Confucianism

There's a bit to say about
confucianism, (Also called Ruism) that is relevant to the games, though not very much. An important thing to note is that it blurs the line between
religion and philosophy. Confucius did not claim to be a prophet
directly (kind of) or to add very much religious elements.
Nonetheless it adds a few and is built on the assumption that chinese
culture and cultural religion in general were for the most part true.

Confucianism tones down the religious
elements enough that in the 1700s knowledge of it came to the west
and inspired parts of the western deistic movement. Because they saw
it about abstractly noting that the divine existed, but building
everyday life in a way that does not focus on it, but rather on
practical concerns. I suppose you could tie this to neutrality, but
in a wider sense you can to almost any ending. In practice,
confucianism was not deistic itself, but rather considered the
directly god oriented practices to be another focus than the purpose
of its ideology. Leading some Christians who came to the east unsure
whether it qualified as a competing religion or not.

The this-worldly concern of
Confucianism rests on the belief that human beings are fundamentally
good, and teachable, improvable, and perfectible through personal and
communal endeavor especially self-cultivation and self-creation.
Unlike taoism's rejection of the importance of society however,
confucianism focused heavily on it. Saying that life was improved by
a properly ordered society. And that while people have internal
goodness you need to bring it out through cultivation, as opposed to
taoism saying the opposite almost. He even added in a directly
cultural element to this. There were two forms of “correct” in
confucianism. Morally correct, and culturaly correct. It was realized
that these might conflict. But culturally correct changes over time.
It was admitted that culture had different states and needs, but that
you existed inside of it and so had to move in tune with it. But that
likewise you can and should change it to align it so that it is not
morally incorrect. But great importance was placed on designing rites
and culture for people's use. There's no objectively correct culture,
but within a culture it is correct to comply to some sense, and part
of objective correctness is making a culture that provides stability
and order.

**Neo-Confucianism** was an attempt to create a more rationalist and secular form of Confucianism by rejecting what they saw as the superstitious and mystical elements of Taoism and Buddhism that had influenced Confucianism during and after the Han Dynasty. Although the Neo-Confucianists were critical of Taoism and Buddhism,
 the two did have an influence on the philosophy, and the
Neo-Confucianists borrowed terms and concepts from both. However, unlike
 the Buddhists and Taoists, who saw metaphysics
 as a catalyst for spiritual development, religious enlightenment, and
immortality, the Neo-Confucianists used metaphysics as a guide for
developing a rationalist ethical philosophy.

As a social and ethical philosophy it used metaphysical
ideas, some borrowed from Taoism, as its framework. The philosophy can
be characterized as humanistic and rationalistic, with the belief that
the universe could be understood through human reason, and that it was
up to humanity to create a harmonious relationship between the universe
and the individual. The rationalism of Neo-Confucianism is in contrast to the mysticism of the previously dominant Chan Buddhism. Unlike the Buddhists, the Neo-Confucians believed that reality existed, and could be directly understood by humankind, without need for intuitive spiritual grasping.

"But the spirit of Neo-Confucian rationalism is diametrically opposed to
that of Buddhist mysticism. Whereas Buddhism insisted on the unreality
of things, Neo-Confucianism stressed their reality. Buddhism and Taoism
asserted that existence came out of, and returned to, non-existence;
Neo-Confucianism regarded reality as a gradual realization of the Great
Ultimate. Buddhists, and to some degree, Taoists as well, relied on
meditation and insight to achieve supreme reason; the Neo-Confucianists
chose to follow Reason." Note that the word reason here is the same word as li, used for one japanese name for the great will, that being the great reason / li. Implying an ultimately logical basis behind the megaten world.

**New Confucianism.** In the 1920s, New Confucianism,
 also known as Modern Neo-Confucianism, started developing and absorbed
the Western learning to seek a way to modernize Chinese culture based on
 the traditional Confucianism. It centers on four topics: The modern
transformation of Chinese culture; Humanistic spirit of Chinese culture;
 Religious connotation in Chinese culture; Intuitive way of thinking, to
 go beyond the logic and to wipe out the concept of exclusion analysis.
Adhering to the traditional Confucianism and the Neo-Confucianism, the
Modern Neo-Confucianism contributes the nation's emerging from the
predicament faced by the ancient Chinese traditional culture in the
process of modernization; Furthermore, it also promotes the world
culture of industrial civilization rather than the traditional personal
senses.

