“Reverence/Li3 and Harmony in Society”
Richard M. Wright
June 09, 2010
(An address to second year students majoring in Environmental Science at Qingdao University in Qingdao Shandong province China)
[Ed - need to explain a few things. I only had an outline written on paper along with a PowerPoint presentation. No manuscript. Below is my best recollection of what I said based on the outline. The talk was given in simple English - Chinese university students are assumed to have some working knowledge of English. Two students were available to help translate any words or expressions that the group might find difficult to understand. Before the talk I went over several particular words that might cause some trouble: reverence, awe, ceremony. Oh and <li3> represents the Chinese word li pronounced with the third tone - otherwise they will not understand which li you mean.]
<You zi yin>
<Ci mu shou zhong xian,
You zi shen shang yi.
Lin xing mi mi feng,
Yi kong chi chi gui.
Shei yan cun cao xin,
Bao de san chun hui.>
Loving him, the mother takes thread in hand;
Leaving her, he’ll have this coat on his shoulders.
Now that he’s about to go, she mends with fine, fine stitches;
She knows the fear that he’ll be gone a long, long time.
Who would say the heart of a tiny blade of grass
Could repay the sun for all the warmth of spring?
Meng Jiao (751-814, Tang Dynasty)1
Can anyone tell me who this is? [Picture of statue of Konzi on campus of Tongji University in Shanghai] Is he still important to Chinese society?
As I travel through China I wonder “what will I talk about?” Professor Ye Siyuan suggested talk about Louisiana or the Bible or American culture. But while I travel I see things and hear stories from Chinese people. And I realize “I will talk about reverence”.
Reverence is something I have been thinking about a great deal. Paul Woodruff wrote an important book Reverence in 2001 and I heard him speak about this in Baton Rouge several years ago. This year I taught a series of classes on the book of Ecclesiastes which is part of the Bible. The book of Ecclesiastes teaches several things – the two most important are joy and reverence. Again I remember the book and the talk. One week ago I visit a friend who is a Jewish rabbi in Hong Kong. He tells me that he has read the book Reverence several times since we first heard Woodruff speak. We have both been thinking about reverence at the same time!
I want to be clear that I am not criticizing Chinese society. But I want to share what I have seen and what my Chinese friends tell me. China is growing and developing very quickly. I like China. There are many thinks about China that I like more than the United States. But China does have some problems – just as the United States also has problems.
One of my friends is a professor in Shaanxi province. She talked with me about some of the problems she think China experiences as it grows and develops. Such as how so many people smoke in public – rich and poor those who are educated and those who are not. When I was at the Shanghai Expo I noticed how many people push in line and jump in line. People are not polite or patient or wait their turn. They want to be first and do not care about anyone else. You see this also in the bad traffic that China has. These are just examples. My friend also talked about the abuse of power. Politicians and police and university deans – people with high positions. They sit around and relax and smoke. They force the people below them to buy things from them that they do not want. Not everyone is like this of course. But one hears many stories about this problem in China.
[Ed – the students and professors in the room expressed strong agreement with all of the above.]
And of course America also has problems. Some of our problems are the same. Some of our problems are different. But I strongly believe America and China both need reverence. My Chinese friends say they are concerned that China will become rich in money and technology – but poor in relationships and in spirit.
So what is reverence? Paul Woodruff in his book explains that reverence is a virtue. It is first something that we have and something that we are. To have reverence is to understand human limits. It is to be aware of something that is greater than us that we human beings cannot control – it can be beauty or truth or God or nature or even death. Something greater than us that we do not control. This virtue makes us able to feel (1) awe or (2) shame or (3) respect – at the right times. I like to say that reverence means we remember we are human – not less and also not more. Woodruff also argues that reverence can be found across religions. Reverence does not require religion – although religions can have and practice reverence. And reverence can be found across cultures. It is not just a Western idea.
Woodruff shows reverence in ancient Greek culture. The Greek word for reverence is hosiotes. To have reverence is to remember that we are human. We are not gods! Remember that you are human.
Reverence is also in the Bible. The Hebrew word for reverence is yir’ah and we see it in the expression yir’at ‘elohi(y)m such as in the book of Ecclesiastes. It is usually translated “fear” or “fear of God”. This is not the best translation because it does not mean to be afraid of God. So a better translation is “reverence” or “reverence for God”. It means two basic things. We are not God – and we are satisfied with that. And we are not perfect. We are human. We cannot control everything. And sometimes we make mistakes.
By the way these two things – ancient Greek culture and the Bible – are the foundation for Western culture.
But Woodruff shows that reverence is not only in ancient Greek culture or in the Bible. It is also in Chinese culture. It is the word <li3> which we find for example in the writings of Konzi and Mengzi. [Ed – Confucius and Mencius.] Sometimes my Chinese friends tell me <li3> means “good manners” or “good behavior” but it is much more than that. Because you can hate other people and still have good manners. <Li3> is how you feel toward other people and toward the world. And when you have <li3> it shows itself in how you behave toward other people.
Reverence or <li3> is important for common people. It can change how we behave toward other people in public. We are more polite. We wait in line. We show love and respect for our parents – something that Chinese people understand much better than many Americans.
But reverence or <li3> is even more important for people in positions of power. Bosses. Politicians. Police. Professors. Reverence or <li3> creates mutual respect. We shows others respect and other people show respect to us. With reverence we show respect for people who are above us. But also for people below us! People over whom we have real power. Such as ordinary citizens. Employees. Students. Our own children. Children should respect their parents. But parents also need to respect their children.
In fact reverence can also create respect for nature – for the natural world. I know this is important to you. I have visited many museums in China. And in your art – pottery and painting and even your building – I can see that Chinese culture cares about nature very much. And that is why you are here. You are majoring in environmental studies – how to care for the natural world!
Woodruff writes:
Why write about reverence? Because we have forgotten what it means. Because reverence encourages leadership and education. Most important because reverence creates warmth in friendship and family life. And because without reverence everything falls apart. People do not know how to respect each other and themselves. Without reverence we cannot explain why we should treat the natural world with respect. Without reverence an apartment is not a home, a boss is not a leader, an instructor is not a teacher. To teach reverence you must find the seeds of reverence in each person and help those seeds to grow.2
I am convinced that both of our societies need reverence. Now the loss of reverence will show itself in different ways. I believe that right now the elite of our nation – our political leaders, people in entertainment and television, and people who give us our news – do not respect the common people. They think they are smarter and better. That common American people should believe everything and do everything they tell us. So I think in America we have to a large degree lost reverence.
[Ed – strangely enough again the students and professors expressed strongly their agreement.]
And perhaps China is beginning to lose reverence. Beginning to forget <li3>.
So we need each other. We can teach and encourage each other. How can we help each other to understand and remember and teach and practice reverence or <li3>? Just a couple days ago someone tells me that Hu Jintao has been talking about this. So Hu Jintao agrees with me!
We – zanmen not women* – need reverence. Thank you.
*[Ed - zanmen is the inclusive "we" in Mandarin Chinese whereas women is the common but not necessarily inclusive form.]
