The translations of wen as 'accomplished' and 'cultured' appear to derive from the tendency in much of the Chinese exegetical tradition to project later 'moralizing' interpretations of wen as 'morally refined' into pre-Zhanguo texts.
Although little or no evidence in pre-Zhanguo texts supports interpretating wen in abstract metacultural or moralizing terms, such anachronistic interpretations still abound.
(36) As argued here, the contrast between ruling through 'moral refinement' (wen) and 'military prowess' (wu) also does not predate the Zhanguo period.
In sum, wen in pre-Zhanguo texts meant something quite different from the English words cultured, civil, and accomplished.
EMERGENCE OF METACULTURAL WEN IN THE ZHANGUO PERIOD
While older meanings, such as 'pattern-decorated' and 'awe-inspiringly beautiful', continue into the Zhanguo period, the term wen undergoes a reinterpretation and is increasingly used to refer to the externally observable patterns in the appearance and behavior of the morally edified individual.
Metacultural uses of wen as a noun referring to the 'ideal patterns of conventionalized behavior', such as those in Lunyu 9.5 discussed above, emerged at around the same time as (or slightly after) the reinterpretation of wen from 'awe-inspiringly beautiful' to 'having the appearance of a morally perfected person' in the Zhanguo period.
2.7 The Zuozhuan: The Beginnings of Moral Interpretations of wen
The Zuozhuan, the bulk of which I assume to have been composed in the period from the late fifth to the late fourth century BCE, represents a later intellectual milieu than that of the Shijing and contains some of the earliest evidence of a reinterpretation of wen in moral terms.
That wen could still mean something akin to 'beautiful' at the time of the Zuozhuan is supported by passages which juxtapose wen and expressions meaning 'elegant' and 'beautiful'.
The Zuozhuan also provides support for the hypothesis that wen could mean 'awe-inspiringly beautiful'.
[phrase omitted] (41) King Wen led a military campaign against Chong.
Second, Beigong Wenzi's summary of the behavior and attributes of the nobleman/noble man (junzi) starts by saying that "the junzi, when in office, is held in awe (wei)." Toward the end of the list of attributes of the junzi, Beigong Wenzi includes a description of his "movements and stirrings" as having wen. Beigong Wenzi concludes by stating that these attributes are "that by which he oversees his underlings" and thus amounts to what "is called having awe-inspiring dignity (wei) and deportment." This passage thus contains the most explicit connection between being 'awe-inspiringly beautiful'/'morally refined' (wen) and being 'awe-inspiringly dignified' (wei) in the entire pre-Qin corpus.
In addition to the older meaning 'awe-inspiringly beautiful', other Zuozhuan passages show that wen can refer to both external appearance and moral attributes.
As for the flames, dragons, and the fu and fu designs on embroideries, these display his wen....
