Confucianism and the Chinese Self by Jack Barbalet

Author:Jack Barbalet
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Singapore, Singapore

Confucian Selves

The notion of the relational-self in Chinese philosophy and sociology is derived from the Confucian ideal of familial role relations (parent–child, husband–wife, elder–younger sibling) and those relationships which are seen as morphologically similar to them in the political (ruler–ruled) and civic (patron–client) spheres of activity. The classical statement of this notion is the brief characterization of five human relationships (wu lun) set out in the classic Confucian text, the Mencius, in which it is contended that there should be: ‘love between father and son, duty between ruler and subject, [role] distinction between husband and wife, precedence of the old over the young, and faith [or trust] between friends’ (Mencius 2004: 60). It is less frequently noticed that the Mencius also indicates that it is a proper function of state authority to inculcate and promote these relationships (Mencius 2004: 60). The summary distillation of human relationships into five affectively distinctive binary role sets is located in other Confucian classics, including the Zhongyong (Johnson and Wang 2012: 447), known in English as The Doctrine of the Mean, but more accurately translated as Maintaining Perfect Balance (Gardner 2007: 108–9; see also Johnson and Wang 2012: 181–85).

At the core of the five human relationships is the concept of filial piety (xiao). According to the Zhongyong, the quality of humanness (ren) is principally realized in ‘devotion to one’s family members’, and in such devotion ‘there is a hierarchy’ (Johnson and Wang 2012: 447). Here are the joint elements of the relational-self mentioned above—namely, a combination of intimacy (rather than distance) and hierarchy. The fundamental idea, that one realizes one’s being as a self through subordination in family relations, is expressed in the Zhongyong in a number of different ways. In Chap. 17, it is noted that filial piety leads to the attainment of more general social values—Shun’s great filial piety ‘inevitably gained his position … his prosperity … his reputation, and [his] longevity’ (Johnson and Wang 2012: 439). While Shun’s accomplishments seem to accrue to him in his own right, they are achieved by and reflect his filial piety through which a greater self is expressed. This idea, of the subordination if not submergence of the lesser self into a more dominant and causally prior greater self, through filial piety, is reinforced in a statement in Chap. 19 in which it is claimed that ‘being filial was to skillfully perpetuate the purposes of others (i.e., their ancestors) and to skillfully carry on their undertakings’ (Johnson and Wang 2012: 443). In Chap. 20, where the five human relationships are referred to, is the notion that self-cultivation counterintuitively requires subordination to family role requirements: ‘…the noble man cannot do otherwise than cultivate himself. If he intends to cultivate himself, he cannot do otherwise than serve his family members’ (Johnson and Wang 2012: 447).

The subordination of the actions and interests of a single individual to the needs and imperatives of a family collective, which gives content to the distinction between the forms of self, the lesser and

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