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A Study Guide for Confucianism
Patrick S. O’Donnell (2019)
This is one of a handful of guides that was used to introduce students to what are sometimes
called “world religions” in a course I taught for over fifteen years at Santa Barbara City College.
Thus this and companion guides were not intended, at least in the first instance, for adherents
to these respective worldviews. The title of the class: “comparative world religions,” but more
aptly described as “introduction to religious worldviews of Eastern and Western provenance,”
if only because any substantive “comparative” examination assumes or presumes a prior
acquaintance with, and thus some knowledge of, the religious worldviews being compared, and
in our case the vast majority of students had no knowledge of same, indeed, they often had very
little understanding of even the religious worldviews in which they were raised or with which
they avowedly identified. These guides were used in conjunction with the late Huston Smith’s
widely adopted text, The World’s Religions (1958). They proved to be of rather limited value, a
pedagogical disappointment or even failure, if you will, as preciously few students read them.
* * *
dao (tao): ‘way,’ in the sense of path or road. Zhang Dainian writes ‘The concept dao is perhaps
the most important concept in Chinese philosophy.’ In the Book of Documents one finds mention
of dao with regard to cutting a channel so as to prevent a river from overflowing its banks. Dao
occurs some eighty times in the Analects. Other meanings: to explain, to tell, method, art,
teachings, doctrines (hence, ‘a way to do something’ or ‘the right way to do something’). Ames
and Rosemont state that for Confucius, dao is primarily rendao: ‘a way of becoming
consummately and authoritatively human.’ In Confucianism, one is concerned with properly
ascertaining the way of life of one’s cultural predecessors (Confucius claimed he ‘did not forge
new paths’). Coming to understand this dao allows one to properly perform li (one might say
dao, like ren, is manifest in li) in one’s own life and thereby continue transmission of what is
vital within tradition. This might be gleaned from Analects 15.29: ‘It is the person who is able to
broaden the way (dao), not the way (dao) that broadens the person.’ Confucius was reticent
about the dao of tian, the truth of which he assumes and, accordingly, is largely in the
background of the Analects. As noted above, therefore, Confucius focused on the human way, in
contrast, to the Daoists. Yet the Confucian dao is not without metaphysical significance, as in 4.8:
‘If at dawn you learn of and tread the way (dao), you can face death at dusk.’
de (te): virtue, power, integrity, moral/spiritual charisma, excellence. Originates with tian, and is
evidenced in the non-coercive or nonviolent power or effects one has on others as a
consequence or by-product of one’s virtues, of one’s personal ethical excellence and
exemplification (this appears similar to what James MacGregor Burns termed ‘transformative
leadership’). In short, de is virtuous conduct, with the implication that such conduct can have a
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magical-like effect (inspirational, motivational, and so forth) on others. This can be seen in 4.24:
‘Excellent persons (de) do not dwell alone; they are sure to have neighbors.’ Cf. 2.1: ‘Governing
with excellence (de) can be compared to the North Star: the North Star dwells in its place, and
the multitude of stars pay it tribute.’ And 2.3: ‘Lead the people with administrative injunctions
and keep them orderly with penal law, and they will avoid punishments but be without a sense
of shame. Lead them with excellence (de) and keep them orderly through ritual propriety (li)
and they will develop a sense of shame, and moreover, will order themselves.’ In 12.19 we learn
that the ‘excellence (de) of the exemplary person (junzi) is the wind, while that of the petty
person is the grass. As the wind blows, the grass is sure to bend.’ One bends to the will of or
defers to the (informally) authoritative power of de. From contemporary Anglo-American
analytic philosophy, the late Robert Nozick provides us with a compelling and evocative
description of the power of de in his book, Philosophical Explanations (1981):
It is not implausible to think we are elevated by others who are more
developed than ourselves in their striving for harmonious hierarchical
development and for a valuable life. We are aided and encouraged along
our own path of development by their striving for self-development [in
Confucian terms, ‘self-cultivation’] and purer feeling; contrast the effects
on us of encountering those with a sour mixture of one-upmanship, self-
aggrandizement, desire to dominate or destroy, and other festering emotions,
the effects of wending our way and bending our attention to their motivations
and trajectories. [….] We all know people, I hope, who bring out the best in
us, people in whose presence we would be embarrassed to speak or act from
unworthy motives, people who glow. In their presence we feel elevated. We
are pushed, or nudged further along a path of development and perfection;
rather, we are inspired to move ourselves along, in the direction shown. [….]
