Tantai Mieming or Dantai Mieming (; born 512 BC), also known by his

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theob ...

Ziyu (), was a major

disciple of Confucius According to Sima Qian, Confucius said: "The disciples who received my instructions, and could themselves comprehend them, were seventy-seven individuals. They were all scholars of extraordinary ability." It was traditionally believed that Confuciu ...

. He was known for being very ugly, but was morally upright. He started his own school in the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

region, and became a major transmitter of Confucian thoughts.

Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...

initially misjudged him because of his bad looks, but later expressed his regret.

Life

According to the ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...

'', Tantai Mieming (Ziyu) was born in 512 BC, 39 years younger than Confucius, but the ''

Kongzi Jiayu The ''Kongzi Jiayu'' (), translated as ''The School Sayings of Confucius'' or ''Family Sayings of Confucius'', is a collection of sayings of Confucius (Kongzi), written as a supplement to the ''Analects'' (''Lunyu''). A book by the title had exi ...

'' says he was 49 years younger. He was born in Wucheng (Wu City) in the State of Lu, Confucius' native state. Tantai was known for being exceedingly ugly, and Confucius considered him untalented because of his bad looks, but he proved to be a morally upright person. After graduating from the school of Confucius, he moved south to the

region and started his own school with 300 students. He became an important transmitter of

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...

thoughts, and was famous among the rulers of states. When Confucius learned of Ziyu's success, he remorsefully said: "I used to judge a person by his speech and erred in Zai Yu; I used to judge a person by his appearance and erred in Ziyu."

Honours and memorials

Confucian temple A temple of Confucius or Confucian temple is a temple for the veneration of Confucius and the sages and philosophers of Confucianism in Chinese folk religion and other East Asian religions. They were formerly the site of the administration ...

s, Tantai Mieming's spirit tablet is placed in the outer court, beyond those of the

Four Assessors The Four Sages, Assessors, Legge, James. The Confucian Analects, the Great Learning, & the Doctrine of the Mean'. 1893. or Correlates () are four eminent Chinese philosophers in the Confucian tradition. They are traditionally accorded a kind of sai ...

and

Twelve Wise Ones The Twelve Philosophers or Wise Ones ( Chinese: , ''Shí'èr Zhé'') are 12 eminent philosophers in the Chinese Confucian tradition. They are traditionally accounted a kind of sainthood and their spirit tablets are prominently placed in Confucian ...

. During the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

, Emperor Xuanzong posthumously awarded Tantai Mieming the nobility title of Count of Jiang (江伯). During the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

, he was further awarded the title of Marquis of Jinxiang (金鄉侯). According to the Tang dynasty historian

Sima Zhen Sima Zhen (; 679–732), courtesy name Zizheng (Tzu-cheng; 子正), was a Tang dynasty Chinese historian born in what is now Jiaozuo, Henan. Sima Zhen was one of the most important commentators on the ''Shiji ''Records of the Grand Histo ...

in his ''Shiji Suoyin'', the Tantai (Dantai) Lake () southeast of Suzhou is named after Tantai Mieming. There is a Tantai Mieming tomb ( 澹台滅明墓) in

Nanchang Nanchang (, ; ) is the capital of Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. Located in the north-central part of the province and in the hinterland of Poyang Lake Plain, it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east ...

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

province, on the campus of Nanchang No. 2 High School. It has a tombstone erected during the Song dynasty, and was refurbished during the

Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peop ...

and Qing dynasties.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tantai, Mieming 512 BC births Year of death unknown Disciples of Confucius 5th-century BC Chinese philosophers Philosophers from Lu (state) 5th-century BC Chinese people