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| Confucianism by Geoff Rooke Copyright © 2009 All copyrights are reserved for the author. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic mechanical, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior consent of the publisher or writer is an infringement of the copyright law. |
Han Confucianism – the establishment
of the Confucian order to orthodoxy
Confucius (551-479 BCE) (孔子 or 孔夫子) was a thinker,
political figure and educator. Unfortunately, the sources
that give details on Confucius' life come much later and it
is therefore difficult to separate out fact from fiction. Even
the teachings ascribed to him and which are preserved in
the Analects (論語), are said to have been written down
later by his disciples so we cannot be sure that they are
his actual words.
What we do know is that Confucius, or in the writings
ascribed to him, introduced a moral law into Chinese
culture. He did this by giving the term for men of noble
birth, 君子, an additional meaning of men of noble
character. And for man, or at least Chinese man, to have
a noble character, what they require is the ability to
learn and cultivate in themselves the virtue of humanity
(仁), which in turn links them with the moral behavioural
qualities of the sage heroes of old. For a man of 仁 is a
true 君子. The implication of this in a tightly knit ritual-
based social order was that the meaning of ritual, 禮 (li),
was widened by Confucius to include the entire range
of social interactions that bind a society together. The
virtue of 仁 or humanity became the internal sense of li
(禮) and, by extension, 禮 became the external
expression of humanity. This means, due to the now
general nature of 禮, what is required is a sense of duty
or of doing the right thing, that is yi or 義. Thus in terms
of yi: ‘A superior man or gentleman in dealing with the
world is not for anything or against anything. He follows
rightness as the standard.’ While the ability to act in
this way means someone has integrity or 德 (de/te).
The gentleman can, because he possesses these
virtues, now follow the moral path (道) (tao/dao), which
is the central theme behind it all. It follows from this that
if someone does not have human qualities then he is
not really a human being at all. He is what Confucius
described as a small or petty person (小人).
His historical significance lies in the moral school of
thought that he founded, namely Confucianism. For
despite the collapse of imperial rule in 1911, the
Confucian orthodoxy that defined it was so ingrained
that an explanation of Confucianism is necessary in
order to understand not only Chinese but other cultures
in the Far East. Established as a ruling philosophy
during the first stable dynasty of a united China, the
Han (206BCE-220CE), in time it was accepted in not
only China but also Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Its
longevity was such that it lasted in China and Korea
until the beginning of the 20th century and in Japan and
Vietnam to towards the end of the 19th.
Because Confucianism cannot be separated from the
Chinese cultural tradition, certain key features of that
tradition need to be emphasised before this school of
thought can be understood. Firstly the writing system
based on a series of strokes that make up a character,
which have traditionally given Chinese people a sense
of meaning and history through the pattern of lines and
their sound because they symbolise the idea behind it.
A way of writing that remained more or less unchanged
for well over two thousand years until the introduction of
the simplified characters used in the People’s Republic
of China from the early 1950s onwards. That ensured,
as the oral tradition gave rise to a written one, the script
became part of the very fabric of the social order, which
in turn led to the existence of a literate class who
through study had the knowledge to understand and
interpret the meaning behind it. Who gained positions
of influence in society through their ability to explain the
results of divination techniques, the importance of rituals
and sacrifices, the deeds of the creators of the Chinese
world and so forth. Making possible the explosion in
moral philosophic thought from the fifth century BCE
and the subsequent development of a moral,
gentlemanly, Confucian elite who had the job of
governing China. A further illustration of this is that the
Western term Confucian is literally translated into
Chinese as scholar (儒) and Confucianism as 儒 家 or
school of scholars.
Secondly that the continued existence of the Chinese
world was explained by a creation mythology based on
a series of Chinese cultural heroes and ancient
dynasties: of the likes of the sage-emperors Yao, Shun
and Yü, the Duke of Chou and Fu Hsi, and ancient
dynasties such as the Hsia (c.2183-c1752BCE), Shang
(c.1751-c.1112BCE) and early Chou (c.1112-c.770
BCE). Whether these individuals and dynasties
actually existed was irrelevant because their purported
actions defined a given Chinese society and social
outlook. It followed from this that when Confucianism
became the orthodoxy during the Han Dynasty,
Confucius and other philosophers of his tradition were
added to the list of sage figures and the pre-existing
ones were given a Confucian, moral makeover.
