A Critique of the Rite and Music System and Ethical Culture
3 min readChina has been well reputed in the world as“Land of Ceremony and Propriety”，which has been an essential part of the Chinese political system.Ancient Chinese sages had already created the system of the rites and music in the Xia，the Shang and the Zhou dynasties，possibly even earlier than those three dynasties，and attempted to administer the country with the system of the rites and music admirably.As it was self-evident that the rites were extremely important for any society，the Chinese ancestors combined the music with the rites in administrating the country，demonstrating their wisdom and highly administrative power.
Traditional Chinese society was a rigidly stratified one，where it was taken for granted that”‘Punishment accordingto the law’does not apply to the nobility，while etiquette is not meant for the commoners.”
The social status of every individual had been prescribed before one’s birth，and the rites had been an unparalleled force in identifying the social status of the people，making them contented with their own fates，quenching their inordinate desires，consolidating the political power and stabilizing the society.Those complicated rites had positively enabled the people to be gentlemanlike，because“rites gave the proper measure to the people’s minds.”（The Book of Rites）The music，however，played a good supporting role，as“music made harmony in human sound.”（The Book of Rites），in bathing the people in the refined melodious music，and purifying their souls.
But the negative effects of this system were quite obvious.Confucianists’preference for over-elaborate rites，ceremonies and formalities had then been condemned by other schools of thought，and later continued to be criticized.The over-elaboration of the rites and the refinement of the imperial music made Chinese thoroughly over-cautious about petty things，and follow others slavishly so that they，as a nation，lost the courage to dare to be different，to come up with something new，and even lost the ambition and spirit to innovate and create.At the beginning stage of the Chinese civilization，the cultivation of the Chinese people through the rites and music in addition to Confucianism enabling them to lose some of the“wildness”or”heroism”inherently inherited from the birth，made them at their long-held disadvantageous position of passive defence in confrontation with those militant and strongly-built nomadic people，and never adopted the strategy of the offensive.They usually made every effort to first and foremost avoid wars，and had been forced to join the war reluctantly，passively accepting wars，which could be traced to the origin of the idea of Confucius，when he expressed his views on two pieces of the representative imperial music，”Great Shao”and”Great Wu”.Confucius enjoyed both pieces of music but there was a difference，as he said that”Great Shao”，a piece of music from the legendary sage king，Great Shun，was both good and beautiful，while“Great Wu”，a piece of music expressing the the just war of King Wu in overthrowing the corrupted last king of the Shang Dynasty，was mighty and militant，but not good enough.This comment was enough to reveal Confucius’lack of militancy，or at least his idea of discouraging themilitancy，which had profoundly influenced the Chinese nation for two thousand years.A history of the system of the rites and music had created or attempted to create a peaceful and harmonious atmosphere nationwide which encouraged the Chinese people to refrain from wars，never enjoyed demonstrating their courage，their strategy and tactics in wars，even when a just war had already been going on，and still persisted pathetically in concluding peace through other means than tragic wars，which should have been fought to the last drop of blood from the last person.
