30 Leys, The Analects, 13.11, 13.12, p. 62.
31 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 8.
32 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 8.
33 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 8.
34 As Legge suggests, the position he was given was more likely that of ‘chief minister’ at specific ceremonies, such as the summit meeting in Jiagu (see Legge, Confucius, p. 74, note 2). This position still, however, gave him a considerable amount of influence over the Duke and his policies.
35 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 8, and Legge, Confucius, p. 75, citing Narratives of the School, Book II.
36 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 9, and Legge, Confucius, pp. 75–6.
Chapter 6: Confucius’ Followers
1 Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, p. 63.
2 The full list is as follows. Virtue: Yan Hui, Min Ziqian, Ran Boniu, Ran Yong. Eloquence: Zai Yu, Zigong. Government: Ran Qiu, Zilu. Culture: Ziyou, Zixia. See Leys, The Analects, 11.3, p. 49.
3 Legge, Confucius, p. 115.
4 Leys, The Analects, 12.12, p. 57.
5 Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, p. 68.
6 Leys, The Analects, 7.11, p. 30.
7 Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, p. 67.
8 Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, p. 67.
9 Leys, The Analects, 11.12, p. 50.
10 Leys, The Analects, 9.12, p. 41.
11 Leys, The Analects, 5.7, p. 20.
12 Leys, The Analects, 9.27, pp. 42–43.
13 Leys, The Analects, 17.7, p. 86.
14 Chin, The Authentic Confucius, p. 91 and notes p. 233 citing, scholar Qian Mu’s argument that he sought Nanzi’s influence.
15 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 10.
16 Leys, The Analects, 6.28, p. 27.
17 Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, p. 70.
18 Leys, The Analects, 1.15, p. 5.
19 Chin, The Authentic Confucius, p. 64.
20 Leys, The Analects, 5.9, p. 20.
21 Leys, The Analects, 5.4. p. 19.
22 It seems highly unlikely that Confucius would have been impressed by Zigong’s financial success, as he considered the cultivation of the self to be more important than the cultivation of wealth. To Confucius, ‘A gentleman seeks the Way, he does not seek a living’ (Leys, The Analects, 15.32, p. 78). Over the centuries, followers of Confucius, especially Mencius, expressed a strong distaste for merchants and profit, as they believed that the desire for financial gain was antithetical to the desire to follow the Way.
23 These references to Zigong’s life and character are described by Sima Qian in Chapter VII of his history of Pre-Han China, which is devoted to Confucius’ disciples. See Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, p. 70–74.
24 Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, p. 69.
25 The Analects, 6.26, as translated in Chin, The Authentic Confucius, p. 67.
26 Leys, The Analects, 5.10, p. 20.
27 Leys, The Analects, 17.21, pp. 88–9.
28 Leys, The Analects, 16.1, p. 80.
29 Leys, The Analects, 6.4, pp. 24–5.
30 Leys, The Analects, 11.17, p. 51.
31 Chin, The Authentic Confucius, p. 84.
32 Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, p. 64, Sima Qian quotes The Analects, 6.11.
33 Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, p. 64, Sima Qian quotes The Analects, 2.9.
34 Leys, The Analects, 6.7, p. 25.
35 Leys, The Analects, 12.1, p. 55.
36 Leys, The Analects, 9.11, p. 41.
37 Leys, The Analects, 9.21, p. 42.
38 Leys, The Analects, 5.5, p. 19.
39 Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, p. 66, Sima Qian quotes The Analects, 6.1.
40 Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, p. 66, Sima Qian quotes The Analects, 6.6.
41 See Note 1.
42 Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records vol. 7, p. 65.
43 Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, p. 65, Sima Qian quotes The Analects, 6.10. See also Leys, The Analects, 6.10, p. 25 and notes p. 147.
Chapter 7: The Wandering Years
1 Legge, Confucius, p. 76, quoting The Analects, 3.24.
2 Annping Chin suggests that the border warden’s words may have been a sort of prophecy, a message to Confucius that it was Heaven’s wish for him to travel the empire rousing people – like the ringer of a bell – to follow a more righteous path. Since he was destined to be a teacher and not a government official, he should not therefore be worried about not attaining a government office. See Chin, The Authentic Confucius, p. 92.