The implication of this is that prior to their actions the
Chinese cultural world did not exist at all. Thus even in
the work of Lao Tzu (c.5th century BCE) who describes
the ideal of following and so being at one with nature in
the form of the natural Tao or path and not following
these sage figures, states in the Tao Te-Ching that the
Tao (道): “Existed before (the Chinese) Heaven and
Earth”. The implication of this being, what came into
existence, whether naturally or though the actions of
sage figures and dynasties, were all things in their
world, whether within their part of the Earth or in the
area of Heaven above it. Which in turn means their
world is local, Chinese, made up of Heaven and Earth
or Heaven, Earth and the Underworld below and all
things in them. That is of a humanised or Chinese,
cosmic whole understood in terms of an inseparable
unity between or reciprocal relationship with Chinese
man and his universe, of the micro and macro. A
concept that is has been traditionally defined by the
four-character phrase tien-ren he-yi (天 人 合 一) and
historically associated with one of the pivotal figures in
Chinese history, namely the Confucian scholar Tung
Chung-shu /Dong Zhong-shu (c.179-c.105BCE).
However the very fact that these sage heroes have
historically always defined the continued existence of
the humanised or sinified Chinese world and universe
means this phrase, or another like it, would have to
have been used to explain the relationship between
Chinese and their world and universe around them.
This also meant that the development of a moral law
from the 5th century BCE implies Chinese man
possesses a moral nature understood in cosmic terms,
something Tung Chung-shu defined by the phrase
tian hsing/tian xing (天 性) or heavenly nature.
Therefore any Chinese school of moral philosophic
thought needs to be understood in relation to this: a
morality derived from a Chinese Heaven and in a world
where Chinese man cannot be separated from the
Chinese Heaven and Earth around him. This by
extension means that normal social interactions
including rituals, ceremonies, the means of government,
the social structure itself, the role of the emperor and a
sense of right and wrong needed to be taken into
account in the Confucian orthodoxy. This also means,
given that there is no conceptual separation between
Chinese man and the humanised universe around him,
society’s relationship with the wider Chinese world and
universe is defined by the qualities that exist all around
and which change according to the seasons: up-down,
left-right, hot-cold, wet-dry, light-dark, near-far, moving-
non-moving and so forth. It follows from this that the
quality of good-bad moral behaviour is necessary in
order for these all of the qualities to be in continual,
harmonious, seasonal balance. It is the Confucian
gentlemen (君子) who, as the moral half of this quality,
has the ability to cultivate in themselves and in others
moral behaviour, which means they possess the virtue
of humanity (仁). The immoral part is the greedy small
or petty person (小人), who does not have human
qualities at all. An indication of this is that in the Chinese
language: big-small means size, long-short is length,
cold-hot is temperature, tall-short is height, fast-slow is
speed, thick-thin is thickness, true-false is truthfulness,
left-right is approximately, near-far is distance, wet-dry
is dampness and good-bad means quality. It also
follows from this that if there are natural disasters such
as a flood, earthquake or drought, or a government
becomes corrupt, then society is no longer in a
harmonious state because the qualities are in a state
of imbalance.
It was this moral, cosmic outlook that led to the
establishment of Confucianism as the mechanism for
defining and governing the Chinese world when, largely
thanks to Tung Chung Shu’s recommendations, the
“Five Classics” became part of the Confucian canon in
136BCE. That limited civil servants to the study of five
texts and the assorted commentaries that went with
them, namely the Book of Odes, the Documents or
Book of History, the Book of Rites, the I Ching or Book
of Changes and the Spring and Autumn Annals, with
one classic “The Book of Music” having been lost or
incorporated. This in turn meant, given his cultural hero
status, the authorship of each one needed, however
falsely, to be linked in some way to Confucius, which
was necessary because what happened in the past
described a continually-existing, Confucian present.
Tung described the “Six Classics” in the following
terms: ‘The noble man (Confucius) knew that those
who occupy positions (of authority) cannot rely on evil
(measures) to win people’s submission. Therefore he
selected the Six Arts to aid and nourish them. The
Odes and Documents order their intentions (or wills),
the Rites and Music purify their (inner) goodness and
the Changes and Spring and Autumn illuminate their
understanding. … The Odes guides intention,
consequently it strengthens inner substance. The Rites
moderates conduct, consequently it strengthens outer
refinement. The Music praises virtue, consequently it
strengthens transformation through moral persuasion.
