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Homework #3 is due on Thursday, September 14. |
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Remember: Your first Journal assignments must be in your Oncourse drop box, by the end of Friday, September 15. |
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If you haven't already spotted it, consult A List of Significant Dates and Names for the Spring & Autumn Period to make the names & dates of the Spring & Autumn period easier to untangle and remember. As the course chronology grows more complex, consult the website Timeline to help keep things straight. |
Reading assignment:
Zhou Ritual Culture and Its Rationalization
Confucius and the Origins of Confucianism, pp. 1-16
Extra Resource: The Analects of Confucius
Today, we begin a two-session first look at Confucianism. Today's class will include a lecture segment on the background of Confucius and his school, general characteristics of Confucianism, and discussion of the ritual texts that constitute the first online reading.
The lecture section of class will focus on relating to one another the various aspects of Confucian doctrine outlined in the reading on Confucius, though I won't be able to touch on them all. Please read the Coursepack carefully, and ask, in particular, two questions as you do: (1) How is li [ritual] connected to all the various virtues that Confucians assign their model of the ideal person, the junzi? (2) How is li [ritual] really, really, really connected to all the various virtues that Confucians assign their model of the ideal person, the junzi? (If you have time to reflect on only one of these, reflect on the second.)
When we discuss the readings on the archery ritual, the first of which actually shows us one aspect of the concrete content of li, and the second of which shows us its Confucian interpretation, we will ask the following question: In the Confucian view, how was archery connected to all the various virtues that Confucians assign their model of the ideal person, the junzi?
You may be thinking that we're going to be concerned in our discussion with how ritual behavior and ethical or moral behavior are linked in the Confucian view. If so, you are correct.
On Tuesday, when we discuss passages from the Analects of Confucius that appear in your reading, we will ask other sorts of questions, and address other issues. But our interest in clarifying the link between ritual and ethics in early Confucian thought will remain.