Journal Article

Roots of Ru 儒 Ethics inshi士 Status Anxiety

Matthias L. Richter

2017

Overview

When originally independent pragmatic texts were included in larger early Chinese compilations, this entailed a recontextualization that potentially transformed the meaning of those texts significantly. Focusing on examples from theAnalectsand the Zengzi chapters inDa Dai Liji, this paper demonstrates that some didactic precepts which have come to be appreciated as generalRumoral and political philosophy are probably rooted in concrete and more modest applications. The texts discussed are in part based on a discourse accompanying the establishment of meritocratic administrative structures in the early to mid Warring States period. These pragmatic discourses inspired didactic texts that reflectedshistatus anxiety. Members of theshiclass not only composed texts for the edification of their rulers and the education of their princes. They also directed admonitions at their own peers, formulating standards by which they could manifest their claim to elevated social status. The further these texts became removed over time from their original historical context, the more they came to be read asRuethics in the sense of universally applicable standards.

• Publisher: American Oriental Society
• Subject: Anxiety / Learning rate / Meritocracy / Morality / Reading / Social classes / Social ethics / Tao Te Ching / The five bonds / The gentleman