Confucius, the Meaning of Ren and Yi

"If what you don't want for yourself, you shouldn't to do others, then you would like others to do for you what you would indeed like for yourself." --Confucius (also K'ung Fuzi), ancient Chinese philosopher

While "the gentleman understands Yi, the small/mean man understands Li," wrote Confucius, Analects IV:16.
Here in the United States many of us grow up with the occasional, "Confucius said..." and sometimes responding with laughter. But what did Confucius really say? Why does it matter at all?
In his book, The Ways of Confucianism by David S. Nivens, Philosopher and Sinologist, writes that Confucius remains important now as then, forming a sort of moral compass with principles to guide one in positive and fruitful pathways.
The practice of Confucianism is heavily invested in what is virtue, being Ren and doing Yi. In other words, one is mostly to be concerned with Xiao, honor, along with Ren love, charity and Yi, right conduct.

Nivens takes these base ideas and draws them out over the milenia of Chinese practice. He investigates virtue in the form of  De, the power or charisma of a king or ruler who practices without force or violence. Insisting this is key to understanding the philosophy of Confucius he compares the practice of De with an example, "Humans typically feel gratitude for gifts. However in some societies, this feeling becomes magnified so that my gratitude to you comes to seem like force... De was originally this "force" kings acquired through their willingness to make sacrifices to the ancestors and to the spirits..."
However, here it 's important to be cognizant of the difference between gifts given freely and those given to obtain a measure of force. True De is in contact with humility, generosity and virtue, generally.

To do good in Confucius' view, one must be in possession of this virtue, free of simple, unrestrained self-interest. In contrast, Chinese philosopher, Mozi in an attitude of "consequentialism," takes the tack of an extreme voluntarist, or one who willingly 'scratches your back, so you will scratch my own.' Mozi then is the quintessential anti-Confucianist.
Confucius argues that virtue is every one's business and everyone is to strive within this virtue. Thus Confucius also falls into the business of enforcing the bolstering of, what the West calls, the 'weakness of the will.' "So the problem of weakness of the will enters into Chinese moral philosophy in general," writes Nivens.

 Nivens, a scholar in his own right, posits some interpretations of the ancient Chinese texts rather than mere erudition of them.  Within his book, he examines Neo-Confucianism through the study of Wang Yang Ming, another influential, early Chinese Buddhist-influenced  philosopher. "For Wang, self-cultivation is a matter of escaping the obscuration [enigma] of selfish desires, and attending  instead to the voice of one's true self.
Because one's true self is in identification with the universe... self cultivation results in the unity of all things [harmony]." So in Wang's Neo-Confucianist view, harmony with the universe, openness in mind and heart to the nature of things, the persistence of spontaneity and joy, even while in mourning, is expressive of the action of one's true, authentic self.

Mani and His Ideas, Heretics and Empresses

While many think that Mani and his followers were concentrated largely in the West, others encountered his teachings in the East, just as well. It is often surprising in the history of ideas to learn those which were concurrently in force. Most readers are familiar with the term Manichean as having to do with heresy, but who was Mani? What were his ideas? How were they transmitted from East to West? And Buddhism--what's with that?

Of all places, this interesting discussion came up in a book about the history of vegetarianism. Colin Spencer writes in A Heretic's Feast that Mani is thought to have been Persian and that his ideas spread via the ancient Silk Road. Here enters the story of the Empress Wu, who admitted one Manichean devotee to her court in about the late seventh century C.E. The man, Mihr-Ormuzd, presented the Empress with a book titled, Sutra of the Two Principles.

Along the trade route, the ideas of Mani flourished in many places; it was much influenced by Buddhism and took on some of its features. Today certain Buddhist sects are thought to trace at least  some of their practices back to these earlier ideas.  As for the Empress, she was much impressed that within the Manichean realm she could take a central role, unlike Confucianism which sidelined women. Mani taught about "the four attributes," a reference to purity, light, power and wisdom.

Under successive regimes, the Mani went underground, as it were, in reaction to oppressive regimes which distrusted foreign ideas. Their followers took on local customs and came to be regarded as sorcerers and exorcists. Many took up residence in Taoist held lands. Under Mongolian rule, they fared better and were more open in their practice. They were identified at that time as "Nestorian Christians" and referred popularly as, the Religion of Light.

In the West, more famously, they attached themselves to the major faiths; over time, their teachings were successively denounced. Manicheans were proclaimed heretics by Christians, Muslims and Jews, yet they persist most curiously within the faith systems of major religions, even today.