WRITING GUIDE
This guide explains how your papers will be evaluated and how you can improve your writing.
An ability to communicate in writing is a rare and valuable skill that will enable you to
progress in almost any career.
•
Papers should be double spaced, with reasonable margins and font. Number your pages.
•
Your paper must be your own work expressed in your own words. If you copy or thinly
paraphrase the work of others, including a fellow student, you are guilty of plagiarism,
which is grounds for prosecution by Student Judicial Affairs and can lead to academic
suspension. Plagiarism is easy to detect and to track.
•
Organize your paper so that the reader follows a clear progression in your argument.
Start with an introduction: this describes the problem you will address and describes
your argument in brief. Then proceed into the body of the paper where you present
your readers with evidence intended to convince them that your argument is correct.
End with a conclusion where you sum up your evidence and make clear its connection to
your argument. This is not the same thing as repeating what you wrote in the
introduction.
•
No one can produce a satisfactory paper in a first draft. After writing a rough draft, you
need to revise it to polish your sentences, paragraphs, organization, argument, and
evidence. If you write and submit only a first draft, you can expect to do poorly.
Issues to Avoid:
1. Weak Argument
Your paper must present an argument clearly and concisely stated in your opening paragraph.
The rest of your paper should present evidence in support of that argument. An argument is
more than a descriptive statement; it must offer an explanation about causation. An argument
answers a why question rather than simply a what question. In other words, a good argument
tries to explain the cause of some event or some pattern of thought or behavior in the past.
1
Example: To write that "The American Revolutionary War began in April 1775 at Lexington" is
an accurate descriptive statement, but it is not much of an argument. It does not explain the
cause of an action.
More pointed and promising is the following: "Undisciplined American militiamen commenced
the American Revolutionary War by firing at British soldiers at Lexington in April of 1775."
2. Vague Writing
Explain your ideas in careful detail. History is a discipline for organizing detailed particulars of
events, setting, and personalities into coherent explanations for change over time. Therefore,
history writing requires careful attention to the specifics of time and place. For all of your
examples, be careful to identify their location in place and time. Vagueness is the bane of
history writing.
Example:
Vague: “The settlers were mean to the Indians.”
Specific: “After the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the settlers crossed the Appalachian
Mountains to seize Indian land in the Ohio Valley. This invasion destroyed the
habitat for the wild animals that sustained the Indian way of life.”
3. Lack of Examples/Evidence
After making an important statement, you should immediately provide an example or a piece of
evidence. If you just keep piling on assertions, you will fail to persuade your reader.
4. Excessive Quotation
Short, relevant quotes can be invaluable to illustrating your points but you should avoid the
excessive use of quotation. Some students write papers where most of the words are not their
own but quotations from their reading. Only use quotations to illustrate points that you have
just expressed in your own words. Avoid long quotations. A short, pithy quotation is always
more effective. Only use quotation which vividly and precisely illustrate your point. Be careful
to introduce each quotation by identifying the author and context.
5. Failure to Introduce a Quotation
You should always introduce a quotation by identifying the author of the words. Ideally, you
will also specify a date for the quotation.
Example:
“In 1776, while crossing the Delaware River, George Washington yelled out, ‘I
just love to stand up in boats.’”
6. Insufficient or Inaccurate Citations to your Sources
Footnote your quotes AND your use of information or ideas derived from any other writer. Too
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many students mistakenly believe that they only need to provide citations for quotations.
Always locate your note number at the end of a sentence, never in the middle.
Your citation to a source should provide the name for the author of the document; the title for
the document; and the author and title of the reader; and the specific page or pages.
Examples:
A document:
Charles William Janson, “Stranger in America,” in Gordon S. Wood, The Rising Glory of
America, 1760-1820 (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1990).
A book:
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale (New York: Random House/Vintage,
1991).
NOTE: Do not use pp. or pg. in front of page numbers. They are unnecessary and
distracting.
A lecture:
Alan Taylor, History 170A Lecture, Oct. 14, 2011.
7. Sloppy Editing
Proofread your paper before you submit it. Correct your typographical, spelling, and
punctuation errors. Refer to your dictionary when in doubt. If you are sloppy, you will
receive a very poor grade.
8. Incomplete Sentences
Every sentence must have a subject (in front of the verb); a verb (in the middle); and a
direct object (following the verb). Note the following sentence
"Parson Weems wrote fables."
"Parson Weems" is the subject; "wrote" is the verb; and "fables" is the direct
object. Often students write sentence fragments, generally by omitting a verb.
9. Excessive Use of the Verb “to be” (is, was, were, would be)
“To be” is an inert verb that conveys little meaning. Too often students use this one verb
over and over in sentence after sentence. This makes for very tedious reading. This
boring verb also traps writers into clunky and wordy convolutions that cloud your
meaning. Instead of “to be,” you should use action verbs, which means all other verbs. A
very few examples: wrote, spoke, ran, fought, led, argued, insisted, resembled ...
3
Sometimes “to be” is (as here) the only appropriate verb. But most of your sentences
should employ an action verb (such as “employ”).
10. Passive Voice
Here we have the very worst form of “to be”: combined with a past participle. You need
to weed the passive voice from your writing. By reversing the more natural order of
agent-action-goal, passive sentences cripple the clear flow of information.
Example:
"The cherry tree was cut down by George Washington."
In most cases passive sentences can be corrected readily to construct an active
statement where the subject becomes a person (or persons) performing the action.
Often this simply involves reversing the direct object (“George Washington”) and the
subject (“The cherry tree”) of the passive sentence:
"George Washington cut down the cherry tree."
Passives mask responsibility for an action. For example:
"The letter was written in a dull style."
Who wrote the letter in that dull style? Far better to employ an action verb after the
human subject:
"Thomas Jefferson wrote the letter in a dull style."
11. Present Tense
When writing about an event that occurred in the past, use the past tense. This seems
simple, but many students stick to the present tense.
Examples:
Present Tense: "Washington chops down cherry trees."
Past Tense: “Washington chopped down cherry trees.”
Some students shift from past to present and back to past tense within the same
paragraph (or even within the same sentence) while describing the same people and
events set at the same moment in the past. For example:
"Washington has wooden teeth. He used them to eat with. Washington never
gums his food. He avoided apples, but he loves cherries."
No. Stick with the past tense throughout.
4
12. Long and abstract sentence subjects
In addition to a verb in the middle, every sentence needs a subject at the start. Clear
writing favors concise subjects. If your subject involves more than 3 words, you probably
need something shorter. In most sentences your subject should be an agent of action.
This usually means a human being or a human group.
Example:
Abstract: “The passion for cherry soda of George Washington was the
reason that he chopped down the cherry tree.”
Concise: “George Washington chopped down the cherry tree because he
loved cherry soda.”
13. Intruding a clause between your subject and your verb
A sentence works best when the subject leads directly into the verb (“George
Washington chopped...”). Subordinate clauses (meaning, one that modifies the subject
of the sentence) work best either at the start of the sentence, to modify the verb, or at
the end, to modify the direct object.
Example:
Intruding Clause: “The farmer, angry over the death of his favorite cherry
tree, chased George Washington.”
Better: “Angry over the death of his favorite cherry tree, the farmer
chased George Washington.”
NOTE: The improved version places no words between the subject (“the farmer”) and
the verb (“chased”).
15. Rambling, Convoluted Sentences
Avoid long, complex, convoluted, multi-clausal sentences. Many students mistakenly
believe that sophisticated writing requires longer sentences with multiple clauses. In
fact, long and convoluted sentences confuse and bore your readers. As a rule, express
only one idea per sentence. Use a sequence of sentences to develop the subtleties of
your idea - instead of stuffing the whole lot into one overburdened sentence. When
proofreading, if you encounter a long, overly complex sentence, devise a way to break it
into two or three shorter statements. Avoid sentences that ramble on for more than 3
lines.
The essence of clarity is the elimination of unnecessary words - especially in the core of
a sentence: the triad of subject-verb-object.
5
Example
"Jane chased Spot."
Why? Because it has a human subject (Jane) engaged in an action (chased) involving a
direct object (Spot) and because there are no extraneous words in between the three.
(By the way, “Spot” is a dog).
Try to keep the core of your sentence clean by adding your qualifications and
clarifications as phrases attached to the front or the rear of that core. For example:
"Angry over the soiled carpet and armed with a sawed-off shotgun, Jane chased
Spot, a mangy dog with a bladder control problem" is far better than "Jane,
angry over the soiled carpet, chased, while armed with a sawed-off shotgun,
Spot, a mangy dog with a bladder control problem."
15. A Vague or Absent Topic Sentence for a Paragraph
Every paragraph should have one dominant idea expressed in a single "topic sentence" that
controls the remaining sentences in that paragraph. A topic sentence works best as the first
sentence in the paragraph. It conveys to the reader what the paragraph is about. The rest of the
sentences should clarify or demonstrate that one key idea. If a subsequent sentence in the
paragraph is unrelated to the topic sentence, it does not belong and should be removed.
16. Confusing Organization
Be careful about the sequence of your paragraphs. If you pulled out all the other sentences in
your paragraphs, leaving only the topic sentences, they should make a natural and coherent
chain of ideas that could serve as a synopsis of your entire paper. If they do not, you need to
reorder your paragraphs and/or improve the clarity and cogency of your topic sentences.
Please make and follow an outline.
In history, chronology matters. Avoid jumping back and forth in time. It works best to discuss
early events and developments before discussing later ones. For example, it works better to
discuss the Spanish colonization of Hispaniola before proceeding to discuss Cortes=s
subsequent conquest of Mexico.
17. Repetition
Make a point clearly once. Avoid repeating the same idea over and over again in varying words.
18. Factual errors
Check your facts, dates, and spellings of names carefully. History writing requires a careful
attention to accuracy.
19. Weasel words
6
Some students seek safety in “weasel words” such as maybe or perhaps or might have been.
Such qualifiers render your writing almost without meaning. Avoid history in the key of
“maybe.” Instead, make an argument for what “probably” happened. To do so, you will need to
present evidence.
20. Warm-up sentences or global opening
Students often prove slow to get to the point, preferring to begin papers with global formulas
such as “Ever since the dawn of time…” or “Ever since Columbus discovered America …” Get to
your own point immediately and stick to the topic of your paper throughout.
21. Lack of dates for events, quotes
When you mention an event or introduce a quotation, specify the year. This provides the
reader with a sense of place in time.
