Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s9.t2: Confucius

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s9.t2

Language: English

v1.c7.s9.t2.3 — 5 parts

Confucius

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Confucius (551 BCE-479 BCE), with given name of Qiu, also styled Zhongni, is a great thinker in the spring and autumn period and founder of Confucianism.

His ancestors had been members of the ducal house of the State of Song, which was descended from the royal house of Shang, the dynasty that had preceded the Chou, and migrated to the State of Lu because of political and social turmoil. His father, named Shu Liangho, was governor of Zou in State of Lu. His mother’s family name was Yan. Confucius was born in Zou Yi, Changpingxiang of State of Lu (Qufu, Shandong present-day) on lunar August 27, the 22nd year of Duke Lu Xiang (551 BCE). When he was a kid, he loved to hold make-believe temple rituals as a game, and when he grew up, he once served the State of Lu, on several occasions, as petty official of the same category like master of ceremony, granary keeper and livestock tender. Later, he was on study tour to other ducal states, learning rituals from Lao-zi, music from Changhong, and lyre from Shixiang. In the 25th year of Duke Lu Zhao (517 BCE) when the State of Lu was in great turmoil and Duke Zhao took refuge in the State of Qi, Confucius fled with him to the State of Qi and became a retainer of Gao Zhaozi who was prime minister to Duke Jing of the State of Qi, and thereby he could be able to be near Duke Jing of the State of Qi.

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When asked about the approach of how to govern a state by Duke Jing of the State of Qi, Confucius answered, “Let the king be a king, the minister a minister, the father a father and the son a son.” And at the time when the Duke asked for his advice, the State of Qi was in political quagmire and disorder characterised by so-called the king being unlike a king, the minister unlike a minister, with dejected human relations. As Confucius’ response hit his point, Duke of Jing intended to bestow the land of Nixi to Confucius to show his courteous reception, but was rebuffed and aborted by Yan Ying, his prime minister. In the first year of Duke of Ding of the State of Lu (509 BCE) when Ji, a clan member of the Duke, held dictatorial rule by overstepping his authority and followed by insurrection and usurping of power by Yanghu, a retainer to the Duke clan member, Confucius who had already returned to the State of Lu, resigned from his office and concentrated himself in perusal of *Classics of Odes*, *History (Collection of Deciphered Official Documentation of Earlier Dynasty)* *Rite and Music* and at the same time, was devoted himself to educational activities with great many followers regarding him as tutorial master. In the ninth year of Duke Ding of the State of Lu when Confucius was 51 years old, Gongsun Buniu intended to rebel against Ji by virtue of City Fei and sent for lobbying Confucius. Confucius would love to go, but did not make it.

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At the same year, Duke Ding appointed him the head of Zhongdu. He managed administrative affairs with Virtue and Rite, making all surviving spouse, orphanage and helpless people there in their respective proper place, with social morality much improved; in one year term of office, his performance attracted the neighboring localities’ governors to emulate his way of governance. He was then promoted successively to the posts of Minister of Water Conservancy & Construction, and Minister of Justice. In the 10th year of Duke Ding’s reign, he assisted Duke Ding to meet with Marquis of the Qi State at the place of Jiagu and tactfully reclaimed the lost territory of the Lu State. In the 12th year of Duke Ding’s reign, he recommended his disciple Zilu as head of clan members. In order to concentrate power on family of prince, and consolidate prince’s ruling position for Duke Ding, he suggested enforcement of the policy of dismantling three cities’ wall of which the dimension and scale exceeded royal formality, ie the role-violating city walls of City Fei, City Cheng and City Hou, thus weakening the powers of the three big families of Ji Sun Si, Meng Sun Si and Shu Sun Si. Although his move was not completely succeeded, yet it reclaimed the partial usurped power from them, thus strengthening the authority of prince family.

