CONFUCIUS' ANSWER

NEITHER of these solutions to be turmoil of Confucius' day impressed him the realists' force could restrain gross misconduct, but it would not change attitudes. Mo Ti was closer to the mark in recognizing that attitudes had to change, but his total reliance on lover was unrealistic. To be effective on a large scale, love needs the help of social structures and a collective ethos; without these, it preaches ends without means. As for reason - the modern Enlightenment precipitin for social ills - It probably never crossed Confucius' mind; but if it did, he would have dismissed it as not though through. The Chinese Character for "mind" designates "heart" as well, which shows that the Chinese took it for granted that reason functions in a context of attitudes and emotions. Unless our hearts prompt us to cooperate, reason will devise clever stratagems to further self-interest.

Agonizing over the inhumanity of his day, Confucius looked in an altogether different direction for its cure. He became obsessed with tradition and its power to civilize. His studies convinced him that about five hundred years earlier, in the opening phase of the Chou Dynasty, China had achieved a truly golden age. Calling it the age of the Grand Harmony, Confucius reflected on what has brought his happy state into being and concluded that it was the way of life ( another way of saying tradition) that its ancestors had perfected and transmitted to their offspring as naturally as they had given them life itself.

Confucius stood in awe of the Chou way of life, and longed for its peace and harmony that mocked his own age by contrast. To recover its secret became his obsession. How though, could this be done when the force that created it - a model, spontaneous tradition-had crumbled? his answer can be put succinctly. When spontaneous tradition loosed its power, shore it up with deliberate tradition-tradition now consciously attended to and give reasoned support. He wouldn't  have couched his program in these words, but this in effect was what it came to.