PART III: CORE STUDY
5. Recap
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Hence, commentators extract features of rigidity and flexibility from figurative expressions in 15.6 and posit a comparison between the persons cited. My observation is that one has to carry metaphoric inference into higher levels of abstraction to draw entailments of rigidity and flexibility from the raw images of the passage and immediate context.83 Besides, there is no intimation of deficiency in the view which the metaphoric utterance casts on Shiyu. Instead being “arrow-like” and the double ability of taking and relinquishing office both come across as extolled features of ministers of the Way. Inasmuch as previously mentioned English commentators follow orthodox Chinese glosses, I surmise that the rigidity-flexibility take on 15.6 is likely fueled by Neo-Confucian fascination with change and response.
5. Recap
Examination of archery metaphor in the Analects offers fertile ground for discussion.
Much more investigation, analysis, and development of the passages could be done than what I have been able to do here. Images deriving from archery led us to contemplate the ideal attitude of a gentleman in power and the nature of moral struggle through the phrase「君子無所爭」 of 3.7, the hidden riches of sagely rule and of moral learning with the remark「射不主皮」of 3.16, and the qualities and actuation of a minister of the Way through the expression「如矢」 of 15.6.
Throughout the chapter, I endeavored to work out viable ways of comprehending these metaphoric passages, in such a way that although only three passages clearly involve archery metaphor, it was possible to bring their propositions into relation with underlying themes of the Analects and of the historical milieu of early Confucianism. Metaphor study can afford such holistic and contextualized reading.
In the course of discussing sample passages, metaphor study also offered the additional advantage of exploring related themes such as beliefs about early Chinese athletics, relation between rituals and morals, and attitude towards martial affairs.
By distinguishing between literal and figurative levels of reading in accordance with the demands of metaphoric comprehension, I attempted some clarification about widespread stereotypes.
Likewise, attention to what bare images and recoverable context yield made it possible to discern different levels of – in some cases added – interpretation. I myself have brought up a reading on 15.6 that is based more on imagination than verifiable
(Brooks 1998, 132).
83 For example, rigidity extracted from the utter narrowness of an arrow’s figure or trajectory, and flexibility from the circular motion of rolling up? At least this is how Prof. Dennis Da Costa (Boston University) suggested that I develop the metaphor in the paper which I presented about passage 15.6 during the International Conference on Time and the Book of Changes, Beijing Normal University, June 2014.
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information. Variations of interpretations of passages with archery metaphor by comparing commentaries over time and between cultures could prove extremely useful for tracing evolutions and developments in Confucianism. It is a method that can be applied by attending to other kinds of metaphors in the Analects whose use is continued in posterior traditions or shared with other schools.84 There will be more occasion to probe into archery metaphor in the Analects when we bring it into comparison with Nicomachean Ethics in the concluding chapter.
84 For example, metaphors based on vessels used (e.g. jade and bronze containers), on natural phenomena (e.g. heavenly bodies, seasons, vegetation), or logistic setting (e.g. hall and inner room).
Helpful research on image sources of figurative language in antiquity by David Keightly: “Craft and Culture: Metaphors of Governance in Early China”, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sinology: Section on History and Archeology”, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 1989.
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CHAPTER 5
Archery Metaphor in the Nicomachean Ethics
I will not bring dishonor on my sacred arms nor will I abandon my comrade (…) I will defend the rights of gods and men and will not leave my country smaller, when I die, but greater and better, so far as I am able by myself and with the help of all (…) I will respect the rulers (and) honor the cults of my fathers.
- Ephebic Oath85
1. Preliminaries: Ethics Lessons from the Gym
Investigating archery in ancient Greek history brought before our eyes, among other things, the amusing fact that athletics and intellectual disciplines were bedfellows.
