When Buddhism arrived in China, it was transformed by Chinese culture, and Chinese culture was similarly transformed by Buddhism. Our ability to understand religion in pre-Buddhist China has been dominated by the study of Religious Daoism, but the problem is that this religion itself was quite new to China in the Han Dynasty. Previous studies have preferred to focus on ancestor worship, or notions of obviously religious figures such as Shangdi. Confucian texts and the Dao de jing, have received little attention when isolated from their more explicitly religious counterparts of neo-Confucianism and Religious Daoism. The discovery of lost bamboo manuscripts at Guodian provides a new opportunity to understand the religious landscape of China prior to Buddhism.

My first book Guodian: Newly Discovered Seeds of China’s Religious and Political Philosophy argues, “The goal of religion in Guodian texts is to propagate a belief in the moral value of harmonious unification. This unification involves faith that morals have a physical existence in our bodies that is transformative both to our actions and to the actions of those we encounter.” In Guodian, this harmony is spread by individuals who embody morality when their words or even appearance touches others. This propagation was possible because these moral individuals have undergone a physical transformation that produced a voice like a bronze bell, and skin like jade.

As we are now working to heal the disharmony amongst the various sides of Buddhism in our world today, a better understanding of religion in early China could provide a basis for these discussions. It is hoped that a clearer understanding of religion in pre-Han China can help us better understand the common ground among the various traditions within Chinese Buddhism.

Spreading Harmony

Harmony in Guodian is built by individuals who have succeeded in developing morality within their bodies. The importance of embodiment is significant since it underscores the individual side of building unity. The first element necessary for understanding religion in Guodian is to analyze the practices involved in unification. This understanding is facilitated by the specifically measurable ways in which morality is described as being spread in the texts. In “The Five Aspects of Conduct,” morality is said to spread from one person to another through either seeing or hearing a noble person. Becoming a sage, for example is said to involve “hearing the way of the noble man,” which in turn helps you resemble jade. “Having keen hearing you will hear the way of the noble man; hearing the way of the noble man you will resemble jade sounds; resembling jade sounds you will be formed; being formed you will be sagacious.” 聪，则闻君子道，闻君子道则玉音，玉音则形，形则圣。The process of developing sagacity involves conversion by another individual. This is significant because when individuals are central to the process of assisting in the transformation of the morals of those he or she encounters, we have a situation that is difficult to distinguish from clergy spreading religion.

Hearing is deemed to be the supreme way to spread morality in “The Five Aspects of Conduct,” but the next best way is through seeing a moral person. “Having keen vision you will be able to perceive an outstanding person; being able to perceive an outstanding person you will have a jade-like countenance; having a jade-like countenance you will be formed; being formed you will be wise. ” 明则见贤人，见贤人则玉色，玉色则形，形则智。In these two examples of being transformed by others, it is jade sounds and countenance that are produced after encountering a person who has achieved a high level of moral cultivation. Jade of course played an important part in religious rituals in early China, so describing people as taking on the qualities of jade indicates that their bodies have been changed into sacred vessels. Once transformed, a sage then has the power to convert others since our bodies have become holy.

Paragraph 11 of “The Five Aspects of Conduct” describes the transformation of our bodies involving both the emitting and perceiving of morality.

A bronze [bell] voice is adept [at virtue] while jade vibrancy is sagacious. Being adept [at virtue] is the way of humans while being virtuous is the way of heaven. Only those who have virtue, can have a bronze [bell] voice and jade vibrancy. Not having keen hearing you will lack keen vision, no sagacity no wisdom; no wisdom no humanity; without humanity you will not be at peace; without peace you will not be musical; without music you will lack virtue.

金声，善也。玉音，圣也。善，人道也。德，天（道也）。唯有德者， 然后能金声而玉振之。 不聪不明，［不明不圣］，不圣不智，不智不仁，不仁不安，不安不乐，不乐无德。

The first half of the quote focuses on the production of bronze and jade sounds, which are seen as existing in a hierarchy between “the way of people” and the higher “way of heaven.” Following this, there is a chain argument, or sorites that lists the repercussions of lacking visual and auditory acuity. The result of lacking the ability to see and hear is that you cannot be converted by the moral paragons you encounter, so there is a chain of failures in a variety of ethical ideals. These two senses are consistently used in pairs in the text with wisdom and sagacity. This was discussed earlier with strips 14 and 15 where hearing or seeing a moral person resulted in jade sounds and countenance.

