Confucius empahsis on self-improvement
Confucius believed that self-improvement was an essential key to life and emphasised it regularly throughout all his writings. In chapter six verse seventeen Confucius explains the five pillars of self- improvement as being ‘respect, liberality, trustworthiness, earnestness and kindness” while going on to state, ‘ if you are respectful, you will have no regret; if you are liberal, you will win the multitude; if you are trustworthy, you will be trusted; if you are earnest, you will be effective; if you are kind, you will be able to influence others.” (Confucius, 551-479 BCE). The use of words such as respect instead of discipline and kindness instead of benevolence reflects his internal ideas of praising the good rather than punishing the bad. Not only did he share this ideology himself but he also encouraged his peers to the same which is evident verse twenty-eight chapter six where he states, “ As for humanness – you want to establish yourself; the help others to establish themselves. You want to develop yourself; then help other to develop themselves.” (Confucius, 551-479 BCE). Overall Confucius believed the key for self-improvement was ‘loving people’ and everything around us.