Confucianism

WRITTEN BY:
 Tu Weiming
LAST UPDATED: Aug 12, 2019 See Article History

Confucianism, the way of life propagated by Confucius in the 6th–5th century BCE and followed
by the Chinese people for more than two millennia. Although transformed over time, it is still the
substance of learning, the source of values, and the social code of the Chinese. Its influence has
also extended to other countries, particularly Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.
Confucianism, a Western term that has no counterpart in Chinese, is a worldview, a social ethic,
a political ideology, a scholarly tradition, and a way of life. Sometimes viewed as a philosophy and
sometimes as a religion, Confucianism may be understood as an all-encompassing way of thinking
and living that entails ancestor reverence and a profound human-centred religiousness. East Asians
may profess themselves to be Shintōists, Daoists, Buddhists, Muslims, or Christians, but, by
announcing their religious affiliations, seldom do they cease to be Confucians.
Although often grouped with the major historical religions, Confucianism differs from them by not
being an organized religion. Nonetheless, it spread to other East Asian countries under the
influence of Chinese literate culture and has exerted a profound influence on spiritual and political
life. Both the theory and practice of Confucianism have indelibly marked the patterns
of government, society, education, and family of East Asia. Although it is an exaggeration to
characterize traditional Chinese life and culture as Confucian, Confucian ethical values have for
well over 2,000 years served as the source of inspiration as well as the court of appeal for human
interaction between individuals, communities, and nations in the Sinitic world.
The Thought Of Confucius
The story of Confucianism does not begin with Confucius. Nor was Confucius the founder of
Confucianism in the sense that the Buddha was the founder of Buddhism and Jesus Christ the
founder of Christianity. Rather, Confucius considered himself a transmitter who consciously tried
to reanimate the old in order to attain the new. He proposed revitalizing the meaning of the past by
advocating a ritualized life. Confucius’s love of antiquity was motivated by his strong desire to
understand why certain life forms and institutions, such as reverence for ancestors, human-centred
religious practices, and mourning ceremonies, had survived for centuries. His journey into the past
was a search for roots, which he perceived as grounded in humanity’s deepest needs for belonging
and communicating. He had faith in the cumulative power of culture. The fact that traditional ways
had lost vitality did not, for him, diminish their potential for regeneration in the future. In fact,
Confucius’s sense of history was so strong that he saw himself as a conservationist responsible for
the continuity of the cultural values and the social norms that had worked so well for the idealized
civilization of the Western Zhou dynasty.
 ConfuciusConfucius, illustration in E.T.C. Werner's Myths and Legends of China, 1922.

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The historical context

The scholarly tradition envisioned by Confucius can be traced to the sage-kings of antiquity.
Although the earliest dynasty confirmed by archaeologyis the Shang dynasty (18th–12th
century BCE), the historical period that Confucius claimed as relevant was much earlier. Confucius
may have initiated a cultural process known in the West as Confucianism, but he and those who
followed him considered themselves part of a tradition, later identified by Chinese historians as
the rujia, “scholarly tradition,” that had its origins two millennia previously, when the legendary
sages Yao and Shun created a civilized world through moral persuasion.
Confucius’s hero was Zhougong, or the duke of Zhou (fl. 11th century BCE), who was said to have
helped consolidate, expand, and refine the “feudal” ritual system. This elaborate system of mutual
dependence was based on blood ties, marriage alliances, and old covenants as well as on newly
negotiated contracts. The appeal to cultural values and social norms for the maintenance of
interstate as well as domestic order was predicated on a shared political vision, namely, that
authority lies in universal kingship, heavily invested with ethical and religious power by the
“mandate of heaven” (tianming), and that social solidarity is achieved not by legal constraint but by
ritual observance. Its implementation enabled the Western Zhou dynasty to survive in relative
peace and prosperity for more than five centuries.
Inspired by the statesmanship of Zhougong, Confucius harboured a lifelong dream to be in a
position to emulate the duke by putting into practice the political ideas that he had learned from the
ancient sages and worthies. Although Confucius never realized his political dream,
his conception of politics as moral persuasion became more and more influential.
The concept of “heaven” (tian), unique in Zhou cosmology, was compatible with that of the Lord
on High (Shangdi) in the Shang dynasty. Lord on High may have referred to the ancestral
progenitor of the Shang royal lineage, but heaven to the Zhou kings, although also ancestral, was a
more-generalized anthropomorphic god. The Zhou belief in the mandate of heaven (the functional
equivalent of the will of the Lord on High) differed from the divine right of kings in that there was
no guarantee that the descendants of the Zhou royal house would be entrusted with kingship, for, as
written in the Shujing (“Classic of History”), “heaven sees as the people see [and] hears as the
people hear”; thus, the virtues of the kings were essential for the maintenance of their power and
authority. This emphasis on benevolent rulership, expressed in numerous bronze inscriptions, was
both a reaction to the collapse of the Shang dynasty and an affirmation of a deep-rooted worldview.
Partly because of the vitality of the feudal ritual system and partly because of the strength of the
royal household itself, the Zhou kings were able to control their kingdom for several centuries. In
771 BCE, however, they were forced to move their capital eastward to present-day Luoyang to
avoid barbarian attacks from Central Asia. Real power thereafter passed into the hands of feudal
lords. Since the surviving line of the Zhou kings continued to be recognized in name, they still
managed to exercise some measure of symbolic control. By Confucius’s time, however, the feudal
ritual system had been so fundamentally undermined that the political crises also precipitated a
profound sense of moral decline: the centre of symbolic control could no longer hold the kingdom,
which had devolved from centuries of civil war into 14 feudal states.
Confucius’s response was to address himself to the issue of learning to be human. In so doing he
attempted to redefine and revitalize the institutions that for centuries had been vital to political
stability and social order: the family, the school, the local community, the state, and the kingdom.
Confucius did not accept the status quo, which held that wealth and power spoke the loudest. He
felt that virtue (de), both as a personal quality and as a requirement for leadership, was essential for
individual dignity, communal solidarity, and political order.

Confucianism

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KEY PEOPLE
 Xunzi
 Zhu Xi
 Mencius
 Kang Youwei
 Confucius
 Wang Yangming
 Wudi
 Yamaga Sokō
 Zhou Dunyi
 Dong Zhongshu
RELATED TOPICS
 Ren
 Religion
 Junzi
 Neo-Confucianism
 Xiao
 Li
 Tianming
 Shushigaku
 Kogaku
 Ōyōmeigaku
DID YOU KNOW?
  During the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huan from 259-210 BCE, Confucianism was banned, texts were burned, and
hundreds of Confucian intellectuals were killed.

 Confucius lived in a time of warring Chinese feudal states. His doctrine focused on reestablishing peace and order
through virtue which he hoped would lead to prosperity.

 Although Confucius presented the family as the foundation of society, he was divorced from his wife and lived with his
students.

The Analects as the embodiment of Confucian ideas

The Lunyu (Analects), the most-revered sacred scripture in the Confucian tradition, was probably
compiled by the succeeding generations of Confucius’s disciples. Based primarily on the Master’s
sayings, preserved in both oral and written transmissions, it captures the Confucian spirit in form
and content in the same way that the Platonic dialogues embody Socraticpedagogy.
The Analects has often been viewed by the critical modern reader as a collection of unrelated
reflections randomly put together. That impression may have resulted from the unfortunate
perception of Confucius as a mere commonsense moralizer who gave practical advice to students in
everyday situations. If readers approach the Analects as a communal memory, a literary device on
the part of those who considered themselves beneficiaries of the Confucian Way to continue the
Master’s memory and to transmit his form of life as a living tradition, they come close to why it has
been so revered in China for centuries. Interchanges with various historical figures and his disciples
are used to show Confucius in thought and action, not as an isolated individual but as the centre of
relationships. In fact, the sayings of the Analects reveal Confucius’s personality—his ambitions, his
fears, his joys, his commitments, and above all his self-knowledge.
The purpose, then, in compiling the distilled statements centring on Confucius seems not to have
been to present an argument or to record an event but to offer an invitation to readers to take part in
an ongoing conversation. Through the Analects Confucians for centuries learned to reenact the
awe-inspiring ritual of participating in a conversation with Confucius.
One of Confucius’s most-significant personal descriptions is the short autobiographical account of
his spiritual development found in the Analects:
At 15 I set my heart on learning; at 30 I firmly took my stand; at 40 I had no delusions; at 50 I knew
the mandate of heaven; at 60 my ear was attuned; at 70 I followed my heart’s desire without overstepping the
boundaries. (2:4)

Confucius’s life as a student and teacher exemplified his idea that education was a ceaseless
process of self-realization. When one of his students reportedly had difficulty describing him,
Confucius came to his aid:
Why did you not simply say something to this effect: he is the sort of man who forgets to eat when he engages
himself in vigorous pursuit of learning, who is so full of joy that he forgets his worries, and who does not notice
that old ageis coming on? (7:18)

Confucius was deeply concerned that the culture (wen) he cherished was not being transmitted and
that the learning (xue) he propounded was not being taught. His strong sense of mission, however,
never interfered with his ability to remember what had been imparted to him, to learn without
flagging, and to teach without growing weary. What he demanded of himself was strenuous:
It is these things that cause me concern: failure to cultivate virtue, failure to go deeply into what I have learned,
inability to move up to what I have heard to be right, and inability to reform myself when I have defects. (7:3)

What he demanded of his students was the willingness to learn: “I do not enlighten anyone who is
not eager to learn, nor encourage anyone who is not anxious to put his ideas into words” (7:8).
The community that Confucius created was a scholarly fellowship of like-minded men of different
ages and different backgrounds from different states. They were attracted to Confucius because
they shared his vision and to varying degrees took part in his mission to bring moral order to an
increasingly fragmented world. That mission was difficult and even dangerous. Confucius himself
suffered from joblessness, homelessness, starvation, and occasionally life-threatening violence. Yet
his faith in the survivability of the culture that he cherished and the workability of the approach to
teaching that he propounded was so steadfast that he convinced his followers as well as himself
that heaven was on their side. When Confucius’s life was threatened in Kuang, he said:
Since the death of King Wen [founder of the Zhou dynasty] does not the mission of culture (wen) rest here in
me? If heaven intends this culture to be destroyed, those who come after me will not be able to have any part of
it. If heaven does not intend this culture to be destroyed, then what can the men of Kuang do to me? (9:5)

That expression of self-confidence informed by a powerful sense of mission may give the
impression that there was presumptuousness in Confucius’s self-image. Confucius, however, made
it explicit that he was far from attaining sagehood and that all he really excelled in was “love of
learning” (5:27). To him, learning not only broadened his knowledge and deepened his self-
awareness but also defined who he was. He frankly admitted that he was not born endowed with
knowledge, nor did he belong to the class of men who could transform society without knowledge.
Rather, he reported that he used his ears widely and followed what was good in what he had heard
and used his eyes widely and retained in his mind what he had seen. His learning constituted “a
lower level of knowledge” (7:27), a practical level that was presumably accessible to the majority
of human beings. In that sense Confucius was neither a prophet with privileged access to
the divine nor a philosopher who had already seen the truth but a teacher of humanity who was also
an advanced fellow traveler on the way to self-realization.
As a teacher of humanity, Confucius stated his ambition in terms of concern for human beings: “To
bring comfort to the old, to have trust in friends, and to cherish the young” (5:25). Confucius’s
vision of the way to develop a moral community began with a holistic reflection on the human
condition. Instead of dwelling on abstract speculations such as humanity’s condition in the state of
nature, Confucius sought to understand the actual situation of a given time and to use that as his
point of departure. His aim was to restore trust in government and to transform society into a
flourishing moral community by cultivating a sense of humanity in politics and society. To achieve
that aim, the creation of a scholarly community, the fellowship of junzi (exemplary persons), was
essential. In the words of Confucius’s discipleZengzi, exemplary persons
must be broad-minded and resolute, for their burden is heavy and their road is long. They take humanity as
their burden. Is that not heavy? Only with death does their road come to an end. Is that not long? (8:7)

