(An excellent treatment of the role of li in personal development.)ĭe Sousa, Ronald. Journal of Chinese Philosophy 23(2): 153–174. The conceptual framework of Confucian ethical thought. New York: Columbia University Press.Ĭua, Antonio S. The original Analects: Sayings of Confucius and his successors. New York: Ballantine Books.īargh, John A., and Tanya L. The Analects of Confucius: A philosophical translation. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.Īmes, Roger, and Rosemont, Henry (trans.). These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. In the end, I will suggest how li and yi were both meant to facilitate the supreme value of social harmony that pervades much of the Analects and serves as its ultimate orientation. In this chapter, I begin with a brief historical sketch to provide some context, and will then turn to li and yi in turn. As part of their reflections on the good life, the Confucians maintained another moral concept that seemed to cover morally upright exemplary behavior in these types of situations. There were bound to be situations in life where there would be no obvious recourse to the li for guidance. However, even while the li were extensive and meant to be followed diligently, they were also understood as incapable of exhausting the whole range of activity that constitutes human life. The li are a distinguishing characteristic of Confucian approaches to ethics and socio-political thought, a set of rules and protocols that were thought to constitute the wise practices of ancient moral exemplars filtered down through dynasties of the past. What is similar across the range of referents is that the li comprise strictures of correct behavior. Li has a broad semantic range, referring to formal ceremonial rituals on the one hand, and basic rules of personal decorum on the other. Li (禮) and yi (義) are two central moral concepts in the Analects.

The analects