(given name, Qiu; style, Zhongni; 551–479 bce). Chinese philosopher. Founder of the official state ideology of imperial China and a sage venerated by Chinese people throughout the last 25 centuries, Confucius laid the foundations of Chinese music theories and practices. He taught that music is a genuine expression of human hearts and minds, and should be practised in conjunction with ritual as a means of governance and self-cultivation; ‘proper music’ should be promoted, while ‘licentious’ music should be banished. Confucius' musical ideas and practice, documented in texts such as the Lunyu (‘Analects’) and Kongzi jiayu (‘Familial Sayings of Confucius’), have been studied and interpreted by successive generations of Confucian and music scholars.
Confucius practised music throughout his life of teaching, travelling, and service with a number of regional states of the time. He performed and composed music for the qin zither: when young, he learned Wenwang cao (‘King Wen's Instrumental Solo’) from the music master Xiang of his native state Lu (in modern Shandong), practising the piece until he grasped not only its structure but also its meaning; he composed Yilan (‘The Lone Orchid’) to lament that his idealistic social policies found no patron. He sang all the 305 songs he collected in the Shijing (‘Classic of Odes’), and sang his own swan song seven days before he died.
Above all, he was a most perceptive and forceful musical critic. In 517 bce, he heard Shao, a work attributed to the legendary Emperor Shun, and proclaimed it as the most perfect and beautiful example of ‘proper music’. By contrast, he denounced the tunes of the Zheng and Wei states as licentious, urging that they should be banished. In 497 bce, to demonstrate his disapproval of such music, he abruptly left the Lu court when its ruler Jihuanzi accepted a gift of female musicians and succumbed to their charms. His musical influence has been sustained to the present day.
See also China, §II.
H. Fingarette: Confucius: the Secular as Sacred (New York, 1972)
Confucius: The Analects, trans. D.C. Lau (London, 1979)
J.E. Wills Jr: ‘Confucius’, Mountain of Fame: Portraits in Chinese History (New York, 1994)
JOSEPH S.C. LAM