THE SIMPLE SECRET:
Economy of Language: Good writing explains clearly. Simplicity facilitates clarity. Please note
my use of short, direct sentences. Throughout this writing guide, most of my sentences occupy
only one or two lines. I build my points through a series of concise sentences. Several concise
sentences work better than one long, rambling sentence with multiple clauses. Please also note
that I use action verbs (like “use”) instead of “to be” in most of my sentences. I also use very
concise subjects, usually human (like “I” in this sentence). And I avoid placing any words
between my subject and my verb. Sometimes you have to break these rules, but you should
strive for a clear and concise style in most of your sentences. You can achieve this if in most of
your sentences you do the following 3 things:
(1) Use a human subject
(2) Use an action verb
(3) Intrude no words between your subject and your verb
SUGGESTIONS
(1) Before you start your rough draft, prepare a scratch sheet (or two or three) of ideas that you
want to express. At this point do not be concerned with their order. Just write your ideas down
as fast as they come to you. This is the point in the process to be creative and disorganized.
(2) Then go over the scratch sheet(s) to choose which ideas are important, which are useful but
subordinate, and which are unimportant or incompatible (and therefore should be discarded).
Look for connections between your points and figure out the best possible sequence.
7
(3) Draw up an outline, a skeleton of the order in which you will present your ideas and your
evidence and examples drawn from your reading.
(4) Prepare a rough draft.
(5) Carefully proofread that rough draft, correcting and improving every sentence.
HOW TO WRITE A FAILING PAPER IN TEN STEPS
Step One: Submit the paper in single-spaced with two-inch margins. Don’t paginate your paper;
and don’t put your name on it.
Step Two: Misspell at least one word per paragraph to see if your teaching assistant owns a
dictionary.
Step Three: Devise complicated constructions that mask your meaning. Why write "The cat is
on the mat" when you could instead write "The predicative nexus of exemplification was
instantiated by being-on and the beings that were the cat and the mat"?
Step Four: Ignore punctuation. By simply dropping all commas and periods you can multiply the
possible interpretations of your sentences.
Step Five: Begin and end paragraphs anywhere you please. Why not just make your paper one
long paragraph? Then you would only have to write one theme sentence. Or you could make
every sentence a separate paragraph to avoid having to present any supporting examples or
evidence.
Step Six: Why bother with any evidence? Why even read any of the books or documents? After
all, history is just a matter of opinion and all opinions are equal. So why waste your time? Never
consider any possible objections to your position. Simply assert and repeat your assertion over
and over again.
Step Seven: Avoid making an argument. It is so unpleasant. Besides, you can make do by filling
the paper up with a statement of your feelings. Be as vague as possible. Don't forget to mention
that your conclusion is too obvious to require any evidence.
Step Eight: When in doubt, repeat yourself. The more times you say the same idea in slightly
different ways, the more likely you are to fill up your paper with minimal effort.
Step Nine: Use as many irrelevant quotations as possible, but never footnote them. You may
8
want to forget to use quotation marks.
Step Ten: Never proofread or edit. Why spoil the spontaneity of the moment?
9
2
Copyright © 1993 by Patricia Buckley Ebrey
Copyright © 1981 by The Free Press
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the Publisher.
The Free Press
A Division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, N.Y. 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Printed in the United States of America
printing number
17 19 20 18
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chinese civilization: a sourcebook / edited by Patricia Buckley Ebrey.—2nd ed., rev.
and expanded.
p. cm.
Rev. and expanded ed. of: Chinese civilization and society.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-02-908752-X
eISBN-13: 978-1-4391-8839-2
1. China—Civilization—Sources. 2. China—History—Sources. I. Ebrey, Patricia
Buckley II. Chinese civilization and society.
DS721.C517 1993
951—dc20 92-47017
3
CIP
4
CONTENTS
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Contents According to Topics
A Note on the Selection and Translation of Sources
Map of China
I. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
1. Late Shang Divination Records. The questions and answers inscribed on oracle
bones used to communicate with divine powers
2. The Metal Bound Box. A scene in which the Duke of Zhou offers his life to the
ancestors in place of his nephew the king, from the Book of Documents
3. Hexagrams in the Book of Changes. Two passages from an ancient diviners’
manual
4. Songs and Poems. Songs of courtship, feasting, and war, from the Book of Songs
5. The Battle Between Jin and Chu. Description of the strategies, jockeying for
position, and boasting of a major battle, from the Zuo zbuan
6. Confucian Teachings. Passages from the Analects, Mencius, and Xunzi
7. Daoist Teachings. Passages from the Laozi and Zhuangzi
8. Legalist Teachings. Passages from the Book of Lord Shang and Han Feizi
9. Two Avengers. From the Intrigues of the Warring States
10. Social Rituals. The procedures to be followed when an inferior visits a superior
and vice-versa, from the Book of Etiquette and Ritual
II. THE QIN AND HAN DYNASTIES
11. Penal Servitude in Qin Law. From excavated wooden-strip documents
5
12. The World Beyond China. From Sima Qian’s Historical Records
13. Heaven, Earth, and Man. From the writings of Dong Zhongshu
14. The Debate on Salt and Iron. A court debate between the Legalist prime
minister and the Confucian scholars about the role of the government in
economic matters
15. The Classic of Filial Piety. A popular primer that glorifies the virtue of filial
devotion
16. Wang Fu on Friendship and Getting Ahead. A second-century man’s cynical
view of how men get ahead
17. Women’s Virtues and Vices. An exemplary biography of a model woman, the
lament of a man whose wife was far from model, and a woman’s admonitions to
girls on how to behave
18. Yin and Yang in Medical Theory. The theory behind traditional medicine, from
the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine
19. Local Cults. Three stone inscriptions describing shrines erected to honor various
deities
20. Uprisings. Accounts of two religious leaders and the uprisings they staged
III. THE ERA OF DIVISION AND THE TANG DYNASTY
21. Ge Hong’s Autobiography. By a fourth-century scholar and reluctant official
22. Buddhist Doctrines and Practices. Wei Shou’s summary of Buddhist doctrines,
hagiographic accounts of two monks, and documents found at Dunhuang
showing Buddhist belief in practice
23. Tales of Ghosts and Demons. Three tales from a fourth-century collection
24. Cultural Differences Between the North and the South. Two views of the
distinctions that developed during a period of political separation and non-Han
domination in the North
25. Emperor Taizong on Effective Government. A summary of political theory,
written by the second Tang emperor for his sons
6
26. The Tang Legal Code. Sections from the laws on theft and robbery and those on
land and taxes
27. The Errors of Geomancy. An official’s complaints about the profusion of
theories
28. The Dancing Horses of Xuanzong’s Court. Unusual and exotic entertainment
29. Family Business. Documents from Dunhuang on the sale of slaves, division of
property, and household registration
30. The Examination System. Humorous and semihumorous anecodotes about
men’s efforts to pass the civil service examinations
31. A Pilgrim’s Visit to the Five Terraces Mountains. From the diary of a
Japanese monk who made a pilgrimage to one of the sacred sites of Buddhism
IV. THE SONG AND YUAN DYNASTIES
32. The Tanguts and Their Relations with the Han Chinese. Some Tangut
maxims, a Tangut ruler’s letter to the Song emperor, and the preface to a
Chinese-Tangut glossary
33. Book of Rewards and Punishments. A moral tract associated with popular
Daoism
34. Precepts of the Perfect Truth Daoist Sect. Principles of a Daoist monastic sect
35. Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, and Emperor Shenzong. A court debate between
the leading activist and his conservative opponent and letters they wrote each
other outlining their differences
36. Rules for the Fan Lineage’s Charitable Estate. The rules by which a charitable
trust was to be run for the benefit of the members of the lineage
37. Ancestral Rites. From a ritual manual giving the procedures to be followed
38. Women and the Problems They Create. Three folktale-like stories of unusual
women and a sympathetic view of women’s problems
39. Longing to Recover the North. Poems by six twelfth-century writers expressing
their anguish at the loss of China’s heartland
7
40. Zhu Xi’s Conversations with His Disciples. Conversations between a leading
neo-Confucian philosopher and his students
41. The Attractions of the Capital. A description of economic activity,
entertainment, and amenities in the city of Hangzhou
42. The Mutual Responsibility System. One magistrate’s instructions on how these
units were to operate
43. On Farming. How to plant, weed, care for tools, budget time, and so on
44. A Mongol Governor. The biography of a Mongol who spent decades putting
down rebellions and securing Mongol rule
45. A Schedule for Learning. Neo-Confucian rules and advice for teachers and
students
46. A Scholar-Painter’s Diary. Two weeks of social and intellectual activity
V. THE MING DYNASTY
47. Proclamations of the Hongwu Emperor. A despot’s complaints about how
difficult it was to get his subjects to act properly
48. The Dragon Boat Race. A description of the festival as performed in one place
in Hunan
49. Village Ordinances. Sample ordinances a village could adopt
50. Commercial Activities. Sample contracts, an essay on merchants, and a
biography of an admired one
51. What the Weaver Said. An artisan’s view of his work
52. Tenants. Two contracts specifying the responsibilities of quasi-hereditary
tenant-servants on one estate and reports of riots by tenants
53. Shi Jin the Nine-Dragoned. Episode from a novel describing the background of
one outlaw
54. Family Instructions. Advice and rules found in a lineage genealogy
8
55. Concubines. How concubines were bought, the reminiscences of a man for a
beloved concubine, and an episode from a novel depicting the ploys of a
malicious concubine
56. Widows Loyal Unto Death. Accounts from a local history glorifying women
who showed loyalty to their dead husbands by killing themselves
57. Two Philosophers. Letters and conversations of two important thinkers, Wang
Yangming and Li Zhi
58. A Censor Accuses a Eunuch. A memorial to the emperor accusing the eunuch
Wei Zhongxian of usurping his authority and acting tyrannically
VI. THE QING DYNASTY
59. The Yangzhou Massacre. One family’s experiences, recounted in a diary
60. Proverbs About Heaven. Standard sayings
61. Taxes and Labor Service. A description of the forms in which taxes and service
were assessed in one county
62. Permanent Property. The advice a man gave his sons concerning the
importance of owning land and how to manage it
63. Lan Dingyuan’s Casebook. Two examples of how an energetic Magistrate
solved administrative and legal cases
64. Exhortations on Ceremony and Deference. A lecture delivered by an official
in the hope of teaching villagers good behavior
65. Village Organization. Two records of village affairs, one about a water-use
agreement, the other the creation of a fair
66. The Village Headman and the New Teacher. Episode from a novel about how
a teacher was hired
67. Boat People. A local history’s account of a minority group
68. Placards Posted in Guangzhou. Official orders to admit foreigners to the city
after the Opium War and protests from local residents
9
69. Infant Protection Society. An account of one man’s efforts to stem infanticide
70. Mid-Century Rebels. Confessions, proclamations, petitions, and descriptions of
a number of different rebel groups
71. The Conditions and Activities of Workers. A stone inscription recording
official disapproval of organizing by workers and an official report of working
conditions in a water-logged mine
72. Genealogy Rules. The rules one lineage used in compiling its genealogy
VII. THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY
73. Liang Qichao on His Trip to America. Comments on the amazing sights in
New York, and reflections on Chinese social organization
74. Ridding China of Bad Customs. Proposals for ways to end footbinding,
suppress opium addiction, and free young girl bondservants
75. Rural Education. Recollections of a teacher introducing science to a rural
school
76. My Old Home. A story showing problems of communication between upper and
