History Reading Notes: August 31 2016

• Pg.102-106 Under Confucius and His Followers
• Pg.102
• During the same period in which Indian sages and mystics were developing religious speculation about karma, souls, and ultimate reality... 
• Chinese thinkers were arguing about the ideal forms of social and political organization and man's connection to nature.
• Pg.103
• In the Confucian tradition, studying texts came to be valued over speculation, meditation, and mystical identification with deities
• Confucius encouraged men who came to study with him to master rituals, that we know today as Confucian classics
• Mencius's philosophy for leadership and politics appears to be strongly connected with the concepts laid out in the mandate of heaven
• Xunzi believed that ritual, was key to teaching people how to place moral principles, above one's own interests
• Pg.104-105
• Confucius had declined to discuss gods, portents, and anomalies and had spoken of sacrificing as if the spirits were present
• Xunzi argued explicitly that heaven does not intervene in human affairs
• Xunzi did not propose abandoning traditional rituals
• Xunzi believed rituals.... 
• Had positive effects on those who practiced and observed them
• Allowed people to express feelings and satisfy desires in an orderly manner 
• Specified ways to perform rites based on social rank and religious conditions
• Help to sustain the social hierarchy
• Pg.106
• Xunzi believed rituals...
• Shaped people's sense of duty, while creating social differentiation 
• Repaying ancestors was seen as a sacred duty, as one could never have existed without the existence of those before them

• Pg.96-97
• The King of Zhou was known as The Son of Heaven
• The Mandate of Heaven States..
• Heaven chooses the worthiest man to be king
• A king can loose their worth
• Heaven can replace an unworthy king, with the worthiest man
• Zhou Kings sacrificed not only to their ancestors, but to heaven
• Sacrifices to ancestors were key rituals that were used to forge social ties
• Pg.93-94
• The Shang King was also a high priest
• The Shang King was most qualified to offer sacrifices to royal ancestors and the high god Di
• The Shang King divined his ancestor's wishes by interpreting the cracks made in heated cattle bones or tortoise shells prepared for him by professional diviners
• Royal ancestors are believed to be able to intervene with Di, allowing them to..
• Send Curses
• Produce Dreams
• Assist The King In Battle
• During the Shang Dynasty, tombs would contain...
• Weapons
• Treasures
• Living Servants
• Cicadas symbolize..
• Rebirth in the realm of ancestral spirits
• Birds were considered to be able to...
• Send messages to other realms
• Especially sky realms
• The Taotie
• An image of a monster used to scare away evil forces
• Stylized animal face
• Pg. 108 Zhuangzi's Story About Death
• Zhuangzi Outlines Creation to Death As The Following Process...
• In the amorphous realm, something changes and life energy appears...
• Life energy then takes form, changes form, and life begins....
• Another change occurs..and then death
• Pg. 110-111 Xunzi's View of Rituals / Divine Animals/ Astrology/ Divination/ Astral Gods/ Exorcism
• Animals that were considered divine include...
• Dragons
• Phoneixes 
• The popular religion of the time was..
• Astrology
• The View of Illness Presented By Divination Was....
• Illness is due to the presence of unsatisfied spirits or malevolent demons, best dealt with through performing exorcisms or offering sacrifices to the astral god Taiyi
• Chapter Summary
• Pg. 111
• Slaves + Gods = Revenue?
• Slaves captured during the war, were sacrificed to the Gods, in order to supply the Shang king with revenue.
• The Book of Documents 
• Mandate of Heaven
• Justified Zhou rule and the overthrow of the Shang Dynasty by stating that...
• A king must rule in the interests of the people
• A kind who does not rule in the interests of the people is not worthy to be king
• Heaven can remove the power of an unworthy king and transfer it to a new and worthier king
• The Warring States Period
• Xunzi stressed that ritual is important to society because...
• It provided order to the people
• How?
• Rituals were conducted differently depending on class
• Rituals allowed for an orderly way for people to deal with emotions
• Practicing rituals promotes traditional ideas, and keeps traditions thriving
• Natural Philosophers
• Explained the world through the feminine and masculine forces of yin and yang