The fellowship of junzi as moral vanguards of society, however, did not seek to establish a radically
different order. Its mission was to redefine and revitalize those institutions that for centuries were
believed to have maintained social solidarity and enabled people to live in harmony and prosperity.
An obvious example of such an institution was the family.
It is related in the Analects that Confucius, when asked why he did not take part in government,
responded by citing a passage from the ancient Shujing (“Classic of History”), “Simply by being a
good son and friendly to his brothers a man can exert an influence upon government!” to show that
what a person does in the confines of his home is politically significant (2:21). That maxim is based
on the Confucian conviction that cultivation of the self is the root of social order and that social
order is the basis for political stability and enduring peace.
The assertion that family ethics is politically efficacious must be seen in the context of the
Confucian conception of politics as “rectification” (zheng). Rulers should begin by rectifying their
own conduct; that is, they are to be examples who govern by moral leadership and exemplary
teaching rather than by force. Government’s responsibility is not only to provide food and security
but also to educate the people. Law and punishment are the minimum requirements for order; the
higher goal of social harmony, however, can be attained only by virtue expressed through ritual
performance. To perform rituals, then, is to take part in a communal act to promote mutual
understanding.
One of the fundamental Confucian values that ensures the integrity of ritual performance
is xiao (filial piety). Indeed, Confucius saw filial piety as the first step toward moral excellence,
which he believed lay in the attainment of the cardinal virtue, ren (humanity). To learn to embody
the family in the mind and the heart is to become able to move beyond self-centredness or, to
borrow from modern psychology, to transform the enclosed private ego into an open self. Filial
piety, however, does not demand unconditional submissiveness to parental authority but
recognition of and reverence for the source of life. The purpose of filial piety, as the ancient Greeks
expressed it, is to enable both parent and child to flourish. Confucians see it as an essential way of
learning to be human.
Confucians, moreover, are fond of applying the family metaphor to the community, the country,
and the cosmos. They prefer to address the emperor as the son of heaven (tianzi), the king as ruler-
father, and the magistrate as the “father-mother official,” because to them the family-
centred nomenclature implies a political vision. When Confucius said that taking care of family
affairs is itself active participation in politics, he had already made it clear that family ethics is not
merely a private concern; the public good is realized by and through it.
Confucius defined the process of becoming human as being able to “discipline yourself and return
to ritual” (12:1). The dual focus on the transformation of the self (Confucius is said to have freed
himself from four things: “opinionatedness, dogmatism, obstinacy, and egoism” [9:4]) and on
social participation enabled Confucius to be loyal (zhong) to himself and considerate (shu) of others
(4:15). It is easy to understand why the Confucian “golden rule” is “Do not do unto others what you
would not want others to do unto you!” (15:23). Confucius’s legacy, laden with
profound ethicalimplications, is captured by his “plain and real” appreciation that learning to be
human is a communal enterprise:
Persons of humanity, in wishing to establish themselves, also establish others, and in wishing to enlarge
themselves, also enlarge others. The ability to take as analogy what is near at hand can be called the method of
humanity. (6:30)

Formation Of The Classical Confucian Tradition

According to Han Feizi (died 233 BCE), shortly after Confucius’s death his followers split into eight
distinct schools, all claiming to be the legitimateheir to the Confucian legacy. Presumably each
school was associated with or inspired by one or more of Confucius’s disciples. Yet the Confucians
did not exert much influence in the 5th century BCE. Although the reverent Yan Yuan (or Yan Hui),
the faithful Zengzi, the talented Zigong, the erudite Zixia, and others may have generated a great
deal of enthusiasm among the second generation of Confucius’s students, it was not at all clear at
the time that the Confucian tradition was to emerge as the most-powerful one in Chinese history.
Mencius (c. 371–c. 289 BCE) complained that the world of thought in the early Warring
States period (475–221 BCE) was dominated by the collectivismof Mozi and
the individualism of Yang Zhu (440–c. 360 BCE). The historical situation a century after
Confucius’s death clearly shows that the Confucian attempt to moralize politics was not working;
the disintegration of the Zhoufeudal ritual system and the rise of powerful hegemonic states reveal
that wealth and power spoke the loudest. The hermits (the early Daoists), who left the world to
create a sanctuary in nature in order to lead a contemplative life, and the realists (proto-Legalists),
who played the dangerous game of assisting ambitious kings to gain wealth and power so that they
could influence the political process, were actually determining the intellectual agenda. The
Confucians refused to be identified with the interests of the ruling minority, because their
social consciousness impelled them to serve as the conscience of the people. They were in a
dilemma. Although they wanted to be actively involved in politics, they could not accept the status
quo as the legitimate arena in which to exercise authority and power. In short, they were in the
world but not of it; they could not leave the world, nor could they effectively change it.
 Mencius, detail, ink and colour on silk; in the National Palace Museum, TaipeiCourtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan,
Republic of China

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 China: Confucianism and philosophical Daoism
 China: Confucianism
 Daoism: Confucianism and Buddhism
 Korea: The establishment of a Confucian state
 Saint: Confucianism and Daoism
 Chinese law: Beginnings and the “Confucianization of law”

Mencius: The paradigmatic Confucian intellectual

Mencius is known as the self-styled transmitter of the Confucian Way. Educated first by his mother
and then allegedly by a student of Confucius’sgrandson, Mencius brilliantly performed his role as a
social critic, a moralphilosopher, and a political activist. He argued that cultivating a class of
scholar-officials who would not be directly involved in agriculture, industry, and commerce was
vital to the well-being of the state. In his sophisticated argument against the physiocrats (those who
advocated the supremacy of agriculture), he intelligently employed the idea of the division of
labour to defend those who labour with their minds, observing that service is as important as
productivity. To him Confucians served the vital interests of the state as scholars not by
becoming bureaucratic functionaries but by assuming the responsibility of teaching the ruling
minority humane government (renzheng) and the kingly way (wangdao). In dealing with feudal
lords, Mencius conducted himself not merely as a political adviser but also as a teacher of kings.
Mencius made it explicit that a true person cannot be corrupted by wealth, subdued by power, or
affected by poverty.
 READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC

China: Confucianism

Confucianism was perceived by the Mongols as a Chinese religion, and it had mixed fortunes under their rule.

The teachings…

To articulate the relationship between Confucian moral idealism and the concrete social and
political realities of his time, Mencius began by exposing as impractical the
prevailing ideologies of Mozi’s collectivism and Yang Zhu’s individualism. Mozi, a former
Confucian who had become disaffected with rituals that he viewed as too time-consuming to be
practical, promoted a mode of collectivism that rested on the principle of loving everyone (jianai)
without respect to social status or personal relationship. Mencius contended, however, that the
result of the Mohist admonition to treat a stranger as intimately as one’s own father would be to
treat one’s own father as indifferently as one would treat a stranger. Yang Zhu, on the other hand,
advocated the primacy of the self and the nourishment (yang) of one’s nature (xing) rather than
investing one’s time and energy in social concerns and institutions that (Yang suggested) violated
that nature. Yang Zhu gained infamy among Confucians for declaring that he would
not sacrifice one eyelash to save the world. His point was arguably that people all too often waste
their own lives in the service of social arrangements that actually undermine their best interests.
Mencius, however, who as a good Confucian viewed the family as the natural paradigm of social
organization, contended that excessive attention to self-interest would lead to political disorder.
Indeed, Mencius argued, in Mohist collectivism fatherhood becomes a meaningless concept, and so
does kingship in Yang Zhu’s individualism.
Mencius’s strategy for social reform was to change the language of profit, self-interest, wealth, and
power by making it part of a moral discourse, with emphasis on rightness, public-spiritedness,
welfare, and influence. Mencius, however, was not arguing against profit. Rather, he instructed the
feudal lords to look beyond the narrow horizon of their palaces and to cultivate a common bond
with their ministers, officers, clerks, and the seemingly undifferentiated masses. Only then,
Mencius contended, would they be able to preserve their profit, self-interest, wealth, and power. He
encouraged them to extend their benevolence (his interpretation of ren) and warned them that this
was crucial for the protection of their families.
Mencius’s appeal to the common bond among all people as a mechanism of government
was predicated on his strong populist sense that the people are more important than the state and
the state is more important than the king and that the ruler who does not act in accordance with the
kingly way is unfit to rule. Mencius insisted that an unfit ruler should be criticized, rehabilitated, or,
as the last resort, deposed. Since “heaven sees as the people see; heaven hears as the people
hear,” revolution, or literally the change of the mandate (geming), in severe cases is not only
justifiable but is a moral imperative.
Mencius’s populist conception of politics was predicated on his philosophical vision that human
beings can perfect themselves through effort and that human nature (xing) is good. While he
acknowledged the role of biological and environmental factors in shaping the human condition, he
insisted that human beings become moral by willing to be so. According to Mencius, willing entails
the transformative moral act insofar as the propensity of humans to be good is activated whenever
they decide to bring it to their conscious attention.
Mencius taught that all people have the spiritual resources to deepen their self-awareness and
strengthen their bonds with others. Biologic and environmental constraints notwithstanding, people
always have the freedom and the ability to refine and enlarge their heaven-endowed nobility (their
“great body”). The possibility of continuously refining and enlarging the self is vividly illustrated
in Mencius’s description of degrees of excellence:
Those who are admirable are called good (shan). Those who are sincere are called true (xin). Those who are
totally genuine are called beautiful (mei). Those who radiate this genuineness are called great (da). Those
whose greatness transforms are called sagely (sheng). Those whose sageliness is unfathomable are called
spiritual (shen). (VIIB:25)

Furthermore, Mencius asserted that if people fully realize the potential of their hearts, they will
understand their nature; by understanding their nature, they will know heaven. Learning to be fully
human, in this Mencian perspective, entails the cultivation of human sensitivity to embody the
whole cosmos as one’s lived experience:

All myriad things are here in me. There is no greater joy for me than to find, on self-examination, that I am true
to myself. Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the
shortest way to humanity. (VIIA:4)

Xunzi: The transmitter of Confucian scholarship

If Mencius brought Confucian moral idealism to fruition, Xunzi (c. 300–c.230 BCE) conscientiously
transformed Confucianism into a realistic and systematic inquiry on the human condition, with
special reference to ritual(li) and authority. Widely acknowledged as the most eminent of the
notable scholars who congregated in Jixia, the capital of the wealthy and powerful Qi state in the
mid-3rd century BCE, Xunzi distinguished himself in erudition and by the quality of his
argumentation. His critique of the so-called 12 philosophers gave an overview of
the intellectual life of his time. His penetrating insight into the limitations of virtually all the major
currents of thought propounded by his fellow thinkers helped to establish the Confucian school as a
dominant political and social force. His principal adversary, however, was Mencius, and he
vigorously attacked Mencius’s view that human nature is good as naive moral optimism.
True to the Confucian and, for that matter, Mencian spirit, Xunzi underscored the centrality of self-
cultivation. He defined the process of Confucian education, from exemplary person (junzi) to sage,
as a ceaseless endeavour to accumulate knowledge, skills, insight, and wisdom. In contrast to
Mencius, Xunzi stressed that human nature is evil. Because he saw human beings as prone by
nature to pursue the gratification of their passions, he firmly believed in the need for
clearly articulated social constraints. Without constraints, social solidarity—the precondition for
human well-being—would be undermined. The most-serious flaw he perceived in the Mencian
commitment to the goodness of human nature was the practical consequence of neglecting the
necessity of ritual and authority for the well-being of society. For Xunzi, as for Confucius before
him, becoming moral is hard work.
Xunzi singled out the cognitive function of the heart-and-mind (xin), or human rationality, as the
basis for morality. People become moral by voluntarily harnessing their desires and passions to act
in accordance with society’s norms. Although that is alien to human nature, it is perceived by the
heart-and-mind as necessary for both survival and well-being. It is the construction of the moral
mind as a human artifact, as a “second nature.” Like Mencius, Xunzi believed in the perfectibility
of all human beings through self-cultivation, in humanity and rightness as cardinal virtues, in
humane government as the kingly way, in social harmony, and in education. But his view of how
those could actually be achieved was diametrically opposed to that of Mencius. The Confucian
project, as shaped by Xunzi, defines learning as socialization. The authority of ancient sages and
worthies, the classical tradition, conventional norms, teachers, governmental rules and regulations,
and political officers are all important for that process. A cultured person is by definition a fully
socialized member of the human community who has successfully sublimated his instinctual
demands for the public good.
Xunzi’s tough-minded stance on law, order, authority, and ritual seems precariously close to that of
the Legalists, whose policy of social conformism was designed exclusively for the benefit of the
ruler. His insistence on objective standards of behaviour may have ideologically contributed to the
rise of authoritarianism, which resulted in the dictatorship of the Qin (221–207 BCE). As a matter of
fact, two of the most-influential Legalists, the theoretician Hanfeizi from the state of Han and the
Qin minister Li Si (c. 280–208 BCE), were his pupils. Yet Xunzi was instrumental in the
continuation of Confucianism as a scholarly enterprise. His naturalistic interpretation of tian, his
sophisticated understanding of culture, his insightful observations on the epistemological aspect of
the mind and social function of language, his emphasis on moral reasoning and the art of
argumentation, his belief in progress, and his interest in political institutions so significantly
enriched the Confucian heritage that he was revered by the Confucians as the paradigmatic scholar
for more than three centuries.
The Confucianization of politics
The short-lived dictatorship of the Qin marked a brief triumph of Legalism. In the early years of the
Western Han (206 BCE–25 CE), however, the Legalist practice of absolute power of the emperor,
complete subjugation of the peripheral states to the central government, total uniformity of thought,
and ruthless enforcement of law were replaced by the Daoist practice of reconciliation and
noninterference. That practice is commonly known in history as the Huang-Lao method, referring
to the art of rulership attributed to the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) and the mysterious founder
of Daoism, Laozi. Although a few Confucian thinkers, such as Lu Jia and Jia Yi, made important
policy recommendations, Confucianism before the emergence of Dong Zhongshu (c. 179–
c. 104 BCE) was not particularly influential. Nonetheless, the gradual Confucianization of Han
politics began soon after the founding of the dynasty.
By the reign of Wudi (the “Martial Emperor”; 141–87 BCE), who inherited the task of consolidating
power in the central Han court, Confucianism was deeply entrenched in the central bureaucracy. It
was manifest in such practices as the clear separation of the court and the government, often under
the leadership of a scholarly prime minister, the process of recruiting officials through the dual
mechanism of recommendation and selection, the family-centred social structure, the agriculture-
based economy, and the educational network. Confucian ideas were also firmly established in the
legal system as ritual became increasingly important in governing behaviour, defining social
relationships, and adjudicating civil disputes. Yet it was not until the prime minister Gongsun
Hong (died 121 BCE) had persuaded Wudi to announce formally that the ru school alone would
receive state sponsorship that Confucianism became an officially recognized imperial ideology and
state cult.
As a result, Confucian Classics became the core curriculum for all levels of education. In
136 BCE Wudi set up at court five Erudites of the Five Classics and in 124 BCE assigned 50 official
students to study with them, thus creating a de facto imperial university. By 50 BCE enrollment at
the university had grown to an impressive 3,000, and by 1 CE a hundred students a year were
entering government service through the examinations administered by the state. In short, those
with a Confucian education began to staff the bureaucracy. In the year 58 all government schools
were required to make sacrifices to Confucius, and in 175 the court had the approved version of the
Classics, which had been determined by scholarly conferences and research groups under
imperial auspices for several decades, carved on large stone tablets. (Those stelae, which were
erected at the capital, are today well preserved in the museum of Xi’an.) That act of committing to
permanence and to public display the content of the sacred scriptures symbolized the completion of
the formation of the classical Confucian tradition.

