Interpretation: When the monarch hears the drums, he will miss the generals who fought bloody battles for their country.

Original text:

When a gentleman listens to the sound of playing the flute, he thinks of the minister who collects animals. The drums stood up and stepped into the crowd. When a gentleman hears drums, he thinks of princes. A gentleman listens not only to his gun, but also to his liking.

Vernacular translation:

When a gentleman hears drums, he thinks of princes. From this point of view, when a gentleman listens to music, he doesn't just listen to the sonorous voice, but wants to hear something from it.

Extended data writing background:

The Book of Rites, also known as The Book of Rites of Little Dai and The Sutra of Little Dai, was written in the Han Dynasty and compiled by Dai Sheng, a ritual and musicologist in the Western Han Dynasty. The Book of Rites is an important collection of laws and regulations in ancient China, with 20 volumes and 49 articles. This book focuses on the pre-Qin ritual system.

It embodies the pre-Qin Confucian philosophical thoughts (such as the view of heaven, the view of the universe and the outlook on life), educational thoughts (such as personal cultivation, educational system, teaching methods and school management), political thoughts (such as educational politics, building a harmonious society, ritual criminal law) and aesthetic thoughts (such as the theory of things moving and the theory of harmony between rites and music). It is an important material for studying the pre-Qin society and a compilation of Confucianism.

It is said that the poems, books, rites, music, changes, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Six Classics written by Confucius' disciples are the carriers of the highest philosophy in China's classical culture. However, it is not easy to read them through, so we should make more explanations to help us understand the rituals in the Six Classics.

The Book of Rites mainly records the crown, marriage, funeral and sacrifice ceremonies in the Zhou Dynasty, but it is limited to the style and hardly involves the "ceremony" behind the ceremony. If you don't understand etiquette, the ceremony will become a worthless ceremony.

Therefore, in the process of practicing etiquette, the post-1970 s wrote a large number of papers explaining the classic meaning, collectively called "Ji", which belongs to the vassal of etiquette. After Qin Shihuang burned books to bury Confucianism, there were still many "notes" written in pre-Qin prose in the Western Han Dynasty, including "13 1 article" in the History of Art Granted by Han Dynasty and the History of Literature.

About the author:

Dai Sheng was born in the Western Han Dynasty. According to ancient documents such as History of the Scholars, Guangping County Records, Guide County Records, Hakka Dai Family Tree, Xintai County Records, etc., he was a native of Suiyang (now Suiyang District, Shangqiu, Henan Province) in the Western Han Dynasty. He used to be the satrap of Jiujiang and studied Confucian classics all his life. He studied under Hou Cang, the master of Confucian classics, his uncle Dade and Qingpu, and devoted himself to studying Li.