Download Legalism, Daoism, and Confucianism

Primary Sources: Chinese Philosophical Traditions
Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism (+Buddhism in China)
Confucianism:
Confucius (c. 551 - 479 BCE) has been one of the most important thinkers in Chinese culture.
Confucius redirected Chinese philosophy toward establishing the correct moral behavior of people
within society. Significantly, Confucian thought was founded on the oldest and most respected
traditions of Chinese society. Confucius himself claimed that he did nothing new, but in reality he
fundamentally changed the direction of Chinese thought.
Selections from the Analects (5th Century B.C.E.)
On Filial Piety
Mang I asked what filial piety is. The Master said, "It is being obedient." Soon after, as Fan Chi was
driving him, the Master told him "Mang asked me what filial piety is, and I answer him 'being
obedient.'" Fan Chi asked, "What exactly did you mean?" The Master replied, "That parents, when
alive, should be served according to ritual; that, when dead, they should be buried according to ritual;
and that they should be sacrificed to according to ritual."
On Goodness
The Master said, "A youth, when at home, should behave well toward his parents, and when abroad,
respectfully to his elders. He should be earnest and truthful. He should overflow in love to all, and
cultivate the friendship of the good. When he has time and opportunity, after doing those things, he
should study the polite arts."
Zhonggong asked about perfect virtue. The Master said, "When abroad, behave to everyone as if you
were receiving an important guest; treat people as if you were assisting at a great sacrifice; do not do
to others as you would not wish done to yourself. Thereby you will let no murmuring rise against you
in the country, and none in the family. . . ."
On the Gentleman
"When gentlemen perform well all their duties to their relations, the people are inspired to virtue.
When they remain true to their old friends, the people are preserved from irresponsible behavior."
The Master said, "A gentleman points out the admirable qualities of men and does not point out their
bad qualities. A petty man does just the opposite."
The Master said, "A gentleman is distressed by his lack of ability, but he is not distressed by men's not
knowing him."
The Master said, "What the gentleman demands is something of himself. What the petty man demands
is something of others."
Confucius On Teaching and Learning:
IX.4: There were four things from which the Master was entirely free. He had no foregone
conclusions, no arbitrary predeterminations, no obstinacy, and no egotism.
XVII.2: The Master said, "By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart."
XVI.9: Confucius said, "Those who are born with the possession of knowledge are the highest class of
men. Those who learn, and so readily get possession of knowledge, are the next. Those who are dull
and stupid, and yet compass the learning are another class next to these. As to those who are dull and
stupid and yet do not learn--they are the lowest of the people."
VII.8: The Master said, "I do not open up the truth to one who is not eager to get knowledge, nor help
out any one who is not anxious to explain himself. When I have presented one corner of a subject to
any one, and he cannot from it learn the other three, I do not repeat my lesson."
IV.9: The Master said, "A scholar, whose mind is set on truth, and who is ashamed of bad clothes and
bad food, is not fit to be discoursed with."
XV.29: The Master said, "To have faults and not to reform them--this, indeed, should be pronounced
having faults."
On Government
The Master said, "To rule a country of a thousand chariots requires reverent attention to business,
sincerity, economy in expenditures, and love for men, as well as the employment of the people only in
the right seasons."
The Master said, "If the people are governed by laws and punishment is used to maintain order, they
will try to avoid the punishment but have no sense of shame. If they are governed by virtue and rules
of propriety [ritual] are used to maintain order, they will have a sense of shame and will become good
as well."
QUESTIONS: (based on your understanding of the primary sources)
1. What qualities and behaviors are emphasized by Confucius?
2. What is Confucius’ view of human nature?
3. How can, according to Confucius, order and stability be achieved in a society?
4. Why do you think his philosophy appealed to many people in Chinese society right after
Confucius’ death? (think of the time period and what was going on in China at that time)
LEGALISM:
Selections from The Writings of Han Fei (c. 230 BCE) – a legalist writer
Daoism offered no active political program, whereas Confucius and his disciples preached a
doctrine of benevolent reform based on virtuous imitation of the past. A third school of thought that
emerged in the chaos of the late Zhou era was Legalism, which rejected both the Way of nature, as
embraced by Daoists, and Confucianism's emphasis on the primacy of the moral way of antiquity.