The Five Classics

The compilation of the Wujing (Five Classics) was a concrete manifestationof the coming of age of
the Confucian tradition. The inclusion of both pre-Confucian texts, the Shujing (“Classic of
History”) and the Shijing (“Classic of Poetry”), and contemporary Qin-Han material, such as
certain portions of the Liji (“Record of Rites”), suggests that the spirit behind the establishment of
the core curriculum for Confucian education was ecumenical. The Five Classics can be described in
terms of five visions: metaphysical, political, poetic, social, and historical.
 What is the Difference Between Daoism and Confucianism?

How do China’s two great philosophical and religious traditions compare?

The metaphysical vision, expressed in the Yijing (“Classic of Changes”), combines divinatory art
with numerological technique and ethical insight. According to the philosophy of change, the
cosmos is a great transformation occasioned by the constant interaction of yin and yang, the two
complementary as well as conflicting life forces (qi). The world, which emerges out of that ongoing
transformation, exhibits both organismic unity and dynamism. The exemplary person, inspired by
the harmony and creativity of the cosmos, must emulate that pattern by aiming to realize the
highest ideal of “unity of man and heaven” (tianrenheyi) through ceaseless self-exertion.
The political vision, contained in the Shujing, presents kingship in terms of the ethical foundation
for a humane government. The legendary Three Emperors (Yao, Shun, and Yu) all ruled by virtue.
Their sagacity, xiao (filial piety), and dedication to work enabled them to create a political
culturebased on responsibility and trust. Their exemplary lives taught and encouraged the people to
enter into a covenant with them so that social harmony could be achieved without punishment or
coercion. Even in the Three Dynasties (Xia, Shang, and Zhou) moral authority, as expressed
through ritual, was sufficient to maintain political order. The human continuum, from the
undifferentiated masses to the enlightened people, the nobility, and the sage-king, formed an
organic unity as an integral part of the great cosmic transformation. Politics means moral
persuasion, and the purpose of the government is not only to provide food and maintain order but
also to educate.
The poetic vision, contained in the Shijing, underscores the Confucian valuation of common human
feelings. The majority of verses give voice to emotions and sentiments of communities and persons
from all levels of society expressed on a variety of occasions. The basic theme of that poetic world
is mutual responsiveness. The tone as a whole is honest rather than earnest and evocative rather
than expressive.
The social vision, contained in the Liji, shows society not as an adversarial system based on
contractual relationships but as a community of trust with emphasis on communication. Society
organized by the four functional occupations—the scholar, the farmer, the artisan, and the
merchant—is, in the true sense of the word, a cooperation. As a contributing member of the
cooperation, each person is obligated to recognize the existence of others and to serve the public
good. It is the king’s duty to act kingly and the father’s duty to act fatherly. If kings or fathers fail
to behave properly, they cannot expect their ministers or children to act in accordance with ritual. It
is in that sense that a chapter in the Liji entitled the “Great Learning” (Daxue) specifies, “From the
son of heaven to the commoner, all must regard self-cultivation as the root.”
That pervasive consciousness of duty features prominently in all Confucian literature on ritual.
The historical vision, presented in the Chunqiu (“Spring and Autumn [Annals]”), emphasizes the
significance of collective memory for communal self-identification. Historical consciousness is a
defining characteristic of Confucian thought. By defining himself as a lover of antiquity and a
transmitter of its values, Confucius made it explicit that a sense of history is not only desirable but
necessary for self-knowledge. Confucius’s emphasis on the importance of history was in a way his
reappropriation of the ancient Sinitic wisdom that reanimating the old is the best way to attain the
new. Confucius may not have been the author of the Chunqiu, but it seems likely that he applied
moral judgment to political events in China proper from the 8th to the 5th century BCE. In that
unprecedented procedure he assumed a godlike role in evaluating politics by assigning ultimate
historical praise and blame to the most powerful and influential political actors of the period. Not
only did that practice inspire the innovative style of the grand historian Sima Qian (c. 145–
c. 87 BCE), but it was also widely employed by others writing dynastic histories in imperial China.
Dong Zhongshu: The Confucian visionary
Like Sima Qian, Dong Zhongshu (c. 179–c. 104 BCE) took the Chunqiuabsolutely seriously. His
own work, Chunqiu fanlu (“Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals”), however, is far
from being a book of historical judgment. It is a metaphysical treatise in the spirit of the Yijing. A
man extraordinarily dedicated to learning (he is said to have been so absorbed in his studies that for
three years he did not even glance at the garden in front of him) and strongly committed to
moral idealism (one of his often-quoted dicta is “rectifying rightness without scheming for
profit; enlightening his Way without calculating efficaciousness”), Dong was instrumental in
developing a characteristically Han interpretation of Confucianism.
Despite Wudi’s pronouncement that Confucianism alone would receive imperial sponsorship,
Daoists, yinyang cosmologists, Legalists, shamanists, practitioners of seances, healers, magicians,
geomancers, and others all contributed to the cosmological thinking of the Han cultural elite.
Indeed, Dong himself was a beneficiary of that intellectual syncretism, for he freely tapped the
spiritual resources of his time in formulating his own worldview: that human actions have cosmic
consequences.
Dong’s inquiries on the meaning of the wuxing, or five phases (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth),
the correspondence of human beings and the numerical categories of heaven, and the sympathetic
activation of things of the same kind, as well as his studies of cardinal Confucian values such as
humanity, rightness, ritual, wisdom, and trustworthiness, enabled him to develop an elaborate
worldview integrating Confucian ethics with naturalistic cosmology. What Dong accomplished was
not merely a theological justification for the emperor as the “son of heaven” (tianzi); rather, his
theory of mutual responsiveness between heaven and humanity provided the Confucian scholars
with a higher law by which to judge the conduct of the ruler.
Despite Dong’s immense popularity, his worldview was not universally accepted by Han
Confucian scholars. A reaction in favour of a more rational and moralistic approach to the
Confucian Classics, known as the Old Text school, had already set in before the fall of the Western
Han. Yang Xiong (c.53 BCE–18 CE) in the Fayan (“Model Sayings”), a collection of
moralistic aphorisms in the style of the Analects, and the Taixuan jing (“Classic of the Supremely
Profound Principle”), a cosmological speculation in the style of the Yijing, presented
an alternative worldview. That school, claiming its own recensions of authentic classical texts
allegedly rediscovered during the Han period and written in an “old” script before the Qin
unification, was widely accepted in the Eastern Han (25–220 CE). As the institutions of
the Erudites and the Imperial University expanded in the Eastern Han, the study of the Classics
became more refined and elaborate. Confucian scholasticism, however, like its counterparts
in Talmudic and biblicalstudies, became too professionalized to remain a vital intellectual force.
Yet Confucian ethics exerted great influence on government, schools, and society at large. Toward
the end of the Han as many as 30,000 students attended the Imperial University. All public schools
throughout the land offered regular sacrifices to Confucius, and he virtually became the patron
saint of education. Many Confucian temples were also built. The imperial courts continued to
honour Confucius from age to age; a Confucian temple eventually stood in every one of the 2,000
counties. As a result, the teacher—together with heaven, earth, the emperor, and parents—became
one of the most-respected authorities in traditional China.
Confucian ethics in the Daoist and Buddhist context
Incompetent rulership, faction-ridden bureaucracy, a mismanaged tax structure, and domination
by eunuchs toward the end of the Eastern Han first prompted widespread protests by the Imperial
University students. The high-handed policy of the court to imprison and kill thousands of them
and their official sympathizers in 169 CE may have put a temporary stop to the intellectual revolt,
but the downward economic spiral made the life of the peasantry unbearable. The peasant rebellion
led by Confucian scholars as well as Daoist religious leaders of faith-healing groups, combined
with open insurrections of the military, brought down the Han dynasty and thus put an end to the
first Chinese empire. As the imperial Han system disintegrated, barbarians invaded from the north.
The plains of northern China were fought over, despoiled, and controlled by rival groups, and a
succession of states were established in the south. That period of disunity, from the early 3rd to the
late 6th century, marked the decline of Confucianism, the upsurge of xuanxue (“Obscure
Learning”; sometimes called neo-Daoism), and the spread of Buddhism.
The prominence of Daoism and Buddhism among the cultural elite and the populace in general,
however, did not mean that the Confucian tradition had disappeared. In fact, Confucian ethics was
by then virtually inseparable from the moral fabric of Chinese society. Confucius continued to be
universally honoured as the paradigmatic sage. The outstanding Daoist thinker Wang Bi (226–249)
argued that Confucius, by not speculating on the nature of the dao, had an experiential
understanding of it superior to Laozi’s. The Confucian Classics remained the foundation of all
literate culture, and sophisticated commentaries were produced throughout the age. Confucian
values continued to dominate in such political institutions as the central bureaucracy, the
recruitment of officials, and local governance. The political forms of life also were distinctively
Confucian. When a barbarian state adopted a sinicization policy, notably the case of the Northern
Wei (386–534/535), it was by and large Confucian in character. In the south systematic attempts
were made to strengthen family ties by establishing clan rules, genealogical trees, and ancestral
rituals based on Confucian ethics.
The reunification of China by the Sui (581–618) and the restoration of lasting peace and prosperity
by the Tang (618–907) gave a powerful stimulus to the revival of Confucian learning. The
publication of a definitive official edition of the Wujing with elaborate commentaries and
subcommentaries and the implementation of Confucian rituals at all levels of governmental
practice, including the compilation of the famous Tang legal code, were two outstanding examples
of Confucianism in practice. An examination system based on literary competence was established.
That system made the mastery of Confucian Classics a prerequisite for political success and was
therefore perhaps the single-most-important institutional innovation in defining elite culture in
Confucian terms.
The Tang dynasty, nevertheless, was dominated by Buddhism and, to a lesser degree, by Daoism.
The philosophical originality of the dynasty was mainly represented by monk-scholars such as
Jizang (549–623), Xuanzang(602–664), and Zhiyi (538–597). An unintended consequence in the
development of Confucian thought in that context was the prominent rise of the metaphysically
significant Confucian texts, notably Zhongyong(“Doctrine of the Mean”) and Yizhuan (“The Great
Commentary of the Classic of Changes”), which appealed to some Buddhist and Daoist thinkers. A
sign of a possible Confucian turn in the Tang was Li Ao’s (died c.844) essay “Returning to Nature”
that foreshadowed features of Song (960–1279) Confucian thought. The most-
influential precursor of a Confucian revival, however, was Han Yu (768–824). He attacked
Buddhism from the perspectives of social ethics and cultural identity and provoked interest in the
question of what actually constitutes the Confucian Way. The issue of Daotong, the transmission of
the Way or the authentic method to repossess the Way, has stimulated much discussion in the
Confucian tradition since the 11th century.

The Confucian Revival

The Buddhist conquest of China and the Chinese transformation of Buddhism—a process entailing
the introduction, domestication, growth, and appropriation of a distinctly Indian form of
spirituality—lasted for at least six centuries. Since Buddhist ideas were introduced to China
via Daoist categories and since the development of the Daoist religionbenefited from having
Buddhist institutions and practices as models, the spiritual dynamics in medieval China were
characterized by Buddhist and Daoist values. The reemergence of Confucianism as the
leading intellectualforce thus involved both a creative response to the Buddhist and Daoist
challenge and an imaginative reappropriation of classical Confucian insights. Furthermore, after the
collapse of the Tang dynasty, the grave threats to the survival of Chinese culture from the Khitan,
the Jurchen (Jin), and later the Mongols prompted the literati to protect their common heritage by
deepening their communal critical self-awareness. To enrich their personal knowledge as well as to
preserve China as a civilization-state, they explored the symbolic and spiritual resources that made
Confucianism a living tradition.

Confucianism

Which of the following neo-Confucian figures was associated with a movement called “Learning of the Mind-

and-Heart” ( xinxue )?

