3. The Agnosticism of Confucius

A fragment of logic—The philosopher and the urchins—A formula of wisdom

Let us try to do justice to this doctrine; it is the view of life that we shall take when we round out our first half-century, and for all that we know it may be wiser than the poetry of our youth. If we ourselves are heretics and young, this is the philosophy that we must marry to our own in order that our half-truths may beget some understanding.

We shall not find here a system of philosophy—i.e., a consistent structure of logic, metaphysics, ethics and politics dominated by one idea (like the palaces of Nebuchadrezzar, which bore on every brick the name of the ruler). Confucius taught the art of reasoning not through rules or syllogisms, but by the perpetual play of his keen mind upon the opinions of his pupils; when they went out from his school they knew nothing about logic, but they could think clearly and to the point. Clarity and honesty of thought and expression were the first lessons of the Master. “The whole end of speech is to be understood”⁹⁶—a lesson not always remembered by philosophy. “When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not, to admit the fact—this is knowledge.”⁹⁷ Obscurity of thought and insincere inaccuracy of speech seemed to him national calamities. If a prince who was not in actual fact and power a prince should cease to be called a prince, if a father who was not a fatherly father should cease to be called a father, if an unfilial son should cease to be called a son—then men might be stirred to reform abuses too often covered up with words. Hence when Tsze-loo told Confucius, “The prince of Wei has been waiting for you, in order with you to administer the government; what will you consider the first thing to be done?” he answered, to the astonishment of prince and pupil, “What is necessary is to rectify names.”⁹⁸

Since his dominating passion was the application of philosophy to conduct and government, Confucius avoided metaphysics, and tried to turn the minds of his followers from all recondite or celestial concerns. Though he made occasional mention of “Heaven” and prayer,⁹⁹ and counseled his disciples to observe sedulously the traditional rites of ancestor worship and national sacrifice,¹⁰⁰ he was so negative in his answers to theological questions that modern commentators agree in calling him an agnostic.¹⁰¹ When Tsze-kung asked him, “Do the dead have knowledge, or are they without knowledge?” Confucius refused to make any definite reply.¹⁰² When Ke Loo asked about “serving the spirits” (of the dead), the Master responded: “While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve their spirits?” Ke Loo asked: “I venture to ask about death?” and was answered: “While you do not know life, how can you know about death?”¹⁰³ When Fan Ch’e inquired “what constituted wisdom?” Confucius said: “To give one’s self earnestly to the duties due to men, and, while respecting spiritual beings, to keep aloof from them, may be called wisdom.”¹⁰⁴His disciples tell us that “the subjects on which the Master did not talk were extraordinary things, feats of strength, disorder, and spiritual beings.”¹⁰⁵They were much disturbed by this philosophic modesty, and doubtless wished that the Master would solve for them the mysteries of heaven. The Book of Lieh-tze tells with glee the fable of the street-urchins who ridiculed the Master when he confessed his inability to answer their simple question—“Is the sun nearer to the earth at dawn, when it is larger, or at noon, when it is hotter? “¹⁰⁶ The only metaphysics that Confucius would recognize was the search for unity in all phenomena, and the effort to find some stabilizing harmony between the laws of right conduct and the regularities of nature. “Tsze,” he said to one of his favorites, “you think, I suppose, that I am one who learns many things and keeps them in his memory?” Tsze-kung replied, “Yes, but perhaps it is not so?” “No,” was the answer; “I seek unity, all-pervading.”¹⁰⁷ This, after all, is the essence of philosophy.

His master passion was for morality. The chaos of his time seemed to him a moral chaos, caused perhaps by the weakening of the ancient faith and the spread of Sophist scepticism as to right and wrong; it was to be cured not by a return to the old beliefs, but by an earnest search for more complete knowledge, and a moral regeneration based upon a soundly regulated family life. The Confucian program is expressed pithily and profoundly in the famous paragraphs of The Great Learning:

The ancients who wished to illustrate the highest virtue throughout the empire first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their own selves. Wishing to cultivate their own selves, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.

Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their own selves were cultivated. Their own selves being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole empire was made tranquil and happy.¹⁰⁸

This is the keynote and substance of the Confucian philosophy; one might forget all other words of the Master and his disciples, and yet carry away with these “the essence of the matter,” and a complete guide to life. The world is at war, says Confucius, because its constituent states are improperly governed; these are improperly governed because no amount of legislation can take the place of the natural social order provided by the family; the family is in disorder, and fails to provide this natural social order, because men forget that they cannot regulate their families if they do not regulate themselves; they fail to regulate themselves because they have not rectified their hearts—i.e., they have not cleansed their own souls of disorderly desires; their hearts are not rectified because their thinking is insincere, doing scant justice to reality and concealing rather than revealing their own natures; their thinking is insincere because they let their wishes discolor the facts and determine their conclusions, instead of seeking to extend their knowledge to the utmost by impartially investigating the nature of things. Let men seek impartial knowledge, and their thinking will become sincere; let their thoughts be sincere and their hearts will be cleansed of disorderly desires; let their hearts be so cleansed, and their own selves will be regulated; let their own selves be regulated, and their families will automatically be regulated—not by virtuous sermonizing or passionate punishments, but by the silent power of example itself; let the family be so regulated with knowledge, sincerity and example, and it will give forth such spontaneous social order that successful government will once more be a feasible thing; let the state maintain internal justice and tranquillity, and all the world will be peaceful and happy.—It is a counsel of perfection, and forgets that man is a beast of prey; but like Christianity it offers us a goal to strike at, and a ladder to climb. It is one of the golden texts of philosophy.