lower class men
77. The Spirit of the May Fourth Movement. Recollections of a woman who had
been in middle school at the time
78. The Haifeng Peasant Association. How one man tried to organize peasants
79. The Dog-Meat General. An account of one of the more incompetent and brutal
warlords
80. The General Strike. A magazine account of a strike in Shanghai in 1928
81. Funeral Processions. A description of two funeral processions with a list of the
equipment used and the cost
82. My Children. An essay by a man with five children
83. The Life of Beggars. An account of the social organization of beggars and their
various techniques of earning a living
10
84. Generalissimo Jiang on National Identity. Two speeches, early and late in the
War Against Japan, on China’s relations with other countries and the relations of
the various nationalities within China
VIII. THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC
85. The Communist Party. A speech by Liu Shaoqi on party organization and
discipline
86. Land Reform. An episode from a novel showing peasants learning “to stand up”
87. Hu Feng and Mao Zedong. Letters of a leading intellectual which Mao
published with his own commentary on how they demonstrated his
counterrevolutionary tendencies
88. A New Young Man Arrives at the Organization Department. An episode
from a story of the conflict between an idealistic young party member and the
entrenched power structure
89. Peng Dehuai’s Critique of the Great Leap Forward. Peng’s letter to Mao
offering measured criticism of his policies
90. Developing Agricultural Production. A newspaper account of efforts to inspire
members of a production brigade to work harder
91. Lei Feng, Chairman Mao’s Good Fighter. Inspirational anecdotes about a
model worker and soldier, devoted to aiding the people
92. Housing in Shanghai. A newspaper article describing the effects of state control
of housing
93. Red Guards. Red Guards’ accounts of their activities during the Cultural
Revolution
94. Victims. A short story written after the fall of the “Gang of Four,” showing some
of the negative effects on both the older and younger generations of the Cultural
Revolution
95. The Changing Course of Courtship. Four documents that show the changing
circumstances in which young people have looked for spouses
96. The One-Child Family. One province’ regulations for fostering the one-child
11
family and a magazine article on the pressure young mothers have experienced
because of this policy
97. Economic Liberalization and New Problems for Women. Newspaper and
magazine articles protesting some of the ways new policies have had adverse
effects on women’s employment or welfare
98. Peasants in the Cities. An interview and a newspaper article concerning the
rural residents who flocked to the cities in the 1980s
99. Posters Calling for Democracy. Posters from the 1989 Democracy Protests
100. Defending China’s Socialist Democracy. A newspaper article refuting the
views of those who believe that the West is more democratic than China
Glossary
Suggestions for Further Reading
Original Sources
Index
12
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
Over the years I have had the pleasure of meeting and talking with many students and
teachers who used Chinese Civilization and Society: A Sourcebook in their classes.
Repeatedly they told me that what they liked most about it was its liveliness—the
variety in the kinds of sources, the abundance of ones about ordinary life, the
sprinkling of humor and glimpses of personal life. For their sakes I have long been
thinking I should update it to bring it up to the 1990s and take into account
reevaluations of the Mao years.
When I finally found the time to tackle revisions, I decided to do a more thorough
rethinking of the overall purposes of this sourcebook and how it actually gets used.
My original goal fifteen years ago was to get into print lots of new translations of the
sorts of documents that had been neglected in other sourcebooks: popular stories,
descriptions of local customs, texts like tenancy contracts, essays that would reveal
how relatively ordinary people thought, and so on. There were already many good
translations of philosophical and religious texts, of standard historical accounts of
great events, and of China’s relations with foreign peoples, so I did not give these
topics as much space as texts about daily life or the mental world of ordinary people.
From my conversations with colleagues around the country who have been assigning
this book to their students, I have come to realize that few of them assign any other
sourcebook or any other original texts. Chinese history is commonly taught in a rapid
survey lasting only one or two semesters, with never enough time to read widely in
the available translations. The Sourcebook would better meet classroom needs, I now
realized, if it gave balanced coverage to all aspects of Chinese civilization, regardless
of whether a source had also been translated elsewhere.
Consequently I have made revisions throughout this book. The selection of sources
for China since 1949 has been extensively revised and the coverage of the earliest
periods expanded. Sometimes I have substituted an earlier piece for a later one on the
same subject; for instance, I added a selection from the Tang code in place of one
from the Ming code and some fourth-century ghost stories instead of some
seventeenth-century ones. I have also expanded coverage of philosophy and religion
in general, with new selections on Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, and Buddhism.
In addition, I have added quite a few pieces that relate to political ideas and practices
and to China’s contacts with foreign peoples. Altogether there are thirty-nine new
selections, bringing the total to one hundred. To make room for these new pieces, I
have had to make cuts, sometimes shortening pieces, sometimes eliminating ones that
seemed, on balance, to contribute less to the overall understanding of Chinese
civilization. Although the final selection is still rich in sources for social and cultural
13
history, I now believe that it is sufficiently well rounded to serve as the sole
sourcebook in a course on Chinese history or civilization. To bring attention to the
change in the focus of this book, I decided to change the title as well, to Chinese
Civilization: A Sourcebook.
Several people have helped me prepare this new edition. My colleagues Kai-wing
Chow, Peter Gregory, and Kenneth Klinker offered advice on new selections. Chiuyueh Lai did the conversions from Wade-Giles to pinyin romanization. She and
Chunyu Wang each translated one of the new pieces. Susan Harum helped with the
final preparation of the manuscript. Two scholars at other universities generously
provided translations in areas of their expertise, David Keightley of the University of
California at Berkeley and Ruth Dunnell of Kenyon College. The remainder of the
new translations I did myself.
P.B.E.
September 1992
14
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
This sourcebook came into being because of my belief that listening to what the
Chinese themselves have had to say is the best way to learn about China. In teaching
Chinese history and culture, however, I found that available translations were of
limited use for the kinds of questions students were asking: How different were
ordinary Chinese from ordinary Westerners? Did their different religions or
philosophies lead to major differences in daily life? Did the Chinese have the same
kinds of personal, social, and political problems as we do, or different ones? To help
students find answers to these questions, I had to search for sources that could tell us
more about the lives, outlooks, and habits of the full range of the Chinese population,
not merely philosophers and scholars, but also women, peasants, townsmen, and
undistinguished local officials. Since such people seldom wrote essays or
autobiographies, I had to look for different kinds of sources—folk songs, plays, moral
primers, descriptions, contracts, newspaper articles, and so on.
My efforts to make a sourcebook out of this material could never have succeeded
without the generous help of others. Acknowledgment for funding must be made to
the National Endowment for the Humanities for an Education Project Grant. This
grant allowed me to employ several graduate-student research assistants. Jane Chen,
Lucie Clark, Mark Coyle, Nancy Gibbs, Lily Hwa, Jeh-hang Lai, Barbara Matthies,
and Clara Yu helped prepare, correct, and polish the translations in this book.
Although all the translations we did are attributed to specific translators, they are in
fact joint efforts, since in all cases either I as editor or one of the assistants extensively
revised the translation to improve accuracy or style. Clara Yu’s contribution to this
book deserves particular note; she worked with me from the inception of the project to
its completion and is responsible for thirty of the eighty-nine selections.
Over the past five years, I have also regularly profited from the advice and criticisms
of colleagues. Robert Crawford and Howard Wechsler helped test the translations in
courses at the University of Illinois. Several other faculty members at Illinois have
been ready to answer my questions on subjects about which they knew more than I,
including Richard Chang, Lloyd Eastman, James Hart, Richard Kraus, Whalen Lai,
and William MacDonald. I have also benefited greatly from the reactions and
suggestions of professors at other colleges who saw earlier versions of this
sourcebook in whole or part. These include Suzanne Barnett (University of Puget
Sound), David Buck (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Parks Coble (University
of Nebraska), Wolfram Eber-hard (University of California, Berkeley), Edward
Farmer (University of Minnesota), Charlotte Furth (California State University at
Long Beach), Peter Golas (University of Denver), John Langlois (Bowdoin College),
15
Susan Mann Jones (University of Chicago), Susan Naquin (University of
Pennsylvania), John Meskill (Barnard College), Keith Schoppa (Valparaiso
University), Jonathan Spence (Yale University), Philip West (Indiana University), and
Arthur Wolf (Stanford University).
Finally, I was fortunate to have excellent clerical assistance from Mary Mann, who
typed several versions of this manuscript, and Sandy Price, who helped with the final
typing. Christina Pheley conscientiously corrected the page proofs and galleys.
P.B.E.
16
CONTENTS ACCORDING TO TOPICS
RELIGION AND COSMOLOGY
1. Late Shang Divination Records 2. The Metal Bound Box
3. Hexagrams in the Book of Changes
7. Daoist Teachings
13. Heaven, Earth, and Man 18. Yin and Yang in Medical Theory 19. Local Cults
20. Uprisings
22. Buddhist Doctrines and Practices 23. Tales of Ghosts and Demons 27. The Errors
of Geomancy 31. A Pilgrim at the Five Terraces Mountains 33. Book of Rewards and
Punishments 34. Precepts of the Perfect Truth Daoist Sect 60. Proverbs About Heaven
63. Lan Dingyuan’s Casebook
CONFUCIANISM
6. Confucian Teachings
10. Social Rituals
13. Heaven, Earth, and Man 15. The Classic of Filial Piety 17. Women’s Virtues and
Vices 35. Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, and Emperor Shenzong 37. Ancestral Kites
40. Zhu Xi’s Conversations with His Disciples 45. A Schedule for Learning 57. Two
Philosophers
64. Exhortations on Ceremony and Deference
GOVERNMENT
2. The Metal Bound Box
4. Songs and Poems
6. Confucian Teachings
8. Legalist Teachings
11. Penal Servitude in Qin Law 14. The Debate on Salt and Iron 16. Wang Fu on
Friendship and Getting Ahead 25. Emperor Taizong on Effective Government 26. The
Tang Legal Code
28. The Dancing Horses of Xuanzong’s Court 30. The Examination System 35. Wang
Anshi, Sima Guang, and Emperor Shenzong 42. The Mutual Responsibility System
47. Proclamations of the Hongwu Emperor 58. A Censor Accuses a Eunuch 61. Taxes
17
and Labor Service 63. Lan Dingyuan’s Casebook
64. Exhortations on Ceremony and Deference 70. Mid-Century Rebels
77. The Spirit of the May Fourth Movement 79. The Dog-Meat General 80. The
General Strike
84. Generalissimo Jiang on National Identity 85. The Communist Party
86. Land Reform
88. A New Young Man Arrives at the Organization Department 89. Peng Dehuai’s
Critique of the Great Leap Forward 90. Developing Agricultural Production 91. Lei
Feng, Chairman Mao’s Good Fighter 92. Housing in Shanghai
93. Red Guards
93. Victims
99. Posters Calling for Democracy 100. Defending China’s Socialist Democracy
HISTORY WRITING AND HISTORICAL GENRE
2. The Metal Bound Box
5. The Battle Between Jin and Chu 9. Two Avengers
12. The World Beyond China 19. Local Cults
20. Uprisings
21. Ge Hong’s Autobiography 44. A Mongol Governor
46. A Scholar-Painter’s Diary 58. A Censor Accuses a Eunuch 67. Boat People
70. Mid-Century Rebels
CONTACTS WITH OUTSIDE PEOPLES
12. The World Beyond China 22. Buddhist Doctrines and Practices 28. The Dancing
Horses of Xuanzong’s Court 31. A Pilgrim’s Visit to the Five Terraces Mountains 32.
