It is not clear whether Shuliang and Zhengzai were ever actually married, or whether she simply became his concubine.4 In China at this time it was already common for men of wealth and status to have a first wife and one or more concubines, or ‘er nail’, literally, ‘second wives’. As in other cultures with similar traditions, this practice was maintained to ensure the birth of a son and heir, thus guaranteeing the continuation of the family line. Generally, the first wife held the highest status, and the second wife or concubine had little power or say within the household. However, if the first wife did not bear a son, her status could be threatened by a concubine who produced a male heir. Such a concubine immediately gained higher rank within the family as the mother of the heir, leading to much wrangling and jealousy among the wives as they tried to maintain their own position. Because of the cost of supporting multiple wives and large numbers of children, it was usually only men of considerable means who could afford this practice. It was typical in the case of China’s emperors, and over the centuries some were known to keep hundreds, even thousands, of concubines. Confucius’ father, however, was not a rich man. Although he had a certain standing as manager of the district of Zou, his large family appears to have been a strain on his resources. Before Confucius was born Shuliang already had ten children, and some scholars have suggested that the mother of his disabled son was actually a second wife or concubine,5 meaning that Confucius’ mother may have been a second concubine and that after Confucius was born Shuliang had a total of three women and eleven children to support, quite a burden for a man of his income. It is not clear from records what became of the first two mothers of Shu-liang’s children, and we know very little about how the various wives and children lived and related to each other, though we can assume that life was not easy for any of them, especially after Shuliang eventually died.
Whatever her status, Zhengzai is said to have been a strong-willed woman, and she was clearly pragmatic too. Although she was surely disappointed to be marrying such an old man, she understood the importance of bearing a son for Shuliang before he died. According to the traditional accounts of her pregnancy, she and Shuliang visited Mount Ni, a sacred hill near their home, and prayed hard for a son. There are many legends that tell of miraculous happenings during the time between this prayer and Confucius’ birth, no doubt created by followers to demonstrate his great spiritual power and importance. In one legend, as Zhengzai descended from Mount Ni, all the trees and plants bowed down to her in respect. That same night she is said to have dreamed that Di appeared to her and told her that she would have a son who would become a sage, and that she should give birth to him in a hollow mulberry tree. Soon afterwards, she had another dream in which five elderly men who represented the spirits of the five planets6 came to her leading a qilin, a mythical unicorn-like creature who only appeared when a truly great and virtuous individual was in the world (or about to enter it). The qilin knelt before her and cast forth from its mouth a jade tablet bearing an inscription saying that she would give birth to the son of the essence of water and that he would succeed the Zhou dynasty, but as a king without a throne. Zhengzai then tied an embroidered ribbon around the horn of the qilin, and the beast disappeared.7
Her son was eventually born in the twenty-second year of the reign of Duke Xiang of Lu, or 551 BC.8 According to the legends, his birth was also a magical event. Following the advice she had been given in her first dream, Zhengzai found a cave in a nearby hill that was known as the ‘hollow mulberry tree’ and prepared for her labour there. On the night of Confucius’ birth, legend tells, two dragons guarded the left and the right of the hill and Heavenly maidens flew above the cave, bathing Zhengzai in perfume. When her son was born, a spring of clear water bubbled up from the cave and, after the boy was bathed in it, dried up again. More legends tell of the baby having various extraordinary physical features, including a mouth like the sea, lips like an ox’s and the back of a dragon.9
As was common during the Zhou dynasty, Confucius was given two names, a personal name, or ming, a sort of affectionate nickname used only by oneself and one’s elders, and a ‘style’ name, or zi, which was conferred on males at twenty when they came of age and which was used to address them by adults of the same generation on formal occasions and in writing. His personal name was Qiu, meaning ‘mound’. According to the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian, this was because he had a small indentation on his head that resembled a small hill.10 In addition, his parents had prayed for a son at Mount Ni, or Ni Qiu, so the nickname had a double significance. Because of his position in Shuliang’s family he was given the style name of Zhongni, or ‘Second Son’, although he was to be the only son who mattered in terms of the family line. So as a child he was known as Kong Qiu, and as a young man he was formally addressed as Kong Zhongni. The name Kong Fuzi or Kongzi was given to him later when he became a respected teacher, both names showing reverence and translating roughly as ‘Master Kong’. (The name ‘Kong Fuzi’ was Latinised as ‘Confucius’ by Jesuits priests who arrived in China in the late sixteenth century.)
Unfortunately, as a child Confucius does not seem to have enjoyed a very stable family life. It is not clear where his father lived after Confucius was born. He may have remained with his first wife and their children, but it is also possible that he left his first wife to be with the mother of his only healthy son. We do know, however, that when Confucius was only three years old Shuliang died, leaving his mother a young widow and Confucius with little memory of a father. He and his mother lived together in a home that was separate from Shuliang’s first family. From some accounts, his other wife and her children were unfriendly to Confucius and his mother, and did not even invite them to Shuliang’s funeral, presumably because by producing the male family heir, Zhengzai had diminished the status of the first wife.11 Although Shuliang was no doubt grateful to Zhengzai for his healthy son, he had not been a wealthy man. After he died, it seems that what little was left of his estate was used for dowries for his nine daughters and for the care of his invalid son.
