R151 Chinese Religious Thought, Winter 1998-99

Length: 8-10 pages.

Topics. You are encouraged to discuss these topics with each other and the instructor. Present your ideas and arguments clearly, taking into account possible objections to your arguments and examining different aspects of each theme or issue. The use of analogies, metaphors, and illustrations can be helpful in clarifying and demonstrating your understanding of the issues and passages in question. Be sure to document your work through the use of footnotes or endnotes. State in full at the beginning of your paper or on a separate sheet the topic that you are writing on. Also, review the paper writing guidelines and checklist for papers that are on-line on the course web pages.

Peer Review. Those who are interested in doing a draft for the final paper may submit drafts by March 3, 1999. Please let me know by email by March 1 that you would like to do a peer review, and I will provide instructions at that time.

Final drafts are due in class on March 10, 1999.

Confucius

1. Confucius and the Orchestral Metaphor. Confucius' understanding of society and the individual's role in this society has been compared to an orchestral performance. Describe four different ways that this metaphor is useful in attempting to understand Confucius' thought. It may be helpful to use a specific instance of orchestral performance as the basis of comparison, such as Mozart's Requiem Mass. You might also contrast this with other kinds of musical performance.

2. Confucius and the Golden Rule. The following exchange in Analects 4:15 between Confucius and Tseng Tzu is said to express the golden rule according to Confucius:

The Master (Confucius) said, 'Ts'an! There is one single thread binding my way together.'

Tseng Tzu assented.

After the Master had gone out, the disciples asked, 'What did he mean?'

Tseng Tzu said, 'The way of the Master consists in chung (loyalty, faithfulness, truthfulness) and shu (reciprocity, extending oneself). That is all.'

Compare Ivanhoe's interpretation of this golden rule with that of either Nivison (see reserve article) or Graham (see item 6 in the Course Reader, pp. 18-22). Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the two interpretations and then offer your own interpretation.

3. The Magical Quality of Li. According to Fingarette, the li have a magical quality (see esp. pp 3-10). What does he not mean by this, and what does he mean by this? There may be some similarities between his notion of the magical quality of someone who is following the li and someone who possesses moral charisma, such as Martin Luther King or Mother Theresa. What are the similarities and differences between the magical quality and moral charisma, and how can these similarities and differences help us to further understand the moral significance of li?

Mencius

4. Orchestral and Organismic Metaphors. An orchestral metaphor can be used to understand Confucius' model of society, while Mencius' model of society is said to be organismic. Are these metaphors complementary, giving us a fuller picture of Confucian society, or are there some potential conflicts between these two models? Explain.

5. Agricultural metaphor. The concept used by Mencius to describe the innate tendency in human nature is tuan, or sprouts, an agricultural metaphor (Mencius 2A6). Discuss three qualities of this metaphor that help to define the process of self-cultivation in Mencius. Also, discuss the potential strengths and weaknesses of this model.

6. Human Nature and Li. What is the relationship between human nature and the li as found in Mencius 1A7? Specifically, what is the role of li in the Mencian idea of extension as discussed by Ivanhoe in his article, "Confucian Moral Self-Cultivation and Mencian Extension" (see Course Reader 8). Are there any contradictions in Mencius' understanding?

Lao Tzu

7. In chapter 56 the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu states that one who knows the way does not speak, and one who speaks does not know. Then why has Lao Tzu spoken so much about the way in this work? How is this justified, and what is the relation between language and reality for Lao Tzu. (Hints: Discuss the relationship between yin and yang in terms of the whole, two parts, and two interpenetrating parts, or the balance and union between complementary polar pairs. Think about the relationship between Lao Tzu and Confucian society.)

8. Compare and contrast Lao Tzu's conception of rulership with that of either Confucius or Hsun Tzu. What, if any are the similarities, and what are the differences? Can the two be regarded as complementary, or are the two models of leadership mutually exclusive? Why?