The Song masters

The Song dynasty (960–1279) was militarily weak and much smaller than the Tang, but its cultural
splendour and economic prosperity were unprecedented in Chinese, if not human, history. The
Song’s commercial revolution produced flourishing markets, densely populated urban centres,
elaborate communication networks, theatrical performances, literary groups, and popular
religions—developments that tended to remain unchanged into the 19th century. Technological
advances in agriculture, textiles, lacquer, porcelain, printing, maritime trade, and weaponry
demonstrated that China excelled in the fine arts as well as in the sciences. The decline of
the aristocracy, the widespread availability of printed books, the democratization of education, and
the full implementation of the examination system produced a new social class, the gentry, noted
for its literary proficiency, social consciousness, and political participation. The outstanding
members of that class—such as the classicists Hu Yuan (993–1059) and Sun Fu (992–1057), the
reformers Fan Zhongyan (989–1052) and Wang Anshi (1021–86), the writer-officials Ouyang
Xiu (1007–72) and Su Shi(pen name of Su Dongpo; 1037–1101), and the statesman-historian Sima
Guang (1019–86)—contributed to the revival of Confucianism in education, politics, literature, and
history and collectively to the development of a scholarly official style, a way of life informed by
Confucian ethics.
The Confucian revival, understood in traditional historiography as the establishment of the lineage
of Daoxue (“Learning of the Way”), nevertheless can be traced through a line of neo-Confucian
thinkers from Zhou Dunyi (1017–73) by way of Shao Yong (1011–77), Zhang Zai (1020–77), the
brothers Cheng Hao (1032–85) and Cheng Yi (1033–1107), and the great synthesizer Zhu
Xi (1130–1200). These men developed a comprehensivehumanist vision in which cultivation of the
self was integrated with social ethics and moral metaphysics. In the eyes of the Song literati, this
new philosophy faithfully restored the classical Confucian insights and successfully applied them to
the concerns of their own age.
Zhou Dunyi ingeniously articulated the relationship between the “great transformation” of the
cosmos and the moral development of human beings. In his metaphysics, humanity, as the recipient
of the highest excellence from heaven, is itself a centre of cosmic creativity. He developed this all-
embracing humanism by a thought-provoking interpretation of the Daoist diagram of taiji (“Great
Ultimate”). Shao Yong elaborated on the metaphysical basis of human affairs, insisting that a
disinterested numerological mode of analysis is most appropriate for understanding the “supreme
principles governing the world.” Zhang Zai, on the other hand, focused on the omnipresence of qi,
which is often taken to be the fundamental enlivening force of the universe but to Zhang was also
the constituent material force of everything in the universe. Zhang also advocated the oneness
of li (“principle”; comparable to the idea of natural law) and the multiplicity of its manifestations,
which is created as the principle expresses itself through qi. As an article of faith he pronounced in
the “Western Inscription”:
Heaven is my father and Earth is my mother, and even such a small being as I finds a central abode in their
midst. Therefore that which fills the cosmos I regard as my body and that which directs the cosmos I consider
as my nature. All people are my brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions.

This theme of mutuality between heaven and human beings, consanguinity between one human
being and another, and harmony between humanity and nature was brought to fruition in Cheng
Hao’s definition of humanity as “forming one body with all things.” To him the presence
of tianli (“heavenly principle”) in all things as well as in human nature enables the human mind to
purify itself in a spirit of reverence. Cheng Yi, following his brother’s lead, formulated the famous
dictum, “Self-cultivation requires reverence; the extension of knowledge consists in the
investigation of things.” By making special reference to gewu(“investigation of things”), he raised
doubts about the appropriateness of focusing exclusively on the illumination of the mind in self-
cultivation, as his brother seems to have done. The learning of the mind as advocated by Cheng
Hao and the learning of the principle as advocated by Cheng Yi became two distinct modes of
thought in Song Confucianism.
Zhu Xi, clearly following Cheng Yi’s School of Principle and implicitly rejecting Cheng
Hao’s School of Mind, developed a method of interpreting and transmitting the Confucian Way
that for centuries defined Confucianism not only for the Chinese but for the Koreans and Japanese
as well. If, as quite a few scholars have advocated, Confucianism represents a distinct form of East
Asian spirituality, it is the Confucianism shaped by Zhu Xi. Zhu Xi virtually reconstituted the
Confucian tradition, giving it new structure, new texture, and new meaning. He was more than a
synthesizer; through conscientious appropriation and systematic interpretation, he gave rise to a
new Confucianism, known as neo-Confucianism in the West but often referred to
as lixue (“Learning of the Principle”) in modern China.
 Zhu Xi, ink on paper, by an unknown artist; in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.Courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan,
Republic of China

The Zhongyong and the Daxue, two chapters in the Liji, had become independent treatises and,
together with the Analects and Mencius, had been included in the core curriculum of Confucian
education for centuries before Zhu Xi’s birth. But by putting them into a particular sequence—
the Daxue, the Analects, Mencius, and the Zhongyong—synthesizing their commentaries,
interpreting them as a coherent humanistic vision, and calling them the Four Books (Sishu), Zhu Xi
fundamentally restructured the Confucian scriptural tradition. The Four Books, placed above
the Five Classics, became the central texts for both primary education and civil
service examinations in traditional China from the 14th century. Thus, they have exerted far greater
influence on Chinese life and thought in the past 600 years than any other work.
As an interpreter and transmitter of the Confucian Way, Zhu Xi identified which early Song
masters belonged to the lineage of Confucius and Mencius. His judgment, later widely accepted by
governments in East Asia, was based principally on philosophical insight. Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai,
and the Cheng brothers, the select four, were Zhu Xi’s cultural heroes. Shao Yong and Sima Guang
were originally on his list, but Zhu Xi apparently changed his mind, perhaps because of Shao’s
excessive metaphysical speculation and Sima’s obsession with historical facts.
Up until Zhu Xi’s time the Confucian thinking of the Song masters was characterized by a few
fruitfully ambiguous concepts, notably the Great Ultimate (taiji), principle, vital energy, nature,
mind, and humanity. Zhu Xi defined the process of the investigation of things as a
rigorous discipline of the mind to probe the principle in things. He recommended a twofold method
of study: to cultivate a sense of reverence and to pursue knowledge. This combination
of morality and wisdom made his pedagogyan inclusive approach to humanist education. Reading,
sitting quietly, ritualpractice, physical exercise, calligraphy, arithmetic, and empiricalobservation
all had a place in his pedagogical program. Zhu Xi reestablished the White Deer Grotto in present
Jiangxi province as an academy. It became the intellectual centre of his age and provided an
instructional model for all schools in East Asia for generations to come.
Zhu Xi was considered the preeminent Confucian scholar in Song China, but his interpretation of
the Confucian Way was seriously challenged by his contemporary Lu Jiuyuan (Lu Xiangshan,
1139–93). Claiming that he appropriated the true wisdom of Confucian teaching by reading
Mencius, Lu criticized Zhu Xi’s theory of the investigation of things as fragmented and
ineffective empiricism. Instead, he advocated a return to Mencian moral idealism by insisting that
establishing the “great body” (i.e., heaven-endowed nobility) is the primary precondition for self-
realization. To him the learning of the mind as a quest for self-knowledge provided the basis upon
which the investigation of things assumed its proper significance. Lu’s confrontation with Zhu Xi
in the famous meeting at the Goose Lake Temple in 1175 further convinced him that Confucianism
as Zhu Xi had shaped it was not Mencian. Although Lu’s challenge remained a minority position
for some time, his learning of the mind later became a major intellectual force in Ming China
(1368–1644) and Tokugawa Japan (1603–1867).

Confucian learning in Jin, Yuan, and Ming

For about 150 years, from the time the Song court moved its capital to the South and reestablished
itself there in 1127, North China was ruled by three conquest dynasties—the Liao (907–1125), Xi
Xia (1038–1227), and Jin (1115–1234). Although the bureaucracies and political cultures of both
Liao and Xi Xia were under Confucian influence, no discernible intellectualdevelopments helped to
further the Confucian tradition there. In the Jurchen Jin dynasty, however, despite the paucity of
information about the Confucian renaissance in the Southern Song, the Jin scholar-officials
continued the classical, artistic, literary, and historiographic traditions of the North and developed a
richly textured cultural form of their own. Zhao Bingwen’s (1159–1232) combination of literary
talent and moral concerns and Wang Roxu’s (1174–1243) scholarship in Classics and history, as
depicted in Yuan Haowen’s (1190–1257) biographical sketches and preserved in their collected
works, compared well with the high standards set by their counterparts in the South.
When the Mongols reunited China in 1279, the intellectual dynamism of the South profoundly
affected the Northern style of scholarship. Although the harsh treatment of scholars by the
conquest Yuan (Mongol) dynasty (1206–1368) seriously damaged the well-being of the
scholarly community, outstanding Confucian thinkers nevertheless emerged throughout the period.
Some opted to purify themselves so that they could repossess the Way for the future; some decided
to become engaged in politics to put their teaching into practice.
Xu Heng (1209–81) took a practical approach. Appointed by Kublai, the Great Khan in Marco
Polo’s Description of the World, as the president of the Imperial Academy and respected as the
leading scholar in the court, Xu conscientiously introduced Zhu Xi’s teaching to the Mongols. He
assumed personal responsibility for educating the sons of the Mongol nobility to become qualified
teachers of Confucian Classics. His erudition and skills in medicine, legal affairs, irrigation,
military science, arithmetic, and astronomy enabled him to be an informed adviser to the conquest
dynasty. He set the tone for the eventual success of the Confucianization of Yuan bureaucracy. In
fact, it was the Yuan court that first officially adopted the Four Books as the basis of the civil
service examination, a practice that was to be observed until 1905. Thanks to Xu Heng, Zhu Xi’s
teaching prevailed in the Mongol period, but it was significantly simplified.
The hermit-scholar Liu Yin (1249–93), on the other hand, allegedly refused Kublai
Khan’s summons in order to maintain the dignity of the Confucian Way. To him education was
for self-realization. Loyal to the Jin culture in which he was reared and faithful to the Confucian
Way that he had learned from the Song masters, Liu Yin rigorously applied philological methods to
classical studies and strongly advocated the importance of history. Although true to Zhu Xi’s spirit,
by taking seriously the idea of the investigation of things, he put a great deal of emphasis on the
learning of the mind. Liu Yin’s contemporary Wu Zheng (1249–1333) further developed the
learning of the mind. He fully acknowledged the contribution of Lu Jiuyuan to the Confucian
tradition, even though as an admirer of Xu Heng he considered himself a follower of Zhu Xi. Wu
assigned himself the challenging task of harmonizing the difference between Zhu and Lu. As a
result, he reoriented Zhu’s balanced approach to morality and wisdom to accommodate
Lu’s existential concern for self-knowledge. That prepared the way for the revival of Lu’s learning
of the mind in the Ming (1368–1644).
The thought of the first outstanding Ming Confucian scholar, Xue Xuan(1389–1464), already
revealed the turn toward moral subjectivity. Although Xue was a devoted follower of Zhu Xi,
Xue’s Records of Reading clearly shows that he considered the cultivation of “mind and nature” to
be particularly important. Two other early Ming scholars, Wu Yubi (1391–1469) and Chen
Xianzhang (1428–1500), helped to define Confucian education for those who studied the Classics
not simply in preparation for examinations but as learning of the “body and mind.” They cleared
the way for Wang Yangming (1472–1529), the most-influential Confucian thinker after Zhu Xi.
As a critique of excessive attention to philological details characteristic of Zhu Xi’s followers,
Wang Yangming allied himself with Lu Jiuyuan’s learning of the mind. He advocated the precept
of uniting thought and action. By focusing on the transformative power of the will, he inspired a
generation of Confucian students to return to the moral idealism of Mencius. His own personal
example of combining teaching with bureaucratic routine, administrative responsibility, and
leadership in military campaigns demonstrated that he was a man of deeds.
Despite his competence in practical affairs, Wang’s primary concern was moral education, which
he felt had to be grounded in the “original substance” of the mind. This he later identified
as liangzhi (“good conscience”), by which he meant innate knowledge or a primordialexistential
awareness possessed by every human being. He further suggested that good conscience as the
heavenly principle is inherent in all beings from the highest spiritual forms to grass, wood, bricks,
and stone. Because the universe consists of vital energy informed by good conscience, it is
a dynamic process rather than a static structure. Human beings can learn to regard heaven and earth
and the myriad things as one body by extending their good conscience to embrace an ever-
expanding network of relationships.
Wang Yangming’s dynamic idealism, as Wing-tsit Chan, the late dean of Chinese
philosophy in North America, characterized it, set the Confucian agenda for several generations in
China. His followers, such as the communitarian Wang Ji (1498–1583), who devoted his long life
to building a community of the like-minded, and the radical individualist Li Zhi (1527–1602), who
proposed to reduce all human relationships to friendship, broadened Confucianism to accommodate
a variety of lifestyles.
Among Wang’s critics, Liu Zongzhou (1578–1645) was perhaps the most brilliant. His Human
Schemata (Renpu) offered a rigorous phenomenological description of human mistakes as a
corrective to Wang Yangming’s moral optimism. Liu’s student Huang Zongxi (1610–95) compiled
a comprehensive biographical history of Ming Confucians based on Liu’s writings. One of Huang’s
contemporaries, Gu Yanwu (1613–82), was also a critic of Wang Yangming. He excelled in his
studies of political institutions, ancient phonology, and classical philology. While Gu was well
known in his own time and was honoured as the patron saint of “evidential learning” in the 18th
century, his contemporary Wang Fuzhi (1619–92) was discovered 200 years later as one of the
most-sophisticated original minds in the history of Confucian thought. His extensive writings
on metaphysics, history, and the Classics made him a thorough critic of Wang Yangming and his
followers.
The age of Confucianism: Chosŏn-dynasty Korea, Tokugawa
Japan, and Qing China
Among all the dynasties, Chinese and foreign, the long-lived Chosŏn(Joseon; also called Yi) in
Korea (1392–1910) was undoubtedly the most thoroughly Confucianized. Since the 15th century,
when the aristocracy(yangban) defined itself as the carrier of Confucian values, the penetration of
court politics and elite culture by Confucianism was unprecedented. Even today—as manifested in
political behaviour, legal practice, ancestral veneration, genealogy, village schools, and student
activism—the vitality of the Confucian tradition is widely felt in South Korea.
Yi T’oegye (1501–70), the single most-important Korean Confucian, helped shape the character of
Chosŏn Confucianism through his creative interpretation of Zhu Xi’s teaching. Critically aware of
the philosophical turn engineered by Wang Yangming, T’oegye transmitted the Zhu Xi legacy as a
response to the advocates of the learning of the mind. As a result, he made Chosŏn Confucianism at
least as much a true heir to Song learning as Ming Confucianism was. Indeed, his Discourse on the
Ten Sagely Diagrams, an aid for educating the king, offered a depiction of all the major concepts in
Song learning. His exchange of letters with Ki Taesŭng (1527–72) in the famous Four-Seven
debate, which discussed the relationship between Mencius’s four basic human feelings—
commiseration, shame, modesty, and right and wrong—and seven emotions, such as anger and joy,
raised the level of Confucian dialogue to a new height of intellectual sophistication.
In addition, Yi Yulgok’s (1536–84) challenge to T’oegye’s re-presentation of Zhu Xi’s
Confucianism, from the perspective of Zhu’s thought itself, significantly enriched the repertoire of
the learning of the principle. The leadership of the central government, supported by the numerous
academies set up by aristocratic families and by institutions such as the community compact system
and the village schools, made the learning of the principle not only a political ideology but also a
common creed in Korea.
In Japan, Zhu Xi’s teaching, as interpreted by T’oegye, was introduced to Yamazaki Ansai (1618–
82). A distinctive feature of Yamazaki’s thought was his recasting of native Shintōism in
Confucian terminology. The diversityand vitality of Japanese Confucianism was further evident in
the appropriation of Wang Yangming’s dynamic idealism by the samurai-scholars,
notably Kumazawa Banzan (1619–91). It is, however, in Ogyū Sorai’s(1666–1728) determination
to rediscover the original basis of Confucian teaching by returning to its pre-Confucian sources that
a true exemplification of the independent-mindedness of Japanese Confucians is found. Indeed,
Sorai’s brand of ancient learning with its particular emphasis on philological exactitude
foreshadowed a similar scholarly movement in China by at least a generation. Although Tokugawa
Japan was never as Confucianized as Chosŏn Korea, virtually every educated person in Japanese
society was exposed to the Four Books by the end of the 17th century.
The Confucianization of Chinese society reached its apex during the Qing(1644–1911/12), when
China was again ruled by a conquest dynasty, in this case Manchu. The Qing emperors outshone
their counterparts in the Ming in presenting themselves as exemplars of Confucian kingship. They
transformed Confucian teaching into a political ideology, indeed a mechanism of control. Jealously
guarding their imperial prerogatives as the ultimate interpreters of Confucian truth, they
undermined the freedom of scholars to transmit the Confucian Way by imposing harsh measures,
such as literary inquisition. It was Gu Yanwu’s classical scholarship rather than his insights on
political reform that inspired the 18th-century evidential scholars. Dai Zhen, the most
philosophically minded philologist among them, couched his brilliant critique of Song learning in
his commentary “The Meanings of Terms in the Book of Mencius.” Dai Zhen was one of the
scholars appointed by the Qianlong emperor in 1773 to compile an imperial manuscript library.
That massive scholarly attempt, The Complete Library of the Four Treasures, is symbolic of the
grandiose intent of the Manchu court to give an account of all the important works of the four
branches of learning—the Classics, history, philosophy, and literature—in Confucian culture. The
project comprised more than 36,000 volumes with comments on about 10,230 titles, employed as
many as 15,000 copyists, and took 20 years to complete. The Qianlong emperor and the scholars
around him may have expressed their cultural heritage in a definitive form, but the Confucian
tradition was yet to encounter its most-serious threat.