Legalist writers, to the contrary, emphasized law and advocated a radical restructuring of society in
ways that were totally rational and up-to-date.
Legalism reached its apogee in the late third century B.C. in the writings of Han Feizi (Master Han
Fei) and the policies of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi. Han Fei was a prince of the stare of Han who
defected to its chief rival, the state of Qin, but eventually he ran afoul of Qin's chief minister, Li Si
(d. 208 BCE) and was forced to commit suicide in 233 BCE. Before he died, he composed a number
of essays on how to construct a stable and peaceful state. The following selections present Han
Fei's major principles of political philosophy.
HAVING REGULATIONS
No country is permanently strong. Nor is any country permanently weak. If conformers to law are
strong, the country is strong; if conformers to law are weak, the country is weak....
Any ruler able to expel private crookedness and uphold public law, finds the people safe and the state
in order; and any ruler able to expunge private action and act on public law, finds his army strong and
his enemy weak. So, find out men following the discipline of laws and regulations, and place them
above the body of officials. Then the sovereign cannot be deceived by anybody with fraud and
falsehood....
Therefore, the intelligent sovereign makes the law select men and makes no arbitrary promotion
himself. He makes the law measure merits and makes no arbitrary regulation himself. In consequence,
able men cannot be obscured, bad characters cannot be disguised; falsely praised fellows cannot be
advanced, wrongly defamed people cannot be degraded.
To govern the state by law is to praise the right and blame the wrong.
The law does not fawn on the noble....Whatever the law applies to, the wise cannot reject nor can the
brave defy. Punishment for fault never skips ministers, reward for good never misses commoners.
Therefore, to correct the faults of the high, co rebuke the vices of the low, to suppress disorders, to
decide against mistakes, to subdue the arrogant, to straighten the crooked, and to unify the folkways of
the masses, nothing could match the law. To warn the officials and overawe the people, to rebuke
obscenity and danger, and to forbid falsehood and deceit, nothing could match penalty. If penalty is
severe, the noble cannot discriminate against the humble. lf law is definite, the superiors are esteemed
and not violated. If the superiors are not violated, the sovereign will become strong and able to
maintain the proper course of government. Such was the reason why the early kings esteemed
Legalism and handed it down to posterity. Should the lord of men discard law and practice selfishness,
high and law would have no distinction.
THE TWO HANDLES
The means whereby the intelligent ruler controls his ministers are two handles only. The two handles
are chastisement and commendation. What are meant by chastisement and commendation? To inflict
death or torture upon culprits, is called chastisement; to bestow encouragements or rewards on men of
merit, is called commendation.
Ministers are afraid of censure and punishment but fond of encouragement and reward. Therefore, if
the lord of men uses the handles of chastisement and commendation, all ministers will dread his
severity and turn to his liberality. The villainous ministers of the age are different. To men they hate
they would by securing the handle of chastisement from the sovereign ascribe crimes; on men they
love they would by securing the handle of commendation From the sovereign bestow rewards. Now
supposing the lord of men placed the authority of punishment and the profit of reward not in his hands
but let the ministers administer the affairs of reward and punishment instead, then everybody in the
country would fear the ministers and slight the ruler, and turn to the ministers and away from the ruler.
This is the calamity of the ruler's loss of the handles of chastisement and commendation.
QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS
1. In Han Fei's ideal state, what is the supreme governing authority: the will of the ruler or the
law? (underline quotes to support your answer)
2. What are the "Two Handles" and how important are they to a legalist state? Why must the
sovereign never surrender control over the two handles?
3. What roles do individuality and private initiative play in Han Fei's ideal state? (explain)
4. What members of the Chinese society most likely embraced Legalism? Why do you think
Legalism appealed to some people?
DaOISM (TAOISM):
Lao Tzu: Tao te Ching (Dao De Ching) - 6th Century B.C.E. ?
