Confucianism

In Confucianism, human beings are teachable, improvable and perfectible through personal and communal endeavour especially including self-cultivation and self-creation. A main idea of Confucianism is the cultivation of virtue and the development of moral perfection. Confucianism holds that one should give up one's life, if necessary, either passively or actively, for the sake of upholding the cardinal moral values of //ren// and //yi//

Ritual and filial piety are indeed the ways in which one should act towards others, but from an underlying attitude of humaneness. Confucius' concept of humaneness ([|Chinese]: [|仁]; [|pinyin]: //rén//) is probably best expressed in the Confucian version of the [|Ethic of reciprocity], or the //Golden Rule//: "do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you."

Confucius never stated whether man was born good or evil,[|[3]] noting that 'By nature men are similar; by practice men are wide apart' [|[4]]—implying that whether good or bad, Confucius must have perceived all men to be born with intrinsic similarities, but that man is conditioned and inﬂuenced by study and practise. [|Xunzi]'s opinion is that men originally just want what they instinctively want despite positive or negative results it may bring, so cultivation is needed. In Mencius' view, all men are born to share goodness such as compassion and good heart, although they may become wicked. The [|Three Character Classic] begins with "People at birth are naturally good (kind-hearted)", which stems from Mencius' idea. All the views eventually lead to recognize the importance of human education and cultivation. //﻿// //﻿// Confucius never stated whether man was born good or evil,[|[3]] noting that 'By nature men are similar; by practice men are wide apart' [|[4]]—implying that whether good or bad, Confucius must have perceived all men to be born with intrinsic similarities, but that man is conditioned and inﬂuenced by study and practise. [|Xunzi]'s opinion is that men originally just want what they instinctively want despite positive or negative results it may bring, so cultivation is needed. In Mencius' view, all men are born to share goodness such as compassion and good heart, although they may become wicked. The [|Three Character Classic] begins with "People at birth are naturally good (kind-hearted)", which stems from Mencius' idea. All the views eventually lead to recognize the importance of human education and cultivation.