Chapter 13: Confucius and Confucianism
a brief history of China, up to Confucius
historians and archaeologists believe that China was established ~2100 BCE; predecessor = buncha diverse tribes. that earliest period is called the Xia dynasty, and we don’t yet know much about it.
next came Shang dynasty, were most of our earliest historical materials (including early written texts) come from; started c. 1800 BCE and ended ~1054 BCE after massive war. it was in this time that “Chinese civilization developed much of its fundamental character” (p. 310).
folk from Shang dynasty had a sense of unique identity and were connected in their religious beliefs/practices, which he claims were largely animistic but grew more and more refined throughout the Shang dynasty
supreme being Shangdi presided over the spirit world, “an analogue of the earthly realm ruled by the Shang king” (p. 310); the dead lived in this domain, Tian Shangdi; thus ancestors continued to have influence in the daily lives of the living, who practiced ancestor veneration, and “the people of Shang defined themselves, not only in terms of the space they occupied, but also as a society enduring over time” (p. 310).
primarily agricultural society, most folk lived in small villages and had relative autonomy
“united under the rule of a hereditary king” (p. 310), whose kingdom served as capital city (and was one of the earliest urban settlements).
(non-hereditary) shamans and sorcerers were important in Shang China for roles in religious rituals and sacrifices, which were common at the time
divination equally common, esp pyromancy, where diviners would throw an oracle bone (often an ox sternum) into the fire and interpret the cracking sounds to tell the future; sometimes carved ancient Chinese logographs into the bones, which is interesting glimpse into the evolution of Hànzì
“the very success of Shang became its greatest problem” (p. 311); as with many ancient civilizations, predatory neighbours grew envious of the dynasty’s wealth and prosperity, and in the 11th century BCE, their western neighbour, the Zhou kingdom, who were larger and had a stronger army, conquered the Shang kingdom.
this ushered in the Zhou dynasty!
didn’t destroy Shang kingdom but rather absorbed it
kingdom was too large to control with a central government, so split into ~70 autonomous duchies, each under the control of a powerful lord who answered to the king (so, a feudal society akin to Medieval Europe). “Even some of the Shang nobles were allowed to continue to hold power so long as they were willing to pledge their loyalty to their new king” (p. 311).
“The power of the king was directly proportional to the amount of control, and loyalty, he held over the regional princes. In the early days of Zhou, that power was strong, but it would slowly erode” (p. 311).
ancient religion carried on but continued to evolve to be more humanistic, with more and more people questioning humans’ proper relationship to nature and “the nature of right government” (p. 311), that is, questioning the Mandate of Heaven (king is a steward of the gods, and his power is only valid so long as he carries out their will by governing wisely and prioritizing the common good; used to retroactively justified Zhou conquer of Shang)
as Shang, Zhou would eventually fall victim to violent attacks by larger western-neighbouring tribes, so in 771, the monarchy migrated further east and re-established in Luoyang. maintained power for another 5 centuries or so, but the king’s control over the duchy got weaker and weaker until the king became little more than a figurehead and feudal warfare was constant among the duchy (during the last few centuries of the dynasty).
official end of the dynasty came in 255 BCE, after the Period of Warring States (AKA Period of a Hundred Philosophers) had already gone on for 4 centuries. those 400 years were defined by “[f]eudal warfare, ravaging armies, brutal conquest, shifting boundaries, ruined crops and villages” and a life of insecurity and suffering among the peasants, whose men were constantly being called into war (p. 312).
in the face of all this shit, philosophers all over the kingdom were trying to think of better ways of life that would restore peace and order and fix all the social problems of the time; this is where Confucius and Confucianism (along with a buncha others philosophical proposals, including Daoism (in Pinyin; Wade-Giles is “Taoism”) a little later in the era) come in, with Confucianism being (he claims) the earliest of these philosophies.
not until the Han dynasty, which succeeded the Zhou dynasty, that China would once again be unified, with the Han dynasty “play[ing] a role similar to that of the Roman Empire in European history” (p. 315).
