Confucian Arts

Confucian Arts is an Eastern fantasy web novel by Yuewen author Duanmu Ci. Serialization began on Qidian in June 2014, was suspended for an extended period, and resumed in 2025. The story is set in an alternate world where thought is power: the continent of Tianren is divided into nine nations, each revering Confucianism and selecting officials through imperial examinations. Confucius is venerated as a sage and the Analects as a sacred text. The sages raised the Great Wall of Ten Thousand Li with sacred power to hold back monsters and barbarian tribes, buying humanity a chance to recover and thrive. Confucian scholars draw power from the sacred wall through an awakening of the mind; poems and lyrics can take visible form, calligraphy and painting can become real, and such Confucian arts as drawing a prison on the ground, calling a deer a horse, scattering beans into soldiers, and dotting the eyes of a painted dragon can all be made physically real. The protagonist, Su Lin, is a modern high school senior who, while reciting the Analects in Chinese class, is transported to Fengle County in the state of Wu on Tianren, becoming a fifteen-year-old boy whose parents have both died. He must successfully awaken his mind before coming of age at sixteen to become a true Confucian scholar. His greatest asset is a Wordless Heavenly Book that contains the poems, lyrics, prose, and rhapsodies of Chinese literati across the dynasties; because this world's history diverged after the Han dynasty, later cultural achievements exist only in Su Lin's memory, making this his greatest advantage for gaining a foothold at court and resisting foreign peoples. The narrative follows imperial examination advancement, court intrigue, and frontier defense, weaving Confucian classics and famous works from successive dynasties into the power system. Its core theme lies in the distinction between the gentleman who is not a mere vessel and the making of one, using a fantasy world to discuss the value of thought and its conflict with reality.