According to Liu Yun's description, the ideal Datong society of Confucianism has the following characteristics:
1. A social system owned by the whole people.
2. Management system for selecting talents and abilities.
3. Communication fosters interpersonal relationships.
Social security allows people to get what they want.
5. Social morality of serving the public.
6. Try your best to work.
As a social ideal, the Great Harmony World can be said to be far-reaching and long-term. In addition to unclear attribution, it is almost not much different from contemporary socialist society. But what kind of phenomenon is this? Is the author of Li Yun a genius? Is it an accidental leap of cultural phenomenon? Or the sacred heart of the traditional saying? Actually, it is not. It has its origins. This origin is the long history and rich ancient culture of the Chinese nation, as well as the brilliant thought of the Book of Changes, which we will discuss in detail later. Contrary to the thought of great harmony against kingship, the thought of well-off society praises kingship, and the thought of great harmony against kingship can only exist under its cover. As an idea, it will not be banned by monarchies of past dynasties.
Confucianism's thought of well-off society and great harmony appeared in the Book of Rites and Li Yun at the same time. After summarizing the above contents with "meaning great harmony", the article begins with a completely opposite language: "Today's avenue is hidden, and the world is home. Each has his own relatives, each has his own son, and the goods are all his own. Adults think it's a gift, and the city ditch pond thinks it's solid. Etiquette and righteousness should be regarded as discipline, respect for monarch and minister, respect for father and son, respect for younger brother, respect for husband and wife, respect for system, respect for field, wisdom and courage. Taking merit as one's own, it is necessary to use it as a guide, so the soldiers set out from this and chose Tang Wuwen as the duke of Zhou. None of these six gentlemen are unwilling to treat each other with courtesy, but test their trust with righteousness. There have been works, and there are benevolent policies in punishment, which shows that the people have often. Some people don't come from here, and those who are in power go. Everyone thinks it is a well-off society. "
As a social system and social scene, well-off society and great harmony are almost completely opposite. Here, the road to the world is over, and the resounding slogan of "the world is public" has been changed to "the world is home". Under the principle of "home under the sun", all social phenomena are contrary to the Great Harmony. People are close to each other, children and children, goods are hidden for themselves, the social morality of serving the public is gone, and the labor attitude of doing our best is gone. All this comes from the private ownership of power: "Adults are always polite." My Lord, the monarch is hereditary. In order to explain the rationality of this inheritance, the ideological form of serving it has emerged, one is ritual and the other is righteousness. What is a gift? What is righteousness? The author of "Li Yun" pointed out very profoundly: "Adults think it is a gift, but adults think it is solid." It turns out that the essence of ceremony is to serve hereditary kingship. People with power should naturally be respected and worshipped, and should be supreme. This is the "ceremony". Since respecting rights is a ritual, it is natural to protect rights, so we should "think it is solid." The reason why power should be respected with "courtesy" and maintained with "righteousness" is because it is hereditary, has no popular base and is opposed by the people. The essence of propriety illustrates the public rationality, the justice of the road and the falsehood of propriety itself in the Datong world from the opposite side.
Due to the need of hereditary power, etiquette appeared, so etiquette became the discipline of the hereditary society of power, which was used to regulate all behaviors and morals. The author listed seven codes of conduct in succession: to be a righteous monarch and minister, to be loyal to father and son, to be friends and brothers, to be harmonious with husband and wife, to establish a system, to stand firm, and to be both wise and brave. Righteousness is the relationship between monarch and minister, loyalty is the relationship between father and son, and the friendship between brother and wife is based on courtesy and righteousness, and so on. In addition, the determination of the system, the establishment of the field, and the identification of the wisdom of sages are all based on etiquette and righteousness. On the surface, courtesy and righteousness are detached and fair, but in fact they are attached to and serve power.
The inheritance of power has produced propriety and righteousness, and at the same time, it has produced a universal private concept: "Take merit as your own." Taking merit as one's own responsibility, that is, whether it is beneficial to oneself, is the standard and scale to measure utility, so "seeking use means doing things and doing things." Since "taking merits for yourself" and everyone is thinking for themselves, we should use our brains to prevent and make progress, because if you don't play with other people's ideas, others will play with you, so "ask for it." Because of users, there have been all kinds of conspiracies that harm others and benefit themselves. Everyone is intrigued and social crises are everywhere. After the psychological war is words, and after the verbal war is strength, so "the soldiers start from this" and there is no peace in the struggle.
