Values in Traditional Chinese Culture - Essay Example

Values in Traditional Chinese Culture Chinese culture is one of the oldest cultures in the world. Chinese culture is described as the complex product of thee systems i.e. Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. The country’s cultural values influence its national psychology and identity. The cultural values of Chinese traditional that impact the psyche of the people of Chinese are harmony, benevolence, righteousness, wisdom, courtesy, honesty, loyalty and filial piety. The core value that is most practiced is harmony. Harmony means a proper balanced coordination between things which encompasses rationale, propriety and compatibility. Rationale is an according to objective laws and truths. Propriety means suitability and appropriateness. Harmony properly coordinates different things by bringing them to one position in an appropriate manner that allows them to develop to one of the coordination from uncoordinated state e.g. from asymmetry to symmetry and from imbalance to balance. Society of modern Chinese tries to maintain harmony between nature and humankind, harmony between society and people, harmony between different communities’ members and also harmony between body and mind. Benevolence is another core value of Confucianism in Chinese tradition and extends from the importance of familial ties and blood connections and the Chinese hold it in high esteem. A widely embraced and famous Chinese saying “a peaceful family always prosper” is a benevolence based in familial ties. This benevolence extent to social relations and friendship and it produces a set of values which includes loyalty, justice, wisdom, courtesy, honesty, self-discipline and commitment. Another core value is righteousness, and it refers to justice and correctness. “ A gentleman understands what is moral”, this is a Confucius saying and are not only individual benefits but also a society benefit. People seek what benefits and individual and the whole society. What Chinese believe is that everybody is responsible for the rising and falling of a nation, and everyone should be the first to be concerned about this. That is why Chinese brandish their weapons and struggle for the country’s glory. Courtesy as another core value stresses modesty and prudence. This is an act of respecting laws of the country and avoiding misconduct. The Chinese traditional culture respects the importance of rites, and it has rites for various occasions that are special. These special occasions in Chinese include his sacrifice of the emperor to heaven, ancestors’ sacrifices from the common people, weddings, funerals and even courteous exchanges. Confucius particularly stressed courtesy in Chinese daily life. Wisdom as a value requires one to distinguish between wrong and right. As Confucius said wisdom means to understand others and benevolence mean to love, everybody must have a loving heart and love others, and also everybody must have the wisdom to understand others. People should have a loving heart and wisdom to understand others and distinguish good from evil, as well as, right from wrong. This is demonstrated by a number of prominent figures who understood and loved others thus carving their names into Chinese history e.g. Wei Qing (the Han Dynasty general during emperor Wudi’s reign, the Tang dynasty during the Emperor Taizong’s reign and many others. Another core value is honesty which means trustworthiness, integrity, and credibility. Confucius said that people should obtain their fortunes reasonably and properly through their labour. Honesty as a moral value is greatly valued by most Chinese. Loyalty is an emotional value that evolves from blood ties and means that citizens should exert efforts to protect their country in cases of foreign invasion because they will protect their own belongings such as home. It also means being trustful to friends and family. Etiquette is also another traditional core of Chinese. The family is the life’s focus for most of them. Rank and age are highly respected in the society. However, young people of today are wearing blue jeans, rapidly modernizing, wearing sunglasses, drinking coke and driving motorbikes. Etiquette is displayed in Chinese culture by the way people meet and greet each other, naming and titles and body language of the community. Filial piety is also an important core value of Confucianism. Supporting and respecting the senior members of families and handling their funeral affairs are younger generations’ duties and caring for the old and nurturing the young, according to Confucius, this are fundamental family virtues. Apart from the core value, there are some aspects of Chinese traditional values that ought to be criticized and even abandoned. Since the era of Confucius, some criticism f Confucianism has arisen. This critique includes the philosophy of Laozi which criticized Confucianism for shaping people of china into the condition in which they had reached by the late Qing Dynasty. In modern times, also the waves of critique arose. The Cultural Revolution, May fourth movement and the taiping rebellion are some upsurges of the waves occurred in China. Taiping rebels outlined many sages of Confucianism and also the gods in Taoism and Buddhism as mere legends. Cultural Revolution reports Confucius as the general representative of the slave owners’ class. This led to the invention of numerous opinions and interpretations of Confucianism. Confucius’s criticism also occurred in South Korea where most Koreans believe Confucianism has not made any contribution to the modernization of Korea. Kim, a South Korean writer, said that filial piety is blinded and one sided. If it continues, social problems will be increasing as government forces Confucian filial obligations onto families. Avoiding a repeat of China’s targeted experience in the Commission on Human Rights is clearly a primary goal for China’s Permanent Mission in Geneva. The agreements with many Western states to enter into bilateral human rights dialogues continue to serve as a policy of insurance of sorts against a Council resolution on the human rights situation in China. However, the real protection lies in the new balance of power in the Council, which makes the adoption of such a resolution virtually inconceivable (see above). Having secured its main goal for now, China’s immediate objective is for its delegates to minimize criticism within the Council. They are known to lobby Western states in Geneva, and their capitals not to include references to human rights problems in China in agenda item 4 statements, and China’s strong responses to any criticism within the Council, whether by states, the High Commissioner, the special procedures or NGOs have been noted above. Indeed, the overriding nature of this specific objective is demonstrated by China’s departure from its opposition in principle to attacks on the human rights records of other states when it comes to retaliating against those that criticize China (Alon 23-67). Works cited Alon, Ilan. Chinese Culture, international business management and Organizational Behavior. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2003, 23-67. Print Read More