We want to find a way of living whereby our best energies and talents are
poured out so as to speak to and improve the best energies and talents of
others. We want to utilize our highest parts and energies in a way that helps
others to flourish. (Robert Nozick, Philosophical Explanations. Harvard University
Press, 1981)
junzi (chün tzu): gentleman; noble person; exemplary person; virtuous individual. Prior to
Confucius, junzi meant ‘son of a lord,’ denoting aristocratic rank, the male child of a noble
family (and thus important ‘blood’ ties). Confucius provides us with a transvaluation in
meaning: from nobility of blood to nobility of character. The Confucian gentleman is trained
(self-disciplined and acculturated) in ritual practice (li), study (xue), and the arts (wen). His
proper performance of li exhibits ren (jen) and relies on the power of de (te). The junzi is more
than a shi yet less than a Sage (shengren), the latter providing the model of emulation for the
junzi. Cf. 4.16: ‘Exemplary persons (junzi) understand what is morally appropriate; petty
persons understand what is of personal advantage.’ In the words of Hall and Ames, the junzi
‘serves as the primary agent of sociopolitical ordering. He performs this function by virtue of
his role as a model of [self] cultivation.’ Self-cultivation for the junzi entails bringing into
harmonious proportion that which is innate (‘nature’) and that which is acquired (‘nurture’), as
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well as affecting a harmony between his inner state and outer behavior. As regards the former,
Slingerland says ‘the goal in ritual performance was to achieve the proper balance between zhi
(‘native substance,’ that is, raw emotions and feelings) [what Ames and Rosemont term ‘basic
disposition’] and wen (‘acquired refinement’)’ (cf. 6.18). The junzi’s performance of li is both
creative and spontaneous, evoking the proper participation in li by others and inspiring their
cultivation or accumulation of ren. The intrapersonal order attained through training of the
junzi’s body and disciplining of the heart-mind (xin) is a necessary condition of interpersonal
order in the expanding circles of human conduct: from the intimate realm of the family, through
the small group and community, to larger and more complex forms of social and political
organization. It is the human heartedness or goodness of the junzi that gives life or meaning to li
that allows us to see the sacred or holy in everyday gestures and acts, in particular conventions
and social norms, in etiquette and rites of passage. It is the merit and virtues of the junzi that
authorize critical reflection on li, that authorize the possible alteration of li, that permit the
spontaneous and creative articulation and performance of li specific to the exigencies of a
particular time and place. The junzi (and even more, the Sage) knows what to do and how to do
it, in other words, he is at ease in any situation, without self-consciously deliberating how to act.
In the words of Herbert Fingarette, ‘The dao is present in the junzi’s will,’ for the ‘junzi’s will
imposes nothing, but it manifests or actualizes the dao.’
li: ritual, rites, etiquette, customs, conventions, social norms, propriety. An early instance of li is
in reference to a bronze cauldron used in sacred ceremonies. Later it refers to holy rituals, such
as sacrifices to the ancestors or divination practices. Confucius widens and deepens the meaning
of li to apply to social norms, conventions, etiquette, rituals, gestures, in short, to the myriad
forms of scripted or patterned behavior performed on a routine basis in daily life that are
ultimately sanctioned by tian and reflect the proper ways (daos) of living exemplified by one’s
cultural ancestors. In the word of Ames and Rosemont, ‘Li are those meaning invested roles,
relationships, and institutions which facilitate communication, and which foster a sense of
community [and thus common good]. The compass is broad: all formal conduct, from table
manners to patterns of greeting and leave-taking…from gestures of deference to ancestral
sacrifices, all of these, and more, are li.’ An animating assumption here is that social behavior
should be choreographed according to divine or sacred archetypes (e.g., tian) or models as
practiced by the Sages of the past and exemplified by the junzi. Generally speaking, li is the
proper or right way to do things, given a proper consideration of tradition, by the right kind of
person. Everyday social interaction can be suffused with a holiness or sacredness that comes
with the actualization of dao provided it is correctly—harmoniously and spontaneously—
performed by individuals possessed of ren. This results in human behavior being in accord with
the rhythms and patterns of tian, with its sacred cosmological and natural processes (or daos). Li
performed by individuals lacking in the requisite amount of ren is akin to mindless habit, it is
lifeless, mechanical, meaningless, awkward, self-conscious or egocentric and profane. Li
without, say, ren and dao, accounts for the fetters or shackles of tradition, of the veneration of
tradition for tradition’s sake, of the uncritical appropriation of and thus irrational deference to
tradition. More specifically, processes of reification or ossification will infiltrate li performed by
individuals not sincerely committed to self-cultivation, hindering the truly personal and
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creative appropriation of tradition. Li amounts to a social grammar learned through (1)
socialization and acculturation (beginning with the family), (2) the emulation of the right kind
of persons (e.g., the junzi and the Sage), and (3) and the informal and formal appropriation of
the material found in the ‘Five Classics’ (Odes, Documents, Rites, Changes, and Spring and Autumn
Annals). The junzi critically and creatively appropriates the li of tradition assessed in the light of
ren, a process that entails making the tradition one’s own. Because of the integral relation
between li and ren, it seems one might speak here of the moralization of human behavior with
Confucius, in other words, the scope of ‘the ethical’ is not confined to infrequent or special
situations or acts but refers in some sense to the entirety of one’s conduct, insofar as all of one’s
behavior is capable, in degree, of influencing, shaping, or contributing to an ethical disposition,
to ethical character. Ames and Rosemont well appreciate the uniqueness of this view: ‘For
Westerners, there is ostensibly a distinction to be made between being boorish and being
immoral. For Confucius, however, there are simply varying degrees of inappropriate,
demeaning, and hurtful behavior along a continuum on which a failure in personal
responsiveness is not just bad manners, but fully a lapse in moral responsibility.’ The writer and
philosopher Iris Murdoch perhaps comes closest to the Confucian perspective on the scope of
ethics. Murdoch believed that all our states of consciousness and action presuppose cognitive
and affective discrimination and that any such discrimination is subject to moral appraisal, as
evidenced here in a passage from her book, Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals (1992):
The moral life is not intermittent or specialised, it is not a peculiar
separate area of our existence. [….] Life is made up of details. We
compartmentalise it for reasons of convenience, dividing the aesthetic
from the moral, the public from the private, work from pleasure. [….]
