Jeffrey Yoon

Chapter Response to Daoism/Confucianism

World Religions East

The fact that rulers were important spiritual leaders in Daoism has given society much
order and also a sense of less democracy. For one thing, kings in the Shang period were chief
priests for their kingdoms. Thus, it was not only the job for divining specialists to for
participating in a process such as divination by oracle bones, but also the high ruler of the
kingdom himself. Also, during the same time, there was a highest god named Shang Ti, which
ruled higher than the king. This deity was to be responsible for the harmony of society and
harmony between outside cosmic forces like the gods and ancestors and the earth itself. Hence,
one can say that Heaven and the earth were ruled by such powerful deities with not much
consent of the masses. In addition, the idea of the Mandate of Heaven justified the rule of the
Chou dynasty. This is similar to the rule of divine right of absolute monarchies in European
history. However, one difference is that rulers were to maintain virtues as the way to maintain
authority, while European monarchs held no notion of such virtues as conditions for their
authorities (as they have used punishments like the guillotine that represented their absolute and
cruel authorities).
Self-cultivation systems like qigong are very popular in China today. I witnessed this
firsthand when I lived in Flushing, NY. I was trying to recruit people for a job when I
encountered some Chinese people advertising for a popular show called Shen Yun that is
performed in New York City. Not only does this show display Chinese heritage through beautiful
dances and costumes, it also showcases the practice of Falun Gong and its movement of Falun
Dafa. However, my roommate at that time who was Chinese told me that Falun Dafa had some
evil pretense to it. He told me that it was a movement that served to actually perpetuate criminal
activities covertly and thus it was sort of an outlaw practice. I learned that Falun Dafa is tightly

controlled by the government and so this shows not only the Chinese governments ability to
control various aspects of life, but also the crackdown of forms of mysticism or any other strange
energy practices that are not approved by the Communist Party. Thus, I would advise anybody to
think first before trying to do any of these practices, as I had a friend who once almost went to
jail in China for doing such harmless looking qigong practices.
Filial piety is one of the most essential ideas of Confucianism. It also permeates other
Asian cultures, such as Korean culture, which I am a part of. However, Confucianism is a little
more extreme in its participation of filial piety compared to that which is done in Korean culture.
For example, Koreans dont really distinguish between three specific grades of filial piety. Also,
Koreans dont really connect morality to filial piety, although they do believe that sometimes
good fortunes can result from visiting graves of ancestors or recently deceased family members.
If anything, Koreans respect their parents first just like the Christian bible instructs its readers:
Honor thy father and mother. If one does this, everything else flows and this is similar to just the
first grade of filial piety in Confucianism (to basically support them). Glorifying ones parents or
not bringing humiliation to ones parents are not seen as so important to Koreans, although doing
such things wouldnt necessarilty hurt ones relationship with their parents.