Some further notes on Confucianism, Its Terminology, Its History and Its Archaeology

Early Confucian texts continue to be dug up today that also continue to add to our knowledge of Confucianism. Many of the most recent finds have occurred in what was the Qu kingdom. Confucian texts such as the ones I’ve mentioned in earlier posts have now been studied for around two-thousand five-hundred years so this is really ancient stuff. We have to be aware of the potential impact of the vagaries of the copying and editing process over literally millennia. Mencius already appears to have misread Kong’s ideas concerning the lessons contained in the Book of Songs and we believe this because of recent analysis of recently dug up tomb manuscripts that contain interesting quotes from Confucius concerning the sexual mores and actual lessons indicated by the ancient work. Archaeologists continue to find other works by early Confucian disciples especially in South and Central China (mainly in tomb libraries). Funerary objects such as bells and other musical instruments are also yielding information about the earliest Confucianism.

To Confucian texts I’ve already mentioned I should add The Book of Changes, a treatise on metaphysics not particularly associated with Confucianism but certainly an ancient text treated seriously by Confucians. The Book of History (containing didactic models of good and bad behaviour) and (allegedly) Confucius’ Spring and Autumn Annals are also considered classic Confucian texts. The Annals (of Confucius’ home kingdom of Lu) are actually a quite brief historical work. It is mainly read by Confucians with the aid of an ancient commentary on it by Zuo. Confucians also adopted the Book of Songs or the Book of Odes as a useful exposé of how the people had historically reacted to bad rule and what problems they had faced from the earliest times especially when badly ruled. It is a very human text that includes love songs and morality tales.

There are elements in the ideas contained in the texts that are seen today as religious, philosophical, political and etiquette-related so Confucianism is certainly multifaceted in today’s terms and perhaps ambiguous in a way reminiscent of early Islamic writing. Confucianism was first really taken up as a formal imperial policy by a seriously powerful ruler immediately after the short and basically legalist Qin imperial Dynasty by rulers of the following Han Dynasty.

Now let’s examine some special Confucian terms and some of their relations to their Chinese contexts. The name for a scholar-knight, Ru, came to refer especially to a Confucian scholar but it also had a non-Confucian meaning as today Fu Zi refers specifically to a Confucian Master but began with Kong Fu Zi (Confucius) when Fu Zi also had a less specialised meaning. Confucius spoke of De (德), charisma and a kind of magnetism. He also spoke of the way (Dao) of the wise rulers of the Zhou (the alleged sage-kings) with the De but Dao, of course, has non-Confucian meanings. In Confucian thought, not possessing the De the true Dao was something that ordinary mortals could no longer ordinarily follow, not being ancient enough (atavistic much?) The next best things (and important things, of course) were Ren (仁 - benevolence) and doing good works for their own sake. But with Kong’s help and doing all of the above to the best of our ability as a Confucian, we can get De (so all isn’t lost). Rituals were important as was doing one’s best (Zhong – 忠). Zhong came only later to specifically mean something synonymous with loyalty to one’s superiors. Also especially important were wisdom (Zhi - 智), courage (Yong - 勇), integrity (Xin - 信) and reverence (Jing).