The Documents records meritorious deeds,
consequently it strengthens undertakings. The
Changes is based on Heaven and Earth, consequently
it strengthens astronomical calculations. The Spring
and Autumn rectifies right and wrong, consequently it
strengthens human governance.’ That, in short,
accounted for all basic aspects of change within a
local, humanised or sinified cosmic order including life-
cycle and celestial object-based rituals and family and
wider social relationships.
Attitude to the local universe
Given the historic importance of the Chinese sense of
oneness with their local universe and the successful
establishment of what is known as the “Classical
Confucian synthesis” as the imperial orthodoxy over
the time span of the Han Dynasty, the Han Confucian
orthodoxy needs to be understood in cosmic terms.
Since by far the most important figure behind the rise
of this orthodoxy was Tung Chung-shu
(c.179-c.105BCE), an analysis of his writings can
explain the cosmic basis behind both his and the Han
Dynasty mindset. Of his works that survive and appear
in the “Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn”,
while many chapters are the work of disciples or are to
varying degrees forgeries, the most reliable have either
a Taoist or Confucian orientation. Therefore it is
necessary, before describing Tung’s philosophy, to
understand the implications of the Taoist and
Confucianism schools of thought for the Han social
order and their sense of the cosmic nature of things.
The Taoist Huang-Lao school is named after the
mythical Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu the founder of
Taoism. The most influential of the Taoists in this era
were Lao Tzu and the scholars encouraged by the
Prince of Huai-nan, Liu An, to develop Taoist ideas
and which come down to us in the form of the “Huai-
Nan Tzu” text. The age of this work can be gauged by
the fact that Liu An committed suicide in 122BCE after
leading an unsuccessful revolt against the Han
dynasty.
Taoist ideas are based around the role of a natural
physical law known as the tao/dao (Way or Path) (道).
Lao Tzu’s book, the “Tao Te-ching”, describes the Tao
in general terms as a physical law that existed before
the Chinese Heaven and Earth, is soundless and
formless, it depends on nothing and does not change,
it operates everywhere and may be considered the
mother of the universe. While the Huai Nan Tzu, in the
chapter entitled “Beginning and Reality”, describes
how: ‘The fluid (material force or ch’i/qi) (氣) of heaven
first descended and the fluid of earth first ascended.
The (dualistic) male and female principles (yin and
yang) strove with the elements of the cosmos. The
forces wandered hither and thither, pursuing,
competing, interpenetrating.’ As for how the Tao
actually works once life on the Chinese earth was
formed, Lao Tzu describes this in Verse 34 of the Tao
Te-ching: ‘The Great Tao flows everywhere. It may go
left or right. All things depend on it for life, and it does
not turn away from them.’ For in Verse 42:
‘Tao produced the One.
The One produced the two.
The two produced the three.
And the three produced the ten thousand things.
The ten thousand things carry the yin and embrace the
yang and through the blending of the material force (氣)
they achieve harmony.’
While in the Huai Nan Tzu the nature of the Tao is
described:
‘The Tao embraces Heaven and supports Earth. It
stretched the four quarters of the (Chinese) Universe
and generated the eight points of the firmament. There
is no limit to its height and its depth is unfathomable. It
constituted Heaven and Earth and endowed them with
the primary elements, when as yet they were without
form. Flowing like a fountain, bubbling like a spring, its
energies bubbled forth in the void and filled space. … It
filled Heaven and Earth and stretched to the uttermost
parts of the (cosmic) sea.’
The moral of the story being, according to Lao Tzu, in
order to follow the Tao one must: ‘Knows the male (yang
or active force) and keeps to the female (yin, passive or
receptive force)’ He is asking the question: ‘Can you
keep the spirit and embrace the One?’ and commented:
‘The empire is a spiritual thing and should not be acted
upon.’ It is a cosmic ideal achieved through the
abandonment of learning, wisdom and a sense of right
and wrong.
The reason for this is that:
‘Being and non-being produce each other;
Difficult and easy complete each other;
Long and short contrast each other;
High and low distinguish each other;
Sound and voice harmonise with each other;
Front and back follow each other.’
Of course Lao Tzu could have mentioned other
opposites like hot and cold, wet and dry, left and right,
big and small, thick and thin, fast and slow, and near
and far. For what Lao Tzu is recommending is that by
going beyond right and wrong you are going beyond
the balance of all the other qualities and therefore
keeping to the spirit world and going beyond the world
of matter.
