A Study On The Family Sayings Of Confucius For Being An Official

As one of the important part of Han culture for thousands of years,“Official Culture”shows the content of official morality,official principle and the relationship between officials and common people.Inheriting this tradition,Family Sayings of Confucius recorded many ideas of official and formed a complete system of official culture.Therefore,this paper chooses the official culture of Family Sayings of Confucius as the research materials to discuss the official thought contained in it.The first part analyzes the attitude of being an official from the perspective of entering and exiting the official arena.On the one hand,scholars have strong feelings of becoming officials so as to achieve their political ideals.Therefore,they seize the opportunity,value the principle of official entry and actively enter the official position.Some of them can even bend the status just for being an official in certain circumstances.On the other hand,the path to official life can be very bumpy,which requires scholars to protect themselves at the right time,and retire when the country ’ s politics sink into darkness and they are not be trusted any more.The second part mainly discusses the quality that officials should have from three aspects.First of all,Confucian scholars should study diligently.In Family Sayings of Confucius,it mentioned that learning should be put in the first place,officials should grasp the correct learning content,attach importance to learning methods,master knowledge to guide practice.Secondly,scholars should cultivate their benevolence.Officials need to have high personal qualities,understand the connotation of benevolence and the ethics and codes of conduct contained in it.They should influence and educate the public through the practice of benevolence,which is essential to officials.Finally,officials should understand the importance of etiquette,and act in terms of etiquette and rules.Confucian scholars attach importance to etiquette,for which can regulate people’s behavior.Therefore,it is necessary to master the etiquette of the officials,from the etiquette of daily life to the etiquette of governing the country.Only in this way can they make themselves not to violate the rites and further advise their monarch not to violate the rites,thus achieving the effect of the rule of rites.The third part describes the methods of serving as officials.This part analyzes the specific measures taken by the officials from three aspects: serving as a gentleman,serving as a minister,and serving the people.To serve the monarch,they should fulfill the duty and obligation of ministers,be "loyal" and "sincere" to and actively recommend talents to their monarch.More importantly,they should share the worries for their monarch,consider the problem comprehensively,master the correct method of advice,so as to not make the monarch become unjust.To Govern the people,they should take measures for the common people,enrich the people,teach the people,always consider the people,so that people will live and die without worry.Since the way of being an official intersects with the contents of the other two chapters to some extent,this section only discusses the principles and practices of being an official when dealing with specific affairs.The fourth part analyzes the purpose that the official wants to achieve.People in the official class have their own pursuit to become an official.According to the book Family Sayings of Confucius,the task of an official is to assist the monarch to establish a well-off society of great harmony or a society that is close to reaching well-off and great harmony.The book Family Sayings of Confucius gives a detailed description of the links of entering,becoming and quitting officialdom,forming a scientific official thought,which is worth our in-depth study and digging the academic value contained in it.