The Ru School (Rújiā 儒家) began as private school for Confucian learning, founded by Kongzi, that emphasized self-cultivation as a means of advancing into the upper-middle class and gaining state positions. That is, to become a jūnzǐ (君子), which literally meant the “son of a noble,” but came to mean the character of the “noble man.”
Kongzi (Kong Qiu, born 551 BC) initially served the Duke of his home state, Lu, in an attempt to reform the state, but his plans did not meet with success, and he eventually returned home. He started his school after the age of 30. Later, both members of the aristocracy and commoners came to join his school, mostly from his state of Lu, but also from other areas of China. This was adult education, with new students typically in their late teens or twenties. For tuition, Kongzi himself said that if they offered “a bundle of dried meat or more” as a symbol of their sincere desire to learn, he had “never failed to teach them.”
In ancient China, the six arts (六藝) were the basis of education for becoming a well-rounded person and a gentleman: social ritual, music, archery, chariotry, calligraphy, and mathematics. From Records of the Grand Historian, by Sima Qian, “those who personally passed the courses in the six arts were 72 men.” It is also evident from the Analects itself that the students of the school practiced these arts, although the curriculum of Kongzi’s school seems to have focused more on social development. According to biographical entries by Sima Qian, Kongzi had “pupils, approximately 3000” in his lifetime, of which Kongzi himself is recorded as saying, “those who received instruction and passed through the course were 77 men”.
Many of the students who mastered the curriculum would then gain prominent positions and further develop the philosophy. For example Zigong became a wealthy businessman, the commandant of Xinyang city, and later a high diplomat to several states. Zengzi wrote the classic text “The Great Learning” and established his own school, where he taught Kongzi’s grandson Kong Ji (born 481 BC), who authored “Doctrine of the Mean”. Kong Ji, in turn, taught the giant Mengzi (born 371 BC), who authored “the Mengzi,” establishing a line of orthodox Confucian transmission. Eventually, the discourses of Kongzi’s school, passed down through generations by his descendants, were compiled into “the Analects “ (around 200 BC).
During the Han Dynasty, rulers like Han Wudi promoted Confucianism top-down as the official ideology by establishing state academies (Tàixué 太學, in 125 BC). This set the model for thousands of years, leading to the use of civil service examinations to select government officials based on their knowledge of these Confucian “Four Books” (the Analects, the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, and the Mengzi). Although Kongzi’s direct attempts to enter the state and effect change failed, his school created a bottom-up movement that trained individuals who later entered and reformed the state — shaping Chinese culture, and ultimately East Asian culture as a whole.
References:
- “Pupils, approximately 3000” (弟子蓋三千). Sima Qian (2nd century BC). The Grand Historian. Shiji, 世家, 孔子世家, 62.
- “Kongzi said: Those who received instruction and personally passed through the course were 77 men” (孔子曰: 受業身通者七十有七人). Sima Qian (2nd century BC). The Grand Historian. Shiji, 列傳, 仲尼弟子列傳, 1.
- “Those who personally passed the courses in the six arts were 72 men” (身通六藝者七十有二人). Sima Qian (2nd century BC). The Grand Historian. Shiji, 世家, 孔子世家, 62.
- “Of their own accord, a dried bundle of meat offered or more” (自行束脩以上): Analects, verse 7.7.
Originally published at https://www.solzi.net.