Confucius
incredibly influential Chinese philosopher
who lived from ~551 to ~479 BCE (during Period of Warring States/Period of a Hundred Philosophers)
emphasized the need for balance and harmony between humans and nature
as with most of the early thinkers we’ve been talking about, we know little about Confucius as a dude, and most of what’s said is just legend; that said, earliest biography was from 1st century BCE Chinese historian Sima Qian, who had to rely on pretty weak sources since Confucius had died some 400 years prior.
mostly rely on Confucius’ teaching itself, which, though historians don’t think he wrote down, were written down by his disciples and preserved in the Lun Yu (English Analects of Confucius; largely a collection of aphorisms).
and then he says the best source of info is the Mencius, “an exposition of the philosophy of Mencius, a devoted follower of Confucius, who added much to the total picture of what we call ‘Confucianism’” (p. 313); lived ~1 century later but was close in association
actual name wasn’t Confucius, but that’s the Latinization that White ppl decided on; real name was Kung Fu Zi (in Pinyin)
born in the populous northeastern state of Lu, around modern Shandong Province, on the Gulf of Po Dai; this area, both today and in Confucius’ lifetime, is a centre-point of Chinese life and culture
came from a working-class family, but grew quite poor when his dad died when he was 3; subsequently raised by widowed mom
married at 19 and had a son and 2 daughters
said he was an avid learner from a young age and took great interest in ancient Chinese history and culture
“family could claim some aristocratic ancestry, and that connection helped Confucius secure a government job around the time when he married” (p. 314), working first as manager of a Lu state granary (building that holds grain) and later as a manager of some state-owned cattle and sheep herds. though he supposedly did well in those roles, all the while, he desired a different life.
so he quit his job and started a school (more similar to those of ancient Greek philosophers than what we think of today) when he was 22, teaching his disciples how to properly live and govern, based on traditional Chinese wisdom; said he welcomed learners from all socioeconomic backgrounds, but functionally it was prolly all rich kids. he made a decent living in this way.
career took off when a leading Lu noble sent his 2 sons to study with Confucius, which opened the door for him to mingle with the aristocracy; visited Duke of Lu in capital city with the 2 sons, which was great for him because his goal was to “secure a government post which would make him the power behind the throne” so that he could put his philosophy into practice and fix shit (p. 314). (spoiler alert: that never happened; high govt posts were only open to nobles.)
ended up becoming what we’d call today the Minister of Justice, and he did get to put some of his social reforms into action in that role, which put him in the spotlight. the Duke of Lu eventually had to leave the state for a while because of conflict between the state’s 3 governing clans, though, and Confucius never got to be in the government again
then spent 12 years in “self-imposed exile” (p. 315), wandering around with his band of disciples; most royal courts welcomed and honoured him, but he wasn’t invited to take a government post by any of them.
despite his theory never truly becoming a reality in his lifetime, folk were drawn to it, and his ideas eventually did come to fruition in greater Chinese social and political systems after his death
died at age 73; burial site, near his hometown, remains pilgrimage site for many Chinese folk
primarily concerned with the suffering of the common people, which he attributed to the era’s turmoil
(this period was a transition away from feudalism in Chinese history, but that transition was painful, and those living at this time didn’t know what (if anything) would come down the pike for themselves and for their homeland (ofc), so they looked to the past, wishing for the peace and order their ancestors had experienced. the general conclusion, then, was that their society was in a state of decline and would only get worse.)
thus Confucius looked to early Zhou dynasty and its feudal system for answers; paid close attention to its leaders (who he called sages), who he said inspired wisdom in ppl, and claimed that by studying those guys’ lives and works, folk could come to understand “the essence of their wisdom” and thus learn how governance should be. in this study, he thought, he could become his own period’s teacher and use that wisdom to heal his society by “reveal[ing] the truth of Dao, which, to [him], meant the right ‘way’ for people to live” (p. 316).
thought reformation was needed at all levels in order to re-establish [natural] order, but especially at governmental level, since the government was supposed to lead and protect the people but was instead just oppressing and subjugating them
“Confucius believed that there is a right ordering of society that is natural to it, in the same way that there is a right ordering to all of the things of nature. Human society had gotten out of harmony with the larger natural order of which it is a part” (p. 316). said the ancients had understood this but that folk had grown selfish and lost sight of this fundamental truth.
“As the study of ancient society revealed to the mind of Confucius, human society properly led and properly ordered can exist in perfect harmony within the natural order. [Humankind] is a part of nature, and therefore human nature, in the judgment of Confucius, need not be in conflict with the natural order. Evil and selfish acts are a corruption of the innate tendency of man’s nature to be in harmony with the natural order. Right leadership can reestablish that harmony” (p. 316).
