De was initially centred on for the founding fathers of the Zhou came to realise the arbitrariness of heaven, thus making it unreliable and that man must count on themselves--with De--to maintain the mandate of heaven, so as to maintain also the rule. And the core idea arguably remained the same--to maintain the rule of the already ruling.
He started to connect De with social development(say, economy): it is when the fundamental needs are met that the masses come to observe Li, hence nurturing De.
He started to connect De with the taming of the people (施教于民)--which I figure would be self-contradictory be it rendered as education--in order to preserve the then old-fashioned hierarchy where one was to behave in accordance with his social rank and never out step it.
The idea of De is a change from the rule of ghosts and gods to the rule of virtuous Kings. it change from protecting the group interests of the clan tribe to protecting the interests of the ruling class in a narrow sense. De set up a system in which people of different classes were asked to do what they were supposed to do and deliberately created a clear pecking order in society.
"Li" is also a way of protecting the interests of the ruling class. However, compared with De, Li add a lot of ethical content. Ren is incorporated into Li.
1、Ren takes Li as the target and requires Li to be transformed from an external expression into an internal spirit.
2、Li expresses and externalizes the spirit of Ren through specific institutional Settings.
Confucius believes that the rulers must improve their morality to educate the people, so that they can be supported by the people. In addition, he also puts forward "Ren" as the fundamental moral character of a gentleman and the fundamental standard of politics.
Confucius concerned more about sincerity. In the confusion idea, a person of Li not only knows well about what to do in a certain social relationship or context, but feels the right emotion that propels him to do what he is supposed to do without stepping over the line. Compared with De, Li attaches more importance to the connection with people and society.
1. De is the requirement of the King' virtue, which enables the rulers to better maintain the Mandate of Heaven, so as to retain his government of the country and people. De mainly focuses on the King himself, and it has little bear on the the hieratical system and on the relationship within ruling classes.
2. Li contains all possible regulations to protect and maintain the hieratical order and the enfroffment system based on patriatichal clans. It set up strict rules concerning every aspect of the ruling classes life to ensure the prerogative of the patriarchal figures and the superior and subordinate order among them.
3.In addition, Li requires sincerity, the emotioanl genuineness in practices. It pursues the spontanous motivation and natural occurance of the obedience of the decorum, protocols, and rituals.
In Zhou dynasty, the ruling class consolidated its rule by regulating social behavior— De(“Worshiping Virtue, Protecting Man” 敬天保民); and Confucius's thinking transcend the idea of De:
1. The focus of De shifted from gods and ghosts to human beings and for the requirement of Kings' virtue.
2. Confucius developed new concepts of De--Ren and Li.
Benevolent governance: Confucius emphasized the relation between the ruling class and civilian(the benevolent loves others)
The idea of Li: the soul of Li is the emotional genuineness which is a natural outcome of what peope feel. It also refers to ceremonial decorum and hierarchical protocals.
In Zhou Dynasty, De only was limited in the King. The King was required to be virtuous or they would be deprived of the mandate given by the Heaven. De here was absract and not necessary for everyone. While Confucius applied De in life and the public. He concretized De in daily life. He put forward the specific demands on people and emphasized that everyone should undertake the duty.
Confucius added new elements to De concerning the social development and hierarchy . As well, he elaborated it as Ren and Li. The focus of De shifted from gods and ghosts to human beings. Li emphasized the significance of hierarchical structure. Also, compared with De, the idea Confucius held made connections between human and society.
Confucius inherited and developed the West Zhou’s thought of moral governing and courtesy civilization,established benevolence study,put forward“benevolence shows loves”,and taking this as the core he pushed benevolent ruling and moral governing,making an outstanding contribution to the progress of human civilization.
De was actually made for underpinning the king's power and reputation. At that period of time, people trusted ghosts and god, but they didn't get further into the realization of them. Instead, they were just holding ceremonies and rituals without the fully sincere recognition of it. And what the king needed was also not for those people to have the devout faith, but for them to serve the king's reign. And this is where the differences between De and Li lie. Li was appealing to people's sincerity and faith, leading people to respect the ghosts and god but put them aside. Li also set many rules for people to follow and achieve the real protocol.
