In ancient China, traffic was very inconvenient because of the barrier of mountains and rivers. Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, regional cultures with their own characteristics have been gradually formed, centering on the sealing of the country by important governors. Among many regional cultures, Lu culture occupies a leading and central position.

First, the land sealed off by Lu has long been one of the most economically developed areas in China.

Shandong is called "the land of Qilu". In the pre-Qin period, Lu and Qi were located in the north and south of Mount Tai, and many primitive cultural relics have been found in the south of Mount Tai (now southern Shandong). "Yiyuan people" are equivalent to "Beijingers", and they may be the ancestors of ancient humans here. With it as the center, nearly 100 Paleolithic and Neolithic sites have been found nearby, which shows that it has been one of the important centers of ancient human activities for hundreds of thousands of years. More importantly, since the Neolithic Age, more northern new cultures, Dawenkou cultures and Longshan cultures have appeared, forming a complete prehistoric cultural sequence of China in southern Shandong. "Emperor Century" said: "Emperor Yan has been in Lu Qufu since Chen Ying. The Yellow Emperor ascended the throne from poverty and later moved to Qufu. Shao Hao, located in poor mulberry, is the capital of Qufu. Zhuan Xu is poor in mulberry and Shangqiu. " Zhang Shoujie's Justice in Historical Records said: "Poor mulberry is in northern Shandong, or poor mulberry is in Qufu. It is also the old country of the big family and the place of business choice. " It is no accident that many clan leaders in ancient times were related to Qufu.

At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, after the Zhou people headed by Bo Qin came to Qufu, it became the meeting place of eastern and western cultures. Yin merchants rose in the east, and Qufu was once the ancient capital of merchants. Even after moving to Yin, they still have a close relationship with it. Until the early Zhou Dynasty, it was still an extremely powerful area in the Yin and Shang Dynasties. Zhou developed from the west. After they replaced the Shang Dynasty, if they want to rule the world well, they have to focus on the East. Therefore, it can be said that Lu's land closure is their first strategic location to consider. It is far away, but the southeast coast, Xu Rong and other places did not immediately submit to Zhou. When Wu Geng rebelled, the "Five Emperors in Dongyin" rebelled, and the surrounding ministries were the main targets of the Duke of Zhou's eastward expedition. The so-called "attack on the upper cover", "attack on Jiuyi" (Han Feizi's On the Forest) and "Fifty Destroyers" (Mencius Teng Wengong's Down) in history books are all in these areas. Even after Boqin was sealed in Qufu, "Huaiyi, Xu Rong and Shang Yan rebelled again" (Volume 12 of Collection of Literature and Art quoted the Emperor Century). In order to appease the East, it is very appropriate to use this place as Zhou's fortress.

At the time of being blocked, he formulated the policy of "starting from commercial politics, making Zhou's residence in Xinjiang" for Lu, and distributed it to six Yin tribes in Lu, making them "serve Lu" (Zuo Zhuan was written for four years). In this way, the Zhou culture brought by the Boqin school, the inherent culture of the Yin adherents and the local indigenous culture meet and influence each other, forming the Lu culture together.

Second, the special status of Lu culture is unified with that of Lu in the vassal state at that time.

Although Lu was a country enfeoffed by the Zhou Dynasty, it was an unusual country. Lu was blocked at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, went through the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and was destroyed by the State of Chu in 249 BC, which lasted for seven or eight hundred years and played a very important role in the political and cultural arena at that time.

The first king of Lu was the eldest son of Duke Zhou, who made outstanding contributions in helping to fight for the world, pacifying the world when he was young, and assisting in becoming a king. His position in politics at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty was very prominent. Therefore, when Lu was initially blocked, he was not only blessed, but also got many privileges compared with other countries. Lu can "worship the Duke of Zhou with the rites and music of the son of heaven", and the Book of Rites Mingtang also says: "All the utensils, clothes and officials of the IV should be used in Lu. Therefore, Lu and Wang Li have been handed down for a long time. " From the comprehensive investigation of literature records and archaeological data, this record should be credible. Such as "Zong Bo", "Tai Zai" and "Da Situ" of the Zhou royal family, Lu has them all. For example, Zongbo, who is in charge of the sacrifice for the monarch, is only called Zongbo or Zongren in other countries, and only the Zhou royal family and the Lu state call it Zongbo. Moreover, "Lu Deli IV's Learning" (Confucius's Book of Rites Hall of Fame), Lu still enjoys IV. I'm afraid this is a phenomenon that Root has.

