An Anthropological Inquiry into Confucianism
Ritual, Emotion, and Rational Principle- Authors:
- Publisher:
- 2022
Summary
An Anthropological Inquiry into Confucianism provides a chronological, historicized reappraisal of Confucianism as a belief system and a way of life that revolves around three key concepts: ritual (Li), emotion (qing), and rational principle (li). Instead of examining all pertinent concepts of Confucianism, the book focuses on how Confucian thinkers grappled with these three words and tried to balance them throughout multiple dynasties and by polemics an practice performing rites in daily life. Informed by the theory and perspectives of anthropology, Guo Wu revisits the origin of Confucianism and treats it as part of the legacy of pre-textual worshipping and funerary rites which are incorporated, recorded, and interpreted by Confucians. An anthropological angle continues to flesh out the extant Confucian classics by reinterpreting the parts concerning the human-human, human-animal, and human-sacred objects relations. Modern anthropological studies are referenced to showed how Confucian ritualism permeated to the lifeworld of Chinese villages since the Song dynasty and revived in Ming-Qing dynasties along with a resurgent interest in the expression of human emotions, which had an inherent tension with (Heavenly) rational principle. The book concludes that the Confucian balancing of the triad continues into the 21st century along with its revival in China.
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Bibliographic data
- Copyright year
- 2022
- ISBN-Print
- 978-1-7936-5431-1
- ISBN-Online
- 978-1-7936-5432-8
- Publisher
- Lexington, Lanham
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 140
- Product type
- Book Titles
Table of contents
- Contents No access
- Introduction: Confucianism through Anthropological Lenses No access
- Li and Qing: Sacrifice, Ritual, and Emotion Before Confucius No access Pages 1 - 20
- Ritualism and Emotion in Pre-Qin Confucianism and the Zhuangzi No access Pages 21 - 48
- The Rise of Rational Principle and Diffusion of Rites in the Tang and Song Dynasties No access Pages 49 - 74
- Rediscovering Qing and Li in the Ming and Qing No access Pages 75 - 98
- Conclusion No access Pages 99 - 114
- Bibliography No access Pages 115 - 134
- Index No access Pages 135 - 138
- About the Author No access Pages 139 - 140