The idea that hearing and seeing can be transformative is not without precedent in early China. Xunzi argues in his Discourse on Music 乐论篇that listening to music has the power to spread morality to the audience. Ritual is seen as having a similar power to bring moral order to people. In the case of music, he felt that the impact on the audience could be particularly profound and rapid. Music was something you went to and experienced so it would have involved seeing and hearing. A second function of music was that it served as a means of properly expressing emotions such as love and hate. This second function is akin to the emitting and receiving of morality in “The Five Aspects of Conduct.”

When we compare “The Five Aspects of Conduct” with Mencius, we see that it is much more difficult to find similarly clear markers in Mencius that could be used to distinguish members of a religious community. Mencius is more interested in the internal development of moral potential that links one directly to Heaven in 7A.1 and only by the process being repeated can individuals be interconnected to form a group. The inclusion of Heaven, is in some ways obviously religious to later neo-Confucians, but it also complicates the search for something akin to clergy. Clergy may not be exactly correct, but “The Five Aspects of Conduct” is describing a group of experts in morality that bring about what today would be considered miraculous physical and ethical transformations in the people they encounter.

Further support for these experts being akin to clergy can be seen when the process of becoming a sage is described as elevating individuals to divine stature in “The Five Aspects of Conduct.” “There are five aspects of virtuous conduct, that, when united, are called virtue itself. When only four of these actions are united it is called being adept [at virtue. Adeptness is the way of humans  while virtue is the way of heaven.” 德之行五和，谓之德，四行和，谓之善。善，人道也。德，天道也。Elsewhere in the text, “Sages know the way of heaven”圣人知天道也. By itself we cannot be sure if the first quote understands people as able to attain a combination of all five types of moral action, but in combination with the next quote we see that this is something that sages can accomplish. These two quotations can tell us two things about the relationship between the development of morality and being connected to a higher power. A hierarchy exists between a lower level of attainment comprised of four actions that regular people are able to achieve and a higher level of attainment that is connected to heaven. Finally, the highest ideal of the text is to figure out how to combine harmoniously different ways of acting morally.

Harmony from Conflict

When it comes to how this harmonious unification is supposed to be implemented, “The Five Aspects of Conduct” contains one specific example, and that is in its description of how you judge a legal case.

Admonishment as a term is like remonstrating that can only be applied to the great and rare [cases]. Leniency as a term is like being lenient for minor crimes that can be applied to lesser and more common [cases]. Admonishment is the method of righteousness. Leniency is the method of humanity. That which is hard is the method of righteousness, while that which is soft is the method of humanity. “He was neither violent nor hasty neither hard nor soft.” This summarizes what I am referring to.

简之为言也，犹练也，大而晏者也。匿之为言也犹匿匿也，小而轸者也。简，义之方也。匿，仁之方也。强，义之方。柔，仁之方也。“不强不絿，不刚不柔”，此之谓也。

Two of the terms in this quotation, humanity and righteousness are among the five types of moral action that a person is supposed to harmonize to be on par with heaven. What becomes immediately apparent is that we are asked to harmonize two concepts that are conflicting. Humanity is soft and lenient, while righteousness is hard and admonishing. The impossibility of the conflict is underscored by the situation we are presented, the judgment of a legal case. A choice must be made and any one person can only be forgiven or admonished, not both.

The only possible solution to the problem is to approach the harmonizing of humanity and righteousness from a diachronic perspective. In any single situation, there is a choice between employing either humanity or righteousness, but the sum of ones actions over a given period can construct harmony out of discord. This requires a leap of faith that over time a prevalence of decisions favoring one side will be balanced by decisions favoring the other then humanity and righteousness can be harmoniously unified by a sage.

In Guodian, there is an assumption that the world is discordant, but the approach to overcoming this is to see the problem as composed of binary components. “The Five Aspects of Conduct” discusses the harmonization of five different terms, but the text approaches each term as existing in conflict with a single opposite. Humanity and righteousness represent the clearest in terms of conflict, but sagacity and wisdom are also paired contrasting terms. There are other texts in Guodian that also approach disharmony by using humanity and righteousness to represent the tension that exists between the priorities of the humane and righteousness.

