Poetry and Thought in Early China

1. Poetry and Thought in Early China Ca 1000 – 600 BC

2. A Chapter Overview • Chinese civilization first developed in the Yellow River basin. • The Classic of Poetry, also called The Book of Songs, is a lyric poetry collection that stands at the beginning of the Chinese literary tradition. • Greatly valued by Confucius who supposedly edited the first copy from an earlier work. Doubtful but he certainly valued The Book of Songs and refers to them often in his own writing.

3. The fusion of ethical thought and idealized Chou traditions associated with Confucius were recorded in The Analects by Confucius's disciples following his death. • The Chuang Tzu offers philosophical meditations in a multitude of forms, ranging from jokes and parables to intricate philosophical arguments. • During the period of the Warring States, Ssu-ma Ch'ien produced the popular Historical Records chronicling the lives of ruling families and dynasties in a comprehensive history of China up to the time of Emperor Wu's reign. • The end of ancient China is often linked with the rise of the draconian ruler Ch'in Shih-huang. (first emperor of China)

4. The Mythic Beginning: 盤古 Pangu • The first living being and the creator of all in Chinese mythology. • In the beginning there was nothing in the universe except a formless chaos. However this chaos coalesced into a cosmic egg for about 18,000 years. Within it, the perfectly opposed principles of Yin and Yang became balanced and Pangu emerged (or woke up) from the egg. This myth is featured in the film liked to in Moodle: Ancient China

5. Pangu set about the task of creating the world: he separated Yin from Yang with a swing of his giant axe, creating the Earth (murky Yin) and the Sky (clear Yang). • To keep them separated, Pangu stood between them and pushed up the Sky. This task took 18,000 years; with each day the sky grew ten feet (3 meters) higher, the Earth ten feet wider, and Pangu ten feet taller. • In some versions of the story, Pangu is aided in this task by the four most prominent beasts, namely the Turtle, the Qilin, the Phoenix, and the Dragon. The Ying Yan idea is spoken about by Huston Smith in the Moodle linked film: Confucianism

6. After the 18,000 years, Pangu dies. • His breath became the wind; his voice the thunder; left eye the sun and right eye the moon; • His body became the mountains and extremes of the world; his blood formed rivers; his muscles the fertile lands; his facial hair the stars and milky way; his fur the bushes and forests; his bones the valuable minerals; his bone marrows sacred diamonds;

7. His sweat fell as rain; and the fleas on his fur carried by the wind became the fish and animals throughout the land. • Nüwa the Goddess then used the mud of the water bed to form the shape of humans.

8. Chines History Begins at The Yellow River, or Huanghe Timeline Chinese: http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/time_line.html

9. The Layout of History Note: The "Common Era" (CE/BCE) notation has been adopted by numerous authors and publishers wishing to be "neutral" or "sensitive to non-Christians Image Drawn from the Web Site: http://myweb.uiowa.edu/cfillebr/prereading.html

10. Xia Dynasty . Before1600 BC ? • Almost mythical—the great flood was supposed to have occurred then, and brought under control by Yu the Great. • “Early Chinese history is a tale told and retold for generations, during which new elements were added to the front end” ("Rethinking Erlitou: legend, history and Chinese archaeology")

11. The implied dualism between the Shang and Xia which is brought up later, is that while the Shang represent fire or the sun, birds and the east, the Xia represent the west and water. • The development of this mythical Xia, Allan argues, is a necessary act on the part of the Zhou Dynasty, who justify their conquest of the Shang by noting that the Shang had supplanted the Xia. (The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art and Cosmos in Early China)

12. Shang Dynasty (1600 BC) http://www.uic.edu/educ/bctpi/whittier/curriculum/china/

13. Chinese Civilization First Developed in the Yellow River Basin • The first dynasty, the Shang, was a loose confederation of city-states ruled by princes with a common ancestry. • Chinese writing based on characters developed during the Shang era. http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-shang.cfm

14. Shang Writing • Other than bronze making, the most significant achievement of the Shang period was the extensive practice of writing. • From the Oracle Bones, people had the chance to study and determine the earliest and most complete evidence of writing in China. <http://www.library.utoronto.ca/east/students02/hoi_wan_lai/writing.htm>

15. From the unearthed evidence, 150,000 inscriptions have been discovered; 5,000 ancient Chinese characters were found and published; • and 3,000 of those ancient words were successfully translated into modern Chinese characters. • Actually, writing was not only found on Oracle Bones but on some other materials as well, including wood, bamboo, and silk. • However, all of these materials were perishable.

