Topic: Compare your culture's golden rule to the biblical one: "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." // Are there universal good manners? In other words, is there a core of good manners that polite people of all countries recognize? Or are good manners different for each individual culture?
Manner make'th man: Is a universal manner really exist?
Kim Keun Ho (201200283, prose & paragraph summer session)
Like the bible's saying, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," so is there old Confucius saying in our culture; "己所不欲, 勿施於人 (don't do something that you don't want others to do on you)." Surprisingly, it's exactly the same as the bible's saying! Korean society has been dominated by Confucianism for more than five centuries and naturally, people's behavior, concepts and values are widely affected by the old school. That old saying originated when Zilu(子路: comparable to Peter), one of Confucius's students asked his master what he can constantly do during the entire life. It seems quite obvious that Asian ancestors also highly valued manners and tried to act politely.
Owing to Confucius and his scholarly successors, Korean society is requiring one of the most elaborate, formal and strict rules in the world that should be abided by to be a polite and courteous person. I believe that there's not much difference between the biblical lesson and Confucius maxim. They both have become the basis of many actions or attitudes we call manners and they have infiltrated deeply into societies and people's conscious. In my opinion, it can be said that both western and Asian culture put heavy emphasis on being considerate and yielding to other people.
Above I mentioned two matching proverbs. We can figure out from the proverbs that they both presume there's a universal manner in our society. Let's put it simply; if something offends you, others may as well get irritated by it. Basically, even though specific expressions of manner could vary from culture to culture, but still I think that the core essence of them is the same; thinking about other people and being sincere and polite to them. Every types of manner in the globe is based on this idea and I strongly believe that 'universal good manners' actually exist among civilized societies. For instance, basic etiquettes are pretty much the same in most of the cultures (e.g. don't curse or blame others in public, respect your elderlies, keep your promise, etc.). Therefore, I think it reasonable to claim that qualifications to obtain a positive reputation-a courteous and mannerly person-are universal and general among countries in the world.
Now, let me wrap up here. Two proverbs from the bible and Confucianism give us exactly the same lesson; be considerate to others and be polite. They are assuming that people have common sense about being polite and rude and in reality, we see that people's conceptions about good manners are pretty much the same, both within and across cultures. Therefore, we can conclude that there's universal and general good manners in the world, although specific expressions of manners can differ.
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