Introduction Whether China can provide a different mode of cultural development from western cultural evolution determines whether Chinese culture can prevail in the cultural competition between the Eastern and the Western world in the 21st century. Only by understanding our culture can we win and make greater contribution to the civilization in the world. Therefore, this book elaborates cultural implication and practical significance of “Rituals (Li in Chinese)” —core of Chinese civilization by raising some thought-provoking traditional theories with plain expressions and vivid examples.
作者简介：
章节目录：
Contents
Chapter 1“Li” Refers to Moral Decrees and Regulations and Code of Conduct
——Origin of Ritual and Music in Ancient China
Ⅰ. Duke of Zhou Established System of Rites and Music
Ⅱ. The Establishment of Rituals and Music Laid the Foundation for Chinese Culture
Ⅲ. Ritualmusical Period Began in Eastern Zhou Dynasty
Ⅳ. “Li” Marks The Distinctiveness of Chinese Culture
Chapter 2Live with Integrity and Treat Others with Respect
—— A Gentleman Keeps Integrity and Respect in His Mind
Ⅰ. “Li” Aims to Express Sincere Feelings
Ⅱ. “Li” Is Centered on Respect
Ⅲ. Principles and Ways of Showing Respect
Ⅳ. Practice “Integrity” and “Respect” from a Bow
Chapter 3A Person Who Understands Both Rituals and Music Is Virtuous
—— Music Education in Ancient China
Ⅰ. Chinese Musical Achievements in Ancient Times
Ⅱ. Confucian Music Theory
Ⅲ. Music Is Combined with Politics
Ⅳ. It Is Best to Use Music to Change the Custom
Chapter 4 Being Urbane and Plain Makes a Gentleman
——Gentlemen Are Cultured and Refined Internally and Externally
Ⅰ. From Customs to Rituals
Ⅱ. “Zhi” and “Wen” in Yu, Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties
Ⅲ. Being Urbane and Plain Makes a Gentleman
Ⅳ. College Student Should Focus on Virtue Cultivation
Ⅴ. Cultivating Pleasant Social Atmosphere
Chapter 5Three Times of Honorable Crowning for Encouraging Aspiration
——Adulthood Crowning Ceremony in Ancient China
Ⅰ. Introduction
Ⅱ. “Cheng Ding” Ceremony: Adult Ceremony in the Clan Era
Ⅲ. Crowning Ceremony: Adult Ceremony in Civilized Era
Ⅳ. Ritual of Crowning Ceremony
Ⅴ. The Meaning of Crowning Ceremony
Ⅵ. Hairpinning Ceremony
Ⅶ. Crowning Ceremony is Related to the Qualification of Executor
Ⅷ. Introduction of Crowning Ceremony in Later Dynasties
Chapter 6The Foundation of Human Relations
——Weddings in Ancient China
Ⅰ. Humanistic Connotation of Wedding
Ⅱ. Ritual of Traditional Wedding: Six Steps Leading to a Feudal Marriage
Ⅲ. Getting Married
Ⅳ. Meeting Parents in Law
Ⅴ. Features of Ancient Wedding
Ⅵ. Problems Existing in Modern Wedding
Ⅶ. Conclusion
Chapter 7Contests Among Gentlemen
—— “The Archery Ritual of the Shires” in Chinas Ancient Times
Ⅰ. Origin of the Archery Ritual of the Shires
Ⅱ. Humanism Connotation of the Archery Ritual of the Shires
Ⅲ. Contrast Analysis between Spirits of the Archery Ritual of the Shires and Those of Sports in Ancient Greece
Chapter 8Confucius—the Greatest Man and the Teacher for All Ages
——the Ritual of ShihTien Ceremony for Confucius
Ⅰ. Life, Knowledge and Conduct of Confucius
Ⅱ. Improvements in Ritual of Shihtien Ceremony for Confucius
Ⅲ. Four Supporting Roles and Twelve Philosophers
Ⅳ. How Sages and Confucians Mourned Confucius
Ⅴ. Cultural Significance of the Ritual
Chapter 9Enlightenment by Education Makes Prosperity
——Family Instructions and Moral Principles in Ancient Times
Ⅰ. Family Enlightenment by Education Lasts the Dynasty
Ⅱ. Standards for Childrens Education in Book of Rites
Ⅲ. Admonitions of the Yan Family: the First Book on Family Instructions
Ⅳ. Examples of Family Instructions of Later Generations
Ⅴ. Main Points of Family Instructions Among Generations
Ⅵ. Modern Significance of Family Instructions
Chapter 10To Cultivate Individuals in Daily Activities
—— About Etiquettes
Ⅰ. Filial Piety
Ⅱ. Respect to the Elderly
Ⅲ. Daily Etiquettes
Chapter 11Noble Virtues of a Confucian
——Appreciation for The Book of Rites • Book XLI
Ⅰ. Background Information of The Book of Rites • Book XLI
Ⅱ. Appreciation for The Book of Rites • Book XLI
Ⅲ. Cultural Significance of The Book of Rites • Book XLI
Chapter 12Words from Confucius and Etiquettes for Children
——Lessons on Di Zi Gui: Standards for Being a Good Child and Pupil
Ⅰ. Introduction to Di Zi Gui: Standards for Being a Good Child and Pupil
Ⅱ. Analysis on Di Zi Gui: Standards for Being a Good Child and Pupil
精彩片段：
Chapter 1 “Li” Refers to Moral Decrees and Regulations and Code of Conduct
——Origin of Ritual and Music in Ancient China
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my great honor to make a lecture in Southeast University. I opened a course of “rituals and civilization in ancient China” in Tsinghua University and I’m going to share my ideas in that course with you today.