Confucius proposed that change start within [extended] families, which were the basic and most important building blocks of Zhou Chinese society
society was seen as simply an extension of family, with the king serving as a kind of father-figure; Confucius said the king was not supposed to rule but rather reign, serving primarily as a symbol while his carefully-selected council of ministers (chosen for their dedication to serving the people, not selfish like in Confucius’ days) dealt with actual governing. leaders were supposed to be chosen by merit, specifically their talent, compassion, and commitment to serving the regular folk, rather than by pure heredity.
he recognized, though, that the kind of man who would make a good leader was rare in his era (though he supposed they were common in the past), and thus that this change couldn’t happen overnight; thus, he said to first reform the education system (which… wasn’t really a system at that point but rather a slapdash system of tutors and practical experience [that tried] to teach the nobles, but not all nobles even had that much, and most of their time was dedicated to mastering warfare regardless). he envisioned a staged system spread out over many years which would primarily focus on ancient Chinese literature, with teachers serving as role models for their young students in order to “create a man of superior humanistic learning, of refined personal manners, and the will to govern wisely and compassionately” (p. 317). also insisted this education system must be open to all, so long as they showed promise, regardless of social rank.
didn’t necessarily advocate for going back to the feudalism of the early Zhou dynasty, just the character of the people in charge (whose character, he said, would make them role models for everyone else)
“Confucius viewed the whole society as actually being one great family. Values learned within one’s own family were simply to be extended to the broader society as one matured. The family, in other words, was the learning ground where one developed (hopefully) the attitudes and behavior upon which the healthy social order depended” (p. 318). he said that, “[a]bove all, it was necessary to rectify the fundamental relationships in society and to reestablish respect for the duties appropriate to each of these” (p. 320) in order to heal. these social virtues include:
xiao: “filial piety” (p. 318). originally referred to proper relationships within the family, including loyalty, responsibility, and respect for elders and ancestors, but in Confucianism, it came to apply to the whole society. at its most watered-down, it’s about cultivating love and respect between fathers and sons and between older and younger brothers in childhood, which will then extend to the rest of society as one ages; so basically it’s about the way you’re supposed to act in relationships with “““natural””” hierarchy (as revolutionary as he was in his day, he still totally accepted social hierarchies as natural and thus good :/).
(important note that, “although women and girls were loved and often highly respected, women[…] in those days were not accorded an equal place with men where matters of public policy were concerned” (p. 319), so Confucius was really just concerned with men :eye_roll:)laid out Five Cardinal Relationships in his teachings: ruler-subject, husband-wife, father-son, elder brother-younger brother, and friend-friend relationships. first 4 seen as naturally hierarchical, involving the rule of the former and the submission of the latter; each of the pair had appropriate duties: former should “govern with righteousness and benevolence” and latter should “obey with righteousness and sincerity” (p. 319). friend-friend wasn’t hierarchical, though, and responsibility there was “to promote the growth of wisdom and virtue in the other” (p. 319).
NOTE: “there is some controversial evidence suggesting that this [teaching in] the Analects was added at a later time by those who sought to use Confucius’s authority to justify an authoritarian form of government. Making a virtue out of submission to the ruler would suit their purposes very well. Confucius would never advocate blind submission to an unjust superior. But he obviously respected the role of submission, broadly speaking, in a natural relationship between superior and inferior, so long as that relationship was guided by the virtue of filial piety” (p. 320).
they also note that Confucius, as the vast majority of ancient men, thought women were inherently subordinate, but they claim that “the role of women was still important, guys!!1! she’s so crucial to the family guys, and without a woman a man can never achieve his full potential!!1!” (but they also note that, though there’s proof Confucius absolutely adored his mom, there’s literally nothing written about his relationship with his wife and daughters >:( ).
li: originally “sacrifice,” but “came to refer more broadly to an elaborate set of procedures and protocol that governed the celebration of religious rituals” (p. 320) and eventually even more generally to relations between nobles, such that by Confucius’ time, it was basically the term for the Chinese version of courtoisie. Confucius basically proposed that this social code of conduct should be extended to all of society (not just nobles and religious ceremonies); thus, in his system, it “became a refined system of manners designed to regulate the personal interactions arising in the various social relationships” that “supported and upheld this system of relationships which Confucius believed to be the essence of a healthy social structure” (p. 321). whole goal was to achieve balance and harmony through “honor and respect for the dignity of the other person” (p. 322).
