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Home , Analects, Mohism

CHAPTER SIX

CONFUCIANISM, MOHISM, AND

In the first century A.D. and afterwards Indian Buddhism spread to China and developed there in distinctive ways. Ideologically, however, it is of greater moment to consider what contributions were made to our theme by the two outstanding religious move• ments of purely Chinese origin.

l. and the Intervention of Although he has sometimes been classified as an agnostic, Confu• cius (K'ung-fu-tzii), who was born in the middle of the sixth century B.C., included a clearly religious element in his teaching. Of the works associated with him, the Analects are accepted as the compilation most genuinely credited with his authorship; they were compiled, it seems, not more than some seventy years after his death. A great zeal for education and for offering it to all is apparent; an emphasis on , 'ceremonial', with an attendant sense of reverence and propriety; and a basic aim in presenting the Way (), sometimes called the Way of Heaven and thus invested with a religious aura. 1 (te) is also said to be a gift of Heaven: Heaven is the author of the virtue that is in me ( 7. 23) .2 A variety of topics is touched on in the Analects, but a certain reserve is shown in the Master's approach to the gods: The topics the Master did not speak of were prodigies, force, disorder, and gods. (Analects, 7.21; tr. D.C. Lau, 88.) Arthur Waley3 translates thus: The Master never talked of prodigies, feats of strength, disorders or spirits. A similar reserve appears when Confucius is asked how the spirits of the dead and the gods should be served: The Master said, 'You are not able even to serve man. How can you serve the spirits?'

1 Ninian Smart, Tht Religious of Mankind, 202. Cf. D.C. Lau, Confucius, Tht Analects (Penguin Classics, 1979, repr. 1986), 11-12, with a mention of other phrases such as 'the ways of the Former Kings' and 'the way of the Master'. 2 D.C. Lau, op. cit. 89. 3 Tht Analects of Confucius (London, 1938), 127 (with the numbering 7.20). CONFUCIANISM, MOHISM, AND TAOISM 147

'May I ask about death?' 'You do not understand even life. How can you understand death?' (Analects, 11.12; tr. Lau, 107.) 4 One may compare the dictum (6. 22, Lau, 84) about wisdom: To work for the things the common people have a right to and to keep one's distance from the gods and spirits while showing them reverence can be called wisdom. To the disciple Tzu-hsia is ascribed a saying which gives big roles to Destiny and Heaven and outlines, at the same time, a doctrine of universal brotherhood: Ssu-ma Niu appeared worried, saying, 'All men have brothers. I alone have none.' Tzu-hsia said, 'I have heard it said: life and death are a matter of Destiny; wealth and honour depend on Heaven. The gentleman is reverent and does nothing amiss, is respectful towards others and observant of the rites, and all within the Four Seas5 are his brothers. What need is there for the gentleman to worry about not having any brothers?' (Analects, 12.5; tr. Lau, 113.) It appears that wealth and honour, according to this saying, are bestowed by Heaven, presumably as rewards for good moral con• duct. Yet in another saying by Confucius himself the concept of reward is firmly rejected. Asked about the exaltation of virtue and the reformation of the depraved, he said: To put service before the reward you get for it, is that not exaltation of virtue? To attack evil as evil and not as evil of a particular man, is that not the way to reform the depraved? (12.21; tr. Lau, 116.).6 Heaven is credited with maintaining a cosmic (and presumably moral) order, although it keeps silent about it. Confucius is himself tempted to maintain silence in view of this: The Master said, 'What does Heaven ever say? Yet there are the four seasons going round and there are the hundred things coming into . What does Heaven ever say?' (Analects, lt.19; tr. Lau, 146.) Destiny is mentioned as the powerful arbiter of disease and death: Po-niu was ill. The Master visited him and holding his hand through the window, said, 'We are going to lose him. It must be Destiny. Why else should such a man be stricken with such a disease?' (Analects, 6.10; tr. Lau, 82.)

4 See also the discussion by Waley, op. cit. 31-33. 5 The Four Seas 'that bound the universe'; Waley, op. cit. 164 n. I. 6 The last sentence is quite different in Waley's version (p. 169): 'Attack the evil that is within yourself; do not attack the evil that is in others' (with certain textual revisions).