Emotions across Cultures: Ancient China and Greece PDF
Preview Emotions across Cultures: Ancient China and Greece
EmotionsacrossCultures Roma Sinica Mutual interactions between Ancient Roman and Eastern Thought Edited by Andrea Balbo and Jaewon Ahn Advisory Board Michele Ferrero, Lee Kangjae, David Konstan, Fritz-Heiner Mutschler, Carlo Santini, Alessandro Schiesaro, Aldo Setaioli, Stefania Stafutti Volume 3 Emotions across Cultures Ancient China and Greece Edited by David Konstan Thepublicationofthisvolumewasmadepossiblethroughthefinancialsupportoftheproject SERICA,theDipartimentodiStudiUmanistici(UniversityofTurin)aswellasofNewYork University’sCenterfortheHumanitiesandthescholarlydirectionoftheSociétéInternationale desAmisdeCicéron(SIAC,Paris). ISBN978-3-11-077990-5 e-ISBN(PDF)978-3-11-078431-2 e-ISBN(EPUB)978-3-11-078434-3 ISSN2512-840X DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1515/9783110784312 ThisworkislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0InternationalLicense.Fordetailsgotohttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. CreativeCommonslicensetermsforre-usedonotapplytoanycontent(suchasgraphs, figures,photos,excerpts,etc.)notoriginaltotheOpenAccesspublicationandfurther permissionmayberequiredfromtherightsholder.Theobligationtoresearchandclear permissionliessolelywiththepartyre-usingthematerial. LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2022931229 BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutscheNationalbibliografie; detailedbibliographicdataareavailableontheinternetathttp://dnb.dnb.de. ©2022withtheauthors,editing©2022DavidKonstan,publishedbyWalterdeGruyter GmbH,Berlin/Boston Thisbookispublishedwithopenaccessatwww.degruyter.com. Coverimage:Collageoftwomanuscripts–manuscripthandscrollofDuYu’sCriticalstudyof SpringandAutumnAnnalsandZuoZhuan,7-8thcentury,locatedattheFujiiSaiseikaiYurinkan Museum,Kyoto,Japan,andIlluminatedmanuscriptofCicero’sEpistolaeadfamiliares,BLKings MS23,f.1,17thcentury,digitisedbytheBritishLibrary. Typesetting:IntegraSoftwareServicesPvt.Ltd. Printingandbinding:CPIbooksGmbH,Leck. www.degruyter.com Preface ThepresentvolumeistheresultofaworkshopheldinShanghaion17–18October 2019, bearing the title, “Emotions between China and Greece,” sponsored by New York University, Fudan University, and New York University—Shanghai, andco-organizedbytheeditorofthisvolumeandYangHuang,ofFudanUni- versity. The workshop was the successor to another, titled “Emotions across Cultures: Classical Greek and Arabic,” held in Abu Dhabi on 25–26 February 2015,sponsored by New York University and New York University—Abu Dhabi, and co-organized by David Konstan and Maurice Pomerantz. I wish to express here,onbehalfofalltheparticipants,ourprofoundgratitudetoNYU,FudanUni- versity, and NYU-SH for their support and generous hospitality, and also to NYU’sCenterfortheHumanities,whichgenerouslycontributedtomakingitpos- sible the open access publication of this volume. I am pleased too to thank all those who attended the sessions in Shanghai for their helpful comments and contributionstothediscussion.Aseditor,Iwishparticularlytoacknowledgethe collaboration of Yang Huang, without whom this volume would not have been possible;itisinmanywayshisasmuchasmine.Notallofthepaperspresented at the workshop appear here, and those that are included have been much re- vised for publication, but all participants are grateful for the opportunity to engage in a lively and fruitful exchange of ideas at what, to the best of our knowledge,wasthefirstworkshopeveraddressedtothistopic. DavidKonstan,NewYorkUniversity OpenAccess.©2022DavidKonstan,publishedbyDeGruyter. Thisworkislicensedunder theCreativeCommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives4.0InternationalLicense. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110784312-202 Contents Preface V DavidKonstan Introduction 1 ZhaoLu YouareWhatEatsatYou:AnxietyinMedievalChineseDivinatory andMedicalManuals 19 DouglasCairns CanWeFindHopeinAncientGreekPhilosophy?ElpisinPlato andAristotle 41 MichaelNylan,TrentonWilson ABriefHistoryofDaring 75 RandolphFord AngerasanEthnographicTrope:ChangingViewsfromAristotle toSeneca 143 YangHua HatredandRevengeinAncientChinaDuringtheQinandHan (221B.C.