"analects" Implied "power" Relationship

The Analects,as one of the most important work of the early Confucian school,has,since its birth,attracted continuous and diverse scholarly interpretations for generations.Until present time,studies on the Analects have covered a wide variety of fields such as that of philosophy,politics, education,ethics,religion,and so on.It can be said that the Analects has been serving as the treasure house for the Chinese society over of a period of two thousand and five hundred years and has been nurturing generations after generations of the decedents of the Yan-Huang.Its contribution to the construction and development of the spirit of Chinese nation cannot be ignored.From the very beginning of human history,people had to deal with relations with others.Systems of relationship management,namely ethics or courtesy,have gradually been created and gained maturity.Up to Confucius time,a comprehensive set of principles had gained popularity in Chinese society.I discover that there are pairs of power relations clearly revealed in the Analects.These are father-son,monarch-servant,teacher-student,and friend-friend relationships,The principles of the four pairs of relationships advocated by Confucius have had great influence on Chinese society for over two thousand years.It has been well perceived that the relationships advocated by Confucius reveal a top-down vertical power structure.However,through a careful analysis,I argue that there are some obvious differences in nature among the four pairs of relationships advocated in the Analects.In the current study,I explain and discuss my understanding and interpretation of the view I mentioned above.In Chapter 1,I give a literature review of the relevant studies.First,I define the concept of power relations,asserting that the concept of power relations denotes various kinds of human relations.Then,I summarize the explanatory notes and contemporary studies on the four pairs of relations advocated in the Analects.Drawing on the above,I point out the characteristics as well as weaknesses of these studies.Finally,I state the sources and research methods utilized in my study. Through Chapter 2 to Chapter 5,I discuss,respectively,the four pairs of relations mentioned previously in this summary.Through a careful analysis, I discovered that the four pairs of power relations advocated by Confucius were different in nature.The father-son relationships is a given one,which was fixed and cannot be changed.It reflects a top-down power relation.The father was always in an upper level position of power while the son a lower level position.Confucius elaborated and defined the ways of talking and behaving for the father.However,the principles were quite tolerable, whereas the rules for the son were very strict.Manners of talking and behaving for the son were defined in detail.In the relationship,the son was put in a passive position.Since the father-son relationship was a given one,it was not integrated into the other three pairs of relationships.Concerning the remaining three pairs of relations,Confucius advocated the nature of equality.A connecting third party can be observed functioning between each pair of the power relations.In the monarch-servant relation,there were the people;in the teacher-student relation,there was the curtsey;and in the friend-friend relation,there was the ethics.Due to the existence of the third party,these three pairs of power relations were mediated and controlled.Thus,a triangulation of power relationship was formed in the above three pairs of relationships.Equality was implemented in such triangulation. Ethics had been the power balancing the triangulated relationships.In addition,the ethics per se consisted of the concept of equality.In case one of the three parties broke the triangular relations,as a result,the relations between the other two parties were then destroyed.Among the three pairs of power relations,teacher-student relations was comparatively stable;while the other two pairs of relations,the monarch-servant and friend-friend relations were quite free and equal.