Ritual Technologies and the Confucian Self

As Confucian philosophy and the philosophy of technology continue to cross-fertilize, a new discourse space is being created. This article outlines the technological horizon of the Confucian world and argues that Confucian ritual is a form of disciplinary technology in the Foucauldian sense. It argues that ritual produces Confucian subjects through disciplinary techniques and performative enactments. It argues that ritual discipline not only shapes the body but also produces and is produced by ritual subjectivities. Finally, it argues that ritual discipline must become self-discipline in a project where “self” and “other” are progressively created through their mutual internalization of the ritual technologies that constitute them as relational entities.