Confucian Family Education and Ideological Tradition «Tian Di Jun Qin Shi»

This article will briefly describe the features, methods, goals of family education in ancient China, as well as the relevant educational roles of the father and mother in the family. The article will also analyze one of the most unique characteristics of ancient Chinese family education: in each family fixed a tablet with the words 天地君亲 Tian Di Jun Qin Shi (Heaven, land, rulers, ancestors, sages). In ancient China, people believed that teachers and relatives, and heaven, earth, and monarchs, were objects that people should respect and worship. Obviously, this clearly differs from the traditions of most other countries. The idea of Tian Di Jun Qin Shi first appeared in Guo Yu (国语), and in Xunzi (荀子) you can see the initial form of this thought. Over the next 2000 years, these five words penetrate deeply into people's minds, and people often mention them in their daily lives. Their importance and value in Chinese culture and Chinese life are very important and indispensable. The role played by the idea of Tian Di Jun Qin Shi in ancient Chinese family education is more effective than any classical legal practice.

The Origin of an Yijing Line Statement

This essay begins by examining divination records from the Zhou dynasty (such as those from Zhouyuan and Baoshan, as well as records in traditional texts) showing that the topic of divination was invariably announced in the form of a “charge” indicating the desire of the person for whom the divination was being performed. Next, other accounts of turtle-shell divination (in the Shiji, Guo yu and Zuo zhuan) are examined to determine how the results of the divinations were interpreted. The author shows that the diviner was responsible for producing a yao 竊 or “omen-text” that was composed of three lines of four characters, the first describing the crack in the shell (i.e., the omen), followed by a couplet linking this omen to the announced topic of the divination, similar to the way in which the nature evocations of the Shijing are linked to events in the human realm. Finally, the author shows that this omentext is formally identical to the most developed form of the line statemerits of the Yijing, and proposes that from this form can be discerned the divinatory context that originally produced these line statements.

11. A Brief Discussion on Fu Hao

ABSTRACT(N.B. A version of this paper has now been published in Kaogu 1983.6:537-41.)Fu Hao (or Fu Zi ) appears in the oracle-bone inscriptions from Anyang. The name is often seen in Period I inscriptions (from the time of Wu Ding) and occasionally in Period IV inscriptions (from the time of Wu Yi and Wen Ding). The two are separated by four kings (Zu Geng, Zu Jia, Lin Xin, and Kang Ding), perhaps by as much as one hundred years. Does the Fu Hao in both periods refer to the same person? How can we explain this phenomenon?In the oracle-bone records of people and their activities there are cases where one figure is active in different periods. These names are often also place names, and these figures possess a populace and products. These names are probably what is termed “Clan-Territory titles” (a term found in the Gu shi kao, as quoted in the “Zheng yi” commentary to the Zuo zhuan). Based on their clan name they served hereditarily as officials. These clan names occur in historical literature, as in “In the past, our former kings were for generations Lords of Millet (Hou Ji ), serving under the Yü and Xia “(Guo yü “Zhou Yü” ); or “The Zhong and Li clans generation after generation ordered heaven and earth, … the Sima clan for generation after generation was in charge of the history of Zhou” (Shi ji, “Taishigong zixu” ).