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- Herausgeber: Passerino
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
It is a deeply rooted habit among the Chinese to divide people into two categories: the junzi (gentlemen, decent people, those with a sense of justice, noble-spirited men) and the xiaoren (petty men, mean-spirited individuals who look only to personal profit and never to the common good). This habit, too, is a legacy of Confucius, who transformed the meaning of these two labels.
The term junzi — rendered kunshi in Japanese, kwunca in Korean, and quân tử in Vietnamese — already existed before Confucius, and its original meaning was simply to indicate a person’s social status. As a social designation, junzi meant “son (zi) of a feudal lord (jun)” or of an aristocrat, and thus a member of the noble class that governed under that system. In Confucius’s time, society was divided into two classes: the junzi (the aristocrats) and the xiaoren (the common people, the masses).
The original meaning occasionally resurfaces in the Analects, as we will point out in due course. But in most cases, the term is used with a different sense. Confucius transformed it into a moral qualification: from “son of a feudal lord (or an aristocrat)” to “a person who has the ideal qualities of a feudal lord or an aristocrat.”
From a social qualification (“noble man by blood”) to an ethical one (“noble man by spirit”).
The junzi is, according to Confucius, the ideal human being.
Naturally, its opposite, the xiaoren, then does not (in most cases) mean someone of humble social origin, but rather a petty, selfish man, unable to see beyond his own narrow personal interests. As we will see, the junzi of Confucius is not a hereditary condition; it is an ideal of life, a goal to be achieved, which any person may aspire to, not just those of noble birth.
The descriptions Confucius gives us of the personality of the junzi, or conversely the xiaoren, are in fact his definitions of the ideal human being — how, in his view, a person worthy of the name “human” should or should not behave.
Umberto Bresciani
1942 Born in Ca’d’Andrea, Cremona, Italy.
1962 High School Graduate (Maturità Classica), Liceo Ballerini, Seregno (MI), Italy.
1968 Licentiate of Philosophy & Theology, Studentato Teologico Saveriano, Parma, Italy.
1969 Entered Chinese Language Institute (Annexed to Fujen University, Taipei, Taiwan).
1973 B.A. (major: History; minor: Chinese Studies), University of Maryland (U.S.A.), Far East Division.
1975 M.A. Chinese Literature, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
1983 Ph. D. Chinese Literature, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Professor of Italian Language: National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei (since 1974).
Professor, Dept. of Italian Language & Culture, Fujen University, Xinzhuang, Taipei, Taiwan (since 2003).
Umberto Bresciani has lived in Taiwan for over 40 years.
His main interest is Chinese philosophical and religious thought and comparative theological studies.
Main publications
Books:
Xifang hanxuejia yanjiu wenshidongyi de shangdui (Evaluation of research by Western sinologists on the Wenshidongyi), dissertation for the Ph.D., Chinese Literature, Taipei: National Taiwan University, May 1983.
Reinventing Confucianism: The New Confucian Movement, Taipei: Ricci Institute, 2001.
La filosofia cinese nel ventesimo secolo – I nuovi confuciani, Roma: Urbaniana University Press, 2009.
