Download Early Chinese Religion

East Asian Religions and East Asian Cultures
What's the Difference?
Neil Schmid
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
NCSU
;
禮有也禮太
者禮來尚上
不則而往貴
可安不來德
不無往往，
學禮 而其
也則亦不次
非 務
危禮來
施
故也非報
曰人禮
.
,
,
.
,
.
“In the highest antiquity they prized simply
conferring good; in the time next to this,
giving and repaying was the thing attended
to. And what the rules of propriety value is
that reciprocity. If I give a gift and nothing
comes in return, that is contrary to
propriety; if the thing comes to me, and I
give nothing in return, that also is contrary
to propriety. If a man observes the rules of
propriety, he is in a condition of security; if
he does not, he is in one of danger. Hence
there is the saying, ‘The rules of propriety
should by no means be left unlearned.’”
.
.
The Book of Rites Liji 禮記
:
Interaction Ritual
[Erving] Goffman concluded: ‘not men and their moments, but moments and
their men.’ Not individuals and their interactions, but interactions and their
individuals; not persons and their passions, but passions and their persons.
“Every dog will have its day” is more accurately “every day will have its
dog.” Incidents shape their incumbents, however momentary they may be;
encounters make their encountees.
It is games that make sports heroes, politics that makes politicians into
charismatic leaders, although the entire weight of record-keeping, news-storywriting, award-giving, speech-making, and advertising hype goes against
understanding how this comes about. To see the common realities of everyday
life sociologically requires a gestalt shift, a reversal of perspectives.
Randall Collins, Interaction Ritual Chains, p.5
敬
也子讓
。之也
所者
以，
相君
接
Respectfulness and yielding
mark the interactions of
superior men with one another.
Book of Rites Liji 禮記
Research reported in the Boston Globe:
Cultural insights : Brain scans support surprising differences in perception
between Westerners and Asians
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2008/03/03/cultural_insights/
Collectivism
政
眾如子
星北曰
共辰為
之，政
居以
其德
所，
而譬
The Master said, 'The rule
of virtue can be compared
to the Pole Star which
commands the homage of
the multitude of stars
without leaving its place.'
Confucius, The Analects
Primary social groups:
Family
• Filial piety xiao 孝 From 耂(老 lǎo) 'elder' and 子 (zǐ) 'child'.
• Extended families 氏族
• Sense of kinship (grandparents/great grandparents, notion
of guxiang 故鄉, sense of place)
Local community, neighborhood
• Community solidarity 社會
Government
• Community solidarity
• Respect for hierarchy
• Bureaucracy
Large power difference
Sense of how power in institutions and organizations is distributed
among individuals
 Large power difference means it is accepted as very unequal:
 Age老 [lǎo] 匕 is for 化 huà 'change'. 毛 máo means 'hair'. [舊(S旧) [jiù]
old (not new) (cf 老 old, not young; 新 new)]
 Seniority 輩 From 非 fēi phonetic over 车(車 chē) 'car'. "Row of
carriages; row, group, class, rank, sort; generation"
 Rank
 Maleness 男 From 田 (tián) 'field' and 力 (lì) 'strength'. Vs female
 Family background
 E.g., siblings –
 No word for brother and sister; instead older brother younger
brother, etc
 Do not call older brother or younger sister by their names but by
their titles.
 Use of given names is limited – what does this mean??
Sociality & Personal Interaction
Intragroup harmony and overt conflict in
interpersonal relations – this is a dominant
theme in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese culture
and relations
peace harmony 和 禾 grain to 口 eat
Relatedness
Conceived in its broadest sense, relatedness/kinship is
simply about the ways in which people create similarity
or difference between themselves and others. But in
the process you define yourself.
what does all of the above mean for religions in east asia?
•
•
•
•
•
the supernatural world is an extension of this world
this world has a government, so does the next
gods are like bureaucrats (and look like them)
gods can loose their jobs
your dead ancestors are not gods but they are
powerful and you treat them with respect
• it's not what you believe, its what you do
• you can be buddhist, daoist, shintoist, and confucian all
atthe same time
--the supernatural world is an extension of this world
--this world has a government, so does the next
--gods are like bureaucrats (and look like them)
--gods can loose their jobs
--the supernatural world is an extension of this world
--this world has a government, so does the next
--gods are like bureaucrats (and look like them)
--gods can loose their jobs
your dead ancestors are not gods but they are powerful and you
treat them with respect
respect your elders
it's not what you believe, its what you do
you can be buddhist, daoist, shintoist, and
confucian all at the same time
Basic Themes to East Asian Religions





Family and ancestor worship
Death and the afterlife
Personal welfare and its relation to mantic knowledge
Religious aspects of imperial authority and bureaucracy
Shamanism/Role of Nature
Ancient China
Dynamics of Early Chinese
Religion
Ancestors
Art and ancestor worship
Art and writing
Divination
Oracle bones
Shamans
Bronzes
Foodstuffs
Political Power
Divination
卜 bu
‘foretell’ ‘predict’
占卜 zhanbu ‘practice divination’
卜筮 bushi ‘divination by milfoil (yarrow stalks)’
打卦 dagua ‘divination’ ‘to divine’
兆 頭 zhaotou ‘omen’
Oracle Bones
Oracle Bones
Bronzes:
The Semiotics of Food and Life
Qi
汽/氣
水/陰
米/陽
qi 汽 yin 陰 yang 陽 hundun 混沌/餛飩
Shamanism
• Two general definitions:
– Eliade’s definition (1964) is that shamanism is defined by
ecstasy. From ekstasis meaning deranged—state of
being beyond reason, mystic trance.
– Åke Hultkrantz’s definition is perhaps more appropriate
to the Chinese context: “a social functionary who, with
the help of guardian spirits, attains ecstasy to create a
rapport with the supernatural world on the behalf of her
group memebers” Hultkrantz 1973:34
Bronzes
Bronzes
Bronzes
Bronzes
Bronzes: Taotie
Bronzes
Bronzes
Early Chinese Religion
Divination, Ancestors, and the State
Select Bibliography:
Chang, K.C. “Ancient China,” Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1977, 23-52
Eno, Robert. “Deities and Ancestors in Early Oracle Inscriptions,” Lopez, Donald. Religions of China In Practice. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1996, 41-51
Hultkrantz, Åke. “A Definition of Shamanism.” Temenos 9 (1973):25-37
Keightly, David N. “Late Shang Divination: The Magico-Religious Legacy,” in Explorations in Early Chinese Cosmology. Henry
Rosemont, ed. Chico: Scholar’s Press, 1984, 11-34
Keightly, David N. “The Religious Commitment: Shang Theology and the Genesis of Chinese Political Culture.” History of
Religions 17 (1978): 211-225
Keightley, David. "Early Civilization in China: Reflections on How It Became Chinese," In Heritage of China: Contemporary
Perspectives on Chinese Civilization. Paul S. Ropp, ed. Berkeley: UC Press, 1990, 15-54
Keightley, David. “Art, Ancestors, and the Origins of Writing in China,” Representations, vol. 0, issue 56 (Autumn, 1996):68-95
Overmyer, D. “Introduction to ‘Chinese Religions—4000 BCE to 220 BCE’” JAS 1995:124-128
Poo, Mu-chou. In Search of Personal Welfare. Albany: SUNY Press, 1998
Sommer, “Inscriptions from Ritual Bronzes,” Sommer, Deborah. Chinese Religion: An Anthology of Sources. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1995, pp. 13-16