At the same time or later, the Zhou royal family enfeoffed some small countries in the East. Some of these small countries are vassal states of Lu, while others regard Lu as a "vassal state". When the royal family declined in the Spring and Autumn Period, many small countries still went to Lu to learn from the scriptures and observe rituals. In the areas where the influence of foreigners in the East was heavy, Lu never forgot the principle of "respecting relatives", so that the regime of Lu was always in the hands of Zhou people after "Bo Qin", and Lu kept the Zhou rites relatively intact. The etiquette tradition of Zhou Dynasty deeply influenced all aspects of Shandong society. For example, in politics, The Book of Rites of the Hall of Fame said: Lu "the monarch and the minister have never met, and the political customs of the criminal law of rites and music have not changed. The world thinks that there is a country of Tao, so it is reasonable, and there are rituals and music in the world. " Among the vassal States, Lu's politics was relatively stable, so Lu became an example for other countries to learn from. "Zuo Zhuan" Xiang Gong said for ten years: "The princes Song and Lu, so watch their ceremony." The Song State preserved the Yin rites, while the Lu State preserved the typical Zhou rites, that is, the so-called "Zhou rites are all in existence" (Zuo Zhuan was published in Zhao Gong for two years). In this way, the image of Lu in the East is even more prominent, because people at that time regarded etiquette as the foundation of the country, and Zhou etiquette seemed to be the symbol of the Zhou Dynasty.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, "the government ruled by Fang Bo", but in the replacement of various vassal States, Lu was at the forefront. Generally speaking, "Zhou Zhizong made an alliance with a different surname" (Zuo Zhuan was in possession of the Duke for eleven years), and Lu was both the surname of Ji and the descendant of Duke Zhou, so he was called "monitor" (in Mandarin and Lu) in the rank sequence of governors and was listed as the county chief. For example, in the early Spring and Autumn Period, Qi was invaded by Beirong and asked for help from other countries. After the war, when thanking the governors and feeding the doctors all over the world, Qi asked Lu to arrange shifts for him. When he presided over the "alliance of practicing soil", in the order of the blood sacrifice ceremony held by the leaders of each meeting, Lu ranked at the forefront of all countries except the gold of the main alliance. Because of the high hopes for Lu, Lu was ensnared in the former site of the commercial election, so Lu, who had the status of "looking at the country", had to set an example when implementing the system of rites and music in the Zhou Dynasty.

As an oriental model of the dynasty, Lu shoulders the heavy responsibility of spreading the ritual and music civilization of the dynasty. For example, in the policy of governing the country implemented by the Zhou Dynasty, Lu was a model. Duke Zhou ruled the country, and his thoughts of protecting the people, being cautious about punishment and being virtuous seemed to be clearly reflected in the rulers of Lu. Of course, saying that Lu is a "model of observing the Zhou Dynasty" does not mean that Lu completely ruled out its cultural factors and made it comprehensive, but that Lu was an oriental agent of the Zhou Dynasty in political rule, and the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty was completely preserved among the upper class aristocrats in Lu. In fact, it is neither necessary nor possible for Lu to completely implement and replace the local inherent culture, because after Zhou destroyed the Shang Dynasty, he adopted a "Huairou" policy towards the old place of Yin Shang, not to mention the powerful influence of Lu, and the promotion of culture could not be successful by any external force.

Thirdly, from the comparison with other regional cultures, we can also see the important position of Lu culture at that time.

In the study of regional culture, people often compare Lu culture with Qi culture, which is very reasonable. Qi and Lu are geographically adjacent, and their cultures have many similarities. As far as the cultures of the two countries in the pre-Qin period are concerned, they have similarities and differences. In essence, it is the custom of the people of the two places to worship ceremony, education, morality and righteousness, and to emphasize moral integrity. There are more cultural differences between the two countries. Qi people were pragmatic and open, and Lu people attached importance to rites and music, which made Qilu country have its own cultural characteristics and occupied the leading or central position of China culture at that time. However, which is better or worse in Qilu culture? Many commentators stand today and talk about the so-called "conservatism", "backwardness" and "lack of progress" of Lu culture. In fact, the analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of culture should have a historical perspective and should not leave the specific era at that time.

