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MARGARET N. NG
This view is probably quite common. People who are alien to a Chinese society in which both li and face prevail usually find it difficult to see any distinction between the two. On the other hand, people who are born into the system find the distinction obvious and so impossible to explain. There is, of course, the fact that the verbal expressions for 'loss of face' and 'loss of li' are not interchangeable, but this has little to do with the real unease felt by the modern native Chinese who finds confusion between the two incredible and irritating. To them, the most fundamental, the 'gut' difference between face and li is that the concern for li is honorable, the concern for face is dishonorable. It is no loss of face to admit to foreigners that the Chinese are preoccupied with li; indeed, it is a source of pride that China is the 'Country of Li and Yi (righteousness)'; it is a loss of face to admit to foreigners that the Chinese are preoccupied with face. Li is obviously Good, and face is obviously Bad.
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Without making too much of the verbal difference between face and li, and without attempting to probe into the psychology or sociology of the modern native Chinese, I suggest their 'gut feelings' that li is honorable and face not, be taken into account and explained, if only as illusory or a mistake. On the other hand, the great weakness of simply dismissing the confusion made by Agassi and Jarvie between li and face as an accidental error, excusable in foreigners, is that we thereby lose the opportunity to study a very interesting question, what has face to do with li and the general teachings of Confucius? So far as I know, few people have raised this question, let alone considered answers to it. The theory of Agassi and Jarvie that face is the same as li is the closest to an answer to it, and a very bold one. In my opinion, their mistake is a very interesting one, and needs far more than the obvious to explain it. For, there is a very deep connection between face and li.
Face and Li are Not the Same
The fact that both Confucianism and face reflect their context of a pride-shame3 society and support it makes it easy to confuse li and face. However, once we understand that shame is not always an external sanction, as is suggested in early anthropological studies, but can be internal, we can see clearly that the two reflect and support different parts of the pride-shame society. To confuse face