Yet we are all always deploying and directing our energy, refining or
blunting it, purifying or corrupting it, and it is always easier to do a
thing a second time. ‘Sensibility’ is a word which may be in place here.
Aesthetic insight connects with moral insight, respect for things
connects with respect for persons. (Education.) Happenings in the
consciousness so vague as to be almost non-existent can have moral
‘colour.’ All sorts of momentary sensibilities to other people, too
shadowy to come under the heading of manners of communication,
are still parts of moral activity. (‘But are you saying that every single
second has a moral tag?’ Yes, roughly.) [….] [M]uch of our self-
awareness is other-awareness, and in this area we exercise ourselves
as moral beings in our use of many various skills as we direct our
modes of attention.
Li thus has everything to do with what Murdoch refers to here as the proper directing of our modes
of attention. Finally, Michael Nylan well explains the egalitarian quality in the Confucian
conception of li as enshrined in the three Rites canons:
they promote a kind of egalitarianism in three senses: they assume
that everyone can be perfected; they stipulate that a code of manners,
aristocratic in origin, be learned by and applied to all humans; they
advocate the assignment of social rank according to virtue and merit,
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defining both in terms of relative contributions to the larger society;
and they aim to school each person, through theory and praxis, in the
very social skills that facilitate effective interaction. Accordingly, it
should come as no surprise that non-elites in early, medieval, and late
imperial China were at times more eager than social and political elites
to embrace the precepts set forth in the Rites canons.
ren (jen): benevolence; humaneness; goodness; perfect virtue; authoritative conduct; love. (This
is a difficult term to translate precisely into English.) Ren is the sum of uniquely human ethical
virtues, an all-encompassing ethical if not spiritual ideal, crystallized in the practice of
benevolence and compassion. Karyn Lai writes that ren, ‘in its general form…is manifest as a
concern for the human condition; in its more specific instances, it is manifest as a concern for
specific others.’ Ames and Rosemont define ren as ‘one’s cultivated cognitive, aesthetic, moral,
and religious sensibilities as they are expressed in one have ritualized roles and relationships.’
Ren is even expressed, in part, in ‘one’s posture, and comportment, gestures and bodily
communication.’ Ren is the result of self-cultivation, an educational process that commences
within the family and continues throughout one’s lifetime, for it is, in the words of Hall and
Ames, ‘a process term that has no specific terminus ad quem [endpoint].’ Similarly, Kim-chong
Chong notes that ren, ‘like autonomy, is…an achievement concept.’ The exemplary or
authoritative person (junzi) is continually self-surpassing, on a perfectibilist moral and spiritual
path that ends with the Sage, the ideal spiritual figure of the Golden Age that serves as a
lodestar for self-cultivation in the Confucian tradition. Ren, like the Platonic Good, cannot be
definitively expressed in propositional language, for it is as much about ‘knowing how’ as
‘knowing that’ (a distinction that goes back to the philosopher Gilbert Ryle; these two modes of
knowing are not mutually exclusive), and thus one reason we know about the presence of ren
through li, the latter embodying this ‘knowing how.’ Slingerland, however, accounts for the
Confucian reluctance to define ren—hence its ‘indeterminate character’ and ‘apparent
vagueness’—to ‘the problematic nature of judgments of character.’ Again, Platonic thought
might help us here: Socratic dialectic and dialogue demonstrated that the virtues are not wholly
captured in the names, propositions and images by which we learn to know them, however
much such knowledge is integral to coming to know their true nature, a knowledge that, in the
end, takes the form of nonpropositional (some might say ‘intuitive’) insight. Replace ‘the good’
with ‘ren’ in the following from the Platonic scholar, Francisco Gonzalez, and you can better
appreciate this argument: ‘Propositions are well suited to expressing knowledge of objects or
facts; they can no more express knowledge of the good, however, than they can express
knowledge-how or self-knowledge, both of which are involved in knowing the good.’ Insofar as
li is the codified, external expression of ren (David Hinton), li and ren are similar to Socratic
dialogue and dialectic as discussed by Gonzalez in Dialectic and Dialogue: Plato’s Practice of
Philosophical Inquiry (1998) (perhaps why the scenes of Confucius and his students depicted in
the Analects are reminiscent of Socrates and his interlocutors in the agora):
[T]he use that characterizes dialectic itself instantiates what it brings us
to understand, so that this understanding is always self-understanding (in
the sense of ‘knowledge of knowledge’). This is why this use presupposes
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an affinity between the subject and the object. One must have and thus be acquainted
with virtue and the good, even though only implicitly and confusedly, in order to
inquire into them. As a user’s knowledge, knowledge
of virtue and the good is acquired and exhibited in the very practice of inquiry, rather
than in any propositional results abstracted from that practice.