Confucianism
However, while Taoism was written in a world defined
in terms of the Chinese universe and sense of oneness
with it, it was also written in a ritual-based social order
built around the family and wider social structure and a
bureaucratic form of governing authority. Therefore
following the ideas of Lao Tzu and others meant the
abandonment of the structure of society, of cultural
activities such as rituals and the worshipping of
ancestors and the ways of governing that defined the
Chinese social world. For in this scheme of things there
is no way to mark out artificially the passage of time, of
offering a moral alternative should people become
greedy, of taking into account the family unit and no
basis to develop a bureaucracy to help govern.
What is more, the cosmic nature of the Chinese world
was also emphasised by Confucius, Mencius (c.371-c.
289BCE) and other scholars of a Confucian orientation.
An illustration of this is in the words ascribed to
Confucius in the Analects: ‘Life and death are the
decree of Heaven; wealth and honour depend on
Heaven’ and ‘Heaven produced the virtue that is in me.’
While again: ‘I do not complain against Heaven. I do not
blame men. I study things on the lower level but by
understanding penetrates the higher level. It is Heaven
that knows me.’ And: ‘Does Heaven say anything? The
four seasons run their course and all things are
produced. Does Heaven say anything?’
And as with the Taoist ideas of Lao Tzu, according to
Mencius it is the vital force of 氣 that animates the
universe. ‘It’s ch’i (氣) at its limits: vast and relentless.
Nourish it with fidelity and give it no injury —then it fills
the space between Heaven and Earth. It is the 氣 that
unifies Duty and the Way. Without it we starve.’ In
other words, the ritual structure of Chinese society (li or
禮), the sense of Duty or of right and wrong (yi or 義), is
cosmic in nature. This meant both Confucianism and
Taoism shared the same cosmology and the sense of
oneness with the local Chinese universe. The difference
being, Confucianists linked the Chinese universe with a
sense of right and wrong human behaviour and
therefore by default brought out the other qualities into
the world of matter around them, which of course needed
to be in a state of seasonal harmony, of a balance of yin
and yang.
The significance of this with respect to the views of
Tung Chung-shu comes from the Han-shu Bibliographic
Treatise no. 27: ‘In the days of (Emperors) Ching (156-
141 BCE) and Wu (140-87BCE), Tung Ching-shu
mastered the Kung-yang Commentary to the Spring
and Autumn, first put forward his yin-yang theories and
was honoured by Confucians.’ While in the context of
disasters and other anomalies that go against the
normal running and therefore cosmic nature of things,
an unnamed individual explains Tung’s views on Yin-
Yang in a Confucian context. ‘The origins (of anomalies)
the administrator of Chiang-tu Master Tung deduced
from the mutual succession of the yin and yang and the
four seasons. The father begets it, the son nourishes it,
the mother completes it and the son stores it away.
Therefore spring presides over birth and corresponds to
humaneness (仁), summer presides over growth and
corresponds to virtue (德), autumn presides over
maturity and corresponds to righteousness (義) and
winter presides over concealment and corresponds to
propriety (禮). This is the sequence of the four seasons
and what the sage takes as his model. One cannot rely
upon punishments to complete moral transformation,
therefore one extends moral education.’
In one of the chapters of the “Luxuriant Gems of the
Spring and Autumn Annals”, Tung writes: ‘Heaven
sends forth yang to create warmth and thereby
generates things. Earth sends forth yin to create
coolness and thereby brings things to maturity.’ The
continual Path, Way or Tao: ‘Has existed for ten
thousand generations without imperfection. Imperfection
means the loss of the Way’. And because Tung, in terms
of his belief in the Yin-Yang cosmic dualism, emphasised
the importance of the Yang of Heaven over the Yin of
Earth, he used the Confucian classic the “Spring and
Summer Annals” and its “Kung-yang” commentary to
portray the monarch as a high priest, Son of Heaven
(天子) figure. Whose performance of important sacrifices
— the Suburban Sacrifice to honour Heaven and those
relating to his succession to the celestial throne, the
Reception of Heaven’s mandate — were central to his
role and, by extension, the cosmic nature of all Chinese
things that survived until 1911.
of the Confucian order to orthodoxy
Confucius (551-479 BCE) (孔子 or 孔夫子) was a thinker,
political figure and educator. Unfortunately, the sources
that give details on Confucius' life come much later and it
is therefore difficult to separate out fact from fiction. Even
the teachings ascribed to him and which are preserved in
the Analects (論語), are said to have been written down
later by his disciples so we cannot be sure that they are
his actual words.
