The Analects: How to Repay Virtue? Repay grievances with directness, and repay virtue with virtue

"Repay grievances with directness" is a common idiom from the Analects of the Constitution: "Or 'repay grievances with virtue', how is it?" Zi Yue: 'Why repay virtue?' Repay grievances with directness, and repay virtue with virtue. ’”

The phrase "repay grievances with directness and repay virtue with virtue" in this passage has been widely interpreted by scholars of all generations as: "Answer resentment with fairness and integrity, and reward favors with favors" (Yang Bojun's "Commentary on the Analects"), "Those who complain about it, love and hate each other, and even be just and selfless, the so-called straight." He who is virtuous will be rewarded with virtue, and he shall not forget it. (Zhu Xi's "Commentary on the Collection") "Neither is it allowed to repay grievances with virtue, so it is even more necessary to answer with this." It is forbidden to complain with virtue, and those who have complaints with me should be repaid with a straight path, and if they are virtuous with me, I will repay them with virtue. (Liang Dynasty Emperor Kan,"Analects of the Analects")

"Repaying grievances with fairness and integrity" In the end, Liu Baonan's "Analects of Justice" believes that "straight" means that those who complain have no residual grievances in their hearts. If we cannot forget resentment, we can forget it after revenge; if we can forget resentment, even if we don't report it, it is straight. Liu Xie made a reading based on the Confucian concept of "loyalty and forgiveness", but from a social and historical point of view, this interpretation is contrary to the social public opinion at that time that "fathers and enemies do not share heaven" and "brothers hate different countries", and I am afraid that confucius original meaning is misunderstood.

These misunderstandings arise because later generations mostly understand the word "straight" from the common meaning of "fairness" and "integrity", while ignoring that "straight" has a more primitive meaning that is less used by people today - equivalent, equal. The excavated documents of the late Warring States period and the Qin Dynasty period, the Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Tomb Zhu Jian "Legal Answers" provide us with supporting evidence: "On what is not straight in prison? Sin should be heavy and light, and when it is light and heavy, it is called 'not straight'. "This precious document records the sentencing criteria of the Warring States period , the principle of appropriateness." "Not straight" literally is not equivalent. The legal meaning means that the crime should be heavy and deliberately lightly sentenced, and the light and deliberately heavy sentence should be imposed. That is to say, the crime and punishment are not comparable.

From the perspective of word meaning development, the initial meaning of "straight" refers to the two sides facing each other in space. "Speaking of Texts": "Straight, right view also." "Right view refers to the opposite of the two sides. "Mozi Bei Cave" discusses that when the enemy is found digging a tunnel to attack the city, the defender needs to "rush inside the city and burrow its soil straight", which means that it should quickly dig a tunnel in the direction of the enemy to prevent it. The "Ceremonial Ceremony and The Ceremony of the Crown of Scholars" also says: "Suixing, set the washing straight in the east, the north and south are deep in the hall, and the water is washing the east." Zheng Xuan's note: "Wash, undertake the washer, discard the water also." "Rong, the wing also." Pointing to the sink facing the east wing of the house.

This meaning was later extended to quantitative relative, with the meaning of "equivalent" and "equal". "Pipes and Mountains to Numbers": "The number of coins is accurate, a county must have a county's Nakata policy, a township must have a township Nakata's policy, and a family must have a straight family." "Pipe Collection School" quoted Zhang Peilun as saying: "Middle, straight, all should also be." The meaning of this sentence is that the standard quantity of money in circulation in a county must be suitable for the survey data of the county's land (data equivalent to the land situation) ,...... In a family, it must be equivalent to the amount of use that the family needs. "Lü Shi Chunqiu Mengxia": "When the lord of the line is out of Lu, he will be in his place." High temptation: "Dang, Naoya." "Meaning: Knighthood must be equivalent to their status. It also refers to the equality of both parties to the marriage, "Shi wei I Te." Mao Chuan: "Special, Pi also." "Han poems" "special" as "straight", cloud: "quite worthwhile also." "Press: Horse, match also, quite also." The foreign text "straight" indicates that straight has a considerable meaning. By extension, it means that the price is equivalent to the goods, sleeping tiger land Qin tomb bamboo Jane "Qin Law Eighteen Kinds of Jin Bu Law" "big brown one, with eighteen pounds, straight sixty dollars." ”