Although etiquette is designed for power, it must be respected and advocated in a society that takes the world as its home. Dayu, Tang Cheng, King Wen, King Wu and Duke Zhou are all examples. "These six gentlemen are rude people. They have tested their faith with righteousness, and they have done it before, and they are lenient in punishment, which shows the human nature of the people. " Six gentlemen, such as Yu and Tang, govern the world with propriety as the key link, with the purpose of upholding justice, testing faith, observing everything, promoting kindness and repaying others, and show it to the people for a long time, making it an atmosphere and making society generally stable under the condition of self-interest. This is the so-called well-off society. Kang Zhe is also safe, so he is generally stable. "If someone doesn't come from here, someone in power will go, and everyone will feel embarrassed." Who can't do this, the incumbent will go to the throne, and those who have no position will suffer, and the world will be in chaos.
It is not difficult to see that the author of Li Yun praised the well-off society in name, but in reality he belittled it. One of the criticisms publicly pointed out that the premise of a well-off society is that "the avenue is hidden and the world is home". A society that has lost its "avenue" and made the world its home is naturally not an ideal society. Second, this well-off society under the rule of the country and the world is a society full of contradictions and struggles, and these selfish bad ideas, the complex relationship between contradictions and struggles are all caused by "adults and the world." Third, in the long three generations, such a well-off society can only be realized by talents such as Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, and Han. In fact, it can't be achieved in the environment of "demand and build". Turning to the history of mankind, we see the terrible fact that "everyone feels pain when those in power leave". In order to compete for power and wealth, there are ministers who killed the king, sons who killed their fathers, brothers who killed each other, and uncles who killed each other. Take Spring and Autumn Annals in 242 as an example. In the Spring and Autumn Annals, there are countless people who killed 36 kings and killed 52 kings. The princes left and could not defend their country. "As for the suffering people, no one to statistics, it is impossible to statistics. Therefore, the author of Li Yun describes a well-off society, ostensibly praising the virtues of Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, becoming a king and Zhou Gong, but actually resisting the system of "the world is for the public" and influencing the selfish social atmosphere formed under this system.
Although Li Yun's well-off society is dwarfed by Datong, there are many derogatory terms. However, Confucian scholars after Qin and Han Dynasties respected well-off society rather than Datong, which was reflected in the three generations of laws and respected Duke Zhou as a saint, so the history and ideal of Datong were abandoned. The historical division of Datong began with Zheng Kangcheng in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In Zheng Zhu's Book of Rites, the five emperors usually include Huangdi, Yao and Shun. The world of the Yellow Emperor and Yao Shun is not "seeking harmony without prosperity". The Yellow Emperor once crusaded against Zhuolu and recruited seedlings. Due to the confusion of historical boundaries between Datong and a well-off society, there is a contradiction between "seeking harmony but not getting rich" in the world of Datong and "starting from this" in the rule of a well-off society, so later Confucianism supplemented and corrected it, saying: "Righteousness says that the three kings are in power, teach thick, want to be responsible for many things, but can't bear its disadvantages. However, the history books say that the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou fought in the land of Zhuolu, and the ministers had seedlings, so the five emperors had soldiers. Yunbing has been here for a long time, but it was rarely used in the previous generation, so there is no need to use words. At the time of the three kings, everything needed soldiers, and there were countless soldiers, so the cloud soldiers started. " Actually, this circus can't be round. Since it is a world of great harmony, why should we set up an army? Have a soldier, He Datong? It is clearly stated in "Li Yun" that "the soldiers set out from this" refers to the prosperous period of three generations of Yu Tang Wu Wen in a well-off world. At this time, it is not just a question of rising. How can you say "from now on"? In fact, the main purpose of this explanation is not when to become a soldier, but to confuse the boundaries between "Datong" and "well-off". Since Datong also has the matter of beating Zhuolu and recruiting three seedlings, it shows that soldiers have existed since ancient times, and even "everything needs soldiers." Since society must be maintained by force, the principle of "the world is for the public", the world style of "keeping promises and repairing friends", the friendly relationship between them, the morality of everyone serving the public and the social order of "wanting to be quiet but not doing it" described in Li Yun will no longer exist.
