Solar Eclipse and Ritual

11,507 characters2009.07.01

When the ruler’s conduct is irregular, and the dukes and ministers are unvirtuous, when the Yi and the Di are strong and invade, and all affairs are thrown into confusion, then the sun is eclipsed.——《Spring and Autumn Wei: Gan Jing Fu》

When the ruler indulges himself and does not follow the ancients, when he acts against Heaven and brutalizes things, calamity arises and then the sun is eclipsed.——《Spring and Autumn Wei: Yundou Shu》

When the ruler’s joy and anger are irregular, when he lightly kills the innocent, executes the guiltless, disrespects Heaven and Earth, and disregards ghosts and spirits, then the sun is eclipsed.——《Liyun Wei: Dou Weiyi》

When the sun changes, cultivate virtue; when the moon changes, reduce punishments; when the stars change, establish harmony. … The highest course is to cultivate virtue; next is to improve governance; next is to make repairs; next is to perform exorcistic rites; below that, nothing.——《Records of the Grand Historian · Treatise on the Celestial Offices》。

（Jiang Xiaoyuan: 《12 Mansions and 28 Lodges》）

In a previous note (thinking of“political astronomy”), I mentioned a few things in passing; here let me add a bit more.

First, let me briefly explain: this year on July 22, a total solar eclipse of the most spectacular kind seen in centuries will occur in China’s Yangtze River basin. The duration of totality (from first contact to reappearance of the sun’s light) will exceed 5 minutes. We will never again in our lifetimes see an eclipse that lasts this long and is this easy to observe. You can search for details online, or consult http://hps.phil.pku.edu.cn/bbs/read.php?tid=975, http://hps.phil.pku.edu.cn/bbs/read.php?tid=971, and so on.

Although the details of eclipses have long been precisely predicted since modern astronomy matured, I only learned of this information this year. The timing of the news was just right, giving me exactly the amount of time I needed to yy.

When I first heard the news, I was truly swept up in emotion and overwhelmed with mixed feelings. Though I count as nothing more than a fake astronomy fan, how could I not be excited by hearing such a thing? Besides, even if one is not an astronomy enthusiast, one would of course be moved by such a once-in-a-century spectacle, wouldn’t one?

At the time I also had some naive ideas, such as: would Shanghai artificially intervene in the weather to ensure clear skies? Would a flood of travelers pour into the Yangtze River basin and make train tickets scarce? But later I realized that a total solar eclipse is in fact nothing worth making a fuss about for most people.

If I had been a few years younger, I probably wouldn’t have been as enthusiastic as I am now. Although I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to miss such an encounter back then, it still wouldn’t have been something I absolutely had to see.

For me, this eclipse has been given all kinds of extra meanings besides the eclipse itself. For example, first of all, this is an eclipse in a metropolis—I will be heading into the center of Shanghai to wait for it, rather than going out to the suburbs to observe. Perhaps you can see more stars in some suburban area (Shanghai’s outskirts are not much better), but after all there will still be plenty of chances in this lifetime to look at the starry sky, whereas chances to see the starry sky in Shanghai are probably gone forever. Of course, it is estimated that the daylight in Shanghai that morning will be strong enough, and the city lighting system will most likely switch on before totality, so that the stars still won’t appear. But after all, as long as there is even a slight unknown possibility, I ought to take a gamble; if the entire municipal lighting system has even a tiny bit of response lag… In short, even if I cannot see the starry sky, at least I want to be in my old hometown, in the place where I was born and grew up, and see what it looks like when it suddenly falls into an abnormal state. Then I also want to see how pedestrians stop and look upward, to see whether the busyness of this metropolis will pause for a moment during those five minutes…

Of course, my other plan had already come to nothing, after all I didn’t dare go into the barracks to snatch people… In the face of the city-state’s ritual, my ritual could only give way.

What is ritual? What meaning does ritual have? Let’s begin with the ancient Chinese ritual of sacrificing to Heaven. Simply put, the ancient Chinese believed that celestial phenomena were omens for the state; among them, a solar eclipse signified that the emperors and generals of the human world were arrogating to themselves grandiosity, acting capriciously, lacking the Way and virtue, and that the state would suffer internal unrest and foreign invasion, with political power unstable, and that within three years after a solar eclipse there would necessarily be corroboration. In the eyes of modern science, these are of course sheer nonsense (though thinking of recent circumstances, and then recalling the talk of the end of the world in 2012, even I cannot help but shiver…); but the ancients nevertheless had to solemnly sacrifice to Heaven and pray, the emperor at the time of a solar eclipse had to “issue an edict seeking candid speech,” conduct self-examination, dismiss some high official to let him bear punishment on the emperor’s behalf, and then hold an elaborate prayer ritual.

Modern people would say: a solar eclipse is an objective and inevitable natural phenomenon; whether a country is governed with the Way or without it, if an eclipse is supposed to happen, it has to happen. What meaning could there be in holding a grand ritual, or even tremblingly conducting self-examination, for the sake of an eclipse? — “Feudal,” “ignorant”! Even children know how to denounce those ancients.

But think carefully: is this really a problem of ignorance? Do modern people no longer sacrifice to Heaven and pray during eclipses simply because they are more advanced and wiser? Absolutely not! That is not the key point.

