Abstract
The service of the cosmic mode is expected to enhance the positive interaction between heaven, earth and man through three approaches at least: the first one is to create music by echoing through voice and modulations, the harmony that prevails between heaven and earth, the second one is to develop rites by imitating the gradation or orderly distinctions that exist in the operations of heaven and earth, the third one is to make a synthetic use of music and rites for the sake of all the beings and spirits in nature so as to maintain the cosmic concordance and pursue the common good.
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Notes
- 1.
In Confucianism, the Heaven, the Earth and Humankind are considered to be the three great things that make up the cosmos or universe or nature. In Daoism, the three great things plus the Dao are claimed to be the four great things of the cosmos.
- 2.
James Legge (trans.), Record of Music (Yue chi), in Book of Rites (Li chi), pp. 100–101.
- 3.
James Legge (trans.), Record of Music (Yue chi), in Book of Rites (Li chi), p. 99.
- 4.
James Legge (trans.), Record of Music (Yue chi), in Book of Rites (Li chi), pp. 102–104.
- 5.
Ibid., p. 104.
- 6.
Wang Keping, The Classic of the Dao : A New Investigation (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2010), p. 58.
- 7.
Wang Keping, The Classic of the Dao : A New Investigation, pp. 58–60.
- 8.
Laozi, The Book of Laozi, Sect. 55, in Zhang Dainian, Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy (trans. Edmund Ryden), p. 273.
- 9.
Wang Keping, The Classic of the Dao : A New Investigation, pp. 67–70.
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Wang, K. (2019). The Cosmic Mode. In: Harmonism as an Alternative. Key Concepts in Chinese Thought and Culture. Palgrave Pivot, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3564-8_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3564-8_2
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