Confucianism, Daoism and Legalism

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the three most influential philosophies on Chinese culture, history and politics include Confucianism, Daoism and Legalism. It looks at how each of these political philosophies provide a different approach to leadership and citizenship as well as differing means of creating order in society. It also analyzes how each of these strains of thought also influenced ways of viewing human beings, human nature and government.

From the Paper:

"The person who sparked the Confucian philosophy was in his lifetime unsuccessful in promoting his theories and ideals. The man known as Confucius was born in the sixth century BCE to a poor family. Faced with the prospect of self-education and self-reliance during turbulent times, Confucius strived to make order out of the chaos of feudalism. "With energy and utter selflessness, Confucius set about to bring order and peace to his age," (De Bary 16). Order and peace would become cornerstones of the Confucian philosophy. The underlying mechanism by which society could attain a state of order and peace was via the cultivation of virtue. Virtue is defined through moral actions and behavior and Confucian writings often refer to specific examples of virtuous behavior."

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