves” (Hutton 429). Therefore, according to Han Feizi, giving people excessive freedom usually results in lawlessness and disorder in a nation. Confucius believes in the power of virtue and morality to change the society which he states that the government should aim at transforming the people through good deeds so that the public can also emulate the leaders. The way to achieve order among the governed is by being good to them which would, in turn, make them good to the government and the entire society (Hutton 431). In contrast, Han Feizi believes that the Confucian philosophy of changing others to be good through virtues cannot succeed. To Han Feizi, a Confucian student is “the one who knows that what he pursues is impossible and yet persists anyway” (Hutton 431)....
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