The Tao te Ching (literally, "the classic of the way of virtue") is attributed to Lao Tzu, though
scholars disagree about his actual existence. In its very poetic form it teaches that there is a
dynamic, cosmic structure underlying everything that happens in the world. We humans need to
discover that Way (Tao) , which is immanent in all aspects of the world, not a rule imposed from
without; and we need to fit into it, letting things take their course, not exerting ourselves in
opposition to it by trying to bend things to our will.
Our naming (describing) of things always falls short of the way things are, since things are not
limited as our language presupposes. Even the Tao which we are trying to talk about here eludes
our words. The original polarity is that of being and non-being, and it will be found to interplay
throughout the world, with non-being (emptiness, what is not) having as much significance as does
being (the fullness of things, what is). Thus the notion of the Tao recaptures the earlier Chinese
concept of Yin and Yang, the polarities running through all things.
The Dao De Ching was written in the sixth century BCE by Lao Tzu. This period in Chinese history
is known as the period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. This was a time in which the power of the
Zhou emperors was on the decline. Foreign, "barbarian" invaders began to encroach on Chinese
imperial territory. Local Chinese warlords began to fight amongst themselves and to challenge the
authority of the emperors. Ancient Chinese historians themselves referred to this time as The Period
of the Warring States.
The Dao De Ching was written in this time of civil war and upheaval. It presents a philosophy that
can be viewed as a response to the disruption of Chinese society. Significantly, the philosophy of
Daoism was only one of numerous philosophical systems that developed during the period of the
Warring States. Ancient Chinese historians also had another name for this time: The Period of the
1. Tao
The Tao that can be known is not Tao.
The substance of the World is only a name for Tao.
Tao is all that exists and may exist…
2. Qualities
When Beauty is recognised in the World
Ugliness has been learned;
When Good is recognised in the World
Evil has been learned…
17. Rulers
The best rulers are scarcely known by their subjects;
The next best are loved and praised;
The next are feared;
The next despised:
They have no faith in their subjects,
So their subjects become unfaithful to them.
When the best rulers achieve their purpose
Their subjects claim the achievement as their own.
4. Properties of Tao
Tao is a depthless vessel;
Used by the Self, it is not filled by the World;
It cannot be cut, knotted, dimmed or stilled;
Its depths are hidden, ubiquitous and eternal;
I don't know where it came from;
It came before Nature.
Hundred Flowers. What were these "Hundred Flowers"? These were the flowers of philosophy.
“Knowing the male, being the female,
Being the course through which flows the World,
One embraces unfailing Love
And is again as a newborn.
Knowing the light, being the dark,
Being the World,
One becomes unerring Love
And returns to Tao.
Knowing honour, being humble,
Being the valley of the World,
Love suffices,
And one is as unshaped wood.
When wood is shaped it becomes tools.
Used by the sage, tools become powerful;
So a good carpenter wastes little.”
Practise no-action; (wu-wei)
Attend to do-nothing;
Taste the flavorless,
Examine the small,
Multiply the few,
Return love for hate.
Deal with difficulty while it is yet easy;
Deal with the great while it is yet small;
The difficult develops naturally from the easy
And the great from the small;
So the sage, by dealing with the small
Achieves the great.
He who finds it easy to promise finds it hard to deliver;
He who takes things lightly makes things hard;
The sage confronts difficulty, and so has none.
Questions for Analysis:
1. What is the TAO (DAO)? How is it described?
2. Underline quotes above that reflect the concept of YIN/YANG.
3. What qualities / behaviors are greatly valued by Daoists?
4. Why would Daoism appeal to some people in China, especially during the times of instability
and disorder?
Buddhism in China:
The Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters The first Buddhist text taken to China, c. 67 CE.
8. The Buddha said: “Evil-doers who denounce the wise resemble a person who spits
against the sky; the spittle will never reach the sky, but comes down on himself.
Evil-doers again resemble a man who stirs the dust against the wind; the dust is
never raised without doing him injury. Thus the wise will never be hurt, but the
curse is sure to destroy the evil-doers themselves.”
9. The Buddha said: “If you endeavor to embrace the Way through much learning,
the Way will not be understood. If you observe the Way with simplicity of heart,
great indeed is this Way.”