Chuang Tzu

9. Chuang Tzu describes a dream (p. 45) about which he "didn't know if he was Chuang Chou [Chuang Tzu] who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Chou." How is this dream and Chuang Tzu's interpretation related to his understanding of the self and the role of reason? Given this understanding of the self, how should the self act in the world (hint: think about active or purposive Taoism as at least one possibility)?

10. Woodworker Ch'ing fasts his body and mind, sees the bell stand in the tree, and proceeds to carve a bell stand (pp. 126-127) In doing so, he says that he is simply "matching heaven with heaven." Compare this method of woodworking with the way that a virtuous person in Confucius' ideal society might go about carving a bell stand. Do they make the same bell stand or not? How so?

11. For Chuang Tzu, the skillful, virtuous Taoist is one who blends with the Way and becomes one with Heaven and Earth, someone who lives in this world but is not of it. Cook Ding is described as such a person who is so skillful that he can forget himself completely in the intuitive process of carving the oxen. Yet, if he is one with the oxen and identifies with it, how can he kill it? Shouldn't he have compassion for the oxen?

Do one of the two following questions related to Cook Ding:

a) Write a dialogue between Chuang Tzu and Mencius describing how each sees the role of a butcher in their respective societies. How can the butcher be compassionate or benevolent? Can a butcher be the most virtuous person in Cook Ding's Taoist world? In Mencius Confucian society?

b) If a butcher can be a skillful Taoist, then can there be such a thing as a skillful Taoist assassin? Take into consideration how such a skillful assassin would (try to) fit into Taoist society and blend with the Way?

Hsun Tzu

12. Hsun Tzu defines human nature (xing) as bad or evil (e). Ivanhoe argues that Hsun Tzu's definition of human nature should be rendered as "bad" rather than "evil." Watson translates the original Chinese term as "evil." Which translation is better, and why?

13. Compare Hsun Tzu's idea of human nature as being bad, and Mencius' idea that human nature is good. Are the two theories compatible or incompatible? Why? If they are incompatible, whose theory do you find more convincing, and why?

14. For Hsun Tzu the ability to exercise reason and make critical distinctions is essential to the person of cultivated virtue, the sage or the gentleman. For Chuang Tzu, it is the over-reliance on rational distinctions that is at the heart of the human dilemma. Are their views mutually exclusive, or is there some way in which their views might be complementary?

Other

15. Kate finds herself caught in a civil war where the people of her own small mountain nation, Denkenburg, have been fighting over the use of the land. She is caught in the crossfire deep in the forest, and some of her own relatives are shooting at her. She has been shot in the stomach and feels that the end is near. She begins to reflect on human nature and its darker side. As her mind fades she begins to see the larger picture. Adopt the view represented in one of the thinkers read for the course and describe how she reflects upon it. For example, she might be a Taoist who has been taught that there is a Tao, a Way to everything in the cosmos. Convey her thoughts concerning what she sees as right about what she has been taught and what she sees as wrong. Is she angry about misleading ideas as she begins to see the real truth? Does she begin to doubt? Or is there an increasing sense of certainty about the validity of what she has been told?

16. Homestead, a small town which had been sustained by the local agriculture was devastated by a recent business venture. The farmers had invested in a scheme to purchase tractors and other large machinery, produce more wheat, and export the surplus grain to Russia. However, the Russian government cancelled all grain imports for five years, and the farmers went bankrupt, unable to pay for their machinery. Take any two of the thinkers examined in the course (including at least one from the second half of the course) and write a dialogue in which the two thinkers discuss the reasons for this debacle and ways in which it might have been avoided. Include an examination of human nature and the concept of virtuous leadership.

17. Compare and contrast the potential* relationship between yin and yang as found in two of the texts/thinkers read for this course. Are the two thinkers' views complementary or incompatible? Explain why? (Hints: Discuss the relationship between yin and yang in terms of the whole, two parts, and two interpenetrating parts, or the balance and union between the two complementary forces. Think about the ways in which views of yin and yang are reflected in the thinkers' view of human nature, the role of the individual, and the nature of society.)

(*I refer to "potential" relationship because not all texts refer explicitly to yin and yang.)