Confucianism

Confucius, Kong Fuzi or “Master Kong”, was born in 551 BCE in the small state of Lu, in today’s Shandong province, at a time when the old order of the Zhou dynasty was breaking down. He sought office to put his ideas into practice, wandered for years among rival courts, and spent most of his life teaching. He died in 479 BCE, believing he had failed.

His disciples gathered his sayings in the AnalectsAnalects The collected sayings of Confucius and his disciples. Glossary. Later thinkers, above all Mencius and Xunzi, developed his ideas. In 136 BCE the Han emperor Wu made Confucian learning the basis of state education, and from then until 1905, with interruptions, officials were chosen through examinations in the Confucian classics.

Confucian ideas spread with Chinese writing to Korea, Japan and Vietnam. From the 11th century Neo-Confucian thinkers, above all Zhu Xi, built a philosophy that dominated East Asian thought for centuries; in Korea’s Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) it became the foundation of state and society.

When Confucius died in 479 BCE, his followers were only one school among many. In the Warring States period, as rival kingdoms fought for supremacy, the ru, or scholars, competed with Mohists, Daoists and Legalists for the ear of rulers. Mencius (c. 372–289 BCE) taught that human nature is good and that a ruler who oppresses his people loses the Mandate of Heaven; Xunzi (3rd century BCE) held that people must be shaped by ritual and learning. The Qin state, which unified China in 221 BCE, governed by Legalist principles. According to the traditional account it burned the books of the schools in 213 BCE and buried scholars alive, though many historians think later Han writers exaggerated the story.

Under the Han dynasty Confucian learning rose to official favour. In 136 BCE Emperor Wu appointed scholars of the Five Classics to court posts, and an imperial academy followed in 124 BCE. The scholar Dong Zhongshu joined Confucian ethics to a cosmology of Heaven, yin and yang, and the state began regular sacrifices to Confucius. Historians debate how Confucian Han government really was; many describe it as Confucian in its ideals and Legalist in its methods. After the Han fell in 220 CE, centuries of division followed, and Buddhism and Daoism flourished at court and among the people, while Confucian ideals remained the language of family duty and state ritual. The Sui and Tang dynasties developed examinations for officials based on the classics, and the Tang writer Han Yu (768–824) attacked Buddhism and called for a return to the Way of Confucius and Mencius.

The Song dynasty (960–1279) saw the great revival known as Neo-Confucianism. Zhou Dunyi and the brothers Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi explored the relation of principle (lili Ritual propriety: the rites and right conduct that order family and society. Glossary) and vital energy (qiqi Vital energy or breath that flows through the body and the universe. Glossary), and Zhu Xi (1130–1200) drew their ideas together. His teachings were briefly banned as “false learning” in the 1190s, but in 1313 the Mongol Yuan dynasty made his commentaries on the Four Books the standard for the examinations. Under the Ming (1368–1644) Wang Yangming challenged Zhu Xi, teaching that principle is found within the mind. The Manchu rulers of the Qing (1644–1912) presented themselves as patrons of Confucian orthodoxy, while Qing scholars turned to kaozheng, “evidential research”, a careful textual study of the classics.

Beyond China, Confucian learning shaped whole societies. Korea held examinations from 958, and the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) built a Neo-Confucian state, pushing Buddhism aside; the philosophers Yi Hwang (Toegye) and Yi I (Yulgok) debated Zhu Xi’s ideas, and Confucian family rites and ancestor ceremonies spread through society. In Vietnam, the Temple of Literature was founded in Hanoi in 1070 and examinations were held from 1075 until 1919. In Japan, the Tokugawa shoguns (1603–1868) patronised Zhu Xi’s teaching, though Japan never adopted an examination system.

Europeans met Confucianism through the Jesuits. Matteo Ricci and his successors admired the tradition, and the Latin name “Confucius” comes from their writings. In the Chinese Rites controversy they argued that honouring Confucius and the ancestors was civil, not religious, but the papacy forbade Chinese Christians to take part in 1715 and again in 1742. Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire praised Confucian ethics. In the 19th century, as China faced Western and Japanese power, reformers such as Kang Youwei (1858–1927) recast Confucius as a reformer and campaigned for an official Confucian religion. The examinations were abolished in 1905, and the empire fell in 1912.

The 20th century was the hardest in the tradition’s history. The May Fourth Movement of 1919 blamed Confucian values for China’s weakness, and the Communist government that came to power in 1949 treated them as feudal. During the Cultural Revolution Red Guards damaged the temple and cemetery of Confucius at Qufu in 1966, and in 1973–1974 a national campaign denounced “Lin Biao and Confucius”. Elsewhere the tradition fared differently: governments in Taiwan promoted Confucian culture, Singapore taught Confucian ethics in schools in the 1980s, and South Korea maintained the ancient rites. In mainland China a revival began in the 1980s, and from 2004 the state gave Confucius’s name to its cultural institutes abroad.

At the heart of Confucian teaching is renren Humaneness or benevolence, the highest Confucian virtue. Glossary, humaneness or benevolence: “Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself.” It is expressed through li, ritual propriety, the forms of courtesy and ceremony that give shape to relationships.

Society rests on five relationships, ruler and subject, parent and child, husband and wife, elder and younger, friend and friend, each with mutual duties. Filial piety (xiaoxiao Filial piety: respect and care for parents and ancestors. Glossary) towards parents is the root of virtue. The ideal is the junzijunzi The “gentleman” or exemplary person, who cultivates virtue through learning and ritual. Glossary, the “exemplary person”, who cultivates himself through learning and leads others by example rather than by force.

Confucius spoke little of gods or the afterlife, but he revered Tian, Heaven, as a moral order. Rulers held the “Mandate of Heaven” only as long as they governed well.

Confucianism is lived above all in the family. Ancestors are honoured with offerings before tablets at home and in clan halls, and the dead are remembered at festivals such as Qingming.

Learning is a lifelong path of self-cultivation. For two thousand years Confucian classics formed the heart of education, and respect for teachers remains strong across East Asia.

Temples of Confucius, found in many East Asian cities, hold ceremonies in his honour with ancient music and dance. In South Korea the Seokjeon Daeje rite has been performed for centuries.

The Confucian canon has two layers. The Five Classics, older texts Confucius was believed to have edited, include the Book of Changes (YijingYijing The Book of Changes, an ancient Chinese classic of divination built on 64 hexagrams. Glossary), the Book of Odes and the Book of Rites. The Four Books, grouped by Zhu Xi in the 12th century, are the Analects, the Mencius, the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean.

From 1313 to 1905 the Four Books with Zhu Xi’s commentaries were the basis of the imperial examinations, memorised by generations of students.