Confucius:A Biography - An Excerpt

Luoyang was the religious centre of the Chinese world. Here, the ruling kings of China were responsible for the greatest and purest of rituals to the most high-ranking of spirits. Although the secular power of the kings had waned beyond repair, they still exerted great religious authority. Confucius took considerable interest in the rituals of the capital, in order to make the ceremonies of Lu as much like those of Luoyang as possible. He inspected the outdoor area where sacrifices were made to Heaven and Earth, measuring the grounds and observing the behavior of royal officials. He also visited the Hall of Light where the kings would receive foreign visitors; there to check its feng shui - the nature of the building, its placement and its interior design. In Confucius' day, a building's ruling direction, its entrance-ways and architecture were a vital component of political power in the human realm. From Confucius' later comments on religion, we can guess that he was less interested in the magic of kingship than in the way in which outside visitors were treated. Just as Christian churches in the Middle Ages sought to educate visitors with their windows and statuary, the halls of the kings established their authority through decoration. The walls of the Hall of Light were decorated with images of China's ancient kings reaching back into times of legend, each with accompanying notices on their vices and virtues. Nobody entering the hall could avoid gazing at several parables of past kingship, or indeed the most recent picture on the walls, which showed the previous ruler with the current king as an infant on his knee. 'Here you see how the Zhou dynasty became so great,' Confucius said. 'As we use a glass to examine the forms of things, so must we study antiquity in order to understand the present.'

Confucius also inspected the ancestral temple of the royal family, which he regarded as an equally important part of state architecture. He was not disappointed. Just as the portraits in the Hall of Light implied respect and remembrance, the ancestral temple carried that idea into the afterlife. Remembering the words and deeds of ancestors was of crucial value to Confucius, who lived in a time when so much knowledge was lost by each generation, only to be discovered anew, passed on by word of mouth, and then lost once more. He was even more impressed by a statue in the temple that made a bold statement about respecting one's ruler. Crafted from bronze, it depicted a man whose mouth was held shut by three clasps. On his back was written a brief epigram about the virtues of silence. 'Observe it, my children,' he said to his followers. 'These words are true.'

Confucius himself caused a stir at the capital and dazzled some of the local ministers with his wit and decorum. 'When he speaks, he praises the ancient kings,' said an approving court musician. 'He moves along the path of humility and courtesy. He has heard of every subject and retains it with a strong memory. His knowledge of things seems inexhaustible. Have we not in him the rising of a sage?'