Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

by Daniel K. Gardner

by the second century bce, as Han (202 bc–222 ce) rulers lent increasing support to Confucian teachings.

few years later, in 136 bce, he established the institution of the “Erudites of the Five Classics,” a group expert in the five texts that scholars of the Confucian school had begun to regard as their canonical works—the Book of Changes, the Book of Odes, the Book of History, the Book of Rites, and the Spring and Autumn Annals. These erudites served as his advisors, drawing on the teachings and principles in the Five Classics in counseling him. In 124 bce, these same erudites would become the teaching staff at the newly created Imperial Academy.

virtually all literate Chinese, particularly during the millennium leading up to the end of imperial China in 1912, were Confucian-schooled and Confucian-socialized. Thus the lives and work of almost all educated Chinese, not just officials but poets, essayists, novelists, artists, calligraphers, historians, scholars, teachers, and the small percentage of literate women were shaped, to one degree or another, by the beliefs and ideals embodied in Confucian texts.

To reverse such deterioration, people had to learn again to be genuinely respectful in dealing with others, slow in speech and quick in action, trustworthy and true to their word, openly but gently critical of friends, families, and rulers who strayed from the proper path, free of resentment when poor, free of arrogance when rich, and faithful to the sacred three-year mourning period for parents, which to Confucius’s great chagrin, had fallen into disuse. In sum, they had to relearn the ritual behavior that had created the harmonious society of the early Zhou.

At its core, Confucius believed, the universe comprised two realms: the human realm and the realm of heaven and earth (the natural realm). In

practicing the rituals and respecting the mutual responsibilities required to sustain the so-called five relationships—father–son, ruler–subject, husband–wife, older brother–younger brother, and friend–friend—they provide a model for those around them to follow and thereby bring harmony to family, community, and empire.

“The Master said, ‘The superior man [junzi] understands righteousness; the small man [xiaoren] understands profit’” (4.16).

Most importantly, the morally superior man is a man of ren (仁). Ren is the highest virtue in the Confucian vision, the one that subsumes all others, including trustworthiness, righteousness, compassion, ritual propriety, wisdom, and filial piety.

True goodness for Confucius is inter-relational, a virtue given realization only in a person’s interactions with other human beings.

Both Mencius and Xunzi fully embraced the Master’s core beliefs: (1) that man can become a sage; (2) that moral goodness results from self-cultivation; (3) that learning is a part of the self-cultivation process; (4) that a vanguard elite is essential in promoting morality among the people; and (5) that good governance depends on the virtue of the ruler, who creates the right conditions whereby the people can become good and society can become harmonious.

religious or philosophical tradition endures because of its ability to adapt and remain relevant over time. One that is unable to respond to a changing world necessarily becomes moribund.

fourteenth centuries, Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucian synthesis would establish itself as the Chinese intellectual and political orthodoxy. Challenges to his teachings did, however, emerge.

In the view of Confucians, official service was society’s highest and most important calling. This view was reflected in their hierarchical ranking of occupations, which (though never formally legislated) exercised profound influence over the course of Chinese history. In this ranking, the (Confucian) scholar-official held the top spot; next came the farmer whose labors fed the people; then came the artisan who provided products and tools for daily use; and finally came the merchant.

might have won a civil appointment through hereditary privilege felt it necessary to sit for the examinations if they were ever to obtain a position of real importance.

Henceforth, for a full millennium, until the early years of the twentieth century, the road to elite status in China was through the examination system.

This is to say that the examination system served as a powerfully integrative force in Chinese history. It ensured that as far-flung as Chinese territory was, as large and diverse as the population might have been, there nonetheless would exist a widely shared culture, a system of values, beliefs, and customs that would create a semblance of unity among the people and make them more readily governable from an imperial center.

Whether the common people, socialized in the values and practices of the dominant culture, would have identified these values and practices as “Confucian” is doubtful. More likely they would have simply regarded them as the favored conventions of Chinese culture.

The ideal government for Confucius was government for the people, but not of or by the people.

line coming to an end? Most grievous was that there would be no one to care for the ancestors. And the importance of ancestors in Chinese culture can hardly be overstated. These ancestors were entirely responsible for a person’s existence. Without his father, and his father’s father, and the generations of fathers before his father’s father, a man simply would not be.

In a culture where an indigenous belief in a creator deity did not exist—and where a foreign belief in one did not become widespread—it was the biological line alone that accounted for one’s existence and deserved the gratitude and praise of the individual.

Arriving at the gate of groom’s house or estate, she would bow to the senior generations of the groom’s family and to the memory of the family’s ancestors. Henceforth, his family would be hers; and his ancestors would be hers. It was to them, not to her birth family’s ancestors, that she would sacrifice and pay reverence. She herself now belonged to the groom’s family line. The loss of identity that came

woman’s marriage was expected to be a lifelong commitment, continuing beyond the death of her husband—whether death struck at old age or in his teens. Confucian teachings viewed remarriage as a disgrace, likening a twice-married woman to a disloyal minister who serves two lords.

Tellingly, when the Chinese government began funding centers to support the study of the Chinese language and culture in foreign schools and universities around the globe in 2004—a move interpreted as an effort to expand China’s “soft power”—it chose to name these centers Confucius Institutes.