Il primo principio della filosofia confuciana, Gaeta: Passerino Editore, 2014.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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The Junzi
Confucius’ ideal human being
The sky is the limit
Table of contents
Introduction
The Term Junzi
Historical Background
A Brief Summary of the Concept of Junzi
Analects, 1: 1
Analects, 1: 2
Analects, 1: 8
Analects, 1: 14
Analects, 2: 12
Analects, 2: 13
Analects, 2: 14
Analects, 3: 7
Analects, 3: 24
Analects, 4: 5
Analects, 4: 10
Analects, 4: 11
Analects, 4: 16
Analects, 4: 24
Analects, 5: 3
Analects, 5: 16
Analects, 6: 4
Analects, 6: 11
Analects, 6: 18
Analects, 6: 26
Analects, 6: 27
Analects, 7: 26
Analects, 7: 31
Analects, 7: 33
Analects, 7: 37
Analects, 8: 2
Analects, 8: 4
Analects, 8: 6
Analects, 9: 6
Analects, 9: 14
Analects, 10: 6
Analects, 11: 1
Analects, 11: 20
Analects, 11: 26
Analects, 12: 4
Analects, 12: 5
Analects, 12: 8
Analects, 12: 16
Analects, 12: 19
Analects, 12: 24
Analects, 13: 3
Analects, 13: 23
Analects, 13: 25
Analects, 13: 26
Analects, 14: 5
Analects, 14: 6
Analects, 14: 23
Analects, 14: 26
Analects, 14: 27
Analects, 14: 28
Analects, 14: 42
Analects, 15: 2
Analects, 15: 7
Analects, 15: 18
Analects, 15: 19
Analects, 15: 20
Analects, 15: 21
Analects, 15: 22
Analects, 15: 23
Analects, 15: 32
Analects, 15: 34
Analects, 15: 37
Analects, 16: 1
Analects, 16: 6
Analects, 16: 7
Analects, 16: 8
Analects, 16: 10
Analects, 16: 13
Analects, 17: 4
Analects, 17: 7
Analects, 17: 21
Analects, 17: 23
Analects, 17: 24
Analects, 18: 7
Analects, 18: 10
Analects, 19: 3
Analects, 19: 4
Analects, 19: 7
Analects, 19: 9
Analects, 19: 10
Analects, 19: 12
Analects, 19: 20
Analects, 19: 21
Analects, 19: 25
Analects, 20: 2
Analects, 20: 3
Glossary of Chinese Terms
Introduction
The Analects of Confucius
Reading the Analects of Confucius for the first time is one of the most disappointing reading experiences you can have. The Analects are a collection of maxims composed in Northern China a few centuries before the Common Era, that is, more than twenty centuries ago. They, therefore, reflect a culture that is far removed from our own in time and space. Further, we know that the Chinese language does without articles, plurals, and relative pronouns. It even does without verb conjugations (person, tense, and mood); not to mention that classical Chinese is missing several other things as well. To make matters worse, there is finally the order of the sayings, I mean, the disorder. In fact, the various maxims of Confucius are arranged in the relative book – which we call “the Analects” (from the Latin Analecta, Lunyu in Chinese) – without any logical order of content. For all these reasons, translating the Analects from classical Chinese into another language becomes an arduous task. The translations that we happen to have in our hands were made by scholars who, as responsible persons, tried to be faithful to the original text, avoiding as much as possible to introduce personal interpretative elements. In this way, the resulting translation was, to say the least, extremely vague, and in fact difficult to understand. It is not surprising, then, that reading the Analects becomes boring, or even unbearable, right after skimming a few pages.
Indeed, all this is true. The disorder in which Confucius' sayings are found is also a fact. Many have tried to find a logic in their arrangement - as always there is in books, since they are products of human ingenuity - without ultimately succeeding. In the case of Analects, it is evident that there must have been a reason for the lack of order, perhaps more than one reason. [1] In my opinion, the most obvious reason could be that the various maxims, or mini conversations, that make up the book were collected later – after the death of Confucius; indeed, most likely, after the death of his main disciples – based on the various contributions that the editors had received, and that, out of a sense of respect towards the “Master”, they absolutely did not want to manipulate. It is in fact evident that, if someone sat down to put the various sayings in order, he would have gathered them around some clear criteria, perhaps in chronological order, or more likely according to topics, and he would certainly have eliminated inconsistencies and repetitions.
How to read the Analects
The book of the Analects of Confucius is a mine of wisdom, which has inspired the people of East Asia for millennia. But it is a very special book, to be approached in the right way. To be able to penetrate this rich mine, you must first have a good translation in your hands, better still two or three “good translations.” It is even more necessary to have a translation that is accompanied by an adequate commentary. Even for a native Chinese speaker, the original text requires translation and commentary. Without helping the reader to perceive, at least in broad terms, the historical context, the existential situation in which a saying was pronounced – what in biblical exegesis is called the sitz im leben – it is not possible to read the book profitably.
