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Part I
Harmony as a philosophical concept
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1 Harmony with creative tension
This chapter offers key elements and a theoretical framework to prepare readers for the chapters that follow. It begins with a conceptual articulation and clarification of Confucian harmony, particularly in relation to sameness and conflict, followed by a brief review and discussion of the importance that classic Confucian thinkers attributed to harmony as a social and moral ideal. The chapter also (re)establishes harmony as a central ideal in Confucianism by surveying its role in Confucian canons.
The Confucian concept of harmony
The English word “harmony” is usually understood as accord and agreement. As such, the pursuit of harmony in a diverse world is often regarded in the West as naïve at best and harmful at worst. For instance, Martha Nussbaum writes:
Moral objectivity about the value of a person (or, presumably, any other source of moral claims) requires, evidently, the ability to see that item as distinct from other items; this in turn requires the ability to see it not as a deep part of an innocent harmony but as a value that can be contrasted or opposed to others, whose demands can potentially conflict with other demands.
(Nussbaum 1990: 131)
For this reason, Nussbaum and many contemporary Western thinkers are suspicious of the moral and philosophical significance of harmony. For them, justice requires everyone to assert his or her rights, not to submerge in faceless agreement. Discussing human affairs in terms of either innocent harmony or continuous conflicts, Nussbaum describes the dilemma this way:
For we must choose, it seems, between active harmonizing or ordering and open responsiveness, between being the makers of a consistent conflict-free world of value and being receptive to the rich plurality of values that exist in the world of nature and of history.
(Nussbaum 1986: 78)
As she puts it, whereas active harmonizing involves denial of something of value, open responsiveness seems to lead to a passive abandonment of the human aim to make an orderly life (Nussbaum 1986: 78). Nussbaum opts for responsiveness:
to be flexibly responsive to the world, rather than rigid, is a way of living in the world that allows an acceptable amount of safety and stability while still permitting recognition of the richness of value that is in the world.
(Ibid.: 80)
This conception of harmony, which Nussbaum describes as “innocent harmony” and “consistent harmony” (Nussbaum 1990: 89), is pure accord. In such a state, there is no tension, and no, or little, engagement of different parties. This kind of “innocent harmony” has little value because it rarely if ever exists in real life, and even when it does exist, it is not conducive to healthy growth or realization of any involved party.
The prototype of “innocent harmony” is traceable to Plato’s Forms (see Chapter 2). For Plato, in Forms lies not only the ultimate reality but also the ultimate truth. There can be no contradiction between Forms. This conception has been the norm when the subject of harmony is discussed in Western philosophical discourse, whereas the Heraclitean notion of harmony, which holds that harmony cannot be achieved without contraries (Graham 2010: 157), has been almost entirely ignored.
There is another dimension to Plato’s conception of harmony. For Plato, while the realm of Forms is always perfect (innocent) harmony, the physical realm must conform to it if there is to be harmony in this world. We may call harmony in this sense “harmony by conformity.” Without perfect alignment with the realm of Forms, our physical world is chaotic. Order (e.g. “justice”) is achieved and maintained only by conformity to the Forms. Obviously, if “innocent harmony” is naïve, “harmony by conformity” implies oppression. Karl Popper made Plato’s ideal of justice as harmony the main target of criticism in his Open Society and Its Enemies. For Popper, Plato’s idea of conflict-free harmony leads to totalitarianism and it is contrary to freedom (Popper 1945). This idealistic and even dangerous understanding of harmony as pure agreement and conformity explains the fact that harmony has had little relevance in modern Western social and political philosophy. Max Weber, whose interpretation of Chinese culture has exerted a broad impact in the West, has read into Confucianism harmony as conformity:
The cosmic orders of the world were considered fixed and inviolate and the orders of society were but a special case of this. The great spirits of the cosmic orders obviously desired only the happiness of the world and especially the happiness of man. The same applied to the orders of society. The “happy” tranquility of the empire and the equilibrium of the soul should and could be attained only if man fitted himself into the internally harmonious cosmos.
(Weber 1951: 152–3)
In this (mis)understanding, Confucian harmony is just to fit into fixed and inviolate orders in the world; harmony is mere conformity. This Weberian reading of Confucian harmony is, however, fundamentally wrong.
The Confucian notion of harmony as developed by classical thinkers, I shall argue, is neither pure accord nor conformity. To the contrary, it is founded on diversity and formulated with creative tension. In a nutshell, Confucian harmony has the following key characteristics:
1. Heterogeneity. Harmony presupposes two or more co-existing parties. These parties are not uniform and they possess varied dispositions.
2. Tension. Various parties interact with one another. Tension of various levels arises naturally from difference.
3. Coordination and Cooperation. While tension may result in conflict, it also places constraints on parties in interaction and generates energy to advance coordination. In coordination, involved parties make allowances for one another and preserve their soundness.
4. Transformation and Growth. Through coordination, tension is transformed and conflict is reconciled into a favorable environment for each party to flourish. In this process, involved parties undergo mutual transformation and form harmonious relationships.
5. Renewal. Harmony is achieved not as a final state, but as stages in an ongoing process. It admits of degrees. A harmonious relationship is maintained through continuous renewal.1
Confucian harmony is multilateral and multifaceted.2 It cannot be achieved from any single Archimedean point. Unlike the Pythagorean conception of harmony on the basis of numbers, Confucian harmony can only be defined in qualitative terms; it cannot be defined quantitatively. Tension follows naturally from heterogeneity and can become a creative element for harmony when it leads to coordination and, further, to cooperation.3 There are balance and agreement in coordination. Coordination and cooperation require mutual and reciprocal adjustment between various component parts, which is key to harmony. Coordination through mutual adjustment and cooperation creates a favorable environment for each participating party to grow and flourish. Thus, the achieved whole in a harmony is greater than the sum of its constituent parts obtainable otherwise. Harmony cannot be retained by simply keeping the status quo, as it will become stale and lifeless. The continuation of harmony itself demands new energy and new initiatives. For these reasons, harmony is by its very nature delicate. In re-creating itself, harmony runs the risk of overstretching itself and becoming chaotic. There are various degrees of harmony. A situation may be largely harmonious while it is mixed with disharmonious elements, as a well-orchestrated symphony may nevertheless contain discordant notes. Ultimate harmony, if it can be comprehended, exists only as ideal, not in reality. There is no such thing as absolute harmony, because harmonious states always change and evolve, always fluctuate. Whatever level of harmony has been achieved, it can always be enhanced, expanded, and transformed. Harmony transcends itself through self-creation and re-creation.
Confucian harmony is understood not only as a state of affairs, but more importantly as a cosmic order and a moral value. As a state of affairs, harmony is a continuous process of adjusting differences and reconciling conflicts, and thus it creates constructive conditions for the healthy existence of all parties. As a cosmic order, harmony evolves out of the interaction of various forces and emerges as a guideline for things to operate. Joseph Needham writes of the Chinese worldview:
The harmonious co-operation of all beings arose, not from the orders of a superior authority external to themselves, but from the fact that they were all parts in a hierarchy of wholes forming a cosmic pattern, and what they obeyed were the internal dictates of their own natures.
(Needham 1951: 230...
