Confucianism: A Modern Interpretation

By Chi Yun Chang

Like the five other spiritual leaders in the world,1 Confucius (551 B.C.–479 B.C.) still lives among us and is admired more than ever.
He absorbed China’s cultural traditions accumulated during the 25 centuries before his time. They were rich but somewhat schematic. He coordinated them, re-organized them, evaluated them, developed them into a profound new system of ethics and political philosophy for the benefit of posterity, thus providing a solid foundation for national existence during the 25 centuries after him.
This book, originally written in English, consists of 16 chapters elucidating in detail the value and the significance of Confucius’ teachings. The author states that to understand Confucius is to understand China, Chinese history and culture. It includes Confucian philosophy regarding life, education, politics, law, art, change and history, the model man and more.
This book is the Magnum Opus dedicated to Mr. Chi Yun Chang, a prominent historian as well as the founder of Chinese Culture University. This book illustrates the six elements of Confucius’s teachings: Philosophy of Life Ethics, Philosophy of Education, Philosophy of Creation, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Providence and Philosophy of Peace.
The book explains the value and significance of Confucius teachings and also focuses on the modernization of the teachings. It ascertains that “to understand Confucius is to understand China, the Chinese people, Chinese history and Chinese culture”. This book will be of interest to anyone who is interested in Confucius teachings and its modern interpretations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Design Media Publishing (UK) Limited
• Release date: Jun 21, 2020

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CONFUCIANISM: A MODERN INTERPRETATION

Written by Chi Yun Chang

Translated by Orient Lee

Cover Designed by Jeffrey Choy

Original of this edition: © Copyright 2012 Zhejiang University Press

English edition

Design Media Publishing (UK) Limited

http://www.designmediauk.com

E-mail: [e-mail]

ISBN: 978-1-83865-053-7

© Copyright 2020 Design Media Publishing (UK) Limited

Printed in China

All rights reserved.

Foreword

I dedicate this book to the youth in China and elsewhere. They deserve more comprehensive information about the precepts of Confucius than is available so far. There are scholarly works by sinologues, each covering one or several aspects of Confucianism. A survey in more general terms like this one may perhaps fill a need.

The Chinese original of this book has been received with enthusiasm in Hong Kong and Taiwan of China, Singapore, and Malaysia. Friends wellversed in the Korean and the Japanese languages are engaged in translating it. This English version painstakingly undertaken by Professor Orient Lee, I am sure, will enrich the young people in the West with the wisdom of our Sage.

Chang Chi-yun Oct. 31, 1980

About the Authors

Chi Yun Chang (Zhang Qi-yun, 1901–1985) was a prominent historian and educator. He graduated from Nanking Higher Normal School in 1923, which was expanded into National Southeastern University and later expanded again into National Central University (today’s Nanjing University). Chang earned an early recognition of his high attainments in geography and history with his books published by the Commercial Press at Shanghai. He taught at his alma mater before he became the founder and the chairman of the department of History and Geography in 1936 at National Zhejiang University. He was a visiting research fellow at Harvard from 1943 to 1945. He was appointed dean of the College of Arts at Zhejiang University soon after he returned to China in August, 1945. After retiring from public life in 1959, Chang devoted all his time, besides writing his monumental Five Thousand Years of Chinese History, to the founding and developing of the Chinese Culture University in Taipei (founded in 1962). Confucianism: A Modern Interpretation, originally published in Chinese, is the fifth volume of his Five Thousand Years of Chinese History. It was translated into English (Confucianism: A Modern Interpretation) by Professor Orient Lee in 1981. Subsequently, Professor Shan-hsiung Ting revised it in 2011.

Orient Lee (Li Dong-fang, 1907–1998) was a leading figure in Chinese history. He earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Paris in 1931 with an honor citation, first of its kind since the 19th century. He taught history and philosophy in many renowned universities, among them, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University and Chinese Culture University. He had published a series of books on Chinese history from the Qin Dynasty down to the Republic, written in a style called elaborate, such as Elaborate the Qin and the Han Dynasties, Elaborate the Three Kingdoms, Elaborate the Ming Dynasty and Elaborate the Qing Dynasty.

Shan-hsiung Ting (Ding Shan-xiong) is professor of English and director of the English graduate program at Chinese Culture University. He studied comparative literature at the University of Washington, where he took a Ph.D. in 1976. Better known as Lin Lu, his publications include three collections of poetry, three books of prose, three volumes of critical essays and a collection of selected works. He was professor of English at Taiwan Normal University from 1976–2002, and visiting professor in the Chinese department at the University of Hong Kong, 1995–1996.

