‘Shi’ and intellectuals in ancient China
“Literary Garden” by Zhou Wenju, a renowed painter during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907–960) Photo: FILE
As a special class in ancient China, the shi had its beginnings in the clan system during the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century–771 BCE). Mencius further divided the shi into three classes—“A parallel hierarchy of official ranks is: the emperor, the minister, the counselor, the intellectual (shi) of the first degree, the intellectual of the second degree, the intellectual of the third degree accounted for one grade each. Thus there were six grades in official ranking” (trans. Zhao Zhentao). At that time, the shi operated on the clan system. For example, the eldest son of a minister inherited the title of minister from his father and his younger brothers became shi. Similarly, the eldest son of a shi would become a shi, and his younger brothers would become common people.
The definition of shi changed during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (770–221 BCE). People became shi not through kinship but through their knowledge, expertise and benevolence. The shi were similar to present-day intellectuals, but they included other types of people. During this period, many lords and ministers were patrons of the shi (scholar-knights). The Four Lords of the Warring States—Lord Mengchang of Qi, Lord Pingyuan of Zhao, Lord Xinling of Wei and Lord Chunshen of Chu—wielded influence via the cultivation and housing of many talented house-guests, who often included learned men and tacticians.
According to the Records of the Grand Historian, lord Mengchang had many people in his retinue. Though some of them had no specific skills or had criminal backgrounds, Lord Mengchang still treated them equally and welcomed them with open arms. In 299 BCE, when Lord Mengchang was on an official journey in the state of Qin, he was arrested by the king of Qin because the king didn’t trust him. Desperately, Lord Mengchang sent a messenger to the king’s beloved concubine for help. In exchange for her aid, the woman asked for the snow fox fur coat which Lord Mengchang had already given to the king as a gift. One of Lord Mengchang’s shi in Qin was a skilled thief. He disguised himself as a dog, sneaked into the king’s treasury under cover of darkness and retrieved the coat. Within two days, Lord Mengchang was released thanks to the pleading of the concubine. Lord Mengchang then dashed to the border. By midnight of the next day, he had reached Hangu Pass—the last checkpoint of Qin before entering the territories of Qi. The king of Qin immediately regretted letting Lord Mengchang go and led a small army to chase him in order to bring him back. The guards at Hangu Pass would not let anyone pass through until the cock-crow at dawn. Lord Mengchang turned to his entourage for help. One of his aides could imitate all types of sounds. He crowed like a rooster, and this woke up the rest of the roosters. Not knowing that Lord Mengchang was being hunted, the guards at the pass then allowed Lord Mengchang and his entourage to enter Qi territory into safety.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the shi became the backbone of the nation. Yuling Zizhong was a well-known shi in the state of Qi at that time. One day, Qi’s king sent an emissary to the state of Zhao to greet Queen Wei. She asked the emissary, “Is Yuling Zizhong still alive? This person refused to work for the regime, overlooked his responsibility of taking care of his family and wouldn’t consort with the sovereigns of other states. Thus he is unparalleled in slacking off. Why haven’t you sentenced him to death?”
What Queen Wei said represented the attitude of some rulers towards the shi, similar to Yuling Zizhong. They thought that these shi were dangerous for the nation. There were many shi like Yuling Zizhong during the Warring States Period. They preferred self-cultivation to a career in politics, thus forming an independent force in society. They also presumed that they could criticize those in power.
Confucius on shi
Confucius said a great deal about the shi in The Analects. The shi mentioned in The Analects were quite like intellectuals today. Confucius had great expectations for them, considering them an important driving force for changing society and restoring the rites of the Zhou Dynasty.
Confucius believed that a shi should follow certain virtues. As The Analects goes, “A Knight (shi) whose heart is set upon the Way, but who is ashamed of wearing shabby clothes and eating coarse food, is not worth calling into counsel.” Here Confucius implied that there were two standards of being a shi—pursuing the Way and the effort to be less materialistic. Confucius thought that a shi should attach more attention to the Way than to money and material possessions, as he said, “A gentleman, in his plans, thinks of the Way; he does not think how he is going to make a living…a gentleman’s anxieties concern the progress of the Way; he has no anxiety concerning poverty.” Confucius identified the Way as love for humans. He said that the mission of a shi was to preach the Way and help the people.
Confucius also divided the shi into three classes. He claimed that “He who in the furtherance of his own interests is held back by scruples, who as an envoy to far lands does not disgrace his prince’s commission, may be called a true knight of the Way (shi). As for the shi ranked next, Confucius said of them, “He whom his relatives commend for filial piety, his fellow villagers, for deference to his elders.” The shi of the lowest rank is the one who always stands by his word, who undertakes nothing that he does not bring to achievement or fruition.
A conversation between Confucius and Zizhang, another student of Confucius, reveals some other characteristics that a shi should have exhibited. Zizhang asked what a knight must be like if he is to be called “influential.” The Master said, “That depends on what you mean by ‘influential.’” Zizhang replied by saying, “If employed by the State, certain to win fame, if employed by a Ruling Family, certain to win fame.” The Master said, “That describes being famous; it does not describe being influential. In order to be influential a man must be by nature straightforward and a lover of right. He must examine men’s words and observe their expressions, and bear in mind the necessity of deferring to others. Such a one, whether employed by the State or by a Ruling Family, will certainly be ‘influential.’”
To sum up, what Confucius valued most in a shi was his moral character, or his pursuit of goodness. “Neither the knight (shi) who has truly the heart of a knight, nor a man of good stock, will ever seek the pleasures of life at the expense of goodness. It may be that he has to give his life in order to achieve goodness.”
Confucius’s students also had innovative ideas about the shi. The one who was named Zixia once said, “The energy that a man has left over after doing his duty to the State, he should devote to study; the energy that he has left after studying, he should devote to service of the State.”
In Confucianism, the imperial bureaucracy was the main avenue for the shi to promote Confucian thought and direct the moral education of the people. Moral principles such as goodness could only be practiced on the individual level.
The article was edited and translated from Guangming Daily. Wang Bin is the vice president of the Chinese Institute of Prose.
edited by REN GUANHONG