3 Leys, The Analects, 13.7, p. 61.
4 Leys, The Analects, 14.19, p. 69.
5 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 10. According to Sima Qian’s account of Confucius’ wanderings, the teacher and his group travelled thousands of miles, staying in a total of seven different states, and moved back and forth between states several times. Annping Chin notes that the philosopher Zhuangzi, who lived 200 years earlier than Sima Qian, recorded a much simpler journey, with the group only staying in four states: Wei, Song, Chen and Cai. She maps out his possible itinerary as follows: ‘Confucius started out in Wei, went through Song to Chen and Cai and possibly to Chu (to the district of She, which is mentioned in The Analects), and, on his way back, stopped by Chen and spent a few more years in Wei before returning to Lu.’ Sima Qian’s account, on which this chapter is primarily based, depicts Confucius moving back and forth between states, for example staying in the state of Wei on at least three separate occasions. Such a chaotic journey, in which Confucius is depicted as a restless soul who cannot decide where to live, may have been described as such by Sima Qian to lend drama to his account of Confucius’ life (see Chin, The Authentic Confucius, p. 86).
6 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 10. Although Yan Hui made this famous declaration of devotion to Confucius, he died a few months before Confucius’ own death. Yan Hui’s death was devastating to Confucius, in part because of his fondness for the young man, but also because Confucius saw in him great spiritual and moral potential that would not now realised.
7 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 10.
8 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, pp. 10–11.
9 Legge, Confucius, p. 78, citing The Analects, 9.18.
10 Leys, The Analects, 11.26, p. 53.
11 Leys, The Analects, notes pp. 173–4.
12 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 11.
13 Ching, Annping, Confucius, p. 102.
14 Clements, Confucius, pp. 93–94.
15 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 11. It should be noted that physiognomy has been an important science in China from before Confucius’ time. According to its practitioners, one’s facial features reveal one’s character and one’s fate, so the comparison of Confucius’ forehead, neck and shoulders with those of legendary heroes is significant. He had the features of someone great, yet he appeared as bedraggled as a stray dog.
16 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 11.
17 Yang and Yang translate the Chinese term Nuzhen as Churchen (Jurchen) (Records of the Historian, pp. 11–12). This is a mistranslation. The Sushen and Jurchen, while inhabiting a similar region in the north, were separated by more than a thousand years. There is no evidence that they are related. (Conversation with Jonathan Markley, March 2009.)
18 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, pp. 11–12.
19 Clements, Confucius, p. 95.
20 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 12.
21 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 12.
22 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 13.
23 Leys, The Analects, 17.7, p. 86, and Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 13.
24 Yang and Yang, Records of
the Historian, pp. 13–14.
25 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 14.
26 There is some disagreement about the timing of Ran Qiu’s appointment. Some scholars have him leaving Confucius and returning to Lu three to four years into his wandering period. I am following Siam Qian’s account here, which places Ran Qiu’s departure a few years later. See Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 15.
27 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 16.
28 Leys, The Analects, 13.18, p. 63.
29 The case was also cited by Han Feizi (d. 233 BC), a Legalist thinker of the Qin dynasty, who, in his discussions of the inconsistencies within different social relationships and the need for laws to control society, pointed out the paradox that a man like Upright Gong could at once be ‘honest in the service of his sovereign but a villain to his own father’. See de Bary, William Theodore (general editor), Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 1 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1960, rev. 1999), p. 201.
30 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 16.
31 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, pp. 16–17.
32 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 17.
33 Annping Chin points out that it was very unlikely that the men of Cai and Chen would have worked together to stop Confucius reaching Chu, as they were themselves enemies. She suggests it is more likely that Confucius and his followers simply became lost in the wilderness and had no plan to fall back on in case of trouble. To Sima Qian, a jealous enemy forcing Confucius into adverse circumstances made for a more exciting story than a lost group of travellers (see Chin, The Authentic Confucius, p. 108).
