Confucius and Mencius
Chinese culture is by far centered around Confucianism. For two thousand years, Mensius, a follower of Confucius, is mentioned along with his master philosopher. Hence 孔孟思想（thoughts/teachings of Confucius and Mencius）is a very familiar term in China. For a long time in Chinese history, 学好孔孟（learn well Confucius and Mencius）is equivalent to receiving a good education, which also means anyone that has mastered the teachings of Confucius and Mencius will be qualified for government posts. If you look at the combined character, you will find it is composed of four characters: Learn-well-Confucius-Mencius. At the center of this coined character is 子 (zi). In classic China 子 was used to refer to a learned person. For example, 孔子(Kong-zi/Confucius), 孟子(Meng-zi/Mencius）, 老子(Lao-zi), 庄子(Zhuang-zi), 孙子(Sun-zi) and 韩非子(Hanfei-zi) and etc. We can thereby conclude that the heart of Chinese culture is learned people.
No comments:
Post a Comment