I hope you now have a good idea of what this course is about, and are ready to embark on this intellectual journey with me. Again, I will assume that you have some interest but very little background in Chinese thought and culture. Although, we really shouldn't be oversimplifying matters, it can be said that Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism form the three main pillars of Chinese thought. Of these three, Confucianism and Daoism are indigenous to Chinese culture. Whereas, Buddhism of course, came to China from India. Perhaps at the end of this course, we can discuss whether to do another six week module on Daoism, but now back to Confucian philosophy. The objective of this course is to explore Confucian philosophy in it's own context, and also to draw out it's contemporary significance. In the course of our discussion, I will pay close attention especially to the idea of harmony, that seems to motivate much of Confucian thinking. It is interesting to note that the concept of harmony has been given prominent coverage in recent Chinese political discourse. The so-called Chinese dream, championed by the present Chinese leadership, is anchored by a conception of a harmonious society that seems to reflect strong Confucian influence. The concept of harmony, as we will see more clearly, encompasses both a vertical and a horizontal dimension. Harmony has to do with human relationships, and the relationship between human beings and nature. This is the horizontal dimension. The emphasis on relationships explains why Confucian philosophy has often been identified as being practical in nature, as being predominantly ethical in emphasis, firmly focused on the affairs of the world. This is entirely legitimate. But ethics, I think, represents only one side of the Confucian picture. This is because there is also a vertical or spiritual dimension to the Confucian sense of harmony. As it envisages an ideal relationship between human beings and the cosmos as well. In traditional Confucian language, this is expressed in terms of a union of heaven and human beings. In Imperial China, up to 1911, it was believed that the emperor represented the Son of Heaven, who could mediate between heaven and earth, between the sacred and the mundane. The Chinese word for king, wang, in fact has been taken to mean precisely this. With the central vertical stroke linking the three realms of heaven, earth, and human society. In this conceptual universe, where ethics and spirituality merge into one, Confucian philosophy unfolds. Social harmony rests on harmony in the family. This is another firmly held belief in the Confucian tradition, even within the individual. Health is understood in terms of the harmonious functioning of the body, whereas disease is explained in terms of imbalance or disharmony. In this way, from the individual to the society and the world at large, harmony serves to provide a basis for a comprehensive and unified vision. However, while the ideal of harmony exerts a strong influence on many different aspects of Chinese life and culture, it does not follow that it is always interpreted in the same way. Moreover, and more important, harmony is never static. It needs to be cultivated with constant effort. We will be elaborating on this point as the course progresses. Here, let me simply say that to understand, preserve and enhance harmony, comes to define the goal of Confucian theory and practice. With these general introductory remarks, which are meant to help us start thinking about the nature of Confucian philosophy, I think we are ready to pay Confucius a visit. To understand Confucian philosophy, it is necessary to have a sense of the world in which he lived and struggled to make a difference. And it is to the world of early China that we must now turn.