Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire

Song Dynasty Renaissance 960-1279

General Zhao Kuangyin was chosen commander of the imperial army by the last Zhou emperor in 959 after gold he had been accused of taking during a military campaign turned out to be trunks of books. The next year the army hailed him as the emperor of China, and as Song Taizu he founded the Song dynasty (960-1279). The ingenious Taizu (r. 960-76) managed to accomplish "disarmament over a wine-cup" by persuading his generals to retire with generous pensions and honors. He dismissed old commanders and relied on younger generals who followed his humane policies. He also strengthened the central government by transferring the best military units to the capital. Regional governments were put under civilian authority emphasizing the Confucian spirit of administration. Scholars became prominent advisors, and taxes were reduced as the emperor lived modestly. Having superior force, Taizu was able to use diplomacy and accommodating terms to bring back into the Chinese empire the southwest (965), the south (971), and the Yangzi basin (975). Thanks to the book-loving emperor, the imperial library founded in 978 had 80,000 volumes. Taizu made peace with the Liao in 974 and set up garrisons along the northern border.

Taizu was succeeded by his brother, who became known as Song Taizong (r. 976-97). He broke the peace by invading the Northern Han territory in 979 and besieging their capital at Taiyuan. After they surrendered in June, the Song army invaded the Liao. However, his exhausted troops were badly defeated by the Khitan cavalry, as Emperor Taizong fled in a mule cart. Some generals considered replacing him with Taizu's oldest son. When the Emperor heard of the idea, he forced him to commit suicide. Taizu's other son died of illness two years later. In 982 the brother of Taizong and Taizu was accused of treason, and he died in exile two years later. The Chinese bought 170,000 horses from the Khitan and consolidated a more compact empire. Annam (Vietnam) repelled a Song campaign in 981, and the Chinese armies were badly defeated again five years later by the Khitan Liao. After several battles ended in stalemate, Emperor Zhenzong (998-1022) in the 1005 treaty of Shanyuan agreed to pay the Liao an annual tribute of silver and silk if the Khitans would stay on the north side of the Great Wall. Better civil service examinations improved the quality of the Song bureaucracy, and paper money was introduced as promissory notes in 1024. As the Song army grew from 378,000 in 976 to 1,259,000 in 1041, military expenses took up four-fifths of government expenditures. Taizong and Zhenzong were Daoists and sponsored the building of Daoist temples.

Fan Zhongyan (989-1052) rose from a poor family by study and became prefect of the capital at Kaifeng. In 1043 he submitted a ten-point memorial. He proposed reforming the civil service by promoting the able, dismissing the incompetent, eliminating favoritism, and making exam questions more practical. Local government could be improved by increasing salaries, by making corvée labor requirements more equitable, and by investing in dykes, canals, land reclamation, and grain transportation. Localities could be better defended by creating militias, especially on the dangerous frontiers. His policies also brought about a new peace treaty with the Liao in 1042 and one with the Xi Xia empire in 1044. Fan's reforms established inalienable lands called estates of equity to provide income for educational and other needs of clan members, thus enabling a charitable estate to hold property jointly for the benefit of all its members. Fan Zhongyan said, "An educated person should suffer before anyone else suffers and should enjoy only after everyone else has enjoyed."3 He recommended The Center of Harmony (Zhong Yong) as a Confucian classic and helped catalog the library along with historian Ouyang Xiu, who suggested adding as a classic Higher Education (Da Xue). Ouyang defended Fan from his critics by arguing that a political faction could be good. This idea was denounced by conservative Confucians, who prevented political parties from developing in China. Ouyang was put in charge of compiling the New Tang History, which was completed in 1060. He lamented the split between politics and culture since the era of pure conversation; he believed that politics without culture lacks soul and is corrupted, while culture without politics loses touch with reality and is superficial.

In 1047 army officer Wangzi led a revolt of Buddhists expecting Maitreya; they took over the city of Beizhou in Hebei before they were crushed. Buddhism was becoming corrupted by selling certification of monks as an alternative to passing an examination on the scriptures. In 1067 the Song government made the sale of such certificates official policy. Powerful families appropriated temples as merit cloisters, but in 1109 a decree stopped this for officially recognized temples, and four years later the merit cloisters lost their tax exemptions. The prestigious title Master of the Purple Robe was also sold, and by 1129 it was estimated that annual sales of such Buddhist titles were up to about five thousand.

The booming money economy is indicated by the statistic that the Song government in 1065 was taking in twenty times as much cash annually as it did at the height of Tang power in 749. Rice yields were doubled in the 11th century when a new strain from Champa (Vietnam) produced two or three crops per year. Tea cultivation grew, and in the 12th century cotton began supplementing hemp and silk for clothing. Technical advances were made in the traditional industries of silk, lacquer, and porcelain as trade increased. In 1078 Song China produced 114,000 tons of cast iron. (England produced 68,000 in 1788.) As urban population and the number of wealthy people increased, importation of luxuries such as incense, gems, ivory, coral, rhinoceros horns, ebony, and sandalwood caused a deficit paid in precious metals. Business calculations were facilitated by using the abacus.

The Chinese also invented gunpowder and used it militarily as early as 904. They began experimenting with explosive devices, and primitive mortars date from 1132. Chinese shipping in well designed junks using the compass pioneered sailing and water-tight compartments, and a navy was developed. The status of women declined as men took additional wives or concubines, and the atrocity of foot-binding began crippling girls for life. Prostitution was common in urban areas; those with musical training were called "sing-song girls," others simply "flowers." The city of Hangzhou tried to prohibit male prostitution with a decree in 1111, but apparently the effort only lasted six years.

