"Le" Of The Confucians In The Pre-Qin Period

The first sentence of Analects is the declaration on le (乐) of the Confucians. The first sentence of Analects, the proposition "Confucius and Hui’s Cheerfulness" and the proposition "He is simply a man, who in his eager pursuit of knowledge forgets his food, who in the joy of its attainment forgets his sorrows, and who does not perceive that old age is coming on." establish the keynote and background color for the "happy sense culture" of Confucianism. And in Analects, the proposition "They who know the truth is not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it" reflects that the Confucians hold in high esteem for the state of le(乐). Under the belief that the sage(圣) is happy, the question, what let Confucius and Hui cheerful in the proposition "Confucius and Hui’s Cheerfulness", was not needed to answer necessarily for the Confucians in the Pre-Qin Period. It was not a fundamental question in life for them. Corresponding with this, the questions like "What is happiness?","How to seek happiness?" in modern context, were not "serious" or "urgent" for the Confucians in the Pre-Qin Period. Because under the belief, if one become a sage(圣), he would "harvest" well-being, happiness, cheerfulness and so on at the same time.Based on Analects showing "Confucius and Hui’s Cheerfulness", the view "Shun (舜) would privately have taken his father on his back, and retired into concealment, living some where along the sea-coast. There he would have been all his life, cheerful and happy, forgetting the kingdom." in Mencius shows le(乐) of Shun(舜) who is another Confucian sage personified the ideal of le(乐). For the Confucians in the Pre-Qin Period, Confucius, Yan Hui and Shun are three Confucian sages of personification of the ideal of le(乐). Shun’s le(乐) contains three aspects. The first aspect is happiness of a son, the second aspect is happiness of a king, and the third aspect is happiness of a hermit. The first aspect is the premise and foundation in the three aspects. What’s more, the propositions,"Three happy things of the superior man","Be conscious of sincerity on self-examination","Sharing happiness with people", show and present the performances and concrete features of le(乐) in the fields of ethical practice, the nature of mind and political construction."Le"(乐) of the Confucians in the Pre-Qin Period is closely related with the music, which is different from the pleasure, happiness in Nicomachean Ethics and modern Chinese. It contains more abundant meanings than pleasure and happiness. The sage(圣)is the purport and direction of "the le(乐) of the superior man". The value and significance of "the le(乐) of the superior man" is given by the realm of the sage (圣)."the le(乐) of the superior man" is reflected in the relationships between "persons" and "things". The actualizing of "be sincere"(诚) and the "contemplation" in Nicomachean Ethics both can bring le(乐), pleasure, happiness and other good feelings, both have a belief of the transcendent, both emphasize the importance of thinking. But the thinking in Mencius which is full of emotions is sincere and the thinking in Nicomachean Ethics is contemplative. The le(乐) of "be sincere"(诚) is actualized in the process of "doing" and "things","be sincere"(诚) has a metaphysical quality but "contemplation" does not have."Contemplation" needs leisure but "be sincere"(诚) does not need.Xunzi and The Classic of Rites not only reveal and present the relationships between le(乐) and music(乐), but also emphasiz le(乐) and music(乐) should not be too much, should be limited by rites. In addition, the character of the "happy sense culture" is showed more obvious in Xunzi, especially through the proposition "There is happiness throughout the whole life; there is no day of sorrow". This proposition is built on the views in Xunzi that honor and disgrace should be judged by righteousness(义) not social status and the superior man should make a distinction between the factors from the Heaven and the factors from himself. In the opinion of the Confucians in the Pre-Qin Period, le(乐) and music(乐) should not be flowing(流) and soaking(淫), or they should be corrected. This principle not only requires people should refuse the bad music(乐)"explicitly", but also "tacitly" requires the life of art should not be excessive. For the life of themselves, the Confucians are le(乐) all the time. But for the others, their families and countries, the Confucians are worrying all the time. The worrying is different