The Junzi - Confucius' ideal human being

It is a deeply rooted habit among the Chinese to divide people into two categories: the junzi (gentlemen decent people those with a sense of justice noble-spirited men) and the xiaoren (petty men mean-spirited individuals who look only to personal profit and never to the common good). This habit too is a legacy of Confucius who transformed the meaning of these two labels.<br /><br />The term <b>junzi </b>— rendered <i>kunshi</i> in Japanese <i>kwunca</i> in Korean and <i>quân tử</i> in Vietnamese — already existed before Confucius and its original meaning was simply to indicate a person’s social status. As a social designation junzi meant “son (zi) of a feudal lord (jun)” or of an aristocrat and thus a member of the noble class that governed under that system. In Confucius’s time society was divided into two classes: the junzi (the aristocrats) and the xiaoren (the common people the masses).<br />The original meaning occasionally resurfaces in the Analects as we will point out in due course. But in most cases the term is used with a different sense. Confucius transformed it into a moral qualification: from “son of a feudal lord (or an aristocrat)” to “a person who has the ideal qualities of a feudal lord or an aristocrat.”<br />From a social qualification (“noble man by blood”) to an ethical one (“noble man by spirit”).<br />The junzi is according to Confucius the ideal human being.<br />Naturally its opposite the xiaoren then does not (in most cases) mean someone of humble social origin but rather a petty selfish man unable to see beyond his own narrow personal interests. As we will see the junzi of Confucius is not a hereditary condition; it is an ideal of life a goal to be achieved which any person may aspire to not just those of noble birth.<br />The descriptions Confucius gives us of the personality of the junzi or conversely the xiaoren are in fact his definitions of the ideal human being — how in his view a person worthy of the name “human” should or should not behave.<br /><br /><b>Umberto Bresciani</b><br />1942 Born in Ca’d’Andrea Cremona Italy.<br />1962 High School Graduate (Maturità Classica) Liceo Ballerini Seregno (MI) Italy.<br />1968 Licentiate of Philosophy & Theology Studentato Teologico Saveriano Parma Italy.<br />1969 Entered Chinese Language Institute (Annexed to Fujen University Taipei Taiwan).<br />1973 B.A. (major: History; minor: Chinese Studies) University of Maryland (U.S.A.) Far East Division.<br />1975 M.A. Chinese Literature National Taiwan University Taipei Taiwan.<br />1983 Ph. D. Chinese Literature National Taiwan University Taipei Taiwan.<br />Professor of Italian Language: National Taiwan Normal University Taipei (since 1974).<br />Professor Dept. of Italian Language & Culture Fujen University Xinzhuang Taipei Taiwan (since 2003).<br />Umberto Bresciani has lived in Taiwan for over 40 years.<br />His main interest is Chinese philosophical and religious thought and comparative theological studies.<br /><br /><b>Main publications</b><br />Books:<br /><b>Xifang hanxuejia yanjiu wenshidongyi de shangdui</b> (Evaluation of research by Western sinologists on the Wenshidongyi) dissertation for the Ph.D. Chinese Literature Taipei: National Taiwan University May 1983.<br /><b>Reinventing Confucianism: The New Confucian Movement</b> Taipei: Ricci Institute 2001.<br /><b>La filosofia cinese nel ventesimo secolo</b> – I nuovi confuciani Roma: Urbaniana University Press 2009.<br /><b>Il primo principio della filosofia confuciana</b> Gaeta: Passerino Editore 2014.