The Tanguts and Their Relations with the Han Chinese 39. Longing to Recover the
North 44. A Mongol Governor
59. The Yangchow Massacre 68. Placards Posted in Guangzhou 73. Liang Qichao on
His Trip to America 84. Generalissimo Jiang on National Identity 100. Defending
China’s Socialist Democracy
FAMILY, KINSHIP, AND GENDER
15. The Classic of Filial Piety 17. Women’s Virtues and Vices 29. Family Business
36. Rules for the Fan Lineage’s Charitable Estate 37. Ancestral Rites
18
38. Women and the Problems They Create 54. Family Instructions
55. Concubines
56. Widows Loyal Unto Death 72. Genealogy Rules
74. Ridding China of Bad Customs 81. Funeral Processions
82. My Children
95. The Changing Course of Courtship 96. The One-Child Family 97. Economic
Liberalization and New Problems for Women
LOCAL SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
4. Songs and Poems
41. The Attractions of the Capital 43. On Farming
48. The Dragon Boat Race 49. Village Ordinances
50. Commercial Activities 51. What the Weaver Said 52. Tenants
53. Shi Jin the Nine-Dragoned 65. Village Organization 66. The Village Headman and
the New Teacher 67. Boat People
69. Infant Protection Society 71. The Conditions and Activities of Workers 75. Rural
Education
76. My Old Home
78. The Haifeng Peasant Association 83. The Life of Beggars
86. Land Reform
92. Housing in Shanghai
97. Economic Liberalization and New Problems for Women 98. Peasants in the Cities
UPPER CLASS AND INTELLECTUALS
5. The Battle Between Jin and Chu 10. Social Rituals
16. Wang Fu on Friendship and Getting Ahead 21. Ge Hong’s Autobiography 24.
Cultural Differences Between the North and the South 30. The Examination System
39. Longing to Recover the North 45. A Schedule for Learning 46. A ScholarPainter’s Diary 57. Two Philosophers
62. Permanent Property
69. Infant Protection Society 73. Liang Qichao on His Trip to America 74. Ridding
China of Bad Customs 76. My Old Home
77. The Spirit of the May Fourth Movement 78. The Haifeng Peasant Association 87.
Hu Feng and Mao Zedong 94. Victims
19
TALES AND FICTION
9. Two Avengers
23. Tales of Ghosts and Demons 38. Women and the Problems They Create 53. Shi
Jin the Nine-Dragoned 55. Concubines
66. The Village Headman and the New Teacher 76. My Old Home
86. Land Reform
88. A New Young Man Arrives at the Organization Department 94. Victims
20
A NOTE ON THE SELECTION AND TRANSLATION
OF SOURCES
In selecting sources for inclusion in this book, I had to balance many goals. Each
source had to reveal something important about Chinese civilization, but at the same
time I wanted each to be intrinsically interesting to read. I also tried to balance the
needs of topical and chronological coverage and my desire to show something of the
life of people in different stations in society. I have drawn from many well-known
works but have also made a concerted effort to find sources about the lives of the
kinds of people who did not ordinarily write, such as women, peasants, soldiers,
artisans, and merchants.
Translating the sources was as challenging as selecting them. Fully capturing
meaning, style, and mood is never possible. If we transpose other peoples’ common
ways of expression into ways of expression common to us, important elements of the
culture are lost to us, for much of culture is communicated in the metaphors and
imagery people use. On the other hand, to convey all of the meanings in a text usually
results in such bad English that the intelligence, grace, or humor of the original is lost.
And even when the style is satisfactory, bringing out too many subtleties from texts,
especially popular works, can distort their real meaning. For instance, Buddhist monks
certainly read more into technical Buddhist terms than lay persons do; to bring out all
possible meanings for such terms in a popular moral tract or fictional story would be
to misrepresent what it meant to much of the audience that actually read it.
Unfortunately, judging how much an audience understood is nearly impossible. Did
most people who invoked the phrase “the tyrant Xia Jie” know anything about Xia Jie
except that he was a famous tyrant? If they did know more, was it very close to the
Xia Jie of the historical accounts, or was it based on the portrayal of him in popular
plays or operas?
Thus a number of compromises have been made in the translations in this sourcebook.
To make extensive reading more inviting, we have translated into standard, easily
intelligible English, often eliminating redundancies but trying to preserve much of the
imagery and style of the original. Many selections have been abridged, but omissions
are marked with ellipsis points (…). To avoid cluttering the text, footnotes and
interpolations have been kept to an absolute minimum. When authors mention specific
people, they are not identified when the point can be understood without it. Allusions
and philosophical terms are translated simply, generally with little explanation. It is
hoped that wide reading will give readers a surer sense of what authors and audiences
understood by such terms than footnotes ever could.
21
22
PART I
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
The archaeological record of human existence in China goes back to the remote past.
By the fifth millennium b.c. neolithic cultures flourished in several parts of the
country. Archaeologists have found village settlements, finely decorated pottery,
carved and polished jades, and evidence of ancestor worship. With the Shang dynasty
(ca. 1600-ca. 1050 B.C.), the historical and archaeological records begin to coincide;
the Chinese accounts of the Shang rulers match the diviners’ inscriptions on animal
bones and tortoise shells found during the past century at the city of Anyang in the
Yellow River valley. The Shang had built a strong state on the basis of bronze
technology, chariot warfare, and elaborate social differentiation. Shang kings could
mobilize large armies for warfare and huge numbers of workers to construct defensive
walls or elaborate tombs.
Much fuller historical records survive for the next dynasty, the Zhou (ca. 1050-256
B.C.). The Zhou house originated in what is now Shaanxi province in northwestern
China, moving eastward to conquer the Shang and establish their rule over much of
northern China. The early Zhou rulers secured their position by enfeoffing loyal
supporters and relatives in different regions, thus establishing a social order somewhat
like the feudal system in medieval Europe. The early Zhou dynasty was an age when
blood kinship was honored and social status distinctions were stressed. Members of
the nobility were linked both to each other and to their ancestors by bonds of
obligation based on kinship. Ancestors were seen as having great influence over the
living, with powers similar to but far surpassing those of the living elders of the clan.
Even the relationship between lord and peasant was supposed to be a paternalistic one,
the peasant serving the lord and the lord concerned about his welfare.
The Zhou kingdom remained strong for over two centuries, but its position gradually
weakened, until finally in 771 B.C., the capital was sacked by non-Chinese tribes. The
Zhou rulers then established a new capital further east in the Yellow River valley,
marking the beginning of the Eastern Zhou. In this period real political power lay with
the feudal states. The Zhou king continued to reign only because of the prestige of his
house and the fact that no one feudal state was strong enough to dominate the others.
The Eastern Zhou is divided into two major eras, the Spring and Autumn period (72223
481 B.C.) and the Warring States period (403-221 B.C.). During these centuries the
states attacked and absorbed each other until only a half-dozen powerful ones
survived. This period of political strife witnessed social and economic advances of all
sorts, including the introduction of iron, the development of infantry armies, the
circulation of money, the beginning of private ownership of land, the growth of cities,
and the breakdown of class barriers. During this period also there was a gradual
expansion of the culture of the North southward into the Yangzi River region, and at
the same time elements of the indigenous culture of the lusher southern region were
incorporated into the culture of the North.
The political disruption and social change of the late Zhou drew many men’s attention
to the problem of how to achieve stability. Those who responded to this challenge
included not only military and political leaders but also many philosophers. The
foremost philosophers were Confucius (551-479 B.C.) and his followers Mencius (ca.
370-ca. 300 B.C.) and Xunzi (ca. 310-ca. 215 B.C.), who emphasized the preservation
of tradition and moral cultivation. They were closely rivaled at the time by the
Mohists and Legalists, the former emphasizing frugality, discipline, and universal
love, the latter law and statecraft. Opposed to all of these proposed methods of reform
were the Daoists, who preached a return to the Dao or Way, the true condition of man,
which had been lost through the process of civilization and could be regained only if
people were allowed to return to naturalness. The proliferation of philosophy in this
period was so great that it came to be known as the period of the “one hundred
schools.” Without doubt it was one of the most intellectually creative eras in Chinese
history.
The major sources for the Classical period are the oracle bones and bronze
inscriptions, the Book of Documents, the Book of Changes, the Book of Songs, the
ritual classics, several historical texts, and the essays and recorded sayings of the
philosophers. Passages from these texts have been selected for inclusion here first of
all to illuminate the Classical period. A second, complementary goal, is to introduce
the classics themselves, important because they were studied by so many generations
of Students and thus profoundly shaped the thinking of the educated.
24
1 LATE SHANG DIVINATION RECORDS
The kings of the late Shang (ca. 1200-1050 B.C.) attempted to communicate with the
spiritual forces that ruled their world by reading the stress cracks in cattle bones and
turtle plastrons. They and their diviners produced these cracks by applying a heated
brand or poker to the consecrated bones or shells, intoning as they did so a charge
that conveyed their intentions, wishes, or need to know. After the divination ritual was
over, a record of the topic and, sometimes, of the prognostication and the result, was
engraved into the bone. Those inscriptions, only recovered in the twentieth century by
archaeologists and painstakingly deciphered by paleographers, provide direct contact
with many of the Shang kings’ daily activities and concerns. Some 150,000 oraclebone fragments, mainly excavated at the late Shang cult center near modern Anyang,
have been preserved, of which 50,000 have been thought worth reproduction. The
following inscriptions—most of them from the reign of the twenty-first king, Wu Ding
(ca. 1200-1181 B.C.), the heyday of Shang divination as it is recorded in the bone
inscriptions—cover the topics that were of major concern to the Shang diviners. As in
the first example, many of the early charges were paired, being expressed in both the
positive and negative mode and placed in matching opposition on the bone. The
inscriptions, as can be seen below, include references to Di, the high god of the
Shang. The offering of cult to Di, however, was rarely divined, perhaps because,
unlike the ancestors, Di was virtually beyond human comprehension and influence.
