Essay: Confucianism – reflective

1 Introduction
I spent my semester abroad in Seoul, South Korea. As an East Asian country, South Korea obviously differs from Germany in many ways, including culture and morale.
Both of these have been strongly affected by Confucianism, a philosophy which was introduced to South Korea through strong influence from China many centuries ago and still is one of the pillars of South Korean culture, legal system, and overall society. In order to explain the concept of Confucianism, I firstly will give a brief overview of its history, especially in South Korea, before elaborating on Confucianism in contemporary South Korea. This overview is based on both existing literature as well as my own observations. In order to determine practical consequences of Confucianism in South Korea, I have used my own experiences as well as inter-views with two South Korean persons as well as one person from the Philippines who has lived in South Korea for almost a decade.
2 Theoretical background
Confucianism is a philosophy founded by the renowned Chinese politician and philosopher Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC) (Riegel, 2002). Confucius is considered to be one of the most influential scholars in the history of mankind. In general, one could say that Confucianism is a rule-based form of morality, which tries to achieve harmony through hierarchy. On the one hand, according to this morality, people should live in harmony and peace. On the other hand, Confucius was a “proponent of a hierarchical ordering of social life, of clear demarcations be-tween rulers and ruled, between emperor, sages and scholars and ordinary people, between par-ents and children, between older brother and younger siblings” (Boer, 2012). Following Confu-cianism, “young people should defer to their elders, students should use courteous language when talking to their teachers, and women should speak more softly than men in public and walk a step behind them” (Baker, 2008, p. 46). This philosophy includes humanistic ethics (Juergensmeyer, 2005, p. 70) and primarily comprises five constant virtues: Rén (humaneness), Yì (justice), Lǐ (proper rite), Zhì (knowledge) and Xìn (integrity) (Runes, 1984, p. 338). These are believed to be “as constant and unchanging as natural laws, remaining the same for all time and guiding/ordering all other virtues” (Yao, 2000, p. 34). Rén or humaneness is considered the most important virtue in Confucian ethics, basically translating to treating others how oneself wants to be treated (Chen, 2010, p. 507).
Confucianism originated in China and influenced many cultures and countries in the East Asian region. Through strong cultural influence from China, Confucianism found its way into Korea. During the Goryeo Dynasty, which lasted until 1392, it was long overshadowed by Buddhism. With the fall of the Goryeo Dynasty, the Joseon Dynasty (1392 – 1910) (Baker, 2008, p. 53) began; especially in the beginning of this period, Korean scholars had a strong interest in Chi-nese literature. Therefore, Korea started to adapt Neo-Confucianism, a new form of the philoso-phy, which tried to eliminate “mystical” elements from Taoism and Buddhism within Confucianism (Blocker & Starling, 2001, p. 64) and therefore be a more rationalized form of Confucianism. This school of thought quickly replaced Buddhism as Korea’s state ideology and gained plenty of influence.
Since the end of the Joseon Dynasty in 1910 and the annexation of Korea by Japan, the Confu-cian thought has lost its status and lots of influence (Tu, 1996, p. 193). However, the legacy of Confucianism has remained a fundamental part of South Korean culture and strongly influences South Korean moral, society and the legal system.
Firstly, in traditional Confucianism, there was a lot of respect for education and studying. Like in the past, South Koreans still place a lot of emphasis on studying today. Since it is very im-portant for South Koreans to gain admission to the best schools and best jobs in order to climb the social ladder, South Korean students usually spend most of their time on studying and pre-paring for exams.
Secondly, South Korean family life is strongly influenced by Confucianism; in South Korean culture, harmony and a strict hierarchy within the family are very important. For example, South Koreans still commonly practice traditional Confucian rituals, such as the ancestor memorial services, which are meant to express respect to deceased ancestors. Overall, South Koreans have a very high level of respect for their ancestors and elderly people in general.
Thirdly, Confucian thoughts also strongly influence business in South Korea. Colleagues are usually regarded as family members, where the supervisor is considered a patriarch. The “Con-fucian concept” puts emphasis on the “importance of differentiation in social hierarchical order” (Chen, 2004, p. 48). Therefore, regular workers in South Korea have to work very hard. This is also a consequence of other Confucian values, such as “diligence and harmony” and “harmony-oriented leadership” (Chen, 2004, p. 182). Summing up, South Korean business operates on strong hierarchies as well as a high degree of harmony between supervisors and subordinates, which results in high loyalty.
