Chapter 14 etiquette and law

etiquette and law The rule of ritual and the rule of law are two major trends in the history of Chinese political thought.According to China's national conditions, China is a large agricultural country. If a central government governs a large country, there should be a universal and fair law in order to unite all parts of the country.Moreover, the agricultural society is relatively stable and does not change much, so that kind of law must have its permanence to adapt to it. Therefore, in terms of its objective requirements, Chinese politics is actually the easiest to take the road of the rule of law, using a unified and unified law. Persistence of law to sustain politics.But the Chinese intellectual circles always praise the rule of ritual and reject the rule of law.Especially Confucianism can be represented.There is also a reason for this.

In comparison, rituals appear to be hierarchical, but they are actually equal.Outside the law, they appear to be equal, but in fact they are hierarchical.Rituals lead people to freedom, while laws restrain and restrict people's behavior.Rites are social, while law is political.Rituals are pushed from the society to the government, while laws are passed from the government to the society.In any case, li must recognize the existence of the other party, and it must have some respect for the other party.The law only talks about the law, regardless of the person.The murderer dies, the wounding and theft are punished, and that has come to consider the punished.Therefore, rituals are private affairs, while laws are used to rule the masses.The spirit of the rule of law must be placed on every individual in society, retaining the equality and freedom of each individual, and tending to a loose and undisciplined situation.The spirit of the rule of law must be placed in the national government, centered on power, weakening and restricting the freedom of each individual, and tending to a strong sanction.The Chinese traditionally advocate the rule of courtesy, so the society is loose and undisciplined.Not too little freedom, but too much freedom.Politics has only become an empty shelf, without a kind of force and restraint on society, and often cannot lead the whole country to actively move towards a certain goal.

On a deeper level, the importance of law lies in the protection of human rights.The importance of etiquette is to guide people's emotions.Power is material, but emotion is spiritual.When human beings get along, they cannot defend their respective material rights, which is certainly worrying, but it is especially sad that they cannot lead their mutual feelings to a proper position.Power is confrontation, but emotion is communication.But it is confrontational, so it can be defended and captured.But it is for communication, so it should be a guide and accommodating.Therefore, etiquette is often soft, while law is often rigid.Chinese society is immersed in this ethos of respecting etiquette, and everything is about friendship and accommodation, which seems to lack strength.But the weak are in the middle, but there is more room for turning around, so everything can move forward smoothly and change easily.In a law-abiding society, when there is a conflict of rights, although the law is established to protect rights, since the rights of both parties conflict, and party A is protected, party B cannot be protected at the same time.If Party B insists on maintaining Party B's rights and cannot resort to the law, he can only ask for the reform of the law. The law is in the hands of the government. If he wants to reform the law, he has to overthrow the government and create another government.Therefore, a society that upholds the law will inevitably have revolutions in its evolution, while a society that upholds propriety will not be able to have revolutions, and does not need revolutions.Therefore, a society that upholds the law is often prone to drastic changes, while a society that upholds propriety cannot undergo drastic changes, and there is no need for drastic changes.Chinese society is relatively based on the agricultural economy, there is no need for drastic changes, and under the unified government, drastic changes will do more harm than good.The Chinese prefer to respect the etiquette softly rather than the law rigidly. In this regard, it is a kind of deep thinking.

Politics is, at best, a second-best thing.Human beings cannot live without society, but not necessarily without politics.Human beings need politics in order to have society, not society in order to have politics.The law is only a matter of politics, and it is, at best, the second best.Wouldn't it be more ideal to have a government with the least amount of power and a society with the least amount of political power?Would a more ideal society be one without government?Don't go too deep into this layer.However, China's thought on the rule of ritual always seems to be moving in this ideal direction.At least it wants to integrate politics into society, not to control society under one government.Now people hate the incompetence of the Chinese government, so they hate the rule of law and welcome the rule of law.In fact, the Chinese advocate the rule of courtesy, just to make the government incompetent and place more responsibility on the society.Therefore, I want to replace the law with customs, the government with education, the officials with teachers, and the rights with emotion.

Chinese Taoist thought, close to advocating anarchy, so they do not hope to become a large society with a large territory and many people, but only hope to stay in a small society with a small country and few people.They are against the law, but also against the ritual.They do not know that although human beings can be without politics, they cannot be without society.Therefore, since Taoism opposed the rule of law, but could not abolish the government after all, it wanted to turn to the road of the rule of law.Therefore, in China, Taoism and Legalism are often the cause and effect of each other. After Taoism's anti-rule thought prevails, Legalism will inevitably follow.So Sima Qian wants to say that Shen Han originated from Laozhuang, and Laozhuang is far-reaching.This is the debate between Taoism and Legalism.

The recent anarchists in the West are often inseparable from communism, and Kropotkin is one example.If communism is to be carried out within the circle of the rule of law, then class struggle must be advocated, and the proletariat must be advocated to seize power by arms.It is up to the proletariat to legislate and make laws.But if the ideal communist society is really achieved, then no one needs to protect his own property rights, and no one needs to seize other people's property rights.Or even the greatest effect of the law does not exist, and the government does not need laws at all, so wouldn't it be possible to have no government?However, although human beings can have anarchy, they cannot have society after all.But there is a society, and it cannot be ruled by disrespect.So Confucianism is more profound than Taoism after all.Kropotkin is superior to Chinese Taoism because he can clearly propose that human beings can have anarchy, but at the same time they cannot have society.Chinese Confucianism is superior to Kropotkin in that it can install a set of rules of etiquette in society.From the spirit of the rule of law, it should be possible to transfer from government to anarchy.The socialism and communism that Westerners imagine and pursue today should also be included.This is exactly what Xiao Dai pursues in the ideal of a world of great harmony revealed in "Book of Rites: Li Yun Pian".