In fact, wherever there is human society, there will never be a shortage of “ritual” activities. Rather than asking what meaning certain rituals serve, it is better to say that ritual itself is often meaning itself. For the individual, major events such as birthdays, courtship, marriage, and funerals are all accompanied by various kinds of ritual. And in public life, from the bows and greetings of elementary school students when class begins and ends, to friends clinking glasses and toasting at banquets, all the way to Olympic openings, National Day military parades, and so on, ritual is everywhere. You say, what on earth is the meaning of these big and small rituals? What exactly is the point of one wine cup touching another? Why must the reunion dinner be eaten on New Year’s Eve? Why must New Year’s money be wrapped in red paper?…

If one insists on speaking of the meaning of these rituals, then apart from things like respect for tradition, in my view what people create through all kinds of rituals is a kind of “field,” a kind of “atmosphere.” Within such a “field,” each participant first acquires a sense of “being present,” and then certain substantive meanings are presented within it in a specific way, allowing people to remember them.

Some rituals must be held at particular moments, such as the New Year’s Eve dinner, which must be on New Year’s Eve and nowhere else. Otherwise, even if people gather for a meal in exactly the same way, the meaning is different. First, because this is a traditional custom; second, because New Year’s Eve is unique—there is only one New Year’s Eve dinner in a year, and you can only eat this meal with a certain group of people. This exclusivity marks your belonging and presents the meaning of the family. Similarly, anniversary celebrations must also be held on the anniversary date; certain activities, performed at certain times, acquire special meaning. For example, handing someone a piece of chocolate is the same act, yet the meaning is different when it is given on February 14. Whether or not we acknowledge Valentine’s sainthood, February 14 has indeed become a special day in our culture.

So the Olympic Games were opened on August 8 rather than August 9, and the National Day military parade was held on October 1 rather than September 28; these choices are all meaningful, even though substantively there is no difference. Even though people have long since stopped believing in the monster called “the year,” the custom of giving New Year’s money still continues at the New Year.

In short, the survival of a ritual does not depend on whether its originally proclaimed practical purpose is still recognized by people—for example, that New Year’s money is to drive away demons, that eating zongzi is to worship Qu Yuan’s spirit, that sacrificing to Heaven during an eclipse is to avert disaster and misfortune. Rather, it depends on whether what is expressed and presented through that ritual is still recognized by people. In other words, if people still have the desire to express and remember certain specific emotions, and if they continue to value those emotions, then the rituals that allow those emotions to be formally presented will be preserved and developed. For example, young men and women need occasions to express love, and ritualized, symbolic things like Valentine’s Day, chocolate, roses, and so on provide a “field” in which love can be expressed in a specific way. As long as people are willing to and value the expression of love, similar holidays and rituals will flourish. Similarly, New Year’s money expresses care for younger generations; the reunion dinner expresses familial affection; clinking glasses expresses friendship; oaths express firmness of resolve; salutes express respect; and military parades express pride in a swaggering way, and so on. In short, each ritual provides a channel for the expression of certain specific emotions. Through ritual, these emotions are highlighted, conveyed, affirmed, and remembered. That is the meaning of ritual.

Thus, the reason the ritual of sacrificing to Heaven no longer exists is not that democracy defeated feudalism, nor that science eliminated ignorance; it is not that at all. The key is that the emotions linked to the ritual of sacrificing to Heaven have been abandoned. Namely: humility and awe. In ancient China, no matter how supreme and imperious they were in ruling under Heaven, the emperors were always “the Son of Heaven,” people who “received Heaven’s Mandate.” Even if one could predict the arrival of an eclipse, people still had to submit to the grand power of nature; people knew their own limitations. Human beings are always liable to make mistakes, and the power of nature is often difficult to resist, so people always need to be fearful and reverent, always need to avoid self-important arrogance, always need to reflect on their own conduct. But of course, human beings do not need to busy themselves with self-criticism every moment, just as a reunited family does not need to gather around the table for every meal, and a pair of lovers do not need to profess their love to each other every day. Only at certain specific moments, against a background that resonates with particular emotions, does it suffice to express, affirm, and remember those emotions through the corresponding ritual. When an eclipse or other strange phenomenon occurs, or when earthquakes, floods, and other natural or man-made disasters occur, conducting a ritual to express humility and awe is truly most appropriate.

And the situation now is that one can no longer see any kind of solemn ritual for expressing humility. Even in those times of great calamity, what we see are still celebratory meetings singing the praises of achievements, rituals flaunting martial power, rituals displaying the great force by which human beings claim to conquer Heaven and change destiny… not to mention those anniversary celebrations. There are no longer any rituals of “issuing an edict seeking candid speech,” no kind of abnormal change that leads people to reflect on their own limitations. In modern people’s rituals, we see only suppression of speech, only self-advertisement…

Will the long-standing Chinese art of divination come true?

When the eclipse consumes all light, this is called the emperor’s calamity; within three years, a state is certain to perish.——《Jingzhou Zhan》

A state without the Way, when sun and moon pass over it, will be dimmed and eclipsed; if weapons attack it, the state will be ruined and perish, and there will certainly be mourning and disaster.——《Yisi Zhan》

2009年7月1日

Latest Comments

uniceros

2009-07-01 18:34:33 Anonymous 115.155.143.90 [Reply]

“Within such a “field,” each participant first acquires a sense of “being present,” and then certain substantive meanings are presented within it in a specific way, allowing people to remember them.”
Reflection requires some kind of standard, but now there is basically no standard within people’s field of vision; God is dead.

Gu Du

2009-07-01 19:56:15 [Reply]

What are you trying to say? I wasn’t discussing the question of reflection.

uniceros

2009-07-01 20:42:31 Anonymous 115.155.143.90 [Reply]

Oh, the excerpt above has nothing to do with what I said…
In which folder is the article you wrote earlier about awe and humility? Ycool should make a TAG list to make searching easier.