Abstract

This work examines the role of music and ritual in Confucian or "Ruist" self-cultivational practices, particularly as understood and articulated Xunzi, the last great Ruist thinker of the classical period. The work emphasizes the use of music and ritual practices as techniques or methods designed to educate, craft, and transform one's person. This method is based on the use of physical and repetitive discipline, and is akin to the thought and practices of the martial arts. Liberal references to and comparison with Western thinkers, especially Nietzsche, Heidegger, and other "postmodernists," are similarly made for purposes of exposition and insight. ;After reviewing the aesthetic nature of Ruist moral practices, the introductory chapter rethinks the notion of xiushen as "person-crafting" instead of the usual "self-cultivation." The term "crafting" suggests an artistic metaphor of reworking raw materials into an emergent work of art as opposed to a horticultural metaphor which implies the nurturing and growth of preset genetic seeds. The second chapter maps out a topography of raw materials in need of crafting: xing , qing , and yu . ;The second chapter reviews early Chinese musical philosophy while the third chapter examines Xunzi's appropriation of, and advance on, early "arousal" theories. Xunzi's arguments suggests both a phenomenological view of musical emotion, and an arousal theory based on mirroring or sympathetic response. The fourth chapter interprets the use of ritual practice as a variant on the same themes, with slightly different emphases. Lastly, the work concludes by comparing Xunzi's thought with that of the postmodernists in order to clarify and differentiate Xunzi's philosophy from his postmodern counterparts.