a model he naturally looked to the past, to the foundation of the Zhou
dynasty by King Wu, and his faithful and principled brother, the Duke
of Zhou. Confucius believed that social and moral order rested on uni-
versal recognition and acceptance of social and political hierarchy. It
was essential that everyone should know their place in the world,
accept their duties and responsibilities, and recognise their superiors
and inferiors. Moral example should be provided by those at the apex
of the hierarchy, and emulated by their inferiors. Confucius believed
that social anarchy and political immorality happened because the
rulers of states refused to recognise that the powerless Zhou kings still
possessed the mandate of Heaven.
How was this state of affairs to be redressed? As an itinerant
philosopher, with only his tongue to protect him, Confucius was not in
a position to dictate to princes. What Confucius taught as the basis of
good government was ‘the rectification of names’, summed up in a
famous saying: ‘Let the lord be a lord; the subject a subject; the father
a father; the son a son’ (Analects 12.11). Elsewhere he spelled out
what he believed rested on the proper use of language:
If the names are not correct, language is without an
object. When language is without an object, no affair can
be effected. When no affair can be effected, rites and
music wither. When rites and music wither, punishments
and penalties miss their target. When punishments and
penalties miss their target, the people do not know where
they stand. (Analects 13.3)^1Both these sayings taught the same thing: people must be what they
say they are, and if they occupy some office they must act accordingly.
Unless language reflected reality, whatever principles and rules were
enunciated would fail to have the desired effect. So punishments and
penalties imposed for contravening those rules would not bring about
social order, and people would become bewildered, and not know what
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia