In the context of our current writing or speaking, "six relatives" often refers to relatives who are related to you by blood, and our ancient Chinese family concept is more important, similar to the words "five clothes" and "nine ethnic groups" that refer to relatives. So the question is, we often say that the six relatives do not recognize, where does this idiom come from, and which six relatives refer to?
The six relatives do not recognize
Wikipedia says that the six relatives do not recognize it from Mr. Feng Deying's novel "Bitter Cauliflower":
"I lost my errand to find him, and he didn't help, but the six relatives didn't recognize him."
Obviously blind chicken nonsense, Mr. Feng's novel was only published in 2007, and the example at the bottom of the encyclopedia entry says:
Zhang Tianyi's "Ten Thousand Covenants": "As soon as that famous hall was erected, the six relatives did not recognize it." ”
This Mr. Zhang Tianyi died in 1985, and the earliest publishing information I can find about "Wan LingYue" was published by the Commercial Press in 1936.
The editors of the entry don't know if it's crossed. When writing answers, encyclopedia can provide us with a lot of help, but when citing, we must also examine it a little, this kind of loophole is too obvious encyclopedia, the previous respondents quoted it at will, misleading the reader.
I did not find the earliest source of this idiom, the encyclopedia is obviously problematic, but the interpretation of the idiom is still no problem: the six relatives do not recognize, the description is not heavy, do not understand people, and do not care about relatives. Sometimes it also refers to not being affectionate to anyone.
You know, we live in a humane society, if you do things too impersonally, you may be misunderstood by everyone, your six relatives do not recognize, of course, six relatives will alienate you, people are isolated, life is not good.
Which six parents are the six parents?
The provenance of "six relatives do not recognize" is not easy to find, but the source of "six relatives" is still more recorded, at the same time, various statements are not very uniform, I listed:
The first is father and son, brother, sister, nephew, marriage, marriage
"For fathers and sons, brothers, sisters, nephews, widows, and wives, to be like the light of day." - "Twenty-five Years of Zuo Chuan Zhao Gong"
This is the division of the "Zuo Zhuan", in which the sister refers to the father's sister, and the marriage (gòu) and the marriage refer to the relatives who have a marital relationship, the former refers to the wife's family, and the latter's husband's family.
The second is the father, the son, the brother, the brother, the husband, and the wife
"The great road is ruined, there is benevolence and righteousness; wisdom comes out, there is great hypocrisy; there is discord among the six relatives, there is filial piety; the country is in turmoil, and there are loyal subjects." - The Tao Te Ching
It is said that the avenue of the world has been abandoned, and there is a need to promote benevolence and righteousness... When there is a dispute in the family, filial piety and kindness can be shown... Which six relatives are not in harmony here?
During the Wei and Jin dynasties, Wang Bi composed the "Commentary on the Tao Te Ching" and explained: Six relatives, fathers and sons and brothers and sisters. If the six are personally reconciled and the country is autonomous, then the filial piety and loyalty do not know where they are.
Li Xian of the Tang Dynasty praised Wang Bi.
The third is father, mother, brother, brother, wife and son
This is what Xihan Jiayi said in his political essay "Public Security Policy":
"Build a long-term peace, grow the cause of governance, inherit the ancestral temple, worship the six relatives, and filial piety." ——Jia Yi, "Public Security Policy"
According to the full text of the "Public Security Policy", it can be understood that the six relatives here are: parents, brothers, and wives. The wife in the ancient text is not the same as the wife in Chinese now, and now it is said that the wife is the wife and daughter-in-law, and in ancient times it was the wife and children.
The gist of this passage is nothing more than the Confucian set, if you want to be safe and secure for ten thousand years, you must let the people understand the importance of the harmony of the six relatives, to put it bluntly, it is family harmony, fatherly kindness and filial piety, and good relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
The so-called self-cultivation and family rule the country and the world, the family is harmonious, and the world is too peaceful.