jing 經, the Confucian Classics

The Confucian Classics are a canon of essential writings reflecting the teachings of the philosopher Confucius (Kongzi 孔子, 551-479 BCE). Authorship was occasionally attributed to Confucius himself, especially that of the so-called Five Classics (wujing 五經). In fact, only a small part of the whole canon dates from the time in which Confucius lived, which was called the late Spring and Autumn period 春秋 (770-5th cent. BCE). Parts of the "Book of Documents", the "Book of Songs", the "Book of Changes" and the "Spring and Autumn Annals" existed already before the time of Confucius and must be deemed "ancient classical texts" which Confucians often referred to. Yet the central part of the corpus was written or at least compiled during the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE), when Confucianism became the official state philosophy and thinking.

The books of the canon are divided in the Wujing 五經 "Five Canonical Works", including the Yijing 易經 "Book of Changes", the Shangshu 尚書 (also known as Shujing 書經) "Book of Documents", the Shijing 詩經 (or Maoshi 毛詩) "Book of Poetry", the Liji 禮記 "Records of Rites" and the Chunqiu 春秋 "Spring and Autumn Annals" (the Chunqiu is in most cases combined with the so-called "Commentary" of Zuo Qiuming 左丘明, the Zuozhuan 左傳), and the Sishu 四書 "Four Books", including the teachings of the four philosophers Kongzi 孔子 (the Lunyu 論語 "Confucian Analects"), his disciple Zeng Shen 曾參 (505-436, the Daxue 大學 "Great Learning"), Kong Ji 孔伋 (483-402 BCE), a grandson of Confucius (the Zhongyong 中庸 "Doctrine of the Mean"), and the book Mengzi 孟子 that includes the teachings of the philosopher Meng Ke 孟軻 (385-304 or 372-289 BCE).

The Six Classics

Traditional texts speak of the "Six Classics" (liujing 六經 or liuyi 六藝) that consist of the Five Classics listed above and a classical book about music that has vanished. This book about music might now be part of the Liji as the chapter Yueji 樂記 "Records of Music". If it ever existed as a separate classic, it is not sure. Other interpretations say that the term Liujing has to be understood as the "Six Arts" (like the medieval artes liberales): the Shangshu representing royal speeches, the Chunqiu representing historiography, the Shijing representing poetry, the Yijing divination, the Liji (or Yili) representing rituals, and finally the Yueji as the ars musica.

The Nine Classics

Later scholars count nine Canonical Works (jiujing 九經) that add four books to the Five Classics, namely some writings on rites and etiquette: the Zhouli 周禮 "Rites of the Zhou" and the Yili 儀禮 "Etiquette and Rites", as well as two early Han-period commentaries on the "Spring and Autumn Annals", the Gongyangzhuan 公羊傳 commentary by Gongyang Gao 公羊高, and the Guliangzhuan 穀梁傳 commentary by Guliang Xi 穀梁喜.

The Thirteen Classics

During the reign of Emperor Taizong 唐太宗 (r. 626-649) of the Tang dynasty 唐 (618-907), the "lesser classics" were added and thus formed the corpus of the Thirteen Confucian Classics (shisanjing 十三經). The lesser classics are the Xiaojing 孝經 "Book on Filial Piety", the Lunyu, the Mengzi, the "Doctrine of the Mean", the "Great Learning", and the semantical glossary Erya 爾雅. Not counting the "Doctrine of the Mean" and the "Great Learning", because they are both part of the Liji, the canon of thirteen classics is full.

The first scholars to screen, collect and compile the classical books were Liu Xiang 劉向 (79-8 or 77-6 BCE) and his son Liu Xin 劉歆 (d. 23 CE) of the Han period. Liu Xin composed a catalogue of existing writings of the six literary categories, the Liuyilüe 六藝略. This catalogue lists many different versions of one single classic. It thus shows how complicated it was to determine the "orthodox" version of a text and to what quarrels this discourse eventually led. The books that were written on bamboo slips have been partially destroyed by war and other catastrophes. Until the end of the Han period, the orthodox version had won and was cut into slabs of stone in 175 CE (the so-called Xiping Stone Classics 熹平石經) under Emperor Ling 漢靈帝 (r. 167-188). A second cutting was carried out during the Three Empires period 三國 (220-280) on order of Emperor Cao Fang 曹芳 (r. 239-254) in 245 AD (the Zhengshi Stone Classics 正始石經). On the Zhengshi stone slabs, the text of the Classics was incised in three different styles of characters. The third stone cutting (Kaicheng Stone Classics 開成石經) was conducted in 836 CE under the supervision of Emperor Wenzong 唐文宗 (r. 826-840).