-220A.D.):TheExpressionofEmotionsandtheConflict betweenRitualandLaw 169 StavroulaKiritsi TragicEmotions–ThenandNow 193 JohnT.Kirby AnalyzingtheEmotionsacrossThreeAncientCultures:Greece,India, China 211 YiqunZhou Gender,SocialHierarchies,andNegativeEmotionsinLiuXiang’s BiographiesofWomen 279 VIII Contents CurieVirág Emotions,MeasurementandtheTechnêofPracticalWisdominXúnzǐ’s EthicalTheory 303 Contributors 327 Index 329 David Konstan Introduction Comparing EmotionsHistorically Itisnowwidelyacceptedthatthedescriptionofemotionsmaydifferfromone culture to another. The idea that there is a limited set of so-called basic emo- tionsthatareuniversalandreadilyidentifiedacrosscultures,whetherbyfacial expression or some other indicator, has been subjected to devastating criti- cism.1 What is more, the very idea of emotion as a distinct psychological cate- gory varies, and indeed is not identified at all in some folk taxonomies of mentalfaculties.Nevertheless,theemotionsseemtobegroundedin,oratleast havesomerelationto,certainconstantsofhumannature,andseveraltheories haveofferedtoexplainjusthow. One such approach is to distinguish between the immediate object of an emotion,whichmayvaryevenamongindividualswholiveinthesamesociety, andsomepropertythattheseobjectsshare.Forexample,FlorianCovaandJu- lien Deonna observe that, despite differences in their specific objects, all the objectsofagivenemotionsharesomecommonfeature: Differentinstancesofanemotion-typewillhavedifferentparticularobjects(e.g.Imaybe angryatacolleague,andangryatthegovernment),buttheformalobjectwillremainthe same(e.g.ifIamangry,Iexperienceboththecolleagueandthegovernmentasoffen- sive).Myvariousepisodesoffear,sadness,guilt,andsoon,willbedirectedatandtake asobjectsarichvarietyofthings,butIwillalwaysseeasdangerouswhatIfear,seeasa losswhatIamsadabout,andseeasawrongfulactwhatIfeelguiltyabout.Itisanessen- tialfeatureofeachemotion-typethatweconstruetheparticularobjectoftheemotionin awaythatisspecifictothatemotion-type.Inadditiontothefactthatitshedslightonthe natureofanemotion-type,theformalobjectofanemotionalsoconstitutesafeaturein virtueofwhichitispossibletoevaluatetheintelligibilityandtheappropriatenessofan emotion.Forinstance,wewouldsayofaninstanceoffearthatisdirectedatsomething thatseemsquiteharmlessandinnocuousthatitisunintelligibleorinappropriate.2 Thedifficultywiththisapproachisthatitassumesthat“emotiontypes”arecon- stant across cultures. Take anger:isthisthe only response to something that is offensive?Wemaybeangryataninsult,indignantatamiscarriageofjustice,or 1 Forthebasicemotions,cf.Ekman(1973),(1980),(1984),(1992).Inresponsetocriticism, Ekmanhasrecentlymodifiedhisviewsoastoacceptadegreeofculturalvariationinthe emotions. 2 Cova/Deonna(2014)450. OpenAccess.©2022DavidKonstan,publishedbyDeGruyter. Thisworkislicensedunder theCreativeCommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives4.0InternationalLicense. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110784312-001 2 DavidKonstan disgusted by an offensive odor. Again, is guilt the only response to a wrongful act?Whatoflanguagesthatspeakofshamebutappeartohavenotermthatquite correspondstoournotionofguilt?Wemaybelieve,asIdo,thatallcultureshave waysofexpressingpersonalresponsibilityforone’sactions,butitisnotclearto methattheresultingemotionsshareasingle“formalobject.” GerrodParrottandNikoFrijdahaveofferedadifferentwayofreducingthe variety of emotions across cultures to a set of shared experiences. As Parrott has put it, we may “use the term ur-emotion to refer to the commonalities sharedbyotherwisedifferentemotionsofvariousspecies.”Parrottexplains: therearemanydifferencesbetweentheemotionsmarah(inIndonesian),ikari(inJapa- nese),song(inIfaluk),andanger(inEnglish),butinallofthemtheur-emotionofantago- nismisevident–allfourareaimedatanobjectthatisappraisedasinterferinginsome waywithone’sconcerns,andallfourgiverisetoamotivationtostopthatinterferencein different,culturallyspecificways. . .Therecognitionofthesecomponentsacrosscul- turesleadstotheintuitionthatthereissomethinguniversalaboutemotions,butitisa mistaketosupposethatthereexistuniversal“basicemotions”–marah,ikari,song,and angerarenotthesameemotion!Rather,itisthepresenceoftheur-emotionofantagonism thatprovidestheintuitionofuniversality.3 Elsewhere,FrijdaandParrottobservethatur-emotionsare“intentionalstates” thatareaccompaniedbya“modeofactionreadiness,”ofwhichthereareeigh- teeninall,includingsuchposturesasacceptance,attending,avoid,reject,de- sire, exuberance, domination, submission, tenseness, and inhibition).4 But is “antagonism” an emotion, whether ur- or otherwise? Frijda and Parrott affirm that “Ur-emotions are elicited by events as appraised,”5 which makes them lookverymuchlikeregularemotions.Whatisitthatdistinguishesantagonism from,say,“anger”asthetermisemployedinEnglish? A better course may be to discriminate between emotions proper and a more elementary kind of response, analogous to emotions, to which we may, following Silvan Tomkins, apply the label “affect.”6 Tomkins himself was not consistentintheapplicationofthisdistinction,andithasnothadamajorim- pactonrecentpsychophysiologicalstudiesoftheemotions.Amoresystematic differentiation between emotions and proto-emotions was developed by the Stoics, and more especially by Seneca, writing in the first century A.D. On the Stoicview,certain kindsof judgmentarespecificto emotionsin thefullsense of the word and are not shared by pre- or proto-emotions. In his treatise, On 3 Parrott(2012)248. 4 Frijda/Parrott(2011). 5 Frijda/Parrott(2011)410. 6 SeeTomkins(1995).
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