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In the 14th year of Duke Ding's Reign (496 BCE), Confucius held concurrently the offices of Minister of Justice and Prime Minister, and in an ensuing three months, the State of Lu was put in great universal peace and order. Later, resented from the domineering behavior of ruling official Ji Huanzi, Confucius resigned from his posts and toured around the other States of Wei, Song, Chen, Cha and Chu. In transit to State of Kuang, he was mistaken by the local people as Yanghu and consequently besieged; in State of Song, he was narrowly killed by Sima Huantui, the War Minister of that State; and when he and his followers were besieged and trapped in the place between the State of Chen and the State of Cha, he almost starved to death. In spite of all sorts of hardships and perils, he always remained the mood of "seeking pleasure in order to free himself from care without knowing the insidious approach of old age", which suggests his mental cultivation of being content with what one is, would never wear away even in his displaced drifting life. In the 11th year of Duke Ai of the State of Lu (484 BCE) he returned to the State of Lu at the age of 68. In ensuing years, he did not seek any appointment in officialdom and began to annotate the *Book of History* (deciphered earlier dynasty documentation), revise and reform the *Book of Rites*, edit and revise the *Book of Odes and Music*, and annotate and comment on the *Book of Change*.

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In the 14th year of Duke Ai, the State of Lu hunted and captured an animal known as unicorn. But Confucius deemed it as a sign of unlucky omen and hereby lamented that this world had gone to the dogs with declining moral code and prevalent heresy and tyrannical rules, which denied him a chance to fulfill his political dream. And therefore he started his writing of the Spring and Autumn Annals, lamenting that, "Is it only the Spring and Autumn Annals from which you all would understand me and at the same time find fault with me?" The posterities deemed his composition of the annals as king-making enterprises and endeavours of king without crown or government. In April of the 16th year of Duke Ai (479 BCE), Confucius passed away and was buried in the Capital north of the State of Lu. Although his disciples did not wear mourning gowns according to the rituals, yet they, with sad and sorrowful sentiments, resided beside his tomb for three years running to demonstrate their filial piety. Among his disciples, Zigong didn't leave his teacher's tomb for his whole life. Confucius influenced the moral code of the times with his own words, deeds and high

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*Kongzi/Confucius*

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moral cultivation, and engaged in educating those promising budding talents. Since then, it started fashion of private teaching. It is reputed that he had 3,000 disciples among whom 72 were sages versed in the *Six Classics*.

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His academic views

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Ancient Literati commentators said that what Confucius did in his lifetime academic efforts was his editing and revising the Book of Odes and the Book of History, finalising the Book of Rites and the Book of Music, annotation and commenting on the Book of Change and composing of the Spring and Autumn Annals. He laid emphasis on study, once describing him as being studious never tired of learning, so he was a man of very extensive learning with solemn and refined manners, and was referred to as sage in his life time. After his death, his followers are divided into eight different schools and gradually evolved into the Confucian school, Confucianism, exerting a profound influence on scholars of the later generations.

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There are two cardinal concepts in his theory: one is benevolence (or, humane, or humanity, or goodness, etc.) while other is a rites and rituals. Whereas benevolence is at the root of his knowledge foundation, from which all his doctrines are thus unfolded and converged. Among the most basic comprehensions of benevolence, it means" love your fellow men" (quoted from chapter 12 of the Analects, Yan Hui, henceforth wherever it is quoted, only referred to title of chapter), while definition of "the benevolent loves others" (The Book of Rites - Doctrine of Mean) is made on basis of regarding benevolence as intrinsic quality of human being. Confucius believed that the rite is formed by the ancient sage with its function to restrain human's excessive human emotion and thus conventionalise human being conduct within the confine of moral code of conduct. That is why he said “to restrain oneself and observe the rituals constitute humaneness” (Yan Hui). Only complete correspondence of one’s words and deeds with the rituals could one accomplishes the requirement of benevolence. However, benevolence cannot be attained by simply acting according to the rituals, as he once said that - “What have the rituals got to do with a person who is not humane?” (Eight Row of Dancers), believing if a man lacks of kind virtue in his innermost mind, he cannot make rapport with others; understanding of human nature is not enough to correctly handle the rituals and accordingly attain the standard of benevolence. He hence put forward a concept of Doctrine of Means, deeming “Going too far is just as bad as not going far enough” (Those Who First Studied the Rituals and Music), and asserting not going too far but reasonably far enough. So Doctrine of Means is not just a kind of methodology only, what is even more so is a kind of virtue that could be internalised, asserting the virtue of Golden Means is the virtue of heaven and earth, and believing that the human beings could only attain the rule of Golden Means by taking rituals as yardstick as he said that - “What does it mean by rituals? Rituals are employed to restrain excessiveness and overstepping so as to keep the interpersonal contact at the centre of moderation” (The Rituals - Confucius Home and Living). However, rituals change with times, believing “It is possible to know the regulations and rituals which the Shang Dynasty inherited from the Xia Dynasty, including additions and omissions. In the same way, we come to know those of which the Zhou Dynasty inherited from Shang. Therefore, should there be a successor to the Zhou Dynasty, it is also possible to know the regulations and rituals even a hundred generations from now” (He Who Rules the Country). Which means that the rituals of the Shang Dynasty differs from that of Xia Dynasty, and the rituals of the Zhou Dynasty is not the same as that of the Shang Dynasty, however, the basic tenet of rituals remain unchanged. Rituals are within human’s cognition, and benevolence could be attainable, which hinges on key of desirability and determination of putting the doctrines into practice. So Confucius said: “Is humaneness really so remote? I have only to wish for it and it will come to me” (I Transmit). In a final analysis, attainment of benevolence is through seeking the cause in oneself and engaging in self-examination.

