A study of Confucian interpretation of "se" in pre-Qin period = Xian Qin ru jia "se" lun yan jiu

Abstract

Referring to the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, Shijing 詩經, “se” 色 was a very important concept in assessing someone’s moral standard. At that time, nobles were expected to act with dignity and manner, which was called “weiyi” 威儀. However, due to the accelerating collapse of the royal authorities of Zhou during the Spring and Autumn period, its importance had been declined. Therefore, as the inheritor of Zhou’s culture, Confucius devoted his life to try to restore the political order of Zhou and gave “li” 禮 a new meaning, emphasizing the moral significance of it.

For many decades, scholars questioned about the authenticity of Dadai Liji 大戴禮記, Liji 禮記 and other historical texts. The discovery of Guodian Chu Slips and bamboo slips in the Shanghai Museum had proved that at least part of their content had already been existing in the Warring States period. This allowed us to have a new vision on the development of the early Confucianism. More importantly, the discovered historical texts contained a lot of relevant content about “se”, which showed its indispensable role in Confucianism.

This dissertation consists of 5 chapters, including an introduction and a conclusion. In chapter 2, we will expound the meanings of “se” by analyzing the usage of “se” in the Analects, assisted by the grammatology method. With the clue provided in the discovered texts, the origin of “se” showed a strong linkage with “xueqi” 血氣 and “si” 思. In chapter 3, we will have a comparison upon the historical and discovered texts. It turns out that “se” mainly acts on etiquette and politics, and most of the content is related to the disciples of Confucius, such as Zixia 子夏, Zengzi 曾子, and Zizhang 子張. In chapter 4, we will study the interpretation of “se” by Mengzi 孟子 and Xunzi 荀子 among the aforementioned aspects and show the relationship between them.