East Asian Religions and East Asian CulturesWhat's the Difference?

Neil Schmid

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

NCSU

“In the highest antiquity they prized simplyconferring good; in the time next to this,giving and repaying was the thing attendedto. And what the rules of propriety value isthat reciprocity. If I give a gift and nothingcomes in return, that is contrary topropriety; if the thing comes to me, and Igive nothing in return, that also is contraryto propriety. If a man observes the rules ofpropriety, he is in a condition of security; ifhe does not, he is in one of danger. Hencethere is the saying, ‘The rules of proprietyshould by no means be left unlearned.’”

The Book of Rites Liji 禮記

太上貴德，其次務施報.

禮尚往來.

往而不來,

非禮

也; 來而不往,

亦非禮也.

人

有禮則安,

無禮則危.

故曰:

禮者不可不學也.

Interaction Ritual

[Erving] Goffman concluded: ‘not men and their moments, but moments and their men.’ Not individuals and their interactions, but interactions and their individuals; not persons and their passions, but passions and their persons.

“Every dog will have its day” is more accurately “every day will have its dog.” Incidents shape their incumbents, however momentary they may be; encounters make their encountees.

It is games that make sports heroes, politics that makes politicians into charismatic leaders, although the entire weight of record-keeping, news-story-writing, award-giving, speech-making, and advertising hype goes against understanding how this comes about. To see the common realities of everyday life sociologically requires a gestalt shift, a reversal of perspectives.

Randall Collins, Interaction Ritual Chains, p.5

敬讓也者，君

子之所以相接

也。

Respectfulness and yielding mark the interactions of superior men with one another.

Book of Rites Liji 禮記

Research reported in the Boston Globe:

Cultural insights : Brain scans support surprising differences in perception between Westerners and Asians

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2008/03/03/cultural_insights/

Collectivism

政子曰

為政以德，譬

如北辰，居其所而

眾星共之

The Master said, 'The rule of virtue can be compared to the Pole Star which commands the homage of the multitude of stars without leaving its place.'

Confucius, The Analects

Family• Filial piety xiao 孝 From 耂(老 lǎo) 'elder' and 子 (zǐ) 'child'.• Extended families 氏族• Sense of kinship (grandparents/great grandparents, notion

of guxiang 故鄉, sense of place)

Local community, neighborhood • Community solidarity 社會

Government• Community solidarity• Respect for hierarchy• Bureaucracy

Primary social groups:

Sense of how power in institutions and organizations is distributed among individuals

Large power difference means it is accepted as very unequal: Age老 [lǎo] 匕 is for 化 huà 'change'. 毛 máo means 'hair'. [舊(S旧) [jiù]

old (not new) (cf 老 old, not young; 新 new)] Seniority 輩 From 非 fēi phonetic over 车(車 chē) 'car'. "Row of

carriages; row, group, class, rank, sort; generation" Rank Maleness 男 From 田 (tián) 'field' and 力 (lì) 'strength'. Vs female Family background

E.g., siblings – No word for brother and sister; instead older brother younger

brother, etc Do not call older brother or younger sister by their names but by

their titles. Use of given names is limited – what does this mean??

Large power difference

Intragroup harmony and overt conflict in interpersonal relations – this is a dominant theme in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese culture and relations

peace harmony 和 禾 grain to 口 eat

Relatedness

Conceived in its broadest sense, relatedness/kinship is simply about the ways in which people create similarity or difference between themselves and others. But in the process you define yourself.

Sociality & Personal Interaction

what does all of the above mean for religions in east asia?

• the supernatural world is an extension of this world

• this world has a government, so does the next

• gods are like bureaucrats (and look like them)

• gods can loose their jobs

• your dead ancestors are not gods but they are powerful and you treat them with respect

• it's not what you believe, its what you do

• you can be buddhist, daoist, shintoist, and confucian all atthe same time

--the supernatural world is an extension of this world--this world has a government, so does the next--gods are like bureaucrats (and look like them)--gods can loose their jobs

--the supernatural world is an extension of this world--this world has a government, so does the next--gods are like bureaucrats (and look like them)--gods can loose their jobs

your dead ancestors are not gods but they are powerful and you

treat them with respect

respect your elders

it's not what you believe, its what you doyou can be buddhist, daoist, shintoist, and confucian all at the same time

Basic Themes to East Asian Religions

Family and ancestor worship

Death and the afterlife

Personal welfare and its relation to mantic knowledge

Religious aspects of imperial authority and bureaucracy

Shamanism/Role of Nature

Ancient China

Dynamics of Early Chinese Religion

Divination

Oracle bones

Shamans

Bronzes

Foodstuffs

Political Power

Ancestors

Art and ancestor worship

Art and writing

Divination

卜 bu ‘foretell’ ‘predict’

占卜 zhanbu ‘practice divination’

卜筮 bushi ‘divination by milfoil (yarrow stalks)’

打卦 dagua ‘divination’ ‘to divine’

兆頭 zhaotou ‘omen’

Oracle Bones

Oracle Bones

Bronzes: The Semiotics of Food and Life

水/陰 米/陽

Qi

汽/氣

qi 汽 yin 陰 yang 陽 hundun 混沌/餛飩

Shamanism

• Two general definitions:

– Eliade’s definition (1964) is that shamanism is defined by ecstasy. From ekstasis meaning deranged—state of being beyond reason, mystic trance.

– Åke Hultkrantz’s definition is perhaps more appropriate to the Chinese context: “a social functionary who, with the help of guardian spirits, attains ecstasy to create a rapport with the supernatural world on the behalf of her group memebers” Hultkrantz 1973:34

Bronzes

Bronzes

Bronzes

Bronzes

Bronzes: Taotie

Bronzes

Bronzes

Early Chinese ReligionDivination, Ancestors, and the State

Select Bibliography:

Chang, K.C. “Ancient China,” Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives. New Haven: Yale UniversityPress, 1977, 23-52

Eno, Robert. “Deities and Ancestors in Early Oracle Inscriptions,” Lopez, Donald. Religions of China In Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996, 41-51

Hultkrantz, Åke. “A Definition of Shamanism.” Temenos 9 (1973):25-37

Keightly, David N. “Late Shang Divination: The Magico-Religious Legacy,” in Explorations in Early Chinese Cosmology. Henry Rosemont, ed. Chico: Scholar’s Press, 1984, 11-34

Keightly, David N. “The Religious Commitment: Shang Theology and the Genesis of Chinese Political Culture.” History of Religions 17 (1978): 211-225

Keightley, David. "Early Civilization in China: Reflections on How It Became Chinese," In Heritage of China: Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese Civilization. Paul S. Ropp, ed. Berkeley: UC Press, 1990, 15-54

Keightley, David. “Art, Ancestors, and the Origins of Writing in China,” Representations, vol. 0, issue 56 (Autumn, 1996):68-95

Overmyer, D. “Introduction to ‘Chinese Religions—4000 BCE to 220 BCE’” JAS 1995:124-128

Poo, Mu-chou. In Search of Personal Welfare. Albany: SUNY Press, 1998

Sommer, “Inscriptions from Ritual Bronzes,” Sommer, Deborah. Chinese Religion: An Anthology of Sources. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 13-16