Spirit and Form
Li requires both proper form and proper spirit.
Ritual without sincerity is meaningless. The proper forms must be animated by genuine feeling. Li with ren is living ritual; li without ren is empty formalism.
In ritual, it is better to be simple than extravagant.
Sincerity matters more than elaborate performance.
Analects
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- What Confucianism says about reverence and ritual
Form and feeling are supposed to arrive together. Given a choice, the text prefers a plain rite done sincerely to an extravagant one.