#101 The Sage: Confucius

Statue of Confucius at the entrance of the Confucius Temple in Beijing. Photo by Mr. Hall.
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China before Confucius

Thinking about technology and states are good, loose ways of showing the bigger context of our first two units:

• Late Neolithic cultures, including the Xia (夏 2205-1766 BCE).
  • Brought settled agriculture and the domestication of animals, pottery, and use of metal tools to the North China Plain.
  • This time period corresponded with the height of the early Egyptian and Indus civilizations.
• Bronze cultures, including the Shang (商 1766-1122 BCE), early or “Western” Zhou (Xi Zhou 西周 1122-772 BCE), and the two periods of the later or “Eastern” Zhou Dong Zhou 東周: The Spring and Autumn period (Chunqiu 春秋 771-401 BCE) and Warring States period (Zhanguo 戰國 401-221 BCE).
  • Development from proto-writing to regionally-standardized writing systems, urbanization, and of course bronze implements. These changes also resulted in emergence of social stratification.
  • Beginning of this period concurrent with Hammurabi's Code in Babylon (1750 BCE); the period closer to Confucius overlaps with the first Persian Empire and the Greek city states and has been termed the “Axial Age”:
    • “The most extraordinary events are concentrated in this period, Confucius and Lao-tse were living in China, all the schools of Chinese philosophy came into being, including those of Mo-ti, Chuang-tse, Lieh-tsu and a host of others; India produced the Upanishads and Buddha and, like China, ran the whole gamut of philosophical possibilities down to scepticism, to materialism, sophism and nihilism; in Iran Zarathustra taught a challenging view of the world as a struggle between good and evil; in Palestine the prophets made their appearance, from Elijah by way of Isaiah and Jeremiah to Deutero-Isaiah; Greece witnessed the appearance of Homer, of the philosophers Parmenides, Heraclitus and Plato of the tragedians, Thucydides and Archimedes. Everything implied by these names developed during these few centuries almost simultaneously in China, India, and the West, without any one of these regions knowing of the others.”--Karl Jaspers, The Origin and Goal of History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953), 2.

​Late Neolithic Cultures and Bronze Age China. Source: Patricia Buckley Ebrey, The Cambridge Illustrated History of China, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2010), 28.

​The Axial Age in Chinese History. Source: Mr. Hall. (Download as PDF)

North China Plain during the late Spring and Autumn period (5th century BCE). Source: Wikimedia.

​Confucius: Life and Times

For our next part, we will rely on very brief interviews with noted historians. This will be a three-step process:

View the clip (text is provided for reference).	Find at least one piece of textual support from Wills that supports and elaborates this claim.	Dig deeper: Based on the evidence you have collected, attempt to resolve some key questions.
“China at the Time of Confucius” (0:43)	Textual support & elaboration	Why, at a time of great political uncertainty and social dislocation did philosophical life flourish on the North China Plain?
Who Was Confucius? (0:34)	Textual support & elaboration	Why is Confucius’s class background important to understanding the trajectory of his life and his early influence?
What Did Confucius Do? (0:22)	Textual support & elaboration	Why is the role of the shi 士 important to understanding this time period?

Confucius: What did he think?

The second part of class will be dedicated to more open roundtable discussion dedicated to the thought of Confucius.

• First, we will take a few minutes to examine the quotes we have bracketed (particularly those from pages 16-30) as well as the questions from the last two nights that are relevant to the discussion. Once we have all had a chance to review and reflect, we will organize the statement cutouts into “Confucian ideas” and “not Confucian ideas” on the board. All disagreements should defer to the quotes in the book for evidence.
• When we have reached consensus, we will open the table up for discussion:
  • How might Confucius’s times influenced his beliefs?
  • How does Confucius see the role of the state in society? What might be the advantages and disadvantages to such an approach?
  • What are the distinguishing attributes of a gentleman (junzi 君子) or proper adherence to the Way (dao 道)? Which of these appeal to you? Which do you find yourself questioning?
  • Similarly, is it possible to live by Confucius's teachings today? Which seem most appropriate? Which might need to be adjusted?
  • Do you see similarities between his ideas and other thinkers with whom you are familiar? How would his more political ideals align with the viewpoints of the main political parties in the United States today?
  • After reading this chapter, are you surprised that he is so revered across much of East Asia today? Why or why not? How do you find yourself responding to his ideas?

​​Homework: Assignment #102