As a single mother with relatively low status and very little money, Zhengzai did her best to meet her son’s needs and worked hard to give him a good education. She made especially sure that he was taught the details of the rituals that he would need to perform to honour his father and the rest of his family ancestors, since carrying out such rites to protect the family had been the very reason for his birth. As a loyal son he would have been expected to prepare offerings of food, drink and incense for the ancestors and to know how, when and where to place the vessels on the family altar. The young Confucius appears to have thoroughly enjoyed learning about these rituals, so much so that when other children played with regular toys, he was said to have pretended to conduct a rite by laying out bowls and cups on a table as if they were offering vessels on an altar.12 Many of the ceremonies and social forms of the age were later recorded in The Book of Rites, a text which became one of the great Confucian classics and which many historians believed that Confucius compiled. Although Confucius was devoted to traditional ritual and protocol from his childhood onwards, it is unlikely that he was the author of this major work.
Another part of his early education was to learn the lyrics and melodies of the traditional songs and hymns that had survived from the earlier part of the Zhou dynasty and before. Many of these songs were about basic human issues, including love, marriage, work and war, and some were hymns reserved for ceremonial occasions.13 The following verse may have been among the songs that Confucius learned as a child. A type of love divination, the playful verse is reminiscent of the rhyme ‘he loves me, he loves me not’, and would have appealed to children and adults alike.
Plop Fall the Plums
Plop fall the plums; but there are still seven.
Let those gentlemen that would court me
Come while it is lucky!
Plop fall the plums; but there are still three.
Let any gentleman that would court me
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Come before it is too late!
Plop fall the plums, in shallow baskets we lay them.
Any gentleman who would court me
Had better speak while there is time.14
Songs such as these were not only instructional about the ways of the world and the roles of different people in society, but they also probably gave comfort and pleasure to the young Confucius and his mother in their impoverished home. His love of traditional songs remained with him throughout his life and, as a teacher, he encouraged children to learn them as he had done, since they ‘can provide you with stimulation and with observation, with a capacity for communion and with a vehicle for grief.’15 This suggests that when he was a child the songs had helped him cope with the many difficulties he faced without money or a father. When he became a teacher, he often cited passages from certain songs to illustrate important points in his lessons to his students, including his own son, and he constantly reminded them that The Book of Songs was an essential part of any gentleman’s education. In part, these traditional songs and their accompanying music reminded him of an age when society was more harmonious (and so was the music),16 and on many occasions he is said to have been profoundly moved when hearing them.17
It is likely that he learned about rituals and songs from his mother and other family members and friends, and most likely in a home setting. Even though he was poor it is also possible that the young Confucius attended a local school, but there is no reliable information confirming this. One legend tells of his attending a school in the neighbouring state of Qi when he was seven years old, but this would have been unlikely because of the distance and expense required to do so.18 Most probably, Confucius had a mixture of home schooling and classes with local teachers, perhaps in small, informal classrooms, much like those he himself taught when he was older. Later in his life, according to The Analects, Confucius commented on his upbringing and education, implying that they were far from adequate for one with his social aspirations. ‘In my youth, I was poor. Therefore, I had to become adept at a variety of lowly skills. Does such versatility befit a gentleman? No it does not.19 Because he grew up with little money and no father, he would have had to assist his mother with many practical tasks at home, and by doing so he learned the ‘lowly skills’ of which he later spoke. These tasks no doubt took him away from his studies, which he would surely have lamented at the time. However, although he apparently considered himself less of a gentleman for possessing such skills, he did not seem to regret the trials of his childhood, since by helping his mother he was being a good, filial son.
Although it is unclear where Confucius received much of his education, we can assume from his famous statement in The Analects – ‘At fifteen, I set my mind upon learning’20 – that he was a dedicated student from an early age. He was an avid student of history and read many of the historical texts written during the Zhou dynasty. These books contained records about the major events and personages of the Zhou dynasty and preceding Shang and Xia dynasties. They also included tales of legendary emperors of the pre-dynastic age, such as Yao, a man of great virtue, Shun, who developed agriculture and established an education system, and Yu, who tamed the floods.
