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Chapter 1
Confucian Inspiration
Introduction
Confucianism is one out of three main philosophical inspirations of Li Zehou, along with Kantian philosophy and Marxism. There are two reasons why one might refer to this particular tradition in the context of discussing Liās aesthetics as a form of cognition. The first is to show how Confucianism addresses the aesthetic and what role it plays in this particular philosophical school. The second, and more important, reason is how the aesthetic in Confucianism is connected with cognition. In fact, Li inclines more toward the belief that in Confuciusās philosophy the aesthetic should not be associated with cognition on the grounds of it being experienced as a form of emotion.1 However, this claim, by being underlaid with the assumption that the emotional is excluded from cognition, is arguable not only in light of the most recent research in, for instance affective science,2 but also within the Confucian doctrine itself.
It would be very difficult to imagine Liās philosophical project in its current shape without the contribution of Confucianism. It has to be admitted that Liās theory of subjectality reflects more an amalgamation of Kantian and Marxist influences, but it is Confucianism that reveals itself in particular through the psychological intricacies of this philosophical construction.3 It can be said that to some extent Li assumes the Confucian way of thinking in his project. For this reason, it will also be shown how Li perceives Confucian views related to the aesthetic, as represented by Confucius. Focusing on Confucius instead of the whole Confucianism tradition or some other representatives of this particular school is justified by Liās interest in Confucius as the first Chinese thinker who had proposed views clearly related to the aesthetic. In Confucianism, and generally in almost all other Chinese schools of thought, the human inner development and its manifestation of have never been of a religious or transcendent character. This area of human existence, according to Li, was accommodated by aesthetics, which was first directly discussed theoretically by Confucius. Li believes that the Confucian self-cultivation involved joy (le ęØ), which crucially intersects it with the aesthetic.4
Another great achievement that Li ascribes to Confucius is showing the interrelation of ethics and aesthetics within his thought. According to Li, Confucius, although predominantly concerned with the matter of ethics, unlike some later Confucian philosophers, did not focus solely on ethical issues,5 and accordingly did not downplay the role of beauty in his system. Moreover, beauty in Confucianism is not a separate field of investigation but is involved in mutual complementation with renāthe moral ideal. This complementation subject to the ethical objective, as good, particularly represented in Confucianism as ren, is more fundamental. Li supports it with the following fragment from the Analects 3.3:
The Master said: āA man who is not good [ren ä»]āwhat has he to do with music?ā6
Confucius seems to be very clear about the distribution of importance in his system, namely, by showing that good precedes beauty. It is also suggested what kind of beauty, expressed in this example by the musical medium, is regarded as valuable in the Confucian systemāit has to comply with the ethical order. This interspersion of the ethical and aesthetic is very formative for Liās own philosophical project, where humans by means of proper practice bring beauty into existence.
Beyond any doubt, the influence of Confucius on Li is of great importance. Concurrently, it should be noted, however, that despite the above-mentioned important Confucian influence it would be considerably difficult, imprecise, and incorrect to place Li among philosophers with not only strong Confucian identity but also heritage, such as Mou Zongsan (ēå®äø) or Xiong Shili (ēåå). These thinkers evidently remained under the influence of earlier Confucian philosophersāclassical Confucian or neo-Confucianāand continued to philosophize in a Confucian spirit. Li clearly evades this category of thinkers. Although he refers to Confucianism more than any other Chinese philosophical tradition, he employs it while constructing his own philosophy and, accordingly, does not intend to convey the Confucian message. Liās profound inspiration from Confucian philosophy is merely a building block for his original project.
A Twofold Approach to Confucianismā
General Interpretation
It also has to be mentioned that Liās interest in and inspiration from the Chinese philosophical tradition is not exclusively confined to the Confucian school. Li also values other schools in the Chinese philosophical tradition,7 in particular Zhuangziās Daoism. From a more general perspective, his choice of Confucianism as the main Chinese philosophical inspiration can be viewed as resorting to a representative of almost the whole Chinese philosophical tradition in terms of sharing some common assumptions that constitute the foundations of traditional Chinese thought. Admittedly, Confucianism has been one of the most important schools of thought throughout Chinese history of philosophy. Apart from developing a clearly distinct doctrine, it also shares with other philosophical schools some general, fundamental elements.
These shared elements can be described as metaphysical and ethical intuitions. The text that encapsulates the formative philosophical intuitions that are present in most classical Chinese philosophy, as well as the philosophical schools that follow it, is the Book of Changes, or the Yijing (ęē¶). This text can be perceived as not belonging to philosophy on account of its original intention, which was a divination manual. However, its impact on and role in Chinese philosophy cannot be denied. It constitutes an early layer of Chinese thought that contains the intuitions that founded philosophical development in classical and later philosophies in China.
The philosophical intuitions from the Book of Changes that pervade into later Chinese thought are often referred to as cosmology or cosmological thinking. There are several aspects that constitute Chinese cosmological thinking, but for the sake of this discussion, I will limit myself to introducing only the relevant ones. They concern the holistic worldview, status of dualities, and the dynamic model of the universe.
