儒学 示范课程

儒学 示范课程 Confucianism

中国的儒教博大精深，是中国文化的重要组成部分，对中华民族的文化、心理、伦理道德等方面影响很大，在世界上也有很大的影响。本篇介绍的内容是孔子的生平、儒教的影响、孔子的主要思想以及儒教的一些特点。

1.孔子的生平大致是怎样的？
What is known about Confucius’ life?
According to Chinese tradition,Confucius (551 B. C.— 479 B. C.) was a thinker, political figure, and educator. Records of the Historian (《史记》 ) by Sima Qian collected tales about him. Based on these tales, his ancestors were members of the Royal State of Song (宋国贵族 ). Later, his great grandfather, fleeing turmoil in his native Song, moved to Lu (鲁国 ), somewhere near the present site of Qufu in southeastern Shandong Province.
There the family became impoverished, and the young Confucius had to undertake jobs as an accountant or cared for livestock. We do not know how he was educated, but tradition has it that he studied ritual with the Daoist Master Lao Dan, music with Chang Hong, and the lute with Music-Master Xiang (相传曾问礼于老聃，学乐于苌弘，学琴于师襄 ). In his middle age, Confucius is supposed to have gathered about him a group of as many as 3,000 disciples whom he taught. At the age of 50, his talents were recognized by the state, and he was appointed Minister of Public Works and then Justice Minister. But he apparently offended members of the lu nobility and was forced to leave office and go into exile.

In the company of his disciples, he left the State of Lu and traveled from state to state to offer his advice to rulers on how to improve their management of state affairs. At the same time, he looked for an opportunity to put his ideas into practice, but this opportunity never came. In any case, by most traditional accounts, he returned to Lu in 484 B. C. and spent the rest of his life teaching and editing Book of Songs (《诗》 ), Book of Documents (《书》 ), and Spring and Autumn Annals (《春秋》 ). The best-known of which is Analects (《论语》 ), a collection of his sayings that was compiled and edited in its modern form during the Han Dynasty. Confucius died in 479 B. C., aged 72.
Notes：1）thinker思想家； 2）ancestor祖宗； 3）turmoil混乱； 4） impoverished穷困的； 5）undertake从事； 6）accountant会计； 7）livestock家畜； 8）talent天才； 9）offend冒犯； 10）nobility贵族

2.儒教的影响有多大？
What influence has Confucius had?
Confucius is the most famous sage of China. More than any other single man, he, through his followers, produced the principle basis of the Chinese tradition of ethics and political theory that had thus deeply influenced Chinese society and culture. Over the centuries, this influence spread also to Korea, Japan and other countries.
Confucianism is wholly considered more of an ethical philosophy than a religion. However, it is debatable if the system founded by Confucius should be called a religion. It prescribes a great deal of ritual, but little of this can be interpreted as worship or meditation in a formal sense, and Confucius occasionally made statements about the existence of other-worldly beings that sound agnostic to western ears.

Notes：1）ethics伦理学； 2）debatable可争论的； 3）meditation沉思；
4）occasionally偶尔地； 5）agnostic不可知论的