Sunday, October 19, 2008

Ruing the day

Ever heard of Ruism? It's 儒家, the philosophical system of Kongzi, Mengzi, Xunzi... once known as Confucianism, the philosophical system of Confucius, Mencius and Hsun Tzu. I agreed to be part of a panel discussing two new books on Ruist ethics for the upcoming meeting of the American Academy of Religion, and I'm up to my neck in them, gasping for breath. I agreed when asked to participate because I would genuinely like to know more about Chinese ethics, but did not, of course, get around to looking at the books until recently. What am I going to say when I don't even know how to pronounce the names?!

Here's a line to ponder (Analects 6.25):

觚不觚、觚哉、觚哉
A gu [ritual vessel] that is not a gu
is it really a
gu? Is it really a gu?

One of the books to which I'm to respond spends many pages parsing this line, challenging alternative interpretations: it seems the reading of Ruism as concerned with the "rectification of names" hinges on lines like this one. What can I add to this as a no-Sinologist? At this point I'm babbling like a baby: gu? gu! gu....?!