Confucius Lives Next Door

The term â€Å"Confucianism† is often regarded as a complex mechanism of social, political, moral as well as religious beliefs that have considerable influence especially upon the civilizations belonging to the East Asian countries such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea along with Singapore and Vietnam. With reference to the observation made by Reid (1999), it can be viewed that a clear depiction about different principles and beliefs exists within the sphere of â€Å"Confucianism†.Therefore, the major purpose of this report is to briefly review of T. R. Reid’s book â€Å"Confucius Lives Next Door: What Leaving In The East Teaches Us About Living In the West† through concisely unfolding the experience of Reid’s family concerning the Confucian ethos. Moreover, the report would also reveal the influence of Confucian ethos within the modern Japanese culture and identify the lesson which might contribute to a better social experience within the Western culture (Reid 29-66). CONFUCIANISM AS PER REID’S EXPERIENCEThe perception of ‘Confucianism’ can be duly considered as one of the widely accepted religions in the East Asian region. The concept can be termed as a religious belief which tends to incorporate adequate measures of ethical and philosophical method that has been cultivated by the teaching of the past Chinese sage ‘Confucius’. At the time when various religions seek to merge the gap between God and human being, the aspect of â€Å"Confucianism† tends to find the actual path of accomplishing peace and coherence.According to the observation of Reid, the fundamental principles of â€Å"Confucianism† generally involve humanism and broadly incorporate the principles concerning that human belief and perceptions are teachable as well as improvable by emphasizing different communal endeavors. In this regard, the continuous practice of self-cultivating and self-creat ing plays a decisive part for each individual to improve his/her innate capability.The beliefs and thoughts within the facet of â€Å"Confucianism† significantly focus on the refinement of individual virtue and maintenance of human ethical conducts. According to Reid, a few of the major â€Å"Confucianism† ethos and practices involve ‘Ren’, ‘yi’ and ‘li’ which represents the concept of ‘altruism’ along with clear depiction of the humanness for other individuals (Reid 29-66). THE INFLUENCE OF CONFUCIANISM IN THE JAPANESE CULTUREIn relation to the observation made by Reid, the concept of â€Å"Confucianism† is often observed as one of the major Chinese religions alongside Taoism as well as Buddhism. The religion has been emerged in the Japanese culture during the period of 285 AD. A few of the major principles of this religion such as humanity, morality, trustworthiness along with the consideration of developing an individual have been widely witnessed to provide significant influence within the Japanese culture (Reid 67-90).The principles and beliefs within the facet of â€Å"Confucianism† had played an imperative part particularly for Japan which eventually strengthened its political philosophies as well as ethical code of conducts by a considerable level. In relation to the political phenomenon, the notion of â€Å"Confucianism† had played an essential role for the Japanese culture in terms of developing morality along with increasing individual potentials of achieving their desired goals and objectives.Moreover, the religion had also been widely observed to create significant loyalty among the Japanese communities through increasing the amount of self-awareness and humanness while dealing with other individuals. The principles and policies underneath â€Å"Confucianism† play a new role in addressing modern philosophy to religion, humanities, science as well as aspec ts of social science within a huge figure of Japanese individuals.Moreover, the principle of continuous cultivation and improvement of individual ethos and practices have further been observed to increase consistency along with finding developed authentic path to gain potential knowledge of development. In this context, it has been firmly identified that the insertion of â€Å"Confucianism† within the Japanese culture not only strengthened the innate capability, but it also enabled to gain individual growth in terms of building adequate measure of consistency along with ethical code of conducts (Reid 67-90).Moreover, Reid had mentioned various aspects that significantly influenced the development of Japanese culture in terms of advancing its values at large. In this regard, the book which published by Reid had clearly depicted certain significant aspects like honesty, self-acceptance, rationality along with self-control and diplomacy among others that can be associated within the principles of â€Å"Confucianism† in the Japanese culture (Reid 91-126). LESSONS CAN BE TAKEN FROM THE CONFUCIAN/JAPANESE EXPERIENCEAccording to the book of ‘Confucius Lives Next Door: What Leaving In The East Teaches Us About Living In the West’, it has been apparently observed that the philosophies, principles and ethical practices within the sphere of â€Å"Confucianism† religion can significantly empower any individual to develop his/her innate power and capability at large. Reid had clearly mentioned various aspects as well as principles in the â€Å"Confucianism religion† which had authentically supported an individual to cultivate his/her level of consistency along with ethical practices.Furthermore, the beliefs of self-cultivating and self-creating aspects within the respective religion can also been considered as few of the major aspects for individual development. Therefore, it can be identified from the overall observation of Reidâ⠂¬â„¢s experience and realistic implications of Japanese culture that the development of individual ethos and self-cultivating of individual moral can play an indispensable part towards making an individual to achieve its desired goals.Furthermore, the compliance with the primary principles and the beliefs of â€Å"Confucianism† can support every individual to strengthen his/her innate capability which can further provide adequate support towards developing the Western culture by a certain degree. With reference to the Reid’s observation, it has been identified that the beliefs and principles within the Confucian religion are generally focused on improving the amount of humanity, morality and trustworthiness amid the individuals.Contextually, Reid demonstrated that the philosophical principles linked with â€Å"Confucianism† had provided adequate support to the Japanese culture in terms of enhancing innate capability and identifying the actual way of cultivating individual moral. Thus, it can be concluded that the idea concerning â€Å"Confucianism† possesses every potential towards developing society as well as culture by a greater level.