Confucianism Vs Legalism Essay

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In an era of chaos people need new ideas and philosophies that may appeal and connect to their traditions. The Confucian ideals were brought to the chinese culture by the Kong family. Young Kong Qiu an authority on court and rituals, tried to convince princes to adopt his ideas in government but, apparently, he failed.The Confucian philosophy was straightforward and referred to the moral principles as vital to govern a community peacefully and justly. Later on we have the Legalism philosophy emerged when Qin Shihuangdi declared himself emperor. He created an empire of bureaucracy and demanded loyalty by strict rules that harshly punished those who broke them. I will argue that the Confucian philosophy was more successful for its close connection to the essence of the real people and not the pursuit of power and wealth for some as the Legalism did.
Confucianism remained and flourished in the chinese society after many years of its creation because its people felt connected to the principles it reinforced. The chinese community already had strong respect to the elder and knew that it was one of the main requisite to maintain a peaceful community. In addition, the idea to watch for one another was introduced, and in an era where dynasties are fighting to obtain more power and wealth, a community needs a ruler who could promise to …show more content…
In this issue, the Confucian scholars did not agree in the way the emperor was creating a monopoly in the community and was not looking after them. When a ruler does such things, he will encounter anger and disagreement in his community and eventually rebellion. There is no way to maintain peace in the community if a ruler is egocentric. To a certain extend, the emperor felt respect for this group that wanted to keep the ideas of respect, social order, and
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