When you begin to read the sayings of Confucius, it is not advisable to read them continuously, one after the other, from the first to the last. Such reading is not very profitable; it only tends to bore.
Over the millennia, the recommended reading method has been that of reading and re-reading a single saying, trying to savor it, exploring its dimensions through meditation. It involves reflecting on one’s own life experience, and trying to understand what possible relationship the saying may have with one’s own life. In the mind of Confucius, and of the disciples who wrote those Analects, the doctrines that are gradually subjected to debate have the purpose of directing the reader to mature the so-called “moral cultivation.” According to the traditional line of Confucian thinkers, the true meaning of the sayings can only be grasped by seriously applying oneself to the actual practice of moral cultivation, and then eventually by sharing the results with fellow students and with one's own teacher.
A very valid, and I would say indispensable, aid for penetrating the ideal world of Analects is to pursue a well-defined topic, simultaneously examining two or more sayings that refer to that specific topic. In this way, the content of Confucius' speeches begins to emerge, and Confucius’ mind comes to light. The method I am suggesting is that of using "cross exegesis", of seeking the explanation of a saying in other sayings that refer to the same topic.
It cannot be denied that there is considerable difficulty in understanding the text of the Analects, due not only to its origin, so distant in time and space, but also to the extreme conciseness of its lapidary sentences, and to other problems created in the transmission of the texts over such a long period of time. However, using the above-mentioned devices, one can succeed in grasping not a little of the legacy of thought of Confucius, a thinker at once so ancient and so modern.
The Analects are sometimes rightly also called “conversations” or “dialogues,” because, rather than “sayings,” they are a collection of mini conversations, each on a well-defined topic. Dividing the passages of the Analects according to the topic to which they refer is equivalent to identifying in each passage the presence of “keywords”. These are the words that come back habitually, and that reveal the cornerstones of Confucius’ mindset.
One of these keywords is junzi, a term traditionally translated in English as ‘gentleman’, until in recent years other translations have come into fashion, such as the superior man, the mature person, the profound person, the exemplary person, the paradigmatic individual, the perfected person, and the noble-hearted man. The variety of translations immediately lets one perceive the complexity of the concept. It is up to the reader to decide which of these translations is the most valid. Hereby, we will keep using the word junzi, following a growing trend, which is to keep the original Chinese term, when it is too complicated, if not impossible, to translate it.
In reading the Analects, it is a matter of being able - as advised by Tu Weiming, the best-known Confucian of our time - to become part of a conversation taking place between Confucius and his disciples, or of the disciples among themselves. Again, It was Tu Weiming, who emphasized that the Analects are the living memories of a community of people, where the intent is not so much to present theories or record events, but to invite the reader to take part in a conversation already in progress. [2] Precisely to try to convey this idea, some translations of the Analects, contrary to the general practice of translators, use the past perfect instead of the past remote. We find one example of this in the recent French translation by Jean Lévi (2018); another example in the Russian translation by V. M. Alekseev (1881-1951). The two have purposely made this choice, thinking in this way to better convey the topicality of the conversations that were in progress. Such an idea is not so viable through the English language, unless one writes "the Master just said", instead of the usual "the Master said", or "the Master just replied," instead of “the Master replied.” The purpose of the two mentioned translators was to make it clear how the mini conversation in question had just taken place - the day before, or a few hours before - and the disciples now were finding themselves together, to discuss its content, and sometimes to add their own personal comments.
Note: The various chapters of Analects, twenty in all, are traditionally called “books,” while the individual passages are called “chapters.” Anyone who consults different editions, or translations, of the Analects will easily come across some slight discrepancies in chapter numbers between one edition and another. Nothing to worry about: the discrepancies are because some sayings – just a few cases - are considered by some commentators as a single saying, while others consider them as two separate sayings, which over the centuries, in the transmission of the text, ended up together, but were originally distinct.
