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A. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Society of Jesus, active in missions in China, had an argument with various Popes in Rome. The Popes, or most of them anyway, maintained that the Chinese practice of ancestor worship was idolatry, and must be forbidden to Chinese Catholics. The Jesuits, on the other hand, claimed that the practice was merely memorialism or veneration, something that was not only permitted, but that was directly in keeping with the Biblical injunction to "Honor thy Father and thy Mother." The Jesuits lost. Who was correct about Chinese doctrine?
B. Maurice Freedman, in the article on "Ancestor Worship: Two Facets of the Chinese Case," maintains that ancestral tablet worship represents the veneration of ancestors, while grave worship and geomancy represent their manipulation. Li Yih-yuan, in his article on "Chinese Geomancy and Ancestor Worship," maintains almost the opposite. Paying close attention to the two authors' evidence and arguments, decide who is probably right.
C. James Watson's article, "Rites or Beliefs," maintains that it was common practice, particularly in funeral rituals, that lay behind the unity of the Han Chinese in the late empire. What evidence does Watson have that it is really ritual, rather than belief, that accounts for Chinese cultural unity? Can you make the opposite argument, that belief precedes ritual in this case, or the compromise one, that they are inseparable from one another? If so, do so, if not, explain why it is impossible.
D. Many societies blame misfortunes on witches or sorcerers, human agents who willfully or unintentionally cause harm to others. Chinese, however, usually blame misfortunes on ghosts or on disharmonious conjunctions. What are the consequences of placing blame in this manner? Can such consequences be used to explain the placing of blame? Why or why not?
E. A simple yin-yang dualistic analysis would associate men with gods and women with ghosts in Chinese folk religion: men are yang, as are gods; women are yin, as are ghosts. Furthermore, women, because of ritual pollution, are sometimes prevented from contact with gods, while men rarely share such a handicap. But observations of actual behavior show two puzzling things: most worshippers in temples are women, and most sightings of ghosts are by men. How do you explain these anomalies?