One year ago on Round and Square (17 August 2011)—Seinfeld Ethnography: Bad Boy (George)
Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Rural Religion in Early China."
Click here for the introduction to "La Pensée Cyclique" the "umbrella topic for this series.
Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Rural Religion in Early China."
Click here for the introduction to "La Pensée Cyclique" the "umbrella topic for this series.
Youthful Emotion and Song
Ils faisaient
alors participer à leurs émotions puissantes toute la
nature environnante : lorsque, dans le Lieu Saint, la glace des rivières
fondait aux souffles du printemps, lorsque les eaux redevenaient
vives et que les fontaines longtemps taries jaillissaient, lorsque tombait
enfin la douce pluie fécondante et qu'apparaissait la rosée, quand les
leurs précoces poussaient dans les coins humides, au temps des
feuillages renouvelés, des pruniers, des pêchers fleuris, des hirondelles
revenues, pendant que les pies bâtissaient leurs nids et que les oiseaux
par paires se poursuivaient en chantant, garçons et filles, lorsque eux-
mêmes s'unissaient sur la terre sacrée, pensaient que leurs jeunes
unions coopéraient au renouveau.[2]
The pairing goes far beyond the singing birds. The rush
of energy in the melting rivers, the surge of new sprouts, and the soft fertile
rain: all of these are created by
social union, and in turn help to create that very same union. Spring, in
Granet’s interpretation of his early Chinese sources, is unity and regeneration.
Granet’s analysis reaches another little crescendo in the following passage, which richly describes the interaction of the youths and the natural world around them. Fertility is the new keyword in this description, and Granet seems to be stressing the fertility of individuals as they seek to perpetuate the species. It is, of course, much more than that, though. It is an almost Freudian display of natural energy—swallowed eggs, meteors flashing across the sky in their phallic brilliance, and plantains nestled into the fabric of their skirts.
All the hopes of their fertility mingled in their breasts: while the eggs they
swallowed, the meteors they caught sight of, the bunches of plantains
they gathered up in the laps of their skirts, the flowers they offered each
other as betrothal pledges seemed to embody the principles of
motherhood...[3]
Tous les espoirs de fécondité se mêlaient dans leurs âmes : tandis que
les œufs qu'ils avalaient, les météores aperçus, les touffes de plantain
qu'ils recueillaient au creux des jupes, les fleurs qu'ils s'offraient en
gage de fiançailles, leur semblaient contenir des principes de maternité...[4]
Their energy, in turn, was channeled into betrothal
pledges instead of raw sexuality. Motherhood was the guiding principle, yet it
compressed and encompassed teeming natural energy that gave power to the social
world even as it regenerated its environment.
Their own actions created universal germination. They “called forth” the rains and opened the soil to tillage. The principles of interaction and motherhood created a natural environment conducive to rich, fertile, social life and happy productivity.
Circling back to youth and the natural setting for the
reinvigoration of the social order, we see the connection of the holy place to
the emotions of boys and girls. Their unions served to revive and energize the
sleeping natural order as well, and it is important to see the parallel between
society and nature in all its subtlety. Note the manner in which Granet
describes the rebirth of nature. In a grand calendrical rhythm, it reaches its
prime and regenerates in the spring, under the gaze (and chants) of energetic
youth and their assembled families who, in turn, will be reenergized by the
cyclical patterns of engagement.
They made all of surrounding nature take part in their
powerful emotions;
boys and girls assembling on the holy earth imagined that
their youthful
unions cooperated in the revival of nature, when in the Holy
Place the
ice on the rivers melted under the breath of spring, when the waters
came
to life and the springs, long dried up, spurted forth, when finally the
soft
fertile rain fell and the dew appeared, when the precocious flowers came
up in damp corners, in the time of new foliage, of plum trees and
flowering
peach trees, of swallows returning, while the magpies built
their nests and
singing birds chased one another in pairs.[1]
nature environnante : lorsque, dans le Lieu Saint, la glace des rivières
fondait aux souffles du printemps, lorsque les eaux redevenaient
vives et que les fontaines longtemps taries jaillissaient, lorsque tombait
enfin la douce pluie fécondante et qu'apparaissait la rosée, quand les
leurs précoces poussaient dans les coins humides, au temps des
feuillages renouvelés, des pruniers, des pêchers fleuris, des hirondelles
revenues, pendant que les pies bâtissaient leurs nids et que les oiseaux
par paires se poursuivaient en chantant, garçons et filles, lorsque eux-
mêmes s'unissaient sur la terre sacrée, pensaient que leurs jeunes
unions coopéraient au renouveau.[2]
[b] Pairing RF |
Granet’s analysis reaches another little crescendo in the following passage, which richly describes the interaction of the youths and the natural world around them. Fertility is the new keyword in this description, and Granet seems to be stressing the fertility of individuals as they seek to perpetuate the species. It is, of course, much more than that, though. It is an almost Freudian display of natural energy—swallowed eggs, meteors flashing across the sky in their phallic brilliance, and plantains nestled into the fabric of their skirts.
