Ritual in Qing Culture (original) (raw)
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According to the Shangjun shu, the sage establishes standards after having observed popular customs (su). To emphasize this point, the text even states that "without the observation of current customs […] standards can be established, but the people will be in turmoil." The sage must know the customs not only because they reveal much about society but also because the ruler can model society by changing them. This article focuses on the notion of popular customs and their significance for state-building in the Shangjun shu.
Confucian writings on ritual from the classical period (ca 8th-3rd centuries BCE), including instruction manuals, codes of conduct, and treatises on the origins and function of ritual in human life, are impressive in scope and repay careful engagement. These texts maintain that ritual participation fosters social and emotional development, helps persons deal with significant life events such as marriages and deaths, and helps resolve political disagreements. These early sources are of interest not only to historians and Sinologists, but also to philosophers and social scientists; they contain enduring insights into the nature and status of rituals more generally. This chapter surveys classical Confucian theories of the origins and functions of ritual, and summarizes some strident critiques of them from contemporary thinkers in the Mohist, Daoist, and Legalist schools of thought. The aim is to indicate key issues as well as promising strategies for analyzing ritual in Confucian thoug...
Characteristics of Confucian Ritual Propriety (Li) Dao (2014) 13: 407-411
In this paper I argue that Ruiping Fan's explication of the Confucian notion of li (ritual propriety) is problematic in several ways. First, his division of human activities into "social" and "natural" is less than illuminating as human "natural" activities such as hunting are already inescapably social. Second, I question the appropriateness for him to characterize li in terms of "closed activities" as some rituals are evidently open-ended. Third, he seems to have overemphasized the constitutive function of li and have understated its regulative function. Fourth, contrary to Fan's claim, Confucian li accomplishes "external goals" in human life as well as "internal goals." Finally, Fan's requirement for being a Confucian with respect to the observance of li is unrealistically high and makes it difficult for people to qualify as Confucian.