Transcript Chinese Wisdom Traditions

Early Chinese History
World History
Baylor School
The Sinic world
http://emailhost.ait.ac.th/
Asia/asia.html
The Sinic world is
something of a cultural
unit. It is held together by
•Chinese characters
•Confucianism
•Buddhism
The Middle East and even India
arguably have more in common with
Europe than with the Sinic world.
The Chinese language
The Middle Kingdom
Shang Dynasty (1751-1112 BCE)

Ancestor worship

Most important God, Shang-di, the
ancestor of the ruling family

Created original Chinese script,
originally on oracle bones
http://wwwchaos.umd.edu/history/a
ncient1.html
Ancestor worship in later China

Ancestors traditionally
added to family altars

Most important ancestors
enter celestial
bureaucracy – Confucius,
Laozi, Guandi

Ancestor worship tends to
orient culture to past and
emphasizes history and
tradition
Zhou Dynasty (1122-771)

said Shang forfeited the Mandate of Heaven (dynasty rules
only as long as it follows the way of Heaven)

Virtue (te) became the key, and humanity (not spirits) became
the focus. Humanism will continue to be an important element
of Chinese philosophy from now on.

Whereas the Shang worshipped an anthropomorphic deity, the
Zhou change the focus to the Dao, the Way of Heaven.
A Chinese creation myth

In the beginning was the One, the Tai Chi

And the One became two
What are the implications of this story?
Yin-Yang

Yin is dark,
secret, hidden,
cool, feminine,
winter, passive

Yang is
masculine, light,
open, warm,
active
Creation (cont.)

And the two became eight, the eight trigrams

And the eight became 64, the 64 patterns of all
things (and the basis for the I Jing, the Book of
Changes)

And the 64 became the 10,000 things
(everything)
Thunder over the Lake

The 64th hexagram in the I Jing is
– Thunder over the Lake
– “The woman should be like the tranquil lake
stirred only by the passing thunder of the
male”
From the Book of History...
“If the hen crows in the morning, the household will be
desolate.”
The Age of 100 Philosophers
(770-221 BCE)



warring states seeking
dominance
talented men often went
from one state to
another seeking
government work
The great period of
Chinese philosophers

Confucius, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Laozi,
Han Feizi, Xunzi, Mozi... --each had a
philosophy to make China great again.
And the winner is...
?
Han Fei Zi!!!!

A Legalist, HFZ believed in a strong
system of rewards and punishments.
 Be clear about the rules, and enforce them
big-time. If there is no ambiguity and laws
are enforced quickly and severely, there will
be order.
What do you think about the advantages and
disadvantages of this system? Would it work at
Baylor?
Han Fei Zi 101

the ruler wants to amass power and
live in luxury, and should

no ethics

actions appropriate to the past are
ridiculous now
Remember, the Chinese people had worshipped their ancestors.
Han Fei Zi 102

you can’t control people with love or ritual: do
it with fear and rewards and punishments

criticism of the government should be harshly
punished (how do you think the Great Wall of
China was built?)

burn all books that don’t agree with the state
Han Fei Zi 103

education for the people is positively
harmful: teach the peasants only to grow
food and fight
– reward them when they do these well; squash
them when they don’t

charity only encourages laziness, so no
charity or compassion for the weak
Han Fei Zi 104

Attack your neighbor when you are
strong; appease him when you are
weak
The leader of the western state of Qin (where we get our word
China) successfully used these strategies to conquer and unite
all of China in the late 3rd Cent BCE. Ironically (but
logically), one of the first things the leader did was to execute
Han Fei Zi.
Han Fei Zi (b. ? -233 BCE)
In Memoriam
“Assign one man to each office and do not let men talk to each
other.” (Han Fei Zi)
“Moreover, the people will bow naturally to authority, but
few of them can be moved by righteousness. Confucius was
one of the greatest sages in the world. He perfected his
conduct, made clear the Way, and traveled throughout the
area within the four seas, but in all that area those who
rejoiced in his benevolence, admired his righteousness, and
were willing to become his disciples numbered only 70.”
(Han Fei Zi)
The Qin Dynasty (221-207 BCE)

