In honor of Confucius birthday, here is a brief of his Ethic and politics:
Ethics
The Confucian theory of ethics is based on three important concepts:
While Confucius grew up, li referred to the three aspects of life: sacrificing to the gods, social and political institutions, and daily behavior. It was believed that li originated from the heavens. Confucius argued that it flowed not from heaven but from humanity. He redefined li to refer to all actions committed by a person to build the ideal society. Li, to Confucius, became every action by a person aiming to meet his surface desires. These can be either good or bad. Generally, attempts to obtain short term pleasure are bad while those, which in the long term try to make one's life better, are generally good. These concepts are about doing the proper thing at the proper time.
To Confucius, yì (義 <义>) was the origin of li. Yì can best be translated as righteousness. While doing things because of li, one's own self-interest was not necessarily bad, one would be a better, more righteous person if one bases one's life upon following yì. This means that rather than pursuing one's own selfish interests, one should do what is right and moral. It is doing the right thing for the right reason. Yì is based upon reciprocity. An example of living by yì is how one must mourn one's father and mother for three years after their death. Since they took care of the child for the first three years of one's life, one must reciprocate by living in mourning for three years.
Just as li flows out of yì, so yì flows out of rén (仁. Ren can best be translated as kindness. His moral system was based upon empathy and understanding others, rather than divinely ordained rules. To live by rén was even better than living by the rules of yì. To live by rén one used another Confucian version of the Golden Rule: he argued that one must always treat others just as one would want others to treat you. Virtue under Confucius is based upon harmony with other people.
Politics
Confucius' political thought is based upon his ethical thought. He argues that the best government is one that rules through "rites" and people's natural morality, rather than using bribery and force. He explained that this in one of the most important analects: 1. "If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good." This "sense of shame" is an internalisation of duty, where the punishment precedes the evil action, instead of following it in the form of laws as in Legalism.
While he supported the idea of the all-powerful Emperor, probably because of the chaotic state of China at his time, his philosophies contained a number of elements to limit the power of the rulers. He argued for according language with truth; thus honesty was of the most paramount importance. Even in facial expression, truth must always be represented. In discussing the relationship between a subject and his king (or a son and his father), he underlined the need to give due respect to superiors. This demanded that the inferior must give advice to his superior if the superior was considered to be taking the wrong course of action. This was built upon by his disciple Mencius to argue that if the king was not acting like a king, he would lose the Mandate of Heaven and be overthrown. Therefore, tyrannicide is justified because a tyrant is more a thief than a king.
from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius
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