An Anthropological Inquiry into Confucianism

This informative, erudite, and thought-provoking account of Confucianism accomplishes the rare feat of intriguing both beginners and experts alike. Readers new to the subject will find its historical survey of this quintessential element of Chinese and East Asian culture relatable and fascinating. Students of Chinese thought and of comparative philosophy and religion will find its conceptual triad of Li, qing, and li innovatively capacious and solidly grounded, uniquely suitable for capturing the multi-dimensional reality of Confucianism as a historical and living tradition. The substantial integration of the pre-Confucian archeological record and of anthropological fieldwork showing how Confucianism is practiced in rural and urban settings today offers a timely corrective to the predominant Euro-American narrative of this tradition that has tended to reduce it to little more than the teachings of the Confucian classics and their Neo-Confucian orthodox commentaries.

-- Qiong Zhang, Wake Forest University

In this cogently argued, conscientiously researched, and concisely written book, Guo Wu offers us an anthropological interpretation of an ideal-type, Confucian ritualism. Highlighting its multidimensionality and multivalence within a historical framework, Wu astutely reveals how philosophical rationalization (li), emotional investment (qing), and ritualistic performance (Li), from the ancient through preset times, have formed and informed a cultural complex that at once prescribes and describes normative values, appropriate sentiments, and proper behaviors. As such, this entwined ritualism is a marker of identities, adjudicator of right and wrong, and transmitter of collective memories. Wu asks us to see Confucian ritualism as a thronging cultural effusion which, insofar as it is not simply conceived by the thinking intelligentsia and enacted by the reigning authority, is diurnally lived and felt by the people. We should heed his plea.

-- On-cho Ng, Pennsylvania State University

With fine expertise on both classical Chinese texts and modern Western theories, Prof. Wu provides an insightful analysis of the interplay of ritual, emotion, and principle throughout the classical Chinese tradition and demonstrates nicely the transformative role of Confucian ritual as a viable means of moral education, disciplining, and aesthetic experience. This book will be useful for both undergraduate and graduate classrooms and will have valuable contributions to the Anglophone world’s understanding of Confucianism.

-- Huaiyu Wang, Georgia College & State University

This is a remarkable work by Guo Wu that draws on a deep understanding of the Confucian classics along with his wide-ranging fluency in history, philosophy, and anthropology. Aside from his comprehensive examination of the Confucian tradition and its various interpretations through the different dynasties in China, he produces a self-reflexive and ‘insider’s perspective’ with his descriptions of his participation in the Confucian-Daoist ritual at his father’s funeral in the beginning of the book and a discussion of his childhood experiences with Maoist nationalistic rituals near the end of the work. Guo Wu highlights the important role of the emotion (Qing) as it was inextricably associated with family, lineage, and ancestral clans as understood by Confucians and neo-Confucians during various periods of Chinese history. To explore this topic, he draws on the Western literature regarding the anthropology, sociology, and philosophy of emotions ranging from Spinoza, Kant, Wittgenstein, Durkheim, Weber, Frazer, Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, Benedict, Lutz, Geertz, Damasio, along with various Chinese sources on the subject. Guo Wu provides an illuminating exegesis of the concepts of Li, Qing, and li as they relate to aspects of family, ritual, and rationality in the Confucian tradition. In his conclusion, he offers an excellent discussion of the contemporary revitalization of Confucianism in China that is integrated with cultural nationalism. This state-of-the-art work should be placed on the book shelves of all China specialists and everyone else interested in ritual.

-- Raymond Scupin, Lindenwood Univer