34 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 19.
35 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, pp. 20–21.
36 Chin, The Authentic Confucius, p. 92, citing Mencius 3B:3, from Mengzi Zhengyi, pp. 247–51.
Chapter 8: The Final Years
1 Chin, The Authentic Confucius, p. 123.
2 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 21.
3 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 21.
4 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 21.
5 Leys, The Analects, 12.19, p. 58.
6 Chin, The Authentic Confucius, pp. 125–6.
7 Leys, The Analects, 11.17, p. 51.
8 Chin, The Authentic Confucius, p. 130.
9 Chin, The Authentic Confucius, p. 130.
10 Leys, The Analects, 12.6, p. 56.
11 Leys, The Analects, 12.10, p. 57.
12 Leys, The Analects, 2.18, p. 8.
13 Leys, The Analects, 15.6, pp. 74–5. It should be noted that, according to Sima Qian, this exchange happened while Confucius was travelling between Chen and Cai and Zizhang was with him, suggesting that he may have been a student before Confucius’ return to Lu. See Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, p. 75.
14 Leys, The Analects, 11.3, p. 49.
15 Leys, The Analects, 13.17, p. 63.
16 Leys, The Analects, 3.8, p. 11. Note that Confucius had a similar discussion with an older student, Zigong, about a poem in The Book of Songs and paid Zigong a similar compliment. See Leys, The Analects, 1.15, p. 5.
17 In the same chapter of The Analects, two verses quote Zizhang regarding virtue and morality (19.1, 19.2), while one (19.3) describes a disagreement between Zizhang and Zixia about Confucius’ teachings on friendship and social intercourse.
18 Leys, The Analects, 11.16, p. 51.
19 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, pp. 21–2.
20 For a fuller discussion of the role of Confucius in the creation of China’s literary classics, see Li Sijing, Sources of the Confucian Tradition: The Five Classics and the Four Books (Jinn: Shandong Friendship Press, 1998).
21 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 25.
22 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 25.
23 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 22. The earliest Chinese books were scrolls resembling modern rattan placemats.They were made out of vertical bamboo or wooden strips that were bound together with thongs; Chinese characters were written vertically, from top to bottom and from right to left. These books were unrolled for reading and then rolled up again for storage.
24 For more on Confucius and these early texts, see Loewe, Michael (editor), Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide (Berkeley:University of California, Berkeley, 1993).
25 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 23.
26 Leys, The Analects, 6.22, p. 27.
27 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 23.
28 Clements, Confucius, pp. 105–6, from Shaughnessy, E., I Ching:The Classic of Changes (New York: Ballantine, 1996) p. 238.
29 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 24.
30 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 23.
31 Leys, The Analects, 10.19, p. 47.
32 Clements, Confucius, p. 109, from Chen, K. and Hu Zhihui (editors), Zuo’s Commentary (Changsha, Hunan People’s Press, 1997).
33 Leys, The Analects, 5.9, p. 20.
34 Leys, The Analects, 11.9, p. 50.
35 Sima Qian records Yan Hui’s death before the sighting of the qilin, so the symbolism of the creature is even more poignant for him, as he felt he had no successor. See Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 24.
36 Leys, The Analects, 11.10, p. 50.
37 Leys, The Analects, 11.11, p. 50.
38 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 25.
39 Legge, Confucius, p. 87, quoting the Liji, II, Section I.ii, 20.
40 Yang and Yang, Records of the Historian, p. 26.
Conclusion:
The Legacy of Confucius and His Teachings
1 Leys, The Analects, 15.20, p. 76.
2 For a fascinating exploration of this issue, see Fingarette, Herbert, Confucius: The Secular as Sacred (Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc., 1972).
3 Although I agree that Confucianism has characteristics both of a religion and a political ideology, I am more comfortable with the term ‘philosophy’ when referring to it. For the sake of simplicity, I will refer to Confucianism as a philosophy throughout this chapter.
4 Waley, Arthur, Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China (Stanford:Stanford University Press, 1982), p. 83.