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Confucius attached great importance to filial piety, as it is manifested in his comments in this field in the legendary Classic of Filial Piety. In the Analects, he was asked about filial piety by his disciples, his answers differed from person to person, however, the essence of his answers never go beyond “love and respect”. He said, “The person to his dear one would never ill-treat others; the person to respect his dear one would never be rude and arrogant towards others”, (Chapter Son of Heaven, Classic of Filial Piety). Sages from the ancient time to the present made their offsprings aware of the virtue of respect by right of patriarchal awe-inspiring and made people aware of the virtue of loving people by their own exemplary role. But Confucius did not consider the custom of which sons must obey the order of father as the only filial piety. He advocates the filial piety should proceed from righteousness, and in the time of imperative, frank criticism of father’s faults is also way to show filial piety, and in his words, “If father is doing something disloyal or unjust, it is the son’s duty to offer criticism to his father, so is the duty for court official to do so towards sovereign” (Chapter Criticism, Classic of Filial Piety).

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Confucius’ Analects not just touches upon the aspects of benevolence and filial piety, the most important aspect that is elaborated is way of governance. Confucius’ response to his disciples’ question in this aspect in Analects preserves his attitude and viewpoint toward politics. Confucius said, “He who rules the country by virtue can be compared to the Polestar which holds its own with a multitude of stars revolving around it” (He Who Rules the Country), suggesting the virtue is the foundation for becoming a good statesman, as he believed that the kernel of political governance lies in cultivating morale of the people. When asked the reason of his not becoming involved in government, he answered, “The Book of Historical Documents says, ‘Piety means being filial to your parents and being fraternal to your brothers; spreading this idea will exert and influence upon the government.’ If that is so, why must I take part in government?” (Quoted from He Who Rules the Country), Confucius believes that holding a key official position is not the only conduit of becoming a good statesman, actually good governance skills and ethical conduct can be acquired through daily practices and interaction within human relations. “Sweeping before your own door” maxim can be practised in daily life whenever and wherever. Confucius emphasised, “Let them know the way of virtue and keep them in line with regulations and rituals” (He Who Rules the Country), also he emphasised that, “Tolerance wins the hearts of many; generosity gives one authority to use others” (Yang Huo) and his objection to arbitrary punishment of kill. In his view, the law and order of a society and country could not be maintained merely by law and regulations, nor sustained merely by posing criminal penalty, but should be maintained by prevailing law-abiding populace which is induced and nurtured with lavish bestowing virtue and magnanimity from the state governor. Thus it can be seen that Confucius’ political theory is benevolence-based.

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Kongzi composing poetry

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Confucius takes a positive attitude towards life, regarding comprehension of one’s destiny as the important realm. Nevertheless, he is never blindly self-confident and self-righteous, stating “The man of honour holds three things in awe - the mandate of Heaven, people in high position and the words of sages. The petty-minded man, being ignorant of the mandate of Heaven, does not stand in awe of it. He treats people in high position with insolence and the words of the sages with disdain” (The Head of the Jisun Family). His outlook on heavenly mandate pre-determines his attitude of leaving the question open towards ghosts and gods, so to speak, phenomenological reduction. Zilu asked about serving the ghosts and spirits. The Master said, “Why should one worry about serving the ghosts and spirits when he is not even able to serve the living?”, Zilu went on, “May I ask about death?” The Master said, “How can one understand death when he does not even understand life?” (Those Who First Studied). But he pays great attention to worship and sacrificial offering, as it is evident in passage of He had Eight Rows of Dancers that “When the Master offered sacrifices to the dead, he did so as if they were present. The same when he offered sacrifices to the gods”, advocating “respect given to the ghosts and spirits but keeping a distance from them” (Ranyong). Obviously, his altitude is cautious.

