英文摘要
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The "struggle between Quai Qui and Wi Zhe" was mostly found in Springs and Autumns; in this article, we try to compare the differences between Zhu Xi and Wang Yang-ming with regards to their theories of "Rites" through their evaluations about this historical controversy. Zhu Xi once said, "Rites are the rituals of heavenly principles and rules of human affairs," while in Zhu’s theory of "rites," the "rituals of heavenly principles" were the source, and the "rules of human affairs" were the application of rites. Considering Zhu Xi’s doctrine of self-cultivation, his theory of rites stressed the attributes of the rules of human affairs, highlighting the strong and determined will of following rites. On the other hand, in Wang Yang-ming’s theory of rites, the source was the supreme good and the heavenly principles, and the application of rites lied in the rules of supporting parents thoughtfully However, in his conversation with Zheng Chao-shuo, Wang clearly opposed seeing the application of rites as their foundation, claiming that one should "make his mind as pure as the supremeness of heavenly principles." Under this principle, Wang’s theory of rites focused on both rites and music rather than on rites alone. Wang once said that "it is only legitimate when one bears the foundation of rites and music in mind" and that "one should work on the origins of rites and music." For him, the combined theory of rites and music, the coherent spirit of poetry, rites and music in Analects, and the necessity of inquiring the essence of rites from the perspective the combined theory of rites and music were more important. Between the source and the application of rites, Wang clearly paid more attention to the former, due to his exploration about the essence of rites, which could be confirmed by the request of returning to the conscience throughout his doctrine on rites. In the conclusion, we will point out that, although this article focuses on the differences between Zhu’s and Wang’s theories of rites, recognizing the distinctions in their emphasis on either the "source" or the "application" of rites, it must be pointed out that such distinctions only refer to their dissimilarities in terms of essence, application and priorities, that is, Zhu Xi talked about rites from the perspective of principles and order, while Wang Yang-ming discussed rites from the perspective of respect and comity. In other words, from the perspective of source or essence, Zhu’s definition of rites was the rituals of heavenly principles, that is, his discourse on the essence of rites paid more attention to heavenly principles, laws, reason and order. In contrast, Wang’s essence of rites, being mind-substance and good nature, was more affective; therefore, Wang’s definition of rites was more flexible in the application and institution of rites. All these differences highlight the respective characteristics of Zhu’s and Wang’s rites. Zhu discussed rites from the perspective of separating rites from music, seeing the idea of "rites" as a comprehensive system of knowledge, namely, seeing rites as capable of developing a doctrine suitable in terms of theory and practice, heavenly principles and human nature, low study and high penetration. And Wang discussed rites from the perspective of uniting rites and music, believing that rites could be understood better if approached from a perspective that combined rites and music. With this framework of rites that contained music as a part, Wang particularly stressed affection when he advocated rites and therefore brought up the proposal of "fulfilling the spirit of rites on the base of affection," in which he made the father and son achieve comity with each other for the sake of the country and reconcile their relationship by means of mutual comity. Seemingly an unpractical ideal, this approach of Wang’s pointed to the fact that he was willing to deal with the result of trusting people totally in accordance with the Confucian traditional doctrine of good nature, not that he was unable to see the reality of the society. The spirit of his willingness to take the risk of being deceived and harmed was exactly the foundation of his theory of good nature, and the part of self-sacrifice within his theory was precisely the source of his motivation for moral practice.
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