## Gods

**Tian**, commonly translated as
"Heaven" or "Sky", but philologically meaning the
"Great One", "Great Whole", is a key concept in
Confucianism. It denotes the source of reality, the cosmos, and
nature in Chinese religions and philosophies. The Confucians mean by
Tian and li (order) something similar to what the Taoists mean by Tao to some extent. However,
heaven was seen as a world spirit directly, unlike tao. This idea is
not unique to confucianism and existed in some other chinese
philosophy, but for confucianism it was a big part.

Obviously once
again you ca tie it to an idea of the great will.
Confucious saw tian as both an abstract
spirit, and a principle of order. It was what gave people morals and
order, and emanated sentient gods. And confucious saw himself not
necessarily as a prophet of it directly, but as someone who learned
of it, and indirectly realized how it worked, and was pushed by it to
teach people. And operated by its will. (So it wasn't quite as
deistic as claimed, but all the same.) And believed it would protect
him from death til he was done. It is a more pantheistic idea of god
though, and its will is more abstract than a direct mind.

The term tian shows up directly in dsj, in the title of the new final area, with tian being the term they translated to empyrean in english for empyrean ascent. What exactly it is meant to be is ambiguous, due to not looking like a heavenly area however. Despite being the place that some law aligned figures are residing. So regardless the concept of tian is still being associated loosely with law.

**Li** is a classical Chinese word which is commonly used in Chinese philosophy, particularly within Confucianism. *Li*
 does not encompass a definitive object but rather a somewhat abstract
idea and, as such, is translated in a number of different ways. Originally used to refer to a sacrifice or rite, it later became used to refer to the underlying reason and order of nature as reflected in its organic forms. It may be translated as "rational principle" or "law." It was central to Zhu Xi's integration of Buddhism into Confucianism. Zhu Xi held that *li*, together with *qi*, depend on each other to create structures of nature and matter. The sum of *li* is the *Taiji*.

Human agency participates in the ordering of the universe by Li
('rites'). There are several Chinese definitions of a rite, one of the
most common definitions is that it transforms the invisible to visible;
through the performance of rites at appropriate occasions, humans make
visible the underlying order. Performing the correct ritual focuses,
links, orders, and moves the social, which is the human realm, in
correspondence with the terrestrial and celestial realms to keep all
three in harmony (note the neutral sounding tone of this). This procedure has been described as centering, which
used to be the duty of the Son of Tian, the emperor. But it was also
done by all those who conducted state, ancestral, and life-cycle rites. Daoists also engaged in similar practices.

In apocalypse, in the japanese version the axiom is refered to as the great li / reason. Implying it as a kind of ordering structure of reality. In nocturne any ordering structure that a new world was based on was also referred to as li.

**Dao** is used as a word by confucians
too, but it is not given much metaphysical significance. It basically
means way or order to construct society. They also use it in the
phrase way of heaven, but this is used as little more than a way to
point out that heaven teaches people things. It didn't have much
significance.

**Other gods (shem)** were assumed to
exist, and it was said that it was important to pray to them. But
they were not a focus. Confucious himself was apparently a major
ritual master however. Note that to him, ritual and culture were
lumped together. Rituals were a form of culture. Not objectively
correct, but important to have and do.

**Mandate of heaven** is an important
Confucian idea though. But basically mandate of heaven specifically
means that a just top leader or emperor has the right to rule as
given by heaven. But this conforms to their proper rulership. If they
do it wrong, it is instantly revoked, and they no longer have the
right to rule. Even if they were previously given the mandate through
proper rulership. And people occasionally saw natural disasters or
famine as a sign of bad rulership, and that they should depose the
ruler.