Transformation Since The 19th Century

At the time of the first Opium War (1839–42), East Asian societies had been Confucianized for
centuries. The continuous growth of MahayanaBuddhism throughout Asia and the presence
of Daoism in China, shamanism in Korea, and Shintōism in Japan did not undermine the power of
Confucianism in government, education, family rituals, and social ethics. In fact, Buddhist monks
were often messengers of Confucian values, and the coexistence of Confucianism with Daoism,
shamanism, and Shintōism actually characterized the syncretic East Asian religious life. The impact
of the West, however, so fundamentally challenged the Confucian roots in East Asia that for some
time it was widely debated whether Confucianism could remain a viable tradition in modern times.
Beginning in the 19th century, Chinese intellectuals’ faith in the ability of Confucian culture to
withstand the impact of the West became gradually eroded. That loss of faith may be perceived
in Lin Zexu’s (1785–1850) moralindignation against the British, followed by Zeng Guofan’s
(1811–72) pragmatic acceptance of the superiority of Western technology, Kang Youwei’s (1858–
1927) sweeping recommendation for political reform, and Zhang Zhidong’s (1837–1909)
desperate eclectic attempt to save the essence of Confucian learning, which, however, eventually
led to the anti-Confucian iconoclasm of the so-called May Fourth Movement in 1919. The triumph
of Marxism-Leninism as the official ideology of the People’s Republic of China in
1949 relegated Confucian rhetoric to the background. The modern Chinese intelligentsia, however,
maintained unacknowledged, sometimes unconscious, continuities with the Confucian tradition at
every level of life—behaviour, attitude, belief, and commitment. Indeed, Confucianism remains
an integral part of the psychocultural construct of the contemporary Chinese intellectual as well as
of the Chinese farmer.
The emergence of Japan and other newly industrialized Asian countries (e.g., South Korea, Taiwan,
and Singapore) as the most-dynamic region of economic development since World War II has
generated much scholarly interest. Labeled the “Sinitic World in Perspective,” “The Second Case
of Industrial Capitalism,” the “Eastasia Edge,” or “the Challenge of the Post-Confucian States,”
that phenomenon has raised questions about how the typical East Asian institutions, still suffused
with Confucian values—such as a paternalistic government, an educational system based on
competitive examinations, the family with emphasis on loyalty and cooperation, and local
organizations informed by consensus—have adapted themselves to the imperatives of
modernization.
Some of the most creative and influential intellectuals in contemporary China have continued to
think from Confucian roots. Xiong Shili’s ontological reflection, Liang Shuming’s cultural
analysis, Feng Youlan’s reconstruction of the learning of the principle, He Lin’s new interpretation
of the learning of the mind, Tang Junyi’s philosophy of culture, Xu Fuguan’s social criticism, and
Mou Zongsan’s moral metaphysics are noteworthy examples. Although some of the most-articulate
intellectuals in the People’s Republic of China criticize their Confucian heritage as the embodiment
of authoritarianism, bureaucratism, nepotism, conservatism, and male chauvinism, others in China,
Taiwan, Singapore, and North America have imaginatively established the relevance of
 Confucian humanism to China’s modernization. The revival of Confucian studies in South Korea,
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore has been under way for more than a generation, though
Confucian scholarship in Japan remains unrivaled. Confucian thinkers in the West, inspired by
religious pluralismand liberal democratic ideas, have explored the possibility of a third epoch of
Confucian humanism. They uphold that its modern transformation, as a creative response to the
challenge of the West, is a continuation of its classical formulation and its medieval elaboration.
Scholars in mainland China have also explored the possibility of a fruitful interaction between
Confucian humanism and democratic liberalism in a socialist context.
Tu Weiming
Scholars on both sides of the Pacific have explored with greater frequency since the late 20th
century the possible contributions that Confucianism may make to increasingly specialized
subfields of philosophy, particularly ethics. The cardinal virtue of humaneness, when conceived as
a sentimentof benevolence or as a conscientious concern, has played a key role in scholarly
discussions within environmental philosophy, bioethics, and the ethics of care (particularly in
medical ethics). Also, Confucianism’s stress upon the cultivation of humane characteristics and the
development of virtuous dispositions has inspired some scholars to interpret the Confucian Way as
a sophisticated mode of virtue ethics that developed independently of the Western tradition.
Confucianism’s emphases on human nature and on the primacy of interpersonal relationships in
human life arguably make it amenable to feminism, according to some scholars. The strength
exhibited by economic markets not only in mainland China but in East Asia more broadly has
promoted scholarship on how Confucian values may inform business ethics. Finally, the Confucian
tradition’s emphasis upon the heart-and-mind (considered to be one organ in the classical Chinese
worldview) and upon the emotional basis of human cognition and action have influenced Western
scholars in cognitive science, neuropsychology, and evolutionary and developmental psychology.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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China: Confucianism
Confucianism was perceived by the Mongols as a Chinese religion, and it had mixed fortunes under their rule. The
teachings of the Neo-Confucian school of Zhu Xi from the Song period were introduced to the Mongol court at
Zhongdu in the late 1230s but…

China: Confucianism and philosophical Daoism

The social and political upheaval of the late 2nd and the 3rd century ad was accompanied by intense intellectual
activity. During the Han period, Confucianism had been slowly adopted as an ideology and had gradually come to
provide the officially accepted…
 Daoism: Confucianism and Buddhism
Confucianism is concerned with human society and the social responsibilities of its members; Daoism emphasizes
nature and what is natural and spontaneous in the human experience. The two traditions, “within society” and
“beyond society,” balance and complement each other. This classic definition…

Nakae Tōju
JAPANESE SCHOLAR

Nakae Tōju
JAPANESE SCHOLAR
WRITTEN BY:
 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
See Article History
Alternative Titles: Mokken, Nakae Gen

Nakae Tōju, original personal name Gen, pseudonym Mokken, (born April 21, 1608, Ōmi
province [modern Shiga prefecture], Japan—died Oct. 11, 1648, Ōmi province), neo-
Confucian scholar who established in Japan the idealist thought of the Chinese
philosopher Wang Yangming.
Nakae was originally a follower of the teachings of the Chinese neo-Confucian
Rationalist Zhu Xi, whose doctrines had become a part of the official ideology of the
Japanese government. In 1634 he asked to be released from the post he held as retainer
to his feudal lord so he could return to his native village and carry out his filial obligations
to his widowed mother. He left despite his lord’s refusal of permission. At home he
devoted himself to teaching and study, eventually abandoning his adherence to the Zhu Xi
school of thought and becoming a propagator of the philosophy of Wang Yangming. His
fame subsequently spread throughout the land. He attracted many
distinguished disciples and became known as the sage of Ōmi province.
Both Wang and Nakae believed that the unifying principle of the universe exists in the
human mind and not in the external world. They taught that the true Way could be
discovered through intuition and self-reflection, rejecting Zhu Xi’s idea that it could be
found through empirical investigation. In his conviction that a concept can be fully
understood only when acted upon, Nakae emphasized practice rather than abstract
learning. This emphasis on individual action made Nakae’s philosophy popular among
the zealous Japanese reformers and patriots of the 19th and 20th centuries. Tōju sensei
zenshū (“The Complete Works of Master Tōju”) was first published in five volumes in
1940.
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Japan: The Tokugawa status system
Nakae Tōju, often regarded as the father of Japanese Wang Yang-ming studies, was so earnest in
performing virtuous acts that he was called the sage of Ōmi. One of his followers, Kumazawa Banzan,
who criticized the growing autocracy in the politics of his day, transformed…

Zhu Xi
Zhu Xi, Chinese philosopher whose synthesis of neo-Confucian thought long dominated Chinese
intellectual life.…

Wang Yangming
Wang Yangming, Chinese scholar-official whose idealistic interpretation of neo-Confucianism influenced
philosophical thinking in East Asia for centuries. Though his career in government was rather unstable,…

Nakae Tōju
QUICK FACTS
BORN

April 21, 1608

Omi, Japan
DIED

October 11, 1648 (aged 40)

Omi, Japan
SUBJECTS OF STUDY
 Wang Yangming
 Neo-Confucianism

Wang Chong
CHINESE PHILOSOPHER
ARTICLE
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Wang Chong
CHINESE PHILOSOPHER
WRITTEN BY:
 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
See Article History
Alternative Title: Wang Ch’ung

Wang Chong, Wade-Giles romanization Wang Ch’ung, (born 27 CE, Kueiji, China—died
100?, Kueiji), one of the most original and independent Chinese thinkers of the Han period
(206 BCE–220 CE).
A rationalistic naturalist during an age of superstition, Wang dared attack the belief in
omens and portents that had begun to creep into the Confucian doctrines. He helped pave
the way for the critical spirit of the next philosophical period and prepared China for the
advent of neo-Daoism. Born into a poor family and orphaned at an early age, Wang did
much of his reading in a bookstore. He held a few minor government positions, but during
much of his life he taught in his hometown.
Accepting the original doctrines of Confucius, Wang opposed the contemporary,
“debased” Confucianism. Dismissing teleology, he declared that natural things occurred
spontaneously. Further, Wang rejected the notion that natural disasters were a response
by heaven (tian) to human immorality, especially that of the ruler, the “son of heaven”
(tianzi). A bad king, in other words, would not necessarily produce bad weather. He stated
that human beings, though noble and intelligent, had no exceptional position in the
cosmos. A rationalist, he insisted upon the necessity of supporting any theory with
concrete evidence and experimental proof.
Wang has never been greatly popular in China, though in the 20th century the prevailing
critical spirit, scientific method, and revolt against the past attracted new attention to his
ideas. His outstanding work, the trenchant and critical Lunheng (“Disquisitions”), written
about 85 CE, was translated into English by Alfred Forke (2 vol., 1907–11).
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This article was most recently revised and updated by Matt Stefon, Assistant Editor.

