Korean Confucianism - 9. Ancestral Rites and Family Moral Spirituality: A Living Tradition in Today’s Korea

_{Understanding Korea Series No.3}
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8. Modern Korean Women and Confucian Values: Change and Assimilation	9. Ancestral Rites and Family Moral Spirituality: A Living Tradition in Today’s Korea	10. Koreans and Confucianism in the West: Some International Reflections

This chapter presents Confucianism as a living tradition in South Korea by discussing its ancestral rites. This topic is not clearly studied in current scholarship on Confucianism. So we explore the ongoing Korean heritage of ancestral rites as well as its modern implication for what we may call “family moral spirituality”.

1. Confucian Teaching and Ritual Practice

Ancestral rites were central to family culture over many centuries in East Asia. The essence of today’s family rites in Korea is essentially Confucian according to its tradition of ritual propriety (ye/li). The Korean legacy of ancestral rites developed along with family moral-spiritual values especially filial piety and family love.

This core teaching is frequently mentioned in Chinese classics and Neo-Confucian commentaries on ritual practice. Ancient ritual texts provided Confucianism with the basic understanding of ancestral rites and a set of instructions on family rites. The ancestral rites tradition generally indicates that ancestors and their descendants depend on each other for family solidarity and continuity. According to the Classic of Filial Piety (Hyogyŏng/Xiaojing), a filial child should respect and serve his dead parents properly through ancestral rites. Confucius and Mencius taught that self-cultivation or the practice of filial piety would not be perfected without including ritual propriety. Their focus on learning and human virtue emphasized family rites and social ethics. So Confucius taught moral attitudes behind ancestral rites: self-cultivation takes filial piety as an essential virtue, which is said to be a very appropriate expression of moral and ritual propriety (ye/li). As he said, “When parents are alive, serve them according to ritual propriety. When they die, give them a proper funeral rite according to it, and remember them in memorial rites according to it” (Analects 2:5). This instruction indicates the “propriety” of filial piety with regard to the rites of passage including the funeral and ancestral rites. In other words, it means a cultivated life in harmony with proper ritual practice. As Ebrey pointed out (1991:14), the topic of family rituals is important in studying the religious and social aspects of the Confucian tradition.

The doctrine of filial piety and ancestral rites was articulated further – philosophically and socially – by leading Neo-Confucians in medieval and pre-modern times. Chinese and Korean scholar-teachers justified ancestral rites from a moral and spiritual standpoint; for example, Zhu Xi in China and Yi T’oegye in Korea interpreted ritual as a profound source of moral self-cultivation. Their contribution was indeed a major articulation on the moral and spiritual aspects of ritual thought. Yi Yulgok (1536‑83), another leading Korean Neo-Confucian, also discussed the idea of “ancestor-and-descendant encounter” through ancestral rites by emphasizing the virtue of filial piety and family respect. The moral principle of filial piety is therefore inseparable from the observance of ancestral rites. The family experience of ancestral rites shows a culturally diffused form of spirituality. This is partly why the Confucian way of self-cultivation takes “li (ritual) as a process of humanization,” as pointed by Tu Weiming (1989; 1985).

2. Korean Ancestral Rites

Funeral and memorial rites in South Korea basically reveal Confucian customs and manners, and other religions have come to terms with traditional family values. Indeed, the Confucian spirit of ancestral rites became a symbol of filial piety and family love and reputation. Most Koreans who participate in their ancestral rites are familiar with this teaching; in fact, the modern meaning of ye propriety is actually taught in public education curriculum (in courses such as Korean morality and society). Commenting on Korean Confucianism, Ro (1985:12) correctly stated that: “Both the moral dimension and the ritual dimension of filial piety are intrinsically related to each other....well expressed in the Confucian idea of li (propriety and ritual).”