From the perspective of cultural inheritance, it is in the same strain as Lu culture, or Lu culture is the representative. Since the destruction of Shang Dynasty in Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Wenhua has made remarkable progress on the basis of summing up and absorbing the cultural achievements of the previous generation. The Book of Rites says: "Xia Dao respects life and works for ghosts and gods", "Yin people respect God and lead people to work for God." Some scholars call Xia and Shang culture "life-respecting culture" and "god-respecting culture" respectively. Fundamentally speaking, Zhou Wenhua is a culture of rites and music, the essence of which is order, and the culture of rites and music is a kind of humanistic culture. The most important difference between Zhou Wenhua culture and Xia-Shang culture lies in the rise of its humanistic thought. Since the Duke of Zhou's rites and music, a ceremony-oriented style has taken shape, and Zhou people have a tradition of attaching importance to agriculture, thus laying the cultural foundation of China's traditional patriarchal agricultural society for thousands of years.

Lu's cultural style is consistent with that of. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the first king of Lu changed customs and promoted a new culture in Lu. It should be pointed out that this transformation in Lu lasted for three years, obviously step by step, not a sudden storm. Therefore, it is different from forcibly destroying one culture and promoting another. In fact, the rites and music of the Zhou Dynasty were widely adopted by Bona, and there were also many factors of Yin culture, because the rites and music of the Zhou Dynasty came from the "gains and losses" of Yin rites and music. It is true that compared with the cultures of the surrounding nationalities at that time, Zhou Culture was the most advanced culture. In order to adapt to the political rule of Zhou Dynasty, Lu vigorously promoted Zhou Culture. From the very beginning, the Lu people showed the enterprising spirit in culture.

The advantages and disadvantages of culture are most easily seen in cultural exchanges. Generally speaking, cultural lag should constantly learn advanced culture to enrich and improve itself. As far as Qi and Lu are concerned, Qi often learns from Lu.

As we all know, Guan Zhong's reform is of vital significance for Qi to become a big country. However, as some scholars have pointed out, Guanzhong reform has profound significance in absorbing the strengths of Shandong culture and supplementing the weaknesses of Shandong culture. An important content of Guan Zhong's political reform is to settle in the residence of four people, implement the policy of paying equal attention to scholars, agriculture, industry and commerce, and put the development of agriculture in the position of economic foundation before industry and commerce, which obviously absorbed Lu's thought of building the country by agriculture to make up for the social instability caused by Qi's heavy emphasis on commerce, fishing and salt, and women's industry over agriculture. In view of the weakness of the traditional ethics of Qi State and the backward customs, which led to the rudeness of the monarch and ministers and the confusion of the relationship between men and women, and seriously affected the social order and political stability, Guan Zhong also paid great attention to absorbing the etiquette culture of Lu and emphasized the construction of ethics.

Guan Zhong is like this, and so are other ministers of Qi State. Although some people in Qi are not interested in Confucius' red tape, after all, they have to pay attention to the etiquette order in Lu. For example, another famous figure of Qi, Yan Ying, once went to Lu to "ask" with him (Historical Records Qi Taigong Family); When Confucius arrived in Qi, Qi Jinggong also lost no time in asking questions about Confucius. Another example is Lu's rebellion to celebrate his father, and he wanted to attack Lu. However, some people saw that Lu still adhered to Zhou Li and thought that "Lu could not move without abandoning Zhou Li" (Zuo Zhuan was two years old). Once, when Qi people attacked Lu, they saw a woman with two children. At first, she was small and big, but the army is coming, and she is big and small. Asked in time, the woman said: "The boss is the son of my husband and brother; The youngest is the son of a concubine. Husband and brother, righteousness also; My son has a private love. It is better to help the public and waste the private. " When they stopped fighting together, they thought, "Lu can't attack, so is the righteousness of a man, let alone a court minister?" ("Textual research on the loss of Shuoyuan Shuzheng")

Qi people attach importance to rites and learn from Lu, showing a positive, flexible and open side, which is certainly worthy of recognition. But it also proves that there are many places that need to be improved in Qi culture. For example, in the relationship between monarch and minister, there have been many cannibals in Qi, but the situation in Lu is much better. Zang Wenzhong, a doctor of the State of Lu, once taught others "the courtesy of the monarch" and said: "When you see people treat you with courtesy, you should be like the adoptive parents of a dutiful son; When you see a rude gentleman, chase him, just like an eagle chasing a bird. " This typical idea of respecting the monarch is based on Lu's profound tradition of rites and music, which plays a positive role in the harmony of Lu, Jun and Chen and social stability. In addition, from the perspective of the dynamic development of the monarchy, Lu's thought of rule by courtesy also has its progressive side. Another example is the marriage custom. "Don't marry with the same surname" is the most basic marriage custom in Lu. No matter whether men and women marry, they don't look for the same surname. Lu also pays special attention to the differences between men and women and between husband and wife, which is in sharp contrast with Qi. The research on the history of marriage system has long shown that the system of "no intermarriage with the same surname" is a great progress compared with the marriage within the clan. Because of this, Lu's marriage system was generally recognized by all countries at that time. For example, in Biography of Historical Records of Shang Jun, Shang Yang said, "If Qin Rongzhai teaches, there is no difference between father and son. They live in the same room. Today, we are more disciplined. For the sake of the difference between men and women, we will build a big temple and camp like Lu and Wei. " At that time, the strict marriage system and the boundary between men and women were the best way to get rid of the old customs. In this regard, the practice of Lu people has played an exemplary role.