Southeast University enjoys a long history and a beautiful campus where students are studious and enthusiastic. All of them impressed me a lot. At the very beginning, I’d like to express my sincere thanks to you since I have received your great kindness.
More than a decade ago, that is to say, in the late 20th century, politicians and scholars from all over the world were discussing what will lie ahead in the next century? How is the society going to be? In this global discussion, there is a relatively consistent view that thanks to widespread media, cultural collision, conflict, fusion and absorption will be developed in an unprecedented width and depth in the 21st century. In my opinion, the essence of the Eastern and Western cultural conflict is why China can establish a new mode of social development different from western society. In the game of culture, if we want to make greater contribution to human being, the most important is to know our culture, which is the reason why I offered the course. The core of Chinese civilization is “rite”, which has been raised by many outstanding scholars long before. But unfortunately, their opinions havent been known and understood by people.
I will give 12 series of lectures to elaborate cultural meanings and significance of “Li” —the core of Chinese civilization. I will divide my lectures into 3 parts: first, theories of rituals; second, main principle of rituals; third, regular civility in ancient China, like crowning ceremony rituals, marriage ceremony rituals, the archery ritual of the shires and the ritual of Shihtien Ceremony.
“Li” refers to a series of civility systems and code of conduct based on social morality. In this chapter, I’m going to talk about the reason why Chinese civilization is regarded as civilization of rituals and music. In my opinion, its chosen by history.
Ⅰ. Duke of Zhou Established
System of Rites and Music
When we speak of Chinese history, we must talk about dynasties of Xia, Shang and Zhou. Modern Chinese historian Mr. Gu Zhegang once said that basic patterns of Chinese culture was laid during the Eastern Zhou period (770 BC221 BC). During the long course of social development, content of Chinese culture was becoming richer, but the core of it had never been changed.
Since the period of Shang and Zhou dynasty (1600 BC256 BC),“Li” has been the soul of Chinese culture. History of ancient China lasted about 2,0003,000 years, during which dynasties were changed for many times, but most changes didn’t influence the core of Chinese culture. One of the changes that needs to be noticed is the revolution happened at the end of Shang dynasty (1046 BC). After King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty, he took a series of policies, making a profound change in Chinese history. Mr. Wang Guowei, leading professor of “Four Great Professors” from The Tsinghua Academy of Chinese Learning said in his magnum opus A discussion of institutions in Yin and Zhou dynasty “that there was no other bigger revolution than that happened at the end of Shang dynasty.” Why the regime change between Shang dynasty and Zhou dynasty would cause an unprecedented revolution? Let me introduce some information about the two dynasties next.
There were 49 chapters in the Book of Rites, one of Confucian Classics. “Biao ji” or “Record of Signposts” chapter compares the difference between Yin dynasty and Zhou dynasty. It says that worshiping ghosts is one of the biggest feature of Yin dynasty. According to the Book of Rites, “People in Yin dynasty worship ghosts and are led to sacrifice for ghosts. They attach more importance to ghosts than to the rites.” Life of people in Yin dynasty was greatly influenced by ghosts. They firmly believe that if they worship ghosts and sprits, they can be blessed.
