Confucius, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
Ritual propriety — li 禮 — is not mere ceremony. It is the form in which the human becomes human in the company of others. Lin Fang once asked me what is the first thing to be attended to in ceremonies. I called it a great question.1 My answer was this: in festive ceremonies, it is better to be sparing than extravagant; in the ceremonies of mourning, it is better that there be deep sorrow than a minute attention to observances.2
The inner substance — the reverence, the grief — is what the form must carry. Strip the form of that substance and you have nothing worth the name of ritual. This is why I put the sharpest possible question to those who would practice li without ren 仁 (humaneness): if a man be without the virtues proper to humanity, what has he to do with the rites of propriety?
If a man be without the virtues proper to humanity, what has he to do with music?3 The bow without inner reverence is empty. The mourning-rite performed with meticulous observance but without grief is a performance, not a rite. The opposite error is also real. When the head of the Chi family had eight rows of pantomimes dancing in his courtyard — a display reserved for the Son of Heaven — I said: if he can bear to do this, what may he not bear to do?4
When the three families used the Yung ode at their private sacrifices — a hymn whose words speak of assisting princes and a solemn Son of Heaven — I asked what application those words could possibly have in the hall of such families.5 The form matters too. To arrogate to yourself the ritual forms of a station you do not occupy is not merely bad taste; it is the unraveling of the order that li sustains. Li holds the two together: the inner attitude and the outer form, each requiring the other.
The mourner who weeps without observance has feeling without shape; the mourner who observes without weeping has shape without feeling. The work of cultivation is to bring them into accord — so that the form is filled, and the feeling finds its proper expression.
Lin Fang asked what was the first thing to be attended to in ceremonies. The Master said, 'A great question indeed!'The Analects, Great Learning & Doctrine of the Mean
In festive ceremonies, it is better to be sparing than extravagant. In the ceremonies of mourning, it is better that there be deep sorrow than a minute attention to observances.The Analects, Great Learning & Doctrine of the Mean
If a man be without the virtues proper to humanity, what has he to do with the rites of propriety? If a man be without the virtues proper to humanity, what has he to do with music?The Analects, Great Learning & Doctrine of the Mean
Confucius said of the head of the Chi family, who had eight rows of pantomimes in his area, 'If he can bear to do this, what may he not bear to do?'The Analects, Great Learning & Doctrine of the Mean
The Master said, '"Assisting are the princes;-- the son of heaven looks profound and grave:"-- what application can these words have in the hall of the three families?'The Analects, Great Learning & Doctrine of the Mean