"Straight" is also written as "value", and the two words are of the same origin. "Phase value" is a Han Dynasty idiom, "Shuowen": "Dang, Tian Xiang value also." Paragraph note: "The value of the person, hold also, tian and tian hold also." By extension, everything that contradicts each other is known as the right thing to do. According to this, "when" and "value" refer to relatively positive, thus deriving the meaning of "equivalent" and "equivalent". "Ritual and Funeral Dress": "Eight liters of great merit are like nine liters." Han Zhengxuan's note: "He who does not speak of the seven ascensions, the Lord is obedient, and wants his literary value." Tang Jia Gongyan Shu: "The one who is worth it, when it is also." ...... At the beginning of death, the crown is equivalent to the decline of small merits, so the cloud 'literary value' is also. ”

In summary, there is quite a sense. "Phase value" and "equivalent" refer to the corresponding and consistent relationship of things in space, time, quantity, weight, nature, function, etiquette, etc. Repay grievances with directness or revenge with grievances, similar to the for tat and eye for eye in the Hammurabi code, it emphasizes the principle of reciprocity, and cannot be deliberately aggravated by revenge.

The "Book of Han and Geography" criticizes the fraudulent and violent practices of Taiyuan and Shangdang, and Yun "Taiyuan and Shangdang have many descendants of the Jin gong clan, who are inclined to each other with deceitful power, exaggerate their merits, take revenge, and marry and send them to death." Tang Yanshi's ancient note: "Straight and dang." "Similarly, in judicial proceedings, officials must also be properly sentenced to enforce the law, i.e. the offender is punished with a punishment comparable to the crime.

The Book of Rites and the Order of the Moon records that "it is a matter of command, a hundred severe punishments, and a slaughter must be done, and it is not a waste of time, and it is improper, but it is suffered." "Improper" is also known as "not straight", and the "History of Qin Shi Huang Benji" records Yun: "Thirty-four years, suitable for the treatment of prison officials who are not straight, build the Great Wall and the land of South Vietnam." In the laws of the time, there were penalties for the crime of dereliction of duty, "dereliction of duty" and "dishonesty.". Zhangjiashan Hanjian's "Two-Year Law Order": "Impeaching a person is not tried, for the sake of loss; his misdemeanor is also impeached as a felony, which is not straight." Therefore, "not straight" is not an unrighteousness, but a fixed legal term.

Those who bear grievances under the influence of the confucian culture of filial piety, righteousness, loyalty and other ethics will not give up revenge, but will emphasize the reciprocal value of retribution, and "repaying grievances with directness" cannot be understood as "repaying grievances with benevolence".

"Li Ji Qu Li": "The Father's enemy and the common heaven." Brothers are not anti-soldiers. The enemy of the travel is not the same country. This means that the vengeance of killing the Father does not share the heavens, but seeks and kills it. Brotherly vendetta, take soldiers with you, ready for revenge. The revenge of friends, see it and kill it. The Tan Bow on the Bow details Confucius's view of revenge for his parents: "Sleeping on the pillow is dry, not shi, and the buddha and the world are also together." When encountering the city dynasty, they do not fight against the soldiers. "This is a requirement for the Avengers to carry weapons with them and to hand blade each other at any time. Therefore, Mencius lamented that the father who kills is equal to the father who kills himself. "Mencius Under the Heart" "I now know the importance of killing relatives: the father of the murderer, the man also kills his father; the brother who kills the man, the man also kills his brother." However, it is not suicide, one ear. ”

According to the remarks of Confucius and Mencius recorded in the Book of Rites and Mencius, it can be seen that the concept of revenge in Confucian thought is "repaying grievances with grievances.". In the Analects, "repaying grievances with directness" means "repaying grievances with grievances", but it emphasizes reciprocal revenge and does not aggravate revenge because of resentment.

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