In the following part, I will show you some pictures to help you have a better impression.
The Yin Ruins is in the capital of the Shang dynasty in Anyang, Henan province. Archaeologists excavated for over 70 years and had many valuable discoveries. This is one of royal cemetery areas where 12 tombs were discovered. Tombs of Kings in Shang dynasty are crossshaped and “申(shen)”shaped as what is shown in this picture. The largest area in the center is a tomb, where coffins and sacrificial goods are laid. The tomb is two or three storeys deep. Ramps are established to put coffins and sacrificial objects in it. Ramps are built from four directions. Coffins and sacrificial objects are carried slowly to the bottom of tombs and are sealed. The shape of tombs is similar to Chinese character “中(zhong)” or “申(shen)”. Generally, many graves in this area have four ramps and those graves are emperors’. Those looking like “中(zhong)” have two passages and those with only one ramp look like “甲(jia)”. Simuwuding, a square tripod, is the largest bronzeware among excavations so far, which is unearthed in a “甲(jia)”shaped tomb. China boasts advanced skills of grave robbery. Those tombs were nearly emptied before archeologists discovered them and only very few things are left. We have no idea about when those tombs were robbed. However, excavation and archeology are important to the research of the burial system at that time when many people had to be buried alive with kings or aristocrats when they were dead. Sacrificial pits are laid in rows in tombs. Sacrificial victims’ corpses, with their heads chopped off are stored at those pits. Currently, Yin Ruins have been listed as world cultural legacy.
As shown below, the “中”shaped tomb was excavated by Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica before the Peoples Republic of China was founded. From the picture, we can know that the grave is alarmingly large because lots of people are involved in excavation.
What is shown in the above picture is sacrificial pits where put lots of beheaded skeletons.
In order to make the mass know something about Shang dynasty, archeologists excavated several sacrificial pits where about 10 people whose heads were chopped off buried in a pit. About over 1,000 pits like it were discovered in Yin Ruins.
The picture shows a famous royal tomb—tombs of Fuhao discovered in Anyang, Henan province in 1974. According to the study, Fuhao was one of the wives of King Wu Ding of Shang dynasty. Many burial bronzewares are inscribed with “妇好（Fuhao）”and the two Chinese characters are common in Oracle. It is recorded in Oracle that Fuhao was praised as “Lady General” because she usually led her troops into battle. This tomb is the only one not to have looted before excavation, in which about 500 bronzewares were discovered. Culture of bronze in Shang dynasty is outstanding at that time. We are deeply impressed by advanced bronze culture in Shang dynasty.
This vessel called “San Lian Yan” is the top national cultural legacy. Generally speaking, Yan is a type of cooking vessel for steaming. Its belly is composed of two rooms. The upper room is for food (like rice and steamed ban) and the lower one is filled with water and placed over a fire. The two rooms connect with each other with a Bizi, a kind of grind. This “San lian yan” is special because three “Yan” are connected together. The lower rectangleshaped part is for water. It is also placed on fire and the upper part is for food. The upper room and the lower part are also connected by Bizi.
What is shown in the below picture is a bronze ding.Many similar dings with fine and intricate patterns were unearthed in Tomb of Fuhao.
The vessel in the below picture is in the shape of an owl with its legs and tail which looks like a folding screen as the support. This vessel is usually seen on covers of many books that introduce bronze ware in Shang dynasty.
The picture shows a wine vessel named “Qin Yu Jue”. It is different from Jue because there is no lid with “Jue”. Lids of “Qin Yu Jue” are shaped into animals. “Qin Yu Jue” has two protuberances on the top of the vessel and three legs at the bottom. According to study, after the “Qin Yu Jue” is filled with wine, it can be placed on fire to warm the wine. At the bottom of it, sign of burn was noticed when it was unearthed. It is admirable that this bronze ware was designed so cleverly. Warm wine in “Qin Yu Jue” by placing it on fire and lid it, in this way, wine wont go cold. When people want to drink wine, they just need to remove the lid. This shows that ancient Chinese led a highquality life for they knew eating something cold was harmful for their stomachs.
The bronze ware shown below is Yue, a kind of axe, which was excavated from Tomb of Fuhao. Patterns on it are very beautiful: two tigers with jaws wide open seems to eat the man in the middle. This pattern is also found in other bronze wares such as on the ears of Si Mu Wu Ding.
