I. Nature and origin
The poems, calligraphy, rites, music, the Book of Changes, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Six Classics taught by Confucius are the carriers of the highest philosophy in China's classical culture. But it is not easy to read all the classics, so auxiliary reading materials are often needed. Therefore, The Book of Changes has ten wings, and The Spring and Autumn Annals has three biographies.
The "ceremony" in the Six Classics, later called "ceremony", mainly records the "ceremony" of the crown, marriage, funeral and sacrifice in the Zhou Dynasty, which 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 the Qin Fire, there were still many "notes" written in ancient pre-Qin prose for the Western Han people, including "13 1 article" in the History of Han Art and the History of Literature. According to the Annals of Sui Shu Classics, these documents were collected by Wang Xian, a native of Hejian, from the people, and Liu Xiang got dozens of articles when he was studying the classics, including Yin Mingtang Yang Ji, Confucius Three Dynasties Ji, Wang Shishi Ji and Yue Ji, and the total number increased to 2 14. Due to the large number of records, and there are two versions of fine and coarse, by the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were two kinds of anthologies in society. One is Dade 85, called Dadai Li Ji; Second, his nephew Dai Sheng's forty-nine books, known as The Book of Rites of Little Dai.
Li Ji from generation to generation is not widely circulated, but it is still in decline, as noted in Lu Bian of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. By the Tang Dynasty, most of them had been lost, with only 39 articles left, and even Sui Shu, Tang Shu and Song Shu were not recorded. The Book of Rites for Little Dai was named "Book of Rites" by later generations because of Zheng Xuan's meticulous attention and infinite scenery.
During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, Confucius wrote Justice of the Five Classics by imperial edict, in which the Book of Rites replaced the Book of Rites. As a result, the Book of Rites ranks among the "classics", and "the princes become great countries", which is reversed from the status of the Book of Rites and becomes the most prominent classic among the three rites.
Second, the classification and author
"Book of Rites" closely focuses on the political ideal of Confucianism, the strategy of governing the country, the relationship between heaven and man, and the cultural relics of laws and regulations, and explores the connotation of ritual and music civilization from multiple angles and levels, and expounds its theories and laws. It has a wide range of contents and rich themes. Among them, there are a large number of quotations from Confucius, most of which are not found in the Analects of Confucius, which is precious for studying Confucianism.
There are forty-nine articles in The Book of Rites, and the ancient people classified them trivially, with many differences. According to the relationship between "Jing and Ji", it can be roughly divided into three categories: one is directly corresponding to "Yi Li"; Second, there is an indirect correspondence with Yili; Thirdly, those who are divorced from the scripture of Yili, such as Liu Yun and Wang Zhi, either record Confucius' words and deeds or discuss the way of doing things on earth, have nothing to do with Yili.
Han Art Book of Rites Literature is generally considered to be written by scholars after 1970s, but most authors don't understand it. Just mentioned a few articles. For example, Music Records of Sui Shu quoted Le as saying that Yi Yi, Yi Ji and Qian Ji are all Zizi thinkers. Unfortunately, Zi Zi Si died in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and Shen Yue's statement cannot be verified. Since the Song Dynasty, many scholars have suspected that The Book of Rites was written by Han Confucianism under the guise of seventy sons. Unexpectedly, in 1995, a number of Chu bamboo slips with Confucian literature as the main content were unearthed in Guodian, Jingmen, Hubei Province, including a complete chapter "Yi", the text of which is almost exactly the same as that of the handed down book "Li Jiyi"! In addition, the sentences and ideas in the article "Sexual Pretending" are also very close to "The Doctrine of the Mean". The same or similar sentences as the Book of Rites, such as Liu De, Respect for Virtue and Emphasis on Justice, appear from time to time, and experts think that they are lost articles in Zi. Since then, the Shanghai Museum has collected a number of Chu bamboo slips, among which, the temperament is the same as Guodian bamboo slips, the clothes are the same as Guodian bamboo slips, and the Wu Wang bamboo slips are the same as Wu Wang bamboo slips. In addition, people's parents, lambs, drought in Lubang, and Yan Yuan's writings about Confucius are very similar to the Book of Rites. It can be seen that Shen Yue's statement that "Yili" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" are from Zi Zisi is by no means groundless. The new bamboo slips prove that at the latest in the early Warring States period, some single articles in the Book of Rites had spread to Jianghan Valley. It can be inferred that the main part of the forty-nine articles in The Book of Rites should be written in the pre-Qin period, and the author is indeed a "post-1970s scholar".