What we do know is that Confucius, or in the writings
ascribed to him, introduced a moral law into Chinese
culture. He did this by giving the term for men of noble
birth, 君子, an additional meaning of men of noble
character. And for man, or at least Chinese man, to have
a noble character, what they require is the ability to
learn and cultivate in themselves the virtue of humanity
(仁), which in turn links them with the moral behavioural
qualities of the sage heroes of old. For a man of 仁 is a
true 君子. The implication of this in a tightly knit ritual-
based social order was that the meaning of ritual, 禮 (li),
was widened by Confucius to include the entire range
of social interactions that bind a society together. The
virtue of 仁 or humanity became the internal sense of li
(禮) and, by extension, 禮 became the external
expression of humanity. This means, due to the now
general nature of 禮, what is required is a sense of duty
or of doing the right thing, that is yi or 義. Thus in terms
of yi: ‘A superior man or gentleman in dealing with the
world is not for anything or against anything. He follows
rightness as the standard.’ While the ability to act in
this way means someone has integrity or 德 (de/te).
The gentleman can, because he possesses these
virtues, now follow the moral path (道) (tao/dao), which
is the central theme behind it all. It follows from this that
if someone does not have human qualities then he is
not really a human being at all. He is what Confucius
described as a small or petty person (小人).
His historical significance lies in the moral school of
thought that he founded, namely Confucianism. For
despite the collapse of imperial rule in 1911, the
Confucian orthodoxy that defined it was so ingrained
that an explanation of Confucianism is necessary in
order to understand not only Chinese but other cultures
in the Far East. Established as a ruling philosophy
during the first stable dynasty of a united China, the
Han (206BCE-220CE), in time it was accepted in not
only China but also Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Its
longevity was such that it lasted in China and Korea
until the beginning of the 20th century and in Japan and
Vietnam to towards the end of the 19th.
Because Confucianism cannot be separated from the
Chinese cultural tradition, certain key features of that
tradition need to be emphasised before this school of
thought can be understood. Firstly the writing system
based on a series of strokes that make up a character,
which have traditionally given Chinese people a sense
of meaning and history through the pattern of lines and
their sound because they symbolise the idea behind it.
A way of writing that remained more or less unchanged
for well over two thousand years until the introduction of
the simplified characters used in the People’s Republic
of China from the early 1950s onwards. That ensured,
as the oral tradition gave rise to a written one, the script
became part of the very fabric of the social order, which
in turn led to the existence of a literate class who
through study had the knowledge to understand and
interpret the meaning behind it. Who gained positions
of influence in society through their ability to explain the
results of divination techniques, the importance of rituals
and sacrifices, the deeds of the creators of the Chinese
world and so forth. Making possible the explosion in
moral philosophic thought from the fifth century BCE
and the subsequent development of a moral,
gentlemanly, Confucian elite who had the job of
governing China. A further illustration of this is that the
Western term Confucian is literally translated into
Chinese as scholar (儒) and Confucianism as 儒 家 or
school of scholars.
Secondly that the continued existence of the Chinese
world was explained by a creation mythology based on
a series of Chinese cultural heroes and ancient
dynasties: of the likes of the sage-emperors Yao, Shun
and Yü, the Duke of Chou and Fu Hsi, and ancient
dynasties such as the Hsia (c.2183-c1752BCE), Shang
(c.1751-c.1112BCE) and early Chou (c.1112-c.770
BCE). Whether these individuals and dynasties
actually existed was irrelevant because their purported
actions defined a given Chinese society and social
outlook. It followed from this that when Confucianism
became the orthodoxy during the Han Dynasty,
Confucius and other philosophers of his tradition were
added to the list of sage figures and the pre-existing
ones were given a Confucian, moral makeover.
