Characteristics of Confucian Ritual Propriety (Li) Dao (2014) 13: 407-411 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Characteristics of Confucian Rituals (Li)—A Critique of Fan Ruiping’s Interpretation
Dao, 2014
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. In his strongly positioned and provocative book on Reconstructionist Confucianism, Ruiping Fan reclaims moral resources from classic Confucianism to meet contemporary moral and public policy challenges. Unlike some new-Confucians who either shy away from perceived weaknesses of Confucianism or attempt to dig with magnifying glasses for Confucian ideas that resonate with modern Western liberal values, Fan unapologetically defends a version of Confucian family-oriented philosophy in the face of Western individual-based, universalistic morality, and argues vigorously for a robust Confucian ethic in contemporary society. Fan's book includes a chapter on Confucian rituals (li), one of the most important concepts in Confucian philosophy. Li is, of course, also one of the most difficult concepts to explicate. Here I will offer several critiques of Fan's interpretation of the Confucian li. My first question is on Fan's use of the concepts of "social" and "natural" in explicating the Confucian li. Fan makes a distinction between social practices and natural practices. He identifies Confucian rituals as social practices. Natural practices, he says, are governed by laws
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...
The concept of ritual in Confucian thought and its implications for social order
2024
Ritual" is one of the core concepts in Confucian culture. Duke Zhou developed the notion of "ritual" as a set of behavioral norms to maintain the hierarchical system of the ancestral lineage and as regulations for state governance and ceremonial practices. Pre-Qin Confucianism inherited and innovated the Zhou rituals, forming the influential Confucian ritual system deeply embedded in traditional Chinese society. The ritual system embodies elements of absolute monarchy, ancestral reverence and filial piety, reflecting China's traditional cultural factors. It holds significant social functions, serving as a powerful tool for maintaining social order, promoting stability and ensuring the well-being of future generations. This article starts with the three main aspects of the relationship between benevolence and ritual, governance through virtue, and ritual and law. It explains the spirit of benevolence, people-friendly political ethics and the inherent morality of the law contained in Confucian etiquette ethics, and further analyzes the modern value of Confucian etiquette culture and spirit to the contemporary Chinese society's moral construction and legal one.
Contemporary Rituals and the Confucian Tradition: A Critical Discussion
After defining what I mean by "rituals," I list some benefits claimed for rituals by Confucians, but then go on to develop utilitarian, existentialist, liberal, radical, and Confucian critiques of rituals. (The Confucian critiques are particularly poignant.Rituals can hinder,rather than forward the goals of the Confucian tradition.) The drawbacks of rituals are not merely historical accidents; they grow out of essential features of rituals and are ineliminable.Yet there is hope. Because the drawbacks appear when rituals decay, they can be ameliorated by fostering the creation of new rituals as alternatives to the old ones.
Ing, Michael David Kaulana, The Dysfunction of Ritual in Early Confucianism
Dao, 2013
This book is on one level a close reading of the Liji 禮記 (Record of Ritual), a text of great importance that has received surprisingly little attention in recent years. Its contribution to scholarship is in fact far more profound. By leveraging the intellectual apparatus of religious studies, it shows that Confucianism is a religion and not merely a philosophy or a social ethic. The field of ritual studies proves an excellent tool for showing how the Liji is inescapably religious. As the name indicates, this long neglected text contains numerous discussions of how and why rituals should be performed. The simple answer to this how and why is Confucianism. Other recent scholarship by Prasenjit Duara, Mayfair Yang, and Rebecca Nedostup, among others, argue that our difficulty in appreciating the religious side of Confucianism is more a byproduct of the politics of modernity in the 20 th century than with anything inherent in historic primary sources. While the question of modernity is beyond the scope of Ing's book, his findings add important early support to this revisionist trend.
Confucian Ritual as Body Language of Self, Society, and Spirit
This article explains how li 禮 or ‘ritual propriety’ is the ‘body language’ of ren 仁 or the authentic expression of our humanity. Li and ren are interdependent aspects of a larger creative human way (rendao 仁道) that can be conceptually distinguished as follows: li refers to the ritualized social form of appropriate conduct and ren to the more general, authentically human spirit this expresses. Li is the social instrument for self-cultivation and the vehicle of harmonious human interaction. More, li must mean something that is effectively communicated to others for an authentic, human (ren) interaction to occur. Li is the body language of ren in being the ritual vehicle for its expression; however, li is underdetermined by ren and so must be distinguished from it on further grounds: authentic human activity must not just be equivocated with social convention because conclusively establishing whether a particular action is li (or is a truly ren action) is impossible. As a result, li is often confused with social power and privilege that is easier to empirically identify than ren conduct is, but this is a mistake since li has to express ren or it is not li at all. The inescapable ambiguity of li – an ambiguity that attaches to any language – can be critiqued by the Western view that sees something ‘essential’ to the ‘self,’ and that makes one a ‘self’ in and of oneself and not in a way that depends on others. I show that such Western individualism – while resting on a fundamentally different way of thinking of being a person and living a good life – does not reduce Confucian ritual to being an instrument for social discrimination and subordination. My argument is indebted to twentieth-century philosophy of language in theWest that offered the idea that some words are actions.
RITUAL, HARMONY AND FREEDOM: REDISCOVERING THE MODERN VALUE OF CONFUCIANISM
Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 2020
This paper reviews Neville's metaphysical reconstruction of Confucianism as a global philosophy and his development of a Confucian response to feminist criticisms. While affirming Neville's account for the importance of sincerity for Confucian ritual, I propose to bring out also the spontaneous dimension of Confucian ritual that is essential for overcoming various authoritarian and abusive practices in the past. This spontaneous dimension of Confucian ritual would disclose also a new understanding of harmony and freedom that would enhance Neville's project in suggesting an ideal of common good originating in the sensus communis of the human hearts.