Different from the set-up of modern schooling, physical education in antiquity was regarded as anything but extra-curricular. In fact, athletics was not only confined to early stages of schooling but was learned hand-in-hand with poetry, music and mental disciplines in puberty and adolescence, until at last becoming part of the adult life of a “leisured” Greek citizen.86 Thus in every polis, the gymnasium was not only a place for bodily exercise and sports but also a hub for educational and social
85 IV BC Attic inscription highly expressive of Athenian ethic: extract from pledge of young men upon enrolling in the ephebeia. Eric Casey’s remarks about the oath help consolidate what we had seen about archery and military-athletic education in chapter 3: “The oath displays how intertwined military, civic, and religious matters were in classical Athens. The pledge not to abandon one’s fellow fighter undoubtedly refers to the communal nature of hoplite warfare although it should be recalled that by the time of the fourth century BCE hoplites were not the only important category of warrior, with light armed troops, cavalry, archers and sailors all contributing to national defense. (Towards the end of the fourth century, the ephebeia gave) some sign of its future as an educational and civic as well as military institution”, Casey in Grubbs & Parkin 2013, 420.
86 Despite Athens’s gymnasia being publicly funded, poorer citizens eking out a living would not have had the “leisure” for physical recreation, Willets in McIntosh et al. 1981, 23; Petermandl in Christesen
& Kyle 2014, 243. Facts like this make us aware of the aristocratic side of Axial Age Greece, implying too that the philosophical schools that flourished during this time catered to upper classes. At the same time, however, the onslaught of democracy in Athens was making itself felt. Noting the vision of education outlined in the Laws, Cynthia Patterson points out that “Plato’s proposal for compulsory education for boys and girls might be seen as making public what was, as Aristotle noted, traditionally (in Athens and elsewhere) a private concern”, Patterson in Grubbs & Parkin 2013, 375. Nick Fisher likewise warns against “excessive concentration on elite perceptions and activities” in his article
“Gymnasia and the Democratic Values of Leisure.” Considering the effects of democratization on athletic facilities and festivals, he writes that “significant aspects of these leisure activities and their rituals became more accessible to wider groups of citizens; that participation in such things became part of democratic expectations”, see Fisher in König 2010, 66-67.
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activities.87
It is no coincidence, then, that schools of thought emerged precisely in the precincts of Athens’ three principal gymnasia, namely the Academy, the Lyceum, and the Kynosarges.88 In the initial periods of their schools, Plato and Aristotle would have taught within the core edifices of the gymnasia and their surrounding gardens before annexing structures for specific use of their schools. For centuries, the Academy had been a public sports complex with altars and sprawling grounds spacious enough for cavalry processions and, on occasion, for sheltering army units before Plato lived and taught in its vicinity (Kyle 1987, 72-76). Similarly, the Lyceum was a large athletic sanctuary where annual military reviews were held as well as cavalry and missile sport exhibitions. As was typical of gymnasia, the Lyceum included a “peripatos”, that is, a shaded walkway either within the colonnaded structure itself or in adjacent parks. Decades before Aristotle’s Peripatetic school came to exist, it was an important center for secondary education which Socrates himself regularly visited, spending hours in dialogue with promising young men. Even when these gymnasia became sites of flourishing philosophical schools in the Golden Age, they continued to function as public facilities for athletic training so that
“educational use (…) co-existed with, rather than replaced, the earlier functions of the gymnasium” (Kyle 1987, 76; also, Petermandl in Christesen & Kyle 2014, 239). As one historian succinctly puts it, both Academy and Lyceum were “training grounds for every young man and for every aspect of the man”, (Miller 2004, 185).89 Doubling as venues for secondary education, the Academy enjoyed greater prestige while the Lyceum was more civilly involved (Kyle 1985, 82).
With all these, it comes as no surprise that Plato, Aristotle, and another student of the Academy, Xenocrates, are among the most important sources we have today on physical education in Western antiquity. From their writings, all three easily
87 According to F.E. Leonard, the gymnasium was “intended for ephebes and for grown men who had finished their schooling” while the palaistra was for the training of young boys. None of our other sources make this differentiation but agree with Leonard that “the gymnasia came to be more and more the centers of Greek social and intellectual life, a gathering place of citizens for conversation and amusement which combined some of the features of a modern clubhouse with those of a city park.