The Chinese had been printing with blocks on paper for centuries when they began using moveable type made of wood, porcelain, and copper about 1030. In the middle of the 10th century the nine classics were printed at Kaifeng and in Sichuan, where at Chengdu the entire Buddhist canon was engraved on 130,000 two-page blocks and printed between 972 and 983. Sima Guang (1018-86) wrote an immense chronicle of China's history from 403 BC to 959 CE called The Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, which Yuan Shu (1131-1205) revised into a smoother narrative and to which Zhu Xi (1130-1200) made moral judgments as to which governments' claims to the mandate of heaven were legitimate.

Reform began when Emperor Shenzong (r.1068-85) appointed poet Wang Anshi (1021-86) prime minister. Wang's new laws and regulations brought drastic changes. Farmers suffering outrageous usury received "green shoots loans" from the government at 20% interest at the time of planting that was paid back after the harvest. Traders were given loans at state pawnshops. The money economy was stimulated by increasing the supply of currency, and prices were stabilized by government agencies buying and selling commercial products at a profit. Land tax was cut in half and was progressively based on its size and productivity. The hated compulsory labor demanded from peasants was converted into a reasonable tax. Large government projects reclaimed wasteland and improved irrigation and flood control, and other such projects were encouraged with government loans. The government hired workers to reduce unemployment. Subsidizing a horse on each farm was intended to improve the army, which lacked a cavalry to match the northerners. Villages were made responsible for organizing militias, as the regular army was reduced. Wang Anshi instituted the famous baojia system that organized households into tens(bao) and hundreds (jia) so that they could maintain order and report crimes with collective responsibility.

Wang Anshi also established an imperial public school system and specialized training in practical professions such as the military, law, and medicine as well as in the Confucian classics. During the Song dynasty education spread to more people as scholars became teachers in even the smallest villages. Merit promotion and better pay attempted to improve bureaucratic performance. The state began to take on social welfare functions previously provided by Buddhist monasteries, instituting public orphanages, hospitals, dispensaries, hospices, cemeteries, and reserve granaries. Buddhism gave women a professional role as nuns, although their rules treated the nuns as inferior to the monks. Family clans also took care of their own with the estates of equity, and improved literacy helped them follow Confucian traditions. The radical reforms naturally met with resistance from powerful landowners, merchants, and moneylenders whose opportunities for exploitation were diminished, the most opposition coming from the conservative north. Disruptions in implementation brought criticism from orthodox bureaucrats and others objecting to government regulation from the top. Factionalism sabotaged the administration of the programs. In 1074 a famine was made worse because farmers were forced to borrow money they could not pay back. After the drought Wang Anshi was dismissed in 1076. He was recalled four years later; but he was forced out again when his policies were reversed in 1085.

Perhaps the best example of a Song renaissance man is Su Shi (Su Dongpo 1037-1101). Lin Yutang in his biography, The Gay Genius, described Su Shi as among other things a humanitarian, painter, calligrapher, wine-maker, engineer, imperial secretary, judge, political dissenter, and poet. In 1070 and the next year Su Shi wrote two long letters to the Emperor. He criticized Wang Anshi for claiming to make government loans to farmers without interest while collecting twenty percent. He asked the Emperor not to use force, which since history began has never been able to suppress the people. Banning officials causes more protest, and he asked how extreme punishments can prevent rebellion. He complained that Wang Anshi arbitrarily fired censors who criticized his policies and replaced them with two disreputable characters. The ruler's power depends on the support of the people in their hearts. When freedom of speech is destroyed, the best people are silenced. Censors need to be given freedom and responsibility. Su Shi's protesting the bringing back of mutilation as a punishment may have prevented that. In his official position Su Shi announced the subject for local examinations in 1071 as "On Dictatorship," angering Wang Anshi.

Su Shi escaped punishment this time, but eight years later he was charged by censors with slandering the government with his poetry. He was arrested and tried at court, and they argued over the interpretation of his poems; but the emperor only sent him into exile in Huangzhou with a low rank. Su Shi urged the building of dams, instituted prison physicians, forgave debts, and worked on famine relief, collecting and feeding famine orphans. He was the first we know of who protested the custom of drowning girl babies at birth. He organized a charitable foundation that collected money to give to parents who would promise to keep their children. In 1083 he wrote a letter to the chief magistrate of Uozhou, where poor farmers tended to raise only two sons and one daughter, drowning additional babies; the result was more males and many bachelors in that region. He observed that because of parental love if the babies were saved for a few days, the parents would even refuse to give them away for adoption. He urged the official to enforce the law that imposed two years' hard labor on anyone who killed a descendant, hoping that this would be a warning and stop the horrible custom.