One source of these tales was The Book of History, a compilation of historical records that probably existed in some form in Confucius’ day. Considered the earliest Chinese narrative text, this volume was likely well known to Confucius, and in The Analects he refers to it, though not as often as he does to The Book of Songs and The Book of Rites. The following passage from The Book of History is typical of the type of legend that no doubt fuelled Confucius’ imagination and spirit as a young student of history. It describes how Emperor Yu struggled to conquer the Miao, or San Miao, people by force, but finally won them over by demonstrating to them his great virtue:
20 The emperor said, ‘Alas! O Yu, there is only the prince of the Miao, who refuses obedience; do you go and correct him.’ Yu on this assembled all the princes, and made a speech to the host, saying, ‘Ye multitudes, listen all to my orders. Stupid is this prince of [the] Miao,ignorant, erring, and disrespectful. Despiteful and insolent to others, he thinks that all ability and virtue are with himself. A rebel to right, he destroys all the obligations of virtue. Superior men are kept by him in obscurity, and mean men fill all the offices. The people reject and will not protect him. Heaven is sending calamities down upon him. On this account I have assembled you, my multitude of gallant men, and bear the instructions of the emperor to punish his crimes. Do you proceed with united heart and strength, so shall our enterprise be crowned with success.’
21 At the end of three decades, the people of [the] Miao continued rebellious against the emperor’s commands, when Yi came to the help of Yu, saying, ‘It is virtue which moves Heaven; there is no distance to which it does not reach. Pride brings loss, and humility receives increase: this is the way of Heaven. In the early time of the emperor, when he was living by Mount Li, he went into the fields and daily cried with tears to compassionate Heaven, and to his parents, taking to himself and bearing all guilt and evil. At the same time, with respectful service, he appeared before Gu Sou, looking grave and awe-struck, till Gu also became truly transformed by his example. Entire sincerity moves spiritual beings; how much more will it move this prince of [the] Miao!’ Yu did homage to the excellent words and said, ‘Yes.’ Thereupon he led back his army, having drawn off the troops. The emperor also set about diffusing his accomplishments and virtue more widely. They danced with shields and feathers between the two staircases of the court. In seventy days the prince of Miao came to make his submission.21
As a student Confucius probably relished such tales of heroism and bravery, of good vanquishing evil and of virtue conquering all. Although the tales of the ancient rulers were based largely on legend and the stories of the Western Zhou rulers were related from the biased point of view of Zhou historians, they made a strong impression on young Confucius and he carried them with him as he grew older. Later in his life as a teacher, he cited the ancient kings Yao and Shun as rulers of exceptional moral calibre, and often compared the kings and dukes of his own time with more virtuous rulers of days gone by. Because of his love of history and his references to people and events of the past in his teachings, Confucius is closely associated with The Book of History, although he was probably not one of its authors or compilers. Along with the other two books, The Book of Songs and The Book of Rites, The Book of History became one of the great Confucian classics and was later considered essential reading for anyone hoping to achieve a position in government.
When Confucius was eighteen or nineteen he married a young woman of the Qiguan family from the state of Song, whence his distant ancestors hailed. Little is known about his wife (including her name!), other than that she bore him a son and two daughters, one of whom died as a child. Not much is known either about their marriage. In fact, the historian Sima Qian does not even mention it in his biography of Confucius. Some sources suggest that it was stormy and ended in divorce when the couple were in their early forties.22 If their marriage was indeed troubled, this would not be surprising considering his childhood: he grew up without being able closely to observe a husband–wife relationship. Even if his father had lived longer, the age difference between his father and mother would have been unusual and potentially problematic. However, whatever the state of their marriage, it is worth noting that at the Temple of Confucius in Qufu, one of the halls is dedicated to his wife and contains an altar with an ancestor tablet for her. Furthermore, in the section of the temple used by the descendants of Confucius, the main altar is dedicated to him and his wife, so they are revered as a couple, suggesting that their marriage may have been solid.23
Having lost his father so young, Confucius probably had no memory of a father–child bond either, and this may have affected his own relationship with his children. From texts, we are provided with very little material about them. We know that around 530 BC his wife bore him a son
, which was, of course, of great importance to his family and the continuation of his line. To commemorate the occasion the Duke of Lu sent the family two carp fish, a gesture that suggests that Confucius must have enjoyed some rank and respect in the state of Lu despite his lack of wealth. In thanks, Confucius gave his son the personal name Li, meaning ‘carp’. Apparently the boy was known by the nickname Boyu, or ‘Top Fish’, from the characters Bo meaning eldest brother, and yu meaning fish.24
We also know that his son went on to become one of his disciples, though it seems that Boyu was not given special treatment over the others. The following excerpt from The Analects offers us a glimpse of Confucius’ relations with his only son:
Chen Ziqin asked Confucius’ son: ‘Have you received any special teaching from your father?’ The other replied: ‘No. Once, as he was standing alone, and I was discreetly crossing the courtyard, he asked me, “Have you studied the Poems?” I replied: “No.” He said: “If you do not study the Poems, you will not be able to hold your own in any discussion.” I withdrew and studied the Poems. Another day, as he was again standing alone and I was discreetly crossing the courtyard, he asked me, “Have you studied the ritual?” I replied “No.” He said: “If you do not study the ritual, you will not be able to take your stand in society.” I withdrew and studied the ritual. These are the two teachings I received.’
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