The contemporary Korean practice of ancestral rites is not idol worship, but rather reveals the basic Confucian teaching: to return filial gratitude to ancestors. It is an act of honoring and appreciating the affection and care one has received from parents. In other words, there seems to be a common tendency among some Western scholars to over-generalize the Korean ancestral rites incorrectly as a form of “worship” or “ancestor worship” in connection to shamanism or folk religion in modern Korea.^[1] It is also relevant to discuss the broader implication of ancestral rites not only for a better understanding of the spiritual nature of Confucianism,^[2] but also to consider the distinctive nature of Korea’s social and religious life.

Traditionally, several types of ancestral rites were commonly held in Korea, as mentioned in the Confucian handbooks.^[3] Three of them are still commonly held in South Korea as follows: 1) special holiday rites (ch’arye); 2) death memorial rites at home (kijesa or chesa), which is traditionally done at midnight on the anniversary of the ancestor’s death; and 3) memorial rites at the grave sites (now more commonly known as sŏngmyo). The kijesa death anniversary rite is done for four generations up. The ch’arye ancestral rites on national holidays are normally held in the early morning together with special seasonal food offerings. These seasonal rites became more popular than others on the national level since they are also blended with holiday celebration on the traditional Korean (lunar) New Year’s Day (some families do this on the regular January 1) and the Ch’usŏk (or Han’gawi), the full-moon day of lunar August during the fall harvest. Many Koreans – regardless educational, generational, gender, or social differences – observe the ch’arye ancestral rites on these national holidays, as reported in a recent national survey.^[4]

3. Ritual Preparation and Procedure

A set of instructions is given in several Confucian ritual manuals; they are also explained in the modern Korean editions.^[5] There is a common set of guidelines for the ritual procedure, including the preparation of a ritual table; e.g., the proper way of arranging special dishes of food offering (including meat, fish, vegetables, and fruits), as illustrated in photos 5a-b and 9a-b. In general, average Koreans among the older generations (including my own father and father-in-law) – especially the first sons and their wives – are more or less familiar with these ritual customs and etiquette. These ritual manuals explain the complete procedure for each rite in detail; some diagrammatic illustrations are also provided, in addition to explaining the moral meaning and spiritual significance of each step.^[6]

photo 5a Chesasang 1 (ancetral ritual table of offeirngs) on the Korean NYD ⓒKorea Tourism Organization

It is worth mentioning a few important points here. For example, the finale of an ancestral ritual is the family sharing of food, but it seems more than an ordinary meal; i.e., a kind of “ritualized food” which is said to be good for family happiness and prosperity. Furthermore, one of the ceremonial steps at the beginning is to give two full prostrations to the ancestor being honored. This is a natural extension of the popular Korean custom of expressing filial piety and family love by giving a full prostration (sebae or chŏl in Korean) to grandparents, parents, or elders who are being thanked and honored on the Korean New Year’s Day or another special family occasion; see photos 6a-b for this tradition.^[7]

photo 5b Chesasang 2 (ancestral ritual table of offerings) on the Korean (lunar) NYD ⓒKorea Tourism Organization
photo 6a Sebae prostration: Korean NYD greetings by a couple to their parents on ⓒKorea Tourism Organization

A formal ritual reading (ch’ungmun) is also done with the family attitudes of filial piety, gratitude, and propriety. This is the Confucian style of giving tribute to the ancestors, one that includes: each ancestor’s identity and family relationship; his professional title and pubic service; and the identity and name of the ritual master as a “filial son.” At the end, the ritual master (father) says that he and his family wish to remember the ancestor’s love, care, and merit. See photos 7a-b for a ritual master chanting a ch’ungmun reading.^[8]

Nowadays, a growing number of urban families observe the ch’arye ancestral rites at home without making a long, highway traffic-jammed holiday trip to their hometown, the place of ancestral origin. Others also enjoy the national ancestral rites on special holidays by visiting their ancestor’s grave sites (sŏngmyo) on the Ch’usŏk and the Korean New Year’s Day. For example, during the 2006 Ch’usŏk holiday (first weekend of October), Mr. Ban Ki-moon, current General Secretary of the United Nations, made a visit to his hometown in Korea. The Korean media reported him as a filial man carrying out an ancestral rite; note that Mr. Ban was wearing a typical Confucian gown at a local family shrine representing his ancestral lineage. He also did a formal rite at his parents’ and ancestors’ grave sites; see photos 8a-b. This is a common national tradition in South Korea. Other illustrations also show the modernized ancestral rite performed at various locations during the Ch’usŏk holiday in Korea; see photos 9a-b for the ancestral rite done by a team of famous Korean World Cup soccer players with a well-prepared ritual table of offerings at their training camp. These kinds of examples indicate the social, ethical, and religious norms of holiday ancestral rites, most of which are associated with Korean Confucian culture.

