Confucianism is the name given to the teachings of Confucius, a 6th century B.C. scholar and petty official of the Chinese state of Lu, along with their further elaboration by his followers in subsequent centuries.
Hardly a religion in the commonly accepted sense of the term, Confucianism nevertheless exercised the most profound influence on the spiritual and intellectual tradition of the Chinese people, and on their social and political behavior.
For various reasons which we shall now look into, Confucianism exerted a particularly powerful influence on the Chinese historiographical tradition.
The prime importance attached to the study and writing of History in the Chinese tradition can to a great extent be attributed to certain key elements of Confucianism. These can be summed up as:
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i. Humanism
ii. Reverence for the past
iii. Emphasis on moral education
iv. Concern with order in all things
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Let us look a little more deeply at each of these:
History is above all the study of Man, of the affairs of human beings. In the Confucian world outlook, the central focus was not on God or some divine being, but on Man. How humans related to their fellow beings, how they ordered their affairs in this world, what values they inculcated in themselves and in others – this above all, was the main concern of Confucius and his philosophy. A deep interest in human affairs naturally provided a firm foundation for interest in History.
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Even before Confucius, the Chinese had a tradition of reverence for the past, as reflected in their practice of a form of ancestor worship from very early times. However, Confucius gave a philosophical underpinning to this tradition. Living in a time of growing political anarchy and flux, Confucius looked on the ancient past as a golden age of order and well- being. He was convinced that in the past could be found the models of moral, political and social behavior that would help to end degeneration and chaos and to regenerate society.
Emphasis on moral education:
According to Confucianism, the key thing that was needed to maintain harmony and well-being in the society as a whole was the existence of truly moral men. Although the dominant trend within Confucianism held that men were inherently good by nature, the real ‘men of virtue’ were expected to actively cultivate the right qualities in themselves through education. How to behave correctly under different circumstances, how to judge what was right or wrong, was to be learnt primarily through studying and drawing the proper lessons from the actions of men, past and present. Of the Five Classics regarded as essential for all educated men to master, it was no coincidence that two (the Classic of History and the spring and Autumn Annals) were essentially works of History.
Concern with order:
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The study of History is concerned not only in general with the affairs of Man, but specifically with finding some order and meaning in the way human society has developed over time. Those acquainted with the Chinese historiographical tradition are usually struck with its passion for order and classification, as well as its attempts to understand cause and effect and to identify recurring patterns over the course of human history. The Confucian concern with establishing and maintaining order in the present thus also influenced the way the past was conceived.