Purpose and Sources of this Book
This book on the “Way of the Junzi” is not intended to be the last word in the exegesis of the Analects. It just aims at offering something more than a plain translation, a more in-depth reading of Confucius’ sayings concerning the concept of junzi. On the Analects, there is a remarkable – if not immense – wealth of bibliographical sources, especially in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, but also in English and other Western languages. Here is a list of the main sources from which I have drawn:
Fu Peirong, Lunyu sanbaijiang (Three Hundred Lectures on the Analects), 3 volumes, Linking Books, Taipei, Taiwan, 2011.Gao Xitian, Junzi zhi dao (The Way of the Junzi), Taipei: Shibao wenhua chubanshe, 2013.Huang Chichung, The Analects of Confucius: A Literal Translation with an Introduction and Notes, Oxford University Press, 1997.Lau, D. C., Confucius, The Analects, New York: Penguin Books, 1979. Leys, Simon, The Analects of Confucius, New York: Norton & Company, 1997.Lippiello, Tiziana, Confucio, Dialoghi, Torino, Einaudi, 2006.Ni Peimin, Understanding the Analects of Confucius, State University of New York Press, 2017.Qian Mu, Kongzi yu lunyu (Confucius and the Analects), Taipei, Lianjing chubanshe, 1978.Qian Mu, Lunyu xinjie (A New Explanation of the Analects), Taipei, Sanmin Bookstore, 1978. Rosemont, Henry, Jr., A Reader’s Companion to the Confucian Analects, New York, Palgrafe MacMillan, 2013.Slingerland, Edward, Confucius Analects with Selections from Traditional Commentaries, Cambridge: Hackett, 2003.Waley, Arthur, The Analects of Confucius, London: Allen & Unwin, 1938.Yang Bojun, Lunyu yizhu (Interpretation and Commentary on the Analects), Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1958.In commenting on passages of the Analects, the names of certain philosophers or exegetes of the past or present - illustrious figures of the Confucian tradition - will sometimes appear. I list here the names that may most frequently occur.
Mencius (c. 371-289 BCE). Latinized name of philosopher Mengzi, who lived about a century after Confucius. He is the second great sage of Confucianism, author of a book of the same name, the Mengzi, in which he mainly illustrates the ideas of Confucius.
Kong Anguo (c. 156-100 BCE). Descendant of Confucius in the eleventh generation. Important figure of exegete.
Garden of Persuasions ( Shuoyuan). Book of anecdotes concerning mainly Confucian philosophers, compiled for educational purposes by Liu Xiang (77-6 BCE).
Huang Kan (488-545 CE). Thinker who lived in the period of “mysterious learning” ( xuanxue, 3rd-6th centuries CE). He was a fervent Buddhist. He wrote an exegetical commentary on the Analects of Confucius ( Lunyu yishu, i.e., “Elucidation of the meaning of the Analects”), where he uses not only traditional methods, but also a great deal of Daoist ideas, or other ideas current at his time in his commentaries on the text.
Zhu Xi (1130-1200). The main Confucian philosopher of the last millennium, considered the third sage, after Confucius and Mencius. He is the representative figure of Neo-Confucianism. From the 14th century to the present day, his commentaries on the classics have been authoritative, in China as well as in Japan and Korea.
Wang Yangming (1472-1529). Philosopher, the fourth most important figure in Confucianism, after Confucius, Mencius, and Zhu Xi. He started an alternative philosophical school to Zhu Xi, known as the “School of Mind.”
Liu Baonan (1795-1855). A man of letters and a scholar of the Classics, free from bias. He is remembered above all for his valuable commentary on the Analects of Confucius.
Cheng Shude (1877-1944). A jurist and politician of the late Qing dynasty, he was also an excellent scholar. He is remembered above all for an annotated edition of the Analects of Confucius ( Lunyu jishi) that is particularly rich in content. It collects the best annotations of over six hundred exegetes throughout the centuries.