The cultural exchange between Qilu and China began on the day when their respective cultural characteristics were formed, but the debate about the advantages and disadvantages of the two countries seemed to last until Mencius in the Warring States Period. "On Mencius Gong Sunchou" Gong Sunchou asked Mencius, "Can the contributions of Guan Zhong and Yan Ying be repeated? Mencius replied, "Zicheng is a neat person, but he only knows Guan Zhong and Yan Ying." Mencius' words seem to show the contempt of Lu people for others. In fact, due to the low starting point of Qi culture, Qi people worked hard in the future national construction and development, which made Qi culture show the characteristics of openness, flexibility and positive progress. Therefore, Yu Yue, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, said: "Qi should not be underestimated" when talking about the role played by Qi people in the later development of Confucianism (Volume II of A Tale of Tiger House). Through the in-depth study of 10 years, people have deepened their understanding of alignment culture and changed their long-term inappropriate evaluation of alignment culture.

Finally, I want to talk about the concept of "Lu culture" and the so-called "Zou Lu culture".

What we introduced to Mencius earlier thought that his views represented those of the Lu people, but it did not mean that Mencius was also a Lu people. As for Mencius' Li nationality, history books call him Zou. Whether Zou Di belonged to Lu in the Warring States period has always been controversial. But in any case, the connection between Mencius and Lu is unusual: first, Mencius lives near Lu. He himself once said that he was "close to the residence of the sage (Confucius)" ("Mencius with all his heart"); Mencius is also a descendant of Lu, Meng and Meng. Mencius died in Qi and was buried in Lu, indicating that Mencius recently moved to Lu. Mencius also worships Confucius and is an "educated disciple". His thoughts are inseparable from the cultural traditions of Shandong. Therefore, it should be no problem to think that Mencius' viewpoint represents the viewpoint of Lu people.

Mencius was a native of Zou, and with the great influence of Mencius and Confucianism at that time, people naturally could not ignore Zou, a specific country. Zou Guo is Guo. In the Spring and Autumn Period, there were two ways to pronounce "Guo", namely, Biography of the Ram was pronounced as Guo Lou, while Zuozhuan was pronounced as Guo Lou. In this regard, Mr. Wang explained: "In ancient times, there were urgent sounds and diffuse sounds. Urgent sounds were one, diffuse sounds were two, and diffuse sounds were two. .................................................................................................................................................................................., Mr. Wang's opinion is correct. That is to say, during the Warring States period, Guo was called Zou, only Lou's song and dance troupe.

Guo was established earlier, and after the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the business, it was sealed in Zhu, and Guo became a vassal state of the Zhou Dynasty. The northern border of Zhu Guo is close to Qufu, the capital of Shandong. Zhu Jun once said that "Lu attacked and heard Zhuan" (Zuo Zhuan mourned for seven years), and in the late Spring and Autumn Period, "Zhuan Shu washed Lu with lacquer" (Zuo Zhuan was a hero for twenty-five years). In this way, Mencius' residence has a closer relationship with Lu.

Guo is a country with Cao surname. From the ideological and cultural point of view, Guo was rarely influenced by Zhou Li. For example, it is not in line with the requirements of Zhou Li that people are martyred and sacrificed to society. Lu people call Zhu people "foreigners", and the cultures of the two places are very different. Only in the Warring States period, due to the influence of Confucian culture in Shandong, such as Confucius' grandson Zisi went to give lectures in Zou, especially Mencius moved to Zou, which made Zou's reputation grow day by day, and there was also a strong Confucian cultural atmosphere here. At this point, people put Zou and Lu in the same breath, and because of Mencius, from the Warring States period, people put Zou in front of Lu and called him Zou Lu. Therefore, when studying Lu culture as the regional culture of Zhou Dynasty, instead of studying Confucian culture as an academic school, it is better to take "Lu culture" (not "Zou Lu culture") as the research unit.