V. Pattern and Feeling: The Inner and Outer of "Li"

5.1 The Three Stages of "Li": From Sincere Simplicity, Through Ornamentation, to Delight

In every case of li, it begins in simplicity, comes to completion in pattern, and ends in delight and fulfillment. Thus at its most complete, feeling and pattern are both fully realized; next, feeling and pattern alternate in prevailing; at the lowest, one returns to bare feeling in order to rejoin the Great Unity.

— Xunzi, "Discourse on Ritual Propriety," Passage 16

This passage describes three stages through which li passes, from beginning to completion:

1. "Begins in simplicity" (shi hu zhuo): li begins in sincerity and simplicity. Here, zhuo refers to a state of plainness and sincerity. The starting point of li is genuine inner feeling — awe before Heaven and Earth, longing for one's forebears, care for others. Without this foundation of genuine feeling, li has no soul.
2. "Comes to completion in pattern" (cheng hu wen): mature li takes on ornamented form. Bare feeling requires a proper form through which to be expressed. If a person harbors deep love for their parents but does not know how to express it — knowing neither what to say on a given occasion nor what to do — then that love cannot be fully realized. Wen (pattern, form) is the means by which inner feeling is given outward expression.
3. "Ends in delight and fulfillment" (zhong hu yue jiao): li culminates in delight and free accomplishment. When genuine feeling is fully expressed through proper form, participants experience a deep sense of delight and fulfillment. This delight is not sensory pleasure, but the harmony that arises when everything is exactly as it should be.

5.2 Three Levels of Attainment: "Feeling and Pattern Both Fully Realized" as the Highest

Master Xun goes on to distinguish three levels of attainment:

• The most complete (zhi bei): feeling and pattern both fully realized (qing wen ju jin) — feeling and form are both brought to their fullest expression. Inner sincerity and outward ceremony are fused into a perfect, indivisible whole. This is the highest level of li.
• The next level: feeling and pattern alternately prevailing (qing wen dai sheng) — feeling and form take turns holding the upper hand. Sometimes the force of feeling overwhelms the form; sometimes the discipline of form exceeds the feeling. Though not perfect, a dynamic balance is still maintained between the two.
• The lowest (though still acceptable): returning to bare feeling in order to rejoin the Great Unity (fu qing yi gui da yi) — returning to the most basic genuine feeling, thereby uniting with the "Great Unity" (the most fundamental principle). Even if the outward form is imperfect, so long as genuine feeling remains as its foundation, the basic requirement of li can still be met.

This three-tiered structure reveals a central tension within li: the relationship between inner genuine feeling (qing) and outer form (wen).

5.3 A Response to the Criticisms of Laozi and Zhuangzi

Let us now recall Laozi's famous criticism of li:

"The highest li acts, and meets with no response, and so it rolls up its sleeves and drags people to it by force." (Daodejing, Ch. 38)

Laozi describes a scene in which the one who practices li performs every correct form, yet receives no response. Growing angry, he rolls up his sleeves and begins forcing others to comply. Laozi holds that this coercive form of li is precisely the root of the problem.

If we analyze what Laozi criticizes using Master Xun's own framework, we find that what Laozi criticizes is precisely the state of having "pattern" without "feeling" — outward form alone, with no inner genuine feeling. Within Master Xun's three-tiered structure, this state is worse even than "the lowest" level (which at least retains genuine feeling); it is, rather, a wholly corrupted condition.

In other words: Master Xun and Laozi are in fact in complete agreement that li must have genuine feeling as its foundation. Their disagreement lies not in whether li requires genuine feeling, but in the following:

• Laozi holds that once genuine feeling is codified into fixed outward forms (li), the loss of genuine feeling becomes unavoidable, and it inevitably degenerates into hollow ceremony and coercive regulation. Therefore, rather than establishing li, it is better to return to nature.
• Master Xun, by contrast, holds that although "feeling" (qing) is fundamental, it requires "pattern" (wen) to guide and express it. Feeling without pattern is blind and cannot be realized. The point is not to abolish pattern, but to ensure that pattern is always grounded in feeling — that is, to attain the highest level of "feeling and pattern both fully realized."

Let us illustrate this with a modern analogy: the performance of music requires a score (wen) as well as the performer's emotional investment (qing). If there is only the score without feeling, the performance is mechanical and lifeless. If there is only feeling without the score, the performance is chaotic and lacks structure. The best performance is one that precisely follows the score while investing deep, personal feeling — this is "feeling and pattern both fully realized."

Confucius, too, once expressed a similar view:

"When substance overwhelms pattern, the result is crudeness; when pattern overwhelms substance, the result is superficial cleverness. Only when pattern and substance are perfectly balanced does one have a noble person (junzi)." (Analects 6.18)

When "substance" (zhi — plainness, genuineness) overwhelms "pattern" (wen — refinement, form), the result seems crude. When "pattern" overwhelms "substance," the result seems superficial. Only when "pattern" and "substance" are matched in perfect balance is one a junzi, a noble person.

Here, Confucius's ideal of "pattern and substance in balance" expresses the very same ideal as Master Xun's "feeling and pattern both fully realized."