To The Inherent Gift Of External Rites

Abstract:The rites made by Duke Zhou are inherited in different ways by Confucius and Mencius. What Confucius mainly inherited is "external rites", which includes political constitution, moral regulation and social custom. Mencius also concerns about the rites in political way, while his rites are "internal", whish is the human mind. That is to say, in the structure of Mencius'thought, the rites are no longer some items written in constitution, they are inner standards for moral actions. Through the research for Mencius'thought of rites, we can see the diversion in Confucian school after Confucius, especially the characteristic embodied in Zi si—Mencius department, which is called internalization.