China: Cultural developments

…a few philosophers such as Wang Chong (27–c. 100 ce) reacted by propounding an ordered and
rational explanation of the universe. But their skepticism received little support. Sometime during the 1st
century ce, Buddhism reached China, propagated in all probability by travelers who had taken the Silk
Road from northern…

Religion
Religion, human beings’ relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, absolute, spiritual, divine, or
worthy of especial reverence. It is also commonly regarded as consisting of the way people deal with
ultimate concerns about their lives and their fate after death. In many traditions, this…

Naturalism
Naturalism, in philosophy, a theory that relates scientific method to philosophy by affirming that all beings
and events in the universe (whatever their inherent character may be) are natural. Consequently, all
knowledge of the universe falls within the pale of scientific investigation. Although…

Wang Chong
QUICK FACTS
BORN

27
Kueiji, China
DIED

100?
Kueiji, China
SUBJECTS OF STUDY
 Confucianism
 rationalism
 naturalism

Ōyōmeigaku
JAPANESE PHILOSOPHY

Ōyōmeigaku
JAPANESE PHILOSOPHY
See Article History
THIS ARTICLE IS A STUB. You can learn more about this topic in the related articles below.
Alternative Title: Wang Yang-ming studies

Ōyōmeigaku, one of the three major schools of Neo-Confucianism that developed in

Japan during the Tokugawa period (1603–1867). See Neo-Confucianism.
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Neo-Confucianism
Neo-Confucianism, in Japan, the official guiding philosophy of the Tokugawa period (1603–1867). This
philosophy profoundly influenced the thought and behaviour of the educated class. The tradition,
introduced into Japan from China by Zen Buddhists in the medieval period, provided a heavenly sanction
for the existing social order. In the Neo-Confucian…
 Japan: The Tokugawa status system
Wang Yang-ming studies (Ōyōmeigaku in Japanese) were characterized by a strong subjective idealism
but, at the same time, were quite practical since they emphasized the unity of thought and deed. Virtue
had to be not only cultivated in the abstract but practiced as well. Nakae Tōju, often regarded…

SIMILAR TOPICS
 Kogaku
 Shushigaku
Hayashi Razan
JAPANESE SCHOLAR

Hayashi Razan
JAPANESE SCHOLAR
WRITTEN BY:
 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
LAST UPDATED: Jul 28, 2019 See Article History
Alternative Titles: Dōshun, Hayashi Nobukatsu

Hayashi Razan, original name Hayashi Nobukatsu, Buddhist name Dōshun,

(born August1583, Kyōto, Japan—died Feb. 4, 1657, Edo [now Tokyo]), Japanese scholar
who, with his son and grandson, established the thought of the great Chinese Neo-
Confucian philosopher Chu Hsi as the official doctrine of the Tokugawa shogunate (the
hereditary military dictatorship through which the Tokugawa family ruled Japan from 1603
to 1867). Hayashi also reinterpreted Shintō, the Japanese national religion, from the point
of view of Chu Hsi’s philosophy, laying the foundation for the Confucianized Shintō that
developed in later centuries.
Hayashi began as a student of Buddhism but became a devoted adherent of Neo-
Confucianism and a bitter opponent of Buddhism. In 1604 he became a pupil of the
Confucian scholar Fujiwara Seika and on the recommendation of his master was
employed by the shogunate, beginning in 1607. He served the first four Tokugawa
shoguns, tutoring them in Neo-Confucianism and history. At the same time, he was
engaged in scholarly activities and in the drafting of diplomatic documents. The first
Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu, may simply have wanted to make use of Hayashi’s vast
knowledge for the purpose of practical politics and conduct of international affairs. But
Hayashi’s philosophy, with its emphasis on loyalty, on a hierarchical social and political
order, and on a static conservative point of view, proved to be a powerful support for the
newly established government, giving the Tokugawa the ideologyneeded to rule the
restless feudal lords under their control. In 1630 the third shogun gave Hayashi an estate
in the capital city of Edo (now Tokyo), where he founded his private academy. This later
came under the direct control and support of the government.
Gahō, Hayashi’s third son (also called Harukatsu), became his father’s successor as chief
official scholar; and Dokkōsai, Hayashi’s fourth son (also called Morikatsu), was also
employed by the shogunate. During their father’s lifetime they collaborated with him in
compiling histories; and after his death they assembled the Hayashi Razan
bunshū (“Collected Works of Hayashi Razan”) and the Razan Sensei shishū (“Master
Razan’s Poems”), republished in two volumes in 1918 and 1921, respectively. His
grandson (Gahō’s son Hōkō) was given the title daigaku-nokami(“head of the state
university”), which was then handed down to the subsequent heads of the Hayashi family
until the late 19th century.
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

Japan: The Tokugawa status system

…student, the Chu Hsi scholar Hayashi Razan, served as advisor to the first three shoguns. He
established what was to become the official Confucian school, which provided philosophical guidance to
the shogunal house and high bakufu officials throughout the period. Razan is said to have had a hand in
the…

Zhu Xi
Zhu Xi, Chinese philosopher whose synthesis of neo-Confucian thought long dominated Chinese
intellectual life.…

Japanese philosophy
Japanese philosophy, intellectual discourse developed by Japanese thinkers, scholars, and political and
religious leaders who creatively combined indigenous philosophical and religious traditions with key
concepts adopted and assimilated from nonnative traditions—first from greater East Asia and…

Hayashi Razan
QUICK FACTS
BORN

August 1583
Kyōto, Japan
DIED

February 4, 1657 (aged 73)

Tokyo, Japan
SUBJECTS OF STUDY
 Shintō
 Zhu Xi
 Neo-Confucianism

Yan Yuan
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHER

Yan Yuan
CHINESE PHILOSOPHER
WRITTEN BY:
 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
See Article History
Alternative Titles: Yan Xijai, Yen Yüan

Yan Yuan, Wade-Giles romanization Yen Yüan, literary name Yan Xijai, (born April 27,
1635, Zhili[now Hubei] province, China—died Sept. 30, 1704, Zhili province), Chinese
founder of a pragmatic empirical school of Confucianism opposed to the speculative neo-
Confucian philosophy that had dominated China since the 11th century.
Yan’s father was abducted into the Manchu army when Yan was three. He never returned,
and the family lived in poverty. As a young man, Yan became interested in Confucianism
and studied to pass his civil-service examinations, which would have given him entrance
into the bureaucracy. But after failing the examination several times he decided to devote
himself to teaching.
His revolt against neo-Confucian metaphysics stemmed initially from his aversion to the
newly established Manchu rule of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12). He believed that the
Manchu conquest was made possible by faulty government and education, which had
rendered China easy prey to alien conquerors. He urged that people return to the study of
the ancient Confucian Classics instead of the neo-Confucian interpretations of them. He
advocated implementation of the ancient “well-field” plan of the Confucian sage Mencius,
in which eight families lived on a patch of land that was equally divided into nine squares.
Each family would cultivate its own piece of land, and all eight families would jointly
cultivate the remaining central square for the government. Yan felt that this system, by
providing for an equal distribution of the land, would ensure a livelihood for all. Similarly he
urged a revival of compulsory military service to make each citizen a competent defender
of his country. He believed that useful knowledge and education come only from practical
experience: as long as scholars buried themselves in books and in abstruse discourse,
shunning physical activity and despising soldiery, China would continue to be weak.
Yan put his educational theory into practice when he became director of the Zhangnan
Academy in 1696. His curriculum included mathematics, geography, military tactics and
strategy, archery, and wrestling, in addition to history and the Confucian Classics. Yan’s
writings, together with those of his most eminent student, Li Gong (1659–1733), became
the major works of a new philosophical movement known as the Yan-Li school. A short-
lived society to study and disseminate its doctrines was formed in 1920 in Beijing. Yan’s
major works were reprinted in the late 19th century as the Yan-Li yishu (“Works of Yan
and Li”).
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Confucianism
Confucianism, the way of life propagated by Confucius in the 6th–5th century bce and followed by the
Chinese people for more than two millennia. Although transformed over time, it is still the substance of
learning, the source of values, and the social code of the Chinese. Its influence has also…

well-field system
Well-field system, the communal land organization supposedly in effect throughout China early in the
Zhou dynasty (c. 1046–256 bce). The well-field system was first mentioned in the literature of the late
Zhou dynasty (c. 4th century bce), especially in the writings of the…

Chinese philosophy
Chinese philosophy, the thought of Chinese culture, from earliest times to the present. The keynote in
Chinese philosophy is humanism: man and his society have occupied, if not monopolized, the attention of
Chinese philosophers throughout the ages. Ethical and political discussions have…

Yan Yuan
QUICK FACTS
BORN

April 27, 1635

China
DIED

September 30, 1704 (aged 69)

China
SUBJECTS OF STUDY
 Confucianism

Shushigaku
JAPANESE PHILOSOPHY

Shushigaku
JAPANESE PHILOSOPHY
.

Shushigaku, (Japanese: “Chu Hsi school”), most influential of the Neo-Confucian schools
that developed in Japan during the Tokugawa period (1603–1867). See Neo-
Confucianism

Neo-Confucianism
Neo-Confucianism, in Japan, the official guiding philosophy of the Tokugawa period (1603–1867). This
philosophy profoundly influenced the thought and behaviour of the educated class. The tradition,
introduced into Japan from China by Zen Buddhists in the medieval period, provided a heavenly sanction
for the existing social order. In the Neo-Confucian…
 Japan: The Tokugawa status system
…dynasty Chu Hsi school (Shushigaku)—which had been well-known to political and ethical thinkers
since the 13th century—provided an intellectual rationalization for the status-oriented social structure of
the bakuhan system. Shushigaku appealed especially to the feudal rulers because, among the various
schools of Confucianism, it was the most systematic doctrine.…

 Kogaku
 Ōyōmeigaku
Mohism
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

Mohism
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY
Mohism, also spelled Moism, school of Chinese philosophy founded by Mozi (q.v.) in the
5th century BCE. This philosophy challenged the dominant Confucian ideology until about
the 3rd century BCE. Mozi taught the necessity for individual piety and submission to the
will of heaven, or Shangdi (the Lord on High), and deplored the Confucian emphasis on
rites and ceremonies as a waste of government funds.
In contrast to the Confucian moral ideal of ren (“humanity” or “benevolence”),
which differentiated the special love for one’s parents and family from the general love
shown to fellow men, the Mohists advocated the practice of love without distinctions
(jianai). The Confucians, in particular Mencius, bitterly attacked the Mohist concept of
undifferentiated love because it challenged the basis of Confucian family harmony, which
was in fact and theory the foundation for the social harmony of the Confucian state.
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

Mozi
…a socioreligious movement known as Mohism.…

Confucianism
Confucianism, the way of life propagated by Confucius in the 6th–5th century bce and followed by the
Chinese people for more than two millennia. Although transformed over time, it is still the substance of
learning, the source of values, and the social code of the Chinese. Its influence has also…
 ren
Ren, (Chinese: “humanity,” “humaneness,” “goodness,” “benevolence,” or “love”) the foundational virtue of
Confucianism. It characterizes the bearing and behaviour that a paradigmatic human being exhibits in
order to promote a flourishing human community.…

Mohism
Zisi
CHINESE PHILOSOPHER

Zisi
CHINESE PHILOSOPHER
WRITTEN BY:
 Matt Stefon
See Article History
Alternative Titles: K’ung Chi, Kong Ji, Tzu Ssu, Zi Si