3 Practical consequences
As already stated above, Confucianism strongly influences everyday life as well as business culture in South Korea. I have gathered plenty of experience regarding the South Koreans’ re-spect for education, the importance of family and general respect for elderly people, as well as some aspects of business.
Firstly, the importance of family can be observed on a daily basis, basically anywhere in Seoul or the rest of South Korea. Most South Koreans stay with their parents during their studies and even when starting working after university. This has different reasons, the main ones being the housing prices in Seoul and – obviously – the strong harmony and coherence within South Ko-rean families. Most South Koreans only move out of their parents’ place when they have married. Also, whenever talking to South Korean fellow students about family, I could recognize their immense appreciation towards their family members, especially their parents.
Furthermore, the South Koreans’ respect towards elderly people affects everyday life in a high degree. For example, when talking to elderly people (which is also applicable to when talking to supervisors or professors), South Koreans use a very formal way of speaking, instead of the informal way of speaking when talking to people in the same age, according to one of my inter-view partners, Angela Kim.
South Korean students’ respect for education is also easily observable, especially when being on or close to a university campus. First of all, as mentioned above, professors are greatly re-spected in South Korea. Secondly, from my experience, Korean students spend a lot more time studying than students in Germany. The library at Hanyang University was usually crowded from 9:00 am until at least 11:00 pm. From conversations with fellow students, I learned that in high school, South Koreans usually even study a lot more than in university. This results from the huge importance of a university’s reputation; it is very difficult for South Korean high school students to be accepted into one of the “good” universities, such as Seoul National Uni-versity, Korea University or Hanyang University.
As I have already stated above, South Korean business is strongly influenced by Confucian ethics. The main issue one should pay attention to is the respect for elderly people and authority in general in South Korean culture. The following takeaways are mostly from my interview with Professor Ji Yeol Jimmy Oh from Hanyang University:
According to Professor Oh, “seniority” as well as “strict, rigid hierarchy” determine decision making in South Korean business. He illustrated this in the following way: In a meeting, a Ko-rean business person might think twice to interrupt and correct his or her manager. In a broader picture, this translates to people becoming unwilling to speak out against the CEO’s decisions, which finally results in a very conformist and top-down structure.
Students as well as business people in South Korea definitely have to keep in mind all of the issues mentioned above. In any case, foreigners should always try to understand South Korea’s overall culture in order to be able to effectively integrate and do business in South Korea. For example, when conducting business, foreign business people should always keep in mind the differences on a hierarchical level between them and their South Korean counterpart in order to avoid embarrassments. If the South Korean counterpart is more senior, a very formal way of communicating is necessary.
4 Further experiences
Obviously, even although South Korea is quite “westernized”, I was still able to identify a lot of cultural differences in comparison to Germany.
For example, teaching style in university was quite different from what I have experienced so far during my studies in Germany. Due to the high admiration of students towards professors, there are hardly ever any discussions between professors and students and teaching is quite traditional and frontal (in most cases).
South Koreans’ respect for elderly people resulted in quite some “weird” experiences for me. For example, when traveling through Seoul with the subway, the trains are usually really crowded and there is not much space. When exiting the train, elderly South Korean people regu-larly use quite physical methods, literally pushing and shoving younger – often foreign – people out of their way, without saying a word – rather unimaginable in Germany.
Furthermore – but this is not necessarily connected to Confucianism – it is quite hard as a for-eign student to get in touch with South Korean fellow students, or South Koreans in general. Although they admire and even imitate large parts of western culture, they often appear quite reserved towards foreigners. Therefore, it was almost impossible for me and many of my fellow exchange students to really integrate into the South Korean culture.
However, all in all, I really enjoyed my stay. Once I got to know some South Koreans, they were really nice and openhearted, although in the beginning, they appeared reserved or even shy. As probably most exchange students, I mainly was in contact with other exchange stu-dents. Due to this and the contact to a couple of South Koreans, I am confident that my intercultural competencies have significantly developed during my stay in South Korea.
5 Personal summary
Overall, my stay in South Korea was beautiful and also quite informative. I made friends with a lot of fellow students from all over the world, including South Korea and other (South-) East Asian countries. University was challenging but also really interesting, especially when lectures offered insights in Asian and South Korean ways of conducting business.
However, apart from occasional museum or temple visits, I never really put emphasis on learning about South Korea’s culture in detail. This film project as well as working on the report was eye-opening and educational. Confucianism is deeply rooted within South Korean culture and strongly affects everyday life, albeit in a quite subtle way. I enjoyed working on this project and learning more about this fascinating trait of this fascinating country.