EAST 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Analects, Junzi, Personation
15 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Confucian Family and Ritual
Confucius and the Analects
A few key ideas:
Goodness, benevolence, humanity (ren 仁)
Knowing another person's feelings and being about to connect with them and
being able to empathize with them
§
"Do not impose on other what you yourself do not desire": empathize this
with others
§
○
Gentleman (junzi 君子)
Person who embodies virtue and benevolence
§
Used to be a class term, Confucius changes it to a moral term. You are not
born a gentlemen, you need to cultivate you virtue and benevolence to
become a gentleman
§
Seen as a man; recent feminist efforts to make it gender-neutral
(Confucianism is very patriarchal; hardly even mentions women)
§
○
Rites, ritual (li 禮)
Doesn't define what is good, but how you become good (how you become a
gentleman). Through ritual, you perform being good and become good.
Practice being good and become a good person
§
○
-
Rites and Music in the Analects
The Master said, “A man who is not Good—what has he to do with ritual? A man who is
not Good, what has he to do with music? (3.3)
-
Ritual: narrow sense and wide sense ancestor and family rituals
Narrow sense: special event/occasion different than an ordinary day (ex a wedding)
○
Contemporary scholarship about ritual and within Confucius: wider sense of ritual
Ritual is everything in your day-to-day activity
§
○
Confucius emphasizes that we have particular rituals, but also all daily behaviour
becomes ritual in order to manifest decorum and virtuous behaviours in every
aspect of your daily life
○
Ritualistic characteristics of our daily activities: wake up, go to class, study, go to
week….
○
Rituals in conversations: follow predictable expression; hi how are you good you….
○
Often think of rituals as artificial/imposed, but for Confucius, ritual is something that
becomes natural. Forget about it being part of a ritual context and it becomes
natural to us. Ideas of ethic: make these rituals normal, internalize ethics and make
them part of your daily behaviour
○
-
Chinese Family and Ancestor Ritual
First Ancestor, virtue (de 德) and lineage
Patriarchal lineage traced back to 'first ancestor' - probably lived during time of the
sage kings and has some kind of virtue
Virtue doesn't mean ethics here. Early meaning of virtue has to do with power
§
Ex first ancestor may be a great scholar or warrior; this virtue is passed down
through the patrilineal lineage
§
○
Sometimes ancestors are not human (ex full/half beast)
○
-
Individual defined socially
In North America, we define ourselves individually
○
In Chinese context, they define themselves in terms of their family (name, lineage,
parents, etc)
○
-
Chinese Family and Ancestor Ritual
Five basic social relationships:
father-son
○
husband-wife
○
older brother-younger brother
○
ruler-minister
○
friend-friend
Sometime interpreted as egalitarian, but it isn't clear that this is the sense.
There may have been hierarchal relationships based on age/virtuous
character
§
○
-
Family relations as basis of society
-
Patriarchy, hierarchy, and reciprocity
Hierarchy: person on left is in superior social position than the one on the right;
important for social structure
○
Reciprocity: not exploitative relationships. Father has obligation/duty to take care of
the son
○
-
A lot of these ideas didn't come from Confucianism but become associated with it as
Confucianism becomes more important
-
Who is in most superior position?
Men
Only one female: the wife
○
No gender implied in 'ruler' and 'friend'
○
In the context of Confucianism, they are normatively assumed to be male
○
-
Everyone is inferior/superior to someone over the course of their life; changes
-
King is superior to everyone, but they still have obligation to ancestors. Have ritual and
social obligation to be devote to them
-
Early Chinese Gender Ideology: Doctrine of Separate Spheres
Inner sphere: domestic sphere
Household, children, etc
○
-
Outer sphere: public and social
Public office, literature, writing, etc
○
-
*yin yang polarity where men are relegated to one sphere and women, to the other
Physical separation1.
Functional distinction2.
*not a description of what things were really like, it was an ideal. It was what the men who were
writing scripts thought things should be. In realty, there was fluidity
Gender and Household Architecture: The Inner Quarters
Women and Gender in Confucian Society
Thrice Following (sancong 三從): father, husband, son
-
Book of Rites: “The woman follows [and obeys] the man:— in her youth, she follows her
father and elder brother; when married, she follows her husband; when her husband is
dead, she follows her son.” (Black 170)
-
“Womanly virtue”: obedience and chastity
Women should be dependent on and follow the males in their lives throughout their
lives
○
Associated with passiveness (either yin or yang, whichever is passive)
○
-
Sons were obedient to their mothers because of filial piety, it was only when her husband
was dead she should obey her son. You can see how in practice this wouldn't actually
work like this
-
Women and Power in Imperial China: The inner sphere and elite families
Women had influence in the household (inner sphere)
Had power/authority over male family members in the household
Know this form legal cases --> don’t talk about normative values but about
things that actually happened
§
○
Influence in children's education - ex educating their sons to become public officials
○
-
Gender ideology is usually mostly applicable to elite classes
Lower classes had more flexibility
○
-
Photo: women from Han dynasty reading a book (Dun Jao?)
