Table Of ContentUnderstanding China
Qicui Tang
Ritual
Civilization and
Mythological
Coding
Cultural Interpretation of Li Ji
Understanding China
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Qicui Tang
Ritual Civilization
and Mythological Coding
Cultural Interpretation of Li Ji
123
QicuiTang
ShanghaiJiao Tong University
Shanghai, China
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Foreword
Mythology: Source Code of the Chinese Culture
Theconceptof“mythology”wasneverseeninChineseacademicparlance,norwas
it an academic discipline in any form until scholars who studied in Japan such as
LiangQichaoandJiangGuanyunimportedintomodernChineseinearlytwentieth
century.Overthecourseofmorethanacentury,Chinesemythologyhasmadegreat
achievements, as well as showing clear limitations. Initially, a group of scholars,
many of whom were literati, such as Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, Mao Dun, Zheng
Zhenduo, and Xie Liuyi, developed an interest in introducing and studying
mythologies.ThisisthereasonwhyeventodaytheteachingofmythologyinChina
is still restricted to the folk literature of the Chinese department curriculum in
universities. Thus, any school that does not include folk literature in their course
arrangementwouldnotteachanyprofessionalknowledgeofmythology.Compared
with major progress accomplished in mythology research worldwide since the
twentieth century, China shows obvious limitations in isolating the subject in
disciplineclassification.Forinstance,inTheoriesofMyth,thesixvolumesauthored
and published by globally authoritative mythology scholar Robert A. Segal,
mythologystudyregardingliteratureonlyoccupiesonevolumeoutofsix,asinless
than 20% of the mythology research, while the remainder consists of philosophy,
history, archaeology, religion, psychology, anthropology, and mythology research
from the perspectives of other disciplines. In light of the status quo of mythology
research in China, literature-oriented viewpoint of mythology has emerged as a
bottleneck that hampers the development of humanities study in China.
Many tasks need to be accomplished to serve as a critical and indispensable
theoretical foundation for the improvement of China’s mythology research and
humanities research in general. These tasks include the effective summary of the
feats and research experience of Chinese mythology study over the last century,
reflections on the restraints, obstructions and hindrances of the analytical tools
employed by Chinese scholars, proposal of corresponding academic measures to
breakfreefromshacklesandbottlenecks,renewaloftheperspectivesonmythsand
v
vi Foreword
knowledge system of mythology research, staying abreast of and responding to
internationalacademicdevelopmenttrends,andselectiveandrationallearningfrom
academic innovations.
Past experience indicates that if restrictions of literature-oriented mythology
researchinChinaweretobemitigated,itisadvisabletofullyharnesstheadvantage
of mythology concepts in consolidating cross-disciplinary knowledge including
literature, history, philosophy, religion, and psychology. This breakthrough would
offer a new perspective to humanities scholars and stimulate them to delve into
cross-disciplinary contemplations, discover, propose, and solve new problems,
especially the vital issue of how to connect and reconfigure research mindsets and
focal points of literature, history, and philosophy studies.
Chinese mythology research in the past century mainly emphasized the search
forstoriesakintoGreekmythologyfromancienttexts,butneglectedafundamental
question: why was mythology not studied by the ancient Chinese? In other words,
whyistheterm“mythology”absentfromtheancientChineselanguage?Sincesuch
a fundamental cultural question was not identified at an earlier stage, thoughts or
discussions of any depth were not common among scholars. The most prominent
feature of Chinese culture and tradition is the holistic and pervasive quality of
myths. The countless number of Confucian temples and God of Wealth shrines
scattering across the country silently manifest the tremendous deity-making power
ofthismultiethnicnation.Evenasubstantialportionoffundamentalcontentsbeing
considered as part of “Chinese philosophy,” “Chinese history,” or “Chinese sci-
ence” by modern scholars, as in those who came after the permeation of western
educationand thoughts in China beginningfrom theend oftheMing Dynasty, are
largely founded upon mythology.
