Since ancient times, the country has been known as a state of etiquette, and the word "etiquette" runs through almost all aspects of Chinese life, scolding people for being "unreasonable", praising people for being "polite", paying attention to the "etiquette system" in major state affairs, and the people's marriage and funeral marriage and marriage are divided into "mourning" and "joy". And the expectations of future generations of "gentlemen" for good character stem from this. So what is the relationship between "Li" and Luoyang?
Zhou Li was born in Luoyang
First of all, a particularly important point is that the "li" was born in Luoyang. "Li" is an abbreviation for "Zhou Li", and "Zhou" refers to the "Zhou Dynasty", the third slave dynasty in Chinese history after the Shang Dynasty, which was originally founded by Ji Fa and was located in the then Hojing, which is now Xi'an. Later, because Luoyang was a treasure of feng shui, King Cheng of Zhou often held sacrifice ceremonies here, and for the first time moved the capital of the Zhou Dynasty to Luoyang, after which the power of the princes gradually became bigger and stronger, and the prestige of Zhou Tianzi slowly became smaller. In 770 BC, King Ping of Zhou officially moved the capital east and made the capital Chengzhou, which is now Luoyang, and this period of the Zhou Dynasty thereafter was called Eastern Zhou.
The greatest contribution of the Zhou Dynasty to Chinese civilization was the Zhou Li. During the Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Gongdan made ceremonies and music in Luoyang, forming the "Zhou Li" to govern the country, its content was very rich, covering all aspects of social life at that time, such as politics, economy, culture, customs, etiquette, etc., used to distinguish between social dignity and inferiority, and to determine the morality of the people, and its fundamental purpose was to maintain the social stability of the Zhou Dynasty.
First, from the aspect of "etiquette", there are sacrifices, hajj, feudalism, hunting, funerals equal to the important ceremonial system at the national level; second, there are specific standards and norms for daily life from the son of heaven to the nobility in the use of ding, chariots, costumes, ritual music, etc., and even the rank and shape of related daily utensils have been recorded in great detail. For example, what the ancients called the "Great Prison" during the sacrifice is composed of three animals, cattle, sheep, and pigs, and can only be used by the Son of Heaven. The corresponding "less prison", only sheep and pigs, is used by ordinary princes and qing doctors. It can be seen that the Zhou Li has a clear hierarchy in terms of sacrifice.
2, the role of Zhou Li on the Zhou Dynasty
Secondly, the formation of the Zhou rites was not only used to plan the living system from the Heavenly Son down to the people, but more importantly, to maintain the patriarchal feudal system of the Zhou Dynasty. After the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Tianzi was the "Great Sect" of the entire Zhou Dynasty, that is, the boss, while the other nobles of the Zhou Dynasty were divided into other places and became princes, which was "Xiaozong" relative to Zhou Tianzi. However, the princes in their fiefdoms, relative to others, are "great sects", the bosses of their own territories.
However, in order to make this concept of "large sect" and "small sect" deeply penetrate into everyone's heart, Zhou Gongdan carried out large-scale sorting and transformation of the ancient to yin merchant ritual music, and created a set of specific and operaable ritual music systems, including diet, living, sacrifice, funeral... All aspects of social life are included in the category of "etiquette". The entire society of the Zhou Dynasty was systematized and standardized by the formulation of the Zhou rites.
Zhou Li also educated the people and the people from various angles such as politics, education, and faith, and promoted the importance of the ritual music system, which is regarded as a system that can unify everything. For example, the Zhou Lizhong also made a meticulous division of the official system of the Zhou Dynasty, which standardized the "Zhou Li" into six types of officials: its division of labor was roughly as follows: Tianguan Tsukazai, Dazai and below a total of 63 kinds of officials, responsible for court affairs; Situ Situ, Da Situ and below a total of 78 kinds of officials, responsible for civil affairs; Chunguan Zongbo, Dazongbo and below a total of 70 kinds of officials, responsible for clan affairs; Xiaguan Sima and Da Sima and below a total of 70 kinds of officials, responsible for military affairs; Qiu Guansikou, Dasikou and the following a total of 66 kinds of officials, Responsible for criminal law affairs; winter officials and hundreds of workers, a total of 30 kinds of officials in terms of design and production, responsible for construction affairs.
Among them, the specific classifications of Dazai, Situ, Zongbo, Sima ( 司寇 , and Baigong ) almost cover the major classification of hundreds of officials in later generations , and many official positions or official names are also used. Therefore, under the premise that the liturgical music system was vigorously promoted, the Zhou Dynasty's sub-feudal system based on blood patriarchy was greatly strengthened.
3. The influence of zhou li on future generations
1. Zhou Li influenced the bureaucratic system in later generations
As can be seen from the above, the purpose of the Zhou Li was to maintain the dynastic rule of the Zhou Dynasty, and this system of using the ritual culture to stabilize the rule of the feudal dynasty was all used by later dynasties. For example, almost every dynasty in later generations had a "ceremonial department" to be in charge of and formulate the hierarchy of etiquette and rules and regulations in the country's affairs of large and small. For example, the "six officials" in the Zhou Dynasty were evolved in the Sui Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty named the six ministries as officials, households, ceremonies, soldiers, criminals, and workers, as the main body of the central official system, which was followed by later generations and was used until the Qing Dynasty. Successive dynasties revised the canon, such as the Tang "Six Classics of Kaiyuan", the Song "Kaibao Tongli", the Ming "Daming Jili", etc., which were also based on the "Zhou Li" and considered the profits and losses. Therefore, "Zhou Li" is not a classic of the royal era, but a classic of the imperial era.