Sacrifices and Rituals
[A] [Preface:] Divined: [Charge:] “[We] should offer to Xiang Jia, Father Geng, and
Father Xin [the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth kings], one cow.”
[B] [Preface:] Divined: [Charge:] “[We] should not offer to Xiang Jia, Father Geng,
and Father Xin, one cow.”
Mobilizations
[Preface:] Crack-making on dingyou [day 34], Que divined: [Charge:] “This season,
the king raises five thousand men to campaign against the Tufang; he will receive
assistance in this case.” [Postface:] Third moon.
Military Campaigns
[A] Divined: “It should be Zhi Guo whom the king joins to attack the Bafang, [for if
he does] Di will [confer assistance] on us.”
25
[B] “It should not be Zhi Guo whom the king joins to attack the Bafang [for if he
does] Di may not [confer assistance] on us.”
Meteorological Phenomena
[A] [Preface:] Crack-making on bingshen [day 33], Que divined: [Charge:] “On the
coming yisi [day 42], [we] will perform the you-ritual to Xia Yi [the twelfth king].”
[Prognostication:] The king read the cracks and said: “When [we] perform the yowritual there will be occasion for calamities; there may be thunder.” [Verification:] On
yisi [day 42], [we] performed the you-ritual. At dawn it rained; at the beheading
sacrifice it stopped raining; when the beheading sacrifice was all done, it likewise
rained; when [we] displayed [the victims] and split them open, it suddenly cleared.
[B] [Verification:] In the night of yisi [day 42] there was thunder in the west.
Agriculture
[A] [Preface:] Crack-making on [bing-]chen [day 53], Que divined: [Charge:] “We
will receive millet harvest.”
[B] [Preface:] Crack-making on bingchen [day 53], Que divined: [Charge:] “We may
not receive millet harvest.” (Postface:) Fourth moon.
[C] [Prognostication:] The king read the cracks and said: “Auspicious. We will
receive this harvest.”
Sickness
Divined: “There is a sick tooth; it is not Father Yi [the twentieth king, Wu Ding’s
father] who is harming [it].”
Childbirth
[A] [Preface:] Crack-making on jiashen [day 21], Que divined: [Charge:] “Lady Hao
[a consort of Wu Ding] will give birth and it will be good.” [Prognostication:] The
king read the cracks and said: “If it be on a ding day that she give birth, it will be
good. If it be on a geng day that she give birth, it will be prolonged auspiciousness.”
[Verification:] [After] thirty-one days, on jiayin [day 51], she gave birth. It was not
good. It was a girl.
[B] [Preface:] Crack-making on jiashen [day 21], Que divined: [Charge:] “Lady Hao
will give birth and it may not be good.” [Verification:] [After] thirty-one days, on
jiayin [day 51], she gave birth. It really was not good. It was a girl.
Disaster, Distress, or Trouble
26
[A] Crack-making on jiashen [day 21], Zheng divined: “This rain will be disastrous
for us.”
[B] Divined: “This rain will not be disastrous for us.”
Dreams
[A] Crack-making on jichou [day 26], Que divined: “The king’s dream was due to
Ancestor Yi.”
[B] Divined: “The king’s dream was not due to Ancestor Yi.”
Settlement Building
[A] Crack-making on renzi [day 49], Zheng divined: “If we build a settlement, Di will
not obstruct [but] approve.” Third moon.
[B] Crack-making on guichou [day 50], Zheng divined: “If we do not build a
settlement, Di will approve.”
Orders
Crack-making on [jia]wu [day 31], Bin divined: “It should be Lady Hao whom the
king orders to campaign against the Yi.”
Tribute Payments
[Marginal notation:] Wo brought in one thousand [shells]; Lady Jing [a consort of Wu
Ding] ritually prepared forty of them. [Recorded by the diviner] Bin.
Divine Assistance or Approval
[A] Crack-making on xinchou [day 38], Que divined: “Di approves the king.”
[B] Divined: “Di does not approve the king.”
Requests to Ancestral or Nature Powers
Crack-making on xinhai [day 48], Gu divined: “In praying for harvest to Yue [a
mountain spirit], [we] make a burnt offering of three small penned sheep [and] split
open three cattle.” Second moon.
The Night or the Day
[A] Crack-making on renshen [day 9], Shi divined: “This night there will be no
27
disasters.”
[B] Divined: “This night it will not rain.” Ninth moon.
Hunting Expeditions and Excursions
On renzi [day 49] the king made cracks and divined: “[We] hunt at Zhi; going and
coming back there will be no harm.” [Prognostication:] The king read the cracks and
said: “Prolonged auspiciousness.” [Verification:] This was used. [We] caught fortyone foxes, eight mi-deer, one rhinoceros.
The Ten-Day Week
[A] On guichou [day 50], the king made cracks and divined: “In the [next] ten days,
there will be no disasters.” [Prognostication:] The king read the cracks and said:
“Auspicious.”
[B] On guihai [day 60], the king made cracks and divined: “In the [next] ten days,
there will be no disasters.” [Prognostication:] The king read the cracks and said:
“Auspicious.”
Translated by David N. Keightley
28
2 THE METAL BOUND BOX
The cult of the ancestors and the practice of divination as a means of learning the
wishes of the ancestors remained important in the early Zhou period. This is shown in
the story below concerning the Duke of Zhou, brother of the founder of the Zhou
dynasty. King Wu. When King Wu died, his son, King Cheng, was still a child. The
Duke of Zhou acted as regent for him for seven years but never attempted to take the
throne himself. The story here, which begins while King Wu is still alive, shows the
duke’s assumptions about the needs, desires, and powers of ancestors.
This selection is from the Book of Documents, a collection of purported speeches,
pronouncements, and arguments of the early kings and their advisers. The oldest of
these documents date from the beginning of the Zhou dynasty, although the one
included here is probably of later date. This book became one of the Five Classics,
held sacred by the Confucians. Even though each document deals with a particular
political situation, as a group they have been taken to provide an ideal statement of
how government should be conducted.
Two years after he had conquered the Shang dynasty, King Wu became ill and grew
despondent. The two ducal councillors advised making a reverent divination on behalf
of the king. However, the Duke of Zhou said, “We must not upset our royal
ancestors.”
The duke then took the burden upon himself. He constructed three altars on a single
lot of cleared ground. Then he constructed another altar to the south, facing north.
Standing there, he arranged the jade disc and grasped the jade baton. Then he
addressed his ancestors, King Tai, King Ji, and King Wen. The scribe recorded his
prayer. It read, “Your principal descendant, whose name I dare not utter, has
contracted a terrible and cruel illness. Heaven has made you three kings responsible
for your distinguished son. Take me as a substitute for the king. I was kind and
obedient to my father. I have many talents and skills, and can serve the ghosts and
spirits. Your principal descendant is not as talented or skilled as I, nor can he serve the
ghosts and spirits as well. Furthermore, he was given a mandate by the imperial
ancestor to lend assistance to the four quarters that he might firmly establish your sons
and grandsons here on the earth below. There are no people from the four quarters
who do not stand in awe of him. Alas! Do not let the precious mandate which Heaven
has conferred on him fail. With him, our royal ancestors will always have a refuge. I
now seek a decree from the great tortoise. If you grant my request, I shall take the jade
disc and baton and return to await your decree.”
He divined with three tortoises, and they all indicated good fortune. He then opened
29
the lock and looked at the writing; it too indicated good fortune. The duke said, “The
configuration shows that the king will not suffer harm, and that I, the small child, have
obtained a renewed mandate from the three kings. It is the long range that must be
considered, and so I await my fate. They will take care of our king.” The duke
returned and put the scribe’s record in a metal bound box. By the next day the king
had improved.
After King Wu died, the Duke of Zhou’s older brother, Guan Shu, along with his
younger brothers, spread rumors around the country that the duke was not benefiting
the young king. The Duke of Zhou informed the two ducal councillors, “Unless I flee
from my brothers, I will not be able to report to our royal ancestors.” The duke then
lived in the east for two years, until the criminals were caught. Afterwards, he
composed a poem, called “The Owl,” which he presented to the young king. King
Cheng, for his part, did not blame the duke at all.
In the autumn when the grain was full and ripe but not yet harvested, Heaven sent
down a wind accompanied by great thunder and lightning. The grain was completely
flattened. Even great trees were uprooted, and the citizens were very much afraid.
King Cheng and his officers all put on their ceremonial caps and went to open the
great writings in the metal bound box. Then they discovered the burden that the Duke
of Zhou had taken on himself, how he had wished to substitute himself for King Wu.
The two ducal councillors and the king then asked the scribe and all of the officers
whether this had in fact happened. They replied, “It is true, but, oh, the duke
commanded us not to utter a word about it.”
The king took up the writing and cried, saying, “We need not reverently divine.
Formerly the duke worked diligently for the royal family, but I was only a child and
did not realize it. Now Heaven has stirred its awesome power to reveal the virtue of
the Duke of Zhou. I, a small child, must greet him anew, in accordance with the ritual
of our state and clan.”
King Cheng then went out to the suburbs, and Heaven sent down rain and a wind from
the opposite direction, so that all the grain stood up straight again. The two ducal
councillors ordered the citizens to raise up and replant all of the trees which had been
flattened. In that year there was a great harvest.
Translated by James Hart
30
3 HEXAGRAMS IN THE BOOK OF CHANGES
By early Zhou the interpretation of hexagrams gained favor as a method of
divination. To obtain advice a person would randomly draw six milfoil stalks, long or
short, to form a hexagram of six lines, broken or unbroken. A diviner would then
interpret the hexagram according to traditional meanings associated with each of its
lines. These meanings and interpretations became the Book of Changes.
As befits a fortunetellers’ handbook, many of the passages in the Book of Changes
are brief, even cryptic, susceptible to varying interpretations. Nevertheless, the
Changes came to be revered as one of the Five Classics, and over the centuries
thousands of scholars have tried to reconstruct its philosophical meanings. The
selection below consists of the first hexagram, all whole lines and therefore the
strongest, most creative or assertive hexagram, used to represent Heaven; and the
second hexagram, all broken lines, therefore the most receptive and yielding
hexagram, used to represent earth. The dualistic principles found in these hexagrams
also underlie the theories of Yin (female, receptive, dark) and Yang (male, assertive,
bright), which were more fully developed during the late Zhou period.
