Monday, March 27, 2006

Confucianism

Unlike Taoism and Buddhism, which advocate detachment from the mundane ways of the social world and attuning one's spirit with loftier principles, Confucianism wholeheartedly embraces human relationships, social structures, and commerce. It concerns itself with standards of social behaviour, morals and virtues in copious low level detail, contrasting again with the principles and truths of Buddhism and Taoism, which are small in number but transcendental in scope.
The teachings of Confucius are set down in a number of classic texts, most notably the Spring and Autumn annals and the Analects of Confucius, the latter being a large collection of aphorisms on all aspects of life, including government, politics, morals, and religion.