Listening to the Analects: Oral Tradition and Confucius
Orality, Letters and Rhetoric: Why Confucius himself did not write? Though we worship Confucius as the greatest thinker and teacher in traditional China, one fact is that hi did not left us any text, even nor a written letter! His only book the Analects is not written by himself but was edited by others from some notes of his students. The question Why Confucius himself did not write ,naturally led us into the realm of oral traditions.
1.Orality and Literacy in the 5th century BC China. The literacy skill ( written in silk and banboo)of that time is quite luxury and far from the reach of ordinary peoples. Only the high position nobles and few officials could have the advantage of learning and using letters. We have no exact evidence about the literacy of Confucius and his school. It ‘is not surprise for us to find a lot of evidences of oral tradition in his work and time.
2. Oral Patterning in the Analects of Confucius, a Historic Perspective .
The expression form of the Analects is mainly dialect, which clearly shows its roots in oral tradition. Some characteristics of teaching and learning in the dialect could be even traced to Shamanism and other pre-literacy education traditions. Some very famous sayings of Confucius such as “Learning and repeat ”(“学而时习之”), “ to tall but not to write” (“述而不作”),clearly inform a deep hidden dimension of non-literacy roots of Confucius school.
So we could see Confucius as the Last great sage of oral tradition in China Antiquity. This perspective may afford a whole new horizon for the re-thinking and re-evaluation of this precious world legacy.
如果“学”是口传性质的,那么“教”就更是如此了。("If learning was oral,teaching was even more so.") --麦克卢汉(Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone,Essential McLuhan,Anansi Press,1995,p.306.)
“学”与“习”的方式:口授与记诵。古文字学家认为,“学”的本来意义并不等于今天的学习,而是即指教,又指学的双向互动过程。在先秦文献里,学仍可单独用来指教。如《国语。晋语》九:“顺德以学子。”韦昭注:“学,教也。” “从商代甲骨文看,学从爻声,卜辞的‘学戍’(人名)又作‘爻戍’(《甲骨文合集》三五一三)就是很好的证据。商代甲骨文的‘學’包括(兼有)教和学两方面的用义,如卜辞‘王学众’(《合集》三二正)即‘王教众’。到了两周,學仍可表示学和教这两种意义。