Ritual, Harmony, and Peace and Order: A Confucian Conception of Ritual

This chapter begins with an assumption that ritual can have an important social function which goes far beyond the function that is possessed by a set of formal rules or procedures observed in celebrations or ceremonies. This important social function can be understood in terms of the role of ritual in creating a social reality by bringing about social roles that presuppose a particular ranking of important values and right-making conditions, and a particular network of social relations and embedding persons in these roles. In what follows, I shall discuss a conception of ritual which is rooted in the Confucian moral tradition. The discussion will be divided into two parts. In the first part, I shall discuss how Confucians understand ritual, focusing in particular on the importance, the nature and the social context of ritual from a Confucian perspective. In the second part, I shall discuss the contemporary relevance of this Confucian conception of ritual.