Honor and Shame in Early China PDF
Preview Honor and Shame in Early China
Honor and Shame in Early China In this major new study, Mark Edward Lewis traces how the changing languageofhonorandshamehelpedtoarticulateandjustifytransformations inChinesesocietybetweentheWarringStatesandtheendoftheHandynasty. Throughcarefulexaminationofawidevarietyoftexts,hedemonstrateshow honor–shamediscoursejustifiedtheactionsofdiverseandpotentiallyrival groups. Over centuries, the formally recognized political order came to be intertwined with groups articulating alternative models of honor. These groupsbothparticipatedintheexistingorderand,throughtheirownvisions of what was truly honorable, paved the way for subsequent political struc- tures.FillingamajorlacunainthestudyofearlyChina,Lewispresentsways inwhichtheearlyChineseempirescanbefruitfullyconsideredincompara- tivecontextanddevelopsamoresystematicunderstandingofthefundamen- talroleofhonor-shameinshapingstatesandsocieties. mark edward lewis is Kwoh-ting Li Professor of Chinese Culture at StanfordUniversity. Honor and Shame in Early China Mark Edward Lewis StanfordUniversity,California UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia 314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre, NewDelhi–110025,India 79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108843690 DOI:10.1017/9781108919678 ©MarkEdwardLewis2021 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2021 PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyTJbooksLtd,PadstowCornwall AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. ISBN978-1-108-84369-0Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Contents Acknowledgments pagevi Introduction 1 1 HonorandShameoftheKingandtheWarrior 17 2 AcquiredHonorintheWarringStates 47 3 State-BasedHonorintheWarringStates 86 4 HonoroftheImperialOfficials 124 5 HonorinLocalSocietyintheEarlyEmpires 157 6 HonorandShameofWritersandPartisans 186 Conclusion 219 WorksCited 222 Index 243 v Acknowledgments The thinking and research that ultimately resulted in this book began during ayear’ssabbaticalfundedbytheAlexandervonHumboldtFoundationwhich I spent at the University of Münster, where I was hosted by Reinhard Emmerich.Iwouldalsoliketoexpressmygratitudetothescholarswhoread allorpartofearlierversionsofthemanuscript,pointingoutmanyerrorsand making useful suggestions that have significantly improved the text: Roel Sterckx, Charles Sanft, Lothar von Falkenhausen, Maria Khayutina, Marco Pouget,MarkusHaselbeck,RaffaelaRettinger–thelastfourduringasummer attheInstituteforAdvancedStudiesattheUniversityofMunich,whereIwas hosted by Armin Selbitschka – and two anonymous readers from Cambridge UniversityPress.Ialsothankallthescholarswhoseworksarecitedthroughout thetext, andwhosecontributions wereinvaluable. Aboveall,Iwouldliketo thankmywife,KristinIngridFryklund,forallofherworkinthepreparationof themanuscript.Finally,IwouldliketothankLucyRhymer,EmilySharp,and therestofthepeopleatCambridgeUniversityPresswhohelpedtransformthe finalmanuscriptintoapublishedmonograph. vi Introduction Thisbooktraceshowadiscourseofhonorandshamehelpedcreatetheimperial stateinChina.Throughexaminingchangingclaimstohonor,itstudiesWarring Statesarticulationsofnewsocialrolesandnetworks,earlyimperialredefinitions ofthestate’spoweranditsagents’status,andhowgroupsnotemployedbythe stateassertedastatusthatmatchedorexceededthatattributedtothebureaucracy. Such groups also denounced as shameful the elite pursuits of wealth or high officethatmotivatedthosewhoconstitutedtheformalstateandpoliticalelites. Thesegroupsincludedscholars,hermits,bravoes,writers,andlocallypowerful families, and, while not formally part of the state-defined public realm, in practice they became essential to the functioning of the imperial order. The rolesthattheyplayed,andthelanguageinwhichthesewerejustified,cameto definea non-state publicrealm which remained inpermanent tension withthe imperialgovernment.Thustheevolvinglanguageofhonorandshameallowsus tomovebeyondafocusonthecourtandbureaucracytoachieveamorecomplete