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There's so much more we can say about ancient China.
For our purposes, what needs to be emphasized is that as Zhou
culture developed, a literary tradition emerged.
Written works, texts especially from the 8th century B.C.E onwards,
came to take center stage on the Chinese intellectual scene.
And some of these were later recognized as authoritative and canonical.
These canonical texts deemed authoritative and
normative were collectively called Jing in Chinese,
or classics in the Confucian tradition. Now, the Chinese
word "Jing" was originally a textile word referring to
the threads extended lengthwise, or the warp in the loom, and,
therefore, the connotation of what is foundational, most basic and essential.
So they're not just classics in the sense of a representative
work of a particular genre or age, but the connotation is much stronger.
They were carefully preserved and explained,
and in some instances even revered.
They also formed the basis of classical Confucian education,
and they will be our main focus in this and the next lecture segment,
but before we begin, I should just say a word about pre-Confucian
education in Zhou Dynasty China. Education, of course, was the preserve of the elite.
Now ask yourself this,
what would you have them learn if you were the ruler of the Zhou state?
How should the young aristocrats be trained to prepare them for
the onerous and important task of government or service to their lords?
The main curriculum in Zhou China consisted of the so-called Six Arts
or disciplines.
Can you guess what they are?
1 Rituals.
2 Music.
Followed by Archery,
Charioteering, Writing and finally Arithmetic.
According to Chinese sources, Archery for example,
was sub divided into five different types of training,
which included training in accuracy and strength,
quickness in releasing a single arrow, and, also, a series of arrows.
So the curriculum is actually quite detailed.
Horse-drawn chariots were a mainstay of many state ceremonies,
and they were also used in warfare.
So one might say that early Chinese education took into account
both the intellectual and the physical development of the individual within
the context of the perceived requirements of the ruling elite.
The appearance of written texts,
many carved on bamboo slips, then came to reshape
the landscape of education in early China.
There is a sense of permanency, and edict authority in the written word,
and the ascendancy of writing indeed marks a high point in
the development of many cultures around the world.
In early China, as we mentioned earlier,
some particular notable writings came to acquire canonical status.
Six of these were considered especially important in Confucianism,
and they are collectively referred to as the six classics.
One of them, unfortunately, has been lost.
And therefore in Confucian literature, we find the common term,
"The Five Classics" and they are the key text in classical Confucianism.
Traditional Confucian scholars would have grown up with these text and
they would know them by heart.
The one that has been lost from an early time is known only by it's title:
The Classic of Music.
The five extant classics are: one,
the Classic or Book of Poetry, the Shijing,
the Shujing usually translated as The Book of History or documents,
followed by The Classic of Rites, The Spring and Autumn Annals,
which I'll explain in a moment, and
finally the Yijing or The Book of Changes.
Let me now introduce them briefly in turn.
The Classic of Poetry is a collection of about 300 poems,
some of which may be dated to the early Zhou period.
Originally, these poems were set to music and performed.
They deal with diverse topics;
some of them are folk songs celebrating, for example, good harvests,
about the life of the people, the beauty of the land, and so on.
Some are love songs and some complain about marital relations.
Some are court poems celebrating the virtues of such illustrious
figures as the founding emperors of the dynasty King Wen and
King Wu, and also the Duke of Zhou.
Some are more religious in nature, and some of the later poems in this
collection dating to the second half of the Zhou dynasty reveal,
shall we say, the darker side of life as well.
Some cry out, for example, against heavy taxation,
how young men were forced to leave the fields and family to serve as soldiers and
laborers, and how crops were devastated by war.
Here's one poem.
As you can see, it is essentially a love poem about this lovely noble lady.
I won't read it here, and I have selected also several other poems
on the course website that you can read at your leisure.
But perhaps it's interesting to note that later Confucian
exegesis took this poem actually to be an allegory,
about how a loyal minister, searching, longing for
a virtuous ruler, but that's another story.
Tradition has it that Confucius himself had selected
these poems from a much larger corpus, edited them and
arranged them into their present order. However, there is as yet
no incontrovertible evidence to support this claim. Although
it is certain that Confucius had read these ancient poems and
considered them crucial to a person's education and development.
The Shujing, or Classic of History, is also an anthology,
a collection of ancient historical and political documents.
Tradition has it that Confucius again worked on this collection and
through him it was then transmitted to later generations.
For our purposes, it is probably more important to recognize that the classics,
all the Five Classics, are essentially composite works
with more than one author, which took a long time to arrive at that present form.
The current text of the classicSS of history has over 50 documents.
Some of them are quite clearly later additions made during the Han dynasty.
Still, even these so called later additions are very old.
And these documents together form a major source of information
for our understanding of ancient China.
You can find a couple of examples on the course website, and
I urge you to read them.
Here let me simply cite one example,
to give you a sense of flavor of what the Classic of History is like.
One of the documents has been given the title
the "Announcement of the Duke of Shao."
And this is what it says, "I salute with joined hands and
bow my head to the ground in respect."
It's actually interesting to reflect on the relationship between language
and ritual,
and the concept of ritual as we will see very shortly,
plays a vitally important role in Confucian philosophy.
Now, this passage is clearly concerned with explaining how the house
of Zhou had one control over the empire from the Shang,
how they won a new mandate from Heaven to rule.
And the reason for their success is that the Shang did not reverently care for
their virtue and this is why they lost their mandate to rule.
Some of the documents in the Classic of History are speeches
ascribed to a specific person, such as the Duke of Zhou.
Others are recorded conversations between notable personages described
as "sage kings," and these are intended to bring out a specific view of politics or
history, generally grounded In the idea of Heaven's Mandate.
The Classic of Rites is actually a general title
covering three separate texts, all of which are of
course concerned with Li (rites or rituals).
The first one is entitled the "Rites of the Zhou."
In it we find details concerning the functions of
the various officials in the Zhou government.
The second is called "Ceremonial Rituals."
As the title suggests, it is concerned with the correct performance
of various rituals such as the coming of age ceremony for the boys,
or the rite of marriage, the rite of attending the king, and so on.
The third book in this collection is called the "Records of Rituals," or "Li Ji."
It is also translated very often as the "Book of Rites."
Among the three ritual texts the Li Ji was held in
the highest regard by later Confucian scholars.
In it, in addition to essays on specific rituals such as marriage or
funeral, we also find detailed instruction on proper behavior in general,
and more significantly for our purposes,
philosophical treatises on the meaning of ritual and proper conduct.
Next, we have The Spring & Autumn Annals.
The title of this classic suggests the passage of time.
And it is essentially a historical work,
recording events that took place in the state of Lu between 722 and
481 B.C.E. This period has actually come to
be called the Spring and Autumn period in Chinese history.
The language of the text is very brief, very sparse.
Typically, an entry would simply give the month of the year
during the reign of a certain duke and the event that took place.
For example that there was a meeting the lord of a neighboring state or
the start of a campaign against another state.
Now the state of Lu of course happens to be Confucius' home state.
Later Confucian scholars would maintain that Confucius himself
wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals, not only to record events,
but more importantly, to demonstrate that history itself contains a moral
lesson that should be learned by everyone, and especially by those in power.
Commentaries, very extensive commentaries,
were then written to precisely bring out this point.
I should also point out,
that at that time all the feudal states actually had their own chronicles.
But unfortunately, only the chronicles of the state of Lu has survived.
When we come back, we will turn our attention to the Yijing,
the Classic of Changes.
Alan K. L. ChanToh Puan Mahani Idris Daim Chair Professor of Humanities & Dean