Only 1 real emperor, a strong, amazing man
who accomplished a great deal
– unified China
– incredible building projects, including
roads and much of the Great Wall
– standardized script, coins, etc....
– took China from a feudal state to a highly
bureaucratic one
Can we even call it a dynasty?
Qin Emperor movies

The Emperor and
the Assassin
 Zhang Yimou’s
Hero
Qin Dynasty II
Not the least of the Qin Emperor’s projects
was his own funeral spread in Xian
– terracotta soldiers
www.chaos.umd.edu/history/im
perial.html
Less well known is that he sent large expeditions off to find the elixir of
immortality
How did he get so much done?
Qin Dynasty III


Some of the Qin Emperor’s more
ruthless moves:
– Great Book Burning of 213
– organized common people into groups of 5 families--if
anyone broke the law, they were all punished
– after defeating a rival state and killing all of the adults,
he had all of the children buried alive
– ordered the public execution of anyone singing one of
the old songs; anyone who quoted an old precedent was
executed along with his entire family
One of his enemies hated him so much, he slit his own
throat to help an assassination plot
He made the trains run on time.
He also made the black flag the symbol of
his regime and dressed his armies in black.
Qin Emperor
As Mao Zedong later
said, “Revolution is not
a tea party.”
Could China have
moved from a feudal
society to a centralized
state without violence?
Qin Dynasty finale

The Qin Emperor was ruthless enough
to pull off Legalism, but as soon as he
died his dynasty fell apart.

Is it any wonder that for future Chinese,
the Qin Dynasty became the example of
how NOT to rule.
– And rule by law has been distrusted by the
Chinese people; even today, courts of law are not
about deciding guilt in China
Law vs. Morality

Strict laws can get things done, but ---

Over the long run, law without morality
is a weak basis for a stable society

“the relation between force and
persuasion, between law and morality,
has been for centuries a problem of
intense interest to the Chinese people”
Master Kong

So guess whom the Chinese turn to
now?
Confucius in a nutshell
Human beings can cultivate goodness; they can harmonize
themselves more closely with the Dao, the way things
naturally and ideally are. We can cultivate this harmony
through education. We should diligently learn from the
past and diligently teach others what we have learned. The
best rulers are those who have cultivated this learning and
this goodness--their example trickles down to all the
people. My character is not what it can be, and the world is
not yet as good as it can be; but with education, effort, and
reasonableness, we can improve.
The Confucian Publishing House at
Confucius (551-479 BCE)
http://www.confucius.org/ has the
pictures on these next pages and many
more.
Fundamental Confucian concepts

Confucius sought in vain
throughout his life to be a
counselor to a king and to put into
practice his ideas. Instead, he
gathered around himself a group
of students and became a great
teacher.
Confucius accepted students from any social class.
Humanism
– “Until a man knows
about the living, how
can he know about the
dead.” (A11.11)
– indeed, some consider
him an atheist
– ren (humanheartedness) is for C
the greatest virtue
– “When the perfect
order prevails, the
world is like a home
shared by all.”
Two great Confucian values

ren -- humanity
 A thorough
knowledge and
practice of li -ritual
Note that these two are
often in tension-- ren
recognizes our common
humanity, li recognizes
hierarchy
Confucian concepts II

Some scholars
estimate that 1/2
of the books in the
world before 1800
were in China.
Education
– Thanks to C, Chinese society
perhaps more than any other
has given status to learning.
– Throughout most of Chinese
history, the path to power
was through the exam.
– “What a pleasure it is to
learn, and to teach others
what you have learnt.”
Education for C always meant “moral improvement.”
– Those who should rule are
those who are the best
educated.
Confucian Concepts III


C had two primary
concerns -- the
correct way to rule
and the correct way to
live
“familyism”--the ideal
ruler is like the ideal
parent, and society,
like the family, follows
a natural hierarchy
Confucius IV

The ideal for a man is
to become a chun-tzu,
a gentleman

Five relationships:
–
–
–
–
–
father/son
older/younger brother
ruler/subject
friend/friend
husband/wife
Women

Empress Wu
Chinese women who could
sometimes be independent:
Empress Dowagers, nuns,
courtesans
Women for C
should cultivate
the three virtues
– as a wife, submit to
husband
– as a daughter,
submit to father
– as a widow, submit
to son