Who is Liu Xiahui

The Ambition of the Rejecter of Evil - The Temperance of Liu Xiahui

Liu Xiahui (also known as Liu Xiaji), surnamed Zhan, was given the first name of Yu, and the second name of Ziqiu. Yu Zhan Wuhui was the Secretary of the State of Lu (pn qk ). Ziqiu was an official in charge of prisons. Because of his uprightness and rigorous enforcement of the law, he abandoned his post and went into hiding, living in Liusha (present-day Liutun, Puyang County). After his death, he was posthumously honored with the title of "Hui", hence the name "Liu Xiahui" (柳下惠).

Old novels often cite the "Liu Xiahui sitting without confusion" allusion to praise the virtues of men. According to legend, on a cold night, Liu Xiahui stayed at the gate of Guo, there was a woman without a place to stay, Liu Xiahui was afraid that she would freeze to death, told her to sit in his arms, unzipped his coat and wrapped her tightly, and sat with him for a night, and did not engage in indecent behavior. So Liu Xiahui was known as a righteous man who "sat in his arms without molestation". There is also a rumor that: one summer, Zhan Yu went out to visit friends, encountered heavy rain, straight to the outskirts of the ancient temple to take refuge, but once stepped into the threshold, see a naked woman is inside wringing clothes, Zhan Yu hastily withdrew, stood under the ancient acacia, and let it pouring rain. Temple women realized, hiding behind the door, busy with wet clothes. This is a good story, so there is "Liu Xiahui sitting (acacia) does not mess" of the name.

Liu Xiahui "sitting in the bosom", this is still a small thing, history, sitting in the bosom of the man or woman there are many, but the ancients to Liu Xiahui as a model, we do not have to cite another example of others, and sitting in the bosom is not the highest side of Liu Xiahui, his highest side here:

Liu Xiahui He was a scholar and a teacher, and he was deposed three times. People said: son not yet can go? I said: straight road and serve people, how to go and not three deputies? In vain and serve people, why go to the state of parents?

Liu Xiahui as Shi Shi, equal to the official in charge of criminal law, barely comparable to the modern Minister of Justice or President of the Supreme Court. He came to power three times, and three times he was removed from power, so a man said to him, "Why do you, sir, have to work in Lu, go abroad? Why must you work when your own country does not want you, and you may have a better position in another country. Liu Xiahui replied to him that a person who walks the straight path all his life, who thinks, acts, and does things completely straight, and who walks the right way to be someone's subordinate, will have the same problems doing things in any country and society, and will suffer and be squeezed down. If one has a crooked mind and uses means to gain a position, and if one takes fame and wealth as an honor and does not really want to work for the society of the country, why should one leave the country of one's parents? The ancestors are all here, and they can do the same thing. In other words, no matter where you are, you will never follow the wrong path, and it is difficult to follow the right path in any society. Liu Xiahui's character is here, in order to carry out the idea of personality, in order to carry out the traditional culture of serving people on the right path, and living in the world on the right path, ignoring the fame and wealth, which is outside the body, and does not care about it, this is his character. This is his character. Here is the record of him first, and Confucius will mention him later.

Why put the story of Liu Xiahui after that of Weizi, Minzi and Bigan?

Why put Liu Xiahui after Weizi, Keizi and Bigan? Liu Xiahui was not a person of Yin Zhou era, but a person of Confucius era in Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, and may be a little bit earlier, a few years older than Confucius, but he was already a world-famous and marvelous person, and he was recorded here first, and the words of Liu Xiahui also explained the things of the previous three people. This is why ancient Chinese writings, such as the Analects of Confucius, seem to be legal texts, one by one, as if they are not connected, but in fact, upon close reading, they are long texts that are very well connected. In other words, Weizi, Keizi, Bi Gan, some of them were willing to kill their own bodies in order to fulfill their benevolence, such as Bi Gan; when they were kicked out, they went away, such as Weizi; when they were slaves, they were slaves, such as Keizi. Why don't they bend a little? A slight change in attitude, go and kiss their asses, and they would have been put to good use, not to mention the fact that they were originally of the royal family. But why did they not do so? This illustrates the importance of personality in principle, both as an individual and as an ordinary person in a national society. On the other hand, if one works in the wrong way, one can work anywhere, but if one insists on working in the right way, the straight way, why would one need to leave? So quoting these words of Liu Xiahui is tantamount to making a note for the above three people, which is the editorial method of the Analects

