Confucius and the Secret Magic of Rituals
If you’re like me, you probably hate rituals. You find them boring, repetitive, and unnecessary. You think most social rules are unnecessary. Why do I have to dress a certain way for some occasions but not others? Why do I have to sit through a national anthem before a baseball game or a religious service that’s the same every week? Graduation ceremonies, formal weddings, figuring out which fork to use, listening to a speaker get introduced when I can just google her bio… it all seems like a waste of time. However, the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius thought quite differently, and it turns out that these little rituals and rules of etiquette — big and small — might be useful after all.
Confucius’ emphasis on ceremony and ritual made up a huge part of his philosophy and his legend. Ancient historian Sima Qian says (improbably) that “as a child, Confucius entertained himself by habitually arranging rituals vessels and staging ceremonies.” In the Analects, Confucius says, “look at nothing in defiance of ritual, listen to nothing in defiance of ritual, speak of nothing in defiance or ritual, never stir hand or foot in defiance of ritual.”¹ Why did rituals make up such a large part of Confucius’ ideas about the good life?
Confucius lived at a time when society was falling apart in a number of ways. The Zhou Dynasty, which had ruled over China…