The implication of this is that prior to their actions the
Chinese cultural world did not exist at all. Thus even in
the work of Lao Tzu (c.5th century BCE) who describes
the ideal of following and so being at one with nature in
the form of the natural Tao or path and not following
these sage figures, states in the Tao Te-Ching that the
Tao (道): “Existed before (the Chinese) Heaven and
Earth”. The implication of this being, what came into
existence, whether naturally or though the actions of
sage figures and dynasties, were all things in their
world, whether within their part of the Earth or in the
area of Heaven above it. Which in turn means their
world is local, Chinese, made up of Heaven and Earth
or Heaven, Earth and the Underworld below and all
things in them. That is of a humanised or Chinese,
cosmic whole understood in terms of an inseparable
unity between or reciprocal relationship with Chinese
man and his universe, of the micro and macro. A
concept that is has been traditionally defined by the
four-character phrase tien-ren he-yi (天 人 合 一) and
historically associated with one of the pivotal figures in
Chinese history, namely the Confucian scholar Tung
Chung-shu /Dong Zhong-shu (c.179-c.105BCE).
However the very fact that these sage heroes have
historically always defined the continued existence of
the humanised or sinified Chinese world and universe
means this phrase, or another like it, would have to
have been used to explain the relationship between
Chinese and their world and universe around them.
This also meant that the development of a moral law
from the 5th century BCE implies Chinese man
possesses a moral nature understood in cosmic terms,
something Tung Chung-shu defined by the phrase
tian hsing/tian xing (天 性) or heavenly nature.
Therefore any Chinese school of moral philosophic
thought needs to be understood in relation to this: a
morality derived from a Chinese Heaven and in a world
where Chinese man cannot be separated from the
Chinese Heaven and Earth around him. This by
extension means that normal social interactions
including rituals, ceremonies, the means of government,
the social structure itself, the role of the emperor and a
sense of right and wrong needed to be taken into
account in the Confucian orthodoxy. This also means,
given that there is no conceptual separation between
Chinese man and the humanised universe around him,
society’s relationship with the wider Chinese world and
universe is defined by the qualities that exist all around
and which change according to the seasons: up-down,
left-right, hot-cold, wet-dry, light-dark, near-far, moving-
non-moving and so forth. It follows from this that the
quality of good-bad moral behaviour is necessary in
order for these all of the qualities to be in continual,
harmonious, seasonal balance. It is the Confucian
gentlemen (君子) who, as the moral half of this quality,
has the ability to cultivate in themselves and in others
moral behaviour, which means they possess the virtue
of humanity (仁). The immoral part is the greedy small
or petty person (小人), who does not have human
qualities at all. An indication of this is that in the Chinese
language: big-small means size, long-short is length,
cold-hot is temperature, tall-short is height, fast-slow is
speed, thick-thin is thickness, true-false is truthfulness,
left-right is approximately, near-far is distance, wet-dry
is dampness and good-bad means quality. It also
follows from this that if there are natural disasters such
as a flood, earthquake or drought, or a government
becomes corrupt, then society is no longer in a
harmonious state because the qualities are in a state
of imbalance.
It was this moral, cosmic outlook that led to the
establishment of Confucianism as the mechanism for
defining and governing the Chinese world when, largely
thanks to Tung Chung Shu’s recommendations, the
“Five Classics” became part of the Confucian canon in
136BCE. That limited civil servants to the study of five
texts and the assorted commentaries that went with
them, namely the Book of Odes, the Documents or
Book of History, the Book of Rites, the I Ching or Book
of Changes and the Spring and Autumn Annals, with
one classic “The Book of Music” having been lost or
incorporated. This in turn meant, given his cultural hero
status, the authorship of each one needed, however
falsely, to be linked in some way to Confucius, which
was necessary because what happened in the past
described a continually-existing, Confucian present.
Tung described the “Six Classics” in the following
terms: ‘The noble man (Confucius) knew that those
who occupy positions (of authority) cannot rely on evil
(measures) to win people’s submission. Therefore he
selected the Six Arts to aid and nourish them. The
Odes and Documents order their intentions (or wills),
the Rites and Music purify their (inner) goodness and
the Changes and Spring and Autumn illuminate their
understanding. … The Odes guides intention,
consequently it strengthens inner substance. The Rites
moderates conduct, consequently it strengthens outer
refinement. The Music praises virtue, consequently it
strengthens transformation through moral persuasion.
The Documents records meritorious deeds,
consequently it strengthens undertakings. The
Changes is based on Heaven and Earth, consequently
it strengthens astronomical calculations. The Spring
and Autumn rectifies right and wrong, consequently it
strengthens human governance.’ That, in short,
accounted for all basic aspects of change within a
local, humanised or sinified cosmic order including life-
cycle and celestial object-based rituals and family and
wider social relationships.
