The Analects — Confucius

Benevolence / humaneness — a settled, genuine care for others; the central virtue of the Analects.

'Do not do to others what you would not want done to yourself' — how you practise ren day to day.

Ren is the caring character (the aim); shu is the practical test you use to live it out.

The lifelong work of shaping your character toward goodness through small daily acts.

Both — a caring character that shows in conduct, fusing inner attitude and outer action.

Only late in life could he 'follow what my heart desired without overstepping what was right' — goodness had become effortless.

Everything else — ritual, roles, good government — is there to grow and express genuine care for others.

No — it's a reliable character you can count on, even when caring costs you something.

Ritual and propriety — the customs, manners and rites that shape good conduct, from ceremonies to everyday courtesy.

Practising the outward form trains the inner feeling — you become kind by repeatedly acting kind (the bow trains the heart).

Ritual with no real care behind it is a hollow shell — 'what has a person without ren got to do with li?'

Care that never shows in how you treat people is idle; li is how ren gets expressed and passed on.

No — it's the shared forms through which respect and care become visible, a language of good conduct.

Ren is the inner care; li is the outer form. Form without feeling is hollow; feeling without form is idle.

Confucius often reverses feeling and form: repeated good conduct slowly shapes a genuinely good character.

Because repeated good conduct shapes character — small daily courtesies help make you the kind of person you become.

The exemplary 'noble' person — Confucius' moral ideal, noble by cultivated character rather than by birth.

Once junzi meant a nobleman by birth; Confucius makes it noble by character, so it's earned and open to anyone.

The junzi asks 'what is right?'; the small person asks 'what's in it for me?' — steady and fair vs grasping.

Filial piety — deep respect and care for one's parents and elders.

The family is where you first learn to care for someone other than yourself; that care then grows outward to everyone.

From family (xiao) → community → society: learn to love your family well and you've begun learning to love everyone.

No — Confucius takes nobility away from birth and hands it to effort; anyone who cultivates ren and li can become one.

Doing what is right rather than looking good — hard on themselves, slow to blame others.

Leading people by the ruler's own moral example rather than by law and punishment.

Rule by punishment gets obedience but no shame; rule by example builds a real sense of right — grass bends to the wind.

Making sure people truly live up to the roles their titles name — 'let the ruler be a ruler, the parent a parent'.

Duty — a 'ruler' who stops ruling well loses the name; the title is earned by living up to its responsibilities.

Xiao (family) → ren (care) → li (custom) → junzi (exemplary leaders) → a harmonious society, from home to state.

A society held together by care, good custom and trust rather than fear and force — the whole vision working at once.

It assumes rulers become good and people follow good example — with little backup when a leader is bad (a key (b) evaluation point).

Open-book, 1 hour: (a) explain a concept [10] and (b) evaluate a claim [15]; quote the text to support your points.