The Confucian Classics held a position among Chinese literature similar to the Holy Bible in the West. Scholars attempting to graduate in the state examinations had to learn, to explain and to exegete the most important ones of these books. For the Confucian society, these classical writings contained the basic knowledge for the state system as well as for the conduct at home.

The following table gives an overview of the Classics and some writings that belong to the same field of interest as the Classics but are not included in the canon (here called subclassics):

The New-Text and Old-Text Schools

The distinction between the so-called old-text and new-text versions of the Confucian Classics appeared at the end of the Former Han period 前漢 (206 BCE-8 CE). Until then, there was only one tradition that operated with a collection of Confucian Classics, which had been passed down primarily through oral transmission and was later documented in the second century BCE in the chancery script (lishu 隸書), common at that time. Only after the discovery of older texts written in the archaic seal script (zhuanshu 篆書) during the first century BCE did Confucian scholars start to differentiate between the "new texts" (jinwen 今文) used up to that point and the "old texts" (guwen 古文) that had recently been uncovered.

In the mid-Former Han period, when Confucianism was made the state doctrine and the government appointed experts or erudites (boshi 博士) for individual texts, a variety of alternative texts were available for most of the Confucian Classics.

The Shijing 詩經 "Book of Songs" was available in three different versions.

For the Qi and Han versions, erudites were appointed as soon as the reign of Emperor Wen 漢文帝 (r. 180-157 BCE), and an erudite for the Qi version only during the reign of Emperor Jing 漢景帝 (r. 157-141 BCE).

The Shangshu 尚書 "Book of Documents" was likewise transmitted in three versions.

All three versions were transmitted by Fu Sheng 伏勝. Erudites for the Ouyang version were first appointed under the reign of Emperor Wu 漢武帝 (r. 141-87 BCE), and such for the two versions of Xiahou Father and Son during the reign of Emperor Xuan 漢宣帝 (r. 74-49 BCE).

Of the ritual classics there were likewise three versions transmitted

All versions were handed down by Gaotang Sheng 高堂生. Emperor Wu appointed erudites for the ritual texts, and the discipline was divided into the field of Dai Senior and that of the Dai Junior rituals. Whether an erudite for the Qing Pu version was set up is not known.

The Yijing 易經 "Book of Changes" was transmitted in four different versions, all four handed down by Tian He 田何.

Emperor Wu admitted a general erudite for the Yijing, and Emperor Xuan had the discipline divided into three groups, but the studies on the Jing Fang version was probably only granted the position of one erudite during the reign of Emperor Yuan 漢元帝 (r. 49-33 BCE).

The Gongyangzhuan 公羊傳 commentary on the Chunqiu 春秋 "Spring and Autumn Annals" was transmitted by Yan Pengzu 嚴彭祖 and Yan Anle 顔安樂. They had been handed down by Master Humu 胡毋生 and Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒. Emperor Wu founded the position of one erudite, and Emperor Xuan created one position for each of the two versions. The Guliangzhuan 穀梁傳 commentary had been transmitted by Master Jiang from Xiaqiu 瑕丘江公, but it is not known whether the position of an erudite specialising in the text existed or not. It might also have been that the Guliangzhuan was an old-text classic.

The scholarly approach of the new-text school was to use the classics with a practical purpose in government and social behaviour. It was deeply influenced by correlative thinking which saw Yin and Yang 陰陽 and the Five Agents (wuxing 五行) acting in nature, society and government. Minuscule events and statements were interpreted as of enormous meaning and influence. Everything was seen as interconnected and centred on the ruler. Terms and names were seen as crucial points in the whole universal system. It was primarily the teachings of Dong Zhongshu that were held in high esteem. His book Chunqiu fanlu 春秋繁露 "Rich dew of Spring and Autumn" is therefore treated as a semi-classic.

The new-text philosophers saw Confucius as a politician who compiled or at least revised the texts of the Five Classics (wujing 五經) with the intention to use paradigms from history to enlighten the rulers and their ministers of the present. It was mainly the Chunqiu Annals and the commentaries Gongyangzhuan and Guliangzhuan of which each single word and sentence was interpreted as a political critique (baobian 褒貶 "praise and blame") of historical events. The mentioning of the personal name of a regional ruler, for instance, was an expression of his virtue, and the omission of a title of nobility was seen as a criticism. The interpreters of the new-text school saw a significant meaning in each single word (wei yan da yi 微言大義). When the power of the central government and that of the emperor declined in the later part of the Former Han dynasty, the new-text interpretations lost their attraction and the apocryphal interpretations (chenwei 讖緯) became popular.

