Transformative Tears: Genesis’s Joseph and Mengzi’s Shun

By comparing two significant characters in a Biblical and a Confucian story, respectively, this article examines how the two traditions referred to share a common understanding of what “reconciliation” is meant to be. I compare Joseph in Genesis and Shun in the Mencius, focusing on how their crying contributes to familial reconciliation. The comparison raises anthropological commonalities between these narratives concerning structures of violence and the process of personal transformation leading to interpersonal reconciliation. There is particular emphasis on the significance of emotions: the way in which tearful emotions are expressed and perceived functions either as cause (Shun) or effect (Joseph) of the aggressor’s transformation, thus triggering the reconciliatory process. Following the suggested interpretation of these narratives as historic encounters between cultures of different provenance, the commonalities found in both approaches to reconciliation can potentially serve as a source of inspiration for present-day relations between religions and civilizations.