photo 7a Tosan Academy’s chesa ancestral rite for Yi T’oegye: ch’ungmun ritual initiation reading and group prostration ⓒTosan Academy
photo 7b Tosan Academy’s ancestral rite for Yi T’oegye ⓒTosan Academy

Korean people continue to make more adjustment as the urbanites need to simplify some aspects of the ancestral rites because they are criticized for being too formal or costly. For example, instead of the traditional wooden table, the white paper ancestral tablet has been popular together with a portrait of the ancestor if available; the portrait is usually put on the far back side of a ritual table, as illustrated in photo 10. In some cases, only the portrait is used by those families who are unable to prepare the paper tablet.

Another change is that many Christian families invite a priest to conduct a simpler memorial service instead of a formal ancestral rite. Among most Korean Protestants, for example, Christian prayer has replaced the Confucian rite. All Korean Protestant churches in South Korea discourage or even prohibit the observance of ancestral rites^[9]; as a result, the Protestant style of memorial prayer and hymn-singing (ch’umoje or ch’udosik) is more popular. This also applies to overseas Korean Protestant families in North America (see Chapter 10 for details). For those Korean Catholics who want to continue their family ancestral rites, the Korean Catholic church basically allows some aspects of the Confucian tradition, such as the use of a paper ancestral tablet; prostration and incense-burning; food offerings; the expression of respect; and family’s sharing of ritual meals. A number of Korean Catholics maintain the modified version of their ancestral rites by practicing several key Christian components especially prayer, priestly sermon, scripture readings,^[10] and hymns singing. These families usually see no serious moral or cultural conflict between Christian faith and Confucian family values.^[11] As I said before, this is partly because Koreans, like other East Asians, usually do not acknowledge the specifically religious identity of Confucianism. So the two traditions of values could be mutually assimilated.

Overall, we need to understand the nature of Korean ancestral rites in connection to Confucian ritual and propriety (ye). Its national symbols have developed along the key moral teaching of filial piety and family solidarity.

4. Conclusion

Korea has preserved and refined the Confucian tradition of ritual practice faithfully and more originally and eloquently than China or Japan did in modern times. The Korean tradition of ancestral rituals has retained some of its distinctive and elegant aspects through several centuries. Its formal features also eventually filtered down into the most common ritual-social tradition there on a national level.^[12] In recent years, various aspects of change and adjustment have also developed in accordance with new economic and social factors in South Korea.

The practice of ancestral rites in South Korea is a modern Confucian model of ritual propriety. Despite the growing influence of Western ideas and values, the public recognition of this national tradition is still important. Its basic logic also seems to be socially driven: a family that neglects its ritual duties for dead parents or ancestors, whether in a traditional or another style, could be viewed as “unfilial.” Similarly, a society that ignores or rejects its ceremonial propriety will not be a harmonious or orderly one. The Korean tradition certainly embodies a moral-spiritual source of family culture. It is at the heart of family spirituality that represents Confucianism as a living tradition in South Korea. From a comparative perspective, this also concurs with Julia Ching’s interpretation of Confucianism as a “lay spirituality.” (2000; 1993). Its broader meaning is arguably compatible with the basic moral teachings of other religions.

Furthermore, it is also becoming more important to discuss what we may call “international Confucianism” regarding overseas Koreans and their cultural values. For example, Koreans in the West assimilate Korean identity and Confucian values socially and culturally. The following chapter discusses this topic.