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In education, he upholds education for all people without discrimination as he said, “In teaching, I take disciples of all backgrounds without discrimination” (Duke Ling of Wei), and “I have never refused to teach any disciples who offered me 10 strips of dried meat”, which means such a gift presented shows sincerity of student’s willingness to learn. Confucius divides the human being into three categories according to their intelligent quote, ie acquiring knowledge which were “inborn”, “through learning” and “learning with clearer targets in difficulty”. Different teaching method to different students, therefor it needs the tailored-made approach of “teaching students in accordance of their aptitude”. He takes stock on an inductive teaching approach, considering the need of student in quest of problems, who, in this way, through tutor’s elicitation and illumination, could be fruitful in study. In Confucius’ own words, “I do not try to enlighten my disciples until they have tried hard but failed to understand something. I do not supply my disciples with any new vocabulary or put their ideas into words for them unless they have difficulty doing so” (I Transmit but Do not Create), To students, he laid stress on “Is it not a great pleasure to be able to practice frequently what you have learned?” (Is it not), and “he is able to acquire new idea through reviewing old knowledge” (He Who Rules the Country). The knowledge imparted from teacher could only be truly grasped through self-fermentation and digestion, and then it could have comprehension by analogy, so to speak, when hearing one thing, he could thereby know 10; therefore it is imperative to combine study with pondering, and in Confucius’ words, “Learning without reflection will end up in confusion; reflection without learning will end up in peril” (He Who Rules the Country). The learning attitude in a down-to-earth manner is indispensable, as he believes, “Say you know when you know, and say you don’t know when you don’t, that is true knowledge” (He Who Rules the Country). Regarding teacher, he attaches an importance on role model. In the eye of his disciples, Confucius lives up to the image of “never making groundless speculation, never claiming absolute certainty, never being inflexible and never being self-centered” (Master Seldom), ie never conjecture, never be subjectively assertive, never stubbornly stick to one side of the matter, and never consider oneself always right. He demonstrates the significance of teaching by example with his own words and deeds.

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Veneration by Posterity

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Ever since Confucianism was established its position as an orthodoxy, emperors from various dynasties granted numerous titles posthumously to Confucius in order to manifest their respective reverence towards him. Here are just a few names: Emperor Liu Kan of the Western Han Dynasty in the first year of reign of Yuanshi (the first year CE) bestowed to Confucius a title of Honourable Baochengxuan Duke from Ni Mountain; Emperor Xiaowen Yuanhong of the Northern Wei Dynasty (492 CE), addressed him as Cultural Sage of Reverent Father from Ni Mountain; Emperor Yangjian of the Sui Dynasty (581 CE) named him as Master of Earlier Generation; Emperor Li Zhi of the Tang Dynasty (666 CE) presented him the title of Senior Grand Tutor; and Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty (690 CE) gave him the title of Grand Moral Duke; Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (739 CE) gave him the title of King of Cultural Eminence; Emperor Chengzong of the Yuan Dynasty (1307 CE) increase for him the title of King of Cultural Eminence of Great Achievement and Sacrosanctity; Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty (1530 CE) gave him the title of the Earlier Sacrosanctity Master; Emperor Shizu of the Qing Dynasty (1645 CE) honored him as the Earlier Master of Cultural Eminence of Great Achievement and Sacrosanctity; then in 1935, National Government of KMT respected him as the Earlier Master of Great Achievement and Sacrosanctity.

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Confucius holds an important position in the Chinese and world cultural histories. He and his philosophical theory were highly valued by his contemporary. Confucianism has become one of the influential scholastic and academic pursuits as early as in the Warring States Times. Zigong said, “Other virtuous men are like low hills that can be surmounted. But Confucius is like the sun and moon that are insurmountable. Even if someone wanted to alienate himself from them, that would not harm the sun and moon one bit. It would only serve to show that he did not know his own measure” (Zizhang), which shows Zigong has the greatest esteem for his teacher Confucius, deeming the semblance of his good and honest virtue with the sun and moon. Mencius also evaluated Confucius by quoting eulogy made by Confucius’ disciples, thinking that he is the brightest among the multitude of mass populace, and has been the greatest man of moral cultivation since the emergence of human being. It is evident that his eminent virtue has long been woven into the social fabric of Chinese civilisation. The comments and eulogy made by his disciples and scholars of later generations are perhaps somehow exaggerated, but it is clearly evident that these comments and eulogy are expressed from the bottom of their hearts.