Tu Weiming (1940-). Born in China, raised in Taiwan, after a life of teaching in the USA, he retired to Beijing, where he directs the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. He is currently the best-known scholar and promoter of Confucian philosophy.
The Term Junzi
It is an inveterate habit of the Chinese to divide people into two categories: junzi (gentlemen, good people, people who have a sense of justice, noble men of soul) and xiaoren (worthless men, petty men, who only look to personal profit, and never to the common good). This habit is a legacy of Confucius, who transformed the meaning of the two appellations.
The term junzi - Japanese kunshi, Korean kwunca, Vietnamese quân tử - existed before Confucius, and had a simple meaning, that of indicating a person's social status. As an indication of social status, junzi meant the son ( zi) of a feudal lord ( jun), and therefore a member of the noble class that governed in that regime. The society of Confucius' time was divided in two classes: the junzi (the aristocrats) and the xiaoren (the common people).
The original meaning of junzi still crops up occasionally in the Analects, as we will note in its proper place; but in most cases the term is used with a new meaning. It was transformed by Confucius into a moral qualification: from “son of an aristocrat” to “a person who has the ideal qualities of a feudal lord or aristocrat.” From a social qualification (“a man of noble blood”) to an ethical qualification (“a man of noble soul”). The junzi is the ideal human being according to Confucius.
And of course, its opposite, the xiaoren, does not mean (in most cases) a person of the common people, but a petty man, a selfish man, a person who cannot see beyond her own small personal interest. As we will see, being a junzi for Confucius is not a hereditary condition; it is an ideal of life, a goal to be conquered, to which obviously any person can aspire, not only those who belong to the aristocracy. The descriptions of the personality of the junzi, or of its opposite the xiaoren, that Confucius offers us are in fact definitions of the ideal human being, of how according to him a human being worthy of the name “should,” or “should not,” behave.
In his speeches, Confucius used the term junzi very frequently. The meaning is particularly rich, as it can be observed by reviewing the sayings examined in this book. In most cases, the meaning is ambivalent, that is, it concerns people in government positions having outstanding human qualities. In those days, education was limited to a very small number of people, who were then normally those who ended up working in a political career. Perhaps Confucius deliberately uses the term in a double sense (both “social” and “ethical”): that is, he speaks of the man who is in fact placed in a government position ( junzi), and who should act in a certain way - that is, with the characteristics of conduct that Confucius considers ideal – to deserve the title of junzi.
Confucius does not exclude, however, that the title could also belong to someone, who is not in a government position, i.e., to a simple citizen. In fact, he was well convinced that "loving one's parents and caring for one's brothers is already participating in government." (2: 21) And then, when his disciples pressed him for a general rule of behavior, he declared this: "Do not do to others what you would not want done to you." (12: 2) A rule, that obviously applies to everyone, not only to those in government, and is not tied to any social class.
In the Analects of Confucius, the term junzi appears 107 times ( xiaoren 24 times). Among the so-called “key words” of the book, it is surpassed in number of times only by the term ren (benevolence/love/compassion, 109 times), which is the fundamental virtue of Confucian ethics. In this book, we shall list and analyze all the passages that contain the word junzi, starting from the first passage of the Analects to the last, trying to delve a little deeper into the meaning of each passage. Bearing in mind that in some passages the term appears more than once, in total we will analyze 88 of the 512 passages-chapters that make up the entire book of Analects.
The sayings we will examine in this book are arranged one after the other, as they figure in the current order of the chapters of the Analects. At first, I considered whether it would be appropriate to group the quotations containing the term junzi under a second key word, that is, to group together the passages where junzi is spoken of, but together with ren, or junzi and yi (justice/righteousness), junzi and li (rites, deference/respect), etc. Then, I concluded that using such an arrangement would make little difference, because the themes are very often intertwined; sometimes not two, but three or four key words appear in the same passage. [1] For this reason, no matter from where one enters, by analyzing the sayings of the Analects one can undoubtedly advance in the understanding of the Confucian vision of the world, or rather of man. [2]
Despite its extreme conciseness, each single saying of Confucius is undoubtedly the concentrated juice of hours, or days, of lessons and debates between master and disciples, in a school where Confucius trained students – young, or not so young - for a political career. From those sayings, one can indeed derive the figure of the ideal man, but above all the figure of the ideal candidate for the political life of a state. And it will be relatively easy to note how Confucius' words almost always aim at educating someone destined to hold a position in the government of a state, or in any case at the helm of a social unit, and furthermore how such instructions or warnings are almost always relevant even today.
