Heaven and Earth

Confucius, Ritual and Art [Excerpts from Peimin Ni’s commentary]

Though Confucius advocated the traditional ritual proprieties, nowhere did he say that they must be unchangeable. When asked about the root of observing ritual propriety, the Master replied, “What an important question! In observing ritual propriety, it is better to be modest than extravagant; in mourning, it is better to express real grief than to worry over formal details.” The principle behind this is the humanitarian spirit, ren, not the mere traditional formality…

Unlike the common conception of art that associates artworks with studios and galleries, the Confucian art is a way of life itself. If a master of conventional arts is one who dissolves the opposition between the mind and the “hands” and between the hands and the objects, the Confucian aesthetic life is one in which the person achieves unity with Heaven and is able to participate with Heaven in creation. The person embodies zhi, knowledge or wisdom, and is therefore not perplexed; she embodies ren, human-heartedness, and is therefore not worrisome; she is courageous, and is therefore not timid. The person enjoys water, for wisdom is like water, dynamic and creative. The person enjoys mountains, for human-heartedness is like the mountains, enduring and full of dignity. The Confucian artistic creation is displayed in one’s entire life, including ordinary daily activities.

—Peimin Ni [Classical Confucianism I: Confucius, The Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy (Edited by William Edelglass and Jay L. Garfield)].