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CHAPTER THREE

The Art of the CHOU DYNASTY

(o. 1100 B.C.-221 B.C.)

AFTER SOME five centuries of rule, the deteriorating Shang dynasty was succeeded by the Chou. This change of dynasties was more political than cultural in nature. Chou was a buffer state on the western frontier in what is now Shensi Province. The ruler of Chou, in displacing the dissolute last Shang emperor, contributed primarily political and military vitality, attributes fostered by continual threat of invasion of the rich valley regions to the east of Chou by barbarians from the west. Since Chou was a frontier region, direct cultural contribution from Chou political dominance would have been doubtful in the extreme. But this rule—the longest in Chinese history, covering the eight centuries between noo and 221 B.C. —eventually encompassed one of the most creative epochs in Chinese art and philosophy.

In contrast to the Shang period, during which the only written records were in the form of oracle bones and inscriptions on bronze, the Chou period produced a rich and varied literature. Most of the Chinese Classics were composed during the latter part of this period. Among them are the I Ching, or Book of Changes, a manual of divination for foretelling the future; the Shu Ching, or Book of History, a collection of documents, speeches, reports, and legends concerning the early history of China; and the Shih Ching, or Book of Songs, an anthology of 311 poems. While most of these poems are of a purely lyrical nature, some have a political or legendary theme and others are sacrificial songs originally sung during ritual dances. Arthur Waley has translated one of the latter as follows:

'With the Thing Purified, the Thing Bright,

With our bullocks for sacrifice, and our sheep

We come to honour the Earth Spirit, to honour the quarters.

For our fields have all done well, The labourers have had luck.

We twang zitherns, beat drums

To serve Field Grandad,

To beg for sweet rain,

So that our millet may be blessed,

Our men and girls well fed.'

[The Book of Songs (Boston: 1937), p. 170]

The greatest Chinese philosophical works are products of the later half of the Chou period. By this time, faith in magic seems to have declined in favor of a more rational, humanistic outlook. The most influential philosopher was K'ung Fu-tse, known in the West as Confucius. Living from 551 to 479, he was contemporary with Gautama Buddha and two or three generations earlier than his Western counterpart, Socrates. His sober and conservative philosophy, emphasizing tradition, propriety, and obedience, was based on human morality and values. He did not speculate about the Beyond. He held loyalty to rulers and filial piety to be the highest virtues and the traditional way to be the way of the superior man: "Try to be loyal and faithful as your main principle." While he valued learning and knowledge as the highest accomplishments, he sought not new knowledge as did the Greek philosophers of his time, but rather the wisdom of a prior golden age as recorded in the classics.

While Confucius and his follower Mencius exemplify the traditional, humanistic side of Chinese thought, Lao-tzu and his followers, the Taoists, represented contrary aspects : the mystical and lyrical. Lao-tzu is probably a legendary figure but is supposed to have written the Tao Tê Ching, or The Way and Its Power, a text probably dating from the middle of the third century B.C. As legend has it, however, Lao-tzu was a somewhat older contemporary of Confucius. This great, mystical work teaches the Tao, at once the Way and the Ultimate Essence. The Tao is like water : while yielding, it wears away stone. The Taoist sage acts without action, teaches without words, learns by forgetting, and grows in wisdom by becoming as simple as a child. The wise man withdraws from the world, for in losing it he finds it. Through not desiring power, he becomes powerful, and by giving away riches he becomes rich. "Tao is forever, and he that possesses it, though his body ceases, is not destroyed."