16. The writings found on the Shang Oracles was highly developed and sophisticated in form. • Scholars found that the inscriptions on the Oracle Bones contained many pictographs (characters created based on real objects), proving that the Chinese writing structure and technique had been well developed before the Shang period. • Scholars realized that the stage of writing in Shang had been stylized and that the characters were geometric lines and shapes.

17. The characters were written from top to bottom, and from left to right. • Therefore, as the form of writing was sophisticated, the creation of words must have occurred at least a few hundred years before Shang; and may even have been created during the Hsia Dynasty. • Certainly, our modern Chinese language developed from ancient language. We can see that some of the ancient characters are still in use today, just slightly different in shape.

18. The Chau (Zhao) Dynasty http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-chou.cfm

19. A Change – the Chou (Zhou) • By the end of the second millennium B.C., the Chou (Zhou) people migrated from the west and conquered the Shang. • Tracing their origins from Hou-Chi (Lord Millet), the Chou put forth the argument that the last rulers of the Shang had been guilty of misrule and had caused hardship to the people, which led Heaven to transfer power to the Chou. • Over the centuries, the idea of heaven changed: sometimes it was an anthropomorphic deity, a natural and moral force, or a collection of ancestral spirits.

20. Because those in power were expected to rule virtuously, rulers typically adhered to the statutes and models put in place by former kings. • These ideas were recorded in three important texts: The Book of Documents, a collection of statements and proclamations from the early Chou period; the Classic of Poetry; and the Book of Changes.

21. The Spring and Autumn Period (Chinese: 春秋時代; pinyin: Chūnqiū Shídài) • This was a period in Chinese history, which roughly corresponds to the first half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty (from the second half of the 8th century BC to the first half of the 5th century BC). • Its name comes from the Spring and Autumn Annals, a chronicle of the state of Lu between 722 BC and 481 BC, which tradition associates with Confucius.

22. During this time, China was ruled by a feudal system. • The Zhou dynasty kings held nominal power, but only directly ruled over a small Royal Domain, centered around their capital (modern-day Luoyang). • They granted fiefdoms over the rest of China to several hundreds of hereditary nobles (Zhuhou 諸侯). • As the era unfolded, larger more powerful states annexed or claimed suzerainty over smaller ones. By the 6th century BC, most small states had disappeared

23. Warring States Period • This covers the period from some time in the 5th century BCE to the unification of China by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE. • It is nominally considered to be the second part of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, following the Spring and Autumn Period, although the Zhou dynasty itself ended in 256 BCE, 35 years earlier than the end of the Warring States period.

24. As with the Spring and Autumn Period, the king of Zhou acted merely as a figurehead. • The name Warring States Period was derived from the Record of the Warring States, a work historically compiled early in the Han Dynasty. The date for the beginning of the Warring States Period is somewhat in dispute. While it is frequently cited as 475 BCE (following the Spring and Autumn Period), 403 BCE — the date of the tripartition * of the Jin — is also sometimes considered as the beginning of the period. * Tripartition: A division by threes, or into three parts; the taking of a third part of any number or quantity

25. The Warring States Period, in contrast to the Spring and Autumn Period, was a period when regional warlords annexed smaller states around them and consolidated their rule. • The process began in the Spring and Autumn Period, and by the 3rd century BC, seven major states had risen to prominence.

26. The Classic of Poetry is a lyric poetry collection that stands at the beginning of the Chinese literary tradition. • Although it circulated among the Chou (Zhow) aristocracy, it is a heterogeneous text that includes many types of songs, ranging from hymns, temple songs, and hunting songs to love and marriage songs. • Serving as a the basic educational text of upper class Chou, it eventually became part of the canon of Confucian classics, along with the Book of Changes and the Book of Documents.

27. “By the Poems you can stir people and you can observe things through them; you can express your resentment in them and you can show sociable feelings. Clot to home you can use them to serve your father, and on a large scale you can use them to serve your ruler. Moreover, you can learn to recognize many names of birds, beasts, plants, and trees.”Confucius speaking about Classics of Poetry

28. Aspects of the Classics of Poetry • In poetry people within the early Chinese could say things which were forbidden in other parts of their structured culture. • Often were used as a means of diplomacy. • The “Feng”("wind" but also "mores," "folkways," or "customs" ) often involves the communication across lines of authority.

29. Usually, the Chinese poem is fairly simple on the surface. • Western culture, which was influenced by Shakespeare, Milton, and the Romantic poets, had a pronounced tendency to think of poems as ornate, elaborate creations made by a few men of genius. • Chinese culture, influenced by the anonymity of the Shih Ching, had a tendency to think of poems as something written by common humanity for the eyes of other humans..