The Book of Changes was written down over centuries, approximately from 900 BCE until 500 BCE, yet these rough framing dates remain uncertain. However, what is important is that the text was composed over a long period of time and it can be subdivided into three main chronological strata: trigrams, hexagrams, and commentaries. The oldest layer, is composed of eight trigrams that are all possible combinations of three lines, continuous and broken.8 The trigrams correspond with natural phenomena that are thought to depict everything that happens in the universe. Importantly, they do not map a description of the universe that constantly changes, similarly to natural phenomena. This shows that the Chinese thinking already included the intuition of a dynamic universe. Consequently, one cannot describe such a universe as a static entity but as a process.
The second chronological layer that followed is the sixty-four hexagrams, which present all possible combinations of the eight trigrams. They were allegedly compiled by a historical figureāKing Wen from the Zhou dynasty in the twelfth century BCE.9 The hexagrams were accompanied by two types of commentariesāon the whole hexagram and on each line in it. Both types of commentaries bore a kind of moral advice introduced in situations. What is important here is that the behavior described in the situations is synchronized with the lines that illustrate the incessant changes in the universe. In this sense, human conduct is not set against the cosmological processes in the world but quite the contraryāit is paired with them, or, to be more exact, it is part of the processes that take place. This integration situates humans as integral part of nature that is influenced by the dynamic cosmos and tries to adjust to it with a prescribed conduct.
Finally, the hexagrams were followed by the final stratum of commentaries, some of which were allegedly written by Confucius, yet this authorship remains historically unclear.10 The commentaries vary in kind. The one that contains a prominent philosophical message is the Great Commentary (Dazhuan 大å³), alternatively referred to as the Commentary on the Appended Phrases (Xicizhuan ē¹«č¾å³). This work in particular aims to describe moral correlates of what happens in nature, more generally speaking the cosmos, represented by the hexagrams and the relations between the lines that constitute them. It can be observed that the world is dynamic and that human actions require proper configuration that is expected to bring correct behavior, and, more importantly, proper existence in the world.
Altogether, Karyn L. Lai distinguishes seven features of cosmological thinking.11 However, for the sake of bringing necessary context to our discussion on Confucianism, I briefly focus only on two of them: holistic conception of the world and dynamics consisting in change.
In the first fragment from the Great Commentary we can read:
As Heaven is high and noble and Earth is low and humble, so it is that Qian [Pure Yang, hexagram 1] and Kun [Pure Yin, hexagram 2] are defined. ā¦ The high and the low being thereby set out, the exalted and the mean have their places accordingly. ā¦ There are norms for action and repose, which are determined by whether hardness or softness is involved.12
The hexagrams from the passage denote the foundations of the world. We are confronted with a metaphysical universe composed of two opposite elements: yang (é½) and yin (é°). These elements exhaust the metaphysical universe, leaving no place for anything transcendent in relation to them. Yin and yang are not different substances, and together they form qi (ę°£), the āsubstanceā of the whole universe.13 For this reason, their opposition is complementary, not contradictory. They should be understood more in terms of aspects of qi that concurrently are the forces thanks to which the world is incessantly dynamic.
Further on, in the same fragment, we read:
Those with regular tendencies gather according to kind, and things divide up according to group; so it is that good fortune and misfortune occur.14
This description is first of all of metaphysical character, but it should be noted that it concurrently applies to humans, who do not transcend the metaphysical laws of the universe. The cosmos is not only nature in the sense of background to human activity, as humans are an integral part of it and live in a dynamic world of changes. In this way, human actions are also part of the changes and they should constantly synchronize with the rest of the cosmos.
It is also stated that compliance with the cosmos is measured in terms of fortune or misfortune. Thus, valuation of human behavior, growing from the cosmic order, is provided. This shows the connection of the metaphysical and ethical orders, which, although not developed in a purely philosophical manner in the commentary, are clearly present as a potential form.
Considering that the whole universe is dynamic in nature, humans have to continuously adjust to the incessant processes of change. This requires an identification of the stage of change, or, from the perspective of the subject, where she/he is located in that process. Adequate, synchronized behavior also relies on making predictions with regard to what is the character of the future changeāin nature, but also among humans. Therefore, it is impossible to act blindly according to principles, but only in response to the situation one finds oneself in.
To sum up, the Book of Changes contains intuitions of metaphysical and ethical nature. The hexagrams constitute the amalgamation of iconic and abstract representations of the situations that emerge in the process of changes in the world, conceptualized as the cosmos of multiple dynamic relations. The cosmos is the whole metaphysical universe. There is nothing that transcends the cosmos and everything is ordered and explainable within it. It is characterized by incessant transformations that also embrace humans, who as part of the dynamic whole have to accommodate the actions that are intertwined with the rest of the world, both human and nonhuman. It should also be observed that within this cosmological model there is no conflict between humans and nature, as they complement each other and should remain in harmonious relation.
These intuitions are present in Confucianism, especially in the sphere of human relations. As regards the social layer, Confucianism views the individual as part of the whole. Humans and the universe form a unity and they are involved in incessant interaction. On this view, Confucians build their specific system, where the self-cultivation of humans is viewed in terms of inner virtue transformation, and appropriate interactions with other humans in family and society. These interactions are also incessantly dynamic, and humans, through their behavior, have to constantly adap...
