Li Liyun, the jade cloud is great! Happy clouds, happy clouds, bells and drums! (Yang Huo)
What Confucius means is that rites and music are not only a form and rhythm, but also a more essential connotation. So, what is this more essential connotation? A record of Yang Huo in The Analects of Confucius provides us with valuable enlightenment:
The butcher asked me, "Three years of mourning is a long time. If a gentleman is not polite for three years, the courtesy will be bad; If you don't have fun for three years, have fun. The old valley has gone, the new valley is rising, and the time has passed. " Confucius said, "A husband eats his husband's rice, and a wife eats his wife's brocade, so he is at peace with a woman." He said, "Safe." "Female Ann is for it. Husband and wife are in mourning and don't want to eat, listen to music and live, so they don't do it. Today's female security guards are for it. " When he slaughtered me, Confucius said, "It is unkind to do it. The child was born for three years, and then he was separated from his parents. To lose a husband for three years is to lose the whole world. Have you loved your parents for three years? "
Yan Yuan asked Confucius what "benevolence" meant, and Confucius replied: "Self-denial is benevolence."
"Rite" is the core concept of Confucius' thought. What does this mean? Confucius said, "Zhou Jian was born in the second generation. Why is he so depressed?" I am from Zhou. "His admiration for zhou is beyond words. He said, "What a failure! For a long time, I stopped dreaming about Duke Zhou! "Now that I am old, I haven't dreamed of the Duke of Zhou for a long time, but what I can often dream about must be someone or something that I have forged deep feelings in my life. Confucius didn't have a chance to meet Duke Zhou, and the old man himself didn't know what he looked like. If there is an image, it is also in his imagination, and it is definitely not the de facto Duke of Zhou. It is absolutely impossible to dream of a consistent fictional image of the Duke of Zhou. Confucius said this as if he used to dream of Duke Zhou. This is a complete lie!
Confucius expressed his admiration for Duke Zhou in the form of lies. Why did Duke Zhou become a man's idol? One of the reasons is that he formulated "Zhou Li", which Confucius sold all his life. If Duke Zhou did not have this factor, Confucius would not forget him when he was old. Rather than dreaming of the Duke of Zhou, Confucius hoped to realize the etiquette formulated by the Duke of Zhou-the hierarchy and code of conduct of respect and inferiority.
Some people insisted on denying Confucius' hierarchical thought and dressed him as a civilian thinker. Then, look at the ceremony he admired.
Zhou Li: "Dieters take care of the king's food and drink shame to support the king and future generations. The king gave him six kinds of grain, six kinds of animals as food, six kinds of clear drinks, 120 kinds of shameful products, eight kinds of treasures and twenty cans of sauce. The king took one action every day. Two out of ten. Everything you eat is joyful. The caterer provides sacrifices and tastes. (Zhou Li Annotation, page 46, translated by Lv Youren, Zhongzhou Ancient Books Publishing House, 2004 10. )
"Book of Rites": "There are many people who pay great attention to ceremony: the seventh hall of the emperor, five princes, three doctors and one scholar. The son of heaven has six beans, six princes, two princes, eight doctors and six doctors. The governor is in seven prisons and the doctor is in five prisons. The position of the son of heaven is five-fold, the position of the vassal is three-fold, and the doctor is heavy. The emperor collapsed and was buried in July, five times and eight times; The princes were buried in May, with three consecutive six corpses; The doctor was buried in March and then four times. This is more expensive. " (Wang Mengou translated The Book of Rites (I), 1987. 10. Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House)
These are the direct explanations of "Li". As a concept, "ceremony" permeates all kinds of regulations and is a spiritual existence. We must grasp the spirit of "courtesy" through language and intuition of thinking. Many people don't recognize the spirit of "ceremony". They are good at intuitive thinking and visual thinking. They can observe everything on the surface, but the essence and regularity inside the appearance are beyond the human body's understanding.
It is not surprising that the average Confucian admirer only has the ability to feel, but lacks the ability to think. It is not surprising that Confucius' students are still like this. Fortunately, people who only know Confucius through language in later generations can still have a little thinking power. Zi Gong said, "If the son says nothing, what will the boy say?" Confucius said, "What are the words of heaven? When you are at four o'clock, everything is born. What is the sky? " I taught you to think, so do what I think! Confucius gave his thoughts to students, and thoughts are the finished products of thinking. He didn't and can't guide students' thinking like Socrates. So a talented person can still give play to his ideas. Fools can only do things and talk according to the principle of "courtesy" In places where "courtesy" can't be reached, these people are at a loss, unaware of things, north and south, and stupefied.
Confucius's "ceremony" aims to penetrate into every detail of everyone's life. It is generally believed that the number of people involved in Ba Ba Shu Dance is just over the post, but everyone knows that there are strict rules on "ceremony" in daily necessities. Otherwise, Confucius endured the dance and lamented the deformation of the Song Dynasty. How could he sigh greatly?
The supreme ruler can best understand Confucius' mind. Qi Jinggong asked Confucius about politics. After Confucius answered, he immediately said, there is no monarch, no minister, no father, no son. "Although there is millet, do I have to eat it?"
The governor of the United States can take the subway or bus. If Confucius sees it, he will inevitably be scolded, and then the president can take a special plane. The governor is trespassing by special plane, and civilians take subway and bus. The governor degraded himself by taking the subway and taking the bus, and Confucius also called names.
In a word, from the point of view of human nature, the way of life should be colorful, but Confucius's "ceremony" should unify people's behavior, which is beyond the norms of "ceremony" and Confucius can't stand it. Confucius' morality is really the most inhuman morality.