Liu Xiahui (柳下惠) (720 BC - 621 BC), whose real surname was Zhan (展), first name was Yu (獲), and his character was 禽 (禽), was a native of the state of Lu in the Spring and Autumn period of China. The name "Liu Xia" was his cognizance, and "Hui" was his posthumous name, so later people called him "Liu Xiahui". It is said that he was also called "Ji" (季), so he was sometimes called "Liu Xia Ji" (柳下季)[1]. He worked as a doctor in the state of Lu, but later became a recluse and became a "Yimin"[2]. Liu Xiahui is regarded as a model of traditional Chinese morality, and his story of "sitting on the fence" has been widely told in China throughout the ages. In Mencius, it is said that "Liu Xiahui was a man of harmony, a holy man", which is why he is also known as the "Sage of Harmony". Liu Xiahui was also the founder of the Chinese surname Liu.

Although Liu Xiahui was called a sage by Mencius, there are few historical records about his life. They are scattered in ancient pre-Qin texts such as Zuo Zhuan (左传), Guoyu (国语), Lunyun (论语) and Mengzi (孟子), some of which have a clear time frame, while others are closer to a kind of evaluation of him.

In the Analects, which is mainly a record of Confucius' words and deeds, Liu Xiahui is regarded as a person of high moral character. In the Analects account, Confucius said, "Is Zang Wenzhong a thief of the throne? Knowing Liu Xiahui's virtue, he did not stand with him." He expressed his dissatisfaction that Liu Xiahui had not been appointed to the post. Later, Liu Xiahui became a "Shi Shi" (the official in charge of prisons), but three times on stage three times was dismissed, people advised him to leave, but he said: "straight road and serve people, how to go and not three deposed? But he was advised to leave, saying: "If you serve people on the straight path, why should you go to the state of your parents? "He thought that if he treated people in a righteous way, he would be ostracized everywhere, but if he wanted to treat people in a crooked way, he could practice it anywhere, and there was no need to leave his native country.

Liu Xiahui's straight way of dealing with people is clearly recorded in several places in the history books. It is written in the "Guoyu (国语-鲁语上)" that in the summer of the twenty-sixth year of Duke Xi of Lu (631 B.C.E.), when Duke Xiaodong of Qi sent out an army to invade the state of Lu, Zang Wenzhong asked Liu Xiahui how he could phrase his words so that Qi could make him withdraw his troops. Liu Xiahui said, "I have heard that if a big state sets a good example for a small state, and if a small state serves a big state well, then it can prevent trouble; now Lu, as a small state, is arrogant and arrogant, and offends the big state, which is like bringing trouble on itself, so no matter how you word it, it will be useless. By saying this, Liu Xiahui was tantamount to outspokenly criticizing Zang's ruling behavior in the state of Lu.

The Guoyu also records a story in which Liu Xiahui criticized Zang Wenzhong for sacrificing a seabird. A seabird named Zuanju had been staying outside the east gate of the capital city of Lu for several days, and Zang Wenzhong asked all the people of the capital city to sacrifice to it. Liu Xiahui, however, said that Zang's rule of the state was a mess. Sacrifice was an important system of the state, and the system was the basis for the success of the rule of the state, so it was necessary to formulate the rules and regulations of sacrifice carefully, and these rules and regulations had to be based on the principles of sacrifice of the holy king. Jiu Ji is the son of the king, he only sacrifices those who have merits to the people and the state. Therefore, Zhu, Hou Tu, Huang Di, Zhuan Xu, ?u Xi, Yao, Shun, Shun, Yu ...... until Zhou Wen Wang and Zhou Wu Wang can be sacrificed by the descendants; in addition, the gods of the land, grains, mountains and rivers, the philosophers and the virtuous, the sun, moon, and stars in the heaven, the five elements on the earth, the famous mountains and rivers in the nine states, the gods of the earth, the gods of the world, the gods of the world, the gods of the world, the gods of the world, the gods of the world. In addition, the gods of the land, grains and mountains, the philosophers and men of virtue, the sun, moon and stars in the sky, the five elements on the earth, the mountains, rivers and marshes in the nine states should also be sacrificed. But when the seabird "爰居" flew to the state of Lu, and it was not known why it flew to Lu, and it was not clear what merit it had for the people, it was not a benevolent and wise move to decide to sacrifice it. Liu Xiahui guessed that the seabird had come to avoid the disaster, and the fact proved that his guess was right. This incident not only illustrated Liu Xiahui's integrity as an official, but also showed his familiarity with the rituals of the holy kings, which is why he was valued by Confucianism.

