On Pre-qin Confucian Ideology Of “Ruling By ‘li’(Rites)”

The concept of “Li”(rites) is the essence of the Pre-Qin Confucian ideology and lies in the heart of the Chinese cultural connotations. “Li”(rites) is an appraisal system of morality and norms for social communications for the purpose of creating a harmonious and orderly society and coping effectively with social activities evolved on the basis of generalizing and reorganizing the cognitions or beliefs formed in the long history of social development. In other words, “Li”(rites) represents the cognition and critique and sublation of “Li”(logic) contained in the objective things, and meanwhile, it is a truthful and appropriate expression of personal feelings. In essence, “Li”(rites) centers around “Jing”(respect) and is characterized by inheritance, openness, morality, universality, supremacy, norms, instrumentality, contemporaneity and territoriality.The so-called “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)”, in short, is administration by means of ‘Li’(Rites), rather than simply running the country by ‘Li’(Rites). More specifically, it refers to the integrated administration followed certain principles and disciplines of realization of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” to make the society eventually be regularized, by the means of ritual system, etiquette, ritual objects, courtesy speech, appearance and bearing rituals.“Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” is a status of the application of Confucian “Li” which includes objects, means and realization disciplines, principles and aims of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” to cultivating the moral self, regulating the family, maintaining the state rightly and making the rest of the world peaceful.The objects of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” include cultivating the moral self, regulating the family, maintaining the state rightly and making the rest of the world peaceful. Among them, cultivating the moral self is reflected in the doctrines that subduing one’s self and returning to propriety is perfect virtue, that behaviors are established by the rule of propriety, and the ideas of performing rituals intentionally, feeling an etiquette, the comity of virtues, cultivating one’s mind through music, getting along with others with courtesy, respecting the seniors and teachers, rituals as a norm in daily life, etc. Regulating the family with rituals is embodied in the etiquettes between father and son, elder and younger brothers, husband and wife, you and your friends, host and guests, you and your neighbors, etc. Maintaining the state rightly and making the rest of the world peaceful is incarnated in state administration, managing the populace, kings treating with ministers with rituals, and ministers treating with kings with loyalty, development of military forces, national defense, etc. The idea of heaven or world is in accord with the idea of “heaven’s son, the king”. The idea of dukes and princes is in agreement with “domestic territory”. The latter refers to the states ruled by dukes or princes. Both “heaven” and “state” can be referred as “state”, with differences in the level and the size of territory.The manners of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” fall into four kinds: ritual codes, ritual etiquette, ritual objects and ritual speech formulas. Ritual codes are the standard or norm on which right and wrong are judged and distinguished in accordance with rituals. Ritual etiquette represents the specific form of rituals, or the external forms of ritual code and ritual meanings. It embodies the orderly manners of conduct, bearings, styles and rhythms in performing rituals. Ritual speech formulas are a set of special language for different ritual situations.The realization disciplines of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” are based on the deeply recognition of features of humanity and ‘Li’(Rites). It is claimed by Pre-Qin Confucians that goodness and evil are both in the people’s heart, the goodness should be carried forward while the evil should be weakened even eliminated by people, in other words, if one is honest and reasonable, he can be eventually sincere and earnest by himself. The realization of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” is the outcome of Confucians’ profound understanding on the propriety of ethics and morality to cultivate one’s morality into the goodness and honesty. Beside, it can be realized by some disciplines like ethics, examples, punishment, urge and blame to weaken and eliminate the evil in the people’s heart and teach the society.The maxims of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” are the principles to be observed in the practice of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)”. In short, they are variable and invariable. Variable is the form of rituals, while invariable is the content of rituals. The former is what the Confucian saying that “rituals progress with the times” is about: the ritual codes, ritual etiquette, ritual objects and ritual speech formulas change with the occasions in their actual operations. The latter means that the principle of humanism remains unchanged in the operation of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)”. The principle of power and the principle of law are just variable and invariable. The former is again based on the latter which is the cognition on the truth or law, the inherent nature of law. The content of law, in the opinion of Confucians, is humanism. In conclusion, the principle of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” is the principle of law.The Pre-Qin Confucian ideology of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” is a systematic design for the orderly social life evolved in the contentions of various schools of thoughts, and it is a precious ideological heritage of the Chinese traditional culture. Compared with other schools of thoughts by other ancient philosophers, Confucian ideology of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” has its advantages. In essence, the process of ideology of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” is the process of humanistic moralization. One of important features of Pre-Qin Confucian ideology of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” is humanism, which is embodied in the power change based on humanistic consideration, especially in the opposition of burying slaves or making them into clay figures alive as immolation in funerals as well as in the people-centered philosophy regarding some everyday norms. Another important feature of Confucian ideology of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” is the order of management is hierarchical. The nature of the hierarchy is division, which is caused by the realization of material desire equity and individual distribution equity. It is of necessity to radically put to right the misconception and misunderstanding of the traditional culture inclusive of Confucian school, Confucianism and Confucius. The reflection on the Confucian ideology of “Ruling by ‘Li’(Rites)” should be echoed to, supported and involved by more and more scholars, which will be beneficial to the studies on the traditional culture, and the cognition on the connotation and value of traditional culture will tend to be more accurate and truthful.