Confucius is often asked in the Analects what he means by the word ren, and he nowhere
provides a satisfactory definition or propositional formulation that fully articulates the essence,
truth or meaning of ren, however much his examples and references point to some aspects,
features or qualities of ren. It is natural for his students to ask such questions, and the collective
process of inquiry serves to instantiate and exhibit ren! As Ames and Rosemont state, ‘like a
work of art, it is a process of disclosure rather than closure, resisting fixed definition and
replication.’ The Analects suggests, to borrow from Nozick, that ‘we are to care about, accept,
support, affirm, encourage, protect, guard, praise, seek, embrace, serve, be drawn toward, be
attracted by, aspire toward, strive to realize, foster, express, nurture, delight in, respect, be
inspired by, take joy in, resonate with, be loyal to, be dedicated to, and celebrate’ the values and
virtues that make up ren. Cf. 4.1: ‘In taking up one’s residence, it is the presence of ren
(authoritative persons) that is the greatest attraction. How can anyone are called wise who, in
having the choice, does not seek to dwell among ren (authoritative persons).’ Chong explains
that ren is approached in ‘the language of integrity, self-worth, courage, and right,’ in stark
contrast with an egoistic focus on ‘material things, profit, wealth, rank, and the opinions of
others.’ In processes of enculturation and socialization it is fair to say, with Kwong-loi Shun,
that the ‘ideal of ren is shaped by actually existing li practices in that it is not intelligible and
cannot be shown to have a validity independent of them. However, it is not totally determined
by li because advocacy of the ideal allows room for departing from or revising an existing rule
of li.’ Enculturation and socialization are what shape innate dispositions and tendencies or, put
differently, are what awaken our awareness of and attraction toward ren (Confucius did not
articulate a theory of human nature as such, although his understanding of same seems, by
default, open-ended). In this sense, li might metaphorically be seen as deposits of jen, as
concretized jen, which, in turn, serve to facilitate an attraction toward the value of jen. Yet jen
transcends li as Shun makes clear, inasmuch as it is the former that allows for critique and
modification of the latter. This transcendent quality of jen with respect to li is well explained by
Slingerland:
Although the training through which virtues are acquired proceeds
according to a general set of rules or principles, the actual decisions
made by a person with fully virtuous dispositions are both more
flexible and more authoritative than the rules themselves. Thus,
once a practice has been mastered, in the sense that the requisite
virtues have been developed, this mastery brings with it a certain
independence from the rules that constitute the practice: the master
is able to reflect upon the rules and may even chose to transgress or
revise them if, in her best judgment, this is what is required to realize the
good or goods specific to that practice. Practice mastery thus brings with
it a type of transcendence: the freedom to evaluate, criticize and seek to
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reform the practice tradition itself.
We all have some implicit awareness of the good or ren as a consequence of our enculturation
and socialization through li practices, and further Confucian self-cultivation draws us closer to
ren as the essence of our humanity. If ren is ultimately rooted in the dao of tian, and we owe our
existence to such cosmological forces and powers, it might even be argued, Socratic-like, that
individuals possess an innate knowledge of ren, however dim, and that Confucian self-
cultivation and education serves to bring such knowledge into ever-greater awareness and
fruition, hence we are not ‘taught’ ren (like a liquid being poured into an empty vessel) in the
conventional sense. This is certainly in keeping with Mencius’ later assertion that human nature
is intrinsically or innately good, accounting for how one can come to recognize and appreciate
the good through psychological and moral developmental processes. It is traditionally stated
that there are two indispensable parts to jen: shu (‘reciprocity,’ or the negative formulation of the
Golden Rule: ‘do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire’) and zhong (‘loyalty’).
These concepts seem applicable to the various hierarchical roles one is involved in daily life (the
argument of David S. Nivison), with the considerations of shu applicable to one in a ‘superior’
position or rank, and zhong applicable to one in a ‘subordinate’ position or rank. Of course one
is typically involved in roles of both types, for example, the (superior) relation of the father to
the son in the family, while the father at his place of employment may have a manager or boss,
in which case he is now in a subordinate relation. Empathy appears therefore to be fundamental
to both shu and zhong (and of course both can be no less appropriate to roughly equal relations
as well).
ru: prior to Confucius refers, first, to dancers and musicians in religious ceremonies or holy
rituals and later those who themselves were masters of religious rituals and ceremonies.
