Contemporary Chinese Philosophy and the Importance of Confucian Kinship Relations: Li Zehou, Shamanist Tradition and Relationalism (關係主義)

Abstract

Li Zehou belongs to the most influential Chinese philosophers of our time. This paper will present a critical introduction of his theory regarding the consolidation of the specific Confucian system of kinship relations, which for him forms a crucial foundation of traditional Chinese social order. In Confucianism, the inter-familial relations form a basis of the social system, in which interpersonal relations are of utmost importance and which Li therefore denotes as “relationalism”. According to him, this kinship-based Confucian model originates in shamanistic rituality performed by Neolithic humans living in the land occupied by modern-day China. These Neolithic cultures were rather advanced and based their societies on small-scale semi-agricultural production, in which communities were mainly constructed through kinship relationships. Shamanistic ceremonies were enhancing and strengthening the awareness of such social unities. These early collective rites, especially those that include music and dance, had a powerful effect on early humans, creating intense feelings of respect, love and loyalty, and thus forming a basis for the Confucian social order based upon kinship relations, and the Confucian ethics, rooted in interpersonal humanness. Li’s theory of the shamanist origins of Confucian relationalism will be critically illuminated through the lens of current historical and anthropological scholarship on shamanist rituality and their function within the corresponding cultural orders.