Harmonious Succession

One of the most interesting texts to describe the tension between humanity and righteousness is “Tang Yu Zhidao.” The text begins by stating what is familiar, “Tang Yao and Yu Shun’s way was to abdicate and not pass [through inheritance].”唐虞之道，禅而不传。 From this brief quote it seems that the text is not proposing anything surprising about how you select the ruler for your state, you simply search for the most capable. This approach can rightly be called a meritocracy since upon abdicating, the most capable is elevated to rule. However, later in the text, the pairing of humanity and righteousness reappear. “Loving the family one forgets the outstanding; you are humane but not righteous. Elevating the outstanding distances one from the family; you are righteous but not humane.”爱亲忘贤，仁而未义也。尊贤遗亲，义而未仁也。The idea of forgetting the outstanding is jarring, particularly in the context of a text that is advocating the abdication of kings so that they can raise the outstanding to rule the state. Key to understanding this surprising statement is to see that loving the family is humane and raising the outstanding is righteous. This quote uses humanity and righteousness as binary opposites that represent opposing sides that only a sage could harmonize, which is similar to “The Five Aspects of Conduct.” Because both humanity and righteousness are positive moral attributes, we must recognize that the text is saying that it is acceptable to either elevate the outstanding in a meritocratic manner, or ignore the outstanding and pass the position on to a family member. This latter choice can be termed aristocracy since power would remain in the hands of family.

One example of where aristocracy and meritocracy are in harmony is “Yao and Shun acted to love their families and elevate the outstanding.”尧舜之行，爱亲尊贤。“Tang Yu zhidao” is exploring a philosophy of balance through a discussion of the sages Yao and Shun, who are said to have harmonized aristocratic and meritocratic priorities when they chose their successors based on aptitude but remained faithful to their lineages by cultivating filial and humane qualities. Aristocracy here means an emphasis on family as the basis for a strong state. As such, aristocracy is different from meritocracy, where finding capable individuals from around the state is the primary concern, and familial relations are not considered. It is somewhat counterintuitive, but a focus on meritocracy is a more macro perspective as the particular context of the individual’s background is not considered. Aristocracy is the micro-focused methodology, since it cares more about one’s unique background. These two systems can actually be harmonized, since they are not working at cross-purposes. Differences in the scope of their primary foci dictate different priorities, which when harmonized can be seen as a two-pronged approach to developing a religious community. In “The Five Aspects of Conduct,” these categories of macro and micro or state and family are also applied to a framework for considering a legal case.

Many times, the most important decision a ruler had to make in his lifetime was the selection of his successor. He could follow the dictates of aristocracy and select a family member or follow the methods of a meritocracy and select the most talented individual. Being limited to a single individual, royal succession could not simultaneously utilize both meritocratic and aristocratic methods. However, government as a whole had to maintain a balance in order to be successful. “Tang Yu zhidao” begins by describing the abdication of Yao to Shun, an action encapsulating the earliest succession method in China. The text then states that abdication follows righteousness and the elevation of outstanding people. The problem with this meritocracy is that it can be plagued by power struggles when individual families compete to maintain dominance over a collection of families—the state. If a family fails to exhibit talent, power slips to another. This is inherent with a system of abdication, where a ruler is expected to select the most capable person in the empire as his successor.

“Tang Yu zhidao” contains a similar emphasis on harmony but it is concerned with only one pair of moral concepts that are also present in “The Five Aspects of Conduct.” These two concepts are humanity and righteousness, which the text relates to minority versus majority concerns. Humanity is described as rooted in the family, and when expanded to a government perspective emphasizes the aristocratic inheritance of bureaucratic positions. In contrast, righteousness is the promoting of the most skilled individual and can be seen as government by meritocracy. Balancing these two terms is performed in a process similar to that in “The Five Aspects of Conduct,” since it is a product of the human body. In “Tang Yu zhidao,” the bodies that created this harmony are specific sages in antiquity, Yao and Shun. The fascinating contribution of the text is that it does not really see a difference between aristocracy and meritocracy, since both similarly contain strengths and weaknesses that must be balanced to create unity. In that the text is specific, it focuses on the application and not the cultivation of harmony. This is different from “The Five Aspects of Conduct,” where the discussion of cultivation is central, and specific individuals are mentioned only in passing.

Conclusion

Today, when we seek solutions to our world divided by trouble, we naturally look to religions such as Buddhism for guidance. The problem is that Buddhism today is itself divided into so many different organizations; it is difficult to find guidance that can speak with a single voice to solve our problems. One solution is to find common ground among these different branches by examining the early Chinese cultural background that influenced Buddhism so deeply. This shared Chinese background has the potential to bridge divisions among the various branches of Buddhism today. However, the model for building bridges that we see in Guodian is one that acknowledges the inherent tension among different social spheres. In ancient Chu, the concern was balancing aristocracy and meritocracy, family and state. These separations were not seen as magically disappearing, but it was believed that sages could come up with a way to balance priorities so that if one side was emphasized today, then the other side would be given its turn the next day. The Second World Buddhist Forum is a perfect example of this Guodian approach to harmony since we are splitting our time equally and fairly between the Peoples Republic of China, and the Republic of China.

(Author: Kenneth W. Holloway, Assistant Professor of Department of History, Florida Atlantic University, USA)