Why should we confuse the boundaries between Datong and Xiaokang? The purpose is to keep the family of "adults" in a state of secrecy. Explaining the "adult world" of a well-off society, later note writers said: "Note: adults, princes also." Why do "adults" refer to princes, not sons of heaven? Isn't the son of heaven a typical hereditary? In order to explain that "the world of adults" refers not to the emperor, but to the princes, the annotator made an extremely weak explanation: "Justice" said: "The world is home", which is the rule of the emperor and a gift to adults, and adults are not emperors. Every item is correct, and "one case" is a hexagram. Adults become gentlemen and leopards, so adults are the sons of heaven. The only reason that the announcer explained is that everything is right, because the above "home is in the world" is about the son of heaven, so the following "adults and the world" must be about princes, just like the divination in Ge, "Great men change from tigers to gentlemen. "This reason has this sophistry.
Or that "the world is home" means that the king regards the world as home, which means that the king cares deeply for the world, so the grand goals of "the world is home" and "the world is public" are the same. This is a malicious distortion of the original text! The original text clearly says: "The avenue is hidden, the world is home", and it is also said that "the world is public" is hidden before "the world is home", which is the retrogression and reaction of the former. Why do you agree? Why are the rational thoughts of our ancestors distorted by future generations after thousands of years? Nothing else is caused by the influence of kingship, so it is unscientific to say that the thoughts of future generations must be more advanced than those of the predecessors, and it is unscientific to explain social phenomena with evolution everywhere. As early as more than 2,000 years ago, the idea of Great Harmony appeared in ancient China, which is similar to the contemporary socialist society. This is a miracle. However, this miracle did not happen by accident for no reason, but it has profound historical origin, ideological origin and social foundation, which are mostly related to the ideas and materials in Zhouyi.
(A) the historical origin
The Chinese nation has a long history, especially there are rich ancient historical materials between history and legend. "Zhou Li Chun Guan": "Foreign books manage books, the ambition of the four directions, the book of three emperors and five emperors." There may be no official historical records at the time of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, but since there is a special yamen in charge, there are at least some historical materials, including literature and dedication.
Three Emperors and Five Emperors are two extremely important stages in the ancient history of China, where many political and institutional legends took place. Although Huang San and Five Emperors are equal, they are two different social systems.
Nature is also two different social characteristics. Huan Tan's New Theory: "Huang San ruled the country by Tao, five emperors ruled the country by virtue, three kings ruled the country by benevolence and righteousness, and five tyrants ruled the country by power and wisdom." Ruan Ji's "On the Old" also said: "Huang San defends the Tao, five emperors strive for morality, three kings show benevolence, and five tyrants do justice." Taoism is natural, and "ruling the country by Tao" means governing according to the original appearance of human society, which refers to the primitive society. Primitive society had no emperor and no power. Huang Shigong's "Three Views" distinguished the different social and political structures between Huang San and the Five Emperors, saying: "Husband and Huang San are speechless and floating in the world, so the world owes nothing to the son of heaven, the world is at peace, the monarch and his subjects make contributions and travel around the world. The king controls people's morality, calms his heart, immediately prepares for decline, has a policy of inspection, prepares for military affairs without blood, and the world is at peace. " There was no church or country in the era of the Three Emperors. People work and live according to the natural laws of heaven and earth, "so the world owes nothing to the emperor", but the world is peaceful. The times of kings are different. There are moral norms, political and religious decrees, rules and principles, and affairs of armored soldiers. However, the world is at peace. The so-called imperial era, that is, the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Comparing Datong and Xiaokang mentioned above, it happens to belong to the Three Kings era, and Xiaokang is the Three Kings era of Xia, Shang and Zhou.
Borrowing the tone of Confucius, he said: "Confucius said: The trip to the Avenue is also the same as the three generations of English, and it is also a matter of ambition."