This is interesting in terms of smtII,
because a literal version of it is shown with the center. In that
they, by being bad rulers even though they were angels of god
literally lost the favor of yhvh, and constructed a false yhvh to
tell them they were right. And ironically explains a semi eastern
idea of angels in general. The messians are even the main lawul
religion, yet in II the entire church was more or less forsaken for
ruling badly. Explaining how law works in general. In that its not
just order that matters, but it being used properly. Improper order
is cause to disrupt it.

This is cranked up to 11 with the
ending which adds a meta layer to this. Satan judges that even yhvh
is functioning as a bad ruler, and so needs to be
deposed.
So there's no limit to the mandate as seen in this logic. “heaven”
in confucianism is more of an abstract principle, corresponding to
the great will, or god in the “wider” sense anyways. In the
added scene in
II, zayin
realizes that God does not have just one face, and then yhvh is just
another face that can be assessed to see if its working properly.

## Ethics

Ethics. There's not much of particular
note to say about it aside from this. It was a general building up
state philosophy. It did emphasize virtue, and said that the state's
authority comes from properly functioning to get the favor of heaven.
The most important part are its role ethics. Basically it thought
ethics was summed up in 5 pairs of roles. These were based on the concept of **filial piety** and family relations, often seeing rulers like a figure analogous to a father.

(1) ruler and subject;

(2) father and son;

(3) elder brother and younger brother;

(4) husband and wife; and

(5) friend and friend.

All but the last were seen as
hierarchical. And it has been criticized for being a lot of the
problems with asia today. Aside from the sexism which is a given of
the times, its noted that it enshrines hierarchy into the very core
of morality. Making people Focus on this, and their interplay within
it more than anything else. Especially since only one single role was
not about hierarchy. Likewise, there is little to no no respect for outsiders.
Despite being about your relation with a family or group, There is no
way to refer to the public at large. Making it very collectivist
within a group, but individualist in terms of groups. With the groups
being hierarchical on the inside. Called vertical collectivism, as
opposed to more egalitarian horizontal collectivism.

An interesting thing to note is that
despite one's first intuition be to compare this kind of social organization as law, the games treat this as more chaotic. People often mistake chaos
for literally people not caring about groups at all, but this isn't
true. Note that a feature of chaos is “War” which implies groups
going to war. And in the first game there's a chaotic dictator
representing imperial japan, and in II lords ruling over cities in
the abyss. In IV you become a new king. Chaos is also represented via (kind of)
meritocracy and steep hierarchy that you seek to move up in. But
which just exists and you can move in freely in proportion to what
you deserve. So confucianism has some chaotic elements in this sense,
in terms of leading to ingroup association. Obviously it is not one to one, but this more particularist and ingroup focused mentality leans more to chaos and away from laws in game. Doubly due to the hierarchical tone.

Obviously you shouldn't take any one line of thought too far. Since in practice they wanted to
make an ordered society. And wouldn't have been anything like as chaotic as seen in game. But do give an indication of some of the east asian lines of thought that are being lumped under chaos, even if indirectly.

Confucianism considers most morality to be heavily hierarchical,
based on the relations between particular individuals, and the duties
the higher and lower individuals have to eachother. These roles having
to do with various inter-family roles, and the relation of people to
their sovereign. While chaos' form of hierarchy is not identical to
this, in an interview they talk about how chaos is in some ways certain
eastern ideas taken to an extreme, whereas law is certain western ideas
taken to an extreme. Since they are talking about among other things the
 asian focus on ingroup and hierarchy, this means a basis in
confucianism.

**Meritocracy**. He emphasized a
virtue based meritocracy, arguing that people should get their
positions in proportion to their virtue, not their relation to
others. Which corresponds to any alignment really. All of them
emphasize the annoyance of people in rigid structures who are useless
there. Though he did emphasize virtue over power. Which can be argued
to be a little anti chaos. Virtuous leaders were seen as inspirations
for those lower down. Which resembles both law and chaos.

Confucianism had **sages** as well, though
officially they just meant wise man who properly understood and
related with heaven. In practice people assumed they had powers as
well, however. And people deified Confucius over time too, and tried
to make Confucianism more explicitly religious.