Because of the links between such ceremonies or ritual performance and the topical matter in
the ‘Six Classics’ (i.e., the Book of Poetry, the Book of History, the Book of Rites, the Book of Music,
the Book of Changes, and the Spring and Autumn Annals—the Book of Music was eventually lost, so
the Six Classics became the Five Classics), the ru were often teachers, both in official capacity
and as private tutors. Ruists were also well-versed in the arts or culture (wen): li, music, archery,
charioteering (or carriage driving), mathematics, and calligraphy, for example. By the Warring
States period, Confucius was widely acknowledged, when not esteemed, as the leading
exemplar of the ru tradition. Later, the ‘Way of Confucius’ and the ru tradition became one,
such that every ru was by definition a Confucian and vice versa.
shengren (or simply sheng): Sage; in the moral and spiritual hierarchy of ideal figures the Sage is
closest to, if not the embodiment of, perfection. The Sage acts in full harmony with the patterns
and processes of nature and tian. In other words, the way (dao) of the Sage is one with both the
dao(s) of the natural world and the dao of heaven. Traditional Chinese history upholds the
model of pre-dynastic and other ‘sage kings’ like Yao, Shun, Wen, and the Duke of Chou who
ruled with the Mandate of Heaven (tian ming) and thus in their personal and political behavior
displayed an awareness of the harmony, beauty and sublimity intrinsic to natural processes.
Nivison has argued that the notion that these were ‘sage kings’ was relatively late in
articulation, a position that accords with the fact that the pertinent chapters in the Analects are
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likely later interpolations in comparison to books 3-7 and 9, what Van Norden calls the ‘core
books’ of the Analects. In 7.34 Confucius says that he cannot be considered a shengren, and in
7.26 he laments, ‘I have no hopes of meeting a sage. I would be content if I would meet someone
who is a junzi.’ The junzi holds ‘the words of the sage’—along with the Mandate of Heaven and
great men—‘in awe’ (16.8). The Sage is the one person who ‘can listen to music and discern in it
the original details and quality of an age and its culture’ (Hall and Ames). Ignoring the words of
their Master, the Confucian tradition soon designated Confucius a Sage, indeed, it viewed him
as the archetypal Sage. Hall and Ames further fill out the portrait of the Sage as ‘the rare person
[who] elevates the human experience to profound aesthetic and religious refinement, making
the human being a worthy partner with the heavens and the earth.’ Moreover, and in keeping
with the metaphorical imagery of dao, ‘the shengren have traveled, appropriated and enlarged a
longer stretch of the road than the shi and junzi, and they are providing signposts and bearings
for the latter as well.’
shi: soldier, scribe, bookkeeper, minor administrator, government official, lower level
functionary of a lord, retainer, servant, scholar-apprentice. This ‘relatively new class of men’
was ‘drawn from downwardly mobile, dispossessed nobility, and upwardly mobile, ambitious
peasantry.’ From within their ranks emerged idealists of various sorts who contributed to the
emergence and consolidation of the ‘hundred schools’ (the Confucians, Legalists, Taoists,
Mohists, The Disputers [Mingjia; later known as the ‘School of Names’]). In the Analects, the shi
is found endeavoring to emulate or become a junzi. Michael LaFargue proffers two propositions
as fundamental to the shi idealist: first, that ‘good social organization depends on the ruler
gaining the voluntary respect and cooperation of the people,’ and, secondly, that ‘the good ruler
sets the tone for his society:’
He does this by his personal good qualities and [moral and spiritual]
charisma [de], and by showing genuine care, concern and competence
in looking out for their needs. [….] The manner in which he conducts
himself both privately and publicly establishes a certain atmosphere that
subtly but powerfully influences the way people conduct themselves. It
is primarily this tone that the ruler sets, rather than laws, teachings or
beliefs authorities teach to people, that is expected to produce a good
peasant citizenry and an orderly society. The shi idealists reflected in the
Mencius and the Tao Te Ching regard themselves as the chief tone setters
of society. The new ‘foundation’ [for the crumbling sociopolitical order]
inserts itself into public life primarily in their own person then. In
whatever office they hold, they strive to set the proper tone for the social
group in their charge, and in this they serve as exemplars for the rulers
whom they serve. And when the rulers ask for their advice about
particular political problems, hey advise them to address these problems
in a way that will also set the tone for the larger society.
