=================================================
Confucianism (Traditional Chinese: 儒學; Simplified Chinese: 儒学; pinyin: Rúxué [ Listen (help·info) ], literally "The School of the Scholars"; or 孔教 Kŏngjiào, "The Teachings of Confucius") is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of the early Chinese sage Confucius. It is a complex system of moral, social, political, and religious thought which has had tremendous influence on the history of Chinese civilization up to the 21st century. Some people in the West have considered it to have been the "state religion" of imperial China because of the Chinese government's promotion of Confucianist values.
Debated during the Warring States Period and forbidden during the short-lived Qin Dynasty, Confucianism was chosen by Emperor Wu of Han for use as a political system to govern the Chinese state. Despite its loss of influence during the Tang Dynasty, Confucianist doctrine remained a mainstream Chinese orthodoxy for two millennia until the 20th century, when it was attacked by radical Chinese thinkers as a vanguard of a feudal system and an obstacle to China's modernization, eventually culminating in its repression and vilification during the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Confucianism has been revived in mainland China, and both interest in and debate about Confucianism have surged.
=================================================
The cultures most strongly influenced by Confucianism include those of China (including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau), Korea, Vietnam, and Japan as well as various territories (including Singapore) settled predominantly by Chinese people.
Confucianism as passed down to the 19th and 20th centuries derives primarily from the school of the Neo-Confucians, led by Zhu Xi, who gave Confucianism renewed vigor in the Song and later dynasties. Neo-Confucianism combined Taoist and Buddhist ideas with existing Confucian ideas to create a more complete metaphysics than had ever existed before. At the same time, many forms of Confucianism have historically declared themselves opposed to the Buddhist and Taoist belief systems.
Confucius (Chinese: 孔夫子; pinyin: Kǒng Fū Zǐ; Wade-Giles: K'ung-fu-tzu, lit. "Master Kong," but most frequently referred to as Kongzi (Chinese: 孔子), traditionally September 28, 551 – 479 BC) was a famous Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese life and thought.
His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. These values gained prominence in China over other doctrines, such as Legalism (法家) or Taoism (道家) during the Han Dynasty . Confucius' thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as Confucianism (儒家). It was introduced to Europe by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, who was the first to Latinise the name as "Confucius" .
=================================================
儒家思想,又稱儒學,也有人認為它是一種宗教而稱之為儒教,最初指的是冠婚喪祭時的司儀,自漢代起指由孔子(西元前551年(西元前479年,春秋時期魯國人)創立的後來逐步發展以仁為核心的思想體系。儒家的學說簡稱儒學,是中國古代的主流意識流派,自漢以來在絕大多數的歷史時期作為中國的官方思想,至今也是一般華人的主流思想基礎。儒家學派對中國,東亞、東南亞乃至全世界都產生過深遠的影響。奉儒學為官學的最後一個王朝大清帝國被民國取代以後,儒家思想受到了外來新文化最大限度的衝擊,不過在歷經多種衝擊、浩劫乃至官方政權試圖徹底鏟除儒家思想之後,儒家思想依然是中國社會一般民眾的核心價值觀,並在世界上作為中國文化的代表和民族傳統的標記。
=================================================
2007-02-25 11:06:14 補充:
http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E5%84%92%E5%AE%B6%E6%80%9D%E6%83%B3&variant=zh-tw