Philosophers and rhetoricians found a general audience or met their special pupils there, and thus it happened that each of the three great gymnasia at Athens became associated with particular schools of philosophy”, Leonard 1947, 22-23. ,
88 The Kynosarges gymnasium was a sanctuary of Heracles associated with the Cynic school.
89 What Miller writes in continuation is helpful background information that I wish to emphasize in this prelude to archery metaphor in Aristotle: “Successful athletes emerged from the playing fields of the Akademy and the Lykeion, and successful poets, playwrights, politicians, and philosophers emerged as well. Here young legs and young minds were stretched and prepared for life’s competitions. Here Plato and Aristotle and many before and after them engaged young men in the total human experience. Plato’s Akademy and Aristotle’s Lykeion – terms which came to represent types of philosophical schools – were first and last gymnasia and that there is no inherent reason to separate the activities of the mind from those of the body”, Miller 2004, 185.
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qualify for “sports fanatics”, a label which at any case would have applied to typical inhabitants of Greek city-states.
At the same time, a slow process with lasting consequences was taking place in the premises of Athens’s gymnasia during the Golden Age: athletics was becoming more specialized, and education more intellectual. However, it was not until later Hellenic and Roman eras that the process reached completion.90 As for Plato and Aristotle, physical training was unquestionably important not only for bodily excellence but also for mental preparation and moral training. Athletics was an integral part of education in the curriculum proposed by Plato in the Laws. Though critical about excesses of competition and the violence of certain athletic genres, Plato acknowledged the necessity of physical education on several counts: as preparation for war, to preserve the health of citizens, and to aid in the development of character (Beck 1964, 211). Cynthia Patterson rightly observes that in the Laws as much as in the Republic, Plato shows keen awareness that gymnastics is not irrelevant to the soul (Patterson in Grubbs & Parkin 2013, 370).
Aristotle largely concurred with his teacher about the benefits of gymnastics. He argued that “education by habit must precede education by reason, and that training of the body must likewise precede training of the mind” (Willets in McIntosh et al.
1981, 30). He discouraged, however, practicing it in the manner of professional athletes whose disproportionate dedication to sport and meticulous diet rendered them practically useless for real life feats. Besides, he believed that all too rigorous athletic training at a young age hindered the natural development of the body and was incompatible with mental exertion. Hence, in the Politics, he espoused a theory of graduated exercise for his school.91 In holding these views about physical education and its importance for character formation, Aristotle and Plato shared
90 The transitions that athletics and gymnasia as centers of education underwent from archaic Greece to Roman times is described by Henri Marrou in his book History of Education in Antiquity (London:
Sheed and Ward, 1981). Marrou’s account of the outcome of the process by IV AD is comparable to modern education: “In the Greek -speaking countries the classical literary education persisted after the triumph of Christianity, but physical education disappeared completely (…) AD 323 was the last date at which ephebes appeared in any sporting event (…) We have detailed evidence of the type of life led by Greek students in the fourth century AD and we know a great deal about their occupations and pastimes. And sport, in the strict sense of the word, was conspicuous by its absence. Of course, like all young people they played open-air games – ball games, etc. – but these were simply pastimes:
their education was completely intellectual, and athletics had no place in it”, Marrou 1981, 131-132.
91 He writes, “It is an admitted principle that gymnastic exercises should be employed in education, and that for children they should be of a lighter kind, avoiding severe regimen or painful toil lest the growth of the body be impaired. The evil of excessive training in early years is strikingly proved by the example of the Olympic victors; for not more than two or three of them have gained a prize both as boys and as men; their early training and severe gymnastic exercises exhausted their constitutions (…) Men ought not to labor at the same time with their minds and with their bodies; for the two kinds of labor are opposed to one another – the labor of the body impedes the labor of the mind, and the labor of the mind, the body”, Politics VIII.4.