Literature, reading, writing has seen as something men should do
○
But lots of women in these elite classes could probably read and write
○
Dun Jao? Completed a very important historical text
○
-
Women and Power in Imperial China
The inner sphere and elite families
-
The inner sphere and the Imperial Family
-
Model of imperial authority: Inner over outer
palace > city > realm
Comes from within and spreads outward
§
○
inner court and outer court
○
-
Inner over outer: palace > city > realm
Map of imperial Chinese city
-
Grid-like form meant to be a microcosm of the universe
-
Imperial palace is in the North
-
Power flows from inside the palace, throughout the city and into the realm
-
Women and Power in Imperial China
Model of imperial authority: Inner over outer
-
Inner court and outer court
influence over Emperor
Direct his decision-making then he brings it to the officials (outer court) i.
1.
matrilineal family members
Bring them into inner court or prestigious positions in the outer courti.
2.
Empress dowagers
Woman ruling in the place of a male family member (husband or son)i.
3.
-
Empress Dowager Cixi, ruled from 1861 until 1908 (ruled for 47 years)
Han dynasty
○
Important for bringing modernization/industrialization before collapse of imperial
system
○
-
Inner court: where king lives with family and servants. Women in the house served by eunichs
so as to not corrupt the family lineage
Outer court: where king/emperor meets with officials
Marriages
family alliances
Romantic love: distraction
○
Ex alliance between politically powerful family with rich family
○
-
first obligation: produce an heir
Continue patrilineage
○
-
one wife, several concubines
Competition with wife and concubines
○
If wife doesn’t have son, inheritance can go to concubines son
○
-
Extended vs. nuclear family:
five generations under one roof
○
-
Question: how to decide if a ruler is competent?
Political advisors and elites can put pressure on the imperial family to have someone else
come in and rule
-
Question: where do concubines live?
Harem - forbidden to all males except eunichs
-
Question: Could a concubine become Empress Dowager?
Yes
-
Only empress to use her own name was a concubine who gained political influence over
an emperor and got back in court and marrying the next emperor (her previous husband's
son)
-
When a king dies, the women of the court are supposed to disappear. Most become
Daoist or Buddhist monks
-
Empress dowager: women rules in the name of her husband or son
-
Widows
Life could be difficult for widows
-
Things got more restrictive for women in the 16th/17th century for women than in the
classical period
-
Need to be taken care of by male family members
-
Filial Piety
Filial piety (xiao 孝)
Central family values
○
Important to Confucius and in classical literature like the book of rites
○
-
the duty of children to look after their parents
Respect them and be devoted to them
○
-
“Filial people serve their parents in three ways: in life, they care for them; in death, they
mourn for them; when mourning is over, they sacrifice to them”
“The Principles of Sacrifice,” Book of Rites
○
-
“in life, they care for them”
When someone’s father is still alive, observe his intentions; after his father has passed
away, observe his conduct. If for three years he does not alter the ways of his father, he
may be called a filial son.
Analects 1.11 (Trans. Slingerland)
○
-
Picture: son carrying the weight of his elderly parents
Father-son: first of 5 relationships in Confucianism
○
In tales, mother-son relationship is more prevalent in these stories
○
-
Son is supposed to emulate the father in his devotion to him
-
Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty: legal code developed saying if you lacked filial piety you
could be executed
-
Filial Piety and Rituals
Funerals and mourning
Bury the body whole because the body is seen to be the first present from your
parents. Out of filial piety, you are supposed to preserve this body until you are
dead
○
Punishments are done to mutilate appearance: cutting off nose, putting on tattoo,
shaving hair (even hair was supposed to be preserved)
Problem with Buddhism: monks and nuns shave head as part of central ritual
and also burn their bodies at death -> antithetical to Confucianism
§
○
-
Ancestor ritual
-
Mourning
After Zai Wo left, the Master remarked, “This shows how lacking in goodness this Zai Wo
is. A child is completely dependent upon the care of his parents for the first three years of
his life—this is why the three years’ mourning period is common practice throughout the
world. Did Zai Wo not receive three years of care from his parents?”
Analects 17.20
○
-
Three years mourning (27 months)
Male-centric. Mostly mourn for fathers
○
Taken very seriously, especially for the elite
○
Eldest son needs to mourn for their father for 27 months. Problem if father was
important senior official (can't work for 27 months)
○
Can't shower, change clothes, eat… need to sit there and cry
○
Eldest sons with power can get other people to mourn for them (ex younger
brother, paid worker)
○
-
Ancestor Ritual
*marks the day that your father/grandfather died. Commemorates your ancestor living as a
spirit in the spiritual realm
host and guest
Guest: deceased ancestor in order to feast him, show respect for him and show
continued filial piety
○
-
elements: food, wine, music, dance, sacrifice
Take care of your ancestor in the afterlife (live similar life in the after world - still
need food, etc)
○
-
the personator
Person who becomes, for the ritual, the deceased ancestor
○
Usually the youngest male in the family
○
Wine and dine him, and he will speak on behalf of the dead ancestor
○
Reversal of roles: youngest male gets to be the patriarch for the ritual
○
-
Commensality
Eat together and form social bonds from the sharing of food
○
Reinforce bonds of the family
○
Eat and exchange with the spiritual realm
○
-
display of authority and hierarchy
Authority of patriarch and family
○
-
reciprocity between living and dead
Give to ancestors and they provide health
○
-
Western Perceptions of Confucianism
As “secular, rational humanism”?