5 De Bary, Sources of Chinese Tradition, p. 92.
6 De Bary, Sources of Chinese Tradition, p. 94, quoting from the Mencius, I A:3, I A:7 and VII A:22.
7 De Bary, Sources of Chinese Tradition, p. 104, quoting from the Xunzi, Chapter 23.
8 De Bary, Sources of Chinese Tradition, p. 141, citing Sima Qian, 6:23b or for a counterbalance to Sima Qian’s account of the Confucian martyrs under the First Emperor, see Ulrich Neininger, ‘Burning the Scholars: on the origin of a Confucian martyrs legend’ in Wolfram Eberhard, Krzystof Gawlikowski and Carl Albrecht Seyschab (eds.) East Asian Civilisation: new attempts at understanding traditions (2) Nation and Mythology, n.p., Simon and Magiera, 1983
9 De Bary, Sources of Chinese Tradition, p. 146.
10 Loewe, Michael, Ways to Paradise: The Chinese Quest for Immortality (Taipei: SMC Publishing Inc., 1979), p. 3.
11 Not all Han dynasty Confucianists believed in the synthesis of Daoist beliefs in yin and yang and the Five Elements with the teachings of Confucius. Those who did were part of what was known as the New Text School, in part because they based their understanding of Confucius’ teachings on early Han dynasty texts written in a new script developed in the Qin dynasty. Those Han Confucianists who opposed what they considered to be the superstition and supernaturalism of the New Text School formed the Old Text School, which looked to surviving Zhou dynasty texts written in ancient script as a source of the true teachings of Confucius.
12 Loewe, Ways to Paradise, pp. 7–8.
13 De Bary, Sources of Chinese Tradition, p. 369.
14 De Bary, Sources of Chinese Tradition, p. 491.
15 For a discussion of the impact of Neo-Confucianism on Chinese gov
ernment and culture from the twelfth to seventeenth centuries, see Bol, Peter K., Neo-Confucianism in History (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center [East Asian Monographs], 2008).
16 Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, Walthall, Anne, Palais, James B., East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006) pp. 281–2.
17 For an examination of the work of Qing Evidential Research scholars, see Elman, Benjamin A., From Philosophy to Philology: Intellectual and Social Aspects of Change in Late Imperial China (Los Angeles: UCLA Asia Institute [Asian Pacific Monographs series], 2001).
18 See Ambrose Y.C. King’s chapter, ‘State Confucianism and Its Transformation: The Restructuring of the State-Society in Taiwan’, in Tu Wei-Ming (editor), Confucian Traditions in East Asian Modernity: Moral Education and Economic Culture in Japan and the Four Mini-Dragons (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: Harvard University Press/American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1996).
19 Koh Byong-ik, ‘Confucianism in Contemporary Korea’, in Tu Wei-Ming, Confucian Traditions in East Asian Modernity, p. 191.
20 Eckert, Carter J. et al., Korea Old and New: A History (Seoul:Ilchokak Publishers/Cambridge, Korea Institute, Harvard University, 1990), p. 37.
21 Eckert, Korea Old and New: A History, p. 64.
22 Eckert, Korea Old and New: A History, p. 73.
23 See Connor, Mary E. (editor), The Koreas (Santa Barbara, CA:ABC-CLIO Publishers, 2009), Chapter 5 (c): ‘Women and Marriage’, pp. 197–9.
24 Koh Byong-ik, ‘Confucianism in Contemporary Korea’, in Tu Wei-Ming, Confucian Traditions in East Asian Modernity, p. 192.
25 Connor, The Koreas, Chapter 5: ‘Religion and Thought’, p. 175.
26 Nosco, Peter (editor), Confucianism and Tokugawa Culture (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997), p. 5.
27 De Bary, William Theodore, Sources of Japanese Tradition, vol. 1 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1958).
28 Kasulis, Thomas P. (1998), ‘Japanese Philosophy’, in C. Craig (editor), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (London: Routledge, retrieved 29 April 2009 from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/G100SECT2).
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