The five blessings are health, wealth, long life, love of virtue, and peaceful death— elements considered necessary for the good life. The one that may surprise the modern age is the love of virtue, but not for the pre-Christian East or West. Not only did Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism emphasize virtues, but the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle and Roman Stoics all believed virtue was necessary for achieving happiness.
Our society is polarized for many reasons, depending on how we examine our reality. In ancient times, most would agree that certain values should guide our reasoning and behavior, understood as natural laws.
Natural law is a theory in ethics and philosophy that understands humans possess intrinsic values that should govern their reasoning and behavior. These values are inherent in people and are not created by society or court judges. In our society, conscience is the word used to describe and indicate this inner guide.
In Confucianism, "natural law" is understood as an inherent order within the universe, which guides human behavior towards social harmony, acting as universal principles embedded in human nature, discoverable through reason, and expressed through social relationships and virtues such as benevolence and propriety.
Confucianism gives us Five Virtues: Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Wisdom, and Trustworthiness. These virtues are the fundamental values needed to live a moral life. The five virtues were important in determining who was a ‘true gentleman’— the wise person. In the Analects, Confucius said: “By three methods we learn wisdom: First by reflection, which is the noblest; second by imitation, which is the easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
The fourth of the five blessings is 'Yuho-deok' (攸好德), which means enjoying virtue and doing it well. This is a good example showing that our ancestors considered doing good deeds for their neighbors a blessing. In particular, our ancestors believed everyone had to do some good deed from the first day of the new lunar month.
The Chinese character for benevolence— "仁", is composed of two parts: "人", meaning "person", and "二", meaning "two." Benevolence is about the relationship between two people and the importance of empathy and understanding in human interactions within a social context; it represents caring for others and acting with kindness towards them.
In his Description of a Gentleman, Saint John Henry Newman (1801-1890) presented the wise and cultivated person of the pre-Christian Philosophers of both East and West as the benevolent person.
Happy Lunar New Year!