How the West sees Confucianism. Comes from Jesuit missionaries who wanted to
see Confucianism as secular so they could still convert the population
○
Read Western Enlightenment values into Confucianism (idea of Golden age with
secular religion, rationalism, etc)
○
-
Ancestor ritual: secular or spiritual?
Secular: tendency to see this as filial piety and ignore the talking to the spirits
○
Roots in Dao: sacrifice and communication with spirits
○
-
Deborah Sommer: Communication with spirits
-
“...One can nevertheless say with certainty that for the Zhou people, belief in a spirit
world was a given assumption” (201)
The Function of Ritual
Performing Ritual
coordinates macrocosm and microcosm
○
makes the individual sincere
Ritual of filial piety: through the performance of ritual, these values become
ritual and you truly become filial
§
○
ancestor ritual, mourning, funerals: filial piety
○
-
Confucius: becoming 'good' through ritual practice. Be 'good' over and over and over until
it becomes internalized
-
Macro-Micro Morality
“In this world only those who have attained the epitome of sincerity can perfect their
natures, and when they have perfected their own natures, they can then perfect the
natures of other people. When they have perfected the natures of other people, they can
then perfect the natures of things. When they have perfected the natures of things, they
can then participate in the transforming and sustaining forces of heaven and earth and
form a trinity with heaven and earth'
“A Trinity with Heaven and Earth,” Book of Rites (Trans. Deborah Sommer)
○
-
Cultivate yourself and align yourself with the morality of the universe. The cultivation of
your morality should have a positive effect where your virtue spreads throughout society
-
Individual cultivation starts a chain effect
“The Great Learning” Book of Rites
-
In antiquity, those who wanted to clarify their bright virtue throughout the entire realm
first had to govern their states well. Those who wanted to govern their states well first
had to manage their own families, and those who wanted to manage their families first
had to develop their own selves. Those who wanted to develop themselves first rectified
their own minds, and those who wanted to rectify their minds first made their thoughts
sincere. Those who wanted to make their thoughts sincere first extended their knowledge.
Those who wanted to extend their knowledge first had to investigate things...
-
Starts a chain effect
“The Great Learning” Book of Rites
-
... Once things are investigated, knowledge can be extended. When knowledge is
extended, thoughts can be made sincere; when thoughts are sincere, the mind can be
rectified. When the mind is rectified, one can develop the self; once the self is developed,
the family can be managed, the state can be governed well; when the state is governed
well, peace can prevail throughout the land.
-
(trans. Deborah Sommer, 39)
Self-cultivation leads to social harmony
-
Sincerity in Western culture: matching outer behaviour with internal feelings
Sincerity in Chinse culture: sincerity is understood in the opposite way. You are trying to match
your internal feelings to your outer behaviour. You practice a ritual externally (ex filial piety) and
try to match your internal feelings to that (actually feel the respect/devotion). Ritual is means
and ends to this sincerity
Micro/Macromorality:
Morality in the universe: Heaven has a moral compass (related to heaven mandate);
cosmos has a moral nature to it. You can study and understand this morality. This morality
is seen to be natural
-
Confucians studied the universe and family was seen to have a natural ethic. Morality
seen as part of the cosmos . Filial piety seen as natural and is a way to legitimize societal
ethics are being natural
-
Want to coordinate your own morality with the morality of the cosmos - do this by
practicing ancestral rituals, rituals of filial piety, etc
Coordinates your microscopic morality with the morality of the cosmos
○
Sympathetic resonance with the greater sphere of society (causal effect)
○
-
Symbol for king: king is vertical line who connects heaven, man and Earth
6: Confucian Family and Ritual
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
9:02 AM
Confucian Family and Ritual
Confucius and the Analects
A few key ideas:
Goodness, benevolence, humanity (ren 仁)
Knowing another person's feelings and being about to connect with them and
being able to empathize with them
§
"Do not impose on other what you yourself do not desire": empathize this
with others
§
○
Gentleman (junzi 君子)
Person who embodies virtue and benevolence
§
Used to be a class term, Confucius changes it to a moral term. You are not
born a gentlemen, you need to cultivate you virtue and benevolence to
become a gentleman
§
Seen as a man; recent feminist efforts to make it gender-neutral
(Confucianism is very patriarchal; hardly even mentions women)
§
○
Rites, ritual (li 禮)
Doesn't define what is good, but how you become good (how you become a
gentleman). Through ritual, you perform being good and become good.
Practice being good and become a good person
§
○
-
Rites and Music in the Analects
The Master said, “A man who is not Good—what has he to do with ritual? A man who is
not Good, what has he to do with music? (3.3)
-
Ritual: narrow sense and wide sense ancestor and family rituals
Narrow sense: special event/occasion different than an ordinary day (ex a wedding)
○
Contemporary scholarship about ritual and within Confucius: wider sense of ritual
Ritual is everything in your day-to-day activity
§
○
Confucius emphasizes that we have particular rituals, but also all daily behaviour
becomes ritual in order to manifest decorum and virtuous behaviours in every
aspect of your daily life
○
Ritualistic characteristics of our daily activities: wake up, go to class, study, go to
week….
○
Rituals in conversations: follow predictable expression; hi how are you good you….
