The alternative is an ethics of ritual propriety, which rectifies our actions back to the root of ritual—generating harmony within the self, the community, epistemology, and the cosmos.

Confucian ritual propriety represents “a superior understanding of human goodness, and represents constitutive norms through which a person achieves an integral self and a unified life and a harmonious communal life as well” (Tang 2016, p. 137). Ritual in the Xunzi is of central significance to the Xunzian philosophy, which has therefore attracted considerable attention among academia (Graham 1989; Cook 1997; Goldin 1999; Puett 2002; Sato 2003; Hagen 2003; Cheng 2008; Perkins 2014; Kline and Tiwald 2014; Hutton 2014). Sato Masayuki maintains that “Xunzi’s synthesis of the pre-Qin thought is attained by his concept of Li (ritual), which is also the foundation of his argumentation” (Sato 2003, p. 424). Antonio S. Cua has categorized the li (ritual) in the Xunzi into three dimensions: the moral dimension, the aesthetic dimension, and the religious dimension (Cua 2005, pp. 39–62). But the central connotation of ritual in the Xunzi is more than those three dimensions. In particular, the Xunzi reveres ritual itself by constantly exalting ritual (longli 隆禮). As Mark Berkson has pointed out, “Whereas every religious tradition has rituals in which participants express reverence for that which is sacred, Confucianism (especially in its Xunzian form) is arguably more than most other traditions, at the same time reflects on and reveres ritual itself” (Berkson 2016, p. 233). The fundamental reason behind it lies in the fact that Xunzi deems rituals as the markers of the Dao (Way). To quote two edifying excerpts: “Those who order the people mark out the Way, but if the markers are not clear, there will be chaos. The rituals are those markers. To reject ritual is to bemuddle the world, and to bemuddle the world is to create great chaos. And so, when the Way is in no part unclear, and that which is within the bounds and that which is outside the bounds have different markers, and that which is inglorious and that which is illustrious have constant measures, then the pitfalls of the people will be eliminated [治民者表道，表不明則亂。禮者，表也。非禮，昬世也。昬世，大亂 也。故道無不明，外内異表，隱顯有常，民陷乃去。]”. (‘Tianlun’; Hutton 2014, p. 181) “Those who order the people mark out what is chaotic, to make it so that people will not err. The rituals are their markers. The former kings used rituals to mark out what would make the whole world chaotic. Now if one discards the rituals, this is getting rid of the markers. And so, the people become lost and confused and fall into disasters and troubles. This is why punishments and penalties become profuse [治民者表亂，使人無失。禮者，其表也，先王以禮表天下之亂。今 廢禮者，是去表也。故民迷惑而陷禍患，此刑罰之所以繁也。]”. (‘Dalue’; Hutton 2014, p. 291) As expatiated in the above excerpts, the Way has to be clearly marked out by the rulers in order to avoid great chaos and maintain social order. Otherwise, society will be chaotic, and people will err. Former kings appropriately utilized rituals to mark out what made the world chaotic, and thus disorder was dispelled. Notably, discarding the rituals is tantamount to abandoning the markers of the Way, and thus is exactly why the people fall into disasters and penalties become pervasive now. In other words, it is only when the Way is marked out clearly by rituals that the calamities of the people can be relinquished, and social order can be achieved. However, not all rulers can clearly mark out the Way, except the sages. As P.R. Goldin vividly comments, “The rituals, it turns out, are the equivalent of helpful signposts. Just as those who ford rivers mark treacherous spots, the sages marked the Way by means of rituals, so that people would no longer stumble” (Goldin 2018). In the search of the Dao, Xunzi has attached much importance to ritual as it is the marker of the Dao. Ritualization is the path to reach the Dao. As A.C. Graham puts it, “although Xunzi puts the main stress on the ordering and refining of the passions, he does see ritual as rooting man not only in family and state but also in cosmos” (Graham 1989, p. 259). One excerpt pertaining to this aspect stands out: “By ritual, Heaven and Earth harmoniously combine; By ritual, the sun and the moon radiantly shine; By ritual, the four seasons in progression arise; By ritual, the stars move orderly across the skies; By ritual, the great rivers through their courses flow; By ritual, the myriad things all thrive and grow; By ritual, for love and hate proper measure is made; By ritual, on joy and anger fit limits are laid. By ritual, compliant subordinates are created. By ritual, enlightened leaders are gen- erated; With ritual, all things can change yet not bring chaos. But deviate from ritual and you face only loss. Is not ritual perfect indeed! It establishes a lofty stan- dard that is ultimate of its kind, and none under Heaven can add to or subtract from it [天地以合，日月以明，四時以序，星辰以行，江河以流，萬物以昌，好惡 以節，喜怒以當，以爲下則順，以爲上則明，萬物變而不亂，貳之則喪也。禮豈不 至矣哉！立隆以為極，而天下莫之能損益也。]”