Wang Anshi died within a year of Emperor Shenzong, and the Empress Dowager, acting as regent for the young successor Zhezong (r. 1086-1100), rescinded most of the reforms. When she died in 1093, Zhezong tried to reinstate the reforms; but once again tax evasion by powerful landowners put the burden on the poor. Complaints by Su Shi caused him to be demoted and exiled again along with more than thirty high officials. As factionalism from nepotism caused corruption and cheating on examinations, artistic Emperor Huizong (r. 1100-25) spent money on more schools, irrigation, land reclamation, Daoist temples, the arts, and a lavish palace garden while confiscating art objects throughout the empire. Such demands for "rare flowers and stones" in 1120 caused Fang La to lead a revolt with hundreds of thousands of followers that captured Hangzhou; but two years later the rebellion was crushed by imperial forces relying on foreign troops, as two million people were killed. Prime minister Cai Jing and the eunuch military commissioner, Tong Guan, kept Emperor Huizong ignorant of uprisings as long as they could. Song Jiang led a small band of rebels that held out at Liang-shan in Shandong for two years and later became the basis for the popular novel, Outlaws of the Marsh.

In 1120 Tong Guan secretly negotiated with envoys of the Jurchens in order to destroy the Liao. Unable to capture the Liao's southern capital, the Song asked the Jurchen for help, allowing them south of the Great Wall. With victory over the Liao achieved, the Song wanted their old provinces back; but the Jurchen, calling themselves Jin, were unhappy with the broken treaty of 1123, though they inaugurated the examination system that year. The next year the Xi Xia agreed to be the vassal of the Jin, who also captured the last Liao emperor Tianzo in 1125, reducing him to a prince. Then the Jin besieged Kaifeng, and Song Huizong abdicated to his son, who became Qinzong. In 1126 Tong Guan was executed, and Cai Jing was banished and assassinated. Qinzong sued for peace, but he and the capital were captured by the Jurchen army in 1127.

Qinzong's brother Gaozong (r. 1127-62) became the first emperor of the southern Song dynasty south of the Huai River. He had criticized the use of eunuchs in court positions. When he did not immediately eliminate the influence of eunuchs in his court, in February 1129 a cabal forced him to abdicate to his infant son. Dozens of rival courtiers and eunuchs were executed, but in April military leaders from around the country came and restored Gaozong, ousting the conspirators. On the 26th of January 1130 Gaozong escaped from the Jurchen army by boarding a ship. On the same day Prince Zongbi and the Jurchens captured Hangzhou. The Song emperor returned to the mainland in June but stayed at Shaoxing until 1133. The next year General Yue Fei led a daring attack against the puppet regime of Qi that had occupied territory north of the Yangzi. A peasant uprising led by Yang Yao killed and plundered while trying to implement the revolution advocated by Zhong Xiang, who wanted to pass a law making the rich and poor equal. The rebellion was suppressed by Yue Fei's army by 1135, and he incorporated 50,000 of the rebels into his "Yue family army." That year Gaozong established a court at Hangzhou, which he renamed Linan, meaning temporary safety.

While Emperor Gaozong was negotiating a peace treaty with the Jin empire in 1140, Yue came to Hangzhou to protest. In 1142 Gaozong agreed to be a vassal of the Jin and pay an annual tribute of 300,000 taels of silver and an equal number of bolts of silk. Two generals accepted retirement on pensions, but Yu Fei was arrested for insubordination and was poisoned by Chief Councilor Qin Gui. Many considered Yu Fei a patriotic hero, and his grandson Yue Ke labored to give him an honored place in history. Putting back into cultivation the rice fields south of the Huai River ruined in the war profited the wealthy who had the capital to invest. Qin Gui (1090-1155) replenished the imperial treasury by increasing taxes; but as the Jin broke the treaty, continual wars pushed up prices and taxes. During the failed Jin invasion of 1161, Xin Qiji (1140-1207) defected to the Song with a thousand troops. He stayed in southern China and became an outstanding poet. In 1162 Gaozong abdicated so that his stepson could become Emperor Xiaozong, but he remained as his advisor at court until he died in 1187.

In 1164 internal strife in the Jin government enabled the Song to gain equal status and reduce the tribute. Xiaozong was grieved by his father's death and abdicated in 1189; he died five years later. His son Guangzong (r. 1190-94) was so mentally disturbed that he did not even give his father a funeral. He was forced to abdicate in favor of his grandson Ningzong (r. 1195-1224). Zhao Ruyu gained influence and appointed the Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi to a high position, but Han Tuozhou, who was criticized for making nepotistic appointments, replaced Zhao as chief councilor in 1195 and accused Zhu Xi of "false learning." Han banned Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucian doctrines and compelled examination candidates to renounce that school. Zhu Xi was driven from the court in 1196 and died in 1200, but he was restored to his official rank and awarded honors in 1202. As the scholars became martyrs, Han rescinded his order. He tried to win bureaucratic support by going to war against the Jurchens' Jin empire in 1206 even though deputy war minister Yeshi refused to draft the declaration. The Song army of 160,000 men met 135,000 Jin forces along the Huai River. In heavy rain most of the Song soldiers deserted. Though weakened by Mongol attacks and flooding as the Yellow River changed its course, the Jurchens defeated the Song army, discrediting the ungentle approach of Han Tuozhou. In Sichuan governor-general Wuxi defected with his 70,000 soldiers, but some loyal officers murdered him in 1207. The next year the Song agreed to a treaty with the Jin but had to pay more tribute and send them the head of Han Tuozhou in a box. Chief Councilor Shi Miyuan (1164-1233) had Han secretly assassinated in order to comply.