pictureofHanimperialstateandsociety. HonorandShame Honorandshamearecorrelatedsocialphenomenaroutinelystudiedtogether.1 Honorisgenerallyunderstoodasaperson’svalueperceivedbytheselfandhis orhergroup.Consequently,itexpressesasociety’sperceptionofwhatdefines asuperiorperson.Thisincludesboth“honorasprecedence,”i.e.,therecogni- tion that one is a member of the social elite, and “honor of virtue,” i.e., the recognitionthatone’sdeedsmeritesteem.AsJulianPitt-Rivershasargued,in an accepted social order “the sentiment of honor inspires conduct which is honorable, the conduct receives recognition and establishes reputation, and 1 Honour and Shame: The Values of Mediterranean Society, ed. J. G. Peristiany (London: WeidenfieldandNicolson,1965);HonorandShameandtheUnityoftheMediterranean,ed. DavidD.Gilmore(Washington,DC:AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation,1987);Honorand Grace in Anthropology, ed. J. G. Peristiany and Julian Pitt-Rivers (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress,1992);JulianPitt-Rivers,TheFateofShechemorthePoliticsofSex:Essays intheAnthropologyoftheMediterranean(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1977). 1 2 Introduction reputationisfinallysanctifiedbythebestowalofhonors.”2Thusthereisaself- reinforcing loopbetween the individuals’sself-perception, his orheractions, andtheresponsesofthegroup. Bycontrast,shameistheaffectiveresponsetohumiliationorrejection;itisthe person’s perception that he or she is held in contempt by others, which elicits powerful emotions manifest in blushing, the inability to speak, or a desire to disappear. As a self-conscious state of mind based on one’s understanding of a situation, shame has a strong cognitive dimension. It therefore evolves over timealongwithidealsofhonor.Thuscriticsoftheideathatthereisadistinctive “honor–shamecomplex”thatmarkstheMediterraneanhavearguedthatvariants intheusesofthesetermsaresogreatthattheypotentiallyappearanywhereand are regularly interlinked.3 Having a sense of honor requires having a sense of shame, since only someone who knows shame can be honorable, and only someonewithasenseofwhatishonorablewillfeelappropriateshame. This linkage is demonstrated by the fact that the two terms could become synonyms: As the basis of repute, honor and shame are synonymous, since shamelessness is dishonorable;apersonofgoodreputeistakentohaveboth,oneofevilreputeiscredited withneither...Assuch,theyareconstituentsofvirtue.4 AnexampleistheLatinpudor,whichmeant“shame,”butalsoindicatedwhat we would call a sense of “honor,” and even takes on such senses as “moral conscience” or “personal integrity.”5 In early Chinese society the words for “shame”alsoindicatedhonor. TheSocialRolesofHonorandShame Giventhathonorandshamedefineasociety’sideals,oritsimageofthehighest formsofhumanity,andthattheyvaryacrossspaceandtime,theyareusefulfor 2 Julian Pitt-Rivers, “Honour and Social Status,” in Honor and Shame and the Unity of the Mediterranean,p.22. 3 Michael Herzfeld, “Honour and Shame: Problems in the Comparative Analysis of Moral Systems,” Man 15 (1980), pp. 339–351; Herzfeld, “‘As in Your Own House’: Hospitality, Ethnography, and the Stereotype of Mediterranean Society,” in Honor and Shame and the Unity of the Mediterranean, pp. 75–89; Unni Wikan, “Shame and Honour: A Contestable Pair,”Man19(1984),pp.635–652. 4 Pitt-Rivers,“HonourandSocialStatus,”p.42. 5 CarlinA.Barton,RomanHonor:TheFireintheBones(Berkeley:UniversityofCaliforniaPress, 2001),pp.14–15,18–19,199–200, 202,207n.32,211,217,221,224,229, 230–231,235, 236–239,241–243;AlbertS.Gérard,ThePhaedraSyndrome:OfShameandGuiltinDrama (Atlanta,GA:Amsterdam,1993),pp.22–25,27,28,31,32,35–36;CharlesSegal,Languageand DesireinSeneca’sPhaedra(Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,1986),pp.73–74,76,93–94, 133,181,195–196;andFlorenceDupont,LesmonstresdeSénèque(Paris:Belin,1995),pp. 241–243.SeealsoMarikoAsano-Tamanoi,“Shame,Family,andStateinCataloniaandJapan,” inHonorandShameandtheUnityoftheMediterranean,pp.111–114.
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