Contents

Foreword

About the Authors

CHAPTER 1 Confucius Was Great

CHAPTER 2 Philosophy of Life

CHAPTER 3 Philosophy of Education

CHAPTER 4 Political Philosophy

CHAPTER 5 Philosophy of Law

CHAPTER 6 Philosophy of Art

CHAPTER 7 Philosophy of Change and of History

CHAPTER 8 Military Philosophy

CHAPTER 9 Religious Philosophy

CHAPTER 10 The Model Types of Men by Confucian Standards

CHAPTER 11 The Disciples of Confucius

CHAPTER 12 Confucianist Lineage

CHAPTER 13 Classics and Memorials

CHAPTER 14 Confucianism in Eastern Nations

CHAPTER 15 Confucian Studies in Western Countries

CHAPTER 16 The Period of the Spring and Autumn: A General Survey

Appendix

Bibliography

CHAPTER 1 Confucius Was Great

1.1 His Great Personality

Like the five other spiritual leaders in the world,1 Confucius (551 B.C.–479 B.C.) still lives among us and is admired more than ever.

He absorbed China’s cultural traditions accumulated during the 25 centuries before his time. They were rich, but somewhat schematic. He co-ordinated them, re-organized them, evaluated them, and developed them into a profound new system of ethics and political philosophy for the benefit of posterity, thus providing a solid foundation for national existence during the 25 centuries after him.

His expertise as one of the top thinkers and educators that mankind has ever produced is fully shown in the Analects (Lun-yu, dialogues) recorded by his disciples. He appears there, to the surprise of some of us, as a plain man with plain words and plain deeds quite within the reach of anybody who has a desire to learn from his example, a fact which explains eloquently why his teachings constituted the main stream of Chinese thought for over 25 centuries till the present day.

He has actually personified the cultural characteristics, the aspirations, and the ideals of the average Chinese, so much so that to understand him is to understand China, Chinese, and Chinese history.

Every Chinese person can be proud to have had among his fellow citizens a man with so monumentary an achievement, so magnificent and immortal a personality, and so much dedication to a self-imposed mission.²

I am, therefore, including in my Five Thousand Years of Chinese History a special study on Confucianism: A Modern Interpretation as one of the three volumes on Middle Zhou Dynasty (770 B.C.– 479 B.C.), the other two being a Biography of Confucius and a general history of that period. I hope my young readers in China and elsewhere will hereby acquire a thorough comprehension of the origins and trends of our culture as well as its far-reaching, but often hidden, significance.

I am performing, in the meantime, my homage to this most outstanding man whose place in the history of China and Chinese thought is so focal, so unique, and, may I say, so absolutely prominent, for having continued the lineage of hundreds of kings and sages, synthesized their accomplishments, and passed on to us a Dao all his own, consistent with itself, impressive in scope, serious in substance, and splendid in style.

1 Namely: Lao-zi, Gotama Sakyamuni, Socrates, Jesus, and Mohammed. Born in the year 551 B.C., Confucius was younger than Lao-zi by about 50 years, and Gotama Sakyamuni, by perhaps 12 years. He preceded Socrates, Jesus, and Mohammed, by 82, 551 (or 547, according to some authorities), and 1,022 years, respectively.

2 Confucius, besides being a teacher, tried hard to persuade the feudal chiefs of his time to carry out much-needed reform and was blamed by a certain hermit for doing something which he knew could not be done in the first place.

1.2 His Humanism

Confucianism, from its roots to its branches and leaves, is dedicated to the study of man. Man is its ultimate, highest, and most direct aim. It tries to find truth through man’s daily activities, and apply its findings to build up man’s character, uphold man’s rights, develop man’s potentials, and unfold man’s nature. It is a kind of humanism and has this in common with humanism in the West: it sees in the fulfillment of the individual the hope for civilization.

Confucius affirmed at the very beginning of his career that man was the noblest being in the universe, the only being with a consciousness of himself, hence capacity for self-improvement and perfection.

His philosopy may be summed up in one word: ren. Ren, in his opinion, was the basis for all human relationships. It is written with two components, the symbol for man on the left and a symbol for seeds on the right. Put together, the two components mean the essence of man. To be ren, said Zi-si, social name of Kong Ji (483 B.C.−402 B.C.) is to be man.3

This word ren had been used by some moralists before Confucius to denote kindness as one of the many virtues. Confucius decided to use it as the highest of all the virtues, while retaining its time-honored meaning of kindness.

As the highest of all the virtues, ren requires a man to be 100% of a man, a complete man, a true man, a real man; in other words, a perfect man. No more than six persons in the past were mentioned in the Analects as deserving to be called ren man. Among the students of Confucius, only one made the grade for a period of three months. He was Yan Hui. Another one, Zhong-gong, was considered quite ren by an observer. Confucius did not express his agreement or disagreement to the observer’s conclusion.4

As to kindness, one of the many virtues, Confucius, when asked by Fan Xu, defined it as A ren man loves people.5

In most cases, Confucius would use the word ren to mean 100% of a man. He had a humanist reason, which was revealed to us by Zi-si in The Doctrine of the Mean: Man ought to behave according to his own nature, because this nature of his has been bestowed by Heaven and it partakes the Dao of Heaven: That which Heaven has ordained is called (man’s) nature. To follow nature is to conform to the Dao. To get back to the Dao after straying away from it, is what we call education.

