What exactly does Confucius mean when he says, "The one who started it all has no posterity"?

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The phrase "the one who started it all, there's no one after him" is generally believed to have been said by Confucius. The so-called "figurines" refer to the dolls that were used to accompany burials in ancient China.

As a simulacrum to symbolize the martyrdom of slaves, it was gradually adopted in the tombs of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, flourished from the Qin and Han dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties, and gradually declined after the Northern Song Dynasty. The word "its" is an auxiliary verb used to express speculation. What exactly does this phrase mean?

The common meaning of the phrase "the one who started the terracotta warriors has no descendants" is that the first person to be buried with a terracotta warrior will probably have no descendants! Nowadays, we often use the term "the first" to refer to the creator of a bad trend.

The Confucian saint practiced prudent speech and kept his mouth shut, and he also taught his disciples many times that "a gentleman is not a friend, not to speak evil words" and "words are not written, but not far away" (that is, to speak elegantly and literally, or else it will not be passed down for a long time).

These are the most important things in the history of the world.

This kind of blunt, furious words that curse people to cut off their children and grandchildren is hard to imagine coming from the mouth of Confucius, the gentle and elegant master of the Great Sage.

We believe that the term "posterior" does not refer to descendants, but rather to posterior sacrifices and the life of the throne, i.e., the posterior blessings of one's children and grandchildren. The meaning of "there is no descendant" is that if you are a nobleman now, and if you continue to act in such a perverse and vicious way, you will not be able to protect your descendants' future fortune.

Of course, language is not rigid and unchanging, and it is perfectly understandable that later generations will quote from it with some derivation and play.

The phrase "the one who started it all has no posterity" is not only controversial, but also of dubious provenance. It is not in Confucius' own writings, nor can it be found in the book "Analects", which describes the words and deeds of Confucius, and is first found in "Mengzi - King Hui of Liang": "Zhongni said: 'The one who started it all has no posterity! For its resemblance to people and use it."

That is to say, in the course of discussing the management of the country with King Hui of Liang, Mencius unprecedentedly quoted these words of Confucius. Mencius did not explain the exact meaning of the phrase, but he did express his disdain and disgust for the "originator".

Why did Confucius scold the person who used the figurine to accompany the burial? In fact, Mencius has already given the answer - "for its like people and use it." It was the use of "figurines" to accompany the burials, which were very similar to real people, that aroused Confucius's extreme dissatisfaction.

We know that during the Shang Dynasty, before the Zhou Dynasty, the use of living human beings for burial was widely practiced among slave owners and nobles. According to their logic: the slave is the slave owner's subordinate, "mooing" tool, after the death of the slave owner, the slave for the master's burial is just a waste of some of the "tools", "subordinate belongings "It was a natural thing to do.

The "living" as martyrs. This was a feature of slave societies.

Later into the feudal society, to "figurines" instead, can be regarded as a great progress of human social civilization. These burial dolls are made of wood, stone, pottery, copper and other different materials, to pottery is more.

But is it not a kinder way to be buried with terracotta figurines than to be buried with a living person? Why did it arouse such strong resentment from Confucius? What is the context of this passage?

In fact, a quick look at the history of burials in ancient China tells us that the Shang dynasty popularized the practice of burying people alive; the Zhou dynasty replaced the Shang and banned the practice, replacing it with the use of "rudimentary spirits," i.e., grasses, instead of living beings.

Song dynasty Zhu Xi said: "the ancient burials, bundled grass for people from the guard (with the guard, guard), so-called ruminant spirit, slightly similar to the human form only."

Later felt that the simulation of the "imitation of man" seems inhumane, Lao Zi's "Tao Te Ching" and "Zhuang Zi" "heavenly movement" chapter also appeared in the "ruminant", that is, when the sacrifice At one point, real animal sacrifices such as "sacrifices" were even discarded, and straw-tied dogs were used instead of live dogs as sacrifices.

That is to say, there is a stage of straw man martyrdom between the living person and the figurine martyrdom. Straw men instead of real people were buried according to the Zhou rites.

Later, with the development of social productivity, some vassal states gradually luxury, the use of more human-like exquisite figurines to martyrdom, so that the use of figurines instead of grass people to become possible and show off the capital, which is the progress of productive forces, but civilization of the regression.