1. QIAN (THE CREATIVE, HEAVEN)
Qian above
Qian below
The Judgment: Qian is the ultimate source. There is great success. There is benefit in
perseverance.
Nine at the beginning: There is a hidden dragon. Do not use.
Nine in the second place: See the dragon in the field. It is beneficial to see a great
man.
Nine in the third place: The gentleman strives to be creative all day. At night he acts
with caution and restraint. There is no fault.
Nine in the fourth place: There is an uncertain leap at the abyss. There is no fault.
Nine in the fifth place: There is a flying dragon in Heaven. It is beneficial to see a
great man.
Nine in the sixth place: The overbearing dragon is cause for regret.
Nine in all the lines: There appears a myriad of dragons without heads. This is good
31
fortune.
Commentary: Great indeed is qian the ultimate source. The ten thousand things
receive their beginnings from it. It governs Heaven. The clouds drift by and the rain
falls. All things flow into their forms. The ends and the beginnings are greatly
illuminated. The six lines of the hexagram take shape at their own times.
In timely fashion they ride the six dragons and so rule over the heavens. The way of
qian is change and transformation. Each thing thereby achieves its true nature and
destiny and assures that it is in accord with great harmony. There is great benefit and
constancy. It stands out from all the things of the world, and the nations of the earth
enjoy peace.
The Image: The movements of Heaven have great force. The gentleman invigorates
himself and does not become jaded. There is a hidden dragon. Do not use it. The Yang
still is buried below. See the dragon in the field. Virtue is everywhere. The gentleman
strives to be creative all day. He always follows the correct way. There is an uncertain
leap at the abyss. There is no fault in going forward. There is a flying dragon in the
heavens. The great man is creative. The overbearing dragon is cause for regret. Nine
in all the lines. The virtue of Heaven is not to act as head.
2. KUN (THE RECEPTIVE, EARTH)
Kun above
Kun below
The Judgment: Kun is the ultimate of receptivity. There is great success. There is
benefit in the perseverance of a mare. If the gentleman has a particular goal and
attempts to attain it, at first he may lose his way, but ultimately he will achieve it. It is
beneficial to make friends in the west and the south, but avoid friends in the east and
north. Peaceful perseverance will yield good fortune.
Commentary: Great indeed is that originating in kun. The ten thousand things all
receive life from it when it is in harmonious union with Heaven. Kun contains
everything in abundance. Its virtue is in harmony with the infinite. It encompasses all
things and illuminates the universe. Each individual thing achieves perfect success.
The mare is an animal of the land. It wanders freely over the land. It is gentle and
obedient and symbolizes great benefit through perseverance. The gentleman should
conduct himself in a like manner. At first he may lose his way, but later by being
humbly obedient he will achieve it forever. In the west and south there are friends.
One may associate with people of a sympathetic nature. In the east and north there are
no friends, but in the end one may gain benefit from this. The good fortune of
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peaceful perseverance will result from being in harmony with the forces of the earth.
The Image: The power of the earth lies in receptivity. The gentleman with great
virtue encompasses all things.
Six at the beginning: When one steps on hoarfrost, one knows that solid ice will soon
appear.
Comment: When one steps on hoarfrost, one knows that solid ice will appear soon.
When the forces of Yin begin to congeal and follow this way, the time of solid ice is
about to arrive.
Six in the second place: It is straight, square, and great. Without hustle and bustle
there is nothing that does not prosper.
Comment: The movement of six in the second place is straight by means of being
square. Without hustle and bustle there is nothing that does not prosper. There is
brilliance in the Way of the earth.
Six in the third place: One’s badges are hidden. One can persevere. If in the service of
a king, do not try to force affairs but rather bring them to completion.
Comment: One’s badges are hidden. One can persevere. At the proper time come
forth. If you are in the service of a king, you should have the wisdom to spread
greatness.
Six in the fourth place: To be closemouthed like a tied-up sack is neither blameworthy
nor praiseworthy.
Comment: To be closemouthed like a tied-up sack is neither blameworthy nor
praiseworthy. If one is careful there will be no trouble.
Six in the fifth place: There is great fortune in yellow clothing.
Comment: There is great fortune in yellow clothing. Brilliance lies within.
Six at the top: Dragons do battle in the fields. Their blood is black and yellow.
Comment: Dragons do battle in the fields. Their Way has run its course.
Six in all the lines: There is benefit in steadfast perseverance.
Comment: When all six lines yield six, it shows steadfast perseverance. In this way
one can achieve great ends.
Translated by Mark Coyle
33
4 SONGS AND POEMS
The best source for the daily lives, hopes, complaints, and beliefs of ordinary
people in the early Zhou period is the Book of Songs. Over half of the 305 poems in
this classic are said to have originally been popular songs and concern basic human
problems such as love, marriage, work, and war. The remainder are court poems,
including legendary accounts in praise of the founders of the Zhou dynasty,
complaints about the decay of royal power, and hymns used in sacrificial rites. The
four poems given below show something of this range of topics.
In several ways the Book of Songs set the pattern for later Chinese poetry: Its
poems have fairly strict patterns in both rhyme and rhythm, they make great use of
imagery, and they tend to be short. As one of the most revered of the Confucian
classics, this collection of poems has been studied and memorized by centuries of
scholars. The popular songs were regarded as good keys to understanding the
troubles of the common people and were often read allegorically, so that complaints
against faithless lovers were seen as complaints against faithless rulers.
Please, Zhongzi,
Do not climb into our hamlet,
Do not break our willow trees.
It’s not that I begrudge the willows,
But I fear my father and mother.
You I would embrace,
But my parents’ words—
Those I dread.
Please, Zhongzi,
Do not leap over our wall,
Do not break our mulberry trees.
It’s not that I begrudge the mulberries,
But I fear my brothers.
You I would embrace,
But my brother’s words—
Those I dread.
Please, Zhongzi,
Do not climb into our yard,
Do not break our rosewood tree.
It’s not that I begrudge the rosewood,
But I fear gossip.
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You I would embrace,
But people’s words—
Those I dread.
*
In the seventh month the Fire star declines.
In the ninth month we give out the clothes.
In the days of the first, rushing winds.
In the days of the second, bitter cold.
Without coats or garments,
How could we finish the year?
In the days of the third, we plow.
In the days of the fourth, we step out.
Our wives and children
Bring food to us in the southern field,
And the inspector of the fields is pleased.
In the seventh month the Fire star declines.
In the ninth month we give out the clothes.
Spring days are sunny
And the oriole sings.
The girls take their fine baskets,
And walk down the little paths
To collect the tender mulberry leaves.
Spring days get longer,
In groups they go to pick the Artemesia.
A young girl is heart-sick,
Waiting to go home with the lord’s son.
In the seventh month the Fire star declines.
In the eighth month the rushes are ready.
In the silkworm month, we prune the mulberry trees.
We take axes and hachet
To cut off the far and high branches
And make the small mulberry luxuriant.
In the seventh month the shrike cries.
In the eighth month we splice the thread,
Both black and yellow.
With red dye very bright
We make a robe for the lord’s son.
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In the fourth month the grasses mature.
In the fifth month the cicada sings.
In the eighth month the crops are gathered,
In the tenth month the leaves fall.
In the days of the first we hunt badgers.
We catch foxes and wildcats.
We make furs for the lord’s son.
In the days of the second we assemble
To practice the military arts.
We keep for ourselves the young boars
And give to the lord the old ones.
In the fifth month the locusts move their legs.
In the sixth month the grasshoppers shake their wings.
In the seventh month, the insects are out in the meadows.
In the eighth month, they are under the roof.
In the ninth month, they are at the door.
In the tenth month, the crickets are under our beds.
We stop up the holes to smoke out the rats.
We seal the northern window and plaster shut the door.
Come, wife and children,
The new year is starting,
Let’s move into this house.
In the sixth month we eat fruits and berries.
In the seventh month we cook vegetables and beans.
In the eighth month we pick dates.
In the tenth month we harvest rice.
We use it to make spring wine
As a tonic for long life.
In the seventh month we eat melons.
In the eighth month we split the gourds.
In the ninth month we harvest the hemp seed.
We gather herbs and firewood.
And we feed our farm workers.
In the ninth month we make the garden into a threshing ground.
In the tenth month we bring in the harvest.
Millet of all varieties,
Rice and hemp, beans and wheat.
Oh, farmworkers,
The harvest is collected;
Come up to work in the house.
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In the daytime you can gather grasses,
In the evening make them into rope.
Let us get quickly to the house.
Sowing grain starts again soon.
In the days of the second we cut the ice, ding-ding.
In the days of the third we take it to the ice house.
In the days of the fourth we get up early.
We make offerings of lamb and scallions.
In the ninth month the plants wither from the frost.
In the tenth month we clear the threshing ground.
We set out a feast with a pair of wine jars,
We slaughter lambs and sheep
And go up to the public hall.
Raising our cups of rhinocerous horn,
May you live forever!
*
We were harvesting
At the new field,
At the newly cleared acre, When Fangshu arrived
With three thousand chariots
And a well-tested army.
Fangshu led them here,
Driving four dappled grey horses,
Such well-trained horses.
His chariot was red,
The canopy of bamboo mat, the quiver of fish skin.
He had breast plates with hooks and metal-rimmed reins.
We were harvesting
At the new field
In the central district
When Fangshu arrived
With his three thousand chariots
And emblazoned banners.
Fangshu led them here,
His wheel hubs wrapped, the yokes ornamented.
Eight bells tinkled on the bits.
He wore his official garb
With brilliant red knee-covers
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And green pendants at his waist.
Swift flies the hawk,
Straight up to heaven.
Yet it stops here to roost.
Fangshu arrived
With three thousand chariots
And a well-tested army.
Fangshu led them here,
The musicians beating the drums.
He marshalled the army and lectured the troops.
Illustrious and faithful is Fangshu.
The drums sound,
And the troops move.
Foolish were you, tribes of Jing,
To make enemies of a great state.
Fangshu is an old man
Strong in his ability to plan.
Fangshu led them here,
Taking captives, capturing chiefs.
His war chariots rumble,
Rumble and crash,
Like thunder and lightning.
Illustrious and faithful is Fangshu.
He has already conquered the Xianyun
And now overawes the Jing tribes.
*
Which plant is not yellow?
Which day don’t we march?
Which man does not go
To bring peace to the four quarters?
Which plant is not brown?
Which man is not sad?
Have pity on us soldiers,
Treated as though we were not men!