Confucius was, more than anyone else, a great educator. The purpose he had when he was urging people to try to be ren, was simply to get them back to the Dao.

Dr. John C. H. Wu made an excellent comment on this passage written by Kong Ji. It suggests to us the picture of a big tree, Dr. Wu said, with Heaven’s commands as its roots, with the Dao as its trunk, with culture and education as its branches, leaves, and flowers. The fruits of this tree are: a beautiful personality for the individual, a good government for the state, peace for the world, and happiness for all mankind. Society is going to evolve into the stages of xiao-kang (Limited Bliss) and da-tong (Great Harmony).6

3 The Doctrine of the Mean. Chapter 20, Section 5.

4 Analects. VI-5, V-4.

5 Ibid. XII-22.

6 C. H. Wu. Confucian Thought and Chinese Culture. Central Monthly. Vol. 6, No. 3, Jan., 1974.

1.3 First Democratic Educator

A firm believer in the perfectibility of man, of all men, Confucius took it upon himself to give the common people a chance to share the knowledge which, until then, had been a monopoly of the nobility. The schools where the six arts were taught were open to the sons of the nobles only. Confucius started a school of his own for everybody, whatever the social class was.7

The six arts were: (1) the li (a collective name for ritual, etiquette, and administrative law); (2) music; (3) archery; (4) chariot and carriage driving; (5) writing; and (6) mathematics.8

Confucius, in his school, taught more than these six arts. He acquainted his students with the annals, the records of oracles, the song books, and a number of historical documents, which he had copied from the originals stored up in the temples, archives, and offices of the government.

After using these materials as textbooks in his classes, and making corrections and comments from time to time, he finally put them in book form, totaling six volumes: (1) The Book of Songs; (2) The Book of Music; (3) The Book of Documents; (4) The Book of Rites; (5) The Book of Changes (based on the records of oracles); and (6) the Chun-qiu: The Spring and Autumn Annals (revised edition of The Annals of Lu).

The six books, known as the Six Classics, were later carried by his students to their homes in Lu and some other states. Each of them had made a copy from the teacher’s manuscript. Their students and their friends also made copies. Before long, there were copies and copies of the Six Classics almost everywhere in China. Some of the copies, finally, found their way to foreign lands.9

These Six Classics could, and were going to, exercise very salutary influences on the people of every state. The Book of Songs, said Confucius, may make them gentle and forgiving; The Book of Music, broadminded and flexible; The Book of Rites, respectful and serene; The Book of Documents, farsighted and understanding; The Book of Changes, calm and with a penetrating insight; the Chun-qiu, fluent in speech and style, able to put things together and see the point.10

The private school run by Confucius for almost a half century till the end of his life in 479 B.C. except during the years he was away from Lu (496 B.C.−483 B.C.), was in fact more than a school. It was the center of propagation of a new culture, with around three thousand students. They came from all parts of Lu, and from many of the neighboring states. Seventy-two among them attended the lectures and did the homework regularly, and graduated with specialized attainments and skills. A dozen or so did post-graduate study and accompanied the teacher till the end of his life, while making their own living in various fields.

Confucius was involved in politics, while carrying on his educator’s activities. The politicians never gave him a whole-hearted support. Had they given him such support, however, he might have had no time to edit the Six Classics and teach so many students. Consequently, China would have been deprived of the nucleus of her culture. His political failure, said Wang Kai-zu of the Northern Song Dynasty, was really a blessing for the Chinese people.11

7 Liang Qi-chao. Confucius. Taipei: Chung-hwa Book Co., 1956, 1.

8 The first two arts were for character-building; the third and the fourth, for physical training; the fifth, called writing, comprised calligraphy, composition, comprehension, and the study of general literature; and the sixth, mathematics, probably included some rudiments of science.

9 Copies of the Six Classics were used by the teachers and the students in Korea and Vietnam since the Han Dynasty.

10 Explanations of the Classics. The Book of Rites.

11 Wang Kai-zu. Biographies of the Song and Yuan Confucianists. Taipei: Cheng-chung Book Co., 1966, Vol. 1, 89.

1.4 An Accomplished Philosophical Man

The title Confucius gave himself, a few days before his death, was a philosophical man. He was taking a walk in one of the public places in the city of Qufu, capital of Lu, when he uttered after a sigh, A philosophical man is withering like a plant.

A philosophical man, in his language, was not a philosopher in the modern sense, but a man with the virtues befitting a man and a wise understanding of life.

He knew there was a beginning and an end to everything and life was no exception. Life had to end sometime, somehow. For a philosophical man, death was as natural as birth. What mattered to a man with a purpose was how much he had accomplished toward that purpose. The purpose Confucius had was to reach the Dao, on which he spent his entire life.