Third, Zheng Zhu and Kong Shu
The Book of Rites was written in pre-Qin vocabulary, and the times have changed. In the Han Dynasty, when people couldn't understand it, some people got up to annotate it, among which Zheng Xuan, a master of Confucian classics in the Eastern Han Dynasty, did the best. Zheng Xuan read widely in his early years and studied Confucian classics. After entering Xiguan, he studied under the famous scholar Ma Rong. Zheng Xuan, who lives in ancient prose, chooses goodness and follows it. The Book of the Later Han Dynasty praised him for "covering a big gift, trapping many people, deleting countless fakes, and making mistakes in changing the journal, which is naturally known to scholars." Zheng Xuan is famous for his profound knowledge and self-cultivation. He has paid attention to many classics all over the world, among which "Notes on Three Rites" has the highest achievement. Zheng Xuan's annotation of scripture, contrary to the tedious wind at that time, is not boring, concise and lively, and does not care about the explicit place for annotation, but focuses on the obscure meaning of scripture, so many articles have fewer annotation words than scripture, such as "Yue Ji" with 6459 words and 5533 words; Sacrificial law 7 182 words 5409 words. It is no accident that Zheng Zhu has gone her own way for hundreds of generations.
The works explaining Confucian classics in the Six Dynasties were called "Book of Changes". At that time, there were many people who wrote the Book of Changes for The Book of Rites, such as He Xun, He Yi, Yu Wei, Cui Lingen, Shen Zhong and Huang Kan in the south. There are Xu Zunming and Xiong Ansheng in the north. In the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, when Kong was entrusted to revise Justice in the Five Classics, only Justice by Huang Kan and Xiong Ansheng was left. On the whole, the emperor is slightly better. Kong Shu's Book of Rites is dominated by royalty and supplemented by Xiong's. "It is necessary to study the literature and evidence in detail, carefully examine the righteousness and reason, eliminate the complexity and simplify it, and pinch its secrets" ("Preface to Justice in the Book of Rites"), so it is possible to learn from the south and learn from the north. After that, Confucius consulted with Zhu Zishe, Li and Jia, considered and decided, and then reviewed it in more detail with Zhou Xuanda and Zhao Junzan, resulting in seventy volumes of Justice in the Book of Rites. Kong Shu's careful exploration and annotation of classics are elegant and extensive, with rich words, especially informative quotations and rich historical materials, which make people feel that casting copper on mountains and cooking the sea is inexhaustible. ZhengZhu and KongShu are simple, complex, precise and dense, which are called "two treasures" in the history of Confucian classics.
After Zheng and Kong, the Book of Rites, written by poets in the Song Dynasty, has a total of 160 volumes, and it is said that "the most abundant is taken, and the finest is taken". The Book of Rites of Trang Van, written by Chen Zhuo in Yuan Dynasty, is concise. Yuan Renzong resumed the imperial examination during the Yanyou period, and stipulated that the Book of Rites should adopt Chen Zhuo's set theory. Hu Guangxiu wrote The Complete Book of the Five Classics in Ming Dynasty, and The Book of Rites was mainly written by Chen Zhuo. Zhu Shi's Book of Rites, San.z's Book of Rites and Sun Xidan's Book of Rites are far less successful than Kong Shu's. The latest research works on The Book of Rites include The Book of Rites by Huang Yizhou, The Book of Rites by Cao and Wen Cun by Shen.
Fourth, the value and characteristics.
The Book of Rites is one of the sources of Confucianism and occupies an important position in the academic history of China. Its main values are as follows:
First of all, many chapters in The Book of Rites are eternal models in the cultural history of China. For example, in "University", Cheng Zi said it was "the door for beginners to enter Germany" and Zhu said it was "the method of teaching people in ancient universities". In The Doctrine of the Mean, Cheng Zi said that it was a work taught by Confucius, and Zhu Zi commented: "The book of the former saints was selected through experience, so the outline was dimensional and implied. No one is clear and detailed. " Since it was selected into the Four Books in Song Dynasty, it has become the most widely circulated document. Another example is Li Yun, which records Confucius' most authoritative exposition on realizing his political ideal-the world is for the public. Xue Ji, the earliest educational theory work in China, put forward a series of teaching principles, such as learning from each other, teaching according to the time, heuristic teaching, step by step and so on. Yue Ji is the earliest work on music theory in China, and its musical thoughts are comparable to those of ancient Greece, such as the three points of sound, sound and music, the similarity between music and politics, changing customs and being bad at music. The Moon Order records the astronomical phenomena, phenology, farming and things to be done every month, which is the earliest life guide in history. Confucianism records the fifteen virtues of Confucianism. Zhang Taiyan said that "generally speaking, people are hardworking and generous" and "it is necessary to advocate Confucianism for the strength of the country and the respect of the people", which is still of positive significance.