from the negative emotion "sorrow". For the superior man, his whole life of "There is happiness throughout the whole life; there is no day of sorrow" is not a life of forgetting the world, not happy alone. His whole life is full of great responsibilities toward his family, clan, country and so on. The responsibilities and le(乐), the worrying and le(乐) are not contradictory and conflicting in the superior man’s life.In The Classic of Rites, le(乐) is often used to be a pronoun about an ideal live, political and social condition. The proposition "If every aristocracy loves their parents, the whole society would be happy" lets le(乐) as a line that runs through ethics, politics, clan, state, emotion and the formation of customs. This proposition approximately means "Be ren (仁), be le(乐)". As an emotion, le(乐) for oneself, is the real "sense", but for others, is "phenomena", for example a smile. By the proposition "A filial son, cherishing a deep love, is sure to have a look of pleasure" which is built on the foundation of the proposition "The difficulty is with the countenance." in Analects, the importance, formality, difficulty and possibility of le(乐) have been demonstrated. The proposition "The music(乐) was intended to illustrate virtue(德)", reveals that the harmony(�'�) is the common characteristic of music(乐), le(乐) and virtue(德). The proposition "To speak and to carry into execution what you have spoken is ceremony(礼); to act and to give and receive pleasure from what you do is music(乐)." Indicates music(乐) is the superior man’s life goal, which not only develops the idea of "le(乐)—music(乐)", enlarges the connotation of music(乐), but also reflects the thinking mode of "Pan-Music" of the Confucians in the Pre-Qin Period.The concept le(乐) of the Confucians in the Pre-Qin Period has four kinds of meanings. First, le(乐) means a kind of emotions which in parallel with pleasure, anger and sorrow. Second, le(乐) is a generic term of positive emotions like pleasure, joy, cheerfulness and so on. Third, le(乐) is a pronoun of all emotions. Fourth, le(乐) is an ideal state of the society, politics and life, which corresponds to, but is different from happiness and well-being in modern Chinese. In the fourth meaning, le(乐)’s vital characteristic is harmony(�'�)."Le"(乐) of the Confucians in the Pre-Qin Period has some kinds of characteristics and features. First, the concept le(乐) includes the thoughts, the emotion and the state of le(乐), which is different from li(理) and qi(气) and other Chinese philosophy concepts. Therefore, the title of this paper is "Le" of the Confucians in the Pre-Qin Period not The Thoughts of "Le " of the Confucians in the Pre-Qin Period. Second, as an emotion and life state, le(乐) is private. So, we should understand it not only via rational thinking but also via personal experience like the Confucians in the Pre-Qin period. Third, le(乐) is a faith, belief. This faith has two explanatory dimensions. The first explanatory dimensions is under the belief of sage(圣), if one person become a sage, he or she would have well-being, happiness, cheerfulness and so on at the same time. The second explanatory dimension is one person should have an optimistic attitude forever no matter what the circumstances are. Fourth, le(乐) is similar to music(乐). There are many close relationships between le(乐) and music (乐). Le(乐) and music (乐) are not opposite categories like yin(阴) and yang(阳), but they connected closely like them. They have same font——"乐" in Chinese and explain each other and lead to the same ideal state of life. In this sense, le(乐) is special and unique not only in Chinese philosophy concepts but also in corresponding western philosophy concepts like joy, happiness, well-being, cheerfulness, pleasure. In addition to the above features, the thoughts of le(乐) of the Confucians and even the whole Confucianism both have a characteristic of "longitudinal system". The "longitudinal system" is also a "group system", a "hidden system"The research on "le"(乐) of the Confucians in the Pre-Qin Period is also an "observation" of the Confucians in the Pre-Qin Period. Through this "observation", we can find four spirits of the Confucians in the Pre-Qin Period. They are the spirit of "Ren (仁)-Righteousness (义)-Learning (学)-Le (乐)", the spirit of "What the superior man seeks, is in himself", the spirit of "The beautiful and the good should be harmonious." and the spirit of responsibility. The four spirits are the "guidance" and "reference" of our present lives in some degree.