Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2018, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (1): 54-80.

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The Structure and Meaning of Everyday Life: A Sociological Study of Qu Li from the Book of Rites

WU Liucai   

  1. Department of Sociology, Peking University
  • Online:2018-01-20 Published:2018-01-20

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Abstract:

The study of rituals from the perspective of social anthropology helps us to comprehend our everyday life and deepen our understanding of social structure because the process of rites emphasized by this approach triggers the practical subjectivity of people in social interaction. Rituals connect the institution and the mind, so the study of rituals helps us to understand the composition of the social world,as well as the heart and spirit underneath the institution and the structure. Through a social anthropological interpretation of Qu Li from the Book of Rites, this paper finds that everyday life possesses basic elements such as social structure and time. Rituals contain complicated structures of human relations and the relationship between heaven and man, and rich experiences of time. The social world in Chinese rituals is a world of ghosts and gods,and of the five cardinal relations generated and sustained overtime. The ritual system is not only a secular social structure but a system of cosmology. The study of Qu Li shows that our everyday life does not exist in ourselves but in our integration with the outside world. When humans practice rituals, he/she find the meaning of life in social life. This paper holds that the emotion and the meaning embodied in rites are the source of the sacred sense of social life, and rituals are the means and the process of bringing people and society into this realm. Such an interpretation places traditional rituals under the scope of sociology, contributing to the development of Chinese social theory.

Key words: Qu Li, Book of Rites, everyday life, social-temporal structure, meaning, social anthropology