junzi: loosely translated to “the Superior Man,” it basically refers to the polished, dignified, self-confident, well-mannered, conversant men (because, again, public service was reserved to men at this time) that Confucius aimed to fashion in his education system. junzi were created (not born; not inherent trait) through long, hard work and schooling. kind of a Chinese equivalent of the Renaissance Man in Europe later on, as he was supposed to be well-rounded. his priority should always be the greater good of humankind: “His goal was to make himself as fit as he possibly could be to best serve the needs of the community. If he held public office, service was the one and only reason for seeking it. After personal refinement, a deep-rooted spirit of altruism was the mark of the Superior Man” (p. 323).
ren: “the core of the Superior Man” (p. 323); “Ren is sincere feeling and caring for others; […] putting others first; […] compassion; […] good natured; […] human-heartedness” (p. 323). said it’s a natural feeling that pops up spontaneously in folks’ hearts about oneself, so to discover it, folk need first to look inward; from there, once they discover that feeling about themself, they can easily find that love for one’s family, and eventually for society at large.
Confucius said ppl were selfish and insensitive because they were ignorant and fearful, not because that’s just how humans naturally are. once we choose to break those chains, it’s easy to love others. said ppl will only be truly happy when they live with love and compassion for others.
didn’t expect that most (or even necessarily many) ppl would get aboard his bandwagon here, but thought that those who did had a quality that would allow them to become “the true men of junzi” (p. 324) and to embody ren, and thus to become the role models and leaders of all of society.
“Confucius firmly believed that the common people are profoundly influenced by the example set for them by the leaders of society. If the leaders are greedy, everyone is greedy. But if the leaders are selfless, that same quality of selflessness will flower among the common people. […] [B]ad government encourages bad habits in all; good government promotes virtue in all. In an age where the leaders are selfish and greedy, the people become cynical and think that this is the way it always is. But when a society establishes procedures that allow Superior Men to become the leaders, that society will enjoy peace and harmony” (p. 324).
though Confucius never got to implement his reforms on the macro-scale, he still had a great influence on ppl in his day, and his teaching has continued to influence Chinese thought through to the modern-day.
Mencius
actually named Meng Zi, he was a wealthy dude who lived in the Lu province from ~372 to 289 BCE
also lived in the Period of Warring States, but at a time that was perhaps even more tumultuous as the wars were “building to a climax” (p. 325)
never studied directly under Confucius, but he was obsessed with him, so his own philosophical work largely strove to build upon those teachings and “develop[…] what was only implied in” them (p. 325).
“He was far more doctrinaire than Confucius, seeming to want to proclaim the truth, rather than search for it” (p. 325).
prolly didn’t write the Mencius himself—likely collected by his disciples after his death—much like the Analects. key difference is that the former is a collection of actual dialogues, while the latter is just a buncha “pithy aphorisms” (p. 326). Mencius also went into more detail about just what “right living” was, and showed more of Mencius’ personality and dry humour. so, though they largely take up the same questions and have many themes and goals in common, they are very much two distinct works.
like Confucius, Mencius was a wandering philosopher who had failed in government and decided instead to start a school
most pertinently, both agreed about the truth of Dao, that is, that there’s a correct, natural way to live one’s life, and that the proper education can “transform the wild infant into a man of junzi” (p. 326), which was the only valid goal in life. also agreed on family as building block to society and the origin of compassion.
key disagreement is that Confucius said the raison d’être for a Superior Man was right governance (that is, public service via compassionate governance), while Mencius said that the goal was right living: “His interest was more basic, more individualized. Identify those who are capable, and help them achieve sagehood. A society that honors that ideal in its educational system will naturally incline toward good government” (p. 326).
Mencius believed everyone has the potential to become a sage because all people are inherently good, a teaching which was not actually present in Confucius’ original teachings but which most folk attribute to Confucius himself; actually, though, Confucius was interested more on “naturalness” than on “goodness,” and it was Mencius’ addition that human nature is “naturally inclined to that which is morally ‘good’” (p. 327). he said that human nature can ofc be corrupted but that, no matter how often it’s harmed, that goodness is always there, buried deep down inside all of us.
for Mencius, goodness = compassion—or, specifically, if goodness is the underlying nature, compassion is the resulting action. thus, his goal in education was “to work with the natural inclination to goodness that lay at the heart of every person; cultivate it from the time a person is very young, and don’t allow self-centered fears to stunt its growth” (p. 327).