Literally, this passage means that Confucius lamented that he was born too late to catch up with the implementation of the Avenue, and did not see three generations of wise masters, but he yearned for the Avenue of the World. This is an introduction to the following, and it is also a deliberate ambiguity. As we know, "three generations" refers to Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, and "three generations of English" naturally refers to six gentlemen, such as Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, and Zhou, who are all representatives of a well-off society. But who's on the way? What time? The author didn't say. The reason why I don't talk about it is because there is a question of affirming the kingship and denying it, because three generations ago was the era of Huang Sanhe and Five Emperors. Obviously, the trip to Avenue was in the period of Huang San, and praising Avenue means denying kingship; For example, the trip to the Avenue during the Five Emperors period affirmed the kingship, but it hurt the Avenue, so Huang Sanhe and the Five Emperors didn't mention it. Zheng Kangcheng's Note to the Book of Rites affirmed that "the avenue is also called the Five Emperors", which led to the contradiction when starting troops. But is it Huang San or the Five Emperors? We think it is more like Huang San, because only the primitive * * * production society in the Three Emperors era can be regarded as the historical origin of the Great Harmony World. At this point, the cohesion of Yi Zhuan has outlined a general outline for us.
(B) ideological origin
The most important feature of the Great Harmony Thought is that it opposes the kingship with the slogan of "the world is for the public", instead of opposing the establishment of rulers and official positions tampered with by post-Confucianism, it fundamentally abolishes the kingship and denies its existence. This, as long as we compare Liu Yun's description of the world of great harmony with the Peach Blossom Garden written by Tao Qian in later generations, will be clear. Peach Blossom Garden is specifically conceived according to Liu Yun's idea. But where did Liu Yun's idea come from? From what we usually call "Yi Dao".
In the Book of Changes, Gan used nine words for divination: "Seeing a dragon without a head." It means it's unlucky to see a group of leaderless people. On the other hand, as long as there is one leader in a group of dragons, it is unlucky. At first glance, this seems illogical, but it is actually logical. Without a leader, there must be a struggle. Without leaders, there will be no struggle, and no struggle will bring peace. Therefore, it is auspicious. However, why fight, and fight for what? It's the dragon fighting, fighting for the first place. Only if there is no "head" and everyone is the same, there will be no dispute. Used in personnel, it is a downright anti-kingship thought.
However, after all, Liu Yun was born in the era when many dragons were in power, and it was also a discussion about the specific social system. This is a real political issue. It can't be as obscure as the Book of Changes, and it can't be as detached as the Book of Changes, so it can't be done directly. In addition to trying to describe social harmony and coordination, all places involving kingship are only mentioned with the phrase "the world is for the public" under the banner of Confucius. Only in this way can it exist for more than two thousand years under the tight control of the royal power, constantly emitting the power to inspire people to move forward.
(3) Social foundation
The so-called social foundation refers to the stimulation and influence of real life on the author's thoughts. Liu Yun could not have been born in the three generations of "One World", nor in the "gloomy and literary" Western Zhou Dynasty, let alone in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. ""Three generations "people have this similar practice, but it is impossible to form such a complete thought. The Western Zhou Dynasty was a nominally unified society, and the world was dominated by the Zhou Dynasty. The idea that people are enjoying the "shadow" of "saints" on earth cannot be formed. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a hundred schools of thought contended, and people explored the strategy of governing the country in the fierce competition, which did not show such serenity and calmness. Only after a long period of division and war, people yearned for reunification, and after reunification, they were devastated by the evil politics of the Qin Dynasty. People have learned a lesson from both positive and negative aspects, so they learn from a bitter experience and realize that no monarch can help social governance, and kingship will always serve the monarch and a very small number of people attached to the monarch. So the world "avenue" for the public came into being. Therefore, the idea of great harmony is not only a reaction to the violent reunification of Qin, but also a condemnation of long-term division. People can see from practice that the seemingly unified Western Zhou Dynasty did not bring benefits to the people, and the warring states period, which was not unified at all, brought war disasters to the people, while the completely unified Qin Dynasty brought unprecedented disasters to the people, so people had to return to the primitive simplicity, return to the "three generations" of the original * * * production society and idealize it as a yearning and a narcissism.
A cosmopolitan situation