Abstract:

Both ritual and law symbols are abstracted forms and regulations from phenomena of complex social life, specifying people’s acts of representation. The hierarchicaldivision of rites controls the stratification of society and ritual stability maintains the stability of social order. Law is rooted in the rites, but Legalists emphasized shi (power) by employing shu(means), mainly due to their goal of rebuilding symbolic dominance for the ruling classes. Legalists’ practical inclination met the needs of unification, but veered into extreme utilitarianism without the value of restraint. In this sense, the mutual complementarity of rites and law was an affirmation of the restraint value of the selfdisciplined Confucian morality. The essence of external Confucianism and internal legalism indicates that “the value of drive and the value of restraint share the same source”, while unitary “rites” as metalanguage constitute an impediment to social development in the course of historical evolution due to the lack of necessary symbol drive.

Key words: rites, law, semiotics, metalanguage