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upright, all will go well even though he does not Confucius and his followers elevated the ruler by
issue orders. But if he himself is not upright, even placing him firmly at the top of a moral hierarchy
though he gives orders, they will not be obeyed"
(Analects, 13.6). "Were a true king to appear, within —in which all rulers and subjects, nobles and
a generation goodness would prevail" (Analects, —commoners, parents and children wholeheartedly
13.12). devote themselves to fulfilling the parts assigned to
them; in this ideal world superiors and inferiors
The true king would rule through ritual, but look after each other and everything gets done
Confucius did not conceive of him as a priest-king. without conflict or the use of force. This view of
Nor did Confucius ever imply that the gods or
ancestors would cause harm to those who failed to the ruler exalts him but also burdens him, for when
perform the sacrifices to them properly; he himself the world is not in perfect harmony the fault is
is said to have performed sacrifices "as though" the mostly his. Mencius (ca. 370—ca. 300 bce) once told
spirits were present. Later followers like Xunzi
(ca. 310-ca. 220 bce) explicitly denied any link a king that if a ruler were to appear who was not
between the performance of rites and the action of
spirits or gods. Xunzi argued that Heaven is inclined toward killing people, "The people would
impartial and human affairs result from human flow toward him the way water flows down. No
efforts. Praying to Heaven or to gods does not get one would be able to stop them" (1A.6). On
them to intervene.
another occasion he told a king that if he treated
Both Confucius' and Xunzi's love of ritual was his people well by reducing taxes and lightening
based at least in part on aesthetic attraction: they punishments, they would be so eager to fight for
responded to the beauty of well-choreographed him that even if armed only with sharpened sticks
ceremonies combining instrumental music, song, they could defeat the well-equipped soldiers of the
and dance. But their intellectual argument,
addressed to rulers, concerned the nearly magical powerful states of Qin and Chu, which had been
way in which ritual can create social and political encroaching on the king's territory.
harmony. Confucius told his disciple Yan Hui that
"the whole world would respond to the true As texts recording the teachings of Confucius and
his followers began to circulate in the late Zhou,
goodness of one who could for one day restrain they helped freeze the Confucian position and also
himself and return to ritual" (Analects, 12. 1). Ritual, Ainvited counter-arguments. few thinkers
to Confucius, was not restricted to dealings with
ancestors or deities: it was also an aspect of the way —generally ones labeled Daoist went further than
the ruler dealt with his subjects. "Lead the people
by means of government policies and regulate them the Confucians in urging rulers to do less. The
through punishments, and they will be evasive and Laozi said, "The sage manages affairs by doing
have no sense of shame. Lead them by means of
virtue and regulate them through rituals and they nothing and spreads the teachings that are not put
will have a sense of shame and moreover have
in words." The more a ruler does, the worse the
standards" (Analects, 2.3). result: the more laws and regulations, the more
thieves and robbers. The sage ruler "ensures that the
Xunzi went much further than Confucius in people know nothing and desire nothing." 4
emphasizing the connection between ritual and More common than calls for nonaction, however,
distinctions of rank. The funerals of rulers had to be
on a scale corresponding to their rank in every were calls for action. Mozi (ca. 490-ca. 403 bce)
—detail the numbers of inner and outer coffins, the proposed strengthening the ability of rulers to
quality and quantity of burial clothes and food command obedience. He argued that unless one
offerings, the length of the interval between death man was elevated above all others, there would be
and burial. In ancestral rites, the highest ruler,
presiding over the entire realm, had to offer no final authority and everyone would have Ins
numerous types of food and wine to seven
generations of ancestors, but a ruler of a single state own opinion, making any sort of cooperation or
should make fewer offerings to only five social organization impossible. The solution was for
generations, and so on. Rulers must perform these
rituals correctly, not because they need the aid or —everyone to agree with those above including the
fear the wrath of the dead, but in order to
demonstrate their filial gratitude and respect for ruler, who must conform to Heaven: "What the
tradition, and to show that they accept their place
superior thinks right, all shall think right."The text
in the political hierarchy. attributed to Guanzi (traditional dates 683-642 BCE)
agreed that the peace and stability of the state
depend on elevating the ruler. But Guanzi drew
attention to the need for coercion. What secured
the ruler's control was his power "to grant life, to
kill, to enrich, to impoverish, to ennoble, to debase"
Even if the ruler's personal conduct was not
superior, given these powers, all would accept his
leadership and "not dare to indulge 111 opinions
about the quality of his conduct."
Ihe leading Legalist thinkers would largely have
agreed with these sentiments. In the book ascribed
THE INTELLECTUAL AND RELIGIOUS CONTEXT OF CHINESE ART 39
