On the occasion of the birthday of the Chinese philosopher, politician, teacher and founder of Confucianism Confucius, the audience had the opportunity to hear a lecture by Dr. Assoc. Prof. L. Poškaitė on "Confucianism in Traditional and Contemporary China".
The lecture focused on the main ideas and values of Confucianism and how they are integrated into today's Chinese society.
At the beginning of the lecture, the speaker stressed the universality and open-endedness of Confucianism. Confucianism is not only a philosophy and a religion, but
Confucianism is also considered to be the most important school of Chinese philosophy, and this tradition of teaching has continued from the time of Confucius to the present day.
In the West, Confucius became of interest from the 17th and 18th centuries onwards, and was acclaimed as the greatest philosopher of China. Whereas in the West Confucianism is more often seen as a religion, in China it is called ru 儒 , which means 'the teaching of the learned, the scholars'.
The lecture asked how this teaching has managed to survive and be relevant in China for almost 25 centuries. On the one hand, Confucianism was once an elitist teaching, not accessible to all and aimed at the power elite. On the other hand, Confucianism has become more and more pervasive in the social mentality and has gradually influenced almost four-fifths of the world's people.
Today's China is experiencing a revival of Confucianism. The speaker pointed out that this may be influenced by the perception that it is the main ethical-political teaching of Chinese society, encompassing self-cultivation, virtues, family rituals and is based on the ethics of a moral society.
The lecture concluded that Confucianism emerged as a cultural tradition that influenced all areas of Chinese life, including law, legislation, social and gender relations, the arts, historiography and even the cult of modern celebrities. Confucianism is a state religion, with imperial significance, which has had and continues to have a profound influence on Chinese and regional societies.