Benevolence: The Confucian Mentoring Relationship On The Analysis,

Confucius is the founder of Confucianism and the greatest and most influential thinker and educator. He created private schools and put forward education thoughts of "Education without Distinction" and "Teaching students according to their aptitude". There are around 3000 Confucian disciples, rich or poor, noble or humble, intelligent or ungainly, young or old. The Analects of Confucius, representative work of Confucianism, which keeps a record of the words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples, is an infallible source of information to do research on Confucius and his disciples. Confucius's theory focuses on benevolence, which means "to love others". Based on the available information I have gathered, there are many works on master-apprentice relation of Confucius, but the research depth is not inadequate; they merely refer to the surface of the relation rather than deep spiritual links. My essay will concentrate on 2 aspects:one is to analyze the master-apprentice relation of Confucius from the View Angle of "benevolence"; the other is to provide counterevidence for the thought of benevolence through the master-apprentice relation of Confucius. Meanwhile, my essay aims to analyze the fundamentals of Literariness of the Analects of Confucius on the basis of the relation between Confucius and his disciples. The main materials of my research are the Analects of Confucius and the Historical Records.The body consists of 4 chapters.Chapter 1Analyze the relations between Confucius and Yanhui. Yanhui is one of Confucius's most favorite and most out-standing disciples, respected as "the reappearance of Confucius". The reason why Confucius loves Yanhui so much is that Yanhui lives by a strict moral code and that he is very diligent, which are the advantages Yanhui has over others. On account of Yanhui's excellence, his untimely death is a terrible blow to Confucius.Chapter2Analyze the relations between Confucius and Zilu. Zilu is the loveliest disciple of Confucius. This chapter mainly focuses on the character of Zilu and his capabilities of politics. As a result of the fact that Zilu is outspoken and impudent, he often raised a query on Confucius's words and deeds, behaving as a supervisor. His fate was sealed by his character to some extent. Likewise, his death hit Confucius hard as well.Chapter3Analyze the relations between Confucius and Zigong. This chapter mainly concerns with the character of Zigong and his considerable business acumen and his diplomatic skills, which make Zigong more noble-minded than Zhongni, but Zigong corrects all these sayings and pays great respect to Confucius.Chapter 4Analyze the fundamentals of Literariness of the Analects of Confucius and report the statements from the academic community about literary value of the Analects of Confucius. Why the literary value exists results from the benevolence of Confucianism instead of being intended by the compiler.From the above analysis of the master-apprentice relation of Confucius, we can distinctly draw a conclusion that Confucianism is based on deeds and benevolence. Confucius's thoughts were by no means without foundation, rather than gained from practice. To his disciples, Confucius is not only a teacher, but also a friend as well as a father. Among the relations, we can see a hint of benevolence penetrated. Meanwhile, we can find the real literary value of the Analects of Confucius is spontaneously produced, not created by design.