In Confucius' teachings, it is emphasized that only the junzi are qualified to be political leaders. Confucius was more than convinced that to be successful, the government of a state must be led by people who are junzi, meaning people equipped with knowledge, competent in their work; but above all virtuous people, who lead first and foremost by their moral example. In Confucius' mind, if the ruler is virtuous, the people will automatically follow his example.Junzi plus ren (benevolence/love) 1: 2; 8: 2; 12: 19; 14: 5; 5: 3; 4: 11; 18: 10; 16: 13; 17: 4; 6: 4; 12: 16; 12: 5; 4: 5; 14: 6; 7: 34.
Junzi plus yi (justice/righteousness), 4: 10; 17: 23; 18: 7; 15: 18; 4: 16; 5: 16; 19: 20; 20: 2.
Junzi plus li (rites, respect), 11: 26; 6: 27; 11: 1; 17:21; 16:6; 3:7; 10:6; 1:8; 16:7; 16:8; 15:7; 19:12.
Junzi plus zhi (knowledge), 19:25; 20:3; 13:3; 13:34; 15:23; 16:10; 15:19; 19:21; 6:26; 11:20; 14:28.
Junzi plus xin (loyalty/sincerity), 15:37; 19:10; 8:6; 7:26; 7:21; 16:1.
Junzi plus dao (the Way), 6:13; 19:7; 19:4; 15: 2; 9: 13; 1: 14; 15: 32; 14: 23; 9: 14; 15: 20.
Junzi plus kuan (magnanimous/tolerant), 1: 1; 19: 3; 15: 21; 7: 37; 12: 4.
Junzi plus wen (culture), 19: 9; 12: 8; 6: 18; 12: 24; 13: 26; 8: 4; 20: 2.
Junzi plus a miscellaneous term: (utensil, harmony, vessel, bitter gourd, etc.), 2: 12; 13: 23; 2: 14; 15: 22; 13: 25; 3: 24; 7: 33; 2: 13; 14: 27; 4:24; 14:26; 17:24; 17:7).
Historical Background
Although the Analects were compiled several decades, if not a century, after his death, they reflect the historical situation of Confucius' time (551-479 BCE). In preparation for reading the passages in question, some historical knowledge is necessary.
The Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 BCE) Regarding the period of its origins, China has a rich mythology and numerous legends, in which the names of wise sovereign creators of culture emerge, characters such as Fuxi and Shennong, or Huangdi, or Yao and Shun, these last two cited and praised also by Confucius. After these mythical sovereigns, according to tradition there were in succession three dynasties defined as "historical," the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. Regarding the "Three Dynasties," various types of documents have been handed down since ancient times, some of which are collected in the so-called Five Classics. There was even a traditional dating, which - rounded by modern historians - looks like this:
DynastyFounderDurationXiaYu the Great2700 – 1600 BCEShangKing Tang (or Cheng Tang)1600 – 1046 BCEZhouKings Wen and Wu1046 – 256 BCEA century ago, historical critics considered these three dynasties as legendary. Today, there is no doubt about the historicity of the last of the three, the Zhou dynasty, of which there is a mass of literary and archaeological evidence; as well as about the Shang dynasty, demonstrated by important archaeological finds, that have come to confirm the data of literary sources. The Xia dynasty, more remote in time, is still shrouded in the mists of antiquity; however, numerous archeologists believe that recent finds of foundations of cities preceding the Shang refer precisely to the historical capitals of the Xia dynasty.
