The Sociology of Philosophies

(Wang) #1

strangeness of the period with a backward-looking doctrine of religious cor-
rectness. Confucius was harshly critical of dukes and lower-ranking nobles
who had too many dancers in their court ceremonies or too many carts in their
funeral precessions (e.g., Analects 3.1.6). Not only were these usurpations of
the ritual badges of rank, hence showing disrespect for the traditional authority
of the dynasty, but also such ceremonies could not have their proper magical
effect. The Confucians extolled the reified attitudes of traditional ritualism, but
in doing so they stepped outside the cocoon of primal naïveté. Theirs was the
beginning of a sophisticated defense of unsophisticated practice.
The anthropomorphic Lord on High was reinterpreted as an impersonal
Heaven (T’ien) or Destiny (T’ien-ming). The latter could also be interpreted as
the “Mandate of Heaven,” in this way turning supreme religious power into
a principle of retribution. Incorrect rulers—those who neglected the appropri-
ate sacrifices and other forms—would lose a favorable Mandate of Heaven,
and eventually be overthrown by a ritually correct dynasty. This lesson was
illustrated by accounts of the rise and fall of earlier dynasties (including some
mythical ones) in the Book of History (Shu Ching), which was compiled during
the first generations of the Confucian school. The Confucians could not help
supplementing ritual correctness with a new inner dimension of morality:
rituals must be carried out with the proper attitude of respect, and this attitude
should permeate other aspects of behavior as well. In the morality tales of the
bad emperors, drunkenness and sexual carousing took their place as sins along
with neglect of the rites.
Soon after the Confucians opened an intellectual space, the Mohists moved
into it with an oppositional stance. The law of small numbers was already
operating. Confucius’ followers soon split into some half-dozen schools, dif-
ferentiated apparently on how much strictness they applied to ritual formal-
ism.^2 The Mohists created a more radical alternative, both doctrinally and
organizationally. Ceremonies, funeral processions, music, and other public
displays—the center of Confucian concerns—were condemned as expenses
burdening the common people. Whereas the Confucians idealized the ritually
correct founder of the Chou dynasty, the Mohists idealized the Hsia, a dynasty
of primitive culture-heroes preceding the ancient Shang. For the Confucian
ethical obligation to family and ruler, the Mohists substituted an ideal of
universal altruism. In opposition to the impersonal cult of Heaven and Destiny,
Mo Ti personalized Heaven as a god rewarding the righteous and punishing
sinners. Whereas Confucius strove to keep the spirits at a distance, the Mohists
emphasized the existence of ghosts as avengers of evils done to them during
their lives. One of the Ten Theses of Mohism is a refutation of fatalism, which
Mo Ti associates with some opposing factions. Mohism developed as one
extreme just as the other extreme was emerging inside Confucianism in con-


140 •^ Intellectual Communities: Asian Paths

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