Page 55 - 2022(1) International Confusion Studies

Int. Confucian Stud. 2022; 1(1): 48–63

Cunshan Li*
The Heaven-Earth Cosmic Faith and the
Universality of Confucian Ethics

https://doi.org/10.1515/icos-2022-2004

Abstract: The ritual practice of making sacrificial offerings to Heaven and
Earth, named respectively Jiao and She, existedinthe WesternZhouperiod. In
classical Chinese culture, Heaven and Earth were paired and named “father”
and “mother” of humanity and all things. This points to the “this-worldly”
nature—vis à vis “other-worldly” nature—of the highest deity in Chinese faith,
who existed in a “continuity of being” with humans on the Earth. “Heaven and
Earth are parents of all creatures, and of those, Man is the most highly
accomplished.” Such a notion synthesizes the cosmic law of nature and human
centric ethics, creating a unity of nature and human society through “oneness
of virtue.” The Confucian tenets proposing that human nature is innately good,
andthe need forthe pursuitofmoral self-cultivation, are fundamental to the
ideology. More importantly, so too are such universal virtues as “being lovingly
disposed to people in general, and kind to all creatures and things,” and the
affirmation that “all people (are) brothers and sisters of oneself; all creatures
and living things one’sequals,” as well as “all under Heaven (is) one family,
and the nation, one person.”
Keywords: Jiao and She rites, Heaven-Earth faith, oneness of virtue between
Heaven and Man, universal virtues

Since time immemorial, China has been an agrarian nation with a clan-based
approach to agricultural production, whereby individual families were basic
production units. Emphasis on family values and clan unity thus became a salient
feature of Chinese culture. When this was extended into an understanding of Man

Article note: This article was first published in Chinese in Issue 1, Volume 1 of International Studies
on Confucianism (《国际儒学》) in 2021. Some updates and adaptation have been made for the
English version, which was translated by Haiming Liu.

*Corresponding author: Cunshan Li, Institute of Philosophy, The Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences, Beijing, China, E-mail: Lics-zxs@cass.org.cn

Open Access. © 2022 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.