The China Of Confucius - Part 1To understand Confucius it is necessary to realize what sort of world he lived in. He is criticized as having been too much interested in the orderly arrangement of affairs, so that his ideas seem dry and unexciting. But it must be remembered that he was trying to bring order out of something close to chaos. He had no need to seek ways to make life interesting. To hold his revolutionary ideas and to talk about them as freely as he did in a world where that was extremely dangerous gave life adventure enough. Confucius is frequently quoted as addressing what sound like pedantic little homilies to various nobles and rulers. Yet when we understand their background it is clear that some of these remarks arc pointed denunciations of weaknesses, not to say crimes, made directly to men who would have felt as much compunction about having Confucius tortured to death as about crushing a fly.
In Confucius' day, China stood at the crossroads. Let us look briefly at the process by which she arrived there. Archaeology indicates that human beings related to the modern Chinese have occupied China for a very long time. Our actual knowledge of Chinese history begins, however, with the Shang state in the fourteenth century b.c. Although we know this state, which had its capital in what is now northern Ilonan Province, only from excavations and brief inscriptions, it is evident that it had a remarkably advanced civilization. Many of its productions show a high degree of sophistication, and its bronze vessels rank among the finest artistic productions of the human i ace. This civilization was not destroyed, but it suffered a setback when, in 1122 b.c. according to the traditional chronology, the Shang were conquered by a coalition of relatively rude tribesmen who came from what is now Shensi Province, to the west. The conquerors were led by the Chou people, who established the Chou dynasty. These invaders pushed their conquests to cover a considerable portion of North China, but it was impossible for them to administer this territory as a strongly (( nl ralizcd state. For this they would have needed good communications, an effective monetary system, and great political experience, all of which they lacked.
Of necessity they parceled out most of their territories to 1 datives of the Chou ruler and to the principal chiefs of other tribes that had assisted in the conquest. Thus there grew up a feudal system in which each vassal was free to rule his own territory much as he pleased, so long as it did not disturb the peace dI the realm. He was expected to pay to the king certain tribute and to lead his army to fight in the king's service when required.
In the time of Confucius, and later, the early Chou period was pictured as an almost ideal time of Chinese unity, peace, and justice. The truer picture, which we get from inscriptions on bronzes cast at the time, shows that this is gross exaggeration. Nevertheless there probably was a considerable degree of political morality, relatively speaking, if only from compulsion. For the Chou vassals in the east were surrounded by strange and hostile people. On the one hand, this compelled them to obey the king and cooperate between themselves. On the other, it restrained them from treating the subject population too oppressively. In fact, if the Chou were to maintain themselves as rulers,
they had to conciliate the people.
Important among the means by which they did so was a propaganda campaign, which represented the Chou conquest as an altruistic crusade designed only to liberate the people of the east from their "wicked" and oppressive rulers. In order to gain acceptance for this fiction the Chou brought forth what seems to have been a new version of Chinese history. They alleged that both the Hsia and the Shang states, which preceded Chou, had had good rulers at first but wicked ones at the end. In this situation the principal deity, "Heaven," looked about for a virtuous noble to whom to give "the decree," a mandate to rebel and set up a new dynasty. Thus there grew up the theory of the "right of revolution," according to which it is not only a right but a sacred duty to overthrow a wicked ruler. If it is asked how one is to tell a mere rebel from a successor appointed by Heaven, the answer is that the people will adhere to the cause of the latter and give him victory. Clearly, although the Chou propagandists had no such intention, they laid an excellent foundation for the later development of democratic ideas. The China Of Confucius - Author: HG CREEL - Confucius and the Chinese way
