Discussion On Confucian Dao And The Significance Of Its Ultimate Concern

"Dao" plays an important role in Confucianism, and enjoys a unique position in Confucius thoughts. However, Tao is usually neglected in previous researches on Confucius thoughts. To have a better understanding of Confucianism and thus a better understanding of the reality, it is of vital importance to unscramble the "Dao" thought in Confucianism, especially the significance of "Ultimate Concern". Compared with the "Ren" thought in Confucianism,'Dao'is rather unstructured, which is elaborated in various ideas such as "Tian Dao", "Zheng Dao", "Ren Dao", and "Viewpoints of life and death". Dao in Confucianism has a somewhat close relationship with such philosophical ideas as humaneness, Nature, human being, human nature, fate and morality. From the experiences of Confucius, his posterities, successors, and other Confucian scholars, we can see that Dao is their supreme life pursuit, the shining points in their human nature and also an indispensable criterion of conduct in their whole lives.This paper makes a tentative exploration into The Analects. By taking the methodologies of philosophical research and thinking history research, this paper examines the influence of historical background, including political background, economical background and cultural background etc. on Confucian thoughts, and elaborates systematically how Dao came into being, how Dao is elaborated in Confucianism. On the basis of these studies, it further explores the significance of ultimate concern in Dao, and offers a systematic elaboration on its realistic significance by analyzing "ultimate concern" in Confucianism, especially the thought and meaning of "Heaven, Earth, Sovereign, Parents and Teachers"...