Rarely do visitors of the Forbidden City understand why the palace’s Chinese
name, Zijin Cheng (“Forbidden City”), evidently derives from myth! In antiquity,
peopleweresurethattheimperialpalaceonearthcorrespondedtotheZiweiPalace
that housed the Celestial Emperor up in heaven as described in myths. It was the
symbol of governance of the Celestial Emperor at the nexus of heaven, thus cre-
ating the name Zijin Cheng for the imperial palace in human realm. It is common
knowledge that “human beings are an integral part of nature” is one of the main
features of Chinese culture, yet people often forget that this concept is founded
upon a mythological concept or directly derived from a mythological mindset,
which acts like a cultural gene for Chinese traditions. Even Confucius, who pro-
claimed he “does not speak about mythical powers or mythological beings,” was
actually an ardent believer in “destiny,” and devoted particular attention to the
mythological and symbolic meanings behind supernatural creatures like the kylin
(Chinese unicorn) and phoenix. A maniac from the State of Chu even directly
referred to Confucius himself as a “phoenix.” People of today only see mythology
presentedinitstextualformofnarration;thus,mythologyiscategorizedasapartof
literatureinitsmodernsense.However,inculturaltradition,thereareconsiderable
quantity of graphical or physical forms of narrations and representations of
mythology, for instance, a myriad of imperial structures from the Ming and Qing
Dynasties such as the aforesaid Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Temple of
Foreword vii
Earth, Temple of the Sun, and Temple of the Moon, not to mention the
long-standing system of “emperor’s governance from the Hall of Distinction, a
venuewithsignificantpoliticalandreligiousfunctions.”Ifmyth-basedthoughtsand
principles were to be disregarded in common idioms and sayings of ancient times
such as “emperor as the son of the Loong” and “prosperity brought by the Loong
and the phoenix,” and idioms and sayings of today such as “Chinese as the
descendants of the Loong” and “great Loong ascends into the sky” (to symbolize
China’srisetoprosperityandpower),Chineseculturewouldbesodisfiguredthatit
would resemble nothing like the one as we know today.
Takeanotherexample,areferencebook,andhowmythologywassopenetrating
and pervasive in Chinese culture. Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters is
widely believed as the first ancient Chinese dictionary. The book is organized by
radicals or “section heads,” and upon a closer look at the Chinese characters
under the most important radicals in the opening chapter, one would notice that
thisreferencebookiswellstructured,withover9000charactersarrangedfrom“yi”
(一, beginning of all things) to “hai” (亥, the last of the twelve earthly branches),
taking clear cues from the order of space and time from the mythological world-
view. As to why the characters under the radicals “yi,” “er,” “shi,” “san,” “wang,”
and “yu” were placed at the beginning of the dictionary, the profound reasoning
may only be clarified if one were to investigate the spiritual basis, and mythology
foundationinChinesetradition,andsimplyjudgingbythenumberofstrokesinthe
characters would not suffice for an explanation. Han Dynasty scholar Xu Shen
compiled the book, and the way he described many Chinese characters was filled
withmythologyconcepts,eventhoughtheterm“mythology”didnotyetexistinhis
times.Fromthecognitiveanthropologyangle,contentaboutmythologyandbeliefs
expressed in Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters without the use of
mythology terminology are vividly indicative of the mythological disposition in
Chinese cultural tradition. As in the Su Dongpo’s poem, “the true face of Mount
Lu I cannot tell, only because I am in the midst of it,” the ancient Chinese did not
need to use the term “myth” because their worldview and behaviors were shaped
and dominated by mythology! From this perspective, pictograph, as a coding for-
mat of culture, in itself represents the source code of the myth concept, which is
exactlythereasonwhycontemporaryscholarsmayre-understandChinesetradition
from the consolidating perspective of mythology study. This is also the original
intention behind the composition of the Mythistory Series: How to genuinely
unleash mythology currently bound within literature classes, and transform it back
into an effective conceptual tool that connects literature, history, and philosophy
andshedslightonChineseculturalresearch,whichinturnwouldenablescholarsto
overcome the prejudice of tradition and the boundaries of modern academic
discipline structure, and re-study Chinese ideological traditions and historical
traditions.
There are 20 volumes planned for the Mythistory Series, divided into the
Chinese Mythistory series and World Mythistory series. The World Mythistory
series will include Sumerian Mythistory, Greek Mythistory, Japanese Mythistory,
andKoreanMythistory,amongothers,whichprovideinsightintoworldcivilization
viii Foreword
andEastAsiancivilizationandserveasabackdroptoexamineChineseMythistory.