He used to say to his students, If I could have the opportunity to hear the Dao (and understand it and get into it) some morning, I would die happily in the evening of the same day.12

This Dao he found. He found it in the oracles recorded in The Book of Changes. Nobody had ever studied them as seriously as he did, especially during the last years of his life. He was intrigued by these oracles and by the arrangements of the six solid and broken lines in each of the 64 hexagrams which accompanied these oracles, the solid lines representing the positive element and the broken lines representing the negative element. He discovered in them the cycles of the movements of Heaven and Earth with man occupying a central position in these movements.

The philosophy which Confucius succeeded in elaborating from his life-long study of The Book of Changes was not a cosmology with Heaven as its object, nor an interpretation of history with Earth or geography as the key. Yet, it did not rule out the roles of Heaven and Earth, nor did it isolate man, in the sage’s system. According to Confucius, man formed a trio with Heaven and Earth.

Confucius bequeathed us a wealth of wisdom full of inspiration and hope. The two elements, positive and negative, were opposites, not enemies. They were not contradictory to each other, but compensated each other. And man’s efforts, despite occasional difficulties, would lead to some goal, all being a matter of choice, determination, and perseverance. In one word, the Confucian philosophy is an optimist philosophy. It has served the Chinese people well throughout many crises in their national life such as earthquakes, droughts, floods, famines, epidemics, rebellions, civil wars, and foreign invasions.

12 Analects. IV-8.

1.5 Inauguration of a New Era

The last 25 centuries in China may be called the Confucianist Era. It was very different from the feudal era before it. Society was no longer stratified into classes, and everybody had freedom. The Chinese owed much of this freedom to Confucius, because he was the first man who gave education to the common people, thus promoting social equality. It was he, too, who actually and literally advocated a kind of republican government for China, by praising constantly Emperors Yao (2377 B.C.−2259 B.C.) and Shun (2233 B.C. −2184 B.C.). These two emperors, unlike the other rulers in Chinese history, did not pass on their thrones to their own sons, but preferred to let the two best candidates in the country to take over.

The lofty ideals of Confucius went even further. He urged his disciples to establish a paradise on earth, a welfare state covering the whole world, much beyond the utopian dreams of the liberals of our time.

When the great Dao gets applied, he said, the whole world will become a common property shared by all. People will elect the virtuous and employ the capable; make themselves trustworthy and live with their neighbors in peace. They will cherish not only their own parents and children, but also the parents and children of others. Every old person will be cared for; every adult will have a job; every boy and girl and every child will be fed and educated. All the widows, widowers, persons who are alone in the world without a family and persons who are disabled, will get enough support to live. Every man will have a place in society, and every woman will have a home. Nobody will want to hide away his treasures, but would gladly offer them to the public. And nobody will want to stay idle but would like to do his utmost for the public. Strategy, tactics, and intrigues lose their usefulness and are forgotten. Robbers, thieves, and rebels vanish into oblivion. No family has to close the doors of its house day or night. There you have a new world which we may call Da-tong, ‘the World of Great Harmony’.13

This ideal about a world of Great Harmony and his other teachings have been a motivating force to many statesmen, scholars, and authors in various stages of Chinese history, and especially to reformists and revolutionists such as Dr. Sun Yat-sen who founded the Republic of China in 1911. Dr. Sun said he had always wanted to be a spiritual successor to Confucius.

The official in charge of Yi, a border town of the marquisate of Wei near the duchy of Song, asked for an interview with Confucius when the latter traveled through the town with some of his disciples. The interview was granted. Afterwards, the official had a chat with the disciples and told them, You young people do not have to worry about the future. The world has been away from the Dao too long. Heaven is going to use your teacher as the holder of the mu-duo.14 That is, Heaven has assigned a mission for him, the mission of waking the people up to the Dao.

13 The Conveyance of Rites. The Book of Rites.

14 Analects. III-24. The mu-duo was a bronze bell with a wooden tongue, used by the heralds to announce decrees and orders to the people.

1.6 The Four Steps

There is a passage in the Analects in which Confucius is recorded as having said, Aim at the Dao, build a base with virtue, rely on ren, and relax in the arts.15

It is a very important passage, showing us the four steps for self-improvement, which are also the four main items of the teachings of Confucius, covering the totality of Confucianism.

We ought to follow these four steps one by one, without skipping any one of them or doing two or three of them at the same time. In other words, we should set our aim at the Dao first, and build up a base for further action by practicing virtue. Later, we may rely on ren. Finally, we can relax in the arts.

1.7 Aim at the Dao

To set one’s aim at something is a prerequisite for any endeavor. A man without an aim is liable to give up easily, or slow down after a few days of trying. Confucius had made up his mind to aim at learning when he was only 15 years old. He wanted to learn. What did he want to learn? The six arts, of course, and all that, beyond the six arts, which challenged his curiosity.16

Later, when he grew older, he decided to learn as much as he could about the Dao, and reach it.

Mencius (Meng Ke), one of his fifth generation disciples and the most active, was asked one day by an admirer, What does a scholar do? Mencius answered, The scholar does whatever is connected with his aim.17

The best aim a scholar could set for himself is the Dao, an opinion which Mencius shared with Confucius and a great number of Confucianists in post-Zhou Dynasties.