De is the origin of Li. In Zhou Dynasty, De was only to the King, and not for all, which requied the King be virtuous. Confucius added some elements in De, and then informed Li. Confucius held that De should be as the principle of the public and be applied in daily life to remind poeple that how they should react and feel right emotions in different situations.
Confucius developed the Li and Ren on the basis of De. De is the requirement mainly for the King while Li for the whole society, aiming at maintaining the hierarchical system. Compared with De, Li attaches more content of social development.
Actually De is a kind of idea that helps governers to better rule the country,though it surpasses the idea in Xia dynasty. Confucian thinking absorbs what's good in De like being kind to people, but what Confucianism surpasses De is that it also focuses on the inner beliefs like Ren & Li and a series of requrements about ceremony, rituals and protocals. And in this way,De is not only a king's self-discipline but everyone's business.
1. Confucius put forward the concept of "Ren", which has connections with "De" in Zhou dynasty, and more progress. The idea of "De" concerning people in Zhou dynasty is "Protecting Man"(保民), but in reality, the emperors only took people as the entities that they ruled over. In Confucius's view, "Ren" means "Love people": emperors should care for their people just as they cared for themselves. Instead of being indifferent towards people's suffering, they should do what they could do to relief people's burden and pain.
2.Confucius believed that emperors should be equipped with true integrity and morals. In Zhou dynasty, "De" was a Mandate of Heaven that was given to emperors to rule over the whole country. It was no more than an excuse that made the ruling more reasonable. The number of emperors who truly performed with morals and integrity is few. But Confucius pointed out that ruling emperors must truly possess noble personality and wise methods of ruling if they wanted the country to be stable and prosperous.
Confucius's thinking transcend the idea of De as conceptualized by the Zhou ideology, for it infused more humanity into the idea of De. As it were, Confucius not only regarded De as an indispensable moral tool adopted by Zhou rulers to maintain social order, but also tries to discover a deeper philosophy of humanity underlying its ruling usefulness. To illustrate, as for the multiple meanings of Li, ceremonial decorum and hierarchical protocols represents the spirit of Zhou ruler’s De, however, sincerity of practicing and appropriateness, which require one to practice De out of the sincerity inside his heart and guide one how to convey his sincerity from inside to outside in the proper form. Hence, Confucius’s De is not what Zhou rulers imposed on their people, but the one that comes out of a human heart naturally.
Confucius inherited and developed the West Zhou’s thought of moral governing and courtesy civilization, established benevolence study, put forward “benevolence shows loves”. Confucius advocated the practice of the rule of rites to the common people, which showed that he attached great importance to common people and improved their status. Confucius also liberated the Rites of Zhou from the bondage of the thought of divine rule.
1. Confucius firstly inherited this principle from the Zhou Dynasty duing which De was embodied in Li as the ruling tool for the rulers and all possible regulations for the existence of patriarchal clan system. Confucius was also in support of the steady goverance towards the whole country, so he still accepted the doctrine of rites and rituals for people.
2. When it comes to rites, Duke Zhou made Li to establish the ruling principles which had distinctive value from Xia and Shang for its lenient penalty. But actually, De was initially propogated to the Kings of Zhou in order to consolidate the Mandate of Heaven, that is, the De was only asked within the ordinary people while the upper classes were never required any moralities.
1) Till the era of Conducius, Li had been disintegrated and tore by dissention. Confucius, however, recuperated the framwork of Zhou's Li in a more advanced and moral way by emphasizing the role of benevolent goverment. He tried to establish the fundamental rules by rites in order to help rulers improve people's morality and get real reverence from them.
2)Also, Confucius insisted that the core of De should be connected with Li, in which the sincerity and appropriateness are given the priority. According to Confucius, the rulers need more care on people and more restraints on themselves.