tian (tian): very roughly (and perhaps misleadingly), ‘heaven.’ With Ames and Rosemont, I
think this term is best left untranslated, as there is no remotely satisfactory equivalent term in
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English. Unlike heaven in the Abrahamic religions, Tian is best understood as both transcendent
and immanent, for the natural world is part of heaven, although the fact that this term replaced,
in some functional sense, Shang Di, suggests, in addition, that it has a supernatural role. In fact,
some of the anthropomorphic qualities associated with the ‘Lord on High’ carried over into tian
(e.g., in the Documents, tian ‘hears and sees,’ and we can speak of the ‘will [ming] of tian’), but
the latter notion is considerably less anthropomorphic than the former. I am also in agreement
with Robert Louden’s position (contrary to the view of Fingarette and others) that the passages
in the Analects in which tian occurs ‘form a consistent whole, one from which we can reliably
infer both that Confucius was a strong religious believer in a nonconventional sense, and that
his moral orientation was itself dependent on his religious outlook.’ Cf. 7.23, in which Confucius
is informed that the Minister of War in Sung was attempting to kill him: ‘Tian is the author of
virtue [de] that is in me. What can Huan Tui do to me?’ Or consider Confucius’ remark in 9.5,
where we learn that, like Socrates, Confucius believed he was on a divine mission: ‘With King
Wen dead, is not culture [wen] invested here in me? If Tian intends culture to be destroyed,
those who come after me will not be able to have any part of it. If Tian does not intend this
culture to be destroyed, then what can the people of Kuang do to me?’ The next passage in the
Analects finds Confucius’ student Zigong claiming that ‘Tian definitely set him [Confucius] on
the path to sagehood.’ Confucius clearly believed the aspiring junzi should ‘model himself on,
and seek moral guidance from, Tian’ (Louden). As Tian is not personal deity of any sort, it
cannot speak to us in any way but a metaphorical sense, yet the wise (i.e., those with zhi,
‘wisdom’) can discern meaning in the fact that ‘the four seasons turn and the myriad things are
born and grow within it’ (17.19). Louden’s interpretation of this passage suggests Confucius, in
this instance at any rate, was not far from the worldview of the Daoists: ‘he is implying that
through the harmony, beauty, and sublimity of its natural processes Tian communicates a great
deal about how human beings ought to live and act, at least to those who have learned to listen
carefully to it.’ Confucius was, comparatively speaking, reticent about things supernatural or
metaphysical. It seems there are myriad reasons to account for such reticence (reasons not
dissimilar from those we find among spiritual teachers preferring the oral to the written word,
or the reason Plato gives us in the Seventh Letter: ‘this subject matter cannot at all be expressed
in words as other studies can’) without thereby implausibly turning Confucius into some sort of
humanist. On the other hand, one might plausibly infer from such reticence that Confucius did
not countenance metaphysical speculation of any sort and, furthermore, if metaphysical talk
distracted in any way from the urgent and practical matters at hand (how to live and act here
and now in a very human world) it was to be avoided.
wen: originally, line or pattern; to inscribe, to embellish; the arts or culture; generally speaking,
wen makes reference to the patterned regularity or symmetry, harmony and beauty found in 1.
(the dao of) tian (Heaven), 2. (the dao of) the natural world, and 3. (the dao of) a properly humane
culture. With regard to tian and the natural world one might say that wen is evidenced in the
physical laws (or normative regularities) of nature (cf. Anthony Zee’s Fearful Symmetry: The
Search for Beauty in Modern Physics, 1999), or the mathematical and aesthetic elegance of the
Golden Ratio—Phi—throughout human history (see Mario Livio’s The Golden Ratio, 2002). For
Confucius, wen entailed, with regard to humane culture, the ‘six arts,’ namely, rites, music,
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archery, charioteering, mathematics and calligraphy. Of course given Confucius’ commitment
to the Five Classics, we can assume poetry and dance were likewise essential. In 7.6 Confucius
says, ‘Set your sights on the way (dao), sustain yourself with virtue (de), lean upon benevolence
(ren), and sojourn in the arts (wen).’ Confucius’ position on the role of tradition in an
appreciation of the arts is gleaned from 3.14: ‘The Chou [Zhou] dynasty looked back to the Hsia
[Xia] and the Shang dynasties. Such a wealth of culture! I follow the Chou [Zhou].’ In the Book of
Rites (one of the Five Classics) we are reminded that ‘the perfection of virtue is primary, and the
perfection of art follows afterward.’ Put differently, the arts are enlisted in the Confucian project
of moral and spiritual self-cultivation (perfectibilist growth and education). They serve to
integrally and holistically discipline or train the body and heart-mind (xin) of the would-be
junzi. As Edward Slingerland reminds us, ‘music was considered by the early Confucians to be
one of the most powerful tools for shaping the emotions, and the metaphor of musical
perfection also served for Confucius as a metaphor for the perfected state.’ Xunzi understood
wen as essential to harnessing or disciplining the ‘natural and irrepressible’ emotions that ‘burst
forth in words, poems, songs, and dances’ (Goldin):
There is a danger, however, that this effusion of passion may
overstep its proper bounds by violating the principles of the Way,
and what began as a natural human tendency may metamorphose
into a source of chaos. But the Sage Kings took steps to address
just that problem: they established rituals of artistic expression,
ensuring that poems and song conform to the Way. For when
the people of a state sing and hear proper music, they are influenced
by its power to bring themselves in line with the Way as well. (Goldin)
Confucius and his followers were well-known for reciting the three hundred odes, playing them
on strings while singing and dancing. His devotion to the Odes exemplifies his understanding of
wen. The Odes had variegated epistemic, political, ethical, aesthetic, psychological, and cultural
functions in ancient China, only some of which we’ll mention here (see the excellent treatment
in Nylan’s The Five ‘Confucian’ Classics, 2001). Not surprisingly, ‘all traditions portray the Odes’
vital importance as a cultural repository of eminent utility and as a teaching tool for the social
graces’ (Nylan). The Odes could arouse the emotions of others, allow for the acute perception of
others’ feelings, enhance a fraternal sense of community, ‘diplomatically’ express grievances or
critiques so as not to offend or humiliate their targets, serve as a display of character and
erudition. Formally or stylistically speaking,
the inherent ambiguity and the multivalence of the odes allowed
songmakers and audience alike to thrill to witty displays of learning,
imparting a single meaning to lines quoted with a specific context.
