China is a state of etiquette that has been handed down for thousands of years, with its reputation and teachings spreading overseas. It is said that more than 3,000 years ago, at the time of the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, the Duke of Zhou made the rites and music, and put forward the program of the rule of etiquette. Subsequently, through the advocacy and refinement of Confucius and the 70 Sons, as well as Mencius and Xunzi, the civilization of etiquette and music became the core of Confucian culture. After the Western Han Dynasty, as the theoretical form of ritual culture and the origin of the ancient ritual system, the Rites of Passage, the Zhou Rites, and the Records of Rites were successively included in the Academic Officials, which not only became the classics that ancient literati had to read, but also became the basis for the ritual system of successive dynasties, with far-reaching influence on Chinese culture and history. With the formation of the Confucian cultural circle in East Asia, the culture of rites and music naturally became an important feature of Eastern civilization. It goes without saying that in order to understand traditional Chinese culture, one must understand the culture of Chinese etiquette.
Not without regret, since modern times, the ritual culture not only did not get the attention it deserves, but also subject to all sorts of reproaches, which, in summary, mainly focuses on two issues:
One is the question of the nature of the ritual culture. Some people believe that the ritual culture is the culture of the feudal era, has long been outdated, who then advocate, who is moving against the trend. The most radical attitude is the "Cultural Revolution" period of Jiang Qing and others, they slander Confucius is to engage in the restoration of the ancestor, said Confucius, "Kesu Rituals" is to restore slavery.
The second is whether the culture of ritual and music still has modern value. Some people think that today's era is completely different from that of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, and that the social landscape and lifestyle have changed so much that the rituals expressed in the Three Rites are no longer useful to us.
The culture of any nation cannot be the same for all time, but can only change with the times, discarding its dross and taking its essence. The factors of an excellent culture are often ever new, surviving in the long river of history and continuously influencing the spirit and outlook of the nation. For example, around the sixth century B.C., the axial era of the world's ancient civilizations, philosophers such as Confucius, Laozi and Sunzi, as well as Socrates, Plato and Sakyamuni, and classics that have shone through the ages, emerged. For more than two thousand years, they have always accompanied the course of history, and we can feel their presence almost everywhere. In today's highly developed technology, we still have to go back to that era every now and then to look for wisdom. We should also look at the culture of etiquette and music advocated by Confucius in the same way.
Since modern times, due to the decline of the country, the invasion of the great powers, the people of the country radical change, the backwardness of the beatings blamed on the traditional culture, which has a certain truth, but not quite. Imagine, a sensible scholar was beaten by robbers, people can blame him for no fist brave, but can not blame him should not be sensible. It would be a real tragedy if the scholar threw away his books and practiced only martial arts, becoming a "strong man" without culture. Human society will eventually enter an era of civilization in which everyone speaks of faith and cultivates harmony and mutual respect and courtesy. Therefore, we should not only practice martial arts to strengthen the body, but also to promote the existing culture, etiquette and culture will eventually have its new place.
Jiang Qing and others criticized Confucius, criticized the "self-restoration", is out of the criticism of the "Zhou Gong" sinful purpose, there is no academic basis to speak of. Confucius is really a restoration maniac? Just read the "Records of Rites - Rites of Passage" and you will know that Confucius' political ideal was to establish a "commonwealth of the world", which had inspired millions of aspirants, including Dr. Sun Yat-sen, to strive for it. Is "restoring oneself to the rites" the restoration of slavery? One of the main features of slavery is human martyrdom, and if Confucianism supports slavery, it should be in favor of human martyrdom. However, one only has to read the Book of Rites - Tan Gong to come to the exact opposite conclusion. When Chen Zi Che, a great physician of the state of Qi, died in Wei, his wife and her husband planned to bury him alive. Zi Che's brother, Zi Kuang, strongly objected, saying, "Martyrdom is not a rite of passage!" There was also a nobleman named Chen Qianxie, who on his deathbed demanded that his two maidservants be buried beside him. His son refused to comply with his request, also on the grounds that "it is not polite to be buried as a martyr"! Both of them said it was an "impolite" act to be martyred, indicating that the rites did not allow martyrdom. During the Spring and Autumn Period, humanism became the mainstream of social thinking, human martyrdom was not common, and wooden figurines were generally used for martyrdom. Even so, Confucius found it intolerable, and said angrily, "The one who started it all has no posterity!" (Mencius - King Hui of Liang) Not only that, Confucianism also opposes all inhumane practices. When there was a great drought in the state of Lu, the Duke of Mu first wanted to expose the inibs in the state to the sun, and then he wanted to expose the witches to the sun in the hope of obtaining the mercy of the heavens. Xian Zi criticized that punishing the disabled because it did not rain was too cruel and against humanity! Similar examples abound in the Book of Rites. By opposing human martyrdom and advocating benevolence; by opposing tyranny and advocating benevolent government, Confucius represented the progress of the times and the conscience of mankind. To say that Confucius advocated rites is to restore slavery, is really the more the crime, why suffer no words.