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their milieu’s general esteem for athletics. In light of this, we can reject stereotype comments that turn up in comparisons between ancient Chinese and Greek societies, such as those charging Greek education to be too intellectual and abstract, or purporting that “unlike the people of most Western societies, the (ancient) Chinese incorporated philosophical and moral qualities into their sports” (Crowther 2007, 2).92
Turning to archery, we recall from a previous chapter that this was neither a dominant military skill nor athletic event for the Greeks. However, from archaic times and throughout the classic age, the evolving nature and circumstances of warfare gave impetus to archery as diversified armies became necessary for land and sea battles. Archery training thus became part of the military preparation of young Athenian men. Sources converge in saying that these young men trained in weapons use in the city’s gymnasia. At the same time that they underwent intensive training in martial skills, part of their preparation for citizenship too were lectures, heritage tours, and group attendance in official events.93 As a matter of fact, V BC Athens saw a rise in demand for advanced education which reflected both in the intellectual reinforcement of ephebic training and the addition to gymnasia of “spaces dedicated to intellectual pursuits, such as lecture theaters and libraries” (Petermandl in Christesen & Kyle, 2014, 239). The phenomenon undoubtedly catered to the democratic needs of Athens, since being a citizen meant becoming part of the state’s decision-making process. Hence, “the epheboi attended lectures in the gymnasion and listened to philosophers in the Akademy and the Lykeion” (Miller 2004, 194). The use of gymnasia as venue for intellectual activity is reflected in the floorplan of the ancient gymnasium of Olympia which includes a designated area for lectures. This space was the “ephebeion” where “young men training to become citizens received lessons about the heritage and traditions of their homeland” (Miller 2004, 177).
Aristotle was undoubtedly familiar with the ephebic institution and has left us an account of their curriculum in the Constitution of Athens. He explains that an ephebos must be at least 18 years of age and of citizen parents. In the first year of training, they visited landmarks and were assigned athletic trainers as well as military skills instructors “who teach them to fight in heavy armor, to use the bow and javelin, and to discharge a catapult.” In the second year, after a public display of skills, the state awarded each ephebos a shield and spear before sending them off to “patrol the country and spend their time in the forts.” After two years of garrison duty, they
92 I found some such ideas common in comparative works.
93 Successful young men in China joined the ritual “war” dance with the monarch during the Great Sacrifice to ancestors. Ephebic training included something similar yet so different: pyrrhic dances in which they bore themselves naked with spears and shields as they imitated battle actions of heroes or Athena’s motions when leaping forth from the mind of Zeus, Fisher in König 2010, 72.
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became official citizens (cf. Constitution of Athens 42).94
LEFT: Floorplan of ancient Olympic gymnasium, with colonnaded, open, inner court where athletes practiced wrestling, boxing and pankration under the sun. Room XII is identified as the ephebeion. RIGHT: An artist’s impression of the ephebeion viewed from the central courtyard. Source: Miller 2004, 177-178.
The decade when Aristotle set up school in the Lyceum were trying times for Athens. The city-state had just been defeated by Philip II at Chaeronea (338 BC), prompting Lycurgus to revamp and subsidize ephebic training so as to “foster renewed patriotism and civic cohesion at a difficult moment for Athens” (Casey in Grubbs & Parkin 2013, 419). It was with the help of Lycurgus that the Lyceum was renovated as a public gymnasium and expanded to suit the needs of Aristotle’s newly founded school.95 Accordingly, a library, museum, and study halls were added (Kyle 1987, 82). Under the dramatic political circumstances of the Peloponnese in the Golden Age, lectures urging Athenian youth – the epheboi as well as parallel groups of young men who frequented public facilities – to rise up to the needs and ideals of
94 Apart from epheboi, older citizens and alien inhabitants (or “metics”, like Aristotle) of 50 years and above also held garrison duties, cf. Warry 1998, 62. In the Axial age when Athens battled for power and engaged in numerous wars, citizens from all walks of life, foreigners and slaves too, were called upon for state defense. It is amusing to think that the likes of Plato and Aristotle also trained in weapons use, including bows useful for patrol. As we know, Scythians were common as guards and archery trainers in Athens during their period. This may help explain Plato’s acquaintance and fascination with Scythian shooting.
95 The content and size of ephebic institutions waxed and waned between IV and II BC, depending on state funding and Athens’s political situation, see Patterson in Grubbs & Parkin 2013, 424ff. Lycurgus, a politician student of Plato and associate of Aristotle, played an important role in the mid IV BC
95 The content and size of ephebic institutions waxed and waned between IV and II BC, depending on state funding and Athens’s political situation, see Patterson in Grubbs & Parkin 2013, 424ff. Lycurgus, a politician student of Plato and associate of Aristotle, played an important role in the mid IV BC