Древний Китай. Том 3: Период Чжаньго (V—III вв. до н.э.)

The Hsiun-tzu informs us that, while young, Hsiun-tzu paid a visit to the state of Ch'in and found many things there worthy of imitation as examples of an acceptable norm. This referred, first of all, to the strict social discipline of the people who were trained to observe laws, order and norms. Of course, Confucians were all for norm and discipline. However, to attain strict adherence to them, they relied on upbringing and the ethical traditions established by the Master. At the same time, experience proved irrefutably that the "stick" was by far the most efficient part in the old "carrot-and-stick" formula. So Hsiun-tzu— who personally stood for the predominance of proper upbringing in the correction of people — managed to see this; moreover he realized that, unless some of the Legist "stick" was added to the Confucian "carrot", the ju school was doomed in the nearest future. So he had to resort to forgery. In his work, Hsiun-tzu showed a Confucius that somewhat differed from the man he really was.

Among other things, Hsiun-tzu concocted a story of a certain shao-cheng Mao who allegedly corrupted the minds of the youth of Lu with forbidden speeches, for which he was executed by Confucius' orders. However, it is known that Confucius never possessed political power. Besides, he would have never dreamed of killing anyone for wrong words. Finally, no texts of Confucius' time mention a shao-cheng called Mao. Hsiun-tzu knew all this better than anyone. So what was the matter? The answer is very simple. Hsiun-tzu wanted the Great Master to take a stick in his hands. This was necessary for imparting a certain strictness to the doctrine, without which it would not succeed. And Hsiun-tzu did the necessary thing, without which the doctrine of the Great Master would be unable to develop and spread in the late Chou society. By doing this, though, he took a step in Shang Yang's direction. It is small wonder that his two best disciples, in whom any sage could feel great pride, the theoretician Han Fei-tzu and the prime minister of the emperor Ch'in Shih-Huangti Li Ssu (he was the actual author of the strictly ordered structure of the Ch'in Empire) turned out to be Legists.

Hsiun-tzu's little trick saved Confucianism as a doctrine suitable for ruling the state; furthermore, it ensured (in combination with historical developments that, too, played a major part in this) its lasting success for more than two thousand years. And still, despite this great service to the doctrine, to which he (unlike his disciples) kept a lifelong loyalty, Hsiun-tzu dearly paid for having distorted the essence of the Master's image. His work, unlike the above-mentioned Meng-tzu, was never included into the Confucian canon.

Beside Hsiun-tzu, there were other Confucians who worked to adjust the doctrine to the political realities. By the end of the Chou period, they compiled two systematically arranged texts deserving attention. The first of those, Yili (Regulations and Rites), was dedicated to clearly embellished nostalgic reminiscences of the past, when the aristocrats allegedly adhered to the norms of rites and ceremonies and followed traditional customs. All the norms and ceremonies in question were painstakingly collected and described in the work to the minutest detail. On the whole, this text is to be regarded as a reminder of the lost past, written with the aim of extolling it, thereby enhancing the role of the tradition-defending Confucianism. The second work, Chouli (Rites of Chou, or Prescriptions of Chou), is an artificial reconstruction of the ideal imperial administrative system, which — though sung by tradition — never existed. The text enumerates ministries that consisted of numerous departments and offices full of innumerable bureaucrats and clerks, each of which is named by his office, with the sphere of his duties precisely delineated. However, these texts, which appeared too late, never played any significant part.

Having defeated his rivals, the last ruler of the Ch'in state unified the Un-der-Heaven in 221 B.C. and founded the first real empire of Chinese history, not a fancy of mythical tradition or Utopian reconstructions. That empire was created on the basis of a state that in many respects differed from most other states, in which the people honored age-old tradition revived and strengthened by Confucius in his day. Although in the time of Meng-tzu (and doubly so, of Hsiun-tzu), i.e., during the late Chou, the situation was quickly changing and many of Legist methods were already accepted in different states, in practice this borrowing lead to a combination of the two systems rather than to one replacing the other. No one dared to scorn tradition openly. And no one was able to do so even if he wished to. In a word, most of the empire was not ready to accept that severe anti-Confucian Legism, which was created in Ch'in by Shang Yang and continued to exist there.