○
Often think of rituals as artificial/imposed, but for Confucius, ritual is something that
becomes natural. Forget about it being part of a ritual context and it becomes
natural to us. Ideas of ethic: make these rituals normal, internalize ethics and make
them part of your daily behaviour
○
-
Chinese Family and Ancestor Ritual
First Ancestor, virtue (de 德) and lineage
Patriarchal lineage traced back to 'first ancestor' - probably lived during time of the
sage kings and has some kind of virtue
Virtue doesn't mean ethics here. Early meaning of virtue has to do with power
§
Ex first ancestor may be a great scholar or warrior; this virtue is passed down
through the patrilineal lineage
§
○
Sometimes ancestors are not human (ex full/half beast)
○
-
Individual defined socially
In North America, we define ourselves individually
○
In Chinese context, they define themselves in terms of their family (name, lineage,
parents, etc)
○
-
Chinese Family and Ancestor Ritual
Five basic social relationships:
father-son
○
husband-wife
○
older brother-younger brother
○
ruler-minister
○
friend-friend
Sometime interpreted as egalitarian, but it isn't clear that this is the sense.
There may have been hierarchal relationships based on age/virtuous
character
§
○
-
Family relations as basis of society
-
Patriarchy, hierarchy, and reciprocity
Hierarchy: person on left is in superior social position than the one on the right;
important for social structure
○
Reciprocity: not exploitative relationships. Father has obligation/duty to take care of
the son
○
-
A lot of these ideas didn't come from Confucianism but become associated with it as
Confucianism becomes more important
-
Who is in most superior position?
Men
Only one female: the wife
○
No gender implied in 'ruler' and 'friend'
○
In the context of Confucianism, they are normatively assumed to be male
○
-
Everyone is inferior/superior to someone over the course of their life; changes
-
King is superior to everyone, but they still have obligation to ancestors. Have ritual and
social obligation to be devote to them
-
Early Chinese Gender Ideology: Doctrine of Separate Spheres
Inner sphere: domestic sphere
Household, children, etc
○
-
Outer sphere: public and social
Public office, literature, writing, etc
○
-
*yin yang polarity where men are relegated to one sphere and women, to the other
Physical separation1.
Functional distinction2.
*not a description of what things were really like, it was an ideal. It was what the men who were
writing scripts thought things should be. In realty, there was fluidity
Gender and Household Architecture: The Inner Quarters
Women and Gender in Confucian Society
Thrice Following (sancong 三從): father, husband, son
-
Book of Rites: “The woman follows [and obeys] the man:— in her youth, she follows her
father and elder brother; when married, she follows her husband; when her husband is
dead, she follows her son.” (Black 170)
-
“Womanly virtue”: obedience and chastity
Women should be dependent on and follow the males in their lives throughout their
lives
○
Associated with passiveness (either yin or yang, whichever is passive)
○
-
Sons were obedient to their mothers because of filial piety, it was only when her husband
was dead she should obey her son. You can see how in practice this wouldn't actually
work like this
-
Women and Power in Imperial China: The inner sphere and elite families
Women had influence in the household (inner sphere)
Had power/authority over male family members in the household
Know this form legal cases --> don’t talk about normative values but about
things that actually happened
§
○
Influence in children's education - ex educating their sons to become public officials
○
-
Gender ideology is usually mostly applicable to elite classes
Lower classes had more flexibility
○
-
Photo: women from Han dynasty reading a book (Dun Jao?)
Literature, reading, writing has seen as something men should do
○
But lots of women in these elite classes could probably read and write
○
Dun Jao? Completed a very important historical text
○
-
Women and Power in Imperial China
The inner sphere and elite families
-
The inner sphere and the Imperial Family
-
Model of imperial authority: Inner over outer
palace > city > realm
Comes from within and spreads outward
§
○
inner court and outer court
○
-
Inner over outer: palace > city > realm
Map of imperial Chinese city
-
Grid-like form meant to be a microcosm of the universe
-
Imperial palace is in the North
-
Power flows from inside the palace, throughout the city and into the realm
-
Women and Power in Imperial China
Model of imperial authority: Inner over outer
-
Inner court and outer court
influence over Emperor
Direct his decision-making then he brings it to the officials (outer court) i.
1.
matrilineal family members
Bring them into inner court or prestigious positions in the outer courti.
2.
Empress dowagers
Woman ruling in the place of a male family member (husband or son)i.
3.
-
Empress Dowager Cixi, ruled from 1861 until 1908 (ruled for 47 years)
Han dynasty
○
Important for bringing modernization/industrialization before collapse of imperial
system
○
-
Inner court: where king lives with family and servants. Women in the house served by eunichs
so as to not corrupt the family lineage
Outer court: where king/emperor meets with officials
Marriages
family alliances
Romantic love: distraction
○
Ex alliance between politically powerful family with rich family
○
-
first obligation: produce an heir
Continue patrilineage
○
-
one wife, several concubines
Competition with wife and concubines
○
If wife doesn’t have son, inheritance can go to concubines son
○
-
Extended vs. nuclear family:
five generations under one roof
○
-
Question: how to decide if a ruler is competent?
Political advisors and elites can put pressure on the imperial family to have someone else
come in and rule
-
Question: where do concubines live?
Harem - forbidden to all males except eunichs
-
Question: Could a concubine become Empress Dowager?