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Sima Qian, the greatest historian of China of all the times, who follows school of Master Zhuangzi in his formative years, nevertheless, made comments in the chapter Confucius Family of his works, The Historical Records: The Verse has a saying, “a lofty mountain inspires a great awe from the beholders and great thoroughfare of virtue attracts people to emulate.” Though an ordinary folk cannot reach such towering high, he is forever longing for it… there are so many kings and lords, even sages, and they used to be honored and venerated at their life time, but too many sank into oblivion after their death. Whereas Confucius was just an ordinary commoner, but his thoughts and works have been passed down to a dozen generations, avidly followed by the later scholars. From the Son of the Heaven, princes and marquises downwards, there are so many who alleged to have perusal of the Six Classics, but only at the hands of Confucius, The Six Classics are finalised and enriched. One may well say that Confucius is the greatest sage of sacrosanctity!” The appraisal of Sima Qian reveals the lofty position of Confucius as a towering mountain in the mind of then contemporary. Worship of him by common people is not out of power and influence but out of his theory passed down to later generations, which is urging people to be benevolent and popular with and supported by the common people. And thereby the posterities adopted his thoughts as criterion for scholarly pursuit. Sima Qian showed his particularly high regard for Confucius by choosing a particular stylistic rules and layout in his Record of History, ie placed the biography within the category of aristocratic family. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Confucianism was made as a single authoritative official doctrine, and since then, voices to praise him highly are too numerous to mention. Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty once said of him, “If heaven did not give us Confucius, eons would be in total eternal night” which shows his high esteem towards Confucius. Ma Yifu, a contemporary scholar, quoting from *Record of Art and Culture - History of Han Dynasty* by saying that “the sublime words would be extinguished if Confucius did not exist”, considers Confucius’ position irreplaceable since his times to the present days in that his wise thought and theory are profound and penetrating.

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Confucius’ thoughts have been enriched and modified ceaselessly through the ages since the Han Dynasty, to the period of the Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty, his thoughts were fused with Indian Buddhism and gave birth to now schools of learning of “Neo-Confucianism” and “the Philosophy of the Mind”, thus raising the Chinese philosophical intellectual enquiries into a new high. That is because of the fact that in the process of replacement of Sanskrit by Chinese language in the Buddhism Classics, the logical thinking assimilated from the language also gradually intrudes into the men of learning who took Confucian classic as basic language context, and even further, the Buddhism concept translated from Sanskrit directly became core concept of the theoretical construct of Neo-Confucian classics, for instance, “the Subject and Object of Knowledge”, and “Body And Function”, etc. Such a linguistic and ideological blending is possible as Confucius’ thoughts already contain potential possibilities. Xu Fancheng, a modern scholar, is thus able to recount Confucius’ thoughts represented by Lu-wang philosophical school of the Ming Dynasty, by basing on the philosophical thought of Sri Aurobindo, a thinker in the Indian modern times.

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In early 17ᵗʰ century CE, Italian missionary Matteo Ricci (Matthaeus Ricci, 1552 ~ 1610) and French missionary Trigault (Nicolas Trigault, 1577 ~ 1628) introduced Confucius and his works to West in Latin and French, respectively. Confucius and his ideas began to attract the attention of Western scholars. From the late 18ᵗʰ to the early 19ᵗʰ century CE, there were several scholars studying Sinology. Legge (James Legge, 1814 ~ 1897) translated the “Four Books”, “Five Classics” into English which were published from 1861 to 1886. In 1867, he also published a monograph describing the life and thoughts of Confucius. Soothill (William Edward Soothill, 1861 ~ 1935) had long been and missionary and educator in China, having translated the “Analects of Confucius” into English (1906), besides which he authored “China’s Three Religions” (1913) and other works. Thereafter, English books on the life and thought of Confucius continued to be published. The Indian intellectual elite had ample opportunities to read these English books. For example, an eminent Indian Sinologist P C Baghchi wrote a special section in his book *India and China* to talk about Confucius and his ideas.