IOverview
Classical Confucianism is the name scholars give to Confucian thought before the Qin unified China in 221 BCE. Its three main figures are Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi. They discussed how to be a person and how to govern, without the metaphysics of principle and qi that the Song would later build.
At the time the Confucians, or Ru, were just one of the Hundred Schools, competing with the Mohists, Daoists and Legalists. They had no court backing, no temples and no examinations. They were a circle of teachers and students who passed on how to read the old texts and how to keep ritual. Every later school, from Han Confucianism to New Confucianism, claims to be reading these masters correctly.
IIHistory
- 551 to 479 BCEConfuciusTaught in Lu, travelled among the states for about fourteen years without finding employment, then returned to teach until his death.
- 5th century BCEThe disciplesZengzi, Zisi and others recorded the master's words. The Analects took shape in layers over several generations.
- 371 to 289 BCEMenciusStudied with followers of Zisi, Confucius's grandson. Advised the rulers of Qi and Liang, arguing that human nature is good and that the people matter more than the ruler.
- c. 300 to 237 BCEXunziLed the Jixia academy in Qi more than once. His students included Han Feizi and Li Si, who became leading Legalists.
- 213 BCEBurning of the booksThe Qin burned the writings of the schools, ending the pre-Qin era. Confucian learning recovered only under the Han.
The Confucians of this period were far from united. The Han Feizi, in its chapter on eminent learning, says the Ru split into eight factions after Confucius. In 1993, bamboo slips excavated at Guodian in Hubei, from a tomb dated to about 300 BCE, revealed several previously unknown Confucian texts, filling part of the gap between Confucius and Mencius.
IIITeachings and Distinctive Ideas
Confucius left the core vocabulary. Humaneness (ren) is seeing others as fully human. Ritual (li) is the pattern that keeps relationships from breaking. The rectification of names means every title carries duties. The junzi, or exemplary person, is one who works on himself. His two great successors agreed on all this but split over a basic question: what is human nature like?
| Point | Mencius | Xunzi |
|---|---|---|
| Human nature | Good. Anyone seeing a child about to fall into a well is moved | Inclined to self-interest. Goodness is the product of human effort |
| Source of morality | Four innate sprouts: compassion, shame, deference, right and wrong | Ritual and teachers straighten us, as a craftsman straightens warped wood |
| Cultivation | Nurture the sprouts so they are not lost | Persistent study and accumulation |
| Heaven | Has moral purpose, linked to destiny | Is nature, with regular patterns, and does not answer prayers |
| Politics | The people are most important, the ruler least. An inhumane ruler forfeits his title | Sage kings created ritual to set distinctions and prevent strife |
Xunzi is often thought to have taught that people are evil and so to have belittled morality. In fact he valued morality as much as anyone. He simply held that it must be learned and trained rather than found ready-made. The word usually translated as bad is better read as crude or unshaped.
IVLearning, Ritual and Public Service
Classical Confucian practice came down to three things. The first was learning: the Odes, the Documents, ritual and music, and the six arts of ritual, music, archery, charioteering, writing and arithmetic. The second was keeping ritual in daily life, from mourning a parent to receiving a guest. The third was taking office to bring the Way into government. Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi all advised rulers, and none was used as he hoped.
According to the Analects, Confucius taught anyone who came with a small gift asking to learn. Later Confucians saw this as the moment learning opened beyond the aristocracy.
VTransmission
Classical Confucianism had no organisation in the sense of a church. It passed through teacher and student circles and through places like the Jixia academy in Qi, where the ruler supported scholars of many schools. The texts that survive from this period are the Analects, the Mencius and the Xunzi, together with chapters of the Book of Rites such as the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean, which tradition attributes to Zengzi and Zisi.
VIIn Vietnam
Classical Confucianism never existed in Vietnam as a community, because it was never a community anywhere. It arrived through books. The Analects and the Mencius belong to the Four Books that Vietnamese candidates studied through 844 years of examinations, from 1075 to 1919. At the Temple of Literature in Hanoi, Confucius stands at the centre and Mencius and Zisi are among the Four Correlates. Everyday Vietnamese sayings such as do not do to others what you would not want yourself, or the people come first, go straight back to the books of this period.
VIISymbol of the Branch
Apricot Altar
杏壇
VIIISub-branches
- Confucius
- Mencius
- Xunzi
IXOther Branches of Confucianism
Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism宋明理學 程朱學派, School of PrincipleThe school that built a full cosmology on principle and qi, with the investigation of things as its path.Classical Confucianism先秦儒家, pre-Qin ConfuciansThe Confucianism of Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi, concerned with ethics and government rather than metaphysics.
Lu-Wang School of Mind陸王心學, 陽明心學 (Xinxue)Holds that principle lies in the mind rather than in external things.Uses the common symbol of the pathHan Confucianism漢儒, Han-era Confucian learningDong Zhongshu urged setting aside other schools and making Confucianism the sole state orthodoxy.Uses the common symbol of the pathQing Evidential Learning考證學 kaozhengxue, 樸學, Han learning 漢學In the Qing, scholars turned to philological research to recover the sages' words, called Han learning in contrast to the moral philosophy of Song learning.Uses the common symbol of the pathNew Confucianism新儒家, 當代新儒學A 20th-century current answering the May Fourth critique, accepting Western science and democracy while keeping the learning of mind and nature.Uses the common symbol of the path
Vietnamese ConfucianismNho học, Hội Tư văn, Văn MiếuConfucianism became a system in Vietnam under the Lý, with the Temple of Literature in 1070, the first examination in 1075 and the Imperial Academy in 1076.Korean Confucianism, Sungkyunkwan성균관 成均館 Seonggyungwan, 유교 YugyoSungkyunkwan was founded in Hanyang on 25 September 1398 and is today Korea's Confucian body.Uses the common symbol of the path
Confucian Religion in IndonesiaAgama Khonghucu, MATAKIN (Majelis Tinggi Agama Khonghucu Indonesia)Confucianism organised as a religion with a council, houses of worship and rites, one of Indonesia's six officially recognised religions.XSources
The library cross-checks the sources below. Where they disagree, the page gives both.
?Quick Questions
How does classical Confucianism differ from Neo-Confucianism?
Classical Confucianism dealt with ethics and government in concrete terms. Neo-Confucianism, more than a thousand years later, added a cosmology of principle and qi to explain why morality is rooted in heaven and earth.
Who was right, Mencius or Xunzi?
This page does not judge. Each had his own arguments and both claimed Confucius. Historically, the Song made Mencius the standard, while Xunzi's ideas shaped Han statecraft.
Did Confucius write any books?
The Analects was not written by him but compiled by his disciples over several layers. Tradition credits him with editing the Five Classics and writing the Spring and Autumn Annals, but most scholars today do not accept this.