Confucius inherited and developed the thought of the rule of virtue in the Zhou Dynasty. He founded the theory of Ren and put forward the idea of "benevolence loves others", and took it as the core to implement the rule of benevolence and virtue. In addition, he proposed the relationship between the monarch and his subordinates : the monarch should act like a monarch, and the subordinates should act like subordinates.
Confucius highly praised the way of governing the state and its cultural relic system in the Zhou Dynasty. And he inherited the thought of "rule by virtue" in the Western Zhou Dynasty and had the side of development and innovation. Confusions defined "Ren" as "love" for the first time and took "Ren" as the fundamental character of a gentleman and the fundamental standard of politics, thus establishing the fundamental way of Confucianism and taking it as the "core" value to establish the Confucian school. The source of this thought is the "rule of virtue" thought of "respecting morality and protecting the people" of the rulers of the Western Zhou Dynasty represented by the Duke of Zhou.
Confucius’ Cong Zhou thought aims to restore
The feudal system of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the most important of which inherited the thought of the rule of virtue in the Western Zhou Dynasty. From the Shang Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty, the meaning of "morality" and "rule by virtue" has been further elaborated systematically. "Morality" is the value criterion for Zhou people's mentality and activities, and the value criterion of political life. Realizing "rule by virtue" is the political value pursuit of the Western Zhou Dynasty. In addition, "de" was also embodied by the Zhou people into some specific psychological activities and behavioral principles, such as the Five Constant Ways, namely fatherly righteousness, motherly kindness, brothers and friends, brother respect, and son filial; the honest way; diligence, not trying The principle of ease and higher requirements for the nobles at all levels, including the need to be cautious in their ministry and not slack; not to be tyrannical, prudent in punishment; not to be greedy; to be able to correct right and wrong, and to govern the people to be rigid and soft. All in all, the value of "ruling the country with morality" in the Western Zhou Dynasty is attributable to the realization of praying to the "heaven" by cultivating the virtues of people, and then achieving the goal of harmony in the world.
Although the rulers of the Zhou Dynasty ruled by De, in the final analysis, it was to rule his people, and the core was the ruler. Confucius' idea is more transcendent. "Li" not only involves the behavior norms of rulers, but also involves a certain degree of common people's lifestyle, social system, etiquette and so on. Everyone in the country should abide by their "Li" according to their own identity. Everyone recognizes and agree with his identity in society, work and family from the bottom of his heart, and does what he should do. People live in accordance with Li sincerely.
Confucius constructed a complete ideological system of the Tao of Virtue: at the individual level, he advocated the virtues of benevolence and propriety and virtuous conduct. The ideology of the Way of Virtue is based on the theory of the goodness of nature ("A yin and a yang is called the Way, and the one who follows it is the goodness, and the one who becomes it is the nature"), with the establishment of the human pole ("the Way of the Three Extremes") as the goal, and the methodological approach that humaneness is connected with the Way of Heaven and the Way of Earth, and that humaneness is moderate and timely. Confucius's political thought is centered on the following principles
In the Zhou dynasty, "virtue" was only a macro and abstract concept that was mandatory. It is difficult to apply in everyday life.
Confucius' Li, however, were concretized into everyday life, setting out a series of rules that allowed the people to change their behaviour and be convinced from the bottom of their hearts.
Confucius inherited and developed the West Zhou’s thought of moral governing and courtesy civilization,established benevolence study,put forward“benevolence shows loves”,and taking this as the core he pushed benevolent ruling and moral governing,making an outstanding contribution to the progress of human civilization.
Confucius inherited and developed the thought of rule of virtue, founded benevolence, put forward benevolent lovers, and took this as the core to carry out benevolence and rule of virtue.
Confucius concerned more about sincerity. In the confusion idea, a person of Li not only knows well about what to do in a certain social relationship or context, but feels the right emotion that propels him to do what he is supposed to do without stepping over the line. Compared with De, Li attaches more importance to the connection with people and society.
Confucius complied with the historical trend of the concept of "morality" since the Western Zhou Dynasty. While fully inheriting the political rational factors contained in it, Confucius emphasized the internal moral consciousness of the rulers themselves.