01:840:211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Filial Piety, Four Books And Five Classics, Traditional Chinese Characters
Document Summary
Social hierarchy in traditional chinese society: scholar-official, farmer, artisan, merchant, The practice of awarding those who excelled at the examinations with high officer in the later tang dynasty. The road to elite in china was through exam system. A powerfully integrative force in chinese history. A widely shared culture, with a common system of values, beliefs, and customs. The ideal of sage king: government for the people, but not of or the people. When confucian ideology proved ineffective in guiding and constraining the imperial will, there was little recourse. There were no constitutional or legal limits on power or conduct of the emperor and no institutions or offices with legitimate authority to check imperial behavior . Only a son can do ancestral worship. Continuity between this world and the other world. Confucianism and women: confucius said, women are petty men are especially hard to handle (analects 17. 23)