Footnote

↑ Various works on “ancestor worship,” shamanism, and rituals in Korean society include: Kendall 1985, Janelli and Janelli 1982, Kendall and Dix 1987, Dredge 1987, Bruno 2006, Walraven 2006, etc., most of which variously discussed Korean patterns of ancestor worship and shamanism. See also J. Y. Lee 1985. However, I note that the Korean tradition of Confucian ancestral rites should not be over-simplified or generalized in terms of the popular label “ancestor worship” in connection to shamanism or rural folk religion. In the current literature on Korean ritual and society, these two popular notions are applied to Confucian ancestral rites unfairly or even incorrectly.
↑ The current literature on the study of Chinese Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism as religion and spirituality includes Ching 2000, 1989, 1977; Tu Wei-ming 1989, 1985; Taylor 1991; Berthrong 1994; Neville 2000; and others. For the Korean case of it, see Kalton 1988; Ro 1989; Chung 2011b, 2010a-b, 2004, 1995a, 1994b; etc.
↑ Such as the Manual of the Four Rites (Sarye pyŏllam), a mid-eighteenth century Korean edition of Zhu Xi’s Chinese work, Family Rites (Jiali). In South Korea, educated older generations (including my own father and my father-in-law) can outline their ancestral rites with fair consistency along the standard customs; some of them are also familiar with basic family rituals and moral-cultural values that are outlined in a public handbook entitled, Standardized Guidelines on Family Etiquettes and Rituals (Kajŏng ŭirye chunchi’k), an important part of the nation’s civil legal code.
↑ A recent national survey on the public view of ancestral rites has reported that about 79% of families in South Korea observe the kijesa anniversary rites, and 78% the ch’arye seasonal holiday rites on the Ch’usŏk and the traditional New Year’s Day. Cited in JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, Sept. 16, 2005.
↑ Such as the Concise Handbook for Confucians (Yurim p’yŏllam), pp. 139-141, and the new Korean edition, Our Rites and Manners for Everyday Living (Uri-ŭi saenghwal yejŏl). pp. 324-340. The former is published by the Headquarters of Korean Yudoh’oe (Society for the Confucian Way; 1983, 1991), and the latter, by the Sŏnggyun’gwan (1997).
↑ I translated, annotated, shortened, and discussed all steps of this formal procedure in my 2006 conference paper.
↑ Indeed, it is a formal, polite etiquette of expressing filial piety to parents on traditional holidays, or giving a special gratitude or greetings to old teacher-mentors. Note that it does not imply anything like “idolatry” or “superstition”; I say so because there has been some misunderstanding especially among evangelical and conservative Christians, Koreans or non-Koreans, who either do not tolerate this part of Korean culture or simply ignore its moral nature.
↑ For a formal memorial rite at the famous Tosan Confucian Academy, the ritual master chants a ch’ungmun reading in order to honor Yi T’oegye, the Academy’s founder as well as the most renowned scholar of Korean Confucianism. This is done with local descendants of his family. It is interesting to note that traditional scholarly uniforms and hats are also used.
↑ The issue of ancestral rites has been addressed negatively especially by the conservative and evangelical groups of Korean Protestant churches in terms of “superstitious tradition” and “idol worship.”
↑ For example, the key passages on family and Christian love are read from Paul’s letters to the Corinthians and to Romans, New Testament.
↑ Therefore, it is not surprising that the Catholic church in South Korea is assimilating ancestral rites and family morality. Since the 1980s, various ideas of indigenization have been studied in South Korea. Several methodological paradigms also include cultural assimilation and Koreanization. In 1989 the Korean Catholic church established a Special Committee for the Study of Traditional Funeral and Ancestral Rites, In early 1993, the Special Committee compiled a lengthy and carefully-written document: “Ceremonial Guidelines for Funeral and Ancestral Rites: A Recommendation” (Sangjerye yesiksŏ sian).
↑ In this regard, Palmer (1985: 95) correctly pointed out earlier that Confucian ancestral rites are “a continuing feature of Korean social-religious life, maintaining values” through ritual forms and symbols.