The Dao to be aimed at is something which transcends time and space. It includes Heaven, man, and Earth, with man in the center, like the middle line in each of the two trigrams in a hexagram.

Man plays an active role, not a passive one. He makes his own choice and formulates his own destiny, thereby helping Heaven and Earth to fulfill the Dao. It is man who can glorify the Dao, said Confucius. The Dao cannot glorify man.18

The Dao is not Heaven’s Dao, said Xun-zi (313 B.C.−238 B.C.), nor Earth’s Dao. It is a Dao for man to go by; it is a Dao which only a gentleman can describe.19

The word for Dao, in Chinese, is written with a symbol for road and another symbol for man’s head. The two symbols suggest a road for man to go by, a way of life, a principle for man to live in accordance with, a path leading to truth.

It is also comparable to a door. Who can step out from his house, said Confucius, without passing through the door?20

The Dao in the system of Confucius is basically an ethical concept. It does have, however, a metaphysical tinge. It affirms the unity or, more strictly speaking, some intimate relationship, between Heaven’s way and man’s way, between mind and matter; and between knowledge and action.

15 Analects. VII-6.

16 Ibid. II-4.

17 Mencius. VII-1, Chapter 33, Sections 1 and 2.

18 Analects. XV-28.

19 Effects of Confucianism. Xun-zi.

20 Analects. VI-15.

1. Between Heaven’s way and man’s way

Zi-si, in The Doctrine of the Mean, made a conclusive statement about man’s nature and his origin in Heaven. According to him, man is what Heaven wants man to be. What man has to do, then, is to develop his Heaven-endowed nature, which is truthfulness. Man’s way, in reality, is merely a part of Heaven’s way.21

Zi-chan, a contemporary of Confucius, said something not exactly like Zi-si’s thesis, but equally illuminating, Heaven’s way is far, but man’s way is near.22

We might add, Heaven’s way cannot be known, but may be felt; it is never hard to follow Heaven’s hints. The heavenly bodies move regularly with strength, said Confucius in his The Book of Changes, so man ought to keep on working with strength, too.23

21 The Doctrine of the Mean. Chapter 1, Section 1.

22 Zuo-zhuan. Year 18 of Zhao-gong.

23 Hexagram Qian. The Book of Changes

2. Between mind and matter

According to The Great Learning attributed to Zeng Shen, one of the youngest among the direct disciples of Confucius, the sage urged them to rectify the mind before going any further in their learning process. After having rectified the mind, they should tell themselves to have a sincere will. Then, they might start contacting the matter, namely, things.

In other words, Confucius wanted his disciples to pay attention to the mind and the will before tackling matter.

Did Confucius consider that mind and matter were two phases of the same thing? It was not in his habit to say it explicitly. He was positive, nevertheless, about the relationship between the Dao and the multitudes of things. Dao has no shape, he said in The Book of Changes, the multitudes of things have. What he meant was that the difference between the Dao and the multitudes of things is just a question of shape. There is, in other words, no difference as to substance. We might put it in modern terms: The Dao is the being and the things are its manifestations.

3. Between knowledge and action

Confucius was a seeker after knowledge all his life, yet he attached much more importance to action. A man with vigorous action is almost a ren man, he said.24

Wang Shou-ren (Master of Yang-ming, 1472−1528), of the Ming Dynasty considered knowledge as the beginning of action and action as the completion of knowledge.

He also said, Knowledge without action is not true knowledge. What he had in mind was mainly ethics. If a man thinks, for instance, that he knows how important it is to be nice to his parents, yet he does nothing to make his parents happy: this man cannot be recognized as having really known the importance of being nice to the parents.25

24 The Doctrine of the Mean. Chapter 20, Section 10.

25 Wang Yang-ming. Biographies of the Ming Confucianists Taipei: Cheng-chung Book Co., 1966, Vol. 1, 83. Dr. Sun had a new theory: To know is hard, but to act is easy.

1.8 Build up a Base with Virtue

The most sublime thing in the world is the Dao, said Zhou Dun-yi (1017−1073), and the noblest thing is virtue.26

The Dao is an ideal, and virtue is working toward that ideal.

The Chinese word for virtue was written with two components, one representing the heart and the other representing straight . It meant straightforwardness and uprightness.

The modern version of this word has a third component, representing two men. It means that when two men are together, each should be straight with the other.

There is a homonym for virtue, which means gain. Both are pronounced de. This fact has led many scholars to define virtue as a moral gain. Virtue really is something to be gained. Because the more a man practices virtue, the more he gains in character.

But, while making new gains, he should not lose the old ones in the form of good habits; this is what Confucius had in mind when he advised his students to build up a base with virtue. He wanted them to hold on to what they had achieved like soldiers holding a base in the battlefield.

