Source: China State Council Information Office 3
Across the span of human history, many great thinkers have shone like bright stars, profoundly shaping civilization. Confucius is one of them. Throughout the millennia since his time around the 5th century BC, the school of thought he founded and the Confucianism that developed from it has continued to offer inspiration for people, not only in China.
A new exhibition at the Palace Museum in Beijing opened on the National Day holiday to demonstrate the lasting legacy of the sage through 380 cultural relics on loan from nearly 30 institutions from home and abroad. It will run for more than three months.
In the Meridian Gate Galleries, above the southern entry of the former Chinese imperial palace also known as the Forbidden City, When the Great Way Prevails: Special Exhibition of Confucian Culture launches a time travel spectacle resonating with ancient ritual and wisdom.
Through the objects on display, this exhibition aims to illustrate the historical context, core concepts, and far-reaching influence of Confucian culture.
“The agricultural civilization of China shaped the nation’s cultural genes: order, stability, humility and peace as the core values,” says Da Weijia, deputy director of department of objects and decorative arts of the Palace Museum, who is in charge of organizing the exhibition.
“From these, Confucianism developed, and continually influenced people’s values, ways of thinking and behavioral norms, producing a distinctive Confucian culture,” she says. “It still resonates with our modern life today.”
Exhibited ceremonial musical instruments and ritual bronze wares, showing the hierarchical social status from the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-771 BC) to Confucius’ time, display his lofty pursuit.
The authority of Zhou kings declined as feudal lords vied for supremacy, bringing devastating damage to the ritual system.
Confucius decided that his mission was to revive the rituals in the hope of reestablishing the social order, Da explains. “At that time, many schools of thought put forward their ideas in response to the disorder and division. These greatly expanded the breath and depth of people’s thinking.”
By “interpreting rituals with benevolence”, Confucius, a pioneering educator who also first initiated private schools in China, established an all-encompassing moral code that was closely tied to human nature.
More than 300 years later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), who ruled a unified country of vast territory, supported Confucian thought, with Confucius’ teachings as its key exemplar, to become the official orthodoxy.
Exhibits ranging from figure paintings to various editions of Confucian classics show how Confucianism has been a vital source of spiritual nourishment for the Chinese nation in its continuous growth. “This culture has kept pace with the times and evolved in response to historical changes,” Da says.
On a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) hanging scroll, Confucius Giving a Lecture, a romantic imagination on how the educator inspired his disciples was featured. In China, Confucius deserves his reputation as an exemplary teacher of any age for the moral principles and love of learning he set.
A Tang Dynasty (618-907) portrait of centenarian Fu Sheng, whose long life spanned the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC, urges visitors to remember this brave scholar, who spent his lifetime protecting Confucianism during a time of war and social upheaval. This precious painting, on loan from Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, is often credited to Tang poet Wang Wei, a household name for Chinese people.
Confucian classics engraved on stones, across several dynasties, demonstrated their status as the official guiding thoughts. This physical evidence may have fallen into fragments but the highlighted wisdom they recorded seem to have lasted much longer.
“Confucianism advocates fulfilling responsibilities to the family and the state, extending moral conduct from cultivating the self and regulating the family to rightly governing the state, bringing peace to all under heaven,” Wang Guangyao, a researcher with the Palace Museum and a curator of the exhibition, explains.
Calligraphic works left by iconic Confucian philosophers, such as Wang Shouren, also known as Wang Yangming from the Ming Dynasty, demonstrated how generations of Chinese literati pursued the ideals portrayed by the ancient sages. For the Common Good, a handwritten scroll by last century’s revolutionary pioneer Sun Yat-sen demonstrating his signature slogan, probably reflects Confucian mindset in national governance in a modern context.
Archaeological findings also help to further record ancient people’s Confucian practices in detail. A group of displayed bamboo slips that were unearthed from a Han Dynasty tomb in Wuwei, Gansu province, usher modern people to review how those who lived in ancient times respected the elderly.
This was a cornerstone of Confucian moral codes. In Confucianism, a goal is “to build a society where the elderly have a place to live, the strong have a place to work, the young have a place to grow, and the widowed, the orphaned, the disabled, and the sick are all taken care of”.
As the exhibition also shows, Confucian culture has spread far and wide. In the East, Confucianism had its deep impact on neighboring Asian countries. In the West, Confucianism even inspired Enlightenment philosophers like Voltaire with its humanist and rationalist spirit.
Sacrificial bronze wares from the Temple of Confucius in Qufu, Shandong province, also the sage’s hometown, and a group of Edo-era animal-shaped bronze vessels used for Confucius-honoring ceremonies from Tokyo National Museum are jointly displayed to provide a glimpse of a shared cultural circle.
A Joseon Dynasty edition of ancient Chinese Confucian classic Zuo’s Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals and a screen with Chinese characters promoting core values of Confucian virtues, both from the National Folk Museum of Korea in Seoul also reflect significance of Confucianism in people’s daily life on the Korean Peninsula.
“To this day, the profound wisdom, ideals and moral standards of Confucian culture continue to inspire people from different civilizations around the world to understand each other and learn from each other,” Wang Guangyao says.
This curator wants to create not only width, but also a long lineage in this review of Confucianism. That is why the time span of displayed relics started from a period much earlier than Confucius’ time. A section of the exhibition is particularly designed for many milestone relics from Neolithic period to trace the roots of the rites and ceremonies that were admired by Confucius.
Jiahu bone flute, dating back 9,000 years, and ceremonial jade artifacts, more than 5,000 years old, may belong to different eras than Confucius’, but the ritual system and shared cultural community they contributed to build may create a foundation for his school of thought.
“Confucius’ philosophies didn’t suddenly pop out,” Wang Guangyao explains. “These relics reflect our ancestors’ concern for virtues and order, and they explain how a united China chose Confucianism as a guiding mindset in national governance.”
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