Yes
-
Only empress to use her own name was a concubine who gained political influence over
an emperor and got back in court and marrying the next emperor (her previous husband's
son)
-
When a king dies, the women of the court are supposed to disappear. Most become
Daoist or Buddhist monks
-
Empress dowager: women rules in the name of her husband or son
-
Widows
Life could be difficult for widows
-
Things got more restrictive for women in the 16th/17th century for women than in the
classical period
-
Need to be taken care of by male family members
-
Filial Piety
Filial piety (xiao 孝)
Central family values
○
Important to Confucius and in classical literature like the book of rites
○
-
the duty of children to look after their parents
Respect them and be devoted to them
○
-
“Filial people serve their parents in three ways: in life, they care for them; in death, they
mourn for them; when mourning is over, they sacrifice to them”
“The Principles of Sacrifice,” Book of Rites
○
-
“in life, they care for them”
When someone’s father is still alive, observe his intentions; after his father has passed
away, observe his conduct. If for three years he does not alter the ways of his father, he
may be called a filial son.
Analects 1.11 (Trans. Slingerland)
○
-
Picture: son carrying the weight of his elderly parents
Father-son: first of 5 relationships in Confucianism
○
In tales, mother-son relationship is more prevalent in these stories
○
-
Son is supposed to emulate the father in his devotion to him
-
Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty: legal code developed saying if you lacked filial piety you
could be executed
-
Filial Piety and Rituals
Funerals and mourning
Bury the body whole because the body is seen to be the first present from your
parents. Out of filial piety, you are supposed to preserve this body until you are
dead
○
Punishments are done to mutilate appearance: cutting off nose, putting on tattoo,
shaving hair (even hair was supposed to be preserved)
Problem with Buddhism: monks and nuns shave head as part of central ritual
and also burn their bodies at death -> antithetical to Confucianism
§
○
-
Ancestor ritual
-
Mourning
After Zai Wo left, the Master remarked, “This shows how lacking in goodness this Zai Wo
is. A child is completely dependent upon the care of his parents for the first three years of
his life—this is why the three years’ mourning period is common practice throughout the
world. Did Zai Wo not receive three years of care from his parents?”
Analects 17.20
○
-
Three years mourning (27 months)
Male-centric. Mostly mourn for fathers
○
Taken very seriously, especially for the elite
○
Eldest son needs to mourn for their father for 27 months. Problem if father was
important senior official (can't work for 27 months)
○
Can't shower, change clothes, eat… need to sit there and cry
○
Eldest sons with power can get other people to mourn for them (ex younger
brother, paid worker)
○
-
Ancestor Ritual
*marks the day that your father/grandfather died. Commemorates your ancestor living as a
spirit in the spiritual realm
host and guest
Guest: deceased ancestor in order to feast him, show respect for him and show
continued filial piety
○
-
elements: food, wine, music, dance, sacrifice
Take care of your ancestor in the afterlife (live similar life in the after world - still
need food, etc)
○
-
the personator
Person who becomes, for the ritual, the deceased ancestor
○
Usually the youngest male in the family
○
Wine and dine him, and he will speak on behalf of the dead ancestor
○
Reversal of roles: youngest male gets to be the patriarch for the ritual
○
-
Commensality
Eat together and form social bonds from the sharing of food
○
Reinforce bonds of the family
○
Eat and exchange with the spiritual realm
○
-
display of authority and hierarchy
Authority of patriarch and family
○
-
reciprocity between living and dead
Give to ancestors and they provide health
○
-
Western Perceptions of Confucianism
As “secular, rational humanism”?
How the West sees Confucianism. Comes from Jesuit missionaries who wanted to
see Confucianism as secular so they could still convert the population
○
Read Western Enlightenment values into Confucianism (idea of Golden age with
secular religion, rationalism, etc)
○
-
Ancestor ritual: secular or spiritual?
Secular: tendency to see this as filial piety and ignore the talking to the spirits
○
Roots in Dao: sacrifice and communication with spirits
○
-
Deborah Sommer: Communication with spirits
-
“...One can nevertheless say with certainty that for the Zhou people, belief in a spirit
world was a given assumption” (201)
The Function of Ritual
Performing Ritual
coordinates macrocosm and microcosm
○
makes the individual sincere
Ritual of filial piety: through the performance of ritual, these values become
ritual and you truly become filial
§
○
ancestor ritual, mourning, funerals: filial piety
○
-
Confucius: becoming 'good' through ritual practice. Be 'good' over and over and over until
it becomes internalized
-
Macro-Micro Morality
“In this world only those who have attained the epitome of sincerity can perfect their
natures, and when they have perfected their own natures, they can then perfect the
natures of other people. When they have perfected the natures of other people, they can
then perfect the natures of things. When they have perfected the natures of things, they
can then participate in the transforming and sustaining forces of heaven and earth and
form a trinity with heaven and earth'
“A Trinity with Heaven and Earth,” Book of Rites (Trans. Deborah Sommer)
○
-
Cultivate yourself and align yourself with the morality of the universe. The cultivation of
your morality should have a positive effect where your virtue spreads throughout society
-
Individual cultivation starts a chain effect
“The Great Learning” Book of Rites
-
In antiquity, those who wanted to clarify their bright virtue throughout the entire realm
first had to govern their states well. Those who wanted to govern their states well first
had to manage their own families, and those who wanted to manage their families first
had to develop their own selves. Those who wanted to develop themselves first rectified
their own minds, and those who wanted to rectify their minds first made their thoughts
sincere. Those who wanted to make their thoughts sincere first extended their knowledge.
