Attitudes towards Tradition in Ancient China: Part I
The Case of Classical Confucianism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36755/iqan.v7i2.467Keywords:
Chinese Vocabulary, Xun Zi, Mencius, Analects, Confucius, Conservativism, TraditionAbstract
This paper explores writings of key Ancient Chinese thinkers till the end of Warring States Period (221 BC) in a historical order to bring out the conflict between traditionalist and modernist tendencies of those times. The focal point of this exploration is the way(s) an idealized past is responded to by major schools of thought in ancient China. Here, we chart out, analyze and interpret various Ancient Chinese points of view regarding the relative evaluation of the old and new values, ideas and techniques. In this first part, starting with an investigation and interpretation of vocabulary involved, we deal with few Pre-Confucian classics, Confucius himself and two of his great followers, Meng Zi and Xun Zi. The paper concludes that in spite of a predominantly conservative temperament, the Confucian texts and thinkers in question present a highly nuanced view of and open-ended way of applying the tradition. A pattern is discovered in their treatment of tradition-following and some principles are inferred from the writings of Xunzi, the most philosophical of all three thinkers we discuss.
References
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Yakov Rabkin and Mikhail Minakov, eds., Demodernization: Future in the Past (Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag, 2018).
Patricia Seed, “Early Modernity: History of a Word,” CR: The New Continental Review 2, no. 2 (2002): 1-16.
Michael Puett, The Ambivalence of Creation: Debates Concerning Innovation and Artifice in Early China (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001).
Ibid., 2.
Ibid., 24.
Herbert Fingarette, Confucius: The Secular as Sacred (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), 57-71.
Our source for the Chinese text of the writing of Classical philosophers has been The Chinese Text Project, accessed August 13, 2025, https://ctext.org/.
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See, Jian-Hsin Wu, The Way of Chinese Characters: The Origin of 670 Essential Words (Boston: Cheng and Tsui, 2016), 71.
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See for instance, Confucius, The Analects of Confucius, trans. James Legge (East Bridgewater, MA: World Publications Group Inc., 2008), 91; Han Fei Zi, The Complete Works of Han Fei Tzu, trans., W.K. Liao (London: Arthur Probsthain, 1959), II: 247; Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, trans., John C.H. Wu (Boston: Shambhala, 1989), 136. All references to The Analects are from this edition, unless otherwise specified.
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Ibid.
It is used as ‘instruction’ in Confucius, The Analects, I:4; as ‘delegating’ in Li Chi: Book of Rites, trans., James Legge, (New York: University Books, 1967), I:66; while its usage as ‘transmitting’ and as ‘records’ can be seen, inter alia, respectively in Meng Zi, Mencius, trans. Irene Bloom, edited by Philip J. Ivanhoe, (New York Columbia University Press, 2009), 7 and 21.
See Meng Zi, Mencius, 93.
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Xun Zi, Xunzi: The Complete Works, trans. Eric L. Hutton, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2014), 181. It must be noted that the text does not contain the Chinese word for ‘thread’ (xian) here but mentions ‘money’ (guan) i.e. ‘pierced coins stringed together,’ hence this usage of this word as a verb for ‘to string.’ See John Knoblock, Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works (Stanford: Standford University Press, 1994), 302-303.
Leon Wieger, Chinese Characters: Their Origin, Etymology, History, Classification and Signification (New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corporation, 1965), 229.
Hutton, Xunzi, 181.
See respectively, Guanzi, trans., W. Allyn Rickett (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2001) I:53; Confucius, Analects, 73.
Confucius, Shoo King or The Historical Classic, trans., W.H. Medhurst (Shanghai: The Mission Press, 1846), 128.
Han Fei Zi, The Complete Works, Vol. II: 247; Another legalist work, The Book of Lord Shang uses it in the neutral sense of ‘past, former and original.’ See Shang Yang, Shang Jun Shu: The Book of Lord Shang, trans., Yuri Pines (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019), 198; The same usage is found in Zhuang Zi (Hunan: People’s Publishing House, 1999), II: 436. This word does not occur in the other fundamental Daoist text, Dao De Jing of Lao Zi.
See for instance Mo Zi, Mo Zi: A Complete Translation, trans., Ian Johnston (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2010), 648.
Li Leyi, Hanzi Yanbian Wu Bai Li (Beijing: Yuyan Xue Yuan Chu Ban She: 1992), 368.
The Historical Classic uses this expression for the first time with refence to the sage kings Yao and Shun, Confucius, Shoo King, 125-129; Meng Zi, Mencius, 70.
Although instances of its contrast with the character jin can also be found, for example Meng Zi, Mencius, 35 where the seeds of goodness are described with reference to former kings and in those people contemporary with Mencius.
Confucius, The Analects, 84.
