Get When Zhong ? Does Not Mean Loyalty - School Of Arts & Sciences - Sas Upenn

While Western approaches to ethics have traditionally emphasized individual ethical agents and their actions, Confucian thought aims instead at nurturing human relationships. Loyalty, ingly, figures centrally in the Confucian worldview, for it is an indispensable ingredient in the achievement of this goal.

In practice, zhongyong means countless things: moderation, rectitude, objectivity, sincerity, honesty, truthfulness, propriety, equilibrium, and lack of prejudice. For example, a friend should be neither too close nor too remote.

This means that zhong is a virtue that is oriented toward one's equals or superiors. To be more specific, practicing zhong means serving others while at the same time remaining committed to the normative principles that the rituals embody or represent.

Filial piety, the core idea of Confucian ethics for ordinary people, is explained in the context of my previous analysis of the structure of Confucianism (Hwang, 1995).

The Chinese term zhong is often interpreted and translated as "loyalty" in English. It is a virtue that defines one's moral commitments to one's surrounding social, cultural, and historical community as a whole.

4:15 A single thread in my thought: conscientiousness (zhong), which can be see as establishing one's own character, which is always paired with shu (reciprocity, altruism) in which you respect the character of others.

Zhong (中), therefore, has the meanings of moderation, appropriateness, and propriety (which is the valued standard in Confucianism), while “yong” (庸) means holding such a state and remaining unchanged.

Filial piety (孝, xiào) is arguably China's most important moral tenet. A concept of Chinese philosophy for more than 3,000 years, xiào today entails a strong loyalty and deference to one's parents, to one's ancestors, by extension, to one's country and its leaders.