The Analects – Chapter 45 (3.5). Civilization’s Soul

3.5

Confucius said, “The rude tribes of the east and north have their princes, and are not like the States of our great land which are without them.””

子曰：「夷狄之有君，不如諸夏之亡也。」

Notes

This passage from the Analects affirmed the value of ritual-music civilization: Compared to barbarian tribes with rulers but lacking ritual order, even if the Central States temporarily lacked rulers, their inherited ritual-music spirit held greater civilizational worth.

Contextualized within the Spring-Autumn era‘s ‘collapse of ritual order’ — where Central States rulers often violated ritual order, while frontier tribes had simple governance but no ritual order or tradition — this statement rejects ethnic prejudice. Instead, it elevates ‘civilizational order’ above ‘political form’, asserting ritual-music as civilization’s foundation.

For Confucius, civilization’s core lies in spiritual order, not external structures:
The Central States’ value resided in their ritual-based civilization (ethics, social harmony, moral education). This spirit could sustain civilizational roots even without rulers. Frontier tribes, despite having governance, could not reach this height due to lacking this spiritual order.

This view embodies the Confucian tenet: ‘Culture transcends political power’ — regimes may rise and fall, but the ethics and order represented by ritual constitute civilization’s animating spirit.