So, is there any real value in the Confucian civilization of rites and music? Our answer is yes. For one thing, after a decade of turmoil, the national moral standard has seriously retrogressed, which has not only triggered many social problems, but also directly affected the development of the economy, the most obvious example of which is the tourism industry. The culture of etiquette forged by thousands of years of civilization could have become a strong point of the tourism economy, but many members of the industry even "sorry, thank you, it's okay, you please" ten words of polite language are not good, let alone other. Although hotels, hotels and other more and more gorgeous, but the quality of service is always the development of the tourism industry's weakness, a long sigh. In addition, in recent years, the number of outbound travelers is increasing day by day, but there is no lack of vulgarity, lack of etiquette and upbringing of people, criticism of overseas public opinion from time to time reported, so that we are the "ancient civilized countries", "State of Manners" national image is greatly damaged. In order to change this situation, in recent years, the government has made "clear manners and honesty" an important part of the 20-word "civic morality", and how to re-establish a code of etiquette that meets the requirements of the times has been put on the agenda. China's traditional etiquette civilization, is a valuable ideological resources, can provide us with important reference.
Secondly, the 21st century is the century of culture, and the competition between countries and nations, and between nations and peoples, will be carried out more and more in the field of culture. Culture is the basic feature of the nation, cultural survival is the survival of the nation, cultural death is the death of the nation. Throughout history, not many nations have been exterminated by genocide, but countless nations have perished by the disappearance of their inherent culture. China is the only one of the world's four major ancient civilizations that has not experienced any cultural disruption. Whether Chinese civilization can stand on its own among the peoples of the world in the coming century is a matter of strategic importance, that is, whether it can establish a strong native culture based on the absorption of advanced foreign cultures. Rituals and music are the core of traditional Chinese culture, and the ability to carry forward its essence is crucial to the rise and fall of the local culture.
It is a shame that our traditional ritual culture has been preserved in Korea and Japan and continues to play a positive role in social life, while in our native land, the rate of its loss is very alarming. The number of people who know how to use the elegant language and demeanor of showing respect in our interpersonal interactions has become increasingly rare. Weddings, birthdays, and other celebrations, which are the most common and grandest among the people, are losing their national identity and becoming rapidly westernized, while Christmas and Valentine's Day are increasingly becoming the major festivals for Chinese young people. As a national cultural manifestation of rituals, festivals, once all westernized, it shows that the native culture has been abandoned by the people, and its demise will not be too far away. The people of China, the people of knowledge, should be aware of the worry.
