The Creation of the Holy King and the Preaching of Confucius— The View of Saints and the Identity of Confucius in the Pre Qin and Han Dynasties

The “Tao” of ancient China is derived from the “governance” of the Holy King. So, it has practical attributes. The holy king of “being a ruler and a teacher” had the power to unify “creation”. They created the Tao and practiced it. In the fission of governance since the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Confucius, who had no throne, became the sage who discovered the principle. The meaning of “saint” and “creation” had since split. But Confucius, as the “uncrowned king”, was still limited to not infringing on the “creation” power of the king in the sense of “practicing the Tao”. The sage concept of integrating the “Tao” still existed in political and cultural concepts. Understanding “Tao” in the context of social and political power such as “time”, “the mandate of heaven”, and “creation”, and then understanding the meaning boundary of Confucius as a sage in the social and political power structure of “understanding Tao-practicing Tao”, can be closer to the understanding of Confucius’ identity from the Zhou Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, and can have a closer understanding of the political ideal model of ancient China.