PHIL 202-3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Shang Dynasty, Four Books And Five Classics, Animism
PHIL 202
Ch. 10 Chinese and Korean Traditions (pt. 1)
Overview
• Religion inextricably linked to politics
• Social harmony
o Generally tolerant, inclusive and syncretic ethos
• Animism and shamanism still found in practices that deal with insecurities in life
• Sanijao
o Three (san) teachings, philosophies, or religions (jiao) of Confucianism, Daoism,
and Buddhism
• Elite traditions
• Folk tradition is the fourth
The Classical Period to the Qin
(c. 2300 BCE–202 BCE)
Confucian Beginnings
• Not all began with Confucius (c. 551–479)
• Other two classic philosophers are Mengzi (c. 343–289 BCE) and Xunzi (c. 310–219 BCE)
• Beginnings can be found in the Five Classics:
o The Classic or Book of Changes
o The Classic of Documents or Book of History
o The Classic of Odes or Book of Poetry
o The Records or Book of Rites
o The Spring and Autumn Annals
Cofucia Begiigs, cot’d
• Standardized during the Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE)
• Provide the ideology behind government policy
• Blueprints for family relations
• Guides for moral and spiritual transformations
Cofucia Begiigs, cot’d
• The Classics show transition in worldview
o Supernatural to impersonal natural principles
• Contain descriptions of deities, ghosts and spirits, and the rites (li) performed
• Also contain philosophical examination of the natural principles
• Goal: creation of a harmonious society through self-cultivation
Confucian Concerns
• Four broad areas:
o Individual, familial, political, cosmic
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• Exemplary Confucian (junzi)
• Harmony in the public world cannot be achieved without harmony in private world
• Sacrifice and rituals are symbolic expressions of the relationship between inner and
outer worlds
• Ancestor rituals encourage right relationships
Cofucia Cocers, cot’d
• Five types of relationships
1. Ruler and minister
2. Parent and child
3. Husband and wife
4. Elder and younger siblings
5. Friends
• Must be guided by ren (goodness, humanness, benevolence, compassion)
• Every relationship except friends is between a senior (first in pair) and a junior (second
in pair)
1. Senior in relationship is expected to take into account the effects of their actions
on others
2. Junior is expected to be upright and loyal
Confucian Exemplars and Sages
• Three prototype sages
o Yao, Shun, Yu
o Embody civil, familial and filial virtues
o Their stories, found in the Classic of Documents, are critiques of rule by force
• Yao made sure everyone was well fed and prosperous
• Shun triumphed over adversity
• Yu worked with nature instead of against it
Divination and the Pantheon of Spirits
• Elements of right governance and belief in divine intervention (revelation to the king)
• Spirits held the real power—religious rituals were indispensable
• Lord-on High (Shangdi): sky god
o Ancestor of Shang clan
• Nature spirits, celestial spirits, Former Lords, human ancestors
The Mandate of Heaven
• Context of power shift from Shang to Zhou in 1064 BCE
• Emphasis on loyalty and moral character
• Good governance was a duty to Heaven
• Mandate to rule is taken away from cruel rulers
• god di eoes assoiated ith politial ruler
• Heaven is an impartial, cosmic moral force
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o Cares for human welfare
Humanization: The Transition from Shang to Zhou
• Idea of Heae displaes persoal Lord o high
• Divination materials used change from bone and shell to plants
• Shift stresses advancement of human well-being
o Natural processes and human relationships
o Quest to find the natural foundation of society
• Yijing (Classic of Changes)
o 64 hexagrams
o The Wa of the uierse
o Guide for a cosmos in flux
Rites: Performance and Principles
• Principle of complementarity
• Ruler must have a wife as a helpmate
o Division of labour = balance
• Balance between yin and yang
o Qian: heaven and the creative
o Kun: earth and the receptive
• Rites evolved over time
• Sense of value for discipline, education and moral development
o Spirits are attracted to virtue
Confucius
• Transmitter of tradition
• Respeted ithout ritual eoes tiresoe, iruspetio ithout ritual eoes
timidity, bold fortitude without ritual becomes unruly, and directness without ritual
eoes tisted “oer : .
• Li: rites or ritual
o In everyday conduct, in all relationships
• Sage kings were preceded by a utopian age
o Grand Commonality
Cofucius, cot’d
• Primary source of teaching: the Analects
• Ideal of junzi
o Person of noble character
o De—moral power rooted in ethical behaviour
o Ren—respect, liberty, trustworthiness, kindness
• Cultivated through li
• Emphasized filial piety or devotion, loyalty and reciprocity
• “iler rule: What ou ould ot at for ourself, do ot do to others :
• Master of the heart-id xin)
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