Gilles BOILEAU, Tamkang University

28 March 2014 (joint seminar EFEO-CEFC)

This communication will present passages of the different versions of the Daodejing according to their ritual content. It begins by asserting that the term li 禮, usually translated as “ritual”, encompasses two different domains: the Ru 儒 conception of a ritually ordained society and the detailed execution of ceremonies. The Daodejing rejects the first aspect but draws from ritual details in order to construct a serie of philosophical interpretations. Two examples in particular show the soundness of the ritual knowledge of the redactors of the text and its versions: the first one linked to military and funeral ritual, the second one with gift-giving ritual. This study analyzes those interpretations through three themes: simplicity and the question of origins; generosity of the Sage and royal magnanimity; the Sage and the king, body, self-sacrifice and the dialectic between the masculine and the feminine.