Those who wanted to extend their knowledge first had to investigate things...
-
Starts a chain effect
“The Great Learning” Book of Rites
-
... Once things are investigated, knowledge can be extended. When knowledge is
extended, thoughts can be made sincere; when thoughts are sincere, the mind can be
rectified. When the mind is rectified, one can develop the self; once the self is developed,
the family can be managed, the state can be governed well; when the state is governed
well, peace can prevail throughout the land.
-
(trans. Deborah Sommer, 39)
Self-cultivation leads to social harmony
-
Sincerity in Western culture: matching outer behaviour with internal feelings
Sincerity in Chinse culture: sincerity is understood in the opposite way. You are trying to match
your internal feelings to your outer behaviour. You practice a ritual externally (ex filial piety) and
try to match your internal feelings to that (actually feel the respect/devotion). Ritual is means
and ends to this sincerity
Micro/Macromorality:
Morality in the universe: Heaven has a moral compass (related to heaven mandate);
cosmos has a moral nature to it. You can study and understand this morality. This morality
is seen to be natural
-
Confucians studied the universe and family was seen to have a natural ethic. Morality
seen as part of the cosmos . Filial piety seen as natural and is a way to legitimize societal
ethics are being natural
-
Want to coordinate your own morality with the morality of the cosmos - do this by
practicing ancestral rituals, rituals of filial piety, etc
Coordinates your microscopic morality with the morality of the cosmos
○
Sympathetic resonance with the greater sphere of society (causal effect)
○
-
Symbol for king: king is vertical line who connects heaven, man and Earth
6: Confucian Family and Ritual
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
9:02 AM
Confucian Family and Ritual
Confucius and the Analects
A few key ideas:
Goodness, benevolence, humanity (ren 仁)
Knowing another person's feelings and being about to connect with them and
being able to empathize with them
§
"Do not impose on other what you yourself do not desire": empathize this
with others
§
○
Gentleman (junzi 君子)
Person who embodies virtue and benevolence
§
Used to be a class term, Confucius changes it to a moral term. You are not
born a gentlemen, you need to cultivate you virtue and benevolence to
become a gentleman
§
Seen as a man; recent feminist efforts to make it gender-neutral
(Confucianism is very patriarchal; hardly even mentions women)
§
○
Rites, ritual (li 禮)
Doesn't define what is good, but how you become good (how you become a
gentleman). Through ritual, you perform being good and become good.
Practice being good and become a good person
§
○
-
Rites and Music in the Analects
The Master said, “A man who is not Good—what has he to do with ritual? A man who is
not Good, what has he to do with music? (3.3)
-
Ritual: narrow sense and wide sense ancestor and family rituals
Narrow sense: special event/occasion different than an ordinary day (ex a wedding)
○
Contemporary scholarship about ritual and within Confucius: wider sense of ritual
Ritual is everything in your day-to-day activity
§
○
Confucius emphasizes that we have particular rituals, but also all daily behaviour
becomes ritual in order to manifest decorum and virtuous behaviours in every
aspect of your daily life
○
Ritualistic characteristics of our daily activities: wake up, go to class, study, go to
week….
○
Rituals in conversations: follow predictable expression; hi how are you good you….
○
Often think of rituals as artificial/imposed, but for Confucius, ritual is something that
becomes natural. Forget about it being part of a ritual context and it becomes
natural to us. Ideas of ethic: make these rituals normal, internalize ethics and make
them part of your daily behaviour
○
-
Chinese Family and Ancestor Ritual
First Ancestor, virtue (de 德) and lineage
Patriarchal lineage traced back to 'first ancestor' - probably lived during time of the
sage kings and has some kind of virtue
Virtue doesn't mean ethics here. Early meaning of virtue has to do with power
§
Ex first ancestor may be a great scholar or warrior; this virtue is passed down
through the patrilineal lineage
§
○
Sometimes ancestors are not human (ex full/half beast)
○
-
Individual defined socially
In North America, we define ourselves individually
○
In Chinese context, they define themselves in terms of their family (name, lineage,
parents, etc)
○
-
Chinese Family and Ancestor Ritual
Five basic social relationships:
father-son
○
husband-wife
○
older brother-younger brother
○
ruler-minister
○
friend-friend
Sometime interpreted as egalitarian, but it isn't clear that this is the sense.
There may have been hierarchal relationships based on age/virtuous
character
§
○
-
Family relations as basis of society
-
Patriarchy, hierarchy, and reciprocity
Hierarchy: person on left is in superior social position than the one on the right;
important for social structure
○
Reciprocity: not exploitative relationships. Father has obligation/duty to take care of
the son
○
-
A lot of these ideas didn't come from Confucianism but become associated with it as
Confucianism becomes more important
-
Who is in most superior position?
Men
Only one female: the wife
○
No gender implied in 'ruler' and 'friend'
○
In the context of Confucianism, they are normatively assumed to be male
○
-
Everyone is inferior/superior to someone over the course of their life; changes
-
King is superior to everyone, but they still have obligation to ancestors. Have ritual and
social obligation to be devote to them
-
Early Chinese Gender Ideology: Doctrine of Separate Spheres
Inner sphere: domestic sphere
Household, children, etc
○
-
Outer sphere: public and social
Public office, literature, writing, etc
○
-
*yin yang polarity where men are relegated to one sphere and women, to the other
Physical separation1.