It was only during the 18th century that Confucian scholars were interested again in the study of the new-text interpretations of the Confucian Classics. The most critical new-text researchers of the late Qing period 清 (1644-1911) were from the so-called Changzhou School 常州學派 under Zhuang Cunyu 莊存與 (1719-1788), Zhuang Shuzu 莊述祖 (1751-1816), Liu Fenglu 劉逢祿 (1776-1829) and Song Xiangfeng 宋翔鳳 (1779-1860). Other scholars doing research into the new-text tradition were Wei Yuan 魏源 (1794-1857), Gong Zizhen 龔自珍 (1792-1841), Liao Ping 廖平 (1852-1932), Pi Xirui 皮錫瑞 (1850-1908) and Kang Youwei 康有為 (1858-1927).

In the first third of the Former Han period, more and more versions of Confucian Classics were unearthed from various sources: From concealments in the walls of the Kong family manor (Kongbi 孔壁) that was demolished when Liu Yu 劉餘, Prince Gong of Lu 魯恭王, expanded his palace, from secret libraries, or from among the populace who submitted texts to Liu De 劉德, Prince Xian of Hejian 河間獻王. These were the "old texts", with the following versions:

The Yijing by Fei Zhi 費直, the "Old-Text Documents" (Guwen Shangshu 古文尚書), the "Songs" by Mao (Maoshi 毛詩), the so-called "lost rites" (Yili 逸禮) and the "Rites of the Zhou" (Zhouli), and the Zuozhuan 左傳 as a parallel version of the Chunqiu annals. While the new-text versions were more oriented to the present, the old-text versions were focused on a more interpretive or even philological approach, without the large theoretical framework that tried to bind together the new-text versions. For this reason, the Old-Text school School produced some philological work, like the Erya 爾雅 glossary and or the character dictionary Shuowen jiezi 說文解字.

The old-text interpreters saw the Duke of Zhou 周公 as the first Saint (xiansheng 先聖), and Confucius as the foremost teacher (xianshi 先師), according to his own words that he "only transmitted and did not compile new books" (shu er bu zuo 述而不作). The Confucian Classics were seen as historiographical material and not as advice for the reform of society or government. Old-text interpreters also refrained from seeking a more profound, metaphysical meaning behind each single word, as the new-text interpreters did. Likewise, old-text philosophers did not see a direct correlation between human, and especially the ruler's, behaviour and a Celestial response in the shape of positive or negative outcomes of conduct and personal decisions.

During the reign of Emperor Ai 漢哀帝 (r. 7 -1 BCE) the scholar Liu Xin 劉歆 (d. 23 CE) suggested appointing erudites for the old-text versions. He thus initiated a competitive atmosphere around the Confucian texts. Liu's argument against the prevailing new-text tradition was that their basis was incomplete, wrong, or defective, and advocated the use of the purportedly more reliable old-text versions. The academic dispute between the two schools was to last for the next two hundred years. During the usurpation of Wang Mang 王莽 (r. 8-22 CE), who preferred the old-text versions, erudites for the old texts were appointed on a permanent basis, including one for the lost (?) classic of music (Yuejing 樂經).

When Wang Mang was overthrown and the Han dynasty refounded Emperor Guangwu 漢光武帝 (r. 25-57 CE) reestablished the fourteen "erudite chair" of the New-Text School. But he also had, at least for a certain time, an erudite for the old-text Zuozhuan appointed. This was also done by Emperor Zhang 漢章帝 (r. 75-88), who founded erudite positions for the study of the Gongyangzhuan and Guliangzhuan, the Zuozhuan, Guwen Shangshu and the Maoshi. Famous old-text scholars were Yang Xiong 揚雄 (53 BCE-18 CE), Huan Tan 桓譚 (23 BCE-56 CE) and Wang Chong 王充 (27-97 CE), who initiated a philosophy of realism that did away with the theories of correlation and apocryphal interpretations of the Classics. Under the scholar Jia Kui 賈逵 (30-101 CE), the old-text school gained increasing influence and produced famous teachers such as Fu Qian 服虔, Ma Rong 馬融 (79-166 CE) and Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 (127-200). These were able to gradually merge the interpretations and focal points of the two schools with the result that at the end of the Later Han period the antagonism of the two schools had softened. Scholars of that time, like Zhou Fang 周防 (mid-1st cent.) or Lu Zhi 盧植 (d. 192 CE), were no longer clearly classifiable as belonging to one school or the other.

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries the philological interpretation (kaozhengxue 考證學) of the Confucian Classics according to the Old-Text School was revived by the so-called Qian-Jia school 乾嘉學派. Their discipline of studies of the old-text writings of the Han period is also called Hanxue 漢學. The most important scholars of the old-text traditions are Zhang Taiyan 章太炎 (1869-1936) and Liu Shipei 劉師培 (1884-1919).