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Unit 3 |
English 203:
Literature of
the NonWestern World |
Review:
Confucianism: You
now know something about Confucius & Confucianism, which continue to
provide the rules for behavior that are followed by nearly a third of the
world.
You learned that Confucianism is non-transcendental.
There can be no rules before there are people to invent them. Order
(li, Dao) is produced by language, which is produced only by human
beings.
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Order is not a command, which would exalt power above
excellence.
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Order (cf. Dao) is illustrated by an exemplary performance
of a skilled person acting in a particular social context, usually in one
of the 5 Human Relationships.
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That order is called li (tradition).
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The purpose of the Confucian program is to produce
people of ren, i.e., people who are non-anxious because they both
know & are confident that they can perform what is required in any
circumstance.
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Perhaps the fundamental Confucian virtue is a mixture
of gratitude & deference to excellence, which is formulated as hsiao,
filial piety.
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Obviously Confucianism is dedicated to an aristocratic
social order, since excellence is a rare accomplishment.
You should know the 5 Human Relationships that distinguish
human beings from monkeys. Each is a kind of gift from one person
to another:
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parent/child
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emperor (as the personification of culture)/citizen
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spouses
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elder brother/siblings (cf. boss/employee)
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old/young (cf. accomplished/aspirant)
Daoism:
offered both a target for Confucianism & an alternative to it.
Especially before Buddhism flourished in China, Daoism offered an alternative
outlook.
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wu-wei (no-mind), cf. serendipity, spontaneity;
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yin/yang recursiveness (meaning that excessive
yang
becomes yin) & complementarity (meaning "positive" only makes
sense because of the complementary notion of "negative"): opposites attract
& every "thing" has 2 sides;
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Dao as transcendent Order; the nature of things (including
human beings);
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performance skill is better than conceptual or theoretical
knowledge;
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Daoism supports democratic political theory, unless
it is pushed to reveal its logical association with social anarchy that
can only be curbed by the Dao.
Students are usually more attracted by Daoism than
Confucianism. Daoism, they think, will not get them up in the morning
to go to class, not give them bad grades, etc. I will suggest 2 less
attractive scenarios.
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When you are suffering an illness or looking for
a surgeon, do you still believe that everyone should "do his own thing"
& that there are no real differences among people?
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Daoism promotes an anti-intellectual stance in life.
Historically, Daoism is China has been most prominently associated with
a kind of folklore pharmacology that recommends eating rare species (tiger,
panda, etc.) to provide something like Viagra to make old men sexually
potent. (In South Asia this dimension is called Tantra.)
Next week we will read some great Chinese
poets. See you then for unit 04.