Ritual and Ritual Obligations: Perspectives on Normativity from Classical China

The goal of this paper is to explore some of the theories that arose in classical China concerning the ways in which normativity could be construed in ritual terms.I focus particular attention on the theories that were developed in portions of the Book of Rites (Liji), which would become one of the most influential bodies of ritual theory throughout East Asia.I will argue that some of these theories deserve to be incorporated into our contemporary philosophical understandings of normativity.To make this argument, I will be turning to some rather -given my ultimate goals in this paper -counterintuitive material, including early Chinese discussions of mourning rituals.But I will try to argue that this material has something to offer contemporary discussions. Rituals and NormsLet me begin by mentioning one of the common criticisms made against the argument that we should take theorists of ritual seriously when discussing norms.Perhaps one of the reasons we often denigrate the significance of rituals is that we think rituals essentially function to socialize us into a way of thinking and acting.In other words, rituals tell us what to do.So, if the norms embedded within a given ritual are good, then the ritual would perhaps be acceptable.But what if the norms are not, from our point of view, acceptable?Following them would then entail submitting ourselves to "traditional" values, as opposed to having norms that could at least potentially be rationally adjudicated and altered.It is, of course, entirely possible to have ritual traditions that become rigidified and function in a top-down way to instill values on a population.But thinking that