ABSTRACT
The arrival of ethics completely changed the terms and conditions of onduct in all the major Axial civilizations. High literacy is not in any simple sense the cause of the Axial breakthroughs, but it is the social context of their occurrence and the precondition for their further development. The Axial Age breakthroughs represent a remarkable confluence of factors that together stand for higher civilization; ethics, empire, and literacy introduce a higher-order consciousness and rationality based on mimeticism in the semiotics of representation. The ethical and political engagements of the Chinese literati developed into an ethics of duty, best exemplified by Confucianism. Like any general conception of representation, iconism operates in all spheres, from pictures and verbal depictions to religious ceremonies and political authority. Political authority presents itself in its images, symbols and ceremonies as representations of the Divine.