The Chinese Mythistory series consists of one overview volume and the various
separate summary volumes. The summary volumes look into important classics in
thepre-Qinera,QinDynastyandtwoHanDynastiesassubjects,includingthelikes
oftheBookofDocuments,AnalectsofConfucius,SpringandAutumnAnnals,LiJi,
Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial, Tale of King Mu, and Master Huainan, which
delve into the mythistory and myth philosophy inherited in these classics, and
showcase fresh analysis and interpretation of these writings. We hope that the
various volumes could be combined into a mutually connected and corresponding
academiccorpusasawholewhichcoulddeepenreader’scomprehensionaboutthe
development of Chinese culture and its unique features.
Bycontinuingtheauthor’sstyleandresearchmethodology(see“Anthropological
DecodingofChineseCulture”collectionjointlycompiledbyShuxianYewithXiao
Bing and Wang Jianhui in the 1990s), this series collectively exhibits the author’s
cross-disciplinarycontemplationsduringrecentyearsandgathersagroupofyoung
scholarswithsharpandinquisitivespiritofexploration(authorsofthisseriesareall
humanitiesscholarswhoaspiretocarryoutcross-disciplinaryresearchandconduct
studiesrevolvingaroundseveralacademicbodiesactiveinrelevantacademiccircles
suchastheChineseLiteratureandAnthropologyResearchAssociationandChinese
MythologyStudyAssociation).Theseriesattemptstodecipherthesourcecodesof
Chinese culture via new perspectives offered by mythistory and put on display the
latestmajorinnovationsandoutcomesinhumanitiesresearchandstudiesonChinese
classics. The commencement of this project originally relied on the “mythology
researchfortheexplorationoftheoriginoftheChinese civilization”majorproject
oftheChineseAcademyofSocialSciences,butin2009itwasindependentlylistedas
a Guangdong strong cultural province project, and thus received emphatic support
andfundingassistancefromthePublicityDepartmentoftheGuangdongProvincial
PartyCommitteeandthepublishingcompanyoftheNanfangDailyPress.In2010,
the newly founded Research Center of Literature and Humanities at Shanghai
Jiaotong University also provided extensive aids in human resources, material
resources, and other aspects to this corpus. Here, sincere gratitude is extended to
PublicityDepartmentoftheGuangdongProvincialPartyCommittee,thepublishing
companyoftheNanfangDailyPress,ShanghaiJiaotongUniversityandtheLiterature
ResearchInstituteoftheChineseAcademyofSocialSciences.
Beijing Taiyanggong, China Shuxian Ye
June 2010
Introduction
Amidthetrendsofthesearchforsourcesandoriginsofcivilizations,whatkindof
role does Li Ji (translated name is The Book of Rite, or Liki by Legge) play in the
search for the source of ritual civilization? And amid the continual influx of new
materials and new insights of present day, from which perspective should one
unveilhowtheChineseritualsystemwasbuilt,standardized,andclassicizedunder
the“greatunity”notioninherentintheChineselanguage,aswellastheunderlying
mythology coding behind rites, so as to reconstruct the cultural origin of the ritual
civilization behind Li Ji?
Part One: Review and Introspection on the Research
of Li Ji
Therationale behindtheselectionofthissubjectmatterwasbasedonthreepoints.
First point is two major research trends, i.e., the “Program of the Search for the
OriginoftheChineseCivilization”bythecountryinearlytwenty-firstcentury,and
the “cultural inheritance and historical memory” research by the academic circles.
Li Ji, as literature critical to the study on ritual civilization, is invaluable to this
“searchfortherootsandinquiryforthesources”typeofresearch.Thesecondpoint
is revisits and renewed perceptions of the conventional research pathways and
themesregardingLiJi.ThisbookattemptstorepositionLiJiwithinthreecontexts
—the textual records (referring to the “ji,” meaning “record” or “book,” a part
oftheChinesetitleLiji)containedinthebook,itsunderlyingritualcivilization,and
researchhistoryofLiJi,andtriestoutilizethetextualnarrationofLiJitoenterinto
theChinese ritual worldbehind the words andexpose thehidden cognitive coding
principlescovereduporrewrittenbywritingandpower.Thirdlyandlastlyisatrial
ix
