A Good Life

" This quote means that we should understand and study the fundamentals of people's customs all over the world. This is similar to the Hindu religion in that the people have as much time as they need to gather knowledge, in order to achieve the process of letting oneself go from the cycle of reincarnation. Some Hindu's take many lifetimes to actually achieve this. This is an encouragement for one to live each of their lives to the fullest.
             The Confucian philosophy grew directly from its earlier river valley civilization uninfluenced by other civilizations because of the Chinese geography. The Confucian thought was much more practical than others, and was strong enough to remain that way while other cultures were falling under different religions. The Confucian thought was somewhat religious, but in comparison to others, very different. For example, the Islam's believed there to be a natural and supernatural world, where the afterlife was to be lived, while the Chinese believed it to be all one, the cosmos. The Confucian people stress good relationships, and fulfill the duties of their status to produce a socially sound environment. They had a seemingly simple way of though; get along with one another, keep peace, and everything will fall into place. This was the good life for the Confucian people. .
             The Confucian way of thought coincides with the ideas from the Statement on Liberal Learning. In this statement, it talks about a truly liberal education being one that, .
             "prepares for responsible living, productiveness, and creativeness in a quickly-changing world." The Chinese were definitely in a time of dramatic change, and had to adapt .
             quickly. It states that a requirement for liberal learning is, "the understanding of the foundations of knowledge and inquiry about nature, culture and society." The Chinese understood these things, having great respect for one another and nature.