A Review of the Book Confucius Lives Next Door

The book Confucius Lives Next Door by T.R. Reid is a fascinating read about "What Living in The East Teaches Us About Living in the West." His significant standpoint is attempting to indicate how Confucian values have pervaded crosswise over Asia and present what is ostensibly the world's rapidly developing and most secure society. Reid contends that the Asian Dragon economies have manufactured current modern social orders including the best schools, the most stable families and the most secure streets on the planet. He attributes this accomplishment to the true teachings of Chinese philosopher Confucius, who acknowledged the significance of Ren "harmony" and the Ethic of Reciprocity. Reid additionally embraces the Japanese custom of "Atogaki," where he plays his own "argumentative third party" and dissects his own particular proposes with an analytical perspective.

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Confucianism is dependent on the stance that people are great, perfectible, open to learning, and improvable via collective and individual undertaking, especially through self-creation and self-development. Notably, this Confucian ethos is a miraculous occurrence which is presumably more vital, and positively more informational, than anything the Asians have accomplished in the monetary circle. Reid exhibits Confucian virtues in the contemporary Japanese culture which are evident in the standard measures of effective social orders such as Yi which is evident in the country's humanity, benevolence, and charity.

Confucian virtues have survived the distance into contemporary Japanese culture because of the strong beliefs and accomplishment of executing those standards. As indicated by Reid, Asian nations have two supernatural occurrences: the money related miracle that has permitted "most people have to have about as much as every other person." The other miracle is "social miracle" where they have controlled the rates of drug abuse, crimes, and property crime, alongside populist appropriation of riches and opportunity. Reid, taking in these realities about the east says, "Asia almost makes me want to jump on an airplane and relocate there immediately."

Notably, there is a religious dimension to Confucianism we can take from the Japanese experience. Lessons such as- aesthetic, epistemological, moral, magical, and political-are comprehended in connection to the socio-political universe of humankind, starting with the individual and quest for ethical and scholarly perfection. The western world could embrace the five virtues of Confucius: the kindness, earnestness, sincerity, generosity of soul, and gravity.

An anecdote from the book that struck me was when his daughters were enrolled in a Japanese school, and the headmistress said, "no taibatsu" (corporal punishment) "No ijamme" (teasing/bullying) none at all. I won't allow it." Here was a father who had done and was doing his homework. He'd learned about Japanese schools and was prepared to try the experiment, but not at the expense of his daughters' well-being. He asked the right questions.

The social miracles struck me in that it has the world's lowest rates of drug abuse, theft, violent crimes, and reliable, stable families with low rates of separation. Additionally, the state-funded education tests out as the best on the planet with a vast uniformity feeling. This grants each person, a stake in the conventional public and this manner, assure sheltered and quiet living conditions. To me, it's a miracle that is essential unlike the financial marvel and one that appears to be less powerless to cyclical ups and downs.

References

Lamb, Brian, and T R. Reid. Confucius Lives Next Door.