Executive Briefing: Cultivating the Exemplary Person
Confucius (Kongzi) sought to restore social harmony through the interplay of Ren (human-hearted benevolence) and Li (ritual propriety), transforming raw human impulses into civic grace.
1. Keji Fuli: Overcoming Self to Restore Ritual
Confucius insisted that external ritual without internal sincerity is empty theater: *”If a man lacks benevolence, what can he have to do with ritual?”*
2. References
- Confucius. (c. 5th c. BCE). The Analects. Translated by A. Waley (1938). Allen & Unwin.
- Fingarette, H. (1972). Confucius: The Secular as Sacred. Harper Torchbooks.