Who Was Confucius?  And What Did He Really Say?  We watched a YouTube video by Brian van Norden. Confucius was a virtue ethicist, focusing on cultivating a virtuous character and harmonious society through self-improvement, ethical conduct and education. key virtues are propriety (li), benevolence (ren), wisdom (zhi) and sincerity (xin).  On li, the observance of ritual, it is no good just mechanically going through the motions: it is necessary to be mindful of the meaning and express the appropriate mental frame of mind.  This avoids the ritual becoming set dogma and allows adaption to circumstances.  In the Analects, the sayings of Confucius we can see he is able to give different answers to the same question from two disciples, one to act the other to refrain, through knowledge of their characters.  Confucianism clearly contributes to the a sense of duty to the community and found favour with emperors and - after a period of repression - is seemingly encouraged by China’s government today.  We compared their outlook and values with western emphasis on individual freedom.  When does tradition become dogma, and what is our dogma?  Value is measured in money?  We dipped into the Analects: the Penguin Classics version with commentary by Annping Chin