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Da Dai Liji 大戴禮記 "Records of Ritual Matters by Dai Senior"

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The Da Dai Liji is one of four extant collections of ritual matters of the Zhou Dynasty 周. The final redactional work on these books took place during the Han Dynasty 漢. Three of them were incorporated into the Canon of Confucian Classics: Liji, Yili, and Zhouli. The fourth, the Da Dai Liji, has only survived in fragments and was almost forgotten for centuries.
The oldest record of ritual matters is the (禮)記百三十一篇 (Li)Ji in 131 chapters. While the Yili is a pure handbook about rites, the Liji also contains many anecdotes, discourses and dialogs like the passages that can be found in the Confucian Analects (Lunyu 論語). The different chapters are thus very heterogenous in content and date of compilation. Some chapters seem to be taken other books like Xunzi 荀子 and Huainanzi 淮南子. The chapters are compiled in a loose structure and center around different ritual matters of which the mourning rites occupy a crucial place. The first person who studied the Liji was Liu Xiang 劉向, the great Han scholar. Dai De 戴德 and his nephew Dai Sheng 戴聖 are said to have shortened the original 131 chapters to the now existant some forty. The version of the Liji like it has been traded, is the short Dai Sheng version and can therefore also be called Xiao Dai Liji 小戴禮記 ("Records on Ritual Matters by Dai Junior"). the Da Dai Liji version, only the fragments of 27 chapters are preserved. There is still no english translation, only the French version made by Benedikt Grynpas
The surviving chapters of the Da Dai Liji are:
39.主言 Zhuyan Royal speeches
40.哀公問五義 Aigong Wen Wuyi Duke Ai asked about the five classes of humans
41.哀公問於孔子 Aigong Wen Yu Kongzi Duke Ai asked Confucius
42.禮三本 Lisanben The three roots of the Rituals
(43.-46. lost)
46.禮察 Licha Examination of the Rituals
47.夏小正 Xiaxiaozheng The small calendar of the Xia
48.保傅 Baofu Preceptors and Masters
49.曾子立事 Zengzi Lishi Zengzi about the correct serving (one's superiors)
50.曾子本孝 Zengzi Benxiao Zengzi on the origin of filial piety
51.曾子立孝 Zengzi Lixiao Zengzi on founding the filial piety
52.曾子大孝 Zengzi Daxiao Zengzi on the great filial piety
53.曾子事父母 Zengzi Shi Fumu Zengzi on serving one's parents
54.-56.曾子制言上中下 Zengzhi Zhiyan 1-3 Zengzi about behaviour 1-3
57.曾子疾病 Zengzi Jibing Zengzi was sick
58.曾子天圓 Zengzi Tianyuan Zengzi about the roundness of Heaven
59.武王踐阼 Wuwang Jianzuo The throne accession of king Wu
60.衛將軍文子 Wei Jiangjun Wenzi Wenzi, General-chief of Wey
62.五帝德 Wudi De The virtue of the Five Emperors
63.帝繫 Dixi The genealogy of the Emperors
64.勸學 Quanxue Exhortation to study
65.子張問入官 Zizhang Wen Rugong Zizhang asked (Confucius) about being charged with an office
66.盛德 Shengde Flourishing virtue
67.明堂 Mingtang The Bright Hall
68.千乘 Qiancheng (A kingdom) of a thousand chariots
69.四代 Sidai The four dynasties
70.虞戴德 Yu Dai De The glory of the power of Yu
71.誥志 Gaozhi Decretes and annals
72.文王官人 Wenwang Guanren The officials of King Wen
73.諸侯遷廟 Zhuhou Qianmiao Dedication to the ancestral temple of the feudal lords
成廟衅之以羊 Chengmiaoxin zhi yi yang Dedication to the ancestral temple by offering a goat
74.小辨 Xiaoban A small discourse
75.用兵 Yongbing The use of military
76.少閒 Shaoxian A bit of leisure
77.朝事 Chaoshi Court affairs
78.投壺 Touhu Throwing darts
79.公符 Gongfu Ducal emblems of enfeoffment
80.本命 Benming Life or destiny
81.易本命 Yi Benming The change is at the origin of life
41.哀公問於孔子
哀公問於孔子曰:「大禮何如?君子之言禮,何其尊也?」
孔子曰:「丘也小人,何足以知禮?」君曰:「否,吾子言之也。」
孔子曰:「丘聞之也,民之所由生,禮為大,非禮無以節事天地之神明也, 非禮無以辨君臣上下長幼之位也,非禮無以別男女父子兄弟之親, 昏(婚)姻疏數之交也,君子以此之為尊敬然。然後以其所能教百姓, 不廢其會節;有成事,然後治其調鏤文章黼黻以嗣;其順之,然後 言七喪筭,備其鼎俎,設其豕腊,修其宗廟,歲時以敬祭祀,以序宗族, 則安其居處,醜其衣服,卑其宮室,車不雕幾,器不刻鏤,食不貳味, 以與民同利。昔之君子之行禮者如此。」
公曰:「今之君子,胡莫之行也?」
孔子曰:「今之君子,好色無厭,淫德不倦,荒怠傲慢,固民是盡,忤其眾 以伐其道,求得當欲不以其所。古之用民者由前,今之用民者由後。 今之君子莫無禮也。」
Duke Ai the Mournful [of Lu] asked Confucius
Duke Ai asked Confucius: "What are the Great Rites? If a perfect man talks about the Rites, what does he have to honour?"
