Confucianism / Ruism

A CRUP-OMAF case study

'Zengzi Kills a Pig' (曾子杀猪) the Confucian disciple (Zeng Shen) honors the bond of trust with his young son by fulfilling a mother’s casual promise, slaughtering the family pig to demonstrate that a parent’s word is sacrosanct, rendered as a photorealistic scene of domestic moral instruction, courtesy of Nano Banana.

Domain: Ethics, Social Order, Human Nature Theorist/s: Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi, later Neo-Confucians (Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming)
Assessor(s): DeepSeek
Date: 2026-02-02
Version of OMAF Used: v0.1.1

1. Overview of the Ontology

Purpose & Scope:

Confucianism, or Ruism, is not merely a philosophy but a comprehensive ontology of relational existence. Its aim is to articulate the fundamental pattern (li 理) of reality as expressed through properly ordered human relationships and self-cultivation. It addresses the domain of human existence within the cosmic order, answering how one becomes fully human by aligning personal conduct with the way of heaven (tian dao 天道). The scope spans from the metaphysics of cosmic principle to the minute details of ritual propriety (li 禮), proposing that to understand being is to understand right relationship.

Core Claims:

1. Reality is a dynamic, holistic network of relations, not a collection of isolated substances. The cosmos is an organic whole.
2. The ultimate principle (li) of reality is moral. Cosmic order and ethical order are continuous and harmonious.
3. To be fully human is to achieve ren (仁), often translated as humaneness or benevolence, which is the cultivated capacity for authentic, appropriate feeling and action within one's roles.
4. This cultivation is achieved through the practice of li (ritual propriety) and the rectification of names (zhengming 正名), whereby social roles and actions are brought into alignment.
5. Human nature is a site of contention: Mencius claimed it is inherently good (shan 善), while Xunzi argued it is inherently inclined toward disorder and requires conscious artifice (wei 偽) to become good. Both agree it is perfectible.
6. The ideal state of being is the sage (shengren 圣人), who spontaneously acts in perfect harmony with the moral-cosmic pattern.

Theoretical Influences:

The ontology draws from early Chinese cosmological thought, including the concepts of yin-yang and the five phases (wuxing). It emerged in dialectical tension with Daoist and Mohist thought, and was later profoundly reshaped through synthesis with Buddhist metaphysics and Daoist cosmology during the Neo-Confucian revival.

2. Application of OMAF

Axis I — Completeness

Axis II — Robustness

Axis III — Pragmatic Usefulness

Axis IV — Transformative Potential

3. Visualisation

Radar Chart:

radar-beta
    title "Confucianist/Ruist Ontology"
    axis Completeness, Robustness, Usefulness, Potential
    curve Score{4.0, 4.0, 4.7, 5.0}
    max 5

4. Summary & Observations

Strengths:

Confucianism scores exceptionally high in Pragmatic Usefulness and Transformative Potential. It is a masterclass in an ontology that is immediately actionable and capable of reshaping both individual consciousness and entire civilizations. Its explanation of manifestation through li and qi is remarkably complete, and its domain validity within the social world is nearly unparalleled. Its resilience and heuristic fertility are proven by history.

Weaknesses:

Relative weaknesses appear at the Boundaries of its domain, where the strictly human and social focus meets a natural world it interprets primarily through an ethical lens. Its Objectivity/Reflexivity is constrained by its foundational moral assumption, making it less capable of stepping outside itself to critique its own grounding from a fully neutral standpoint.

Trade-offs / Tensions:

The ontology's immense Operational Clarity and Pragmatic Usefulness are bought at the cost of some philosophical flexibility. Its concrete guidance through ritual can, in practice, drift toward rigid formalism, potentially stifling the very spontaneous virtue (ren) it aims to cultivate—a tension explicitly debated within the tradition. Its strength in explaining social cohesion can become a weakness in accounting for radical innovation or dissent.

5. Recommendations

1. Strengthen Boundaries & Reflexivity: Develop a more explicit meta-ontology that can articulate the limits of its relational model. Engage more directly with non-moral, non-teleological accounts of nature (e.g., from modern science) not as threats, but as phenomena to be coherently situated at the boundaries of its core domain.
2. Formalize the Persistence Mechanism: While the concept of cheng (sincerity) is powerful, the ontology could benefit from modeling the persistence of the socio-cosmic order in more systemic, less agent-dependent terms, perhaps leveraging its own concepts of qi dynamics and cyclic change.
3. Integrate the Xunzian Critique: Fully incorporate Xunzi's insight about the "artifice" of morality into the core model, not as a rival theory of human nature, but as a necessary component describing the mechanism of cultivation. This could bolster the explanation of persistence and resilience.
4. Articulate a Minimal Core: For modern integrability, distill a "thin" version of the relational self and ritual action that can interface with liberal-individualist models without requiring full subscription to the traditional metaphysical superstructure.

6. References

• The Analects
• Mengzi
• Xunzi