Archery Rites: Remaking Confucian Rites

Abstract

Ritual archery has a long and vital history in Chinese civilization. This chapter examines the current reenactment and digital reconstruction of the specific tradition of the Archery Rites embedded in the Confucian tradition, ritual practice and cosmology of li, which suffered major decline in the twentieth century with modern China’s political upheaval and social shifts. In recent decades, scholars and practitioners in China have sought to revive the lost art of the Archery Rites. The most significant endeavor to date is the “Re-Making of Confucian Rites (RCR),” a major reenactment project based on the renewed philological study of the Book of Etiquette and Rites (Yili), which describes rituals recorded by disciples of Confucius in fifth century BCE. The RCR project is forging the fundamental means to reconstruct and build new archives for the embodied knowledge systems of Confucian rites, through the coupling of reenactment with advanced digital documentation forms, in conjunction with novel interactive and immersive media art experiences for their affective transmission. The approaches arising from this work are building a foundation for the renewed scholarship and societal practice of the Archery Rites, as well as a cohesive framework to address the challenges facing the wider revival of intangible cultural heritage in China today.