The Textual Study Of Duo Sang(夺丧) And Ming De(明德)in The Book Of Rites

As one of The Three Rituals, The Book of Rites is the anthology for rituals formed from Pre-Qin Dynasty to Western Han Dynasty, which focuses on demonstrating the concepts and principles of rites. The current study of words in The Book of Rites mostly emphasizes on the names of the things and the concepts of The Three Rituals as an entirety. However, it lacks the further textual research and interpretation of words with cultural connotations in the book. This fact will definitely have an impact on the integral understanding of contemporary ritual culture.The two words, Duo Sang(夺丧)and Ming De(明德),are respectively seen in the chapters Zaji II and Daxue. The former one, based on different grammatical knowledge, is understood in different ways, but its historical practice can provide us a comprehensive understanding, which causes the introspection of Confucian value on loyalty and filial piety. The latter one has been appreciated by scholars who present a number of explanations. And through textual study of related materials from Pre-Qin Dynasty, we can have a further inspection and understanding to this classic concept from the conception of heaven and man.Through summaries of old explanations and textual criticism of the two words, this paper is trying to construct a research paradigm of cultural words under modern horizon of ritual study, thus to realize and elucidate Confucian ritual conception in an extensive way.