IS FACE THE SAME AS LI?
55
flexible, li is rigid and unyielding, and so societies interested in the same results—or what appears to be the same results, avidly turn to the cultivation of subtle techniques for manipulating face, leaving the narrow path of li to fanatics and moral people.
That is perhaps, incidentally, why Confucianism bears such strong marks of pride and not so much the marks of a shame sanction. Even its shame is based on pride. The most valued disposition in a Confucian man is his pride, or 'self-pride'. Literary history, biographies of scholars, officials and poets as well as evidence in daily contact with them leaves little room for doubt. This pride is not the same as face, because it involves severe self-criticism and an ideal self-image which is in operation not only when someone is looking, but even when no one is looking except oneself, and oneself is always looking. This ideal self-image rests on pride: the conviction that it is superior, that it hangs upon nothing except one's aspirations. To be superior one has to be superior to someone, and Confucian men have not pitched themselves only against foreigners or 'barbarians' but the ordinary people—the 'small people'—they live among. The small people are afraid of punishment, of public censure, of being shamed, but the superior man is afraid of not reaching his high ideal. The superior man judges himself not by the approval of his community but by the traditional ideal set by Confucius and in the sacred books of ancient sages. He is ashamed to see himself fall short of that ideal, but that he should adhere to that ideal stems from pride, from his aspiration to be a true elite.
Parallel in a Guilt-saintliness System
Is there a parallel to the subterfuge relation between li and face in a guilt-saintliness system such as Catholicism? We have good reason to expect people to resort to subterfuges when hard-to-attain or unattainable goals are pressed upon them. Catholicism certainly presses upon its adherents the extremely high aspiration of saintliness such as expressed in 'You should be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect' on the one hand, and on the other of a scrupulous conscience able to detect the smallest sin and bring on the deepest feeling of guilt. The propagated lives of canonized saints act as the models constantly exhorting one to combine both and bring them to the very highest standards. It is easy enough to see the subterfuge, which is to take upon extravagant acts of piety rather
IS FACE THE SAME AS LI?
55
flexible, li is rigid and unyielding, and so societies interested in the same results-or what appears to be the same results, avidly turn to the cultivation of subtle techniques for manipulating face, leav- ing the narrow path of li to fanatics and moral people.
That is perhaps, incidentally, why Confucianism bears such strong marks of pride and not so much the marks of a shame sanc- tion. Even its shame is based on pride. The most valued disposi- tion in a Confucian man is his pride, or 'self-pride'. Literary history, biographies of scholars, officials and poets as well as evidence in daily contact with them leaves little room for doubt. This pride is not the same as face, because it involves severe self-criticism and an ideal self-image which is in operation not only when someone is looking, but even when no one is looking except oneself, and oneself is always looking. This ideal self-image rests on pride: the conviction that it is superior, that it hangs upon nothing except one's aspirations. To be superior one has to be superior to some- one, and Confucian men have not pitched themselves only against foreigners or 'barbarians' but the ordinary people-the‘small people' -they live among. The small people are afraid of punishment, of public censure, of being shamed, but the superior man is afraid of not reaching his high ideal. The superior man judges himself not by the approval of his community but by the traditional ideal set by Confucius and in the sacred books of ancient sages. He is asham- ed to see himself fall short of that ideal, but that he should adhere to that ideal stems from pride, from his aspiration to be a true elite.
Parallel in a Guilt-saintliness System
Is there a parallel to the subterfuge relation between li and face in a guilt-saintliness system such as Catholicism720 We have good reason to expect people to resort to subterfuges when hard-to-attain or unattainable goals are pressed upon them. Catholicism certainly presses upon its adherents the extremely high aspiration of saint- liness such as expressed in 'You should be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" on the one hand, and on the other of a scrupulous conscience able to detect the smallest sin and bring on the deepest feeling of guilt. The propagated lives of canonized saints act as the models constantly exhorting one to combine both and bring them to the very highest standards. It is easy enough to see the subterfuge, which is to take upon extravagant acts of piety rather
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