2. Zhou Li influenced the ideology and culture of later generations
An important point of view in the Zhou Li is to attach importance to "human nature", and this view has been continued by many thinkers in later generations. For example, Confucianism has the theory of "human nature is inherently good", advocating people's ideological indoctrination, "human nature" is defined as "benevolence", "benevolence and righteousness" three levels are closely linked, all-round education of people's thoughts, guide people to abide by etiquette norms. Although the "Six Arts of Gentlemen" proposed by the Zhou Dynasty when educating the nobility were gradually not valued in later generations, they derived the highest standard of "gentleman", a relatively concretized personality in ancient China, which made specific norms for people's conduct and influenced the ultimate desire of later Generations of Confucians to "cultivate oneself and rule the country and the world".
In addition, the idea of "protecting the people with virtue" in the Zhou Li was also evolved into the monarch's love and benevolence for the people in later generations. For example, the Mo family's "simultaneous love", the Confucian "benevolence" of "affinity and benevolence to the people, benevolence to the people and love things", and the famous "self-desire to stand up and establish people, their own desire to reach and reach people", pay attention to the gentleman's pushing of themselves and people; for example, the famous "old and old and old, young and young and young", pay attention to the unity of the world.
Even the "Three Principles and Five Constants" proposed by Confucianism have evolved from the Zhou Li. Because, in the Zhou Li, there are "six people to be nourished with peace: one is to be kind to the young, the second is to provide for the elderly, the third is to be poor, the fourth is to be poor, the fifth is to forgive the disease, and the sixth is to be prosperous." "It's not just the world's unity, social responsibility, but also the friendship between relatives mentioned above. The Three Principles refer to the father as the son, the king as the subject, and the husband as the wife. The legends of the Five Constants are different, usually referring to benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom, and faith, referred to as Gangchang, which is a feudal ritual that runs through the history of China's feudal dynasties and has a far-reaching impact on China. For example, the "small problems" that people often talk about parents, the "brothers and brothers" between brothers, the benevolence between friends, kinship, respect, longevity and the difference between men and women, etc., are all the evolution of Zhou Li.
Zhou Li influenced the Five Elements Of Yin and Yang doctrine in later generations
For example, "Tianguan Neixiaochen" says that government decrees have yang and yin orders; "Tianguan Neizai" says that there are yang and yin rituals in ceremonies; "Diguan Herdsman" says that sacrifices have yang and yin rituals; the south is yang, so the tianzi listens to the dynasty in the south; the north is yin, so the queen rules the north, which is the embodiment of reconciling yin and yang between men and women; the left is yang, which is the direction of humanity, so the ancestral temple is on the left; the right is yin, which is the respect of the authenticity, so the society is on the right. It can be seen that the Zhou Li believes that the entire universe and life are related to the reconciliation of yin and yang.
And such thinking influenced the Five Elements of Yin and Yang theory in later generations. During the Warring States period, the Five Elements Thought was born, with the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth, which distinguished and stereotyped the essence of all things in the world. For example, the direction has the east, west, south, and north, the music has five sounds such as Gongshang Horn Zhengyu, and the colors have five colors such as blue, red, white, black and yellow, and there are also five animals corresponding to the five elements in the sacrifice: chickens are wooden animals, sheep are fire animals, dogs are golden animals, pigs are water animals, and cattle are earth animals, which are reflected in the sacrifices of the Zhou Dynasty.
Later, the Idea of The Five Elements of Yin and Yang had a great influence on the emergence of local Taoism in China during the Han Dynasty. In Taoist thought, the five elements of yin and yang are the basic ideas, and the five elements of yin and yang gossip are the most important in Taoist teachings, such as the alchemy furnace of Taishang Laojun in "Journey to the West", which is the yin and yang bagua furnace.
Zhou Li influenced later generations of Chinese medicine to say
The yin and yang theory in the Zhou Li and the five elements theory of derivatives of later generations have influenced Chinese medicine. The famous classic of Chinese medicine, the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, skillfully combines yin and yang and the five elements into one piece to form a relatively complete theory of the five elements of Chinese medicine, and uses this to guide medical practice and disease prevention and treatment. The ancients believed that the five elements correspond to the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth in heaven, and on earth are the five substances of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, and in man are the five virtues of benevolence, righteousness, wisdom, and faith, and these five types of substances form a series between heaven, earth, and people, and if Jupiter in the sky changes, the wood on the earth and the benevolence of people will mutate. The five-element cycle of wood making fire, fire born of earth, native gold, gold born of water, and aquatic wood is called "five elements of symbiosis". Substances that follow this cycle will arise from each other, and if they violate it, they will be compatible, muke earth, tuke water, water ke fire, fire ke jin, jin ke mu, called "five elements of xiang ke". Traditional Chinese medicine also uses this kind of symbiotic thinking to treat people's diseases.
summary
The birth of the Zhou Li was an important tool for the Zhou Dynasty to maintain its rule, fixed the stability of the patriarchal division, refined the division of labor in society, and influenced the later official system, ideological culture, the theory of the five elements of yin and yang, the birth of Taoism, the theory of Traditional Chinese medicine, the three principles and five constants, and so on, which can be described as far-reaching on China.