Understanding the Differences between Confucius and Machiavelli
Introduction
Literature has played an important role in our attempt to understand reality, and it does this through portraying thinking patterns and social norms that are existent and important within a society. In this sense, literature is important because it portrays different stages that man encounters in life; some of the great literary work provides society with a certain level of guidance through life. Reading literature entails more than just acquiring knowledge which too is important but it goes further into giving us different contexts that help us in understanding life. There is a great variety of literary work that one can read in order to acquire a certain level of understanding life as we have mentioned before; in this essay though we have decided to focus on two very influential readings in the prism of literature. The first one being that by Confucius entitled Analects and the second reading by Machiavelli entitled The Prince. We will be trying to compare the two authors based on different themes and concepts; but before doing that we must acquire a certain level of background about both the two authors and the two readings.
The Analects of Confucius are relevant because they represent the memory of Confucius’s teachings which are represented in a series of twenty books. The meaning of Confucianism differs among scholars; some see it as the study of ancient texts that embodied rituals and norms of behavior, while for others it was a political philosophy, a social philosophy of the family, or the moral order of nature. Centuries after the death of Confucius is when a shift took place in which the ideology was related to that of the imperial state, in the sense that Confucian learning was used to understand the role that the emperor played within the state. This point is the most relevant in our discussion because in analyzing both Confucius and Machiavelli we are going to focus on analyzing the differences that exist between the two authors
Literature has played an important role in our attempt to understand reality, and it does this through portraying thinking patterns and social norms that are existent and important within a society. In this sense, literature is important because it portrays different stages that man encounters in life; some of the great literary work provides society with a certain level of guidance through life. Reading literature entails more than just acquiring knowledge which too is important but it goes further into giving us different contexts that help us in understanding life. There is a great variety of literary work that one can read in order to acquire a certain level of understanding life as we have mentioned before; in this essay though we have decided to focus on two very influential readings in the prism of literature. The first one being that by Confucius entitled Analects and the second reading by Machiavelli entitled The Prince. We will be trying to compare the two authors based on different themes and concepts; but before doing that we must acquire a certain level of background about both the two authors and the two readings.
The Analects of Confucius are relevant because they represent the memory of Confucius’s teachings which are represented in a series of twenty books. The meaning of Confucianism differs among scholars; some see it as the study of ancient texts that embodied rituals and norms of behavior, while for others it was a political philosophy, a social philosophy of the family, or the moral order of nature. Centuries after the death of Confucius is when a shift took place in which the ideology was related to that of the imperial state, in the sense that Confucian learning was used to understand the role that the emperor played within the state. This point is the most relevant in our discussion because in analyzing both Confucius and Machiavelli we are going to focus on analyzing the differences that exist between the two authors