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The Confucius sculpture in Old Teachers College

I want to discuss about the sculpture in Old Teachers College: Confucius.

The notes:

The statue was donated to the University of Sydney Confucius Institute by the Chinese community. The Confucius Institute was officially founded in 2008. The Institute is collaboration between the University of Sydney and the Office of Chinese Language Council International in China, in partnership with Fudan University, Shanghai. The Confucius Institute is dedicated to becoming the leading Chinese cultural and language in NSW, serving as a bridge between Australia and China.

The Secondary Research:

Confucius (551–479 BC) was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. The philosophy of Confucius put emphasis on personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. His followers competed successfully with many other schools during the “Hundred Schools of Thought” era only to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the Qin Dynasty. Following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, Confucius's thoughts received official sanction and were further developed into a system known as Confucianism.

Confucius is treated as the founder of Confucianism. And the most famous texts of Confucianism are Five Classics that are the basic knowledge and theories of Confucianism. Confucius's principles were also a basis for Chinese culture, tradition and belief as well. He championed strong family loyalty, ancestor worship, and respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives. Confucian ethics are described as humanistic, the central Five Constants are:

仁, humaneness

義, righteousness or justice

禮, proper rite

智, knowledge

信, integrity

For example: (the example from Lunyu that is one of the five calsscics)

己所不欲，勿施於人.

"What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others."

子貢問曰：“有一言而可以終身行之者乎”？子曰：“其恕乎！己所不欲、勿施於人. ”

Zi Gong [a disciple] asked: "Is there any one word that could guide a person throughout life?"

The Master replied: "How about 'reciprocity'! Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself."

This teaching tells people what is humaneness and integrity, and how people do to achieve integrity and humanness.

Another example is Ren (rightness) is "not to do to others as you would not wish done to yourself".Confucius also said, "ren is not far off; he who seeks it has already found it". Ren is close to man and never leaves him.

The sculpture of Confucius in old teacher’s College:

Combining the secondary knowledge with my experience to visit Confucius sculpture in old teacher’s college, in my view, on the one hand, the sculpture of Confucius represents a image of kindly and knowledgeable teacher that’s the reason why it is located in the old teacher’s college building; on the other hand, the image of sculpture can evoke my respectful feeling to Confucius thus to my teachers in university.

As suggested before, Confucius is a teacher of his followers and Chinese people. His main teachings are humaneness; righteousness or justice; proper rite; knowledge and integrity. His teaching and thinking influence Chinese people a lot, and he is a symbol of good teacher as well. I think that is the reason why this sculpture is located in the old teachers’ college. Moreover, the image of the sculpture represents a kindly old man who wears traditional Chinese cloth, it seems Confucius is teaching students the principles to conduct themselves. In Chinese people’s thinking, “Once a teacher, always a teacher”. So this sculpture evokes my respectful feeling to Confucius, and it also reminds me of Confucius’s teaching ‘once a teacher, always a teacher”, thus it reminds me to respect all the teachers and their teachings.