Confucianism
The Chinese Scholar Confucius (550-478 B.C.) set up an ethical-moral system intended ideally to govern all relationships in the family, community, and state. Confucius taught that society was made up of five relationship: those between ruler and subject (the relation of righteousness), husband and wife (chaste conduct), father and son (love), elder brother and younger brother (order), and between friends (faithfulness). Three of five bases of relations occur within the family. The regulating factors in family relationships are extended to the whole community and state.
The chief virtue is filial piety, a combination of loyalty and reverence, which demands that the son show respect to his father and fulfill the demand of his elders.
Confucianism emphasizes virtue, selflessness, duty, patriotism, hard work, and respect for hierarchy, both familial and societal. Just as George Washington and the story of the cherry tree is used in the United States to teach the value of honesty, Confucianism reinforces its lessons about people who represent particular virtues. For example, Chinese children learn about such heroes as Mu Lan, a woman of the 6th century who disguised herself as a man and served 12 years as a soldier so that her ill father would not be disgraced or punished because he could not report for military duty. Mu Lan teaches courage and filial devotion.
Confucianism guides social relationships: “To live in harmony with the universe and with your fellow man through proper behavior.” Confucianism considers balance and harmony in human relationships to be the basis of society. June Yum (1998) describes five effects that Confucianism has on interpersonal communication:
1.Particularism. There is no universal pattern of rules governing relationships: There are no rules governing interaction with someone whose status is unknown. Instead of applying the same rule to everyone, such factors as status, intimacy, and context create different communication rules for different people. In fact, there are several patterns guiding interaction with others whose status is known. In the Confucian country of Korea, it is quite common for strangers to find out each other’s age in the first few minutes of conversation and adjust their language to show respect.
2.Role of intermediaries. Rituals should be followed in establishing relationships.
3.Reciprocity. Complementary obligations are the base of relationships. Obligations in relationships is contrary to Western ideas of individuality.
4.Ingroup /outgroup distinction. There can be different language codes for ingroup members. Ingroup members engage in freer and deeper talk.
5.Overlap of personal and public relationships. Business and pleasure are mixed. Frequent contacts lead to common experiences. This contrasts to Western patterns of keeping public and private lives separate.
In some sense, the same ethic can be found in business dealings. Much of commercial life is lubricated by guanxi, a concept best translated as “connections” or “personal relationships.” Guanxi is an alternative to the legal trappings of Western capitalism in that business is cemented by the informal relationships of trust and mutual obligation. Sometimes viewed as bribery, guanxi grows more out of the Confucian ethos of family obgitions. Guanxi is less like using professional U.S. congressional lobbyists than interlocking entanglements of mutual friends among whom trust can be maintained.
Earlier, you read how communication was defined in the United States in a mechanistic way by component. A Confucian understanding would define communication as an infinite interpretive process where all parties are searching to develop and maintain a social relationship. As a consequence, the Chinese have developed many verbal strategies such as compliments, greeting rituals, and so on to maintain social harmony and good interpersonal relations.