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Notes on video lecture:
Philosophical and Conceptual Innovations in Zhou Thought
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on December 29, 2014 (go to class or lectures)
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
will, damaged, not, effort, gentleman, service, hereditary, Record, Shang, embrace, formal, room, clouds, physically, cosmic, ceremonies, Western, ceremonial, working, reasons, religious, ride, conceptual, charismatic, virtuous, favor, combines, anthropomorphic, date, state, qua, Mandate, Confucius, chamber, official, coercive, bronze, spirits, mysterious, disasters, administration, Han, vassal, exuded, elite
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philosophical and                      innovations in Zhou thought:
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1. ritual (li)
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any type of ceremonial activities that have a                    character
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ritualized offerings to the ancestors
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                     surrounding divinations
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in the Zhou dynasty, ritual became more of a              system of behavioral guidelines
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ritual        ritual seems to become more important
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document: The              of Ritual (liji)
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a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and                      rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods
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hard to         
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much of it probably warring states
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much also probably        dynasty material
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important passage: "The Shang people put their                first, the Zhou people put their rituals first."
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for the Shang, the ritual is just a means to please the spirits, to gain their           , a means to an end, a technique for pleasing the spirits, if you had some other way of pleasing the spirits, you would do it some other way
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for the Zhou, ritual becomes a priority in and of itself, not just used for pleasing the spirits, the structure of ritual matters, but seen as a part of the              order, and even creating and responsible for cosmic order, i.e. ritual imposing order on the universe
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ritual also include the regular                              of government
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an                  accepting a new position becomes very ritualized
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             vessel getting cast to commemorate the event
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bureaucratic decisions become ritualized in this intense way
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also include aspects of personal deportment
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the way you dress
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the way you come into a         
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the way you groom yourself
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all of this becomes part of the scope of ritual
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2. the concept of "de" or virtue, inner power,                        power
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the Shang version of "de"
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Shang oracle bones have an early version of this word
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refers to power accrued by a ruler who had acted favorably toward a spirit or another person
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you attain "de" when you act pro-socially, in a way that is good for the           , for other people
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functions in the Shang conception as a psychic debt
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e.g. if a king does something kind to a             , that vassal feels a desired to reciprocate
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this functions with spirits as well, not just people
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Zhou version of "de"
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becomes more of a concept that is specifically linked to the ruler's ability to rule and have a relationship with Shang Di and tien
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"de" is a power that is specifically given by the Shang-Di tien to the Zhou ruler
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also                      from one king to another
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"de" is success in battle and that ability to rule and pass this down to subsequent rulers
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becomes important to the idea of non-                 rule
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the reason the Zhou were able to win at Muye was because their leaders had this "de"
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the Shang lost their "de"
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powerful myth: King Wu showed up on the battle field and the Shang army just gave up because of his massive "de", he just              this power
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so this idea that the proper way to rule is through non-coercive attraction is a Zhou conceptual innovation
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becomes very important in the Warring States period
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3. Ritual preserves "de"
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the key to ruling is you want to keep your "de"
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it gets passed down from father to son, but like other things that are inherited, it can be               
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"de" can be damaged, but you can maintain it through ritual
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considering the scope of ritual, this is a full-time job
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Ode #256 suggests that following ritual is a full-time job
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even in your private               , if you are not being ritually correct, then ShangDi can see you and you're going to loose your du
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4. Seek and ye shall        find
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you can't actively be seeking "de" or virtue
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virtue can be damaged by actively seeking it
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if you actively try to get it for your own selfish               
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e.g. you want to get it to be a rule, but not that you love the ritual
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so Zhou rulers become very concerned about things like sincerity
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the degree to which you are doing the rituals not to gain advantage but that you sincerely                the order that ritual represents
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you have to be genuinely embracing the values that the rituals express
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5. Ming
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meaning
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The Heavenly               
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Fate
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literal meaning: "Order"
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order from political superior to inferior
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a metaphorical command from heaven
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Zhou developed this concept that the Ming is something that heaven gives to the ruler who maintains ritual correctness
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this is the Zhou story of why they conquered the           , since heaven took away Ming from the Shang and gave it to the Zhou
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the ming is something you possess or don't possess whether or not heaven is favoring you
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this communicated indirectly
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even though we have heaven represented as an                                being
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we don't have heaven popping up out of the              commanding things to the Zhou king directly
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he doesn't pop up and say, "you've lost the mandate"
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he doesn't pass down tablets to people
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heaven is conceived of as an anthropomorphic force, so human-like but also very                     
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a famous passage in Confucius' Analects is, "Heaven never speaks."
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so you find out about heaven's will through indirect signs through the forces of nature:
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you lose in battle
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your crops fail
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you have floods
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you have                   
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the people rebel
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considered a force of nature
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unpredictable
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their a big mass
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you don't know what's going to happen
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that the ming can be lost is a new idea
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is a source of anxiety for the kings
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what you do as a king is not for your own good, it's in the                of heaven
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the king of the Zhou defeated the Shang not because he wanted to personally
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he was on a mission from heaven
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Confucius
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the proper person is just an agent from heaven
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he's not doing things for himself
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their doing things because they're just following heaven's will
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6. wu-wei: effortless action
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a state where you are not feeling             
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completely unconscious of yourself as an agent
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you don't feel like you are exerting any force
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you're not trying yet everything's               
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yet very effective in the physical world and socially
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very important in the Warring States
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but beginnings in the Zhou materials
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two wu-wei exemplars
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1. the wu-wei                    (junzi)
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junzi means "son of a Lord"
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a member of the Zhou aristocracy
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essentially a military           
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idea of the perfect warrior noble
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perfectly                      skilled
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talented with a bow
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can          well
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handsome, well-dressed
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embodies the physical and social skills of his social class in this perfect, spontaneous, easy way
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a martial idea
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2. the virtuous ruler
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one of the Zhou kings that is following heaven's mandate
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without trying
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completely unselfconscious
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he doesn't feel there is anything important about himself
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he follows the ritual perfectly
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perfectly in accord with heaven's         
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he embodies proper ritual behavior and proper moral attitude
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in a completely spontaneous and unselfconscious manner
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while the wu-wei gentleman is physically skilled and handsome
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on the other hand the                  ruler who is a moral exemplar
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someone who is admirable because of their internal, moral orientation
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-in                   , these two ideals come together
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the Confucian gentleman                  these two
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a physical skill, not martial anymore, but has to do with ritual and moral behavior
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also has this internal wu-wei that we see in the virtuous ruler ideal in the                Zhou period

