A Study Of The “three Years Of Funeral” In The Analects

The “Three Years' Funeral” chapter in The Analects records the fierce debate between Confucius and Zai Wo.As an ancient ritual,what caused Confucius and Zai Wo to be in such great contradiction? Ancient and modern scholars have made various in-depth discussions and studies on this.In general,these studies can be divided into a funeral investigation perspective and a ethical analysis perspective.From the perspective of ethical analysis,predecessors mostly linked this chapter to Confucius' s view of Ren and Li.Their study contains either Ren or Li or a combination of both.The basic idea is to interpret and pay attention to this chapter with Ren,Li and their relationship.In fact,considering the various important issues and details presented in the dialogue in this chapter,we can,in turn,use this chapter as a center or case to specifically discuss Confucius' s view of Ren and Li.Through careful combing you can see:There are three links in the dialogue in this chapter,behind which are the three pairs of contradictions.The first link is the contradiction of Li arising from the proposal by Zai Wo to shorten the mourning period,which is mainly concerned with the question of how Li should be changed and not changed.The second link is the contradiction of Ren,caused by Confucius' rhetorical question about “Xin An”,which mainly concerns the special and universal issues of Ren.The third link can be regarded as a synthesis of the previous links,which mainly involves the contradiction and handling of Ren and Li.Based on these three links,this article analyzes the contradictions and key issues.The key to the first pair of contradiction is how to find a basis for the invariance of Li.Confucius guided it to Ren and used internal psychology as the basis for external norms.But this caused the second contradiction,Zai Wo's word of “Xin An” reveals the specificity of the individual.So the key to the second contradiction lies in how to establish the universality of Ren.Confucius then first established the universality of the “three years of love”,and designated the “Three Years' Funeral” as the “universal funeral”.Through the unity of Ren and Zhi,this contradiction is resolved.The key to the third contradiction lies in how to deal with the relationship between Ren and Li when dealing with the “Three Years' Funeral”.Confucius has merged it with the Junzi,who has the natural expression of grief while observing the rites of mourning.This Confucian ideal of personality is a manifestation of the proper handling of relations of Ren and Li.In short,this article discusses Confucius 'view of Ren and Li with the chapter of “Three Years' Funeral” and analyzes the relationship between Ren and Li based on the internal logic of the dialogue between Confucius and Zai Wo.It reveals the more detailed contradictions in Confucius' view of Ren and Li.Among them,Confucius introduced Ren into Li,and then pacified Ren with Li.Finally,the unity of Ren and Li was realized on the issue of “Three Years' Funeral”,which opened the way of Confucian thought of Ren and Li.It can be seen that Confucius' thought of Ren and Li is not a fixed metaphysical concept,but a harmonious dynamic unity.Even in the subtlety,it also contains the logical deduction of Confucius.Therefore,it is necessary for us to reexamine the chapter of "Three Years of Funeral" and take a closer look at the process of Confucius completing this pioneering work.