Original text:
Now that the great road is hidden, the world is home. Each will kiss his own relatives, each will have his own son, and every son will be his own. When adults are born, they regard it as etiquette, and cities, ditches and ponds are considered solid. Rituals and righteousness are used as disciplines, to uphold rulers and ministers, to respect fathers and sons, to harmonize brothers, to harmonize couples, to establish systems, to establish fields, to use wise and courageous knowledge, and to take merit as one's own, so planning is done, and the army starts from this. Yu, Tang, Wen and Wu became kings and Dukes of Zhou, so they chose him.
There is no one among these six gentlemen who is not careful about etiquette. In order to show his righteousness, to test his trustworthiness, to show his faults, to punish people with benevolence and to make concessions, to show the people that they are normal. If there are those who do not follow this, those who live in Shao will be in trouble, and everyone will be in trouble. It means well-off.
Vernacular interpretation:
Nowadays, the highest political ideal has disappeared, and the world has become the property of one family. People regard their relatives as relatives and their children as children. Property and labor are all privately owned. The power of the princes and emperors became hereditary and became a legitimate ritual system, and cities, ditches and ponds were built as solid defenses.
Etiquette is formulated as a criterion to determine the relationship between king and minister, to make the relationship between father and son honest, to make the relationship between brothers harmonious, to make the relationship between husband and wife harmonious, to establish various systems, to divide fields and residences, to respect the brave and wise People make contributions to themselves, so conspiracies arise and wars arise.
Xia Yu, Shang Tang, King Wen of Zhou, King Wu of Zhou, King Cheng of Zhou and Gongdan of Zhou thus became outstanding figures in the three generations. None of these six gentlemen did not follow the etiquette carefully.
They highlight the connotation of etiquette, use them to examine people's credit, expose mistakes, set an example of etiquette, and show the etiquette and law to the people. If there is any deviant and abnormal behavior. The powerful will also be repelled, and the common people will regard it as a disaster. This kind of society is called a well-off society.
This article comes from the expanded material of "Book of Rites" written by Dai Sheng of the Western Han Dynasty
Writing background:
The seventy-two disciples who are said to be Confucius and their The "Poetry", "Book", "Li", "Music", "Yi", "Spring and Autumn" and "Six Classics", compiled by Dai Shengsuo, a Western Han Dynasty ritual scholar, and taught by Confucius to his disciples, are the carrier of the highest philosophy in Chinese classical culture. However, it is not easy to read the ancient meanings of the text, so many interpretations are made to assist understanding. The "Li" in the Six Classics was later called "The Ritual".
It mainly records the "etiquette" of crowning, wedding, funeral, and sacrifice ceremonies in the Zhou Dynasty. It is limited by examples and hardly touches on the "etiquette" behind the rituals. Without understanding the etiquette and meaning, rituals become worthless rituals. Therefore, in the process of studying rituals, the post-seventy-year-olds wrote a large number of essays elucidating the meaning of the scriptures, which are generally called "notes" and are appendages to "Rituals".
After the First Emperor of Qin burned books and harassed Confucian scholars, there were still many "notes" written in ancient pre-Qin Chinese that could be seen in the Western Han Dynasty. "Hanshu·Yiwenzhi" contains "one hundred and thirty-one".
"Sui Shu·Jing Ji Zhi" said that this batch of documents was collected from the people by King Xian of Hejian. It also said that when Liu Xiang examined the classics, he also obtained "Mingtang Yin Yang Ji", "Confucius' Three Dynasties" and "Wang Jiu Ji". "Historical Records", "Yue Ji" and dozens of other chapters, the total number increased to 214.
Due to the large number of "Ji" and the varying quality and roughness, by the Eastern Han Dynasty, two anthologies appeared in the society. One was the 85-chapter edition of Dade, which is commonly known as "Da De". Book of Rites.
The second is the 49-chapter version of Dai Sheng, Dai De’s nephew, which is commonly known as "Little Dai Li Ji". "The Book of Dadai Liji" is not widely circulated. Lu Bian of the Northern Zhou Dynasty once annotated it, but its decline continued. By the Tang Dynasty, most of it had been lost, with only thirty-nine chapters remaining. "Shu", "Tang" and "Song" The "Jing Ji Zhi" and other historical records did not even record it.
The "Book of Rites of Xiaodai" was famous and popular in the world due to Zheng Xuan's excellent annotations, so later generations simply called it the "Book of Rites".
Article Appreciation:
Contrary to the Datong Thought that is anti-royal, the Xiaokang Thought praises the royal power. Only under the cover of the Xiaokang Thought that praises the royal power can the anti-royal Datong Thought be To exist; as an idea, it will not be banned by the royal powers of the past dynasties.
The Confucian idea of ??well-off society and the idea of ??great harmony appeared at the same time in the "Book of Rites·Liyun". After summarizing the above article with "This is called Datong", the article changed its direction and started with language that is completely opposite to the idea of ??Datong: "Now that the great road is hidden, the world is home.
Everyone loves his own family, Each son is his own son, and his wealth and strength are his own. When a man is born, he should regard etiquette as a solid foundation. Proper etiquette and righteousness should serve as a discipline, to upright the ruler and ministers, to be responsible for father and son, to be harmonious to younger brothers, to be harmonious to husband and wife, to establish systems, and to establish a good relationship in the fields. , To be wise and brave is to take merit as one's own, so the army is made from this, and Yu and Tang become kings and Dukes of Zhou, so these six gentlemen are not imprudent. Those who are concerned with etiquette should observe their righteousness and test their trust. If they do not follow the rules, they will be punished and everyone will be in trouble. This is called a well-off society. p>
As social systems and social scenes, Xiaokang and Datong are almost entirely opposites. Here, the principle of "the world is for the common people" is gone, and the resounding slogan of "the world is for the common people" has been changed to "the world is for the common people."
Under the general principle of the world being one family, all social phenomena are contrary to the world of great harmony. People keep each other's children, each has his own son, everyone keeps his goods for himself, uses his own efforts for his own benefit, the social morality of everyone working for the common good is gone, and the labor attitude of everyone doing his or her best is gone. All of this comes from the private ownership of power: "It is a courtesy for adults to live in this world."
It means that the monarch is hereditary.
In order to explain the rationality of this hereditary inheritance, the ideological forms that serve it came into being, one is ritual and the other is righteousness. What is etiquette? What is righteousness? The author of "Li Yun" pointed out very profoundly: "The great people in the world regard etiquette as a rule, and the cities, ditches and ponds regard it as solid." It turns out that the essence of etiquette is to serve the hereditary royal power.
Those who have power should be respected as a matter of course, and those who are worshiped must be supreme. This is "ritual". Since respecting power is a ritual, in line with it, protecting power is naturally a righteousness, so "the city, the ditch, and the pond must be considered solid."
The reason why power must be respected with "propriety" and maintained with "righteousness" is because it is hereditary, has no popular basis, and is opposed by people. The nature of etiquette and righteousness illustrates the axiomatic nature of the world of great harmony and the justice of the Great Way. It also illustrates the falseness of etiquette and righteousness themselves.