In effect, then, an ingenious, flexible, yet guided response, reaching
ever higher levels of insight, became both the prerequisite for and
the end product of Odes’ learning. (Nylan)
We might see the Confucian project of self-cultivation itself in aesthetic, or more broadly,
artistic terms, as Hall and Ames do in Thinking Through Confucius (1987) and Nylan does here:
Moral self-cultivation is itself a kind of exquisite taste: the truly
cultivated have learned to delight in the moral Way [Dao] and to
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appreciate the beauty and utility of ritual [li]. Such sophisticated
powers of discrimination keep them on the path of full humanity
(jen), painstakingly refining their initial impulses toward sympathetic
understanding, like the jade cutter who cuts and files, chisels and
polishes the precious material. People who know enough to take
pleasure in the Way find that the end products of their efforts,
their lives or their jades, have become exquisite works of art. (Nylan)
Little noticed, the Confucian conception of wen has much in common with the Platonic if not
classical Greek understanding of the role of music and dance in paideia (moral education; aretē,
or the moral habituation to virtue; education directed toward ‘the Beauty and the Good’): ‘As an
instrument of paideia, ritual dancing, in which the customs of the group are encoded, implied
the acquisition of moral virtues and a sense of civic responsibility, of mature allegiance to the
community, an espousal of its traditions and virtues’ (Steven H. Lonsdale, Dance and Ritual Play
in Greek Religion. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993). For Plato, music and dance were ‘the
first and fundamental steps of education,’ constituting a form of ‘unwritten laws’ that
complement or sustain the written laws of the polis. These unwritten laws might helpfully be
identified as a subset of Confucian li. Substitute heart-mind (xin) for ‘soul’ in the following and
the identification is transparent: Plato believed music and dance contributed to moral education
and civic virtue, in other words, to ends motivated by an intimate knowledge of the Good,
‘because rhythm and harmony penetrate most easily into the soul and influence it most
strongly, bringing with it decorum and making those who are correctly trained well-behaved’
(Lonsdale). Music and dance in ancient Greece, like the composition and performance of the
odes in classical China, ‘made moral learning at once the most natural and so most delightful of
all human activities—far more than a polite accomplishment, a significant source of gratification
[or, in Greek terms, eudaimonia]’ (Nylan).
xiao: filial piety, meaning a strong sense of loyalty and respect toward one’s parents. This
ethical obligation or moral duty, in the words of Liu, ‘is one that has penetrated Chinese culture
the most.’ The duty, as Liu also notes, extends beyond the lifetime of one’s parents insofar as
Confucius prescribes a proper length and attitude for mourning the death of one’s parents
(1.11). Filial piety does not entail blind—unthinking—obedience, as both children and parents
alike are bound by the rule of proper conduct or propriety. And part and parcel of respect and
loyalty is a corresponding mental attitude: reverence (or devotion). Filial piety is especially
important in as much as the family is the moral embryo of the larger society and thus where one
first learns the meaning and value of the varieties of virtuous behavior (e.g., gratitude or love)
that form the backbone of ethical character and thus are absolutely necessary to proper
performance one’s roles outside the family. In other words, it is within the family—the setting of
one’s first relationships—that the process of lifelong moral development begins.