Thirdly, there are many wonderful things in the ancient Chinese culture of rituals and music, but unfortunately they are not recognized by the world, and we might as well take the pre-Qin rites of archery as an example. As a civilization with a history of 5,000 years in China, was there any sportsmanship in ancient times? If so, how is it different from the Olympic spirit of ancient Greece? This is a major question that the 2008 Beijing Olympics must answer to the world. And almost no one had considered it before we were awarded the right to host the Games. Now that the question has been raised all of a sudden, one cannot help feeling at a loss as to what to do. In fact, in China, at the latest in the Spring and Autumn Period, a kind of archery competition known as the Heung Shot Rite was popular among the people, and its rules of competition were recorded in full in the Heung Shot Rite of the Rites of Passage. It was a very formal competitive sport, with a fixed length of shooting lanes and strict rules of competition. However, to evaluate an archer, not only to see whether he can hit the bull's-eye, but also to see whether his form fits the rhythm of the music, in addition, it is also required that he be courteous to his competitors in every way, and correctly treat failure, etc., in short, it is required that his body, mind and physique develop in a harmonious and healthy way. This is different from the concept of one-sided emphasis on physical fitness of the early Olympic movement, showing the characteristics of Eastern civilization. There are many more such things in ancient ceremonial culture that we need to explore.
Our generation, which once encountered the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, has y felt the pain of this cultural catastrophe. After the Cultural Revolution, Confucius' reputation was gradually restored. Since 1989, the International Confederation of Confucianism, headquartered in China, has been organizing an international symposium to commemorate the birth anniversary of Confucius every five years, and every time, state leaders attend the symposium to deliver speeches and receive famous scholars attending the symposium, which is the strongest proof of this. It is indisputable that Confucius and the culture of ritual and music are inseparable: without Confucius, there can be no culture of ritual and music; conversely, leaving the culture of ritual and music does not make Confucius. If we affirm Confucius, we must affirm the culture of ritual and music. However, the "criticizing Confucius" movement was launched in the whole society with the efforts of the whole country, and its bad influence has not been completely purged so far, and it will take a long time to make the people really understand the culture of rituals and music.
Twenty years ago, I went to graduate school and chose the direction of research is the study of etiquette, and I have been working hard on it, and I dare not be distracted by it, and I have been swimming in the Three Rites day by day, and I have been savoring the depth and subtlety of the ancient ideas of etiquette and music, and I have been sighing every time that it has become more and more strange to the general public. Therefore, I often wonder whether it is possible to introduce the civilization of ancient rituals to the public in a more systematic way with a simple language.
After a period of gestation and preparation, in the spring of 2001, I tried to open an elective course on "Ancient Chinese Etiquette and Civilization" for undergraduates at Tsinghua University, which was actually welcomed by students. Coincidentally, it was the twentieth anniversary of the founding of "Knowledge of Literature and History" at that time. When attending the commemorative symposium, Mr. Hu Youming, who was the director of the editorial department at that time, told me that "Knowledge of Literature and History" had organized experts to write a series of special topics on culture and history, but there was no special topic on etiquette, and the readers reflected strongly on this issue. He hoped that I would do this work in order to let more readers understand the ancient Chinese ceremonial culture. In order to build a good course on "Ancient Chinese Etiquette and Civilization", I also wanted to formalize the lecture notes. So, both sides agreed on the topic. This is the origin of this book.
It is a very difficult task to write the complicated ancient rituals into a text that is easy to accept by the readers. For this reason, every time I write a book, I have to deliberate over and over again, choosing the most important elements to be introduced from a wide variety of materials. According to the requirements of the editorial board, I had to submit one manuscript per month in principle for serialization. It took me at least a week, sometimes even ten days, to write each one, and the pain and suffering involved are really hard to express. The original plan of this book has thirty topics, due to my teaching and research tasks are very heavy, it is difficult to take up a quarter to one-third of the time to write this book for a long period of time, and thus after more than two years of serialization, I had to stop, which is to apologize to readers and friends. I apologize to my readers and friends for this. The topics that were not completed will have to wait for another day.
During the serialization of the book, I received many letters from readers, giving me kind encouragement and guidance. Comrades in the editorial department are very careful with each manuscript, striving for excellence; Mr. Lu Yuhua, the director, personally served as the responsible editor of the book, from layout design to graphic arrangement, all pro-labor parallel fingers, touching and deep. My graduate students, Zhang Huanjun, Lin Zhenfen, Diao Xiaolong, and Li Li, helped to proofread the manuscript and select the illustrations for this book, and all of them worked very hard. I would like to express my gratitude.