During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucianism, headed by Kong Meng, developed rapidly and became one of the most classic doctrines and ideas in Chinese history. During this period, many popular words and idioms were born, and "the initiator, its no consequences" is one of them.
This sentence is original to Confucius, which means that the first person to use the pottery figurine as a funerary object should cut off his children and grandchildren. So why did Confucius, a man who attached great importance to etiquette, utter such a vicious curse? This is because the use of clay figurines to accompany the burial violates the Confucian idea of "thick support and thin burial", undermines the existing system of ritual music, and causes cultural degradation.
01 The Zhou Dynasty abolished the real martyrdom system and replaced it with straw people for burial
From the beginning of the xia dynasty, the first slave dynasty in the history of the mainland, people attached great importance to the development and implementation of funerary culture. Until the Shang Dynasty, people have always insisted on using real people to accompany the burial of dead nobles, so the custom of exterminating humanity is undoubtedly very cruel, and it is also contrary to the development of social civilization.
Fortunately, Chinese civilization is constantly evolving, and there have been cultural innovations in every era.
"Zhou Li" is a classic work of Confucianism, created by Zhou Gongdan, the founding hero of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which standardized various etiquette systems in society, and also had important significance and far-reaching influence on the development of the etiquette system in later generations. In the Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou Li strictly stipulated the abolition of the system of real people's burial, and instead decorated the shape of adults with grass, and used straw people for burial. This practice conforms to the development law of historical civilization, and also embodies the core idea of the Zhou Li, which is deeply respected by future generations, especially Confucianism.
02 The pottery figurines are too similar to real people, and the use of their burial is seriously contrary to Confucian thought
"The initiator has no consequences", this sentence comes from Mencius, one of the four books, the original text is "the cannibalism of the beasts, and the evil of man." For the sake of the people's parents, the administration is not exempt from the cannibalism of the beast. Evil in its parents for the people also? Jonny: 'The initiator has no consequences!' 'For its likeness to use it also.' Why did it cause the People to starve and die? ”。
It turned out that in the Spring and Autumn Period, with the advent of the Bronze Age, the level of social productivity was developed at a high speed, and people's material living standards gradually improved, especially the capital of the bureaucratic class showed a state of excessive expansion. Therefore, the bureaucratic class was no longer satisfied with the use of low-cost straw people for funeral activities, so it chose to use more expensive clay figurines to make human figures for sacrifice.
Confucius also condemned this behavior. The reason for Confucius's dependence is mainly the Confucian idea of "thick support and thin burial", that is, when the old man is alive, he should do filial piety and do his best to support the elderly, but after the old man dies, he should be "thin buried", and there should not be too much extravagance and waste. The burial of pottery figurines is contrary to Confucius's ideas, and the cost of ceramic figurines is more expensive.
Confucius believed that the bureaucratic class should use the money to improve the living standards of the common people rather than spending too much money on making clay figurines for funerals. Moreover, from the Shang Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty, from the system of real people's burial to the system of grass people's burial, this is the trend of historical development, which is very consistent with the Confucian idea of "thick and thin burial". The current pottery figurine funeral seems to go against the trend, which is undoubtedly a cultural regression.
To sum up, "the initiator, its no aftermath" is a famous saying of Confucius, which evolved into the later idiom "initiator", which means the first person to do bad things, which has a pejorative meaning. In fact, the idea expressed by Confucius's words is that people should focus on the living people, do filial piety while they are alive, and seek happiness for the living people, rather than wasting limited resources on the dead people.
Although more than two thousand years have passed since Confucius said this sentence, but now that I think about it carefully, Confucius's thought does have a certain truth, which is worthy of careful study by future generations!