30. Usually the poem deals with either agrarian imagery, courtship and marriage, or dynastic concerns. • The Zhou (or Chou) dynasty was agrarian in its roots, and for its people, "their sense of beauty and order is closely related to the cycles and abundance of the agricultural year," as Stephen Owen suggests (xx). • Likewise, the poems often revolve around the sorrows and joys of romance, or dealt with the heroic and legendary exploits of rulers and kings. • Other poems, which probably originated in folk-songs, deal with the everyday trials and tribulations of love, life, and the family

31. Each poem is usually composed of lines of four syllables, • Usually they will with rhymed endings in the original Chinese. • Often these four syllables appear as four pictograms. • The normal form of the courtship and marriage songs is three verses of four lines each. • Only a single non-fragmentary poem consists of a single quatrain, the form that later became popular in modern Chinese poetry.

32. The poetic principle organizing the poem is often one of contrast: • Often Chinese poetry will juxtapose a natural scene with a social or personal situation. The reader of the poem sees the similarity in the natural description and the human condition, and comes to a new awareness of each by this contrast. • In Chinese, this idea is embodied in the terms fu, bi, and xing (pronounced "shing"). Fu refers to a straightforward narrative with a beginning, middle, and conclusion, that stands by itself. • Bi, literally "against," implies a comparison or contrast, placing two things side by side.

33. When one takes two different fu, and places them together, the two create a bi. • This results in xing, a mental stimulation or "lightning" that pervades the mind of the reader, bringing new insight or awareness into the nature of the individual fu that compose the poem. Confucius stated that this xing is the purpose of poetry, that the point of a poem was to make the mind contemplate its subject deeply.

34. II. YA • The second section of the Book of Songs, known as the ya or "Courtly Songs," • It consists of 105 poems. Ya translates as "elegant" or "refined," the word here seeming to indicate that most of the songs are by courtiers or members of the aristocracy, not the common folk. • The ya are further subdivided into seventy-four hsiao ya ("Lesser Courtly Songs") and thirty-one ta ya ("Greater Courtly Songs"), probably distinguished on the basis of differing musical accompaniments, now lost.

35. The Lesser Courtly Songs • concern the aristocratic life centering around the Chou court. • Even these latter poems, while seeming to focus on romantic love, have traditionally been viewed as allegories--political satires disguised as folksongs. • And, indeed, there are many bitter reflections on war, as well as outright complaints about misgovernment, lying officials, administrators living luxuriously, and other political scams. • The poems in this section also contain many references to specific historical persons and events--are topical, in other words; a few, likewise, include some kind of identification of the poet in the last line, especially the political complaints.

36. The Greater Courtly Songs • They manifest, however, a difference in tone and superior literary artistry. • More reverent, ornate, and formal, a number of these poems celebrate the myths and legends of the Chou dynasty. • Many poems exhibit considerable length, yet are marked by more variety and consistency in their rhyme schemes, tighter transitions between stanzas, and sustained thematic development. The most common themes are good wishes, congratulations, eulogies, offerings to gods and ancestors, and dining and drinking. • But there are also poems of "change"--sharp, passionate outcries against rulers whose indecent behavior brings grief to their subjects and threatens their kingdoms with ruin.

37. III. SUNG • The sung section can also be read as "Hymns." • These forty sacrficial and temple songs are subdivided into three parts on the basis of geographical origin--thirty-one attributed to the Chou court, four to the court of the Duchy of Lu, and five hymns attributed to the Shang dynasty, which preceded Chou. • These songs seem to have been sung to the accompaniment of music and group dancing when the King or lord worshipped his ancestors and commemorated their heroic deeds.

38. The poems in this section are hymns of praise, ritual pieces describing sacrifices, feasts, musical performances, or celebrations of the dynasty's glory and its military victories. • The mood of the poems is celebratory throughout--no complaints about misrule, disorder, or personal hardships. As a result, most critics regard these poems as Chou propaganda pieces. The poems in this section are believed to be the earliest in the Book of Songs, some composed as early as 1700 B. C. (Shang dynasty) and many by no later than 700 B. C. • This antiquity accounts for the stylistic awkwardness displayed in a number of the songs. Of the poems in our text, number 157 provides an example of the sung.

39. Qin Dynasty

40. By 770 B.C., the Chou dynasty (the Zhou) had lost much of its power, and the bordering new kingdoms—the Ch'u, Wu and Y¸eh—grew stronger. • Culturally, they absorbed many of the Chou ways. The Lu province also saw itself as the preserver of Chou traditions. (It was also the home of Confucius.) • There is a fusion of ethical thought and idealized Chou traditions associated with Confucius were recorded in the Analects by Confucius's disciples following his death. • Many of the philosophers that followed Confucius were influential, but Confucianism's emphasis on the connection between idealized history and social history proved to be stronger.

