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May 28 - June 18, 2022
Much had changed since. No longer was China unified under a virtuous and powerful Zhou king. By 700 bce the country had splintered into small, independent, and often warring states,
But his travels were in vain; he never won meaningful employment.
he could at times be complimentary, sympathetic, tolerant of mistakes, and humorous, but he would often be critical, uncompromising, sarcastic, and harsh.
” (9.13). Forever disappointed that the right offer never came, Confucius turned his life’s work from politics to the teaching of his disciples,
the Analects is a collection of the Master’s teachings as recorded by his disciples and edited over the course of generations.
What makes for an effective ruler? What makes for an effective government? What is the ideal relationship between the government and the people? How can China achieve the unity, stability, and prosperity it once knew? What are the responsibilities of the individual, to his family, his community, his state? What is man’s place in the cosmos?
“hundred schools of thought” that flourished during the Spring and Autumn era and the Warring States period. Vigorous intellectual debate marked these centuries,
But it was not until half a century later, during the long reign of Emperor Wu of the Han (r. 141–87 bce), that Confucian scholars were able, decisively, to promote the teachings
Legalism, the emperor in 141 bce decreed that all non-Confucians, especially those with Legalist orientations, be dismissed from office.
China, we should appreciate that over the course of the centuries, Korea and Japan
It may be that in Japan, where a civil service examination system never developed, there was simply more intellectual freedom and space for Buddhism, Shintō, and other currents of thought to flourish.
Even after winning independence in the tenth century, Vietnamese dynasties continued to rely on Confucian examinations to recruit court officials until the 1910s. The prominence of the examination system ensured that into the twentieth century
Confucius imagined a future where social harmony and sage rulership would once again prevail. It was a vision of the future that looked heavily to the past.
Still another source of knowledge for Confucius, interestingly, was the behavior of his contemporaries. In observing them, he would select out for praise those manners and practices that struck him as consistent with the cultural norms of the early Zhou and
This desire for historical authority and legitimacy—during a period of disrupture and chaos—may help to explain Confucius’s eagerness to present himself as a mere transmitter, a lover of the ancients
Thus when you go into a museum gallery to view pre-modern Chinese landscapes, one hanging next to another, they appear at first blush to be quite similar. With closer inspection, however, you find that this artist developed a new sort of brush stroke, and that one a new use of ink-wash, and this one a new style of depicting trees and their vegetation. Now that your eye is becoming trained, more sensitive, it sees the subtle differences in the landscape paintings, with their range of masterful techniques and expression.
the universe comprised two realms: the human realm and the realm of heaven and earth (the natural realm). In contrast to the human realm, where he assumed order must be actively created and nurtured by human agency (through the practice of ritual),
the realm of heaven and earth has an inherent rhythm and harmony that maintain—spontaneously—
Thus in Confucius’s cosmological outlook, there is no God
The normative sociopolitical order of the early Zhou—what Confucius and his followers called the Dao (道) or Way—had given way to chaos and disorder.
For Daoists, the Way is much grander than the sociopolitical order; indeed, for them it subsumes the sociopolitical order—even heaven and earth.
would suggest that all five hundred or so passages, directly or indirectly, address one of two concerns: (1) what makes for a good man; and (2) what makes for good government.
sustain the so-called five relationships—father–son, ruler–subject, husband–wife, older brother–younger brother, and friend–friend—
The Great Learning, one of the Confucian classics, puts it straightforwardly: “From the Son of Heaven on down to commoners, all without exception should regard self-cultivation as the root.”
“The Master said, ‘The superior man [junzi] understands righteousness; the small man [xiaoren] understands profit’” (4.16).
“The Master said, ‘Si [disciple Zigong], you think I am the kind of person who learns many things and remembers them, do you not?’ He replied, ‘Yes, I do. Is that not the case?’ The Master replied, ‘No, it is not the case. I have one thread that runs through it all’”(15.3).
The path to moral perfection, it counsels, must start with an unswerving commitment to learning.
Although the Analects does not offer up one neat definition of the morally superior man, it does in passage after passage introduce his various attributes. Most
the morally superior man is a man of ren (仁).
True goodness exists only as it is manifested in relation to others and in the treatment of others.
The Master said, ‘That would be ‘empathy’ perhaps: what you do not wish yourself do not do unto others’”
True goodness for Confucius is inter-relational, a virtue given realization only in a person’s interactions with other human beings.
It is the performance of ritual that “humanizes” or “civilizes” man and distinguishes him from beast:
“Ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elder brother and younger brother, and friend and friend: these five relationships constitute the universal Way of the world.”
For Confucius, ritual is closely linked to music.
one who is disobedient to the village elders or the ruler—brings disrepute not only on himself but on his entire family, especially his father and mother. His failure is theirs; as parents they did not engender moral purpose and proprietary awareness in their son, and it is the community that now suffers the consequences.
What is true of ritual generally is equally true of filial piety more particularly: the feeling behind the form is essential.
The virtue of the superior man is wind; the virtue of the small person is grass. When wind passes over it, the grass is sure to bend”
So strong is his confidence in the transformative power of virtue, in its ability to win others over to a moral life, that when Confucius once expressed a desire to settle among the Nine Barbarian Tribes of the East and was asked, “But what about their crudeness?” he matter-of-factly replied, “If a superior man were to settle among them, there would be no crudeness” (9.14).
It is, after all, from the ruler that the people learn morality. If the ruler is good and without avarice, the people, too, will be good and without avarice.
Confucius argues, laws, edicts, and punishments—the routine tools of government—are inessential. It is not to say they are altogether unnecessary, but for the Master, the less dependence on them—and the greater dependence on the person of the ruler, his moral light, and his ritual modeling—the better.
It would be a mistake, however, to conclude that Confucius sees no place for law and punishment in government. Despite his appeal for rule by virtue and ritual, he regards penal law as a routine part of the apparatus of government.
He likely appreciates that in order to maintain social order, occasional recourse to laws and punishments is unavoidable. Still, it is clear that he would like their use to be minimized.
The picture of the ideal ruler that emerges from the Analects is of a man whose inner virtue radiates outward as a powerful, charismatic, moral force that moves people toward true goodness and the practice of ritual propriety, thus producing social harmony.
In the Confucian vision, then, the well-being of the people is dependent largely on the moral character of the ruler. The responsibility of actualizing his benevolence in the administration of the realm is shared by him and his appointed officials.
“A superior man indeed was Qu Boyu! When the Way prevailed in the state, he served it; when the Way did not prevail in the state, he was able to roll up his principles and hide them away” (15.7).
redirection. How can Confucius permit the superior man to “hide himself” at the very time his presence is
occasionally a state and its ruler may be so hopelessly depraved that they simply are not susceptible to the morally transforming influences of the superior man.
14.5). Agricultural prosperity had long been the concern of Chinese rulers. Indeed,
It is here, with the Book of History, that the concept of the Mandate of Heaven (tianming, 天命) is first introduced in Chinese history. Attributed to the Duke of Zhou, the righteous regent of the young King Cheng, the Mandate of Heaven would serve as the basis of Chinese political ideology from the Zhou dynasty until the early years of the twentieth century.
