Is "the king tells the subject to die, and the subject has to die" is the Confucian view, and how does the Confucian view the relationship between the king and the subject?
"Loyalty" and "filial piety" are two important concepts of Confucianism, which are contained in what we often call the "Eight Ends", that is, "filial piety and faithfulness, courtesy, righteousness, and shame". We think we know these two concepts well, and almost without hesitation, we think that "loyalty" means loyalty, that is, unconditional loyalty to the monarch; "filial piety" means filial piety, that is, unconditional obedience to parents.
But familiarity is not true knowledge. The reason for this is that we are hidden from the stream and do not know the source. Later novelists often said: "The king calls the subject to die, and the subject does not die for disloyalty; the father calls the son to die, and the son does not die for filial piety." These two sentences spread so widely in the city that some people thought that this was the Confucian idea. In fact, this is not the case, Confucianism is precisely against foolishness and filial piety. Whether we trace it back to the pre-Qin or later Confucianism, we can prove this.
In the pre-Qin period, Confucius founded the Confucian school and put forward the idea of "rule by virtue" politically. He believed that the courtier was not a personal dependency relationship to the monarch, but a reciprocal relationship. He said, "The king is courteous to the subject, and the subject is loyal to the king", and only in this case is it necessary for the subject to be loyal to the monarch, because this is in line with Confucius's principle of "the king and the subject". Throughout his life, Confucius traveled around the world in order to seek the Ming Emperor to realize his political ideals, rather than blindly being loyal to the monarch of his own country. In recent years, Guodian Chujian has an article called "Lu Mu Gong Asks Zi Si", and Lu Mu Gong asked: "What is it like to be a loyal subject?" Zi Si replied, "He who is constantly called the evil of his king can be described as a loyal subject." This means that the duty of a courtier is not to be flattered, but to be able to make a straight-forward statement and point out the mistakes and faults of the monarch, and only in this way can he be a true loyal subject.
When mencius came to him, he put forward the theory of "benevolent government", believing that "the people are precious, the society is secondary, and the king is light", and that only a monarch who values the interests of the people has the legitimacy to rule, otherwise he should be overthrown, just as "Tang Fangjie, Wu Wang Cuts Down", this is an act of hanging the people and cutting down crimes, which has the rationality of the Heavenly Dao. He said: "If a king regards his subjects as brothers and sisters, his subjects regard him as his heart; if a king regards his subjects as dogs and horses, he regards his subjects as a countryman; and if a king regards his subjects as a mustard, he regards him as a vendetta." Later Xunzi also inherited the ideas of Confucius, believing that "from the Tao not to the king, from righteousness to the father", that is, the Confucian ideal of the royal way is higher than the reality of the politics, should be based on the ideal of the royal way, rather than blindly greeting the monarch.
The above is the Confucian idea of "loyalty", and we can also see in the Confucian classics that the concept of absolute respect for the king did not appear in the pre-Qin period.
In addition to emphasizing moral loyalty, the most important thing is to emphasize "loyalty" to friends. For example, in the Analects, Zeng Zi said: "I am in three provinces and in my body, and I am not loyal to others." In addition, there is a son who says: "He is also filial to others, and those who are good offenders are rare." Filial piety not only takes precedence over faithfulness, but also appears more often in the Analects than "faithfulness", which shows that in Confucius, the value of "filial piety" is higher than that of "faithfulness".
Confucianism developed into the Han Dynasty, and during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there was a situation of "respecting Confucianism alone and commending the Six Classics", and Confucianism gained an officially recognized orthodox status. At this time, although it has changed from the feudal system of the Zhou Dynasty to the county system, the tradition of patriarchal system still exists, Mencius said: "The foundation of the world is in the country, and the foundation of the country is at home", which is what we often call "home-country isomorphism". Based on this, the rulers realized that the "filial piety" used to deal with the ethical relations within the family and clan could be extended to society, which is what the Book of Rites says: "To serve the father and to respect the king." Therefore, the "Book of Filial Piety" was attached great importance in the Han Dynasty, not only taking "filial piety" as an important way for the state to select talents; the emperor's title also contained the word "filial piety", such as Han Xiaowen Emperor, Han Xiaowu Emperor, etc., which shows the importance that the ruler attaches to "filial piety".
The "Filial Piety Sutra and The Opening Of The Righteousness" says: "Filial piety is the foundation of virtue, and the place of teaching is born from it." The ethics of "filial piety" are politicized and regarded as the foundation of the state's actual administration and religion. He also said, "The skin of the body, the parents who receive it, do not dare to destroy it, and the beginning of filial piety is also the beginning; standing up and walking the path, making a name for itself in the hereafter, so as to show the parents, and the end of filial piety." Husband filial piety begins with relatives, in the matter of the king, and finally stands up. Here filial piety is associated with loyalty.
In the "Filial Piety Sutra and The Chapter of the Emperor", it is also said: "In the affairs of a gentleman, he will think loyally, retreat and make up for it, and will go along with his beauty and save his evil, so that the upper and lower levels can be close to each other." Here, "will go along with the beauty and save the evil" means that the government decrees that are correct and beneficial to the monarch should be actively implemented so that his moral government can be smoothly implemented; but at the same time, it is also emphasized that the mistakes and mistakes of the monarch should be corrected and remedied in a timely manner, so that his evil and atrocities can be stopped.
The most wonderful thing in the "Filial Piety Sutra" is the "Commentary", and Zeng Zi asked: "Dare to ask the Son to obey the Father's order, can it be said that filial piety?" Confucius explicitly denied it. Confucius said, "If the Father has slanders, he will not fall into unrighteousness." Therefore, when it is unrighteous, the Son must not fail to slander the Father, and the subject must not slander the King. Therefore, when it is unjust, it is slandered. From the Father's decree, and filial piety? ”
What is slander? Liu Xiang said in the "Saying Yuan, Chenshu": "If you can advise the king, if you use it, you will keep it, and if you don't use it, you will go to it, which is called advice; if you use it, you can live, and if you don't use it, you can die. From this we can see that a true loyal and filial piety is not blindly "obedient", and sometimes when it is time to "reverse", it must be "reverse". Don't blindly be unconditionally loyal and filial, because parents and monarchs are always confused, and if they are not stopped in time, they will be made to commit greater mistakes. If so, it will destroy their honor. However, later corrupt Confucians and novelists seriously misinterpreted the original meaning of Confucianism, proposing that "the king calls the subject to die, and the subject does not die for disloyalty; the father calls the son to die, and the son does not die for filial piety." "Extreme remarks. This also has to make us lament that "the sutra is a good sutra, but it is a pity that the monk with a crooked mouth recites it crookedly."
However, looking at history, we find that although there are many acts of foolishness and filial piety in history, there are also many people who dare to violate the direct advice. For example, Wei Zheng in the Tang Dynasty and Hai Rui in the Ming Dynasty, they dared to go against the dragon scales and dare to point out the emperor's faults, which not only reflected the bold loyalty of a courtier, but also made people understand what is the real "loyalty".
Through the above explanations, we understand more clearly that Confucianism not only opposes foolishness, loyalty and filial piety, but also advocates slander and slander.
The so-called loyalty, on the one hand, means that when the king's behavior is in line with morality, he should actively pursue it; on the other hand, when the king's behavior is not moral, he should be promptly advised to avoid mistakes and faults. The so-called filial piety also means that on the one hand, when the parents' behavior is moral, they should actively accept them, and on the contrary, they should be slanderous, correct their faults in a timely manner, and protect their reputation.