The best of his students, Yan Hui, followed his instructions literally. Yan held on to a moral gain as soon as he made it, and held it so fast as if he were keeping it in his two clenched hands and hiding it inside his shirt.27

Virtue has to be cultivated and renewed every day. Otherwise, whatever has been gained would slip away, that is, easily forgotten. To cultivate one’s virtue, however, is hard work. Confucius himself admitted that even he often neglected to do it.28 To renew one’s virtue, obviously, is harder still. If a man could do it every day, that is, have his virtuous conduct carried out with a new vigor every day, he would be praised by Confucius as a man with splendid virtue.29

A virtuous man should keep on being virtuous all the time. No man can be called virtuous if he is so just for once, or for a day, or for a short period of time. Furthermore, he should be actively virtuous, not passively virtuous. In other words, he ought to take the initiative of being kind, friendly, helpful, sympathetic, altruistic, whenever he is dealing with another person.

And, most important of all, he is not supposed to have the privilege of taking a rest in this matter. Look at the water in this stream, Confucius called to the attention of some of his disciples when they were standing on the banks of a certain river, See how it flows without stopping from day to night and from night to day.30

Unfortunately, few men know what virtue is,31 and fewer men can love virtue as much as they love beautiful women.32

On the other hand, it seems that everybody wants to be good, too. Here is where education comes in. Leaders in the society and the state have a duty to encourage people to be good, to develop their laudable inclinations, and to assist them in correcting their wrong habits.

The English word virtue is derived from the Latin word for man, vir. It has an etymological similarity with the Chinese word ren. Ren is the mose important among all the virtues in the Confucian system, and sometimes it was used by Confucius as a collective name for all the virtues.

Other virtues besides ren which have been mentioned in the Analects may be grouped in the following way:

(1) Loyalty and filial devotion

Loyalty, empathy, straightforwardness, filial devotion, respect for the older brother and the elders in general.

(2) Ren and love

Ren, wisdom, courage, gentleness, goodness, toleration, benevolence.

(3) Trustworthiness and righteousness

Trustworthiness, righteousness, seriousness, thrift, earnestness, respectfulness, firmness, perseverance, reservedness, uprightness.

(4) Peacefulness and calmness

Politeness, humility, the disposition to yield precedence, power; or profit to others, moderation, propriety.

26 Zhou Dun-yi. Biographies of the Song and Yuan Confucianists. (. Vol. 1, 1130.

27 The Doctrine of the Mean. Chapter 8.

28 Analects. VII-3.

29 Commentary on the Xi-ci. The Book of Changes. 30 Analects. IX-16.

31 Ibid. XV-3.

32 Ibid. XV-12.

1.9 Rely on Ren

Among all the virtues, ren is to be relied upon. It has priority. It is a starting point for the formation of character, and at the same time the highest standard for human behavior.

The word ren appears in the Analects 110 times and is discussed 59 times. Confucius put the greatest emphasis on it, because he considered it as the virtue to accompany a person all their life. In other words, this person has to rely on it all the time for whatever they think, whatever they do, and whatever they say.

There are three aspects of ren. When dealing with Heaven, a man practicing ren obeys it like he obeys his own father. When dealing with himself, he is loyal to himself, that is, he is honest and truthful with himself.33 When dealing with some other fellow, he treats this fellow like himself, doing nothing to this fellow which he does not like to be done to himself.34

The ren of Confucius and the Confucianists is to be distinguished from the doctrine of jian-ai of Mo Di (Mo-zi, 489 B.C.−406 B.C.). Both may be interpreted as universal love, yet there is a great difference between them. Ren requires a man to love his parents and children more than the parents and children of other people, and reciprocate the kindness of another person in accordance with what this other person has done for him. The scholar of the Mo Di school would treat all the other persons in the world on the same footing to the extent of ignoring that some of these persons happen to be his own parents or children.

Diametrically opposite as their approaches are, the Confucianists and the Mohists have a common aim: a perfect world based on love. Confucianists radiate their love by degrees, but will eventually extend their love from those whom they have always loved to those whom they did not love at first,35 their final goal being a World of Great Harmony in which people cherish not only their own parents and children, but also the parents and children of others.

Let us add: it is not the doctrine of jian-ai of the Mohists that has formulated the Chinese national character, but it is the ren of the Confucianists and its corollary, filial devotion, that has.

33 When a man reflects on himself with honesty, said Mencius, his joy is immense. Mencius. VII-1, Chapter 1, Section 4.

34 There is a positive side to this Golden Rule: A ren man would help another person to stand up, when he wants to stand up himself; he would help another person to get ahead, when he wants to get ahead himself.

1.10 Relax in the Arts

The last of the four steps is relax in the arts. The arts in question are the six arts taught in the government schools, which Confucius let the sons of the common people share with the sons of nobility, in his own private school.

