Confucianism Analysis

I. General Topics: Way to Human Rights Understanding within Confucianism The pearl diver, the Hannah Arendt's poetic metaphor for whom thinks of dealing with the tradition,

“descends to the bottom of the sea, not to excavate the bottom and bring it to light but to pry loose the rich and the strange, the pearls and the coral in the depths, and carry them to the surface.”1

Through the process of diving come up with the stream of the time, the loss of traditional values that might have been discerned in the past has been brought to light of the modern. Likewise, the one who explores the human rights sources within Confucianism deals with the current dilemma over making sense of human rights lies in improvement of human rights understanding

The responsibility to reach a harmonious society is attributed to Confucian intellectuals; therefore, when there is a tyrant, who done something wrong, the intellectuals should against the tyrant out of moral duty. In this sense, when Confucianism was applied to construct the institution of dynasty, it is hard to imagine that a ruler is willing to maintain this power to oppose to himself. As a result, the meaning of responsibility as an intellectual is to be deduced to be a pure morally good person. Despite the political distortion of the meaning of responsibility, the rules of propriety11 had intrinsically transferred their efficiency from the religious strength to the regulation of social order in a common custom. To some extent the rules of propriety can maintain the society well-ordered in peacetime, but also very often they were used as a tool to constrain the individual freedom by the interpretation of the ruler. The rules of propriety affect different angles in the political culture and peasant life. Since the modern meaning of Confucianism is well discussed after the 1949, followed by a series political blustery in China and Taiwan. Except for the concentration on the discussion of morality, the power which would intrigue the realization of individual morality do deserve to

Compared to areas, partly affected by Confucianism, South East Asia has already the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Asia-Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF). It should not, however be directly argued that a deficiency of human rights protection comes from the influence of Confucian culture. However, it still deserves to be considered whether the institution of Confucianism plays a role. Authoritarian governments often propose a blueprint that before economic growth and well-being for all, people should contribute their political freedom and be restricted partly. However, after the economic growth in China a development of the human right situation did not follow. Political freedom still is arbitrarily restricted and violated.12 If Confucianism is seen as the core virtues of humanity, how could this violation happen? It may concern the feasibility of institutional support in the rules of