Abstract

A major portion of the Confucian Analects is devoted to a description of an ideal, the chun-tzu or gentleman. This exemplary figure was presented as an ideal ruler who was capable of bringing state and society to good order. Through an examination of Shang oracle inscriptions, Western Chou bronze inscriptions and literary sources, the present study demonstrates that the formulation of the ideal of the gentleman was based on earlier traditions and values surrounding the character of kingship in archaic China. ;This study opens with an examination of pre-Confucian political theology. It shows that early formulations of royal authority and legitimacy were often based on the ideas of inherited authority and the king's relations to divinity. It traces these and related ideas through the Shang and Western Chou dynasties and illustrates the gradual diffusion of many symbols of royal authority throughout the aristocracy. This study also extends earlier work by showing how model emulation and presentation were traditional expressions of inherited authority and the excellence of the hereditary elite. ;An examination of the Analects presents the essential correspondence between the traditional perception of the sovereign and the Confucian ideal of the gentleman. Expressions used to describe the personal excellence of the Confucian gentleman often originated in similar expressions describing the authority of the sovereign. In addition, both performed central roles in the maintenance of the state and creation of order among men. This study also indicates some of the ways in which Confucius was both a creator and a transmitter. It examines and clarifies the origins of the debate concerning achieved status in the Analects. It also points out some of the ways in which early Confucian thought extended earlier beliefs, making learning, not birth, the criterion of human worth