See for instance, Confucius, Shoo King, 119 and 143.
Ibid., 141.
Ibid., 152
Ibid., 222-223.
Ibid., 226. Also see this text for an explicit expression of the righteousness of the old kings of the toppled dynasty contrasted with the moral corruption of their present descendants resulting in the revocation of the tien ming. 244.
Kai Vogeslang, “The Historiography of Political Realism,” Dao Companion to China’s Fa Tradition, ed. Yuri Pines (Cham: Springer Verlag, 2024), 354.
Ibid., 174-175. The word translated here as ‘business’ is shi and actually means ‘conducting the business of government’ or ‘serving the emperor.’ The translator seems to have translated it merely as business on the assumption that the context clarifies nature of the business in question.
Ibid., 189.
I take the term intimacy orientation from Thomas Kasulis, Intimacy or Integrity: Philosophy and Cultural Difference (Honolulu: Hawaii University Press, 2002).
Confucius, The Analects, 46. Peng can stand for Peng Zu mentioned by Zhuangzi who was a noble of the Shang dynasty and used to transmit old tales or Lao Zi, or both.
Confucius, The Analects, 49.
Ibid., 25.
Ibid., 71. For more on ‘ceremonies and music’ (li yue) mentioned here see Geir Sigurðsson, Confucian Propriety and Ritual Learning: A Philosophical Interpretation (New York: SUNY Press, 2015).
For the praise of the first three, see Confucius, The Analects, 137. In the chapter “Shu Er” section 5 he is reported to have said, "Extreme is my decay. For a long time, I have not dreamed, as I was wont to do, that I saw the duke of Zhou.” Ibid., 47. Also see pages 56-57.
Confucius, The Analects, 99.
Ibid., 91.
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Li Chi: Book of Rites, I:67.
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Kong Fu Zi, Li Chi, II. 263.
Confucius, Analects, trans. Edward Slingerland (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company),12.
Ezra Pound, Confucian Analects (London: Peter Owen Limited, 1956), 15; Confucius, Analects of Confucius, trans. Arthur Waley (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.: 1938), 90.
Ibid., 87, note. 4.
William Jennings, The Confucian Analects (London: George Routledge and Sons Limited, 1895), 48.
Roger T. Ames, The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation (New York: Ballantine Books, 1999), 78.
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Ibid., 52.
Ibid. 16.
Ibid., 21.
James Legge, Li Ji, II. 323-324.
Andrew Plaks, Ta Hsueh and Chung Yung (London: Penguin Books, 2003), 49.
Séraphin Couvreur, L'invariable milieu. Tchoung-Young (Nice: Editions des Cahiers Astrologiques, 1952), 28.
Confucius, The Analects, 75.
Peimin Ni, Understanding the Analects of Confucius, 270.
Ibid., 271.
Fingarette, Confucius: The Secular as Sacred, 60.
Ibid., 68.
Ibid., 69.
Meng Zi, Mencius, 43.
Ibid., 45. The term ‘superior men’ (jun zi), elsewhere translated as ‘gentleman’ and which is the standard Confucian epithet for the (realistically achievable) ideal personality, cannot here be taken in that moral sense but must be interpreted in the mundane (and historically original) sense of ‘a high official’ or ‘noble by birth’ (da ren). Otherwise, the statement would lose its whole point and would imply that a morally accomplished person can be the one who persists in his errors rather than rectifying them.
Ibid., 13.
Ibid., 28-29.
See Martin Lings, Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions (London: Perennial Books, 1965), 74-75.
Ryan Nichols et al., “Modeling the relationship between Analects, Mencius and Xunzi,” The Journal of Asian Studies 77, no.1 (2018): 20.
Hutton, Xunzi, 32.
Ibid., 127.
Emperor Yao’s transforming power through killing just 3 persons is praised in Xunzi, 159.
Hutton, Xunzi, 165.
Ibid., 312
Ibid., 266
Ibid.,320.
Ibid. 157. On Li Si, see Paul R Goldin, After Confucius: Studies in Early Chinese Philosophy (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005), 66-75.
See Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1963), 85.
Hutton, Xunzi, 107.
Ibid., 35.
Ibid., 252; John Knoblock, Xunzi, III: 156.
See Beida Zhexuexi, Xunzi Xinzhu (Beijing: Beijing Daxue, 1979), 396.
Hutton, Xunzi, 179; Knoblock, Xunzi, III: 19.
Kern, Martin “Wen.” The Encyclopedia of Confucianism, edited by Xinzhong Yao (London: Routledge, 2003), 655.
Ibid.
Confucius, The Analects, XVII:21.
Ibid. 333.
See Beida Zhexuexi, Xunzi Xinzhu, 277. Emphasis added.
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