The Body in Traditional Chinese Choreography as an Embodiment of the Confucian and Daoist Social Ideal

A socio-philosophical analysis of bodily practices in traditional Chinese culture is proposed, aimed at identifying the mechanisms through which the social ideal is embodied and reproduced by means of regulated forms of movement. The methodological foundation of the study is based on the understanding of the body as a socially significant medium through which normative structures, hierarchical distinctions, and representations of power are consolidated at the level of ritual and everyday practice. The theoretical framework of the research is correlated with approaches in social philosophy that conceptualize corporeality as a space of interaction between norm, discipline, and socialization. The analysis draws on classical Confucian and Daoist texts, as well as on studies devoted to the history of ritual music and dance, which makes it possible to consider bodily practices within the context of stable forms of social organization and symbolic reproduction of order. It is demonstrated that within the Confucian tradition bodily practices function as an instrument of social normativity, ensuring the maintenance of the hierarchical structure of society through discipline, synchrony, and the repetitiveness of movement. Regulated choreography in this case acts as a mechanism of bodily socialization through which social distinctions and forms of subordination are internalized at a pre-rational level. In contrast, a different logic of corporeality associated with the Daoist philosophical heritage is revealed, in which movement is conceived as a self-regulating process that minimizes external normative pressure and allows for variability of bodily experience. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the interpretation of traditional choreographic practice not as an exclusively aesthetic or ritual phenomenon, but as a form of social philosophy in action, in which corporeality becomes a space of intersection between normative and alternative models of sociality. It is concluded that the interaction of Confucian and Daoist paradigms forms a complex structure of the social body, combining discipline, hierarchical organization, and plasticity.

EDN ZWOZRU