Mencius’ sage is pretty much Confucius’ Superior Man, except Mencius added that “the ultimate reward for cultivation of the self was to know the unspeakable bliss that arises only from the obliteration of that same self. The end of wisdom is to be achieved in becoming ‘one with Heaven,’ in which state all distinctions between the self and non-self are dissolved” (p. 328).
other philosophers from the Period of a Hundred Philosophers
Confucius inspired more than just Mencius in the Period of a Hundred Philosophers, with some agreeing and expanding on his teachings and others rebutting and proposing alternatives (with Daoism eventually becoming the predominant philosophy of the latter group; we’ll talk about this system in the next chapter). here, we discuss a few other important thinkers and how they responded to Confucius’ claims.
Xun Zi
guesstimate he lived from ~300 to ~225 BCE, but not sure
kinda the opposite of Mencius, he “ponder[ed] the teaching of Confucius and conclude[d] that man is by nature evil” (p. 329); specifically, where Mencius said ppl are compassionate by nature, Xun Zi said we’re all selfish by nature, and compassion “is an acquired virtue which develops naturally as one’s inherent selfishness is overcome” (p. 329). in this way, he says both selfishness and compassion are natural, but the former largely overpowers the latter, and we have to work to ensure it doesn’t.
also thought self-cultivation to achieve sagehood was the most important goal in life and that right education was essential to do so, but he differed from Mencius and Confucius in his conviction that actually, very few people make the cut: “Theoretically, his educational system might be open to all, but it was a foregone conclusion that the great masses of the common people would be excluded for lack of potential ability” (p. 329).
rejected Mencius’ mystical additions re: heaven and shit, and instead took a purely rational approach, rejecting religion totally and writing it off as superstition
very influential in his era, but he was quickly lost to time after his death, and he doesn’t have the same fame today as the other 2 despite being an equally great thinker
Mo Zi
“he lived at least most of his life in the fifth century BCE, and at an early age became an ardent Confucian” (p. 330), but he quickly came to conclude that many of his fellow Confucians were bastardizing their teacher’s words (eg, a movement among some followers to establish themselves as a kind of wealthy elite), so he abandoned Confucianism to start his own school.
seemingly very influential in his day, with a small book (titled Mo Zi) of his aphorisms collected by his followers
like Confucius, he was primarily concerned with social reform and agreed the proper way to do so was to convince the current leaders to step aside and let more virtuous men take their place, those virtuous men having been educated to be like ancient sages; the differences end there, tho
Mo Zi didn’t give a fuck about liberal humanities like Confucius did; instead, he proposed establishing “a rigidly organized hierarchy of authority, which he believed was the way of nature” (p. 330). top of the pyramid should be a hereditary king, who he called the Son of Heaven, and who should hold absolute authority. said the people should be 100% loyal and supportive of him due to what he termed “universal love,” which is to say that basically, folk would love their leader once they came to realize that all parts of society are naturally interconnected and that they’re part of a whole and shit.
he also didn’t GAF about family, which considered “a breeding ground of segregation and emotionalism” (p. 331), and instead proposed that education was instead the most important, as once everyone learned that “universal love was in their own best interest” (p. 331), they would hop on the band-wagon and follow their role-model rulers with unwavering faith.
said that this faith would come from a sense of common identity, specifically identifying with the Son of Heaven, who in turn identified himself with Heaven
purely utilitarian—anything that he saw as not contributing to this “ideal” society was rejected, including and especially emotion, which he considered “the enemy of the state” (p. 331): he said emotions made us selfish, which would harm society, so any expressions of emotions, including art, music, or anything that could even potentially arouse emotions in folk, had to go.
