Correlative Cosmology and the Five Classics
By the Eastern Han Dynasty, a synthesis of Confucian, Taoist/Daoist, and yin/yang started to develop, and the Eastern Han Dynasty scholar Tung Chung-shu (Dong Zhongshu) had the emperor ratify the Five Confucian Classics: Book of Poetry, Book of Documents, Spring and Autumn Annals according to Mr. Tso (Zuo), Book of Zhou Rites, and Book of Changes, which was the beginning of the canonization of Confucian learning in China, based on a synthesis of Confucian and other schools of thought. Although in the readings for this session we skip chap.9 of Schwartz, I have made a summary of the chapter below because its content will help to better understand chap.10, The Five Classics.
1. Summary of Chap.9, "Correlative Cosmology: the School of Yin (feminine, water, shadowy, conspiratorial, negative as in electricity) and Yang (masculine, sunny, positive life force)."
Despite the development of the different schools of thought in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the Warring States period, by figures such as Confucius, Lao Zi, Mo Zi, Zhuang Zi, and Mencius, among others, a new school of synthesis, called the School of Yin and Yang, or the "Doctrine of the Interrelation of Heaven and Man," which Schwartz also calls "correlative cosmology," started to develop in the Warring States Period, based on ideas developed earlier. It is a form of correlative thinking, Schwartz argues, that links the Chinese to nature. Unlike divination, the yin-yang school was built on the correlation between physical elements and human historical cycles.
The dynamic cycle of the five elements: water, earth, wood, metal, and fire, each corresponds to cycles of human history. Each element wins an ascendancy over its predecessor, based on the observation of such ordinary natural phenomena as the quenching of fire by water and the melting of metal by fire. This is different from either the Confucians or followers of Mo Zi. The selection of these five elements may be because they are associated with agriculture. These five elements all possess their own qi/chi. Each dynasty or season would see the dominance of one of the five elements. The correlates in the realm of nature associated with each of the elements may include colors, seasons, or cardinal directions, and in the human realm such categories as ethical qualities, departments of government, the governing principles of a dynasty, and even various aspects of individual life.(362) Meanwhile, the yin and yang may alternately dominate in the cycles of the five elements. For instance, the excessive overdevelopment of culture under the Chou/Zhou Dynasty (yang), should lead to austere simplicity of culture in the later Han Dynasty (yin). (379) Rulers should act according to the dominant chi/qi represented by one of the five elements, e.g. in the Chin/Qin Dynasty, the first imperial dynasty of China, the dynasty was associated with yin, thus with the severity of winter and darkness, which called for laws rather than moral rule in government administration. This seems to contrast with Confucian and Mencian teachings that put goodness and rightness as ends in themselves. (363)
Correlative cosmology especially took hold during the "revolutionary" period between 3rd to 1st century B.C. It was also applied to calendars which described the proper ceremonial and practical orientation of the ruler to the tasks governing each month and season of the year. "Each month is related to astronomical conjunctures, to the elements, and the the correlates of taste and musical notes, as well as to certain temporary presiding deities, and so on. The ruler is admonished to see to it that the practical tasks of agriculture appropriate to the season are carried out." (367) It emphasized proper rituals.
The world of the five elements was concrete. Unlike the world, say, of Chuang-tzu (Zhuang Zi), for whom ordinary human experience is also in some sense a world of "appearance," and the real world, for Chuang-tzu (Zhuang Zi), was to be sought in the ineffable Way and not in the particles of the universe.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, this cosmology was synthesized with Confucian learning by the scholar Tung Chung-shu (Dong Zhongshu).
2. The Five Classics.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, five classical texts were labeled standard Confucian texts by the emperor. These five, Book of Poetry (or Songs), Book of Documents, Spring and Autumn Annals according to Mr. Tso (Zuo), Book of Zhou Rites, and Book of Changes, however, did not include Confucius's Analects, or the writings of Mencius. Although the first two books and the Book of Zhou Rites were sometimes attributed to Confucius as either the compiler or the editor, all five shared the characteristic of establishing external moral standards for people to emulate and learn from, rather than focusing on introspective moral cultivation, as Confucius and Mencius emphasized. Schwartz comments that this may be the result of the changing times and of the need to establish more explicit moral standards. Book of Poetry: supposedly popular folk songs collected by Confucius, which we encountered in de Bary, they reflected what Confucius called a simple, natural, and unaffected lifestyle of the people, which was to set not only an example of life styles for posterity but more importantly, a style of literary writing.
Book of Documents: a history book by today's standards that records the words and deeds of lofty public figures such as the ancient sage kings Yao, Shun, and Yu, and the good Zhou Dynasty kings, among others. Schwartz comments that their words were kind of transcendental revelations. (401) Like the Book of Poetry and all the rest of the classics, the purpose of this book is didactic--to teach the proper thoughts and action.
Book of Zhou Rites: consisting of Zhou Dynasty rites (li). The rites are not positive laws but rooted in the Confucian tao/dao. (401)
Spring and Autumn Annals according to Mr. Tso (Zuo): Spring and Autumn Annals was another history book, the official chronicle of the State of Lu (721-479 B.C.) , possibly written by Confucius, and had several annotated editions, one of which was by a man called Tso (Zuo). (384) Confucius's careful selection of facts to illustrate what he thought were or were not rightful conduct of the ministers, and the focus was the sinister consequences of the decay of legitimate authority, whether from below or by the authority holders themselves. (387) This book basically established the tradition of history in ancient China: that it was to serve as a moral mirror to teach posterity what to do and not to do, instead of just telling a story. Historical details that do not accord with the moral lesson will not be included, therefore.
Book of Changes: Some people even argue that Confucius compiled this book, although the content of this book was more ancient than Confucius, and was primarily concerned with signs of divination: made up of broken and unbroken lines, which then were combined into eight permutations of trigrams and 64 sets of hexagrams, each of which has its assigned names and meanings. (391) These trigrams and hexagrams could have originated from the cracks on tortoise shells and ox bones which had been thrown into the fire in divination. And they are ways to "read" meanings into these cracks.
Further, these trigrams and hexagrams were assigned yin and yang qualities, showing the influence of the school of Yin and Yang. (392) Schwartz comments that the "system offers the possibility of a kind of science of situations which enables the individual or group to adapt itself correctly to the demands of unfolding situations since the situations themselves belong to certain general classes of situations." (393)
These five classics, Schwartz concludes, use external examples (e.g. history) and external signs (e.g. trigrams and hexagrams) to indicate the correct moral path. As such, they spelled out an explicit moral standard that accorded with the general teachings or spirit of Confucius.
Eventually, however, this focus on external moral standards met a backlash in the 12th and 13th centuries in the Song Dynasty when Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi) established the "Four Books:" The Great Learning, the Golden Mean, the Analects, and the Mencius, as supplements to the five classics and that eventually overshadowed the classics. These four books focused more on the Confucian and Mencian emphasis on inner cultivation and were used to battle against the Buddhist influence in Chinese culture.