Zisi, Wade-Giles romanization Tzu Ssu, also called Kong Ji, (born 483—died 402 BCE),
Chinese philosopher and grandson of Confucius (551–479 BCE). Varying traditional
accounts state that Zisi, who studied under Confucius’s pupil Zengzi, taught
either Mencius (Mengzi)—the “second sage” of Confucianism—or Mencius’s teacher.
Texts dating to about the 2nd and the 4th centuries BCE, discovered at archaeological
sites in Mawangdui (1973) and Guodian (1993), respectively, suggest evidence for a
“school of Zisi.”
According to tradition, Zisi composed the Zhongyong, which was incorporated as a
chapter of the Liji (“Record of Rites”) during the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). The
great Song dynasty(960–1279) neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi (1130–1200) later
included the Zhongyong among the Four Books, the texts foundational to the orthodox
Confucian Way. The Zhongyong, which draws its title from words that individually denote
“equilibrium” (zhong) and the “common” or “practical” (yong), illumines the proper way
(dao) for exemplary persons (junzi) to act in the world.
Zisi is also credited with developing the theory of wuxing, the five modes (xing)
of moral action through which exemplary persons comport themselves.
The Wuxingpian (“Five Modes of Proper Conduct”), a previously lost document found
during the Mawangdui and Guodian excavations and attributed by many scholars to Zisi’s
school, presents these modes as benevolence (ren), righteousness (yi), ritual propriety (li),
wisdom (zhi), and sagacity (sheng). Mencius adapted the first four as the “four sprouts”
(siduan) of virtue in the human heart-and-mind. Wuxing theory gained popularity and
influence after the alchemist Zou Yan (340–260? BCE), perhaps independently of Zisi’s
school, developed the theory as the Five Phases of cosmic generation and transformation:
wood (mu), fire (huo), earth (tu), metal (jin), and water (shui). The neo-Confucian
philosopher Zhou Dunyi (1017–73) reconnected this cosmological scheme to a moral
vision when he associated the Five Phases with five virtues: the first four of the virtues
recognized by Zisi and Mencius, together with fidelity (xin).
Matt Stefon
Zhongyong
…Five Classics of antiquity) to Zisi (Kong Ji), a grandson of Confucius.…
s

Confucius
Confucius, China’s most famous teacher, philosopher, and political theorist, whose ideas have influenced
the civilization of East Asia. Confucius’s life, in contrast…

Zengzi
Zengzi, Chinese philosopher, disciple of Confucius, traditionally believed to be the author of
the Daxue (“Great Learning”). In this classic, which became a part of the Liji (“Collection of Rituals”) and
one of the Four Books during the Song dynasty, he…

Zisi
QUICK FACTS
BORN

483 BCE
DIED

402 BCE
NOTABLE WORKS
 “Zhongyong”
SUBJECTS OF STUDY
 Confucianism
 wuxing

Han Yu
CHINESE AUTHOR
Han Yu, Wade-Giles romanization Han Yü, also called Han Changli or Han
Wengong, courtesy name (zi) Tuizhi, (born 768, Heyang [now
Mengxian], Henan province, China—died 824, Chang’an [now Xi’an], Shaanxi province),
master of Chinese prose, outstanding poet, and the first proponent of what later came to
be known as Neo-Confucianism, which had wide influence in China and Japan.
An orphan, Han initially failed his civil service exams because the examiners refused to
accept his unconventional prose style, but he eventually entered the bureaucracy and
served in several high government posts. At a time when the popularity of Confucian
doctrine had greatly declined, Han began a defense of it. He attacked Daoism and
Buddhism, which were then at the height of their influence. So outspoken was he that
he castigated the emperor for paying respect to the supposed finger bone of the Buddha;
this act of criticism almost cost Han his life and caused him to be banished to South China
for a year. In defending Confucianism, Han quoted extensively from the Mencius,
the Daxue (“Great Learning”), the Zhongyong (“Doctrine of the Mean”), and
the Yijing (“Classic of Changes”; known to many as I-Ching), works that hitherto had been
 somewhat neglected by Confucians. In so doing, he laid the foundations for later Neo-
Confucianists who took their basic ideas from these books.
Han advocated the adoption of guwen, the free, simple prose of these early philosophers,
a style unencumbered by the mannerisms and elaborate verselike regularity of
the pianwen(“parallel prose”) style that was prevalent in Han’s time. His own essays (e.g.,
“On the Way,” “On Man,” and “On Spirits”) are among the most beautiful ever written in
Chinese, and they became the most famous models of the prose style he espoused. In
his poetry also, Han tried to break out of the existing literary forms, but many of his efforts
at literary reform failed. He is considered the first of the renowned “Eight Masters of the
Tang and Song.” At his death the title of president of the ministry of rites was conferred
upon him, as well as the epithet “Master of Letters,” both great honours.
LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles:

China: Trends in the arts

…prominent figures in it were Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan. At the same time came the first serious
attempts to write fiction, the so-called chuanqi, or “tales of marvels.” Many of these Tang stories later
provided themes for the Chinese drama.…

Chinese literature: Prose

…major reform was led by Han Yu against the peculiarly artificial prose style of pianwen,which, cultivated
for almost 1,000 years, had become so burdened with restrictive rules as to make forthright expression
virtually impossible. Han Yu boldly advocated the use of Zhou philosophers and early Han writers as
models…

Confucianism: Confucian ethics in the Daoist and Buddhist context

…a Confucian revival, however, was Han Yu (768–824). He attacked Buddhism from the perspectives of
social ethics and cultural identity and provoked interest in the question of what actually constitutes the
Confucian Way. The issue of Daotong, the transmission of the Way or the authentic method to repossess
the Way,…

Han Yu
QUICK FACTS
 BORN

768
Hechuan, China
DIED

824 (aged 56)

Chang’an, China
SUBJECTS OF STUDY
 Neo-Confucianism

Li Ao
CHINESE SCHOLAR

Li Ao
CHINESE SCHOLAR
WRITTEN BY:
 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
See Article History

Li Ao, Wade-Giles romanization Li Ao, (born 772, Longxi [now in Gansu province],
China—died 841, China), Chinese scholar, poet, and official who helped
reestablish Confucianism at a time when it was being severely challenged
by Buddhism and Daoism. Li helped lay the groundwork for the later Neo-Confucianists of
the Song dynasty (960–1279), who systematically reformulated Confucian doctrine.
Although Li was a high official of the Tang dynasty (618–907), little is known of his
personal life. He was apparently friends with or a disciple of the great Confucian stylist
and thinker Han Yu, with whom he is usually linked. Unlike Han, however, who was
vehemently opposed to Buddhism, Li was much influenced by it, helping to integrate many
Buddhist ideas into Confucianism and beginning the development of
a metaphysical framework to justify Confucian ethical thinking. Li is especially known for
his insistence that the questions of human nature and human destiny were central to
Confucianism, ideas that became the core of later Neo-Confucianism. Moreover, his
quotations from the Daxue (“Great Learning”), the Zhongyong (“Doctrine of the Mean”),
and the Yijing (“Classic of Changes”) helped bring recognition to these previously obscure
works and led to their eventual enshrinement as part of the great body of Confucian
Classics. Finally, for later Neo-Confucians, Li helped establish Mencius as almost the
equal of Confucius.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper, Senior Editor.
LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles
Confucianism: Confucian ethics in the Daoist and Buddhist context
…turn in the Tang was Li Ao’s (died c. 844) essay “Returning to Nature” that foreshadowed features of
Song (960–1279) Confucian thought. The most-influential precursor of a Confucian revival, however, was
Han Yu (768–824). He attacked Buddhism from the perspectives of social ethics and cultural identity and
provoked interest in…

Han Yu
Han Yu, master of Chinese prose, outstanding poet, and the first proponent of what later came to be
known as Neo-Confucianism,…

Philosophy
Philosophy, (from Greek, by way of Latin, philosophia, “love of wisdom”) the rational, abstract, and
methodical consideration of reality as a whole or of fundamental dimensions of human existence and
experience. Philosophical inquiry is a central element in the intellectual history of many…

Li Ao
QUICK FACTS
BORN

772
Longxi, China
DIED

841 (aged 69)

China
SUBJECTS OF STUDY
 Confucianism
Contents
Ren
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY
Ren
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY
Ren, (Chinese: “humanity,” “humaneness,” “goodness,” “benevolence,” or “love”)Wade-
Giles romanization jen, the foundational virtue of Confucianism. It characterizes the
bearing and behaviour that a paradigmatic human being exhibits in order to promote a
flourishing human community.

Humaneness And Human Beings

The concept of ren reflects presuppositions that are characteristic of
Confucian philosophical anthropology (philosophical reflection on human nature).
Confucians have historically viewed each person not as a morally autonomous individual
but as a social being whose identity derives from his interaction with and conduct within
the broader human community. The person who exhibits ren exemplifies the ideal of what
a human being should be and encourages others to strive toward it. In fact, the word is
homophonous with the word for human being (ren). The concept of renhas been
interpreted in different ways, some of them partially expressed in English renderings such
as “goodness,” “benevolence,” and “love.” All these interpretations, however, share two
notions: every human being has the capacity to possess ren, and ren manifests itself
when a virtuous person treats others with humaneness. Confucians associated the
humane individual with the junzi, or cultured gentleman, whose exemplarybehaviour
distinguishes him from the petty person (xiaoren; literally a “small person,” like a child).
One could say that within the Confucian worldview, ren is ren: embodying the virtue of
humaneness requires that one become an ethically mature human being.
Confucian Conceptions Of Ren
The philosophical significance of ren is due to Confucius (551–479 BCE), a
former bureaucrat who became a teacher of young scholars hoping for careers in
government. Confucius was a shi, one of a class of formerly landed noblemen who had
once been similar in status to the medievalEuropean knight but by Confucius’s time had
lost their social privileges and served as scholar-officials in the government. Confucius
invested terms that had previously referred to aristocratic ideals with a moral significance
that applied to people generally. The term ren had originally meant the handsomeness
and bearing of the young virtuous warrior. Confucius transformed it into the uprightness of
the junzi, who influences others toward ethical action with the example of his excellence
(de). According to Confucius, being such a gentleman does not require a high social rank,
a fine appearance, or an eloquent manner of speech. Rather, it requires that one embody
goodness in one’s relationships with others.
One of Confucius’s statements about acquiring ren may give the impression that it is an
easy task. He said, “Whenever I want ren, it is as close as the palm of my hand.” Yet he
also stated that his best student, Yan Hui, was the only person he had known who had
exhibited ren for any significant length of time, and then only for three months, suggesting
that the attainment and practice of the virtue was an arduous or even elusivetask.
The paradox was reinforced by Confucius’s repeated refusal to claim that he had ever
attained ren himself.
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Subsequent Confucian thinkers offered their own interpretations of ren. The foundational
philosopher Mencius (371–289 BCE), whose influence and popularity became such that he
was known as the “second sage” of Confucian tradition after Confucius himself, provided
the most influential interpretation. According to Mencius, the sprout (duan; also meaning
“beginning”) of ren is a spontaneous feeling of compassion and commiseration within the
human heart-and-mind (xin), the locus of both cognitive and affective functions. His prime
example was that of a person who sees a young child playing around the edge of a well
and about to fall in. He could not witness this without feeling concern for the child’s
welfarewithin his heart-and-mind, though this feeling would not necessarily move him to
perform the moral act of attempting to save the child. In order that the sprout of
compassion and commiseration develop into ren and the tendency toward morality be
brought to fruition, one must act with benevolence toward others and extend that
benevolence toward all of humanity when possible.

Mencius, detail, ink and colour on silk; in the National Palace Museum, TaipeiCourtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei,
Taiwan, Republic of China

Non-Confucian Critiques
Ren became a distinctly Confucian virtue. As classical Chinese philosophydeveloped
during the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), the concept was criticized by thinkers
from other intellectual movements. One of the main charges was essentially that the
concept depended upon a vision of society modeled on the family and rooted in
hierarchical and even elitist relationships. Although Confucianism was far from being a
static economy of relationships in which each person knew his “place,” it did regard filial
piety (xiao) and showing respect (ti) for elders (and other people of rank) as ideal
behaviours. One of the major formulations of this critique came from the utopian and
quasi-utilitarian thinker Mozi (470?–391? BCE), who rejected what he saw as
the implicit hierarchy in ren and opted instead for “universal love” (jianai). Despite the
meaning of its name, jianai was not an overflowing of goodness or benevolence directed
toward all but rather a starkly practical approach to other human beings, all of whom were
to be treated as equals. Each person, even one’s own father or mother, was merely
another brother or sister who was worthy of respect but due no special consideration.
The philosophical and religious movement subsequently known as Daoism(daojia), whose
thinkers gradually distinguished themselves from the Confucians, launched the second
great critique of ren in the Daodejing, a philosophical and spiritual text composed about
300 BCE and traditionally attributed to the mythical sage Laozi. Confucius and Mencius
connected ren with the order of heaven (tian), offering a worldview within which humans
were more important than other creatures. By contrast, the Daodejing stated that heaven
was buren, literally “no special lover of humanity,” and in fact it compared humans to the
straw dogs that are sacrificed (in place of real dogs) and discarded once the ritual has
been completed. This did not, of course, imply misanthropy on the part of Daoists. Rather,
Daoists held that humans were only one class of things among many others. Thus, any
purported virtue that placed them above all other aspects of the world would in fact be
the antithesis of virtue.
 LaoziLaozi, sculpture located north of Quanzhou, Fujian province, China.ThanatoMatt Stefon