Attitude to the local universe
Given the historic importance of the Chinese sense of
oneness with their local universe and the successful
establishment of what is known as the “Classical
Confucian synthesis” as the imperial orthodoxy over
the time span of the Han Dynasty, the Han Confucian
orthodoxy needs to be understood in cosmic terms.
Since by far the most important figure behind the rise
of this orthodoxy was Tung Chung-shu
(c.179-c.105BCE), an analysis of his writings can
explain the cosmic basis behind both his and the Han
Dynasty mindset. Of his works that survive and appear
in the “Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn”,
while many chapters are the work of disciples or are to
varying degrees forgeries, the most reliable have either
a Taoist or Confucian orientation. Therefore it is
necessary, before describing Tung’s philosophy, to
understand the implications of the Taoist and
Confucianism schools of thought for the Han social
order and their sense of the cosmic nature of things.
The Taoist Huang-Lao school is named after the
mythical Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu the founder of
Taoism. The most influential of the Taoists in this era
were Lao Tzu and the scholars encouraged by the
Prince of Huai-nan, Liu An, to develop Taoist ideas
and which come down to us in the form of the “Huai-
Nan Tzu” text. The age of this work can be gauged by
the fact that Liu An committed suicide in 122BCE after
leading an unsuccessful revolt against the Han
dynasty.
Taoist ideas are based around the role of a natural
physical law known as the tao/dao (Way or Path) (道).
Lao Tzu’s book, the “Tao Te-ching”, describes the Tao
in general terms as a physical law that existed before
the Chinese Heaven and Earth, is soundless and
formless, it depends on nothing and does not change,
it operates everywhere and may be considered the
mother of the universe. While the Huai Nan Tzu, in the
chapter entitled “Beginning and Reality”, describes
how: ‘The fluid (material force or ch’i/qi) (氣) of heaven
first descended and the fluid of earth first ascended.
The (dualistic) male and female principles (yin and
yang) strove with the elements of the cosmos. The
forces wandered hither and thither, pursuing,
competing, interpenetrating.’ As for how the Tao
actually works once life on the Chinese earth was
formed, Lao Tzu describes this in Verse 34 of the Tao
Te-ching: ‘The Great Tao flows everywhere. It may go
left or right. All things depend on it for life, and it does
not turn away from them.’ For in Verse 42:
‘Tao produced the One.
The One produced the two.
The two produced the three.
And the three produced the ten thousand things.
The ten thousand things carry the yin and embrace the
yang and through the blending of the material force (氣)
they achieve harmony.’
While in the Huai Nan Tzu the nature of the Tao is
described:
‘The Tao embraces Heaven and supports Earth. It
stretched the four quarters of the (Chinese) Universe
and generated the eight points of the firmament. There
is no limit to its height and its depth is unfathomable. It
constituted Heaven and Earth and endowed them with
the primary elements, when as yet they were without
form. Flowing like a fountain, bubbling like a spring, its
energies bubbled forth in the void and filled space. … It
filled Heaven and Earth and stretched to the uttermost
parts of the (cosmic) sea.’
The moral of the story being, according to Lao Tzu, in
order to follow the Tao one must: ‘Knows the male (yang
or active force) and keeps to the female (yin, passive or
receptive force)’ He is asking the question: ‘Can you
keep the spirit and embrace the One?’ and commented:
‘The empire is a spiritual thing and should not be acted
upon.’ It is a cosmic ideal achieved through the
abandonment of learning, wisdom and a sense of right
and wrong.
The reason for this is that:
‘Being and non-being produce each other;
Difficult and easy complete each other;
Long and short contrast each other;
High and low distinguish each other;
Sound and voice harmonise with each other;
Front and back follow each other.’
Of course Lao Tzu could have mentioned other
opposites like hot and cold, wet and dry, left and right,
big and small, thick and thin, fast and slow, and near
and far. For what Lao Tzu is recommending is that by
going beyond right and wrong you are going beyond
the balance of all the other qualities and therefore
keeping to the spirit world and going beyond the world
of matter.
