What is the rites advocated by Confucianism

Confucius spoke of rites, the author summarized as: "based on the way people get along with each other after people are divided into grades with hierarchical characteristics". Many people understand the rites spoken by Confucius as the meaning of politeness, which means treating people with cultivation, politeness and friendliness, which is actually a big mistake. On the other hand, if the "rites", which are the cornerstone of Confucius' theory, were only such simple moral requirements for ordinary people without political coloring, then Confucius might not have had any disciples. That would be too simple.

Confucius's "ritual" is the idea that people have a hierarchy of gifts, and that everyone must get along with and treat others according to that hierarchy. There are the rites of kings and ministers, of fathers and sons, and of husbands and wives. By the time Mencius arrived, it was clear that the rites were further subdivided. To summarize, at the top is the king, and leaning up is the prince and the highly meritorious Confucians, the court. In the middle were the middle-ranking Confucian scholars and powerful nobles, down were the landlords and low-ranking Confucian scholars, and at the bottom were the peasants, craftsmen, and laborers. The political status, political rights, and personality of each level were different. "When a ruler prefers the death of his subjects, the subjects have to die", and the subjects have to be unconditionally loyal to the ruler. This is the rite of kings and subjects. The government would not accept a petition from a minor, but only those who had achieved the rank of Xiu Cai or above could write a petition. Only those with a rank of scholar or above could write a petition. Those with a rank of scholar or above did not kneel in the lobby, and so on, which was also a rite of passage. But the people should kneel when they see any official, and they should kneel when they see the proprietor. When you see a person of merit, you have to give way. And so on.

In the rite of husband and wife, a man is allowed to repudiate his wife, and a woman cannot object. A man can have three wives and four concubines, and he can have a concubine. Can pick up the green house. And the woman can only pursue the main house, partial house, etc., can not cheat, that will be sentenced to imprisonment. People with status, whose husbands died, can't remarry, and have to go after chastity.

Other rites of passage are left out.

It is not difficult to see that the various rites of Confucius, the rights and obligations of the two parties to be bound are completely unequal, based on the inequality of personality and the division of people into classes. In recent years, some literati deliberately confuse the social division of labor with the hierarchy of people. Modern social units have leaders and cadres, companies have bosses and employees, that is just a different division of labor, just their decision-making power on internal affairs is different. And not in the social personality and political status, legal status, human rights differences.