Shi Miyuan developed more subtle methods and appointed some followers of Zhu Xi. He succeeded in choosing as the next emperor the younger heir Lizong (r. 1225-64), who indulged in pleasures concealed from the public, as did his successor Duzong (r. 1265-74). Jia Sidao (1213-75) became chief councilor in 1259 and was criticized by Confucian historians. He dismissed incompetent ministers, bureaucrats, and army officers, making generals accountable for misappropriating funds. In 1263 the government began buying for a low price one-third of the largest estates, using the money for the army in the crisis and to institute a system of public fields for landless farmers. Threatened by Mongols who honored Confucius and in 1237 reinstituted civil service exams in north China, the southern Song dynasty made Zhu Xi's writings the orthodox doctrine of the state. Even though he attempted to defend the middle kingdom from the Mongol invasion, Jia Sidao was blamed for the defeats even by those who had defected to the enemy. He was banished in 1274 and was murdered by a local official.

The gentle and scholarly Song dynasty had lasted more than three centuries, but a bloated bureaucracy supported by high taxes gradually caused decline. Misconduct, corruption, and tax evasion put too much of the burden on the poor, though this had been alleviated for a long time by the prosperous urban areas. Few rebellions occurred in this peaceful state, as the military life was devalued and left to the "worthless," a point made indelible by branding the face of Song soldiers. Such an army was no match for the Mongols, who recruited many Chinese. The capital at Linan fell in 1276, and the three young children of Duzong were named as emperors in the last three years of the Song dynasty, which ended when the Mongols destroyed their naval fleet off Guangzhou (Canton) in 1279.

Neo-Confucian Ethics

Influenced by Daoism, Zhou Dunyi (1017-73) commented on the Yi Jing (Book of Changes) and explained the cosmic diagram of the great ultimate in a new way according to Confucian philosophy that emphasizes ethics. Superior people cultivate moral qualities and enjoy good fortune, while the inferior violate them and suffer. Following The Center of Harmony (Zhong Yong), Zhou Dunyi believed the foundation of a sage comes from cheng, which means sincerity, honesty, integrity, and authenticity. From this integrity he derived the five traditional Confucian virtues of humanity, justice, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness. Humanity is loving; justice is doing what is right; propriety is putting things in order; wisdom is penetrating; and faithfulness is abiding by one's commitments. Zhou Dunyi explained that in human nature are strength and weakness, good and evil, and the mean (center).

Justice, uprightness, decisiveness, strictness, and firmness of action
are examples of strength that is good,
and fierceness, narrow-mindedness, and violence
are examples of strength that is evil.
Kindness, mildness, and humility are examples of weakness that is good,
and softness, indecision, and perverseness
are examples of weakness that is evil.
Only the mean brings harmony.
The mean is the principle of regularity,
the universally recognized law of morality,
and is that to which the sage is devoted.
Therefore the sage institutes education so as to enable
people to transform their evil by themselves,
to arrive at the mean and to rest there.
Therefore those who are the first to be enlightened should instruct those
who are slower in attaining enlightenment,
and the ignorant should seek help from those who understand.
Thus the way of teachers is established.
As the way of teachers is established, there will be many good people.
With many good people, the government will be correct
and the empire will be in order.4

Thus when a sage governs the empire, everything is cultivated by humanity, and all people are set right with justice. Governing an extensive empire with millions of people begins with purifying the heart. The pure in heart do not violate humanity, justice, propriety, and wisdom. The virtuous and talented will be attracted to the pure, and with their help the empire can be well governed. Zhou Dunyi also recommended appropriate ceremonies and music for harmony.

To be impartial toward others one must first be impartial toward oneself. The most valuable things in the world are moral principles and virtue, but these cannot be attained without the help of teachers and friends. At birth humans are ignorant, and they remain stupid if they have no teachers or friends to help them. Zhou Dunyi complained that people have faults, but they do not like others to correct them. He thought it lamentable that, like one hiding illness and avoiding a physician, people would rather destroy their lives than awake. Better people consider moral principles honor and peace in themselves wealth. Integrity leads to action, change, and transformation, and the way of the sage is absolutely impartial. Having no desires in peace leads to emptiness and enlightenment, while in movement it leads to straightforwardness, impartiality, and universality.

Zhang Zai (1020-77) returned to Confucian classics after years of studying Daoism and Buddhism. His teachings were encapsulated in "The Western Inscription" on the wall of his lecture hall. He began this by declaring heaven his father and earth his mother, as he regarded the universe as his body and what directs it as his nature with all people his brothers and sisters and all things his companions. He recommended treating elders with deep respect and showing deep love toward the young, orphans, and the weak. The sage identifies with heaven and earth, and to disobey violates virtue. Those who destroy humanity are robbers. One knowing the principles of transformation, putting moral nature into practice, and penetrating spirit skillfully carries forward its will. Do nothing shameful to dishonor your family. While believing that wealth, honor, blessing, and benefits enriched his life, Zhang Zai found that poverty, humble action, and sorrow helped him to fulfillment. In life he served and followed, and in death he expected to be at peace.

Zhang Zai's major work is called Correcting Youthful Ignorance (Zheng-meng). He too emphasized integrity. One's nature is the source of all things but not one's private possession. The great know and practice it, sharing knowledge with all and loving universally. Such a one achieving something wants others to achieve too. Those fully developing their nature may realize they possess nothing in life and lose nothing at death. "Those who understand the higher things return to the principle of heaven (nature), while those who understand lower things follow human desires."5 The sage differentiates what is one's concern and does not worry about the natural operation of destiny (mandate of heaven). Yet by assisting heaven productions may be brought to perfection. Those who understand virtue will have sufficient physical things and will not allow sensual desires to burden their mind, the small to injure the great, or the secondary to destroy the fundamental. One's true nature is never insincere or disrespectful, and so he concluded that those who act in these ways do not know their nature. Sincere people obey principle and find advantages, whereas the insincere disobey principle and meet harm. The wise regard everything in the world as their own self, for nothing is outside of vast heaven. Thus the mind that leaves something out cannot unite itself with the mind of heaven.

