Some Aspects in Transmission of Confucian Tradition

Chinese literary history, confirmed by archaeological evidence, dates back as far as the fourteenth century before Christ. For the first millenium of this literary tradition, China was divided into many semi-autonomous feudal states which were subjects of the King of the whole of China, known as Tien Tzu (Son of Heaven). Soon after China emerged from the Feudal Period into the Imperial Period, in which a powerful central government replaced the feudal states, Confucianism established its orthodox status in Chinese culture and was rarely challenged until the turn of the twentieth century. For about two millenia, the Chinese people held Confucianism as the absolute authority for moral standards and rules of behavior and were ruled by a government built on Confucian doctrines, with Confucianists as its chief administrators. Confucianism has, as Wu-chi Liu puts it, 'moulded the national character......touched every corner of human activity......permeated life in all its aspects, whether moral, political, or socia. ' It has been the core and symbol of Chinese culture.