Spelling Corrections:

vassel ⇒ vassal
Confucious ⇒ Confucius

Ideas and Concepts:

A lesson from the Zhou, via tonight's History of Chinese Thought class:

"The Record of Ritual (liji) is a collection of texts written between 400 BC and 200 BC which describe the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. This set of documents contains an important passage which helps us understand the Zhou, which states:'The Shang people put their spirits first, the Zhou people put their rituals first.'

For the Shang, ritual was merely a means to an end, a way to please the spirits, to gain their favor, a technique for pleasing the gods, if there had some other way of pleasing the spirits, they would have done it that way as well.

But for the Zhou, ritual becomes a priority in and of itself, not just used for pleasing the spirits or gaining some advantage or favor, but the structure of ritual matters, and is seen as a part of the comic order, even as creating and being responsible for cosmic order.

And ritual did not just include religious and spiritual ceremonies, but the regular administration of government. The process of an official accepting a new position became extensively ritualized, numerous bronze vessels being cast to commemorate the event.

Ritual also included aspects of personal deportment:the way you dress, the way you come into a room, the way you groom yourself, all of this existed within the scope of ritual, and for the Zhou, even these minute acts of ritual imposed order on the universe."
The Zhou dynasty's seek-and-ye-shall-not-find approach to virtue, via this morning's History of Chinese Thought class:

"In the Zhou dynasty the key to ruling was that you wanted to attain and keep your "de", a kind of inner virtue or charismatic power that allows you to rule in a non-coercive way. This virtue gets passed down from father to son, but like other things that are inherited, it can be damaged.

A ruler's "de" is maintained through ritual, but considering the scope of ritual in the Zhou dynasty, this was a full-time job. Ode #256 in the Rites of Zhou suggests that even in your private chamber, if you are not being ritually correct, then ShangDi can see you and you may lose your "de".

Yet while it was important for people in the Zhou dynasty to ultimately have "de", one should not seek to attain it, since doing so may damage the very virtue you are seeking to attain. Instead, you should love and perform the ritual for its own sake, and so Zhou rulers became very concerned about things like sincerity within the scope of ritual. The degree to which they performed rituals was not to gain virtue per se, but to sincerely embrace the order that ritual represents."
From the different perspective on the common people department, via this morning's History of Chinese Thought class: "From the point of view of the Zhou rulers, the common people in their kingdom were a force a nature, a big, unpredicable mass not unlike the weather:you never knew what was going to happen. And because the Zhou's god tien, or "heaven", although anthropomorphic, did not communicate directly with the Zhou by speaking to them from the clouds or passing down tablets, he informed them of "ming", or the Heavenly Mandate, through forces of nature including failing crops, floods, hurricanes, and rebellions."
The Definition of Religion
Mind/Body Dualism and Cognitive Control
Deontology, Utilitarianism, and Virtue Ethics
Wu-Wei, Dao, Tien and De
The Shang Dynasty (1554-1045 BC)
The Beginnings of Written Chinese History
Eastern Holistic Thinking and the Paradox of Virtue
The Golden Age of the Western Zhou (1046–771 BCE)
Philosophical and Conceptual Innovations in Zhou Thought
Confucius and the Analects
Confucius: I Transmit, I Do Not Innovate
Confucius' Use of Ritual as a Tool
Confucius' View on Learning vs. The Enlightenment
Confucius and Holistic Education
Confucius and the Art of Self-Cultivation
At Home in Virtue
Non-Coercive Comportment, Virtue, and Charisma of the Zhou
The Transition to Becoming Sincere
The Primitivists in the Analects
Laozi and the Daodejing
Laozi: Stop the Journey and Return Home
Laozi and The Desires of the Eye
Laozi: He Who Speaks Does Not Know
The Concept of Reversion
Laozi on Shutting Down the Prefrontal Cortex
The Guodian Laozi
Mozi and Materialist State Consequentialism
Mozi's Idea of Ideological Unity
Mozi's Doctrine of Impartial Caring
Mozi's Anti-Confucian Chapters
Mozi's Religious Fundamentalism and Organized Activism
The Language Crisis in the Warring States Period
Yang Zhu and Mid-Warring States' Focus on the Body
The Guodian School of Confucianism
Qi and Self-Cultivation