Ritual and Practice in Chinese Philosophy

A characteristic theme of classical Chinese philosophy are celebrations and criticisms of rituals and everyday micro-practices. Ruism (Confucianism), Daoism, and Mohism all contributes to debates about the nature and purposes of rituals. These debates are pursued by sociologists, anthropologists, and cultural historians, as well as philosophers and experts in classical Chinese philosophy.

The contestation over correct practice of ritual not only forms the central issue animating the maturation of the Classical period of Chinese philosophy but continue to remain one of the central themes underlying the various traditions that followed from this period. The particularities of ritual were therefore not only the object of philosophical inquiry, but also came to serve as the metonym of practice (including philosophical practice) as such. Ritual can be seen as a principle of action, a means of moral practice, an aesthetic performance, a source of the materiality of daily life, a mirror of political reflection, a cosmological notion, and a domain of philosophical speculation. Recent research (Ing 2012, Puett 2015, Olberding 2016) has opened up a rich field of conceptual and interpretational issues which calls for further elaboration. These include specific kinds of personal, interpersonal, and social rituals, as well as specifically aesthetic practices and rituals.

Some of the questions raised by rituals include: how are narratives of social decline and revival driven by attention to ritual? How do rituals focus philosophical dispute? What are the moral and aesthetic aspects of rituals related to one another? How do rituals offer an alternative understanding of forms of philosophical and religious practice? How do ritual objects transmit philosophical concepts across time and space? Do Chinese conceptions of ritual practice offer insights for contemporary ethics, aestheticians, and social philosophers?

This workshop contributes to the ongoing investigation of the meaning of ritual based on a multidisciplinary approach.

This workshop is generously funded by the Mind Association and the British Society for the History of Philosophy.

Provisional Schedule

9:30-10:20

Tzuchien Tho

The practice of possibility in the Yijing commentary tradition

10:30-11:20

David E. Cooper

The significance of music

11:30-12:20

Sarah Flavel

[To be announced]

2:00-2:50

Ian James Kidd

When Rituals Fail

3:00-3:50

Benedetta Lomi

When the Ancestor Cracks. Mantic, Ritual, and Bureaucratic Protocols for a Medieval Japanese Statue

4:00-4:50

Lana (Kyung Ran) Ko

Negotiating Paradox: Preliminary Reflections on the Role of Ritual in Neidan (Inner Alchemy)