. (‘Lilun’; Hutton 2014, pp. 204–5) Here, in order to give prominence to ritual, Xunzi employs parallelism of lines for rhetorical effect. Through ritual, the Way of Heaven, the Way of Earth, and the Way of human beings are all achieved, which constitutes a cosmic dance wherein Heaven, Earth, and human beings are aligned with the Way and run in proper fashion. To use Machle’s words, “Thus, the inherited li are, as it were, the echoes of the cosmic music, transcribed by the sages to be the choreography of humans’ part in the cosmic dance” (Machle 1993, p. 182). Since rituals are the markers of the Dao instituted by the sages, by following all the necessary markers, the ultimate Dao can be achieved. In other words, ritualization is the ultimate path to reach the Way (Dao). “The ritual of the sage, in its ideal form, is a canon of behavioral practices through which harmony may be achieved” (Cook 1997, p. 36). By the same token, because ritual itself is the ultimate lofty standard of its kind, any addition to it or subtraction from it is impossible to bring about, which is exactly why the Xunzi keeps exalting ritual across the whole chapters. As Tang Siufu succinctly puts it, “Ritual propriety represents a normative framework telling us what sort of human actions make the best of our native conditions” (Tang 2016, p. 136). Another case in point in the “Discourse on Ritual” chapter is the line “Ritual is the ultimate of the human Dao [禮者，人道之極也]”. Here, the Xunzi holds that ritual represents the ultimate standard of the human Way, marking explicit signposts normatively and prescriptively signaling the Dao of humanity because ritual itself encompasses all it takes to form the human Dao. As Sato Masayuki observes, “Consequently, it was Li (ritual) which was considered the invisible power which could attain order in human society. In this way, the role of Li in human society is comparable to the role of the Way (Dao) in the natural world and in a human body” (Sato 2003, p. 425). In the Xici zhuan, although ritual is not exalted manifestly across chapters as it is in the Xunzi, the underlying principle embodying ritual as the marker of the Dao is unveiled implicitly: “The holy sages were able to survey all the confused diversities under Heaven. They observed forms and phenomena, and made representations of things and their attributes. These were called the Images (xiang 象). The holy sages were able to survey all the movements under Heaven. They contemplated the Way in which these movements met and became interrelated. In performing a proper ritual, they appended judgments (ci 辭), to distinguish between the good fortune and misfortune indicated. These were called the Lines (yao爻) [聖人有以見天下之 賾，而擬諸其形容，象其物宜，是故謂之象。聖人有以見天下之動，而觀其會通， 以行其典禮，系辭焉以斷其吉凶，是故謂之爻。]”. (‘Xici’ I: 6; Wilhelm [1967] 1977, pp. 596–97, with modifications) “Thus the Book of Changes consists of images. The images are reproductions. The decisions provide the material. The lines are imitations of movements on earth. Thus do good fortune and misfortune arise, and remorse and humiliation appear [是故《易》者，象也；象也者，像也。彖者，材也；爻也者，效天下之動者也。是故 吉凶生而悔吝著也。]”. (‘Xici’ II: 3; Wilhelm [1967] 1977, pp. 640–41, with modifications) “The number of the total is fifty. Of these, forty-nine are used. They are divided into two portions, to represent the two primal forces. Hereupon one is set apart, to represent the three powers. They are counted through by fours, to represent the four seasons. The remainder is put aside, to represent the intercalary month. There are two intercalary months in five years, therefore the putting aside is re- peated, and this gives us the whole. There are five heavenly numbers. There are also five earthly numbers. When they are distributed among the five places, each finds its complement. The sum of the heavenly numbers is twenty-five, that of the earthly numbers is thirty. The sum total of heavenly numbers and earthly numbers is fifty-five. It is this which completes the changes and transformations and sets demons and gods in movement [大衍之數五十，其用四十有九。分而為二 以象兩，掛一以象三， 揲之以四以象四時，歸奇於扐以象閏，五歲再閏，故再扐 而後掛。天數五，地數五，五位相得而各有合。天數二十有五，地數三十。凡天地之數五十有五，此所以成變化而行鬼神也。]”. (‘Xici’ I: 8; Wilhelm [1967] 1977, pp. 604–5) As for the Xici zhuan, it was “written in support of the art of divination” (Puett 2002, p. 189), but divination can be seen as “a ritual that the sage must experience for its ritualistic importance” (Cheng 2020, p. 103), because “the very practice of divination associated with the Changes has its own philosophical and metaphysical significance and need not be explained on the basis of superstition or mysticism, as is commonly assumed” (Cheng 2020, p. 273). As Hon Tze-ki summarizes, “instead of seeing divination and philosophy as categorically exclusive, we see them as a continuum. It is from divination that we develop an acute sensitivity to the combined effects of temporal and spatial factors that determine our judgment” (Hon 2023). In aligning the ritual of divination with philosophical implications in the Changes, the dispute about whether the Changes is a book of divination or a book of wisdom is at least alleviated, or even resolved. In this sense, the divination-based ritual in the Xici zhuan can equally be regarded as the marker of the Dao.