The brothers Cheng Hao (1032-85) and Cheng Yi (1033-1107) both studied with Zhou Dunyi and became important Neo-Confucian philosophers. Cheng Hao gained prominence helping to avert a famine by saving the dikes, and for three years he was a popular magistrate; but he opposed the reforms of Wang Anshi, was demoted, and later dismissed. More idealistic than his brother, Cheng Hao based the other four virtues on humanity, which he believed is preserved by integrity and seriousness (jing). The feelings of sages are in accord with all creation, and they have no feelings of their own. Thus the better person is trained by becoming broad and impartial in order to respond spontaneously to whatever comes. Most people's nature is obscured in some aspect so they cannot follow the Way, usually because of selfishness. The selfish cannot take purposive action in response to things. Anger is a difficult emotion to control; but if one can forget anger and look at the right and wrong of the matter according to principle, one will see that the external temptation need not be hated. Original nature is like clear water; but humans must make vigorous efforts at purification, because evil often clouds the water.

Cheng Hao believed that investigating principle, developing one's nature, and fulfilling destiny can be accomplished simultaneously. The student does not need to look far away but to search seriously within oneself to understand the principle of humanity. Selfishness causes people to belittle others; but if they could view all people in the same way, what joy there would be! Cheng Hao admired Zhou Dunyi for not cutting the grass outside his window, because he felt toward the grass as he felt toward himself. Cheng Hao summarized humanity as implying impartiality, justice as a standard for weighing what is proper, propriety as distinguishing differences, wisdom as knowing, and faithfulness as confidence. Both brothers agreed that seriousness is straightening one's internal life, while justice is squaring one's external life. For Hao every human mind possesses knowledge; but when it is obscured by human desires, the principle of heaven is forgotten. Along with humanity he valued altruism, which puts oneself in the position of others. He criticized the Buddhists for being devoted to their own selfishness.

Cheng Yi briefly served as director of education in the western capital in 1087, but censors criticized him so much he soon resigned. He was banished ten years later, and in 1103 his teachings were prohibited; three years later he was pardoned, but the ban lasted for a half century. Cheng Yi emphasized the extension of knowledge as the key to self-cultivation. He warned against the reckless feelings of pleasure, anger, sorrow, joy, love, hate, and desire which must be controlled according to the center, as one rectifies one's mind and nourishes nature. The virtues must be practiced with such determination that they will never leave one's heart even in moments of haste so that one will act according to them in difficult times. Like Socrates, Cheng Yi believed that those claiming to know evil and still doing it do not have true knowledge.

When knowledge is profound, action will be thorough.
No one ever knows without being able to act.
If one knows without being able to act, the knowledge is superficial.6

Desires lead people away from the principle of heaven (nature); without desires there will be no delusion. Love is the function of humanity, and it is applied in altruism. Being serious is to be unselfish; but lacking it allows thousands of desires to arise and injure one's humanity. Understanding principle enables one to know the mandate of heaven, which can only be changed by a virtuous person.

Cheng Yi recommended several ways one may investigate moral principles such as reading books, discussing people and events of the past and present, and handling affairs so as to settle them correctly. Knowledge about moral nature does not come from seeing or hearing; first a student must learn to doubt. Humanity is universal impartiality and the foundation of goodness. Principle is one and is inherent in all things, but things are managed by moral principles.

In the 12th century the more idealistic school of Neo-Confucianism was best represented by Lu Xiangshan (1139-93) who debated Zhu Xi. In a lecture comparing justice to profit Lu Xiangshan moved his audience to tears. He castigated Buddhists for withdrawing from the world out of desire for profit and selfishness, while he believed Confucians were public-spirited in working to put the world in order. He found moral principles inherent in the human mind and believed they could not be wiped out; but they are clouded by material desires which pervert principles, because people do not think. Self-examination and intelligent thought can awaken the sense of right and wrong. In addition to self-examination he emphasized genuine and personal concern, correcting one's mistakes, and reforming to do good. He noted that the universe never separates itself from humans; but humans separate themselves from the universe.

Zhu Xi (1130-1200) as a young man left the capital because he opposed the humiliating peace terms with the northern invaders. Declining official positions, he devoted himself to study until 1179 when he was appointed a prefect. However, he was demoted three years later for criticizing the incompetence of various officials. Later he served for a time as a prefect in his native Fujian. Zhu Xi was responsible for editing and grouping the four books of the Analects of Confucius, Mencius, The Center of Harmony , and Higher Education. With his and Cheng Yi's commentaries on them and the five older classics they became the basis for civil service examinations in 1313 until the exams were abolished in 1905. His extensive writings were collected in 36 volumes. In 1195 Neo-Confucian teachings were proscribed, and a censor accused Zhu Xi of ten crimes, mostly for "false learning." When he died, several thousand people attended his funeral, and he was honored posthumously with the title for culture.