All the hopes of their fertility mingled in their breasts: while the eggs they
swallowed, the meteors they caught sight of, the bunches of plantains
they gathered up in the laps of their skirts, the flowers they offered each
other as betrothal pledges seemed to embody the principles of
motherhood...[3]
Tous les espoirs de fécondité se mêlaient dans leurs âmes : tandis que
les œufs qu'ils avalaient, les météores aperçus, les touffes de plantain
qu'ils recueillaient au creux des jupes, les fleurs qu'ils s'offraient en
gage de fiançailles, leur semblaient contenir des principes de maternité...[4]
[c] Germination RF |
Their own actions created universal germination. They “called forth” the rains and opened the soil to tillage. The principles of interaction and motherhood created a natural environment conducive to rich, fertile, social life and happy productivity.
[T]hey believed further that their springtime nuptials were propitious
to universal germination, that they called forth the seasonable rain, and
that, finally, by desacralizing the earth, forbidden to human work during
the winter, they now opened the fields to fertilization.[5]
[I]ls croyaient encore que leurs noces printanières favorisaient la
germination universelle, qu'elles appelaient la pluie de saison et
qu'enfin, désacralisant la terre, interdite pendant l'hiver aux travaux
humains, elles ouvraient les champs aux œuvres fertiles. Témoin
consacré de ces besognes magnifiques, le Lieu Saint semblait contenir
une infinie puissance créatrice que les Fêtes sans cesse renouvelaient.[6]
[d] Newfound RF |
Spring in the Shijing is also a time for renewed (or newly-discovered) love, and sexuality lies at the core of the springtime festivals. Channeling that power in the holy place was the key to bringing society and nature to the point of fairly bursting. Newness lies at its very center, and gives it newfound strength. Food and exchange, as Granet makes clear, are hardly necessary as the central aspect of the festival. Sex, or at least the social preparedness for it, is. The mixing of youth lies at the very heart of festivals and springtime communion.
In these festivals of springtime and youth, sexual communion was the
central rite, and at all times the word for spring signified the idea of love.
When could love have had more efficacious strength than in its fresh
newness? The sexual rites of the spring festivals hardly needed to be
rounded off by a communion of food; they sufficed, after all, for
betrothals.[7]
Dans ces fêtes du renouveau et de la jeunesse, la communion
sexuelle était le rite principal et, de tous temps, le mot de printemps
signifia l'idée d'amour. Quand l'amour eût-il pu avoir plus de puissance
efficace que dans sa fraîche nouveauté ? Les rites sexuels des fêtes
printanières avaient à peine besoin de voir leurs effets complétés par
la communion alimentaire ; ils suffisaient, en somme, aux fiançailles.[8]
But what place does gift giving and exchange have? Those are the realms of adults, who will never again be permitted the unbridled display of youth. Adults, who are perhaps slower to emerge from their closed domestic orders, engage in social intercourse through exchange of gifts and sharing of bounty. It should not be forgotten that the principles are similar, and that the very same youths who chant their songs of sexual union will become adults who engage in the exchange of gifts.
[e] Air RF |
But when people entered upon domestic life, they were
chiefly
occupied with establishing an identity of substance in order to make
life in common possible. A great orgy of drink and food was the
essential
feature of the Autumn Festivals. Sexual practices were
then secondary; thus,
these were not the festivals of initiation and
inauguration; they were the
festivals of harvest and the return to
the hamlets.[9]
Mais au moment
de l'entrée en ménage, établir une identité
substantielle, qui rendra possible
la vie en commun, devient la
préoccupation principale. Une grande orgie de
boisson et de
nourriture fut l'essentiel des Fêtes d'automne. Les pratiques
sexuelles y étaient secondaires ; aussi bien ce n'était point là des
fêtes
d'initiation et d'inauguration : c'étaient les fêtes de la récolte
et de
la rentrée au hameau.[10]
The celebration of the harvest was thus a “goodbye” to
part of the community, pawns though they might have been in the larger practice
of exchange. It was also a welcoming, however cool, of another part that would
provide, in ideal circumstances, many new community members. Returning to their
hamlets, and the slightly more intimate connection between the sexes to be
found there during the winter months, signaled a return to the closed order. The
return was welcome in its own way, as Marcel Mauss has noted in his study of
seasonal morphology among the Eskimo. The openness of the festivals—the sharing,
the incantations, the boasts, and the challenges—gave way to a kind of
exhaustion that served as a prelude to the relaxation and relative calm of the
winter hamlet. The work to be done in integrating a new member or two and
realizing the loss of others, was enough for the lonely winter.
[f] Pawns RF |
Notes
[1] Marcel Granet, The Religion of the Chinese People [Translated by Maurice Freedman] (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 42.
[2] Marcel Granet, La religion des chinois (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1922), 15.
[3] Granet, Religion, 42.
[4] Granet, La religion, 15.
[5] Granet, Religion, 2-43.
[6] Granet, La religion, 15.
Bibliography
Granet, Marcel. The Religion of the Chinese People [Translated by Maurice Freedman]. New York:
Harper & Row, 1975.
Granet, Marcel. La religion des chinois. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1922.
Harper & Row, 1975.
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