What did he mean by relax in? The Chinese original for these two English words is you. It means: to swim like a fish, to go to places and have fun, to play. Confucius wanted his students to tackle the six arts like a fish swimming in a stream, studying and learning in a leisurely manner. The answers to their questions would come to them automatically after some time, like clean waters coming to the rice fields, when they had habituated themselves with the technique of these arts. They could play with these arts, in fact, as if they were washing their feet in the warm water of a spring. Du Yu of the Jin Dynasty, wrote an excellent description of this method of instruction used by Confucius.36

35 Mencius. VII-2, Chapter 1, Section 1.

36 In the preface of his Commentary on the Zuo-zhuan.

Among the six arts, the li was the most important. The five other arts, namely, music, archery driving, writing, and mathematics, were useful, too, but not as indispensable as the li.

For instance, an archer had to know the li such as what he should do when he started participating in a contest. But a specialist in the li did not have to know archery.

A knowledge of the li is a prerequisite to a student in music, driving, writing, or mathematics, in a similar manner, as well as to a man aspiring to reach the Dao.

What was the li? It was many things put together, almost culture itself. It covered an individual’s day-to-day movements, a society’s customs, and a state’s institutions.

An individual must look decent, stand and walk in a gesture acceptable to others, talk in audible and comprehensible tones, do his chores to keep his house or room clean, yield precedence to the elders when getting in and out of the doors, and carry on conversations with friends or strangers in a polite way. Without learning the li, Confucius told his son Kong Li (532 B.C.−483 B.C.), you would not know where and how to stand.37

There were, in the time of Confucius, ceremonies for putting on the hat for some young mean (a kind of initiation rite), for an archery contest, for a drinking fiesta among fellow-villagers, etc. There were also events similar to what we have today: funerals, weddings, trips to the ancestors’ tombs or making offerings to the ancestors at the clan’s temple or at one’s own home. All such ceremonies and events were regulated by the li.

In the political field, what we understand as laws and regulations today were considered as parts of the li. Administrative and judicial institutions, systems in education and landownership, military structure, and diplomatic relationships, were all governed by the li.

37 Analects. XVI-13.

The importance of the li can never be overstated. It was the demarcation between China and her barbarian neighbors, between civilization and savagery, between man and animal, or, as Tu An-dao had said, between a gentleman and a villain.38

The li was the trunk of a state, in the opinion of Guo, a palace historian at the royal court of Zhou.39 To Shu-xiang, a statesman in the marquisate of Jin, it was a good vehicle for the government’s policies.40 Zi-chan, the most influential man of Zheng, and earldom, went even further by saying, The li is the principle of Heaven, the meaning of Earth, and the right path for the people.41

To the anonymous author of the Zuo-zhuan, who hesitated to give to the li such religious attributes, the li was nevertheless the regulator of the state, the guardian of the temples, the keeper of order among the people, and protector of the ruler’s heir.42

It was customary for people to make estimations of a person with the li as a criterion, that is, according to whether the person in question behaved or not by the standards of the li. Sometimes they even made predictions on that person’s fortunes or the future of that person’s state or army on the strength of this criterion.

Confucius, being an educator, had no use for predictions or fortune-telling. He believed in the li’s effectiveness in preventing crime and building up orderly habits. He used the li to make the education of his students complete by giving them a balanced training in civilian and military subjects, the li being the best course for citizenship while archery and driving were martial arts. Writing and mathematics were skills which could help the students in any careers they chose.

38 Tu An-dao. Biographies of the Qing Confucianists. Taipei, 1967, Vol. 1, 28.

39 Zuo-zhuan. Year 11 of Xi-gong.

40 Ibid. Year 21 of Xiang-gong.

41 Ibid. Year 25 of Zhao-gong.

42 Ibid. Year 11 of Yin-gong.

Confucius, whose expertise in the li was recognized even by an enemy of his,43 was anything but a conservative. He knew very well that the li, like everything else, had to change with time. The Three Royal Dynasties (Xia, Shang, and Zhou) did not have the same li, he said.44

He also said that the rules of the li were not good or bad by themselves. They were good or bad depending upon whether or not they met the needs of a particular case at a particular time. And, whenever necessary, rules never used by the ancient kings should be promulgated, if they were appropriate.45

Sun Yi-rang (1848−1908), a well-known scholar of the late Qing Dynasty and author of two books on the li of Zhou, had the courage to say that many ancient rules of the li were just vestiges of the past.46 What mattered, in his opinion, was the spirit, not the wording of those rules. Those among us who wish to restore everything ancient do not really know the history of the li.

Much has changed, at least in form. People used to kowtow (prostrate) to each other; now they bow. Land used to belong to the king under the Early Zhou, with each farming family ordered to till 100 mow for its own needs and 12.5 mow for the king. Now, in Taiwan, China, it is owned by farming families. Ceremonies for funerals and weddings have also changed. And we do not have any longer a ceremony for the putting on the hat (reaching the age of 19).

But, in the midst of all these changes, there has been one thing which has never changed. This one thing is the spirit or, in the language of Confucius, the ben (basis). This spirit or basis of the li is nothing else. It is ren.

