A Study On The Ritual Thought And Practice Of Zhu Xi's "Family Rites" From The Perspective Of Cla

The social changes of the Tang and Song dynasties,the collapse of the even-field system,the increased privatisation of land,the development of the commodity economy and the perfection of the imperial examination system all contributed to the rise of the new commoner landowners.The emergence of a large number of commoner landowners provided the inner impetus for the construction of clans in the Song dynasty,and in the face of the accelerated transition between rich and poor and the changes in the system of official selection,they began to explore a smooth path for clan development.At the same time,the social order on which Confucianism was based was broken,the ritual system was disrupted and society was in turmoil.With the political ideal of taking the world into their own hands,the Song Confucians attempted to reorganise the rituals of the family as a unit,to promote human decency,to move from ’family’ to ’state’,and to achieve social stability in governance.Inheriting the ancient The Family Rites,Chu Hsi also drew on the strengths of many other schools of thought to produce the Family Rites.The Family Rites promoted the historical trend of the downward shift of the ritual system,becoming a common rite of passage for the majority of the clans of the common people and promoting the building of the clan.The Family Rites were built on two aspects: on one hand,the ritual construction,which emphasised the hierarchical order of the clan based on the law of the sons of the clan;and on the other hand,the establishment of ancestral halls,tomb offerings and field offerings,which provided institutional safeguards for the development of the clan and laid the theoretical foundation for the establishment of clan organisations in later times.The Family Rites had a profound impact during the Ming and Qing dynasties,becoming a blueprint for the codification of state rituals and folk rituals,guiding the life and organisation of the clan.It is worth noting that the Family Rites were created long ago and had certain limitations,which required adaptation in the course of practice.As a typical example of the flexible use of the Family Rites,the Zhongmei Liu clan did not blindly copy the Rites,but developed a system of rituals that took into account their own personal characteristics.The clan established a social order of kinship and respect from within the clan,and established a system of clan property to lay the material foundation for clan development,a useful exploration of the interaction between the text and practice of the Family Rites.Overall,the Family Rites embodies Zhu Xi’s attempt to construct a Confucian system of social governance based on the clan,with Confucian ethics and morality at its core and rites as its foundation,from the perspective of political Confucianism.This mode of governance based on Confucian human ethics and morality is still relevant to the construction of grassroots self-government and family civilization in today’s society.