Abstract
We use the term “classical Confucianism,” or “early Confucianism,” or “pre-Qin Confucianism,” to cover the thoughts, doctrines and practical wisdoms developed in the first stage of Confucianism. Confucianism began with the founder Confucius (551–479BCE), and developed through Confucius’ disciples and his grandson Zisi子思 (483–402BCE) to Mencius (372–289BCE), and finally Xunzi荀子 (325–238BCE). Not long after the death of Xunzi, the warring states were all conquered and unified by the Qin Empire (221–206 BCE), in the process of which Confucian books were infamously burned and scholars were buried, most of them Confucian, by the first emperor of the Qin-Empire, and so ended this first period of Confucianism. It is thus distinguished from the later Confucianism of the Han Dynasty (202BCE–220CE), which became a state ideology with the canonization of the early Confucian founding texts, and the Neo-Confucianism that developed from the eleventh to eighteenth Century in Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties, as the revival of Confucianism after its silence for almost eight centuries under the challenges of Neo-Daoism and Buddhism.
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Notes
- 1.
Among the Six Classics, the Yuejing 樂經 (Classic of Music) was said to be lost during the reign of the First Qin Emperor, therefore in fact we have now only Wujing 五經 (Five Classics).
- 2.
In the early Han Dynasty, Emperor Wen文 institutionalized the Doctor of the Shujing 書經 (The Classic of Documents) and the Doctor of Shijing 詩經 (The Classic of Poetry), while Emperor Jing 景 institutionalized that of the Chunqiu 春秋 (The Spring and Autumn Annals). It was in 136 BC that Emperor Wu 武 institutionalized also Doctors for the Yijing 易經 (The Classic of Changes) and the Li 禮 (The Book of Rites), altogether Five Classics, and deinstitutionalized all other doctors of various other schools.
- 3.
The Yueji 樂記 (Notes on Music) in the Liji (Book of Rites) was arguably, as thus considered by many scholars, a residual part of the Yuejing 樂經 (Classic of Music).
- 4.
Unlike the conventional English translation of the Shijing 詩經 as “Book of Odes,” the Yijing易經 as “Book of Changes,” we translate those classical Confucian scriptures titled with the word jing 經 consistently as “Classic,” thus the Yijing 易經 is translated as Classic of Changes, the Shijing 詩經 as Classics of Poetry, and the Shangshu 尚書, when called as Shujing 書經, we translate it as Classic of Documents. For the rest, titled without the term jing, I will follow the conventional translation of Liji 禮記 as Book of Rites, and the Chunqiu 春秋 as Spring and Autumn Annals.
- 5.
Here I follow the distinction of these three types of Neo-Confucianism made by Thomé H. Fang (see Fang 1981: 8–11).
- 6.
- 7.
The predictive visions of the future includes that of the “last days,” therefore some apocalyptic predictions as revealed by God in the Revelation to John.
- 8.
The structure of double authorship was shown more specifically in the Prophets, such as “Listen, you heaven, earth, attend, for Yahweh is speaking” (Isaiah 1:2), or, “The words of Yahweh were addressed to me” “So, the Lord Yaweh says this” (Ezekiel, everywhere). The double authorship here in question means that, behind the prophet’s mouth, there is God’s Word revealed through it.
- 9.
Such as the narrative genre of discourse in the Pentateuch, the Deuteronomic History, the synoptic Gospels and the Book of Acts, etc. God’s revealing here is done through those “history-making events,” or in Jacques Ellul and Paul Ricœur’s terms, the “founding events” (événements fondateurs), like the election of Abraham, the Exodus, the anointing of David, etc., in the Old Testament, and the birth, teaching, death, and resurrection of Christ for the early Christian church etc. The idea of revelation then appears as connected to the very character of these events and the plots that connect many events into the unity of a story. The faith of Israel and that of the early Christian Church are tied up here in the confession of the transcendent character of such nuclear founding and instituting events, which are seen as the imprint, mark, or trace of God’s act.
- 10.
Aristotle wrote in Metaphysics: “For it is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize; they wondered originally at the obvious difficulties, then advanced little by little and stated difficulties about the greater matters, … therefore since they philosophized in order to escape from ignorance, evidently they were pursuing science in order to know, and not for any utilitarian end” (Aristotle 1984: 1554, 982b 12–22).
- 11.
I should mention here that Antonio Cua was the first to submit his chapter to me, before he sadly passed away, which was a great loss of the academic world of Chinese and comparative philosophy. Indeed, Antonio Cua himself was a junzi. Were his spirit still around somewhere, I would like to use this occasion to thank him for this excellent contribution.
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Shen, V. (2014). Introduction: Classical Confucianism in Historical and Comparative Context. In: Shen, V. (eds) Dao Companion to Classical Confucian Philosophy. Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2936-2_1
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