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CHAPTER 5 The Rise of the Shi The heart of the ancient benevolent persons . . . was neither to be delighted in things nor to feel sorry for themselves.At the loftiness of [imperial] temples and halls, they worried for their people, in the remoteness of rivers and lakes they worried for their ruler. Hence entering [the court], they worried; and leaving it, also worried: so when did they enjoy? It must be said: they were the first to worry the worries of All under Heaven, and the last to enjoy its joys. Oh! Without these persons, where could I find my place? —Fan Zongyan This epigraph, taken from the “Inscription of the Yueyang Tower” (“Yueyang Lou ji” 岳陽樓記) by Fan Zhongyan (范仲淹, 989–1052 CE), contains arguably the most famous lines by this leading intellectual of the Northern Song dynasty (北宋, 960–1126).1 Fan, one of the pivotal figures of the Northern Song intellectual revival,succinctly summarized certain basic features of the self-image of the Chinese elite. Dedicated to one’s lofty ideals to the point of self-denial, being public-spirited and politically involved (worrying about the people and about the ruler), and having a sense of collective identity, a notion reflected in Fan’s desire to “find his place” among his admirable predecessors— all these were characteristic of the superior men’s self-ideal from the Zhanguo period on. Among the superior men’s features outlined by Fan Zhongyan, two—selfconfident idealism and political involvement—will stand at the center of this part of the book. In Chapter 5 I show how the rise of the shi stratum from the lower segment of the hereditary aristocracy to the ruling elite changed the self-image of the intellectually active shi and how these intellectuals succeeded in defining their position as the moral leaders of the society. In Chapter 6 I analyze various attitudes the shi had toward political involvement, showing that despite frequently proclaimed antagonism toward the filthy career-oriented life, the imperative to serve the ruler—whether for egoistic or for idealistic 115 reasons—remained a major guideline for the Zhanguo shi.In Chapter 7 I show how the tension between the lofty self-image of the shi and their actual position as the ruler’s servants endangered political stability and how late Zhanguo thinkers began proposing to curb shi autonomy. In the epilogue to chapter 7, I shall focus on the implementation of these proposals shortly after the imperial unification and on how in these new conditions the descendants of the Zhanguo shi, the imperial literati, achieved a tense and yet sustainable coexistence with the imperial power-holders.2 We shall begin our discussion of the self-image of Zhanguo shi with a citation from one of the latest texts of the Warring States period.Writing on the eve of the imperial unification, the Lüshi chunqiu authors dedicated the following praise to shi who attained the Way: Those who have attained the Way . . . consider Heaven as ultimate standard, virtue as a behavioral norm,theWay as their ancestor.They endlessly change together with things; their essence fills Heaven and Earth and is boundless, their spirit covers the universe and is inexhaustible.Nobody knows their beginning , nobody knows their end, nobody knows their gate, nobody knows their limit, nobody knows their source. Nothing is exterior to their greatness ,nothing is interior to their smallness:this is called the most esteemed.As for these shi, the Five Thearchs could not obtain them as friends, the Three Kings could not obtain them as teachers; only when they cast aside their Thearchs’ and kings’ airs could they approach and be able to attain them.3 This passage displays some of the common topoi of the shi-related discourse of the late Zhanguo period. Extraordinary pride, firm belief in their abilities to grasp the essentials of theTrueWay, and a haughty stand toward the rulers, even the best of whom must “cast aside theirThearchs’ and kings’ airs” to “approach and attain” the worthy shi, became part and parcel of the shi image as reflected in many other texts. In this chapter I shall trace the evolution of this self-image and try to identify the social and intellectual processes that contributed to its emergence. In particular I shall focus on two achievements of pre-imperial Chinese intellectuals: their ability to convince the rulers of their indispensability for the state’s well-being and their attainment of intellectual autonomy from and superiority over power-holders. Having...

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