Confucius said: "I, Qiu, am only a small-minded person. What can I know about the Rites?"
The Prince said: "Oh no! Tell me, my son!"
Confucius spoke: "I have heard, what nourished the people, are the Rites, and they are great. If there were no Rites, there would be nothing to clarify and to serve to the bright spirits of heaven and earth. If there were no Rites, there would be nothing to divide the position of a lord his subject, upper down, older youngster. If there were no Rites, there would be nothing to part the relationship of man and woman, father and son, older brother the younger brother, to distinguish the jointment of relative and distant families in a marriage. A perfect man uses the Rites to honorify and to be reverent. Only then he is able to teach the people, without abandoning the different connections and relations. If his work is completed, he has to do his sacrificial work in engraving and sculping, composing and embroidering. If he is successful, he will speak about the burying duties, he will prepare the sacrifical tripod and fix the monthly sacrifice with pork meat, and he will order the ancestral temples and halls. Every year, he will hold the sacrificial rites with deep respect, to put in a line all his ancestors. Only then he will clear his home, he will put on simple clothes, and make humble his palace. His chariots have no decoration, his vessels no engraving, his food is simple, because he wants to share all goods with the people. In old times, the perfect man behaved like this when they used the Rites."
The Duke said: "Why do the perfect men of today no more behave like this?"
Confucius said: "The perfect men of today dissolutely like women, has a licentious virtue, are lazy and arrogant, he exhausts the people, he hurts the mass by chastising the men on the right way, he seeks to satisfy his desires by means of things he does not have to do. The old [rulers] put the people on the first place, but the modern rulers put it at the end. The perfect men of today have nothing common with the Rites."

66.盛德
聖王之盛德,人民不疾,六畜不疫,五穀不災,諸侯無兵而正,小民無刑而治, 蠻夷懷服。 古者天子常以季冬考德,以觀治亂得失。凡德盛者、治也,德不盛者、亂也。 德盛者、得之也,德不盛者、失之也。是故君子考德,而天下之治亂得失可坐 廟堂之上而知也。德盛則修法,德不盛則飾政,法政而德不衰,故曰王也。
Flourishing virtue
When the sage kings flourished their virtue, the people was not sick, the cattle had no deseases, the crops suffered no calamities. The feudal lords used no weapons, but all was correct, bad people were not punished, but all was well-ruled, and the barbarian peoples were obedient.
In old times, the son of Heaven checked the virtue at the end of the year and looked if everything was in order or in disorder, if everyone has won or lost. If the virtue was flourishing over all, order was complete, but if the virtue was not flourishing, disorder was ruling. Who could make his virtue flourishing, was winning, and who could not make it flourishing, had lost. Therefore, the perfect man checked the virtue, and he could place [the reports] about order and disorder, winning and losing, in the hall of the ancestral temple to make it known. If the virtue was flourishing, the regulations could be ameliorated, if not, the rules had to be done well. If everything was [good] regulated and ruled, and if the virtue would never weaken, one was worth to be called "king".
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