Zhu Xi defined humanity as the character of the human mind and the principle of love. This virtue he believed embraced justice, propriety, and wisdom. He posited an invariably good principle before physical form existed; but after physical form exists, good and evil become mixed and confused. Deviating from the center results in evil. He defined seriousness (reverence) as the mind being its own master, enabling it to be tranquil and understand the principle of heaven (nature). If selfish human desires win though, this principle is destroyed. If one can forget anger and examine right and wrong according to principle, desires will be unable to persist. Zhu Xi valued both knowledge and action, considering knowledge prior but action more important. Moral principles are inexhaustible; the more we go into them, the more we discover. Principle can be investigated by reading books and handling affairs.

For Zhu Xi the virtues of humanity, justice, propriety, and wisdom enable people to have the feelings of empathy, shame, deference and compliance, and right and wrong. He distinguished the relative good and evil of the world from the transcendent and absolute quality of the original nature. The Way is everywhere, but it is found by returning to the self and is discovered within one's true nature and function. Because we possess the cardinal virtues, we know that others do too. The mind by using its inherent moral principle is master of the body. By eliminating the obstructions of selfish desires, the mind will be pure and clear and able to know all. Then the principle of heaven (nature) freely operates as humanity. Its principles are love and impartiality. Zhu Xi defined the great ultimate as the principle of the highest good that is in everyone and expresses all the virtues. Cheng Hao said that the wise have no mind of their own, because the mind of heaven and earth is in all things; they have no feelings of their own, because their feelings are in accord with all creation. Zhu Xi noted that when a person receives this mind of heaven and earth, then it becomes the human mind.

Zhu Xi wrote the manual Family Rituals that influenced social customs such as initiation into adulthood, weddings, funerals, and other ceremonies. He has been criticized for restricting the roles of women and the young. Zhu Xi emphasized the importance of correct human relationships, and he believed that learning is the main goal in human life.

Zhu Xi put together an anthology of Neo-Confucian teachings called Reflections on Things at Hand, in which he commented on the writings of Zhou Dunyi, the Cheng brothers, and Zhang Zai. Cheng Yi wrote that only the humane person can be free from aggressiveness, pride, resentment, and greed, although others with these defects may be able to suppress them and not practice them, a difficult task. Zhu Xi gave the following analogy:

To master oneself is like capturing a thief in the house.
If one kills the thief, there will be no more trouble.
But if one has aggressiveness, pride, resentment, and greed
and merely suppresses them so that they cannot be expressed,
it is like locking up the thief in the house
so that he cannot go out to commit any crime.
After all, he is still hidden there.7

Cheng Hao noted that controlling anger and fear are difficult. Anger can be controlled by mastering oneself, and fear can be controlled by understanding principle. Cheng Yi wrote that one should criticize one's own mistakes but should not retain the sense of guilt in the mind forever.

Cheng Yi has been criticized by many scholars for taking a hard line on widows remarrying, which he considered a lack of integrity. Even when asked if they could remarry when they are all alone and poor with no one they can depend on, he wrote that they should starve to death, which he considered a small matter compared to losing one's integrity. This harsh statement reflects the Neo-Confucians' intolerance regarding women. In governing, Cheng Yi suggested first priority should be given to making up the mind (decisiveness), delegating responsibility, and finding virtuous men to take responsibility. In being decisive he warned against following too rigidly the advice of those nearby or being fooled by public opinion; rather one should take responsibility oneself, rely on the teachings of the wise, and consider the practical measures of the ancient kings. Sincerely treating others is practicing the golden rule of doing to them what one would want others to do to oneself. The ruler should extend humanity so that the people of the empire are benefited by his kindness. But to show off small kindness while violating principles in order to solicit praise, hoping to gain associates, is a narrow way that may not succeed.

Cheng Yi warned against individuals manipulating for themselves. The world was united in one mind when farmers, artisans, and merchants were diligent and lived simply; but lately people turn their minds to glory, and millions compete for wealth and extravagance. How can the world fail to become chaotic when there is such confusion? Cheng Yi recommended education as a way to stop robbery. People with desires will be moved to act. For the uneducated driven by hunger and cold even harsh punishments applied daily will not overcome the desires of millions of people for gain. When people are well educated to practice their occupations and understand the principles of integrity and shame, they will not steal even if they are rewarded for it.

Zhang Zai pointed out that the wise employed military strategy and army regulations with great reluctance. He recommended bringing back the punishment of mutilation as a substitute for the death penalty in some cases. The Neo-Confucians did not always emphasize the control of feelings. Cheng Hao wrote that the way to govern the people is to enable them to express their feelings, and the way to manage officials is to make oneself correct so as to influence people. Having synthesized some of the mystical elements from Daoism and Buddhism with the educational and humane ethics of the Confucians, this Neo-Confucian philosophy, after a short period of being eclipsed by the Mongols' affinity with Buddhism, would dominate Chinese culture until the 20th century.

Literature of Medieval China

The value the Chinese placed on literature is well expressed by Lu Ji (261-303) in his "Poetic Exposition on Literature" (Wen fu).

