MenciusEno BOOK 6, GAOZI
6B.1 A man from Ren asked Wuluzi, “Which is more important, ritual or food?”
“Ritual is more important,” said Wuluzi.
“Which is more important, sex or ritual?”
“Ritual is more important.”
“What if you would starve to death if you insisted on ritual, but you could get food if you didn’t. Would you still have to abide by ritual? What if by skipping the ritual groom’s visit to receive the bride you could take a wife [1], but otherwise you could not? Would you still insist on the groom’s ritual visit?”
Wuluzi was unable to reply, and the next day he went to Zou to consult with Mencius.
Mencius said, “What’s difficult about this? And inch long wood chip could measure higher than a building if we hold its tip up above and ignore the difference in what is below. When we say that gold is heavier than feathers, we don’t mean a buckle’s worth of gold and a cartload of feathers! If you compare the extremity of need for food with a minor ritual, it’s not just food that can seem more weighty. If you compare the extremity of need for joining of the sexes with a minor ritual, it’s not just sex that can seem more weighty.
“Go back and respond to him like this: ‘What if you could get food you need only by twisting your elder brother’s arm – would you twist it? What if you could get a wife only by climbing over your neighbor’s east wall and dragging his daughter off – would you do it?’”
Note Eno
II. “Balancing”: the art of rule violation
The two passages [6B1 and 6B2] in this section focus on a notion closely related to timeliness – when are we
licensed to violate rules? Confucian texts grant the junzi who is truly at the level of sage full
violation to do so, but do not want to grant that authority to everyone. After all, li are rules, and if they are not important, what basis is left for a ritualist tradition like Confucianism?
https://chinatxt.sitehost.iu.edu/Thought/Mengzi5.pdf
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Two dilemma, to test Wuluzi dialectical capacities and / his adherence to li, and determination to follow the rule
A or B? (or = W)
1) no food or no ritual (in general)
2) no sex or no Ritual = sex at the price of a violation of the ritual of the groom’s visit no food
Food => no ritual
“The ritual groom’s visit to receive the bride” [1] An essential part of the wedding ceremony, that is an important ritual
Suppose that ritual will be sacrified to human needs
2) Mencius distinguishes beetween major and minor forms of ritual, and reformulates the opposition in relation with two major forms of ritual.
• Two violent acts
— twisting your elder brother’s arm
— climbing over your neighbor’s east wall and dragging his daughter off –
Suppose that in this case the consensus would on rejecting the condition
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[1] Couvreur, Liji, Chap. 41 Signification des cérémonies de mariage2. •(Le temps des noces arrivé), le père du fiancé offrait lui-même à son fils une coupe de liqueur, et lui ordonnait d’aller chercher sa fiancée ; (car en toutes choses) c’était l’homme qui devait prendre l’initiative, et non la femme. Le fils, obéissant à l’ordre de son père, allait chercher sa fiancée. Le chef de la famille de la fiancée faisait préparer des nattes et des escabeaux dans la salle de ses ancêtres et allait saluer et accueillir le fiancé de sa fille hors de la grande porte. Celui-ci entrait tenant une oie. Le beau-père et le gendre se saluaient, se faisaient des politesses, l’un invitant l’autre à monter à la salle le premier, et ils montaient. Le fiancé déposait son oie et saluait deux fois. C’était ainsi qu’il recevait en personne sa f iancée des mains des parents. Ensuite il descendait de la salle,