41. With new technological advances, the nature of warfare changed, resulting in increasingly destructive wars between domains. In the period known as the Spring and Autumn Annals, regions were ruled by aristocratic families with officials chosen from lesser clans. • Because the domains were gradually evolving into centralized states during a period of upheaval, this era is known as the Warring States. • In addition to the massive political upheaval, there was also significant intellectual upheaval. • Schools of thought concerned with the individual rather than the polity began to emerge. Independent thinkers such as Chuang Chou without patronage or school were also important.

42. Chinese Philosophy • Philosophy has had a tremendous effect on Chinese civilization, and East Asia as a whole. • Many of the great philosophical schools were formulated during the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, and came to be known as the Hundred Schools of Thought. • The four most influential of these were • Confucianism, • Taoism, • Mohism, and • Legalism. • Later on, during the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism from India also became a prominent philosophical and religious discipline.

43. Eastern thought, unlike Western philosophy, did not express a clear distinction between philosophy and religion. • Like Western philosophy, Chinese philosophy covers a broad and complex range of thought, possessing a multitude of schools that address every branch and subject area of philosophy. • In China, the Tao Te Ching (Dào dé jīng, in pinyin romanisation) of Lao Tzu (Lǎo zǐ) [10] and the Analects of Confucius (Kǒng fū zǐ; sometimes called Master Kong) both appeared around 600 BC, about the time that the Greek pre-Socratics were writing.

44. A man who only learns the truth at the last moment of his life has not wasted his opportunities. Confucius 551 – 479 BC • 孔夫子, transliterated Kong Fuzi or K'ung-fu-tzu, lit. "Master Kong," but most frequently referred to simply as Kongzi孔子, • The most famous thinker and social philosopher of China, whose teachings have deeply influenced East Asia for centuries. • Living in China between 722 BC and 481 (a time when feudal states fought against each other), he was convinced of his ability to restore the world's order, but in the end failed.

45. After much traveling around China to promote his ideas among rulers, he eventually became involved in teaching disciples. • His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, and justice and sincerity. • These values gained prominence in China after being chosen among other doctrines such as Legalism or Taoism during the Han dynasty. • Used since then as the imperial orthodoxy, Confucius' thoughts have been developed into a vast and complete philosophical system known in the west as Confucianism. • They were introduced to Europe by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, the first to Latinise the name as "Confucius".

46. 孔夫子 • Of all the Chinese philosophies it is quite safe to say Confucianism has had the greatest impact throughout East Asia. • His philosophy focused in the fields of ethics and politics, emphasizing personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice, traditionalism, and sincerity. • Confucianism, along with Legalism, is responsible for creating the world’s first meritocracy, which holds that one's status should be determined by ability instead of ancestry, wealth, or friendships. It is arguable that Confucianism is most responsible for shaping the Chinese culture and state of China.

47. Legalism • In Chinese history, Legalism (Chinese: 法家; Pinyin: Fǎjiā; Wade-Giles: Fa-chia; literally "School of law") was one of the four main philosophic schools in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (Near the end of the Zhou dynasty from about the sixth century B.C. to about the third century B.C.). • It is actually rather a pragmatic political philosophy, with maxims like "when the epoch changed, legalism is the act of following all laws ," and its essential principle is one of jurisprudence. • "Legalism" here can bear the meaning of "political philosophy that upholds the rule of law", and is thus distinguished from the word's Western sense.

48. Mohism • In China, a contemporary of Confucius, Mozi, "Master Mo", is credited with founding the Mohist school, whose canons dealt with issues relating to valid inference and the conditions of correct conclusions. • The Mohist school of Chinese philosophy contained an approach to logic and argumentation that stresses analogical reasoning over deductive reasoning, and is based on the three fa, or methods of drawing distinctions between kinds of things. • One of the schools that grew out of Mohism, the Logicians, are credited by some scholars for their early investigation of formal logic. • It disappeared during the Qin dynasty. Mozi's philosophy was described in the book Mozi, compiled by his students from lecture notes.

49. In Mohism, morality is defined not by tradition, but rather by a constant moral guide that parallels utilitarianism. • Tradition is inconsistent, and human beings need an extra-traditional guide to identify which traditions are acceptable. Mo Tzu (Master Mo), Latinized as Micius), 470 BCE–c.391 BCE • The moral guide must then promote and encourage social behaviors that maximize general utility. He also believed in the 2nd law and was in conflict with the ancients.

50. Mohism promotes a philosophy of universal love, i.e. an equal affection for all individuals. • This universal love is what makes man good. This advocacy of universal love was a target of attack by other schools, most notably the Confucians who believed, for example, that children should hold a greater love for their parents than for random strangers. He also had much conflicts with Confucian ideas.