Functional distinction2.
*not a description of what things were really like, it was an ideal. It was what the men who were
writing scripts thought things should be. In realty, there was fluidity
Gender and Household Architecture: The Inner Quarters
Women and Gender in Confucian Society
Thrice Following (sancong 三從): father, husband, son
-
Book of Rites: “The woman follows [and obeys] the man:— in her youth, she follows her
father and elder brother; when married, she follows her husband; when her husband is
dead, she follows her son.” (Black 170)
-
“Womanly virtue”: obedience and chastity
Women should be dependent on and follow the males in their lives throughout their
lives
○
Associated with passiveness (either yin or yang, whichever is passive)
○
-
Sons were obedient to their mothers because of filial piety, it was only when her husband
was dead she should obey her son. You can see how in practice this wouldn't actually
work like this
-
Women and Power in Imperial China: The inner sphere and elite families
Women had influence in the household (inner sphere)
Had power/authority over male family members in the household
Know this form legal cases --> don’t talk about normative values but about
things that actually happened
§
○
Influence in children's education - ex educating their sons to become public officials
○
-
Gender ideology is usually mostly applicable to elite classes
Lower classes had more flexibility
○
-
Photo: women from Han dynasty reading a book (Dun Jao?)
Literature, reading, writing has seen as something men should do
○
But lots of women in these elite classes could probably read and write
○
Dun Jao? Completed a very important historical text
○
-
Women and Power in Imperial China
The inner sphere and elite families
-
The inner sphere and the Imperial Family
-
Model of imperial authority: Inner over outer
palace > city > realm
Comes from within and spreads outward
§
○
inner court and outer court
○
-
Inner over outer: palace > city > realm
Map of imperial Chinese city
-
Grid-like form meant to be a microcosm of the universe
-
Imperial palace is in the North
-
Power flows from inside the palace, throughout the city and into the realm
-
Women and Power in Imperial China
Model of imperial authority: Inner over outer
-
Inner court and outer court
influence over Emperor
Direct his decision-making then he brings it to the officials (outer court) i.
1.
matrilineal family members
Bring them into inner court or prestigious positions in the outer courti.
2.
Empress dowagers
Woman ruling in the place of a male family member (husband or son)i.
3.
-
Empress Dowager Cixi, ruled from 1861 until 1908 (ruled for 47 years)
Han dynasty
○
Important for bringing modernization/industrialization before collapse of imperial
system
○
-
Inner court: where king lives with family and servants. Women in the house served by eunichs
so as to not corrupt the family lineage
Outer court: where king/emperor meets with officials
Marriages
family alliances
Romantic love: distraction
○
Ex alliance between politically powerful family with rich family
○
-
first obligation: produce an heir
Continue patrilineage
○
-
one wife, several concubines
Competition with wife and concubines
○
If wife doesn’t have son, inheritance can go to concubines son
○
-
Extended vs. nuclear family:
five generations under one roof
○
-
Question: how to decide if a ruler is competent?
Political advisors and elites can put pressure on the imperial family to have someone else
come in and rule
-
Question: where do concubines live?
Harem - forbidden to all males except eunichs
-
Question: Could a concubine become Empress Dowager?
Yes
-
Only empress to use her own name was a concubine who gained political influence over
an emperor and got back in court and marrying the next emperor (her previous husband's
son)
-
When a king dies, the women of the court are supposed to disappear. Most become
Daoist or Buddhist monks
-
Empress dowager: women rules in the name of her husband or son
-
Widows
Life could be difficult for widows
-
Things got more restrictive for women in the 16th/17th century for women than in the
classical period
-
Need to be taken care of by male family members
-
Filial Piety
Filial piety (xiao 孝)
Central family values
○
Important to Confucius and in classical literature like the book of rites
○
-
the duty of children to look after their parents
Respect them and be devoted to them
○
-
“Filial people serve their parents in three ways: in life, they care for them; in death, they
mourn for them; when mourning is over, they sacrifice to them”
“The Principles of Sacrifice,” Book of Rites
○
-
“in life, they care for them”
When someone’s father is still alive, observe his intentions; after his father has passed
away, observe his conduct. If for three years he does not alter the ways of his father, he
may be called a filial son.
Analects 1.11 (Trans. Slingerland)
○
-
Picture: son carrying the weight of his elderly parents
Father-son: first of 5 relationships in Confucianism
○
In tales, mother-son relationship is more prevalent in these stories
○
-
Son is supposed to emulate the father in his devotion to him
-
Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty: legal code developed saying if you lacked filial piety you
could be executed
-
Filial Piety and Rituals
Funerals and mourning
Bury the body whole because the body is seen to be the first present from your
parents. Out of filial piety, you are supposed to preserve this body until you are
dead
○
Punishments are done to mutilate appearance: cutting off nose, putting on tattoo,
shaving hair (even hair was supposed to be preserved)
Problem with Buddhism: monks and nuns shave head as part of central ritual
and also burn their bodies at death -> antithetical to Confucianism
§
○
-
Ancestor ritual
-
Mourning
After Zai Wo left, the Master remarked, “This shows how lacking in goodness this Zai Wo
is. A child is completely dependent upon the care of his parents for the first three years of
his life—this is why the three years’ mourning period is common practice throughout the
world. Did Zai Wo not receive three years of care from his parents?”