Confucianism: The Analects as the embodiment of Confucian ideas

…attainment of the cardinal virtue, ren (humanity). To learn to embody the family in the mind and the
heart is to become able to move beyond self-centredness or, to borrow from modern psychology, to
transform the enclosed private ego into an open self. Filial piety, however, does not demand
unconditional…

Mencius: Early life

…various princes on government by ren (“human-heartedness”), or humane government. The effort was
foredoomed because the times were chaotic, and the contending princes were interested not in humane
government but in power.…

junzi
…person whose humane conduct (ren) makes him a moral exemplar.…

Ren
QUICK FACTS
 View Media Page
KEY PEOPLE
 Mencius
 Confucius
 Xiong Shili
 Zhang Zai
RELATED TOPICS
 Confucianism
Contents
Bahāʾī Faith

Bahāʾī Faith
WRITTEN BY:
 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
See Article History

Bahāʾī Faith, religion founded in Iran in the mid-19th century by Mīrzā Ḥosayn ʿAlī Nūrī,
who is known as Bahāʾ Allāh (Arabic: “Glory of God”). The cornerstone of Bahāʾī belief is
the conviction that Bahāʾ Allāh and his forerunner, who was known as the Bāb (Persian:
“Gateway”), were manifestations of God, who in his essence is unknowable. The principal
Bahāʾī tenets are the essential unity of all religions and the unity of humanity. Bahāʾīs
believe that all the founders of the world’s great religions have been manifestations of God
and agents of a progressive divine plan for the education of the human race. Despite their
apparent differences, the world’s great religions, according to the Bahāʾīs, teach an
identical truth. Bahāʾ Allāh’s peculiar function was to overcome the disunity of religions
and establish a universal faith. Bahāʾīs believe in the oneness of humanity and devote
themselves to the abolition of racial, class, and religious prejudices. The great bulk of
Bahāʾī teachings is concerned with social ethics; the faith has no priesthood and does not
observe ritual forms in its worship.
History
The Bahāʾī religion originally grew out of the Bābī faith, or sect, which was founded in
1844 by Mīrzā ʿAlī Moḥammad of Shīrāz in Iran. He proclaimed a spiritual doctrine
emphasizing the forthcoming appearance of a new prophet or messenger of God who
would overturn old beliefs and customs and usher in a new era. Though new, these beliefs
originated in ShīʿiteIslam, which believed in the forthcoming return of the 12th imam
(successor of Muhammad), who would renew religion and guide the faithful. Mīrzā
ʿAlī Moḥammad first proclaimed his beliefs in 1844 and assumed the title of the Bāb. Soon
the Bāb’s teachings spread throughout Iran, provoking strong opposition from both the
Shīʿite Muslim clergy and the government. The Bāb was arrested and, after several years
of incarceration, was executed in 1850. Large-scale persecutions of his adherents, the
Bābīs, followed and ultimately cost 20,000 people their lives.
One of the Bāb’s earliest disciples and strongest exponents was Mīrzā Ḥosayn ʿAlī Nūrī,
who had assumed the name Bahāʾ Allāh when he renounced his social standing and
joined the Bābīs. Bahāʾ Allāh was arrested in 1852 and jailed in Tehrān, where he
became aware that he was the prophet and messenger of God whose coming had been
predicted by the Bāb. He was released in 1853 and exiled to Baghdad, where his
leadership revived the Bābī community. In 1863, shortly before being moved by
the Ottoman government to Constantinople (now Istanbul), Bahāʾ Allāh declared to his
fellow Bābīs that he was the messenger of God foretold by the Bāb. An overwhelming
majority of Bābīs acknowledged his claim and thenceforth became known as Bahāʾīs.
Bahāʾ Allāh was subsequently confined by the Ottomans in Adrianople (now Edirne,
Turkey) and then in Acre in Palestine (now ʿAkko, Israel).

ʿAbd ol-Bahā, left, and his grandson, Shogi Effendi Rabbānī, Haifa, Israel, 1919.© Bahá'i International Community

Before Bahāʾ Allāh died in 1892, he appointed his eldest son, ʿAbd al-Bahāʾ(1844–1921),
to be the leader of the Bahāʾi community and the authorized interpreter of his teachings.
ʿAbd al-Bahāʾ actively administered the movement’s affairs and spread the faith to North
America, Europe, and other continents. He appointed his eldest grandson, Shoghi Effendi
Rabbānī (1897–1957), his successor.
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The Bahāʾi Faith underwent a rapid expansion beginning in the 1960s, and by the early
21st century it had more than 180 national spiritual assemblies (national governing
bodies) and several thousand local spiritual assemblies. After Islamic fundamentalists
came to power in Iran in 1979, the 300,000 Bahāʾīs there were persecuted by the
government.

Practices
The writings and spoken words of the Bāb, Bahāʾ Allāh, and ʿAbd al-Bahāʾ form
the sacred literature of the Bahāʾī Faith. Membership in the Bahāʾī community is open to
all who profess faith in Bahāʾ Allāh and accept his teachings. There are no initiation
ceremonies, no sacraments, and no clergy. Every Bahāʾī, however, is under the spiritual
obligation to pray daily; to abstain totally from narcotics, alcohol, or any substances that
affect the mind; to practice monogamy; to obtain the consent of parents to marriage; and
to attend the Nineteen Day Feast on the first day of each month of the Bahāʾī calendar. If
capable, those between the ages of 15 and 70 are required to fast 19 days a year, going
without food or drink from sunrise to sunset. The Nineteen Day Feast, originally instituted
by the Bāb, brings together the Bahāʾīs of a given locality for prayer, the reading
of scriptures, the discussion of community activities, and the enjoyment of one another’s
company. The feasts are designed to ensure universal participation in the affairs of the
community and the cultivation of the spirit of brotherhood and fellowship.

Bahāʾī House of Worship, Sydney.© Bahá'i International Community

In the early 21st century there were nine Bahāʾī houses of worship: in Australia,
Cambodia, Chile, Germany, India, Panama, Samoa, the United States, and Uganda. In
the temples there is no preaching; services consist of recitation of the scriptures of all
religions.
The Bahāʾīs use a calendar established by the Bāb and confirmed by Bahāʾ Allāh, in
which the year is divided into 19 months of 19 days each, with the addition of 4 intercalary
days (5 in leap years). The year begins on the first day of spring, March 21, which is one
of several holy days in the Bahāʾī calendar.
Organization
The Bahāʾī community is governed according to general principles proclaimed by Bahāʾ
Allāh and through institutions created by him that were elaborated and expanded by ʿAbd
al-Bahāʾ. The governance of the Bahāʾī community begins on the local level with the
election of a local spiritual assembly. The electoral process excludes parties or factions,
nominations, and campaigning for office. The local spiritual assembly has jurisdiction over
all local affairs of the Bahāʾī community. On the national scale, each year Bahāʾīs elect
delegates to a national convention that elects a national spiritual assembly with jurisdiction
over Bahāʾī’s throughout an entire country. All national spiritual assemblies of the world
periodically constitute themselves an international convention and elect a supreme
 governing body known as the Universal House of Justice. This body applies the
laws promulgated by Bahāʾ Allāh and legislates on matters not covered in the sacred
texts. The seat of the Universal House of Justice is in Haifa, Israel, in the immediate
vicinity of the shrines of the Bāb and ʿAbd al-Bahāʾ, and near the Shrine of Bahāʾ Allāh at
Bahjī near ʿAkko.

The Seat of the Universal House of Justice, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel.© Baha'i International Community

There also exist in the Bahāʾī Faith appointive institutions, such as the Hands of the
Cause of God and the continental counselors. The members of the Hands of the Cause of
God were appointed by Bahāʾ Allāh and Shoghi Effendi. The continental counselors are
appointed by the Universal House of Justice. The primary functions of both groups are
to propagate the Bahāʾī Faith and protect the community.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Brian Duignan.
LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles:


India: Religions
Those practicing the Bahāʾī faith, formerly too few to be treated by the census, have dramatically
increased in number as a result of active proselytization. Zoroastrians (the Parsis), largely concentrated in
Mumbai and in coastal Gujarat, wield influence out of all proportion to their small numbers because of…
Iran: Religious minorities
Among these, members of the Bahāʾī faith—a religion founded in Iran—were the victims of the greatest
persecution. The Jewish population, which had been significant before 1979, emigrated in great numbers
after the revolution.…

Islam: Related sects

The Bahāʾī faith won a considerable number of converts in North America during the early 20th century.…

Bahāʾī Faith

View Media Page

KEY PEOPLE
 Bahāʾ Allāh
 Shoghi Effendi Rabbānī
RELATED TOPICS
 Religion
 Spiritual assembly
 Azalī
 Bābism
 Bahāʾī temple
 Hands of the Cause of God
 Nineteen Day Feast
 Universal House of Justice
 Continental counselor
 Guardian of the Cause of God

Long
CHINESE MYTHOLOGY

Long
CHINESE MYTHOLOGY
WRITTEN BY:
 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
See Article History
Alternative Title: lung

Long, (Chinese: “dragon”)Wade-Giles romanization lung, in Chinese mythology, a type of

majestic beast that dwells in rivers, lakes, and oceans and roams the skies. Originally a
rain divinity, the Chinese dragon, unlike its malevolent European counterpart
(see dragon), is associated with heavenly beneficence and fecundity. Rain rituals as early
as the 6th century BCE involved a dragon image animated by a procession of dancers;
similar dances are still practiced in traditional Chinese communities to secure good
fortune.
Ancient Chinese cosmogonists defined four types of dragons: the Celestial Dragon
(Tianlong), who guards the heavenly dwellings of the gods; the Dragon of Hidden
Treasure (Fuzanglong); the Earth Dragon (Dilong), who controls the waterways; and the
Spiritual Dragon (Shenlong), who controls the rain and winds. In popular belief only the
latter two were significant; they were transformed into the Dragon Kings (Longwang), gods
who lived in the four oceans, delivered rain, and protected seafarers.
Generally depicted as a four-legged animal with a scaled, snakelike body, horns, claws,
and large, demonic eyes, the long was considered the king of animals, and his image was
appropriated by Chinese emperors as a sacred symbol of imperial power.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Matt Stefon, Assistant Editor.
LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles:


dragon
Dragon, legendary monster usually conceived as a huge, bat-winged, fire-breathing, scaly lizard or snake
with a barbed tail. The belief in these creatures apparently arose without the slightest knowledge on the
part of the ancients of the gigantic, prehistoric, dragon-like reptiles. In Greece the word drakōn, from
which the English…

pottery: China
” The dragon generally is a mild and beneficent creature. It is a symbol of the emperor, just as the
immortal fenghuang symbolizes the empress.…
 Chinese painting: Song (960–1279), Liao (907–1125), and Jin (1115–1234) dynasties
…who specialized in painting the dragon, a symbol both of the emperor and of the mysterious all-
pervading force of the Dao. Chen Rong’s paintings show these fabulous creatures emerging from amid
rocks and clouds. They were painted in a variety of strange techniques, including rubbing the ink on with
a…

Long
QUICK FACTS
RELATED TOPICS
 Dragon
 Fuzanglong
 Dilong
 Longwang
 Chinese mythology
 Shenlong
 Tianlong
 Chinese religion

Junzi
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

Junzi
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY
WRITTEN BY:
 Matt Stefon
See Article History
Alternative Title: chün-tzu

Junzi, (Chinese: “gentleman”; literally, “ruler’s son” or “noble son”) Wade-Giles

romanizationchün-tzu, in Chinese philosophy, a person whose humane conduct (ren)
makes him a moralexemplar.
The term junzi was originally applied to princes or aristocratic men. Confucius invested the
term with an ethical significance while maintaining its connotation of noble refinement.
Unlike the petty person (xiaoren; literally, “little person”), who cannot transcend personal
concerns and prejudices and acts only for his own gain, the junzi is cultured (wen) and
knows how to act and speak appropriately in any situation; he is thus an exemplar whose
virtuous influence promotes a flourishing human community (see de). Although the junzi is
not quite as cultivated as the sagely person (shengren)—the rare person whose cultivation
is so great that humane behaviour in any circumstance is practically natural—he is a
person of profound capacity and importance.
Although the term appears in several classical texts—for example, it appears in one
chapter of the Daodejing—the philosophical and moral senses of junzi are
primarily Confucian. Always promoting humane government, Confucius was first
a bureaucrat and then a teacher of young men aspiring to government service. As stated
in the Lunyu (Analects), the collection of sayings attributed to him, Confucius placed at the
foundation of human life both study (not only of books but also of human relations) and the
repeated practice of what one has studied. Becoming a junzi is the goal of all who practice
such self-cultivation and who truly love learning—regardless of their birth, their social
status, or (at least in subsequent interpretations of the tradition) their gender.
Before the 20th century, most translations of junzi into English and other Western
languages drew upon a literal rendering of the term as a man of noble birth or upon later
texts in the Confucian tradition that seemed to emphasize the junzi’s moral nobility or
superiority. Thus, until the late-20th century, many Western scholars and Chinese
scholars writing in Western languages translated the term as “superior man” or “superior
person.” From the mid-20th century, however, it was increasingly common to use such
translations as “exemplary person,” “gentleman,” or “gentleperson,” which highlight
Confucius’s point that the junzi is not a commander of or ruler over inferior subjects but
rather a moral person who leads by his character and conduct.