c o n f u c i a n i s m

O R I G I N

Human beings are fundamentally good
Human beings can be taught
Human beings can be improved through their mistakes
Human beings can attain perfection
The universe was created itself through a “primary chaos of material energy”

P R A C T I C E S

Ancestor worship

-ritualized commemoration of, communication with, and sacrifice to one's deceased relations. Burying one’s dead instead of cremation.

protects the expectant mother, and deals harshly with anyone/thing that harasses or harms the woman. She receives a special diet and is given one month to rest after the delivery of the baby.

The Tai-Shen (spirit of the fetus)

- protects the expectant mother, and deals harshly with anyone/thing that harasses or harms the woman. She receives a special diet and is given one month to rest after the delivery of the baby

Marriage

There are six separate things that happen during the marriage rituals, these include:

Proposal: Both sides of the relationship share the hour, day, month, and year of their birth. If any upsetting events happens within the bride-to-be's family within the next three days, it is believed that she has rejected the proposal.
Engagement: After the couple decides the date of the wedding, the bride announces the wedding with invitations and gifts of cookies shaped like the moon.
Dowry: A dowry is a transfer of parental belongings when their daughter is getting married. Gifts equal in value after given to the bride and groom.
Procession: The groom proceeds to the brides home, and brings her back to his place, with much happiness and excitement.
Marriage: The couple recites their vows that will bond them together for a lifetime, toast each other with wine, and then take center stage at a banquet consisting of friends, and the families of both bride and groom.
Morning After: The bride serves breakfast to the grooms parents, and then the parents do the same.

O R I G I N

Confucius (551–479 BCE) appeared in this period of political decadence and spiritual questioning. He was educated in Shang-Zhou theology, which he contributed to transmit and reformulate giving centrality to self-cultivation and agency of humans, and the educational power of the self-established individual in assisting others to establish themselves (the principle of àirén, "loving others"). As the Zhou reign collapsed, traditional values were abandoned resulting in a period of moral decline. Confucius saw an opportunity to reinforce values of compassion and tradition into society. Disillusioned with the widespread vulgarisation of the rituals to access Tian, he began to preach an ethical interpretation of traditional Zhou religion. In his view, the power of Tian is immanent, and responds positively to the sincere heart driven by humaneness and rightness, decency and altruism. Confucius conceived these qualities as the foundation needed to restore socio-political harmony. Like many contemporaries, Confucius saw ritual practices as efficacious ways to access Tian, but he thought that the crucial knot was the state of meditation that participants enter prior to engage in the ritual acts. Confucius amended and recodified the classical books inherited from the Xia-Shang-Zhou dynasties, and composed the Spring and Autumn Annals.

O T H E R S

Traditionally, cultures and countries in the East Asian cultural sphere are strongly influenced by Confucianism, including mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, as well as various territories settled predominantly by Chinese people, such as Singapore. In the 20th century Confucianism's influence diminished greatly. In the last decades there have been talks of a "Confucian Revival" in the academic and the scholarly community and there has been a grassroots proliferation of various types of Confucian churches. In late 2015 many Confucian personalities formally established a national Holy Confucian Church ( Kǒngshènghuì) in China to unify the many Confucian congregations and civil society organisations.