Liu Xiahui chose to stick to the "straight path and serve the people", and in the end, he could only leave the government and go into hiding, becoming an "escaped citizen". The Analects of Confucius recorded the evaluation of Liu Xiahui as follows: "He has humiliated himself, and his words and actions have been considered. The meaning is, compared with Bo Yi and Shu Qi, who would rather starve to death than eat weekly millet, Liu Xiahui was willing to lower his own ideals, and although he humiliated his status, he was able to behave morally and rationally in his words and deeds. In Zuo Zhuan, Confucius condemned Zang Wenzhong's decision to let Liu Xiahui step down as one of the "three unkindnesses" of Zang's rule.

Meng Zi held Liu Xiahui in very high esteem, and in his book "Mengzi" he called him one of the four great sages, together with Bo Yi, Yi Yin, and Confucius. He believed that he did not feel ashamed because the ruler was not wise, and that he did not resign from his post because of his lowly position; that he did not forget to promote the wise and capable when he held a high position, and that he had no resentment even when he was forgotten in the civil society; that he did not worry when he was poor and in dire straits, and that he found it pleasant to get along with the people in the countryside; and that he thought that he could get along with anyone and maintain a good relationship with all. himself to be able to remain free from bad influences when he gets along with anyone. Therefore, after hearing about Liu Xiahui's temperament in dealing with people in the world, those who were narrow-minded would become tolerant and generous, and those who were mean would become honest and generous. Mencius believed that a sage like Liu Xiahui could be a "teacher for a hundred generations". Nowadays, people still use the terms "Liu Xiahui" or "Sit with a bosom without disturbing" to describe a man's decent style of behavior when it comes to gender issues.

The expression "sitting in one's bosom and not messing about" comes from Mao Heng's biography of the poem "Shijing - Xiao Ya - Xiang Bo" (The Classic of Poetry - Xiao Ya - Lane Bo). In his commentary on the poem "Lane Bo," Mao Heng tells a story about a man in the state of Lu who lived alone in a room, and his neighbor was a widow who lived alone in a room. One night a storm broke out and the widow's house was destroyed, so the woman came to the man to ask for shelter. The man would not let the woman in. The woman said to him through the window, "Why won't you let me in?" The man said, "I have heard that men and women cannot live together until they are sixty years old. Now I am young and so are you, so I cannot let you in." The woman said, "Why don't you be like Liu Xiahui, who was able to use his body to warm a woman who couldn't get in the door in time to escape the cold, and others didn't think he had committed an indecent act." The man said, "Liu Xiahui can open the door, but I cannot. So I will use my 'not opening the door' to learn from Liu Xiahui's 'opening the door'." This story suggests that there was a legend about Liu Xiahui's sitting on his hands, at the latest, in the early Western Han Dynasty, but it was just a bit incoherent.

During the Yuan Dynasty, Hu Bingwen's "Pure Monk's Quest" further enriched the details of the story: Liu Xiahui, a native of the state of Lu, whose family name was Zhan Yu (展禽), stayed outside the capital's gate on a night when he went on a long journey. The weather was bitterly cold at that time, and suddenly a woman came to stay with him. Liu Xiahui was afraid that she would freeze to death, so he let her sit in his arms and covered her with his clothes, and nothing happened until the next day's dawn. The story of Liu Xiahui's sitting in his arms is much the same as this version.

The ancestor of the surname Liu

According to the Yuanhe Surname Codification of the Tang Dynasty, "The Duke of Zhou's grandson, Duke Lu Xiaozi Zhan (展), and his grandson Wuhui (无骇), used his father's name as Zhan (展氏), and Zhan's name was Liu (柳氏). Lu destroyed Shi Chu, Qin and the world, Liu's moved to Hedong, Hedong solution, the end of the Qin have Liu case, under the Hui descendants also." Meaning, Zhou Gongdan's descendant Lu Xiaogong had a son "Zhan", Duke Zhan's grandson Wuhui used his grandfather's character as his family name, so there was the "Zhan" family name; and later Zhan birds to Liuxia as the cognizance, then Zhan bird's descendants began to use "Liu" as the family name. Later, the descendants of Zhan Yu began to use "Liu" as their family name after Zhan Yu took Liu Xia as his cognizance. After the Qin state annexed the vassal states, the Liu clan moved to Hedong (present-day Yongji, Shanxi Province), and then dispersed from Hedong to other places.

The Yuanhe Surname Codification was compiled from the private genealogies that existed at the time, and it is clear that during the Tang Dynasty, the Liu clan considered Liu Xiahui to be the originator of their family name. Later, Hedong became the county of Liu, and the Tang Dynasty writer Liu Zongyuan was a native of Hedong, so he was called "Liu Hedong".