We are neither rhinos nor tigers,
Yet are led through the wilds.
Have pity on us soldiers,
Never resting morn or night.
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A thick-furred fox
Scurries through the dark grass.
Our loaded carts
Proceed along the Zhou road.
Translated by Patricia Ebrey
39
5 THE BATTLE BETWEEN JIN AND CHU
To early historians, probably no activity better illustrated human greatness and
human foibles than warfare. In the Spring and Autumn period, when China was
divided among competing states but warfare was not yet incessant, battles were
conceived of as dramas or rituals, with the various actors performing their assigned
roles and being judged by how well they fulfilled them.
The following account of a major battle is from the Zuo Chronicle, a late Zhou
history that survived in the form of a commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals.
The Annals is a terse, dry, month-by-month record of items of interest to the court in
the state of Lu, the home state of Confucius, during the years 722 to 481 B.C. It came
to be included among the Confucian classics, but its entries are so brief as to be
practically meaningless. The Zuo Chronicle, by contrast, provides detailed narrative
of people and events, full of violence, intrigue, treachery, and heroism.
The battle recounted here occurred in 597 B.C. The army of Jin had set out to save
the besieged state of Zheng from conquest by Chu. When Zheng made peace with Chu,
the Jin officers debated whether to return home and were ready to do so when two of
their soldiers, eager to provoke a battle, managed to taunt some Chu soldiers into
fighting.
The soldiers of Jin, afraid that Wei Yi and Zhao Zhan would anger the army of Chu,
had sent out their war chariots to the Chu forces. When Pan Tang saw their dust in the
distance he sent a horseman to race back with the message, “The Jin army is coming!”
The soldiers of Chu, fearful that their king might find himself surrounded by the Jin
army, drew up in battle formation. Their prime minister, Wei Ao, cried, “Advance! It
is better for us to hit them than for them to hit us. The poem says, ‘Ten great chariots
went first to open the way.’ Let us move first! The Art of War says, ‘Move first, and
rob your opponent of his will.’ Let us attack them!”
Then they advanced rapidly. With the chariot horses galloping and the foot soldiers on
the run, they fell upon the Jin army. Jin Commander Xun Linfu did not know what to
do, so he beat the signal drum in the midst of the army and shouted, “The first to cross
the river will receive a reward!” The Middle and Lower Armies fought for the boats
until the severed fingers could be scooped up in handfuls from the bottoms of the
boats. The whole Jin army shifted to the right, except for the Upper Army, which did
not move. With the Minister of Works Chi in command, the right wing of the Chu
infantry pursued the Lower Army of Jin….
When asked what to do, Commander Shi Hui replied, “Chu’s army is now at the peak
of its strength. If they gather their forces against us, our army will be annihilated. We
40
had better regroup and leave. Then at least we can share the blame and save our men.”
Acting as rearguard for their infantry, they retreated and were thus not defeated….
A chariot from Jin became stuck and could not move, whereupon a Chu soldier told
the charioteer to remove the brace-bar. After that the chariot advanced only a little
before the horses wheeled around. The Chu soldier told him to pull out the flagstaff
and lay it crosswise, and this time the chariot came free. The charioteer turned back
and said, “We are not as experienced at fleeing as are the soldiers of your great state.”
Zhao Zhan of Jin saved his older brother and uncle by giving them his two best
horses. Then he turned back with other horses but met the enemy and was not able to
escape. He abandoned his chariot and ran into the woods. Just then the Great Officer
Feng rode by with his two sons. He told them not to look back, but they did anyway
and said, “Venerable Zhao is being left behind us.” Their father became angry at them
and ordered them to dismount. Then he pointed to a tree and said, “Leave your
corpses there.” He then gave the chariot to Zhao Zhan, who made his escape. The next
day Feng found the corpses of his sons piled beneath the tree to which he had pointed.
Xiong Fuji of Chu captured Zhi Ying, whose father, Great Officer Xun Shou, set off
in pursuit along with his clansmen. Wei Yi drove the chariot, and many officers of the
Lower Army accompanied them. Every time Xun Shou wished to shoot, he would
select the best arrows but then put them back in Wei Yi’s quiver. Wei Yi became
angry and said, “If you want to save your son, why are you so stingy with these
willow sticks? Are you afraid of using up all the willows of Dong Marsh?”
Xun Shou replied, “Unless I capture other men’s sons, how can I get my own son
back? I act as I do because I cannot afford to shoot carelessly.” He then shot the
Officer Xiang Lao, captured his body, and took it with him in his chariot. Then he
shot Gongzi Guchen and took him prisoner. He then turned back with these two prizes
in his chariot.
At dusk the army of Chu set up a defensive position at Bi. Jin did not have enough
troops left to set up a counter position of their own, so they retreated across the
Yellow River under cover of darkness. All night long the sounds of their crossing
could be heard.
The next day, the Chu supply wagons reached Bi, and so the army camped at
Hengyong. Pan Dang said to the king of Chu, “My Lord, we should erect a fortress
and collect the bodies of the Jin soldiers in it as a war memorial. Your subject has
heard that when one conquers an enemy, he should display that fact to his sons and
grandsons, so that they will not forget his military achievements.”
The king of Chu replied, “You do not understand this. In writing, the characters ‘stop’
and ‘spear’ fit together to make ‘military.’ After King Wu conquered Shang, a hymn
was written which says, ‘Store the shields and spears, Encase the arrows and bows.
We seek admirable virtue, To extend throughout this great land. May the king
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genuinely preserve it.’ They also wrote the ‘Military’ Poem. Its last stanza states,
‘You have made your achievement secure.’ The third stanza says, ‘May we extend
this continuously; What we seek now is to make it secure.’ The sixth stanza says,
‘There is peace in ten thousand states, And repeated years of plenty.’”
“‘Military’ means to prevent violence, store weapons, preserve greatness, secure
achievements, pacify the people, harmonize groups, and increase wealth. Thus King
Wu wanted to make sure that his sons and grandsons did not forget these stanzas.
Now I have caused the bones of the soldiers from two states to lie exposed on the
battlefield; this is violence. I have made a show of weapons to coerce the feudal lords;
this is not storing weapons. Since I have caused violence and have not placed the
weapons in storage, how could I have preserved greatness? Furthermore, the enemy
state of Jin still exists; so how could my achievement be secure? In many ways I have
gone against the people’s wishes; so how could they be pacified? I have not been
virtuous but have used force against the feudal lords; so how could the groups be
harmonized? I have found profit in other men’s crises and peace in their disorders.
This has given me glory, but how has it increased wealth? There are seven military
virtues, but I have not attained a single one of them. What do I have to display to my
sons and grandsons? Let us set up an altar to our Ancestral Rulers and announce to
them what we have done. Then we should stop there, for what I have done is not a
military achievement.
“In ancient times when the enlightened kings chastised the disrespectful, they took the
most monstrous offenders and buried them in mounds as a punishment of supreme
disgrace. This is the origin of war memorials, and they were used to warn the evil and
corrupt. But in the present conflict, there were no criminals. All of the people have
been completely loyal, fighting to the death to carry out their rulers’ decrees. So what
reason is there to build a war memorial?”
So, the king of Chu conducted sacrifices to the Spirit of the Yellow River. Then he
built an altar for his Ancestral Rulers and announced to them his accomplishment.
After this he returned home….
In the autumn, when the army of Jin arrived home, the defeated Commander Xun
Linfu requested to be put to death. The Duke of Jin wished to grant his request, but
Shi Zhenzi admonished him, “This must not be allowed. Remember that after the
battle of Chengbu, the army of Jin celebrated with three days of feasting, and yet
Duke Wen still had a sad countenance. His advisers said, ‘In this time of happiness
you are sad. Must there be a time of sadness for you to be happy?’ The duke replied,
‘As long as De Chen of Chu is still alive, my sadness cannot be alleviated. A caged
beast will still fight; how much more so will the chief minister of a state!’ But after
De Chen had been put to death, the duke’s happiness was apparent, and he said, ‘Now
there is no one left to poison my joy.’ This was a double victory for Jin and a double
defeat for Chu. Because of this, for the next two generations Chu was out of
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contention. At the present time it may be that Heaven is sending a great warning to us;
if we would kill our commander Xun Linfu and compound Chu’s victory, then would
we not also be out of contention for a long time? Xun Linfu in serving his ruler has
always tried to be completely loyal when in office and to mend his faults when out of
office. He is the guardian of the altars to our Gods of Soil and Grain. Why should we
kill him? His defeat is like an eclipse of the sun or moon, which does not diminish
their brilliance.”
The Duke of Jin then restored Xun Linfu to his position.
Translated by James Hart
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6 CONFUCIAN TEACHINGS
Confucius (traditional dates, 551-479 B.C.) was a man of no particular distinction
in his own day who exerted a profound influence on the development of Chinese
culture through his teachings. He tried in vain to gain a high office, traveling from
state to state with his disciples in search of a ruler who would listen to him. He talked
repeatedly of an ideal age in the early Zhou, revealing his vision of a more perfect
society in which rulers and subjects, nobles and commoners, parents and children,
men and women would all wholeheartedly accept the parts assigned to them, devoting
themselves to their responsibilities to others. Confucius revered tradition and taught
his disciples the traditional arts—music, rituals, the Book of Songs and Book of
Documents—while continually holding up for them high moral standards.
Confucius’s ideas are known to us primarily through the sayings recorded by his
disciples in the Analects. This book does not provide carefully organized or argued
philosophical discourses, and the sayings seem to have been haphazardly arranged.
Yet this short text became a sacred book, memorized by beginning students and known
to all educated people. As such it influenced the values and habits of thought of
Chinese for centuries. Many of its passages became proverbial sayings, unknowingly
cited by illiterate peasants. In the selection that follows, sayings have been
reorganized and grouped under four of the topics he most frequently discussed.
The eventual success of Confucian ideas owes much to Confucius’s followers in the
two centuries following his death, the most important of whom were Mencius (ca.
370-ca. 300 B.C.) and Xunzi (ca. 310-ca. 215 B.C.). The Mencius, like the Analects, is a
collection of the philosopher’s conversations, presented in no particular order, but
unlike the Analects, specific points are often analyzed at length, perhaps because
Mencius himself had a hand in recording them. Mencius, like Confucius, traveled
around offering advice to rulers of various states. Over and over he tried to convert
them to the view that the ruler who wins over the people through benevolent
government would be the one to unify the realm. He proposed concrete political and
financial measures for easing tax burdens and otherwise improving the people’s lot.
With his disciples and fellow philosophers, he discussed other issues in moral
philosophy, particularly ones related to the goodness of human nature.