Confucianism
However, while Taoism was written in a world defined
in terms of the Chinese universe and sense of oneness
with it, it was also written in a ritual-based social order
built around the family and wider social structure and a
bureaucratic form of governing authority. Therefore
following the ideas of Lao Tzu and others meant the
abandonment of the structure of society, of cultural
activities such as rituals and the worshipping of
ancestors and the ways of governing that defined the
Chinese social world. For in this scheme of things there
is no way to mark out artificially the passage of time, of
offering a moral alternative should people become
greedy, of taking into account the family unit and no
basis to develop a bureaucracy to help govern.
What is more, the cosmic nature of the Chinese world
was also emphasised by Confucius, Mencius (c.371-c.
289BCE) and other scholars of a Confucian orientation.
An illustration of this is in the words ascribed to
Confucius in the Analects: ‘Life and death are the
decree of Heaven; wealth and honour depend on
Heaven’ and ‘Heaven produced the virtue that is in me.’
While again: ‘I do not complain against Heaven. I do not
blame men. I study things on the lower level but by
understanding penetrates the higher level. It is Heaven
that knows me.’ And: ‘Does Heaven say anything? The
four seasons run their course and all things are
produced. Does Heaven say anything?’
And as with the Taoist ideas of Lao Tzu, according to
Mencius it is the vital force of 氣 that animates the
universe. ‘It’s ch’i (氣) at its limits: vast and relentless.
Nourish it with fidelity and give it no injury —then it fills
the space between Heaven and Earth. It is the 氣 that
unifies Duty and the Way. Without it we starve.’ In
other words, the ritual structure of Chinese society (li or
禮), the sense of Duty or of right and wrong (yi or 義), is
cosmic in nature. This meant both Confucianism and
Taoism shared the same cosmology and the sense of
oneness with the local Chinese universe. The difference
being, Confucianists linked the Chinese universe with a
sense of right and wrong human behaviour and
therefore by default brought out the other qualities into
the world of matter around them, which of course needed
to be in a state of seasonal harmony, of a balance of yin
and yang.
The significance of this with respect to the views of
Tung Chung-shu comes from the Han-shu Bibliographic
Treatise no. 27: ‘In the days of (Emperors) Ching (156-
141 BCE) and Wu (140-87BCE), Tung Ching-shu
mastered the Kung-yang Commentary to the Spring
and Autumn, first put forward his yin-yang theories and
was honoured by Confucians.’ While in the context of
disasters and other anomalies that go against the
normal running and therefore cosmic nature of things,
an unnamed individual explains Tung’s views on Yin-
Yang in a Confucian context. ‘The origins (of anomalies)
the administrator of Chiang-tu Master Tung deduced
from the mutual succession of the yin and yang and the
four seasons. The father begets it, the son nourishes it,
the mother completes it and the son stores it away.
Therefore spring presides over birth and corresponds to
humaneness (仁), summer presides over growth and
corresponds to virtue (德), autumn presides over
maturity and corresponds to righteousness (義) and
winter presides over concealment and corresponds to
propriety (禮). This is the sequence of the four seasons
and what the sage takes as his model. One cannot rely
upon punishments to complete moral transformation,
therefore one extends moral education.’
In one of the chapters of the “Luxuriant Gems of the
Spring and Autumn Annals”, Tung writes: ‘Heaven
sends forth yang to create warmth and thereby
generates things. Earth sends forth yin to create
coolness and thereby brings things to maturity.’ The
continual Path, Way or Tao: ‘Has existed for ten
thousand generations without imperfection. Imperfection
means the loss of the Way’. And because Tung, in terms
of his belief in the Yin-Yang cosmic dualism, emphasised
the importance of the Yang of Heaven over the Yin of
Earth, he used the Confucian classic the “Spring and
Summer Annals” and its “Kung-yang” commentary to
portray the monarch as a high priest, Son of Heaven
(天子) figure. Whose performance of important sacrifices
— the Suburban Sacrifice to honour Heaven and those
relating to his succession to the celestial throne, the
Reception of Heaven’s mandate — were central to his
role and, by extension, the cosmic nature of all Chinese
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Home cooking recipes
Legends
Female emperor
Threatening myths
A remarkable woman
A lustful woman
"Thunderstorm"
Chinese music
Panda in motion
Fairylands in China
Chinese opera
Powerful sisters
Yang Yu-huan
China
A HK girl's blog
Love poems
Most romantic poet
Chinese culinary art
Link to
orientalwomentalk.net