It seems that Confucius was so disgusted by the invention of the figurines, that he naturally approved of the burial method before the figurines. But Confucius was in no way endorsing the martyrdom of the living, but rather the use of straw men.

Confucius was annoyed by the fact that the figurines were more like real people, and that "benevolence" was the basis of Confucius' doctrine, so how could someone who advocated benevolence promote the use of real people for burial?

Song dynasty scholar Zhu Xi on "the beginning of the terracotta warrior, it is not after the" this sentence is "in the ancient times, easy to terracotta warriors, then there are face machine hair, and great like people carry on. Therefore, Confucius is not benevolent", and Mencius is the same point of view.

Honoring the king and restoring the rites has always been the pursuit of Confucius, and what Confucius condemned was that the "originator" took the first step (to usurp the rites of Zhou), and that this kind of behavior would surely be imitated and followed by later people.

Then a behavior or culture that violates the rites and music system, if not denounced, so as to restore it to the previous "ideal" behavior and system (the Zhou rites), then it will eventually develop into regicide and treason, assassination of the king to kill the driver, so he believes that it is the "rites and music" that led to the later Spring and Autumn period. Therefore, he believed that it was the "breakdown of rites and music" that led to the chaos of the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period.

This is the essence of Confucius' condemnation - with the first sub-challenge, there will be the second, and then later people's countless times of usurping the Zhou rites, and even "if it can be tolerated, what can not be tolerated!" , which can be seen as intolerable in more ways than one!

The emergence of the figurine man, despite the development of productive forces, in the view of Confucius is indeed a reversal of history. If we put Confucius' words into this historical context, it is not difficult to realize that he wanted to restore the Zhou rituals to avoid cultural regression and ritual confusion.

At the same time, Confucianism has always advocated for "generous support and thin burials". Although the use of figurines to replace people is not so cruel, but Confucianism, this symbol of human statues to replace the real martyrdom, in fact, from the heart, or contempt for people, the performance of human slavery, are inhumane, and the real martyrdom is only 50 paces laughing at a hundred paces.

Confucianism treats people with kindness and love, and the martyrdom of human beings is naturally barbaric and brutal. Confucius in fact opposed to martyrdom, more opposed to the burial objects made too much like a real person (such as figurines), with a few points like the straw man mean enough.

According to Xunzi's argument, the burial goods do not have to be there, the burial goods do not have to care too much, the focus is on the treatment of the attitude of the living, the use of figurines to accompany the burial of a little to avoid the responsibility of the reality of the meaning of the due.

So the original meaning of the phrase "the one who started it all has no descendants" is: "the first person to be buried with a figurine, (even though he is currently a member of the nobility, and is going to continue to be so perverse), will probably be unable to secure the blessings of his descendants!"

Of course, this "hard to guarantee" is a generalization, perhaps not continue to be rich and honored, the heir of the prosperity, the development of the extreme is not "cut off the children and grandchildren"? In this way, the kind of understanding at the beginning of this article is also the proper meaning of the title!

Confucius said this sentence has been thousands of years, in fact, it is in the "supreme saint", "saint" said many aphorisms, teachings are not very prominent. It is only because a great man repeatedly quoted this saying at a particular time and on a particular occasion in recent times that this saying has become widely known in the land of God.

The great man, with his open mind, took responsibility for the "left" errors at the Lushan Conference in 1959 and the 7,000th National People's Congress in 1962.

"The originator, it is not after." I have two sins: one, 10.7 million tons of steel, I made the decision, I suggested, but the result was 90 million people on the battlefield, subsidies of four billion, "more loss than gain". Secondly, the People's Commune, I did not have the right to invent, but the right to promote. But the originator is me, can not be pushed away. ......

"The one who started it all has no backing". I don't have a back? The Chinese custom is to call a boy a harem, but a girl doesn't count. I have a son killed, a son crazy, I think there is no after.

One of the great steel refineries and one of the people's communes. The Great Leap Forward was invented by me, or by Ke Lao? I talked to Ke Qingshi once and I said it was still me. Your one belongs to ideology, do you have any responsibility? ......

From then on it was a big trouble, 90 million people on the battlefield. The initiator is me, should be extinct children and grandchildren!

Since both the ancient sages and the great men of recent times have dwelled on this phrase, we ordinary people might as well take a moment when we have time to savor the past and present life of this phrase!

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