What can a man do about the li, asked Confucius, if this man is not ren47 The li, the li! he exclaimed on another occasion, does the li mean just a bundle of gifts in jades and silks?48

43 Zuo-zhuan. Year 10 of Ting-gong.

44 Record of Music. The Book of Rites.

45 The Conveyance of Rites. The Book of Rites.

46 Chang Chi-yun. On Sun Yi-rang. Chinese National Thought. Taipei: Cheng-chung Book Co., 1951, 46.

47 Analects. III-3.

48 Ibid. XVII-11.

Ren is the spirit and basis of the li, because all ceremonies become a farce if the men performing them had no desire to behave like men, that is, with true emotions and feelings, and with a willingness to qualify as real men as much as they could.

This is why Confucius once said, A funeral with a lot of display and not enough of mourning is not as good as a funeral with much respectful feeling for the dead, though not enough of a display. And it is only natural for the sage to advise some of his students, In the matter of ceremonies, frugality is better than extravagance.49

1.11 Man’s Mind, Nature, and Sentiments

Man’s mind is like a boat’s rudder. It needs to be controlled.50

Among all the students of Confucius, only Yan Hui succeeded in directing his mind along the tracks of ren of three months in a row. Others could do it for a month or so, or for just a single day.51 Confucius admitted he had to be as old as 70 years of age before he managed to follow his mind’s whims without violating the rules of propriety.52

Most people do not seem to know that they have a mind which may perform wonders for them or bring disasters to them. They just ignore it. All they do is eating all day.53

Zeng Shen, one of the youngest among the sage’s students, was destined to transmit the Dao to later generations of disciples. He discovered that the mind needed rectification if he wanted to make good use of it. Four emotions usually exercise bad influences on the mind: anger, fear, exhilaration, and worry. The way to rectify one’s mind is to get rid of these four emotions.54

49 Tan-gong. The Book of Rites; Analects. III-4.

50 Can any man sail a boat in the right direction, said Luo Lun of the Ming period, without adjusting his rudder first? Biographies of the Ming Confucianists. Vol. 2, 391.

51 Analects. VI-5.

52 Ibid. II-4.

53 Ibid. XVII-22.

54 The Great Learning. Chapter 7.

Once the mind is rectified, a man can easily change himself, his family, his state, and his world. For mind is the center of the person in question, and this person is, although he may not be aware of it, the center of Heaven and Earth. Wang Ying-lin (1223−1296) was positive about that.55

The mind could be more than the center of Heaven and Earth, by being the center of that person or any person. It possibly is also the whole universe, and the universe may be, at least subjectively, nothing but the mind of a person, a person like Lu Jiu-yuan (Master of Xiang-shan, 1139−1192).56

It can also be reason itself, according to Wang Shou-ren (Yang- ming). Wang believed no reason existed outside the mind; and no shi (affair, thing) existed outside the mind. The mind is reason, because it knows how to arrange things. The mind is also virtue, because it has compassion (ren) and the ability to distinguish right from wrong (yi,). All a man needs to do, in order to find a right answer to a question, is to search his own mind. His liang-zhi (good intuitive knowledge) is there.57

This concept of liang-zhi, Wang had taken from one of the sayings of Mencius.58 Mencius affirmed man was born with a good mind which contained the embryos of ren, yi, li, and wisdom. Because, Mencius said, all men had a sense of compassion when they saw a baby approaching a well and in danger of falling into it, and all men had a sense of shame, a sense of yielding to the elders, and a sense of right and wrong. These four senses were, according to Mencius, in the mind of everybody.59

Mencius had elaborated an exclusive theory about the goodness of human nature with such theories of his own and some ideas which he derived from the teachings of Confucius. Confucius did say, in fact, that people were not very different in their nature, and it was the habits which separated them.60

55 Biographies of the Song and Yuan Confucianists. Vol. 4, 1037.

56 Lu Jiu-yuan. Complete Works. Taipei: Chung-hwa Book Co.

57 Chang Chi-yun. Essays on Wang Yang-ming. Taipei: Hua- kang Book Co., 1972, 11.

58 Mencius. VII-1, Chapter 15, Section 1.

59 Ibid. VI -1, Chapter 6, Section 7.

60 Analects. XVII-2.

It has been debated since the time of Mencius, among Chinese scholars, over the question whether Confucius ever said anything that human nature was basically or originally good. Gu Yan-wu (Ting-lin, 1613−1682) took the stand that Confucius implied this thesis of Mencius’s. How could Confucius have said that people were not very different in their nature, if he also thought there were men of good nature and men of bad nature at the same time?61

We might add that Confucius never said anything which suggested the opposite thesis offered by Xun-zi, the thesis on the badness of human nature.

There is a song in The Book of Songs, which says:

Heaven gave birth to multitudes of people, Endowing them with both matter and principle. The people hold their ritual vessels up,

To thank Heaven for good virtue they received.62

The principle thus endowed by Heaven constituted what Zi-si was going to call (human) nature. Confucius, when he explained this song in