The Five Classics associated with Confucius formed the core curriculum in the education of Chinese literati throughout most of the imperial period. In this book Michael Nylan offers a sweeping assessment of these ancient texts and shows how their influence spread across East Asia. Nylan begins by tracing the formation of the Five Classics canon in the pre-Han and Han periods, 206 B.C. to A.D. … 220, revising standard views on the topic. She assesses the impact on this canon of the invention of a rival corpus, The Four Books, in the twelfth century. She then analyses each of the Five Classics, discussing when they were written, how they were transmitted and edited in later periods, and what political, historical, and ethical themes were associated with them through the ages. Finally she deliberates on the intertwined fates of Confucius and the Five Classics over the course of the twentieth century and shows how their contents are relevant to much newer concerns.
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Just like the Mahabharata, the corpus of the Five Classics was unusual in the degree to which it remained open, subject to continual amplification and revision. It lent a sturdy framework within which to construct aesthetic experience and cultural ideals, even when individual writings in the canon and attached commentaries clearly reflected the contemporary preoccupations of their separate authors. Confucius himself taught that true learning consists of “reanimating the old” through the creative adaptation of core behavioral modes to changing circumstances.
Confucianism promotes five constants for the personal development of virtue and the upholding of ethics. The basic Confucian ethical concepts include Ren, Yì, lǐ, Zhì and Xin. Ren is an obligation of altruism towards other individuals. Yi is the obligation to be righteous and benevolent. Li is a ritual system of norms that defines how a person should properly act in daily life and defines the rules for proper government. Zhi is the ability to judge what is right or wrong on other people’s behavior and to strive for knowledge and understanding. Finally there is Xin who encourages the adept of Confucianism to live and act into a way that is cohesive with his thinking and beliefs.
There are still many other virtues, but these were the most important ones while Ren and Yi are considered to be the capital virtues and those who’re not living by it are considered lesser humans. Those who manage to live by these five constants are called Junzi (an English equivalent would be a gentleman).
Then there are the four sizis for a good functioning society; Loyalty, Filial Piety, Continence and Righteousness. Zhōng (loyalty); the minister has to be loyal to his prince but reciprocally the prince has the obligation to be righteous. Xiào (filial piety); if there is one virtue that can be found back into all Asian religions, it are the obligations that one has towards his parents and family.
Jié (continence); everybody should know his place into the world and behave accordingly. Yì (righteousness); this virtue is also part of the five constants, described in previous paragraph. Following Confucius social disorder is a result of not understanding the reality and order of things so that above principles are badly applied. He conceded that into times of social unrest loyalty and filial piety could become conflicting virtues.
Around the 12th century under the impulse of Zhu Xi (1130 – 1200) Confucianism underwent a reformation by lying more emphasis upon The Four Books than upon The Five Classics.
The Four Books are lifting certain texts out of the Five Classics by considering as more important. Since they were written only a couple of hundred years before, their language was not so archaic and their content was more coherent and less voluminous that of the Five Classics.
Whereas the Five classics put more weight on good rule, the Four Books emphasized more upon self-cultivation as a first and necessary step to improve the World.
Zhu Xi proclaimed to his students “Not the places where you have questions, but rather the places where you have none: that is where you should focus your energies.” Zhu Xi’s teaching method was based upon following principles;
• To reduce the amount of texts his students had to read
• To make them recite what they were reading till they knew it by heart
• To apply that knowledge into their daily lives.
Zhu Xi grew also more and more impatient with the already since centuries going on debate of the correct way to interpret the Classics to find out about the Middle Way and decided to settle the dispute for once and for ever by making The Four Books the new canon of Confucianism.
Only in 1756 would the Classics regain some of their earlier influence when the state examination system placed them back on equal foot with the Four Books.
However during the early 20th century, activists accused scholars who studied the Classics of elitism. Again the status of the Five Classics declined to a secondary canon and has since then never regained their importance for the study of the Middle Way.