Original Analects Supplement
Analects Worksheet: Golden Rule

EARLY (05c)

Original Confucius Sayings, recorded c0479 [None]

Early Disciple Period LY 5:12 (c0470): Not a Confucian Maxim; Rejected by Confucius

Dzvng Family Period [None]

MIDDLE (04c)

Early Kung Family Ritual Period [None]

Chi Asserts Kingship, 0342

Developed Kung Family Ritual Period [None]

Zone of Mencian Influence; Early Hundred Schools Period LY 12:5 (c0326): Confucian Maxim; Recommended

Dwindling of Political Influence; Middle Hundred Schools Period [None]

LATE (Tswei Shu Layer, early and middle 03c)

Chi Conquest of Sung, 0286

Early Period of Decline; Late Hundred Schools Period [None]

Sywndz Becomes Director of Lan-ling, 0255

Responses to Sywndzian Dominance [None]

Chu Absorbs Lu and Surrounding Territory, 0249

The double appearance of the "don't do to others what you don't like yourself" maxim, and the different treatment of the two appearances, are very striking. They suggest that something like the Golden Rule was in the air even in the 05c, but that it was antithetical to the moral temper of the Confucian movement at that time, which emphasized an absolute rather than a relative moral standard, and an extremist or one-valued posture toward that moral standard. It was only with the onset of the medialist or two-valued model of ethical value, which was more receptive to locally determined values even in ritual matters, that it became possible to incorporate the maxim into Confucian precepts.

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