Between Ideas And Thoughts

For a long term, researchers and scholars either take “Yi” as a part of certain type of thought orconsider it as a foreshadowing word which has no independent meaning, whereas “Yi” as a consolidatedcategory hardly gets any attention. However, as we look back on the documentation and systematicallystudy “Yi” as an independent object, its rich connotation, high priority, wide impact and tremendousinfluence are far beyond our imagination.Generally there are two distinguished and co-related clues about the Yi category development in thepre-Qin period. One is “Yi” as a idea while the other is “Yi” as a kind of thought. The idea of Yi is moredemonstrated on political and common social aspects while Yi thought is more of theoretical aspect and it’sthe theoretical achievement after ideologists’ systematical argument.In the Shang dynasty, the emperor himself led the killing sheep sacrificial ceremony to worship thesame god of all tribes and distributed the lamb according to the Loving the Beloved and Respecting theRespected relationship reasonably. We call this whole sacrificial ceremony procedure “Yi”. Along with this“Yi” procedure, everyone joined the sacrificial ceremony could get some meat and so it comes to Yi “get”(morality), Having “get”(morality), Respected “get”(morality) and so on the sprout of rich religious belief.“Yi” as an important procedure in Shang dynasty sacrificial ceremony not only derived internally the nobleand poor, hierarchy difference but also containing the special characteristics of fairness, kindness anddivision. The Zhou People further developed “Yi” to “Wei Yi”,“Yi De” and “Yi Xing” and so on a series ofidea and clarified the Loving the Beloved and Respecting the Respected as Yi’s spiritual core and for thefirst time made it have such clear characteristics like sociality, commonly acceptability and universality,and thus the idea of “Yi” was established and become the basic principle of Western Zhou’s patriarchal clansystem.“Yi” as a religious sacrificial procedure evolved into patriarchal clan system principle indicated thecontinuous evolution process of religious divinity to political rationality.In the Spring and Autumn Period, actually “Yi” was further developed into social core idea, however“Propriety” and “Benevolence” are more regarded as core value of that time by researchers and scholars.The fact is “Yi” emerged as an outstanding idea in the Spring and Autumn Period. Politicians and sages came up with the conclusion that rituals and public interests and morality all came out of “Yi”, and “Yi”was emphasized as the invisible guide for social behavior and regarded as a standing point for all kinds ofinterests and promoted as a major principle among all virtues.“Yi” can be measured via fairness, justice,kindness, moderation and division, it had rich and significant effect on social and political fields, and hadbecome a basic principle dealing with the relationship between the people and their god, the princes, theemperor and the princes, the colleagues and the relationship between ordinary people. With the ritualcollapse and downfall of the patriarchal clan system,“Yi” becoming the belief bond of maintaining theSpring and Autumn Period society, which tells the collapse of rituals represented patriarchal clan systemdoes not necessarily mean “Yi” as a major principle has lost its impact especially with the generalizationand deformation of its spiritual core Loving the Beloved and Respecting the Respected still having durablesocial influence.“Yi” as a commonly accepted social idea declined in the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. WithConfucius summarizing and further developing the idea of Yi, Yi thought for the first time was establishedsystematically. Confucius’s Yi thought was demonstrated in five aspects: a political thought that promoting“Yi” based on ritual as a basic policy; An attitude of interacting with the world with flexible and adaptableway; A religious cognition of dedication on the “Yi” that people should follow; A rational principle ofgetting things or benefit based on “Yi”; a gentlemen’s way of promoting Yi and practicing Benevolence.Confucius turned the idea of Yi from a political aspect into an approach for individual morality andcultivation enhancement, and built “Propriety YI Benevolence” a three in one thought system with “Yi”acting as one of the three core elements. With all this done, Confucius from a thought prospective preservedthis Yi-based rational civilization bottom line right before china society fallen into turbulence.In the general description of political and social history, the Warring States Period was a chaotic erawith Propriety collapsed and “Yi” gone. Actually,“Yi” was just isolated from its original political aspectand went down to a more wider social aspect and became the idea bond of connecting new social groupslike officials and intellects, knight errant and disciples which made the divided warring states have onepowerful and unified culture and spirit that bound them together. The main reason of the idea of “Yi” goingdown is the continuous falling and social extension of patriarchal clan system in the Warring States Period.The decline of the idea of Yi not only made “Yi” become the cultural spirit of that time and the important part of national citizen’s characteristics but also provided a contention object and idea basis for theHundred schools of thought and their exponentsHundred schools made different reconstruction and development on the spiritual core Loving theBeloved and Respecting the Respected of “Yi”, and they came up with completely different conclusion onwhere “Yi” come from and what it was for. Thus Yi became the major contention object of a hundredschools of thought. From another perspective,“Yi” was the common thought origin of Hundred schools.Debating upon on “Yi” was the common academic direction and establishing “Yi” was the commonacademic principle.“Yi” also was the core content of the contention. This indicates “Yi” was not a specialtag belonging to a certain type of thought but a common thought and idea recognized by different learninggroups and a common cultural resource shared by Hundred schools to develop their own theories. Thecontention and common recognition surrounding “Yi” by various exponents objectively made “Yi” thoughtprospered all-around in the warring states period.Generally speaking, in the pre-Qin period, the idea of “Yi” was in the continuous going down andevolving process. In Shang dynasty, it was “God is looking at everyone and see if they are behaving in aright manner. In Western Zhou era, it was another “Yi” that best practice was following what the emperorsaid or ordered and this was further emphasized and strengthened to a higher level when it came to theSpring and Autumn Period. Finally in the Warring States period “Yi” prevailed and practiced on thewidespread social aspects, and it was called everyone is a live model of “Yi”. How the idea of Yi goingdown and the evolving process seems quite clear to us.“Yi” as a basic principle through the three eras alsocame acrossed all kinds of problems along with its going down process. The generation and development ofYi thought was to a large extent come from the ideologists’ dissatisfaction on the idea of Yi.Right with unremitting efforts and study over the idea of Yi by various exponents in pre-Qin period,“Yi” was deepened and differentiated on the thought aspect. The idea of Yi and Yi thought has internalconsistency and at the same time has external difference, but these two things always come together andnever separated. The idea of Yi horizontally suits social practice while Yi thought vertically works fortheory development. Between this horizontal and vertical stage, a series of idea system formed and lots ofthought achievements generated along with many value principles established. Although there are still hugedivergence existing among these things, but this objectively and profoundly represents the overall cultural spirit in pre-Qin period.From noble to poor, from unknown to known,“Yi” was everywhere and functioning all the time. Inthis long and vast time and space system, a consolidated “Yi” category was finally generated.