The functioning of literature lies in its being
The means for all principles of nature.
It spreads thousands of miles and nothing can bar it;
It passes millions of years, is a ford across.
Ahead it grants models to ages coming,
Retrospectively contemplates images of old.
It succors the old kings' Way, on the verge of collapse;
It makes reputation known, does not let it be lost.
No path lies so far it cannot be included;
No principle so subtle it cannot be woven in.
Peer of clouds and rain with its nurturing moisture,
Divinity's semblance in its transformations.
When it covers metal and stone, virtue is spread;
Through strings and flutes flowing, it is daily made new.9

Poetry was so popular in Tang China that candidates for the civil service had to submit poems they wrote. In 1707 a complete collection of Tang dynasty poetry published 48,900 poems. For the most part Chinese poetry expresses an esthetic appreciation of nature and life that is often a retreat from social and ethical issues. Wang Bo (648-76) was dismissed from the Historical Department for satirizing the imperial princes' indulgence in cock-fighting. The Buddhist Wang Wei (c. 699-761) believed he brought forward his ability as a painter from a previous life, but in this age he turned out to be a writer. Wang Wei's poems describe a simple life in nature, as this one called "Villa on Zhongnan Mountain."

In my middle years I came to much love the Way
and late made my home by South Mountain's edge.
When the mood comes upon me, I go off alone,
and have glorious moments all to myself.
I walk to the point where a stream ends,
and sitting, watch when the clouds rise.
By chance I meet old men in the woods;
we laugh and chat, no fixed time to turn home.10

The most acclaimed of Chinese poets are the wine-loving Li Bo (701-62) and his friend Du Fu (712-70). Li Bo failed his examination but told how he was called to court to translate a Korean letter, claiming the terrifying reply he wrote caused them to continue their tribute. Both poets barely eked out a living with their voluminous poetry. Li Bo referred to his reclusive life in "Dialogue in the Mountains."

You ask me why it is|
I lodge in sapphire hills;
I laugh and do not answer -
the heart is at peace.
Peach blossoms and flowing water
go off, fading away afar,
and there is another world
that is not of mortal men.11

Li Bo was said to have drowned while drunkenly embracing the reflection of the moon in water.

Du Fu's poetry lamented that young men are drafted into war and are slain like dogs; yet he was saved from poverty when a general made him his secretary. In "Out to the Frontier" he described the experience of a soldier as cheerless. Officers have strict schedules, and deserters are enmeshed in trouble. The soldier asks what anguish or rage can remain when a true man swears to serve the realm. While famous deeds are depicted in the royal gallery, bones turn to dust on the battlefield. A long march brought him to the Grand Army; when he saw Turkish riders, he realized he had become a slave. The soldier gives this advice:

To shoot a man, first shoot the horse,
to capture the foe, first capture their chief.
Yet there are limits to killing men,
and a realm is secured by natural bounds.
If only we can check their raids -
it is not how many we wound and kill.12

He wonders when they will return from building the Wall. In battle this soldier hides as one of the company, doing small deeds and ashamed to speak like others. Yet he asks if a true man is concerned with all the world, how can he refuse to hold fast in hardship. In old age Du Fu gave up wine as a Buddhist for many years but then died the day after a drunken feast. His 8th-century contemporary Li Hua wrote a lamentation at an ancient battlefield, suggesting that because the peaceful influence of culture has failed to spread, military officials have applied their own irregular solutions opposed to fellow feeling and right. Yet Li Hua concluded that imperial virtue must be spread to the barbarians.

Meng Jiao (751-814) wrote a brief poem warning against both violence and sex.

Keep away from sharp swords,
Don't go near a lovely woman.
A sharp sword too close will wound your hand,
Woman's beauty too close will wound your life.
The danger of the road is not in the distance,
Ten yards is far enough to break a wheel.
The peril of love is not in loving too often,
A single evening can leave its wound in the soul.13

Li Ho (791-817) suggested that if it had passions, even heaven would grow old. Wang Jian (756-835), noting that in the past soldiers got one year's leave out of three, complained that in the current war they have to fight until they are dead. The poet Lu Dong was executed in 835 for being involved in the Ganlu rebellion.

Bo Juyi (772-846) managed to balance writing many volumes of poetry with occasional government service. While a scholar at the Hanlin Academy he wrote to his friend Li Jian how wonderful it was they talked the other day and never spoke of profit or fame. Bo Juyi criticized war with his poem about an old man with a broken arm who as a young soldier smashed his arm with a huge stone so that he could not handle a bow. He compared his joy of being alive with those who were dead. Even while at court Bo Juyi asked the common question whether the hermit enjoying the green grass had not chosen the better part when a counselor in one day can go from a high-salaried position to banishment. After being banished in 814 Bo Juyi wrote three years later:

This year there is war in Anhui,
In every place soldiers are rushing to arms.
Men of learning have been summoned to the Council Board;
Men of action are marching to the battle-line.
Only I, who have no talents at all,
Am left in the mountains to play
with the pebbles of the stream.14

Yet Bo Juyi went on to become governor of Hangzhou, Suzhou, and from Chang'an Honan. When he left Hangzhou, elders lined the road and wept even though he said his taxes were heavy; people were poor, and farmers were hungry and often had dry fields; but he had dammed the water in the lake and helped a little when things were bad. Bo Juyi recommended a fortunate and secure half-hermit life between the embittered hunger and cold of the humble and the worries and cares of the great.

Wen Tianxiang (1236-83) refused to give up his allegiance to the Song emperor to serve Khubilai Khan; he asked to die and was executed. While in prison he wrote a poem that begins by recognizing there is an aura which permeates everything in the universe. In humans it is called spirit, and in times of peace it is not noticed because harmony prevails; but in a great crisis it becomes manifest. Liu Yin (1241-93) resigned his office to care for his sick mother. He wrote that heaven gave humans the resources they need to cope with the exigencies of the environment. He quoted Zhu Xi who said that when heaven is about to send down a calamity, a heroic genius is raised up to handle the situation. Every human has a use, and there is no society that humans cannot correct. A Buddhist priest of this era noted that if one is human, the mills of heaven grind one to perfection; but if not, to destruction.

