Brent Phelan Geography

Confucianism
Confucianism is a philosophical system/religion created by the Chinese philosopher named Confucius. The religion hails from East Asia and is built on several social, political, moral and philosophical systematic principals and views. Confucianism works on the sense that all of its people act a certain way, with honor with dignity and respect for one another. In other religions and societies people are punished for illegal actions that they commit with out understanding reasons for why they should behave with good intentions. But with Confucianism everyone acts with respect and good intentions in fear of loosing their dignity or honor. Many Chinese states consider Confucianism, as a state religion so there really is no separation between church and state. The way one governs its people through Confucianism is by calm and smooth ruling, the less the king does the more that gets done the king can allow everything to run smoothly without tampering with the individual parts. The biggest part of East Asia that Confucianism lies in is China, but also plays a big role in Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam. But it has also spread elsewhere in places such as, Singapore and Japan. Confucianism was started in China and still resides there today, it has spread to said areas but has not really changed location for any reason since its founding. Some changes that took place within Confucianism over time are womans rights, and the debate of weather its a religion or not. From the beginning of time in China Women were treated as second-class citizens and not as important as men. Confucianism up held this tradition because Confucius felt that wives should always listen to their husbands and obey what they say. So up until 1949 when communists invaded china woman were bound to their houses and families. But nowadays the women are allowed

to work and vote and have all the same rights as men. As for the debate on Confucianism being a religion or not, well thats a debate thats been going on for a while and is still going on now. People argue that its more of a philosophy than a religion and thats the problem because it is very philosophical. But I believe that religion is in the eye of the beholder, meaning that its up to you to decide if you think its a religion or not. Anything a person follows strictly and religiously in my opinion is a religion for example, ones job could be a religion for them if thats all they know and all they do. Most Confucians are modest and are strict about their dignity and in my opinion is very much so a religion.

Resources/References
China knowledge. Web. <http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/neoconfucianism.ht ml>. Confucianism. Web. <http://regentsprep.org/Regents/global/themes/beliefsystems/confuciani sm.cfm>. Confucian. Web. <http://kengarman.tripod.com/easternphilosophy/id3.html>. Confucianism. Web. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confuscianism>. Religious Facts. Web. <http://www.religionfacts.com/a-z-religionindex/confucianism.htm>.