Editing Confucius (section)

===Music and poetry===
{{Main|Ritual and music system}}
[[File:Kǒngzǐ Shīlùn Manuscript from Shanghai Museum 1.jpg|thumb|left|The ''Shijing'' or ''[[Classic of Poetry]]'']]
[[Music]] was one of the [[Six Arts|six arts]] that students needed to master, together with archery, charioteering, mathematics, calligraphy, and a partner to music, the purpose of rituals. Confucius heavily promoted the use of music with rituals or the rites order.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Koto from the series The Six Arts in Fashionable Guise|url=https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1985.301|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art|date=2024-01-21}}</ref> Unlike other philosophers around the world, Confucius viewed music and [[music theory]] beyond a mere art form or curriculum subject, and stated that it was intrinsically intertwined with rites in structuring man. <blockquote>"Music is that which moves man from the internal; rites are that which affects man
on the external. Music brings about harmony. Rites ensure obedience."</blockquote> To Confucius, music created the focus necessary to unite and harmonize man. Thus, music and rites together were more than beneficial but were to make people act in a manner compatible with heaven and earth.<ref name="kirkendall">{{Cite web|last=Kirkendall|first=Jensen Armstrong|title=The Well Ordered Heart: Confucius on Harmony, Music, and Ritual|url=https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/998/2018/11/JensenKirkendall-TheWellOrderedHeart.pdf|publisher=Azusa Pacific University|date=2017-12-14 |access-date=2021-04-13|archive-date=2021-04-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413045728/https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/998/2018/11/JensenKirkendall-TheWellOrderedHeart.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The scholar [[Li Zehou]] argued that Confucianism is based on the idea of rites. Rites serve as the starting point for each individual and that these sacred social functions allow each person's human nature to be harmonious with reality. Given this, Confucius believed that "music is the harmonization of heaven and earth; the rites is the order of heaven and earth." Therefore, the application of music in rites creates the order that makes it possible for society to prosper.<ref name=kirkendall/>

The Confucian approach to music was heavily inspired by the {{em|[[Classic of Poetry|Shijing or Classic of Poetry]]}} and the {{em|[[Classic of Music]]}}, which was said to be the sixth Confucian classic until it was lost during the [[Han dynasty]]. The {{em|Classic of Poetry}} serves as one of the current Confucian classics and is a book on poetry that contains a diversified variety of poems as well as poems meant for folk songs. Confucius is traditionally ascribed with compiling these classics within his school.<ref>{{citation
  |title = The Penguin Book of Chinese Verse
  |editor-first = Albert Richard |editor-last = Davis
  |location = Baltimore |publisher = Penguin Books |year = 1970
  |postscript = 
  }}</ref> In the Analects, Confucius described the importance of poetry in the intellectual and moral development of an individual:<ref name="Confucius, The Analects - 17">{{Cite web|title=Confucius, The Analects – 17|url=https://china.usc.edu/confucius-analects-17|date=1901-12-13|access-date=2021-04-13|archive-date=2021-04-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413045737/https://china.usc.edu/confucius-analects-17|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cai |first=Zong-qi |date=July 1999 |title=In Quest of Harmony: Plato and Confucius on Poetry  |journal=Philosophy East and West |volume=49 |issue=3 |pages=317–345 |doi=10.2307/1399898 |jstor=1399898 <!-- requires url, but for the fans: |access-date=2021-04-13 -->}}</ref>
{{poemquote|The Master said, "My children, why do you not study the {{em|Book of Poetry}}?
{{Em|The Odes}} serve to stimulate the mind.
They may be used for purposes of self-contemplation.
They teach the art of sociability.
They show how to regulate feelings of resentment.
From them you learn the more immediate duty of serving one's father, and the remoter one of serving one's prince.
From them we become largely acquainted with the names of birds, beasts, and plants."<ref name="Confucius, The Analects - 17"/>}}Confucians in later generations had conservative and mixed views on international musical influences encroaching on China, in particular those with varying styles that did not traditionally accompany rites, and some preached against sentimental tendencies from the [[Persians]], the [[Greco-Bactrians]], and the [[Mongols]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Durant |first=Will |author-link=Will Durant |title=Our Oriental Heritage: Being a History of Civilization in Egypt and the Near East to the Death of Alexander, and in India, China and Japan from the Beginning to Our Own Day; With an Introduction, on the Nature and Foundations of Civilization |title-link=The Story of Civilization#I. Our Oriental Heritage (1935) |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |year=1954 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/storciviliz00dura/page/n823/mode/1up 723]}}</ref>