xin (hsin): heart and/or mind but probably best rendered as ‘heart-mind;’ also, thoughts and
feelings, as Chad Hansen explains, ‘the common translation of xin as “heart-mind” reflects the
blending of belief and desire (thought and feelings, ideas and emotions), into a single complex
dispositional potential.’ Discussions of the heart-mind in Confucianism touch upon issues
12
associated with human nature, and our capacity for human development, transformation, and
self-transcendence. Anyone can aspire to be a Sage, for the peasant and Sage alike possess xin,
and yet the heart-mind of the Sage has become like an exquisite piece of jade: cut, chiseled, and
polished to perfection. The fact that, in theory or principle anyone might become a sage does
not of course speak to the question of how many individuals actually become sages or even
aspire to be sage-like. Consider, for instance, the following from Paul Rakita Goldin’s
explanation of Xunzi’s belief that ‘however vile their initial dispositions, if people attune
themselves to the Way unceasingly, they may become Sages themselves:’
Small men can become noble men, and noble men can revert to being
small men. [….] In his antonomastic style, Xunzi writes that even a person
in the street can become the equivalent of Yu, a famous sage, although such
a transformation would require an accumulation of learning which would
be difficult to accomplish. [….] At this point Xunzi elaborates: it is possible
to walk across the world, although no one has done it; but the fact the no one
has done it does not mean that it is impossible. Likewise, it is possible for a
person in the street to become the equivalent of Yu, although, ostensibly, no
one has done it recently; but the fact that it is difficult does not mean that it
is impossible. It is difficult because it requires unceasing self-cultivation and
vast accumulation of learning. (Paul Rakita Goldin, Rituals of the Way: the Philosophy of
Xunzi. Open Court, 1999)
Many Confucians believe that tian (t’ien) has endowed humanity with the heart of the Way
(daoxin), with the inherent potential and inclination to strive for the good. According to Hansen,
both Confucius and Mozi (Mo-tzu or Mo Di) ‘assume that we actualize the [xin’s] disposition by
internalizing culture, by language.’ For Mencius (Mengzi), on the other hand, xin dispositions
are innate, intrinsic to human nature and as such, distinguish us from ‘beasts.’ Moreover, these
dispositions can grow and flower as from a seed, provided they prove capable of trumping
interference from certain bodily desires, baser passions, or selfish motivations. It is through the
heart-mind that one realizes the specifically Confucian cluster of virtues: filial piety (xiao),
loyalty (zhong), empathy (or the negative formulation of the Golden Rule: shu), humaneness
(ren), propriety (li), that which is just and morally proper (yi), and wisdom (zhi). According to
Mencius (Mengzi), it is our xin that entertains, weighs and decides between competing courses
of action in its role as the ‘natural governor of the self’ (Philip Ivanhoe). But this situational
exercise of judgment becomes, for the Sage, a spontaneous act ‘without ambivalence or
indecision. His intuition is reflexive and inevitably motivates him’ (Hansen). The ability to
spontaneously respond to situations in an ethically sensitive and appropriate way reflects the
possession of ‘precise practical knowledge and infallible self-control’ (Hansen). This, in turn, is
the by-product of cultivated powers of concentration or meditation, what Mencius calls the
‘unmoved heart-mind.’ Finally, qi fills the empty space, as it were, of the stilled or emptied
mind, in Hansen’s words, providing ‘the metaphysical underpinning of this idealized moral
psychology.’ In Mencius’ words: ‘If one cultivates it [i.e., qi] with uprightness and does not
harm it, it will fill up the space between Heaven and earth. It is a qi that unites yi [moral
intuition] with the Dao.’ Xunzi (ca. 310-210 BCE), the last great exponent of Confucianism before
the close of the classical period of Chinese philosophy, did not share Mencius’ conception of the
13
intrinsic goodness (as a capacity or potential to be realized, signified by the four ‘incipiences’
above) of human nature. As Goldin notes, for Mencius, human nature can grow and change,
‘for xing embodies the unique characteristics of human beings, while in Xunzi’s work, it
signifies only the characteristics that all people share from birth.’ Xunzi famously argued that
this shared original nature (i.e., what we have from birth: xing) is bad or evil, what is good,
rather, is ‘artifice,’ for example, the transformation wrought by a teacher well-versed in the Dao
of li and morality, or the norms and conventions of conduct established by the Sage Kings of
prehistoric times (a Golden Age, if you will). It is artifice, in the form of trying and exhaustive
self-cultivation, ‘that completes one’s nature’ (Goldin), as a kind of (moralized) ‘second nature.’
For Xunzi, it is the heart-mind is capable of knowing the Dao owing to its possession of three
(paradoxical yet not mystical) qualities: emptiness, unity, and tranquility. It is the heart-mind
that is capable of arriving at the deliberative conclusion that it is in our self-interest in the best
sense—enlightened self-interest—to follow the rituals: ‘The mind…must be able to observe
dispassionately the conduct of the self. It observes that xing is self-destructive because it does
not conform to the rituals, and directs the self to begin the arduous process of transformation’
(Goldin). So, while morality is external in Xunzi’s conception, insofar as it is equivalent to proper
practice of the right rituals, the motivational force to be moral is internal, located in the powers
of the heart-mind. Hence, it is fair to say that ‘a person is ultimately a union of xing and artifice
(wei)’ (Goldin). Despite Xunzi’s deep disagreement with Mencius, his philosophy remains very
much in the letter and spirit of the Master in as much as a predominant refrain throughout the
Analects is the importance of learning, the love of learning being one of the criteria used to
separate the junzi from the ‘small man.’ The heart-mind, according to Xunzi, is what motivates
this love of learning.
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14
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