Xunzi, a half century later, had much more actual political and administrative
experience than either Confucius or Mencius and was less committed to the
precedents set in the early Zhou. He wrote fully argued essays on many of the issues
in social, political, and moral philosophy that engaged thinkers of his age. He carried
further than either Confucius or Mencius the tendency in Confucianism toward a
humanistic and rationalistic view of the cosmos. Divination was to him fine as a
44
social ritual but did not reveal Heaven’s desires or tell anything about the future. He
directly attacked Mencius’s argument that human nature is inherently good, claiming
to the contrary that men’s inborn tendencies are bad and therefore education is
essential.
SELECTIONS FROM THE ANALECTS
The Gentleman
Confucius said, “The gentleman concerns himself with the Way; he does not worry
about his salary. Hunger may be found in plowing; wealth may be found in studying.
The gentleman worries about the Way, not about poverty.”
Confucius said, “When he eats, the gentleman does not seek to stuff himself. In his
home he does not seek luxury. He is diligent in his work and cautious in his speech.
He associates with those who possess the Way, and thereby rectifies himself. He may
be considered a lover of learning.”
Zigong inquired about being a gentleman. Confucius said, “First he behaves properly
and then he speaks, so that his words follow his actions.”
Sima Niu asked about the nature of the gentleman. Confucius replied, “The gentleman
does not worry and is not fearful.” Si asked, “Then, can not fearing and not worrying
be considered the essence of being a gentleman?” Confucius responded, “If you can
look into yourself and find no cause for dissatisfaction, how can you worry and how
can you fear?”
Confucius said, “The gentleman reveres three things. He reveres the mandate of
Heaven; he reveres great people; and he reveres the words of the sages. Petty people
do not know the mandate of Heaven and so do not revere it. They are disrespectful to
great people and they ridicule the words of the sages.”
Confucius said, “The gentleman must exert caution in three areas. When he is a youth
and his blood and spirit have not yet settled down, he must be on his guard lest he fall
into lusting. When he reaches the full vigor of his manhood in his thirties and his
blood and spirit are strong, he must guard against getting into quarrels. When he
reaches old age and his blood and spirit have begun to weaken, he must guard against
envy.”
Confucius said, “The gentleman understands integrity; the petty person knows about
profit.”
Confucius said, “For the gentleman integrity is the essence; the rues of decorum are
the way he puts it into effect; humility is the way he brings it forth; sincerity is the
way he develops it. Such indeed is what it means to be a gentleman.”
45
Confucius said that Zichan possessed the way of the gentleman in four areas. In his
personal conduct he was respectful; in serving his superiors he was reverent; in
nourishing the people he was kind; in governing the people he was righteous.
Confucius said, “The gentleman has nine concerns. In seeing he is concerned with
clarity. In hearing he is concerned with acuity. In his expression he wishes to be
warm. In his bearing he wishes to be respectful. In his words he is concerned with
sincerity. In his service he is concerned with reverence. When he is in doubt, he wants
to ask questions. When he is angry, he is wary of the pitfalls. When he sees the chance
for profit, he keeps in mind the need for integrity.”
Confucius said, “The gentleman is easy to serve but difficult to please. When you try
to please him, if your manner of pleasing is not in accord with the Way, then he will
not be pleased. On the other hand, he does not expect more from people than their
capacities warrant. The petty individual is hard to serve and easy to please. When you
try to please him, even if your method of pleasing him is not in accord with the Way,
he will be pleased. But in employing people he expects them to be perfectly
accomplished in everything.”
Confucius said, “The gentleman is in harmony with those around him but not on their
level. The small man is on the level of those around him but not in harmony with
them.”
Confucius said, “The gentleman aspires to things lofty; the petty person aspires to
things base.”
Confucius said, “The gentleman looks to himself; the petty person looks to other
people.”
Confucius said, “The gentleman feels bad when his capabilities fall short of some
task. He does not feel bad if people fail to recognize him.”
Confucius said, “The gentleman fears that after his death his name will not be
honored.”
Confucius said, “The gentleman does not promote people merely on the basis of their
words, nor does he reject words merely because of the person who uttered them.”
Confucius said, “The gentleman is exalted and yet not proud. The petty person is
proud and yet not exalted.”
Zixia said, “The gentleman has three transformations. Seen from afar he appears
majestic. Upon approaching him you see he is amiable. Upon hearing his words you
find they are serious.”
Confucius said, “If the gentleman is not dignified, he will not command respect and
his teachings will not be considered solid. He emphasizes sincerity and honesty. He
has no friends who are not his equals. If he finds a fault in himself, he does not shirk
from reforming himself.”
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Zigong said, “When the gentleman falls into error, it is like the eclipse of the sun and
moon: everyone sees it. When he corrects it, everyone will look up to him again.”
Zigong said, “Does not the gentleman also have his hatreds?” Confucius replied,
“Yes, he has his hatreds. He hates those who harp on the weak points of others. He
hates those who are base and yet slander those who are exalted. He hates those who
are bold but do not observe the proprieties. He hates those who are brash and daring
and yet have limited outlook.” Confucius then asked, “You too have your hatreds, do
you not?” Zigong replied, “I hate those who pry into things and consider it wisdom. I
hate those who are imprudent and consider it courage. I hate those who leak out
secrets and consider it honesty.”
Zengzi said, “The gentleman knows enough not to exceed his position.”
Confucius said, “The gentleman is not a tool.”
Humanity
Zizhang asked Confucius about humanity. Confucius said, “If an individual can
practice five things anywhere in the world, he is a man of humanity.” “May I ask what
these things are?” said Zizhang. Confucius replied, “Reverence, generosity,
truthfulness, diligence, and kindness. If a person acts with reverence, he will not be
insulted. If he is generous, he will win over the people. If he is truthful, he will be
trusted by people. If he is diligent, he will have great achievements. If he is kind, he
will be able to influence others.”
Zhonggong asked about humanity. Confucius said, “When you go out, treat everyone
as if you were welcoming a great guest. Employ people as if you were conducting a
great sacrifice. Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you.
Then neither in your country nor in your family will there be complaints against you.”
Zhonggong said, “Although I am not intelligent, please allow me to practice your
teachings.”
Sima Niu asked about humanity. Confucius said, “The man of humanity is cautious in
his speech.” Sima Niu replied, “If a man is cautious in his speech, may it be said that
he has achieved the virtue of humanity?” Confucius said, “When a man realizes that
accomplishing things is difficult, can his use of words be anything but cautious?”
Confucius said, “A person with honeyed words and pious gestures is seldom a man of
humanity.”
Confucius said, “The individual who is forceful, resolute, simple, and cautious of
speech is near to humanity.”
Confucius said, “The man of wisdom takes pleasure in water; the man of humanity
delights in the mountains. The man of wisdom desires action; the man of humanity
wishes for quietude. The man of wisdom seeks happiness; the man of humanity looks
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for long life.”
Confucius said, “If a man does not have humanity, how can he have propriety? If a
man does not have humanity, how can he be in tune with the rites or music?”
Confucius said, “The humanity of a village makes it beautiful. If you choose a village
where humanity does not dwell, how can you gain wisdom?”
Confucius said, “Humanity is more important for people than water or fire. I have
seen people walk through water and fire and die. I have never seen someone tread the
path of humanity and perish.”
Confucius said, “Riches and honors are the things people desire; but if one obtains
them by not following the Way, then one will not be able to hold them. Poverty and
low position in society are the things that people hate; but if one can avoid them only
by not following the Way, then one should not avoid them. If the gentleman abandons
humanity, how can he live up to his name? The gentleman must not forget about
humanity for even the space of time it takes him to finish a meal. When hurried, he
must act according to it. Even when confronted with a crisis, he must follow its
tenets.”
Confucius said, “The strong-minded scholar and the man of humanity do not seek to
live by violating the virtue of humanity. They will suffer death if necessary to achieve
humanity.”
Confucius said, “In practicing the virtue of humanity, one should not defer even to
one’s teacher.”
Confucius said, “Is humanity far away? Whenever I want the virtue of humanity, it
comes at once.”
Zigong asked about the virtue of humanity. Confucius said, “The artisan who wants to
do his work well must first of all sharpen his tools. When you reside in a given state,
enter the service of the best of the officials and make friends with the most humane of
the scholars.”
Confucius said, “Only the man of humanity can rightly love some people and rightly
despise some people.”
Confucius said, “People can be classified according to their faults. By observing an
individual’s faults, you will know if he is a person of humanity.”
Confucius said, “Those who possess virtue will be sure to speak out; but those who
speak out do not necessarily have virtue. Those who possess the virtue of humanity
certainly have strength; but those who are strong do not necessarily have the virtue of
humanity.”
Confucius said, “Although there have been gentlemen who did not possess the virtue
of humanity, there have never been petty men who did possess it.”
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Filial Piety
Ziyou inquired about filial piety. Confucius said, “Nowadays, filial piety is considered
to be the ability to nourish one’s parents. But this obligation to nourish even extends
down to the dogs and horses. Unless we have reverence for our parents, what makes
us any different?”
Confucius said, “When your father is alive observe his intentions. When he is
deceased, model yourself on the memory of his behavior. If in three years after his
death you have not deviated from your father’s ways, then you may be considered a
filial child.”
Zengzi said, “I have heard from Confucius that the filial piety of Meng Zhuangzi is
such that it could also be attained by others, but his not changing his father’s ministers
and his father’s government is a virtue difficult indeed to match.”
Meng Yizi inquired about filial piety. Confucius said, “Do not offend your parents.”
Fan Zhi was giving Confucius a ride in a wagon, and Confucius told him, “Meng Sun
questioned me about filial piety and I told him, ‘Do not offend your parents.’” Fan Zhi
said, “What are you driving at?” Confucius replied, “When your parents are alive,
serve them according to the rules of ritual and decorum. When they are deceased, give
them a funeral and offer sacrifices to them according to the rules of ritual and
decorum.”
Confucius said, “When your father and mother are alive, do not go rambling around
far away. If you must travel, make sure you have a set destination.”
Confucius said, “It is unacceptable not to be aware of your parents’ ages. Their
advancing years are a cause for joy and at the same time a cause for sorrow.”
Confucius said, “You can be of service to your father and mother by remonstrating
with them tactfully. If you perceive that they do not wish to follow your advice, then
continue to be reverent toward them without offending or disobeying them; work hard
and do not murmur against them.”
The Duke of She said to Confucius, “In my land there is an upright man. His father
stole a sheep, and the man turned him in to the authorities.” Confucius replied, “The
upright men of my land are different. The father will shelter the son and the son will
shelter the father. Righteousness lies precisely in this.”
On Governing
The Master said, “Lead them by means of government policies and regulate them
through punishments, and the people will be evasive and have no sense of shame.
Lead them by me...
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