As far as we are concerned, the most important dynasty is the Zhou dynasty, during which Confucius was born and lived (551-479 BC), and of this we must present a brief historical profile.
Let’s start from around 1100 BCE. The China of that time, comprising roughly the northern half of today’s China, was a feudal kingdom, or perhaps better, an alliance of tribes dominated by a king belonging to the Shang dynasty. Its last great capital was located near the current city of Anyang (Henan province), about 500 km southwest of Beijing. The ruins of this capital were excavated by archaeologists in the first half of the last century and again later, with truly significant discoveries, which brought an entire civilization - interesting and colorful - back to life. The ruins of Anyang are now one of the world heritage sites protected by UNESCO.
One of the vassal fiefs of the Shang kingdom, located west of this capital, in the region now known as Shaanxi province, was governed by a wise king named Wen, a man of great culture, who was also a relative of the Shang king. However - at least according to later sources written by the victors - the last Shang king was extremely dissolute and cruel with his subjects, to the point that various feudal lords, led by King Wu, son and successor of King Wen, defeated him in a great battle (1046 BCE) and established a new dynasty, the Zhou dynasty.
King Wu died two years after the victory. He had only had time to reorganize the state structure and distribute the territory in fiefdoms to various relatives, friends and allies. He left a very young son as heir to the kingdom. King Wu’s younger brother, known as the Duke of Zhou - Zhou Gong in Chinese - took over the regency of the state, and held it until the child heir came of age. During those years, Zhou Gong had to fight against rebellions by vassal princes loyal to the Shang, and then by two brothers who accused him of usurping royal power. Having quelled the various rebellions, Zhou Gong applied himself to creating a new feudal system that was to serve as the foundation of a just government and an era of prosperity. In fact, the new system of rites and music that he developed as the foundation of the government, a system that Confucius would never cease to admire and praise, helped to give stability to the feudal kingdom for several centuries.
At the right time, faithful to his promise, Zhou Gong ceded the throne to King Cheng, son of King Wu, remaining to work in the capital as his advisor until his death. The new king granted Zhou Gong's firstborn the territory of the state of Lu, the state where centuries later Confucius would be born, as a fief. He also granted Zhou Gong's descendants the right to perform the rites and music used at the royal court, the only state enjoying this privilege. In the following centuries, Zhou Gong's temple in Qufu, capital of the state of Lu, became the seat and symbol of the traditional culture of the Zhou dynasty, where this culture was preserved even in a later era, when other states had almost totally abandoned it.
2. The Eastern Zhou dynasty (771-256 BCE)
In 771 BCE, the capital of the Zhou kingdom, located near present-day Xi’an, was invaded from the west by a nomadic tribe, who killed the king and sacked the city. The court was forced to move to the eastern capital of the kingdom, near present-day Luoyang (Henan Province). The move was disastrous for the feudal structure of the kingdom, which now only had the income from a tiny territory. Not only did the king find his military strength greatly weakened, but he gradually lost control of the feudal states, each of which began to govern itself more and more autonomously. Over time, some feudal lords even began to call themselves “kings.” Although the king of Zhou continued to nominally exercise the so-called “Mandate of Heaven” ( Tianming, see below), this mandate was now devoid of real power. From the very first moments after the capital moved East, the most powerful states began to compete for political hegemony, and in succession there was a state that acted as hegemon, recognized as such by the descendant of the Zhou lineage.
The five centuries of the Eastern Zhou dynasty are divided by historians into two periods: the “Spring and Autumn” period ( Chunqiu shidai, 771-476 BCE) and the “Warring States” period ( Zhanguo shidai, 476-256 BCE). Soon later, the state of Qin definitively eliminated the seat of the kingdom of Zhou, although a date of greater historical significance will be 221 BCE, when the armies of Qin defeated the last remaining contender, the king of Chu, and politically reunited all of China.