Early Chinese fiction often was concerned with the supernatural. In the late 8th century Shen Jiji, who served briefly as Imperial Censor, wrote about a beautiful woman who turned out to be a fox that ran away. Poet Yuan Zhen's story of disappointed romance called "The Golden Oriole" was later dramatized by Wang Shifu in The Romance of the Western Chamber. Although the Golden Oriole believes that Zhang's vow to her has been broken, she swears to keep her oath to him. Years later though, both have married other people; she would not see him, and in his final poem Zhang advises her to love the man before her. Li Gongzo told "A Lifetime In a Dream" about a man whose political career turns out to have been spent in an ant colony while dreaming.

Liu Zongyuan (773-819) wrote a parable of a pack beetle that continues to put loads on its back until it can no longer move. It also likes to climb to high places but falls to the ground and dies. He compares this creature to people of his time who never seem to have enough possessions no matter how much they are encumbered by them and who seek higher positions even though a perilous fall is bound to ensue.

Poet Bo Juyi's brother Bo Xingqian wrote a romantic story of a man's drastic changes of fortune in "The Lady in the Capital." After Miss Li and her aunt run out on a young man whose money is spent, she later finds him destitute and helps him because "as we have cheated heaven and done harm to human beings, no spirit and no god will come to our aid."15

In the late 8th century a story named after the clever woman Red Thread has her stealthily penetrate the chamber of the governor about to attack her friend's province; removing a golden casket it is sent back to him, causing him to send gifts and renew good relations. Red Thread explains that she is making up for a former life in which as a man she was a physician who accidentally poisoned a woman pregnant with twins. Punished as a humble woman, she has now prevented an offense against the heavenly order. In the same era Xu Tang's story of "Two Friends" shows the value Chinese often placed on loyal friendship, as two men make difficult sacrifices to help each other in trying circumstances.

"The Forsaken Mistress" by Jiang Fang is another story of a woman betrayed by a man's false promise. Little Jade is afraid that when her beauty fades, Mr. Li's favors will wander elsewhere despite his protestations. Like many young men in China, Li is dominated by his mother and accepts an arranged marriage. When he fails to return to her at the promised time, Little Jade becomes ill. Educated people are revolted by Li's base heartlessness. Little Jade dies; but her spirit haunts Li and makes him jealous of his wife, causing him to divorce her and confine two more wives cruelly.

The murder mystery "Beheaded In Error" is from the Song dynasty collection Popular Tales of the Capital. This story shows the harmful consequences that can result from careless words. Wei Bengzhu after excelling in the examinations has a promising career ruined when he jokingly writes his wife he has taken a concubine. She writes back with a similar jest, and the spreading rumors prevent him from gaining a good position. In poverty he borrows money from his father-in-law to start a grocery store, but he kids his concubine that he has pawned her for that money. When she leaves him, the open gate allows a robber to come in to find the money; after a fight he kills Wei with an ax. When the concubine is found with a man carrying the same amount of money, circumstantial evidence causes a lazy judge to torture the concubine and that man until they confess, the serious ethical violation that causes the worst part of the tragedy. The innocent couple is executed, but later Wei's widow is robbed by the ax murderer. After making friends with him to survive and living with him, he becomes respectable and confesses the crime she then identifies. The bandit is beheaded; the offending magistrate is dismissed; the families of the innocent victims are given pensions; and the widow spends the rest of her life chanting sutras to the spirits of the dead.

In "The Scholar and the Courtesan" by Qin Chun of the 12th century Zhang is persuaded to marry another woman by his mother; but when his wife dies after three years, this story ends happily with his marrying his sweetheart and having many children. "The Whore with the Pure Heart" describes how an orphan put into a house of prostitution manages to put off the sexual attentions of Emperor Huizong (r. 1100-25) himself.

Mongols and Yuan China

Notes

1. Wang Xiong, Lun Heng 67 in A Short History of Chinese Philosophy by Fung Yu-lan, p. 210.
2. Hou Han shu 98.7b in Chinese Civilization and Bureaucracy by Etienne Balazs, tr. H. M. Wright, p. 194.
3. Li, Dun J., The Ageless Chinese, p. 225.
4. Penetrating the Book of Changes Ch. 7 by Zhou Dunyi, in A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy tr. Wing-tsit Chan, p. 468-469.
5. Zheng-meng 2:34 in Wing-tsit Chan, A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy, p. 509.
6. A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy tr. Wing-tsit Chan, p. 558.
7. Chu Tzu yu-lei, 44:3b by Zhu Xi in Reflections on Things at Hand tr. Wing-tsit Chan, p. 160.
8. The Ageless Chinese by Dun J. Li, p. 255.
9. Anthology of Chinese Literature tr. Stephen Owen, p. 342-343.
10. Ibid., p. 390.
11. Ibid., p. 403.
12. Ibid., p. 474.
13. "Impromptu" by Meng Jiao, tr. A. C. Graham, Poems of the Late T'ang, p. 67.
14. "Visiting the Hsi-lin Temple" by Bo Juyi, tr. Arthur Waley, Translations from the Chinese, p.