Xia, Shang and Zhou are three dynasties in ancient China. Roughly speaking, Xia dynasty lasted for 400 years, Shang dynasty 600 years and the longest dynasty—Zhou dynasty lasted for 800 years.Book of Songs, Book of Documents, Rites of Zhou, Zhou Changes, Book of Music and Spring and Autumn Annals are collectively called Six Classics for Confucianism. In the Book of Documents, Duke of Zhou warns that indolence is likely to perish a nation and asks people not to be indolent. He says that emperor Zhong Zong in Yin dynasty governed his people with integrity and prudence who dared not neglect his work or seek for ease and pleasure. Therefore, he was in office for 75 years. Another emperor Gao Zong in Yin dynasty who named Wu Ding was a very important emperor. Hundreds of thousands of oracle bones unearthed recorded over 200 years history—from the year when Pangeng (the 20th emperor of the Shang Dynasty) moved to Yin to the year when Yin was perished. Half of the oracle bones were in the Wuding period. Wuding led a hard life as a civilian, providing him an opportunity to experience life of plebeian and he was in the reign for 59 years, which is longer than that of many emperors in history. In the reign of emperor Zu Jia, he knew plebeians sufferings very well, provided welfare for the public and never discriminate orphans and widows. In this way, he was in office for 33 years. Emperors following Zu Jia were born in a peaceful and comfort environment, were indulged in leisure and never paid attention to their people’s life. Since then, the reign of emperors was very short—about three to ten years.
The last emperor of Shang dynasty was emperor Zhou.Records of History described him like this: “Zhou was gifted and eloquent with great capacity of receptivity. He possessed extraordinary strength to combat with beasts. He was wise enough to refuse advice of his ministers, and was eloquent enough to cover up his mistakes. He boasted himself in front of ministers, considering that he was beyond comparison depending on his prestige. He was addicted to drinking and debauchery and he loved women. He accelerated the already heavy taxes, piled up money at Lutai (a coffer), and granary Juqiao was full. He collected dogs and horses and other fancy playthings in his palace. He expanded gardens towers, in which he placed a large number of wild animals and birds. He was arrogant and disrespected spirits. He gathered a large amount of operas in the dunes, filling the pool with wine, hanging up meat as woods, letting naked men and women chasing and playing all night long. Zhou was so extravagant that his people hated him and princes also betrayed him. As a result, he increased the penalties and set up “Pao Ge” (a kind of cruel torture in ancient times). people crawled on the pillars painted with oil with charcoal fire below, and they fell into the charcoal fire when getting tired.”
Some people view emperor Zhou as a talent. First, he was quick in mind. Second, he possessed rich knowledge and he was sharpening in what he saw and heard. Third, he was strong physically, which was extraordinary. Fourth, his eloquence helped him contradict to people who tried to offer suggestions even if he was obviously wrong. Fifth, his high prestige made him beyond comparison and he considered himself as the most outstanding talent in the world.
Why do we talk about qualityoriented education? This is an example. Talent is not enough, for without virtues, a person might lose control and be talented enough to serve the devil.Biographic Sketches of Emperors of Yin explained that no matter how talent, eloquent or experienced and knowledgeable emperor Zhou was, he lacked the most important virtue. Moreover, in addition to the socalled talent, he was addicted to drinking and debauchery. Nowadays, many people are lusting for drinking and debauchery as the wine culture is well developed—we should take this as a mirror. Zhou built a large coffer called Lu Tai. He levied heavy taxes and collected all the wealth from his people in order to fill his coffer. Not only that, he also collected all kinds of pets. He showed disrespect to the spirits—mainly referred to the ancestors.
He built a large venue for entertainment with a bunch of naked men and women chasing and playing. They drank wine when getting thirsty and ate meat when getting hungry. Some people dissatisfied with his corruption, and some princes also rebelled from him. Faced with this situation, emperor Zhou not only did not correct his behavior, but increased penalties. One of the most famous punishment was, as Records of History recorded, “Law of Pao Ge”, and was also called “Penalty of Pao Luo” with different explanations by the descendants. Some said that it made copper into grid with charcoal burning below. After the copper grid burned, the socalled criminals were tied up on it until they were burned to die; others also said that it was a hollow copper pillar filled with charcoal fire. People were tied on it and got burned. In short, it was a kind of torture. It was these fatuous and stupid behavior that forced emperor Zhou to the end of his life.