3. Spring and Autumn Period. (771-476 BCE)
The institutions and ideal values established by the Duke of Zhou gradually decayed, while the main states (the largest and most powerful fiefdoms) were in constant struggle among themselves, contending for hegemony on the whole country. The historical period from 771 BCE (the capital was moved to Luoyang) to 476 BCE is known as the “Spring and Autumn Period”, taking its name from the title of a book written by Confucius himself, in which he – drawing from the state archives – tells the history (or rather the chronicle) of the state of Lu, the state in which he lived, in the southwestern part of today’s Shandong province. All the other states, including those much larger in territory and military power, also had their own historical annals, but only the annals of the state of Lu have come down to us. Some indicate the year 403 BCE as the end of the Spring and Autumn period, because that was the year in which the principality of Jin - which for many years had held hegemony over the other states - troubled by long civil wars, ended up dividing into three independent states (Han, Wei and Zhao), and China remained as if in limbo, seeking a new political balance between the states. Sometimes other dates are taken as a reference for the end of the period, at the pleasure of historians, for example 481 BCE, the year in which the chronicle of the book of Confucius ends, or 476 BCE, the year in which the history of the Zuozhuan ends, or 454 BCE, the year of an important war.
The name "Spring and Autumn" refers to the fact that in the provinces of northern China the winter was very harsh, so that, in the winter months, no armies were moving around. Summer was reserved for agricultural work (the harvest, essential for survival). Spring and autumn were the good seasons, in which the sovereigns set out with their troops to wage war on neighbouring states.
Aside from the wars, overall, those centuries were a period of growth for China. The widespread use of iron, not only in the production of weapons, but also in agriculture increased food production, with a consequent increase in craft and trade activities. Agriculture also improved thanks to the introduction of the buffalo into agricultural work. The first forms of intensive cultivation and the first projects of hydraulic engineering further contributed. It is during this period that a new category of people, known as the ru, came into existence and asserted itself in society. The ru were specialists in rites and music, particularly competent in funeral rites and ancestor veneration rites. Those rites were so complex that the courts of the various states and the members of the aristocratic families badly needed this kind of specialist. Confucius was himself a ru.
4. Warring States Period (476-221 BCE)
The period following the death of Confucius was called the “period of the Warring States” ( Zhanguo shidai), because armed conflicts between the various states intensified considerably. In fact, there is no real cultural gap between the two historical periods of the “Spring and Autumn” and the “Warring States”, but only an intensification in the second period of the wars between the states, which in the meantime had already greatly reduced in number, after the large states annexed most of the smaller ones. At the end of the Spring and Autumn period, of the more than two hundred large and small original feudal states, very few remained, absorbed in large part by the seven major ones, namely Qin, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei, and Qi.
Meanwhile, the development of agriculture, science, and trade continued and intensified. During the Warring States period, the various states actively implemented reforms aimed at strengthening their states economically and militarily, under the guidance of philosophers, scientists, and strategists, who were now no longer isolated individuals, but even large and well-organized schools of thought - veritable "think tanks" - known to historians as the "Hundred Schools of Thought." The great reform promoted by the statesman philosopher Shang Yang in the State of Qin proved to be the most radical and comprehensive, and the state of Qin, economically and militarily stronger, conquered one neighboring state after another. In 256 BCE, the troops of the Qin kingdom conquered Luoyang, putting an end to the Zhou dynasty. In 221 BCE, the King of Qin defeated the last remaining rival, the King of Chu, and unified China under a single ruler (Qin Dynasty), who took the name of “First Emperor.”
5. Culture and Society in Confucius’ Times
In Confucius' time, the king of the Zhou Dynasty lived in Luoyang and ruled over a small territory, while the rest of China was divided into hundreds of fiefs assigned to hereditary nobles ( zhuhou). The most important feudal princes, known first as the 12 princes ( shier zhuhou), met regularly to make major decisions, such as military expeditions against foreign peoples, or against rebellious nobles. During these conferences, one of the princes was sometimes declared hegemon ( bo 伯, later ba 霸), assuming command of the armies of all the feudal states.