“In this […] state, absolutely everything was to be subordinated to the good of the whole. The love of all for all would arise when the people discovered that such a state was the natural way for human communities to be organized and that it was the only reasonable alternative to the chaos and corruption of the times” (p. 331).
said that any selfishness or wrongdoing “would be punished by Heaven” (pp. 331-2), eg via natural calamity :/
Han Fei Zi and the Legalists
Han Fei Zi was the primary spokesperson for a group we call the Legalists
book Han Fei Zi is presumably written by him and lays out the fundamentals of Legalist philosophy
called Legalists because they said laws were a valuable way that [totalitarian] rulers could exert control over the whole of society (and they thought that was rad 👌); for them, law and order was the end-all be-all, and that should be achieved in any way that’s necessary.
he, like Confucius, wanted to solve his society’s problems by abolishing hereditary rule, but he said “virtuous, unselfish action was fleeting and unpredictable. In no way was it something to be counted on. To base the governance of a state on the presumed virtuous behavior of its ministers was, in his opinion, completely ridiculous” (p. 333). he thought it would make much more sense if society were “regimented in the form of a military organization, always ready, and even eager, for war. The law, which would be publicized and clearly known by everyone, would be like military law. Terrible punishments would be meted out for even trivial offenses” (p. 333), as he thought that would deter major crime. also advocated for generous rewards for narking, though, because “there has to be some pro!!1!” all rewards and punishments (and pretty much everything tbh) were to be written down into formal laws to ensure the people had zero individual rights and that the state had absolute control over every damn thing, because “[p]eople exist for the state; the will of the state must be their will” (p. 333). the Legalists said this was “a strong and healthy alternative to the chaos and corruption of [their] time” (p. 333) k thx
anyway the reason this school of thought matters is largely that the Duke of Qin, later to become Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China and the founder of the Qin dynasty, read some of Han Fei Zi’s writings and was Obsessed (TM). he invited Han Fei Zi to come talk about this philosophy, and Fei Zi visited the court of Qin in 233 BCE (where, ironically, he died in prison a year later after being falsely accused of spying askjdlsdhg), and Shi Huangdi was like “sign me UP”. turned the state of Qin into a well-oiled military machine and set about conquering, eventually uniting China into an empire (for the first time) after a horrible, bloody war. anyone who criticized the new regime (esp Confucianists) was quickly executed, he burnt every book (except those on military science and agriculture 💀), the law was applied brutally to even the smallest crimes, and the people by and large lost hope. many fled and organized into guerrilla bands, with the strength of this opposition growing as time passed and the emperor got harsher and harsher, and finally, just 4 short years after Shi Huangdi’s death in 210 BCE, a peasant soldier named Liu Bang led a general uprising and became the first ruler of the Han dynasty (under the name Han Gaozu).
later developments in the evolution of Confucianism
Confucianism in the time of Han
Han dynasty lasted ~400 years (starting in 205 BCE)
more or less encompassed modern-day China, geographically
Great Wall was started by Qin dynasty due to threats from northern tribes, who had powerful mounted armies; Han dynasty greatly expanded and fortified it, but, like its Roman counterpart Hadrian’s Wall, it eventually failed
Emperor Wu Di (140-87 BCE) was a Han leader whose whole “thing” was consolidating power and unifying the state, and he’s particularly important to Confucianism because he was a strong proponent and actually implemented Confucian governmental structures during his time, which continued to serve as the general structure of Chinese government through to the early 20th century Xinhai Revolution in 1911.
appointed Dong Zong Shu, a Confucian scholar, to develop a system to put Confucius’ theory into practice; set up a long, rigorous system open to any young man who showed promise (regardless of class background)
curriculum focused on the five “classics” of Chinese culture (called Wu Jing): metaphysics, poetry, politics, the social graces, and history (and, of course, with special emphasis on Confucian philosophy)
created “the famous Confucian system of competitive examinations, designed to single out men of proven excellence, who would thus be selected for careers in government service” (p. 336), which spread from China to other East Asian countries, too; schools initially accepted a buncha students, but students gradually dropped out as exams got too difficult, leaving only the crème de la crème
graduates were highly honoured and were the only ones accepted into government roles, where they generally stayed for their whole lives
system started out quite small but grew rapidly, with the first location at the royal court becoming a sort of imperial uni over the next century, requiring more and more branches to gradually open across the empire
note that at the same time, though, there were competing systems, especially Daoism (equally prevalent and influential, and which engaged in friendly competition with Confucianism) and, more and more, Buddhism (especially in the later years of the dynasty). (these other two exchanged ideas quite a bit, too, while Confucianism was originally quite oppositional, seeing it as a foreign religion luring promising young men into monasteries and away from public service.)
