An Anthropological Inquiry into Confucianism: Ritual, Emotion, and Rational Principle

An Anthropological Inquiry into Confucianism explores Confucianism as a belief system and way of life centered around three key concepts: ritual (Li), emotion (qing), and rational principle (li). It focuses on how Confucian thinkers grappled with these concepts and balanced them throughout dynasties through polemics and practice. The book incorporates anthropological theories to interpret the origins of Confucianism and its connection to pre-textual worshipping and funerary rites. It demonstrates how Confucian ritualism permeated Chinese villages since the Song dynasty and revived in the Ming-Qing dynasties, with a renewed interest in expressing human emotions. The book concludes that the Confucian balancing of the triad continues into the 21st century, with its revival in China.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 166 pages
Publication date: 15 September 2023
Publisher: Lexington Books

An Anthropological Inquiry into Confucianism offers a comprehensive and historically contextualized exploration of Confucianism as a belief system and a way of life centered around three fundamental concepts: ritual (Li), emotion (qing), and rational principle (li). Rather than attempting to encompass all aspects of Confucianism, the book focuses on how Confucian thinkers grappled with these three keywords and sought to balance them across numerous dynasties through both polemics and practical practices of performing rites in daily life. Drawing upon the theories and perspectives of anthropology, Guo Wu revisits the origins of Confucianism and treats it as a part of the legacy of pre-textual worship and funerary rites that Confucians incorporated, recorded, and interpreted. An anthropological lens continues to enrich the understanding of the existing Confucian classics by reinterpreting their sections related to human-human, human-animal, and human-sacred object relations. Modern anthropological studies are referenced to demonstrate how Confucian ritualism permeated the lifeworld of Chinese villages since the Song dynasty and experienced a revival during the Ming-Qing dynasties, coinciding with a renewed interest in expressing human emotions, which inherently conflicted with the (Heavenly) rational principle. The book concludes that the Confucian balancing of the triad persists into the 21st century, alongside its resurgence in China.

Weight: 277g
Dimension: 231 x 154 x 13 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781793654335