In Analects 3.1 we read:
Speaking of the Chi family patriarch, Confucius said: "Eight rows of dancers at this ancestral temple, as if he were an Emperor: if this can be endured, what can't be?"
The Sage is bemoaning the violation of Ritual by the Chi family patriarch, who should by tradition restrict his celebrations to four rows of dancers, eight being reserved for the ruler. We could also read this as a critique of extravagance and over-indulgence: the Chi family using its wealth to put on airs and claim a greater social status than is appropriate. Indeed, we find a similar criticism of the ostentatious patriarch in Analects 3.6:
The Chi family patriarch went to perform the imperial sacrifice on T'ai Mountain. The master said to Jan Ch'iu: "That is for Emperors alone to perform. Can't you save us from this?"
"No I cannot," replied Jan Ch'iu.
"Ohh," groaned the Master. "And how could the god of T'ai Mountain know even less than Lin Fang about such things?"
That last line, with reference to the gods of T'ai Mountain and Lin Fang (who we can take as a person with a rudimentary understanding of how Ritual should work) is essentially saying that the Chi family patriarch is not really fooling anyone. The gods of T'ai Mountain (to whom the ritual is being performed) certainly know that this particular ceremony should be undertaken only by the Emperor. The crass pretensions of the Chi patriarch are rather like conspicuous consumption; maybe we could say conspicuous performance....
But how much louder would the Master's groans be if he could see the contemporary nouveux riches, faux-emperors, the coal bosses of Shanxi, go to garish and vulgar excess in their wedding ceremonies. I say this based upon the photographs below, which an internet acquaintance emailed to me. These depict a wedding of a daughter of a coal boss in Datong, Shanxi. Note the expensive cars, the jewel encrusted manicure. Apparently, the fleet of luxury cars is de rigeur for the modern Chi family patriarchs in Datong, as the other photos demonstrate.
As Confucius says: "...if this can be endured, what can't be?"
A couple other pics after the jump:
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