neo-Confucianism
Han dynasty officially ended in 220 CE, but it had begun unravelling several decades prior; only in 581 would China be once again unified, this time under the Sui dynasty. in the meantime, things devolved into a situation largely like the Period of Warring States… which actually worked in Buddhism’s favour, but was bad news for Confucianism, which was generally associated with the Han dynasty and would have to work hard to reclaim its social position
…and the Sui dynasty only lasted 26 years 💀 the only major achievement was China’s reunification
then came Tang and Song dynasties, which lasted for 600 years (ended in 1236) and saw China flourish (often considered a “golden age” of Chinese culture). Buddhism dominated, and Chan Buddhism matured. simultaneously, Confucianism saw a kind of revival, but it underwent some major changes and is thus dubbed “neo-Confucianism;” this was the variety that continued through to 20th-century China
movement first wanted to go “back to the sources” (AKA Confucius and Mencius), but it simply couldn’t compete with Buddhism in that form because it was much narrower in its focus; thus folk endeavoured to “read between the lines” to provide the theory and shit that Buddhism did (eg, metaphysics), trying to turn it from social theory into “secular religion.” in doing so, they took Confucianism, recontextualised elements of Buddhism, and even some bits and bobs from Religious Daoism, stitched them together, and badda bing badda boom, neo-Confucianism.
…but Buddhism still prevailed askjdghdkalsjg neo-Confucianism succeeded at gaining space for Confucianist teachings in Chinese society, but the common people were still gaga for Buddha, so it really only made a place for itself among the highly-educated upper-class ppl. this remained so through to the communist revolution.
Confucianism in the modern era
from Sui reunification in 581 through end of Qing dynasty in 1912, China had emperors! during all this time, Confucianism “proved its durability, adapting well to the changing of dynasties, whether these be homegrown or imposed by foreign conquest” (though still only really popular among the upper class; p. 338).
but Confucianism got to be more important upon establishment of Qing dynasty in 1644 after Manchu conquest! played role in govt, (re-?)establishing the competitive exam system, which also continued through to 1912.
at the same time, though, the upper classes got more and more conservative, and Confucianism played a role in that, as Confucian scholars “had all too often become mere bookworms, deliberately distancing themselves from the people they were supposed to serve” (and mocked by the peasantry for it lmao; p. 338).
change began in late 1800s: Eurowest came to increasingly influence Chinese society, esp through industrial revolution, and the common ppl were more and more enticed with this new way of living, disenchanted with Qing’s stagnant ways. the Eurowest was all too happy to exploit this weakness, deliberately creating internal division in an attempt to topple the empire. the Qing court mostly buried its head in the sand about the issue, while others “sought to deal with the challenge of the West by absorbing the enemy, integrat[ing] the desirable elements of Western culture, and salvag[ing] the essence of traditional Chinese culture by making concessions where the nonessentials were concerned” so as to withstand Eurowestern impositions without having to assimilate (p. 339).
among the latter was the important reformer Kang Youwei, who was fascinated with the Eurowesterners suddenly proselytizing in China. he thought to himself, “hey, if that shit’s working with Western religions, maybe it would work to do something similar with Confucian teachings?” so he employed Eurowestern proselytizing methods “to create a revolutionary movement that would unite all of the Chinese people in a crusade that would carry China back to independence and greatness” (p. 339). his new religion did not only that but more, spreading to parts of the Eurowest as well.
central claim was that Confucius was a kind of prophet and that he taught that history was “‘a universal progress through three stages, each with its appropriate form of government: the Age of Disorder (rule by an absolute monarch), the Age of Approaching Peace (rule by a constitutional monarch), and the Age of Great Peace (rule by the people)’” (quoted on p. 339).
however, Kang’s vision never fully materialized, and it was instead that of Marxist communists which did, rising to power in China in 1949.
before that, though, in 1912, the last Chinese emperor, Pu Yi, then 6 years, abdicated the throne! the country’s next leader, Sun Yat-sen (nicknamed “Father of the Republic”), and his successor, Chiang Kai-shek, both tried hard to establish a Chinese democracy based on Eurowestern ones; however, circumstances in both China and the world at large over the next few decades conspired against them, and in the end, Mao Zedong, a peasant-turned-revolutionary, later founded the People’s Republic of China.
“From the very beginning, it had been a major goal of the communist movement in China to destroy all vestiges of Confucianism” due to its perceived elitism and reinforcement of class distinctions (p. 340); thus the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reformed the education system (a process already started in the late Qing dynasty, tbf) upon its rise to power.