Analects 17.20
○
-
Three years mourning (27 months)
Male-centric. Mostly mourn for fathers
○
Taken very seriously, especially for the elite
○
Eldest son needs to mourn for their father for 27 months. Problem if father was
important senior official (can't work for 27 months)
○
Can't shower, change clothes, eat… need to sit there and cry
○
Eldest sons with power can get other people to mourn for them (ex younger
brother, paid worker)
○
-
Ancestor Ritual
*marks the day that your father/grandfather died. Commemorates your ancestor living as a
spirit in the spiritual realm
host and guest
Guest: deceased ancestor in order to feast him, show respect for him and show
continued filial piety
○
-
elements: food, wine, music, dance, sacrifice
Take care of your ancestor in the afterlife (live similar life in the after world - still
need food, etc)
○
-
the personator
Person who becomes, for the ritual, the deceased ancestor
○
Usually the youngest male in the family
○
Wine and dine him, and he will speak on behalf of the dead ancestor
○
Reversal of roles: youngest male gets to be the patriarch for the ritual
○
-
Commensality
Eat together and form social bonds from the sharing of food
○
Reinforce bonds of the family
○
Eat and exchange with the spiritual realm
○
-
display of authority and hierarchy
Authority of patriarch and family
○
-
reciprocity between living and dead
Give to ancestors and they provide health
○
-
Western Perceptions of Confucianism
As “secular, rational humanism”?
How the West sees Confucianism. Comes from Jesuit missionaries who wanted to
see Confucianism as secular so they could still convert the population
○
Read Western Enlightenment values into Confucianism (idea of Golden age with
secular religion, rationalism, etc)
○
-
Ancestor ritual: secular or spiritual?
Secular: tendency to see this as filial piety and ignore the talking to the spirits
○
Roots in Dao: sacrifice and communication with spirits
○
-
Deborah Sommer: Communication with spirits
-
“...One can nevertheless say with certainty that for the Zhou people, belief in a spirit
world was a given assumption” (201)
The Function of Ritual
Performing Ritual
coordinates macrocosm and microcosm
○
makes the individual sincere
Ritual of filial piety: through the performance of ritual, these values become
ritual and you truly become filial
§
○
ancestor ritual, mourning, funerals: filial piety
○
-
Confucius: becoming 'good' through ritual practice. Be 'good' over and over and over until
it becomes internalized
-
Macro-Micro Morality
“In this world only those who have attained the epitome of sincerity can perfect their
natures, and when they have perfected their own natures, they can then perfect the
natures of other people. When they have perfected the natures of other people, they can
then perfect the natures of things. When they have perfected the natures of things, they
can then participate in the transforming and sustaining forces of heaven and earth and
form a trinity with heaven and earth'
“A Trinity with Heaven and Earth,” Book of Rites (Trans. Deborah Sommer)
○
-
Cultivate yourself and align yourself with the morality of the universe. The cultivation of
your morality should have a positive effect where your virtue spreads throughout society
-
Individual cultivation starts a chain effect
“The Great Learning” Book of Rites
-
In antiquity, those who wanted to clarify their bright virtue throughout the entire realm
first had to govern their states well. Those who wanted to govern their states well first
had to manage their own families, and those who wanted to manage their families first
had to develop their own selves. Those who wanted to develop themselves first rectified
their own minds, and those who wanted to rectify their minds first made their thoughts
sincere. Those who wanted to make their thoughts sincere first extended their knowledge.
Those who wanted to extend their knowledge first had to investigate things...
-
Starts a chain effect
“The Great Learning” Book of Rites
-
... Once things are investigated, knowledge can be extended. When knowledge is
extended, thoughts can be made sincere; when thoughts are sincere, the mind can be
rectified. When the mind is rectified, one can develop the self; once the self is developed,
the family can be managed, the state can be governed well; when the state is governed
well, peace can prevail throughout the land.
-
(trans. Deborah Sommer, 39)
Self-cultivation leads to social harmony
-
Sincerity in Western culture: matching outer behaviour with internal feelings
Sincerity in Chinse culture: sincerity is understood in the opposite way. You are trying to match
your internal feelings to your outer behaviour. You practice a ritual externally (ex filial piety) and
try to match your internal feelings to that (actually feel the respect/devotion). Ritual is means
and ends to this sincerity
Micro/Macromorality:
Morality in the universe: Heaven has a moral compass (related to heaven mandate);
cosmos has a moral nature to it. You can study and understand this morality. This morality
is seen to be natural
-
Confucians studied the universe and family was seen to have a natural ethic. Morality
seen as part of the cosmos . Filial piety seen as natural and is a way to legitimize societal
ethics are being natural
-
Want to coordinate your own morality with the morality of the cosmos - do this by
practicing ancestral rituals, rituals of filial piety, etc
Coordinates your microscopic morality with the morality of the cosmos
○
Sympathetic resonance with the greater sphere of society (causal effect)
○
-
Symbol for king: king is vertical line who connects heaven, man and Earth
6: Confucian Family and Ritual
Wednesday, January 24, 2018 9:02 AM
