Ritualism in Confucian Thought - Essay Example

Assignment Ritualism in Confucian Thought: A Reflection Introduction A very significant portion of Confucius’s teachings has been studied in the form of analects. In these analects, Confucius is often found to be talking to his disciples directly and solving their problems. This happens all along the continuity of Confucius’s personal viewpoints as well as the deductions obtained by his students at different stages of learning (Slingerland, xiii-xxv). This is important to mention that Confucius has often told about his own personal views regarding certain issues. And ritual has been perhaps the most important among them. However, although rituals were important to Confucius, he had a very strict sense of duty. Confucius viewed rituals as one of the duties an individual must always do, and emphasized this particularly when he would be appointed by a duke or a king as an advisor. Research Question Question 9: Describe the role of ritual in Confucius’s thought. Why is it so important to him? What are the most important strengths and weaknesses of his ideas? Discussion In analyzing the Confucian analects, Slingerland (67) states that “Confucius felt the rituals (even if they were being enacted by someone else), and remained profoundly affected by the emotions they evoked.” In the contemporary Chinese society, there were different powerful countries and tribes who wished to identify themselves distinctly from each other. Rituals thus became means to assert one’s identity and sometimes, they were very elaborate and strict. However, these elaborate and sometimes, magnificent rituals would be observed superficially. People might ignore the inner meaning and zest of the rituals they practiced. Confucius was not one among them. Likewise, he instructed his followers to practice the traditional rituals with not only extravagance but sincerity too. Therefore, in his lifetime, Confucius remained a source of inspiration and information for those who wished to follow the different contemporary rituals correctly and sincerely. Translating the Book Seventeen from the Analects of Confucius, Slingerland (209) notes that in one of the accounts from the Record of Rituals, Confucius used to give ritual instructions to guide his disciples and emphasize the antiquity of Chinese culture. Importance of Rituals There were different kinds of rituals in the Chinese society about which the researchers obtain considerable information from Confucius’s teachings. For example, there were certain funerary rituals. Some rituals were supposed to mark certain life events like reaching adulthood. Other rituals included strict methods for doing worship, making sacrifices, going to warfare, etc. However, Confucius did not pressurize his contemporaries to accept his doctrine of sincere and if necessary extravagant rituals. Instead, he acted like someone who could facilitate negotiations, help in warfare, and serve the common people. Rituals thus formed a valuable system in the sphere of Confucian thought to conduct social organization and establish communication between the different social groups. Rituals existing in Confucius’s era were documented and explained by him with high level authenticity. He helped his disciples to study those rituals that were going to define the very Chinese culture in the coming years. Notably, Confucius did not remain excessively loyal to a particular dynasty, kingdom, state, or tribe. Hence, his interpretations of the contemporary and older societies in China throw considerable light on Chinese history. If Confucius had not explained the contemporary rituals in the way he did, Chinese culture would face serious disintegration and lack of discipline. Strengths It was not so that rituals were typical to Confucian thought. Ritualism was important all over ancient China; Confucius reiterated and reaffirmed their importance. The strength of ancient Chinese ritualism can be understood from the fact that they provided a guideline for almost every aspect of an individual’s life and even death. In this way, the rituals were a social system that helped the primitive Chinese society to civilize. Contribution of Confucius provided these rituals with time tested meaning and popularity. Another feature of Confucius’s ritualistic approach is adjustment with multiple ethnicities inside a common Chinese culture. Confucius moved on from the court of one king to another. Also, his disciples managed to find high profile services with the contemporary kingdoms across China. At times, these kingdoms would be at war with each other, but Confucian ritualism could be adjusted with the practices of almost every kingdom of ancient China. Roll of rituals was so prominent in Confucius’s thought that reviving Confucianism meant reviving the ancient Chinese rituals too. So when in the mid-eighteenth century Han Learning movement became forceful, scholars tried to reiterate what Confucius wrote about Chinese customs, rules, and practices. This culminated at preserving “linguistic purism” (Chow, 161). This is the reason why Chinese language and calligraphy have survived so many years even after organized attempts to change and/or simplify them. If a researcher delves deeper into the linguistic variations that exist in modern China, he or she will find that there are a number of vernacular languages in actual sense. For example, colloquial language of Guangzhou is different than that of Shanghai. But strong cultural and linguistic orientation as instituted by the widespread practice of Mandarin as the mainstream medium of communication has suppressed the rise of vernaculars. This approach is strengthened by Confucian texts and his interpretations of the different rituals that have been practiced across all the Chinese groups and populaces (both PRC and ROC). Hence during the late imperial era, Confucianism and his ritual-texts provided a backbone to the language reforms of the country (Chow, 161-187). Consequently, calligraphic, scripting, and grammatical purity of Mandarin was preserved that survived even the Cultural Revolution of the 20th century. Weaknesses Although researchers like Chow and Slingerland praised Confucianism for the fact that it helped in constructing a common identify for the Chinese people, Confucius’s ritualism had some serious drawbacks. Confucius was a politically active philosopher and his advocacy for ritualism often took political turn. By studying the Analects of Confucius, it can be said that according to Confucius, doing the correct ritual was necessary for carrying out efficient governance. This approach contributed to the undercurrents of social barriers. While conducting the rituals, kings and warlords began to rival each other. In such a state of affair, going to attack a neighboring state was justified by showing that the ruler of the state under attack was not following certain rituals correctly. By accusing a weaker neighbor of not performing a ritual sincerely, a powerful warlord could justify his imperial designs and win moral support of the aristocracy and noblemen (Slingerland, 232). Furthermore, rituals increased social divisions. Aristocrats would follow different customs as compared to the common people. Rituals would further manifest these differences. Rituals would be instrumental in showing that where a person belonged from and what was his birth. This approach uncovered the complex divisions of the society. Also, ritualism put an economical burden on the common people because they had to spend considerable amounts of wealth to conduct a necessary ritual properly. Conclusion Ritualism functioned as a support system to Chinese culture. The dominance of ritualism also made contributions to the augmentation of lineage-oriented ancestral cult, and this social development helped common people to understand and obey the imperial authorities (Chow, 224). However, it gave rise to discrimination and social barriers too, which created a deep gulf between the rich and the poor in medieval Chinese society. However, superiority of Confucian thought is established by the fact that even the Mongol rulers of the country could not avoid its influence and present day scholars in the realm of history, religion and philosophy are studying the subject with great interest. And Confucian interpretations of the ritualistic practices must be understood from a more people oriented perspective in the context of Chinese culture, history, and geo-political situation. Works Cited Chow, Kai-Wing. The Rise of Confucian Ritualism in Late Imperial China: Ethics, Classics, and Lineage Discourse. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994. Print. Slingerland, Edward. Confucius Analects: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2003. Print. Read More