China

In China, the 5th and 4th centuries BC form part of the period of the Eastern Zhou dynasty (770-256 BC). These were centuries of growing disintegration, in which the kings of the Zhou dynasty no longer wielded any real power and were reduced to fulfilling a mere religious-ceremonial role. The Zhou Empire had fragmented into several independent kingdoms that were constantly struggling for dominance. After 480 BC, this fragmentation of power was at its height, during a chaotic era known as “the Warring States.” But despite constant warfare, China was flourishing during this period. There was strong demographic growth, the amount of arable land was extended, and cultivation was intensified by increasing irrigation among other things, trade was on the increase and so was urbanization, the use of iron became common, copper coinage was introduced, and cultural life blossomed too. In the different states, the government was based on law. As far as we know, the 5th-century written laws were the first of their kind in China. The states also reorganized their armies. A large army of conscripted farmers replaced the aristocratic army of the previous centuries, and cavalry was introduced in imitation of the nomads on the western and northern borders. And despite all internecine strife, the Chinese states saw a chance to expand their territory. The sinification of areas to the south, in the valley of the Yangtze, and on the western and northern borders went steadily on.

The 5th and 4th centuries BC are important in China’s intellectual history, and thus in the intellectual history of all of East Asia. This was the era in which Confucianism took shape. Confucianism would end up as the central and universal philosophic tradition of China, Korea, Japan, and the northern parts of Southeast Asia. It is named after Kongfuzi, Master Kong, a political philosopher better known in the West as Confucius (551-479 BC). Confucius’ ideas are supposed to be laid down in the Lunyu (literally “Conversations” or “Select Pronouncements,” usually titled the Analects); in fact, this is an effort at compilation of the 3rd century, and we cannot be sure how much of its content can be safely ascribed to Confucius himself. What we can reconstruct of Confucius’ thought shows that he saw the

Antiquity: Greeks andRomans in Context, First Edition. Frederick G. Naerebout and HenkW. Singor. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2014 byJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Map 8 Eurasia, 5th-4th c. BC

Map 8  (Continued)

Solution for the problems of his own days in a return to a supposed Golden Age dating back to about 500 years before, when people still knew the dao, the right way. Study, especially the study of history, would help one find the dao again.

Confucian thought stimulated societal reform, for it was innovative in its rationalism and humanism: it states that the supernatural exists, but that we should not call on it for help; when we want a better world, we have to create it ourselves. Everybody should know their place, but those in a position of authority should never misuse their power. They should always remember the humanity of every fellow human being, because a good ruler is a righteous ruler. Perhaps most important is Confucius’ novel explanation of nobility as nobility of the soul, to be acquired by study, integrity, and honesty, rather than something acquired by noble birth. The warfare and misery of his own days he explained as the result of a lack of nobility, true nobility, among the rulers. This emphasis on profane human ethics provided new ideals for Chinese society. Many followers and interpreters, of whom Meng Ke or Mengzi (Master Meng, Mencius, 372-289 BC) was the most important, popularized Confucius’ ideas, and at the end of the 3rd century BC, Confucianism became the official ideology of the state.

Other widely known traditions of East Asia, which also originated in the 6th and 5th centuries, even if their roots lay further back, are Legalism and Taoism. Legalism is a rationalistic philosophy of statecraft, arguing that whatever a ruler does in order to enlarge or strengthen his state and army is always the right thing. Pragmatic considerations should always lead the way. In addition to this pragmatism of the legalists and the moralism of the Confucianists, we find the primitivism of the Taoists. Taoism is named after the oldest and most important text of this tradition, the Daodejing, the Holy Book of the Virtuous Road, ascribed to Laozi (“the Old Master”), who is supposed to have lived in about 500 BC, but who is most likely a legendary figure. Taoism or Tao is a vague philosophic amalgam, advocating the ideal of leaving things alone, banning change, not attempting to think the right things and act accordingly, but attempting to refrain from thinking and from acting. The dao of Taoism is a metaphysical individualistic notion, opposed to the dao as the social ideal of Confucianist thought.