Animal Sacrifices

9. Of Animals and Man: The Confucian Perspective

9 OfAnimals and Man: The Confucian Perspective Rodney L. Taylor 1. Classical Confucianism: Heaven, Man, and Moral Virtue The Classical Confucian tradition is distinctive in part because it emphasizes a specific set of moral relations within which the involved individuals are enjoined to develop appropriate moral virtues. This set of relations is usually described as the five human relationships: king-subject, father-son, husband-wife, elder brother-younger brother, and friendfriend . l Conspicuous for their absence from this list are animals and other living things, a fact that goes some way toward explaining the prevailing tendency to classify the Confucian ethic as just another species of humanism. In its religious teachings, however, Confucianism does not restrict the realm of value or the scope of moral relations only to human beings. lien (Heaven) is the source of ultimate religious authority, and lien-li (the Principle of Heaven) permeates all living things, animals as well as humans, plants as well as animals . The natural order, the Confucian Tao, is a moral order. Though not identical, macrocosm and microcosm are similar because each is permeated by the principle of Heaven. Viewed in terms of the religious teachings of Confucianism, then, the religious agent (one who is guided by religious Copyrighted Material 238 Rodney L. Taylor teachings) is simultaneously and inescapably a moral agent. Since the religious teachings of Confucianism involve ethical precepts, and since, as just noted, these teachings affirm the fundamental similarity of all living things, it is a mistake to assume that classical Confucianism is "just another form of humanism ." How far this is from the truth will be clearer once we have examined representative passages from Lun Yu (the Analects ofConfucius), Meng Tzu (the works of Mencius), and Hsun Tzu (the works of Hsun Tzu). Lun Yu, Confucian Analects The Analects are regarded as the primary source of the teachings of Confucius (551-479 B.C.). There are, of course, other writings that purport to represent Confucius, but for a variety of historical-critical reasons the Analects are considered our most historically authentic record. The work itself consists primarily of recorded conversations between Confucius and his disciples, but some passages deal mainly with the acts and character of Confucius. This is true of the first passage that concerns us, one of a small number that deal with human-animal relationships. "The Master fished with a line but not with a net; when fowling he did not aim at a roosting bird." 2 Passages of this kind became for the later Confucian tradition descriptions of the wisdom of Confucius, and they instruct via example; since this is something that Confucius himself considered important , it is something we ought to take seriously and emulate. Personality characteristics of this kind were also considered to be part of the make-up of the general image of the sage (sheng) or, the phrase Confucius himself uses most frequently, of chun-tzu (the noble or moral man). The point of this particular passage is not that Confucius refrains from taking life-such an attitude is not a major part of the early tradition-but rather that he does not take "unfair advantage" of the fish and the birds. There is, then, no judgment that catching fish and birds is morally culpable; culpabilCopyrighted Material OfAnimals and Man 239 ity is restricted to the methods used to catch them. To take unfair advantage reflects poorly on the character of the agent; indeed, to do so, Confucius implies, would be to violate his own moral nature, particularly that aspect of the moral nature identified as i (righteousness). Righteousness for Confucius is part of human nature, its function being to determine our moral relationships. Here he is suggesting that righteousness also includes proper relations with fish and birds. At a deeper level the authority of this moral system is Tien (Heaven). Within the framework of their religious ethic, Confucians will argue that man's moral nature is itselfa reflection of Tien. The chun-tzu reflects the religious authority of Tien in his way oflife, and humaneness (jen) is action taken in conscious understanding of the relation of man to Heaven. Acting reasonably and sensitively toward other forms of life, such as Confucius does in the passage just quoted, is expressive of the relation between the moral nature of humans and that of Heaven. Thus sensitivity to animals is not only ethically suitable but also carries religious authority. However...