Secondly, many chapters in the Book of Rites hold high the progressive thoughts of benevolence, justice, patriotism and opposition to unjust politics, which have far-reaching influence. For example, in Confucius' Side of Mount Tai, after hearing the tragic story that people would rather die than be tyrannical, Confucius lamented that "tyranny is fiercer than tigers" and became an ideological weapon for China people to resist tyranny. The Battle of Lang tells the story of a minor child in Lu, who fought to defend his country when the motherland was in danger. "Chen Zikang stops being martyred" tells that Chen Zikang resolutely prevents his younger brother from trying to be martyred with a living person: "It is indecent to be martyred with others!" Wait, the list goes on. There is even some content about official morality in the book. For example, in "Under Quli", it says: "The court doesn't talk about women." "Business is not private." "In official speeches, in the government, in the library, in North Korea." "It's better to talk than to talk." Asking officials to strictly abide by their official duties and not to talk about debauchery is conducive to promoting righteousness.
Thirdly, the book records a lot of knowledge about ancient culture and history, including appellation, rhetoric, clothing, family education, respect for the elderly, funeral etiquette, enlightenment, customs and habits. It involves almost all aspects of social life and is a rare cultural treasure house for us to understand ancient books and inherit Chinese civilization.
The main features of The Book of Rites are beautiful writing, catchy and readable. Many proverbs, aphorisms and refined words that China people are familiar with come from this book. For example, Qu Li Shang said, "Pride (pride) cannot be long, desire cannot be vertical, ambition cannot be full, and joy cannot be great." "There is no money on the harvest. There is no exemption in the face of difficulties. " "Cultivate one's morality, practice calligraphy, this is called doing good. The quality of the ceremony is also the quality of the speech. " "Knowing the truth, being willing to do good, doing good without danger, is a gentleman." Notes: "In learning, Yan Shi is in a dilemma. Be strict, and then respect. Respect the Tao, then the people know how to respect learning. " "University": "Rich house, virtuous body." The doctrine of the mean: "learn to be close to knowledge, be close to benevolence, and be ashamed to be brave." Clothes: "The people take the monarch as their heart, and the monarch takes the people as their body." Miscellaneous Notes: "A relaxation is the way of civil and military affairs." "Sacrifice System": "Where is the way to treat others? Don't rush to be polite." It's too numerous to mention, and reading it is especially conducive to self-cultivation and moral progress.
Verb (abbreviation for verb) version and reader
The book Justice of the Book of Rites, which is commonly used in academic circles today, was published by Ruan Yuan in Qing Dynasty. Ruan's engraving is based on the ten-line edition of the Southern Song Dynasty collected in Wenxuan Building, Yangzhou, and is made by referring to other engravings. Needless to say, even Ruan Yuan himself admitted afterwards that ten lines were not easy to copy. The Eight Lines of Justice in the Book of Rites, compiled by Huang Tang in the Southern Song Dynasty and first engraved by Shao Xi in Yuezhou (now Shaoxing), is a rare classic. Huidong used it in our school to copy Jin Mao's "Ancient Pavilion in Ming Dynasty", which actually corrected thousands of mistakes, so it has the reputation of "rare treasure". In 2008, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House published The Book of Rites Justice edited by Mr. Lv Youren, which was based on eight lines and absorbed the achievements of Ruan Ben and Ruan Jiao. It is traditional and vertical, with classics, notes and sparseness, which is especially suitable for researchers.
Ordinary readers can choose Wang Menou's translation of The Book of Rites (Taipei Commercial Press, 1990), Yang Tianyu's translation of The Book of Rites (Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1997) and Wang Wenjin's translation of The Book of Rites (Zhonghua Book Company, 200650).