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The Early Chinese World and the Rise of Confucianism

Jeffrey L. Richey, Ph.D.

REL 232

Religions of China and Japan

Berea College

Fall 2004

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ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES

1. Large population2. Agricultural society3. Climactic extremes

(hot summers, freezing winters, regular floods)

4. Relative isolation (bounded by Pacific, Himalayas, deserts)

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CULTURAL ORIENTATIONS

1. Intense pressure for social harmony

2. Ideal unity of natural and social orders

3. Confidence in human ability to discern and manipulate environment

4. Ethnocentrism5. Alternating cycles of

xenophobia and xenophilia6. Assumption that religion is

subordinate to ruler

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EARLY CHINESE RELIGION

1. “Oracle bones” used in divination rituals

2. Ancestral spirits seen as powers to be appeased

3. Shang-di 上帝 (“Lord on High”) = divine ancestor of Shang 商 rulers (c. 1500-1050 BCE)

4. Shang-di later identified with Tian 天 (“Heaven”), deity of Zhou 周 rulers (c. 1050-256 BCE)

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EARLY CHINESE COSMOLOGY

1. Triangular relationship: humans, earth, heaven

2. 天人合一 (Tian ren he yi) = Heaven and humanity in harmonious unity

3. Dao 道 = eternal, cyclical exchanges of yin 陰 and yang 陽 energies

4. In human beings, flow of such energies takes place in qi 氣 (“vital energy”)

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THE CRISIS IN THE ZHOU ORDER (c. 771-221 BCE)

After 770 BCE, Zhou rule was weakened by foreign invasions and internal divisions

771-481 BCE: Chunqiu 春秋 (“Spring and Autumn”) period of unstable feudal coalition

403-221 BCE: Zhanguo 戰國 (“Warring States”) period of constant civil war among feudal lords competing to impose rule and restore unity of Zhou territory

The Baijia 百家 (“Hundred Teachings”) arise in response to cultural crisis and “free market” for political, philosophical, and ritual expertise

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KONGZI 孔子 (“CONFUCIUS”), c. 551-479 BCE

Minor official in small state of Lu 魯

Attracted both upwardly-mobile and counter-cultural male disciples

Teachings presented in Lunyu 論語 (Analects)

Central concepts:1. li 禮 (ritual)2. de 德 (moral power)3. xiao 孝 (filiality)4. ren 仁 (human potential)

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WHAT KONGZI TAUGHT

GOAL: to be a junzi 君子 (“superior person”) MODEL: Zhou and pre-Zhou sage-kings METHOD:

1. Reverence for idealized values of the past

2. Conservative perspective on familial and social order

3. Gradual self-cultivation through ritual mastery and study of ancient texts (especially poetry & history)

4. Faith in power of highly-placed, well-cultivated individuals to restore moral order

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MENGZI 孟子 (“MENCIUS”), c. 372-289 BCE

Itinerant court consultant from state of Zou 鄒 Never knew Kongzi personally As interpreter of Kongzi, introduces distinctive

themes about renxing 人性 (human nature):1. Renxing seen as originally oriented ren 仁2. Renxing may be cultivated through li and

manipulation of one’s qi3. Renxing may be stunted through neglect or

abuse, but never lost or beyond redemption

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XUNZI 荀子 , c. 310-215 BCE

Prominent scholar from state of Zhao 趙 Rejected Mengzi’s positive view of renxing Argued that renxing tends toward evil

unless corrected by ritual and social norms Likely survivor of late Warring States

conflicts and firsthand witness of unification of China under First Emperor of Qin 秦 (221 BCE)

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THE RISE OF “CONFUCIANISM”

Han 漢 dynasty (c. 206 BCE-220 CE) replaces short-lived Qin dynasty and establishes teachings of Kongzi and his followers as official ideology (136 BCE)

Han librarians create bibliographical category of Rujia 儒家 (“Ru family” or “Ru school”) to classify texts related to Kongzi, Mengzi, etc.

While Rujia (= “Confucian”) texts and thinkers all venerate Kongzi and share his reverence for the Zhou heritage, moral outrage, and epistemological optimism about human beings, they also disagree

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