14. A monk asked the Buddha, “What is good, and what is great?” The Buddha
answered: “Good is to practice the Way and to follow the truth. Great is the
heart that is in accord with the Way.”
19. The Buddha said: “Look
you of their impermanency.
impermanency. But when you
wisdom. The knowledge thus
up to heaven and down on earth, and they will remind
Look about the world, and it will remind you of its
gain spiritual enlightenment, you shall then find
attained leads you anon to the Way.”
20. The Buddha said, “You should think of the four elements of which the body is
composed. Each of them has its own name, and there is no such thing there known
as ego. As there is really no ego, it is like unto a mirage.”
21. The Buddha said: “Moved by their selfish desires, people seek after fame and
glory. But when they have acquired it, they are already stricken in years. If
you hanker after worldly fame and practice not the Way, your labors are wrongfully
applied and your energy is wasted. It is like unto burning an incense stick.
However much its pleasing odor be admired, the fire that consumes is steadily
burning up the stick.”
22. The Buddha said: “People cleave to their worldly possessions and selfish
passions so blindly as to sacrifice their own lives for them. They are like a
child who tries to eat a little honey smeared on the edge of a knife. They amount
is by no means sufficient to appease his appetite, but he runs the risk of
wounding his tongue.”
Han Yu: Memorial on Buddhism (819 CE)
Chinese Buddhism reached its high point of popularity and influence during the initial stages of the
Tang Dynasty (618 – 907), an age of renewed imperial unity and prosperity. Buddhist monasteries
and sects proliferated, and the early Tang imperial court often patronized Buddhism in one form or
another. However, because so many aspects of Buddhism were at variance with the traditional
culture of China, especially Confucian values, conflict was inevitable.
One of the leaders in the Confucian counterattack on Buddhism was the classical prose stylist and
poet Han Yu (768–824 CE), who in 819 CE composed a vitriolic polemic attacking Buddhism. The
emperor was so enraged that he initially wanted to execute the author, but eventually he contented
himself with banishing this impudent civil servant to a frontier outpost.
Later Confucians considered Han Yu a pioneer of a Confucian intellectual revival that culminated
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries with the rise of Neo-Confucianism…
A champion of rationalism, Han Yu wished to suppress Daoism as well as Buddhism, yet ironically
it was due to Daoist influence that Emperor Wuzong initiated a policy of state suppression of a
number of foreign religious establishments between 841 and 845. Buddhist monasteries were hard
hit by these events, and Chinese Buddhism consequently suffered a major reversal of fortune.
Buddhism still remained strong at the popular level, where it increasingly merged with folk magic
and other forms of religious Daoism, but from the mid-ninth century on it declined rapidly as a
powerful rival to Confucianism for allegiance of China’s ruling class.
Your servant submits that Buddhism is but one of the practices of barbarians which has filtered into
China since the Later Han. In ancient times there was no such thing.... In those times the empire was at
peace, and the people, contented and happy, lived out their full complement of years.... The Buddhist
doctrine had still not reached China, so this could not have been the result of serving the Buddha…
Now the Buddha was of barbarian origin. His language differed from Chinese speech; his clothes were
of a different cut; his mouth did not pronounce the prescribed words of the Former Kings, his body
was not clad in the garments prescribed by the Former Kings. He did not recognize the relationship
between prince and subject, nor the sentiments of father and son. Let us suppose him to be living
today, and that he come to court at the capital as an emissary of his country. Your Majesty would
receive him courteously. But only one interview in the audience chamber, one banquet in his honor,
one gift of clothing, and he would be escorted under guard to the border that he might not mislead the
masses.
If the Buddha has supernatural power and can wreak harm and evil, may any blame or retribution
fittingly fall on my person. Heaven be my witness: I will not regret it. Unbearably disturbed and with
the utmost sincerity I respectfully present my petition that these things may be known.
Your servant is truly alarmed, truly afraid.
Questions for Analysis:
1. When Buddhism reached China, the followers of which Chinese philosophy most likely
embraced the new religion? Explain your choice.
2. Why did some Chinese feel threatened by Buddhism and its appeal? Explain.