Yi li
Encyclopedia
The Yili or The Ceremonies and Rites and Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial is a Chinese classic text about Zhou Dynasty
Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty. Although the Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the Ji family lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as...

 rituals. The Yili, Zhouli 周禮 "Zhou Rites", and Liji 禮記 "Record of Rites" — collectively known as the "three ritual texts" — are Confucianist compilations of records about rites, ceremonies, protocols, and social customs.

Title

The title Yili combines the Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

 words yi 儀 "demeanor; appearance; etiquette; ceremony; rite; present; gift; apparatus" and li 禮 "ceremony; rite; ritual; courtesy; etiquette; manners; propriety; social customs". In Modern Standard Chinese, the compound
Compound (linguistics)
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word formation that creates compound lexemes...

 yili 儀禮 means "etiquette; rite; protocol".

This ritual text was first called Yili in the (ca. 80 CE) Lunheng
Lunheng
The Lunheng is a wide-ranging Chinese classic text containing critical essays by Wang Chong on natural science, Chinese mythology, philosophy, and literature.-Title:...

. During the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), it was also called Shili 士禮 "Rites for Common Officers", Lijing 禮經 "Classic of Rites", Ligujing 禮古經 "Old Classic of Rites", or simply Li 禮 "Rites". Among Zhou Dynasty feudal ranks, this shi 士 was a "low-level noble; yeoman
Yeoman
Yeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to the 17th century. Work requiring a great deal of effort or labor, such as would be done by a yeoman farmer, came to be described as "yeoman's work"...

; common officer; scholar".

History

According to a long-discredited Chinese tradition, the Duke of Zhou
Duke of Zhou
The Duke of Zhou played a major role in consolidating the newly-founded Zhou Dynasty . He was the brother of King Wu of Zhou, the first king of the ancient Chinese Zhou Dynasty...

 (fl.
Floruit
Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...

 11th century BCE) compiled the Yili and Zhouli. In the opinion of sinologist William G. Boltz,
[I]t seems reasonable to accept as likely the supposition that the extant [Yili] is in origin a part of a larger corpus of similar ceremonial and ritual texts dating from pre-Han times, perhaps as early as the time of Confucius; that much of this was lost by Han; and that some may have come to be preserved in the text known today as the [Liji]. (1993:237)


Many early Chinese texts were lost during the Qin Dynasty
Qin Dynasty
The Qin Dynasty was the first imperial dynasty of China, lasting from 221 to 207 BC. The Qin state derived its name from its heartland of Qin, in modern-day Shaanxi. The strength of the Qin state was greatly increased by the legalist reforms of Shang Yang in the 4th century BC, during the Warring...

 (213-206 BCE) burning of books and burying of scholars
Burning of books and burying of scholars
Burning of the books and burying of the scholars is a phrase that refers to a policy and a sequence of events in the Qin Dynasty of Ancient China, between the period of 213 and 206 BC. During these events, the Hundred Schools of Thought were pruned; legalism survived...

. When texts were restored during the early Han Dynasty, the Yili was extant in two versions: "Old Text
Old Texts
In Chinese philology, the Old Texts refer to some versions of the Five Classics discovered during the Han Dynasty, written in archaic characters and supposedly produced before the burning of the books, as opposed to the Modern Texts or New Texts in the new orthography.The last half of the 2nd...

" (supposedly discovered in the walls of Confucius
Confucius
Confucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....

's residence) and "New Text". Zheng Xuan
Zheng Xuan
Zheng Xuan , courtesy name Kangcheng , was an influential Chinese commentator and Confucian scholar of the Han Dynasty. He was born in modern Weifang, Shandong, and was a student of Ma Rong.-See also:*Three Kingdoms...

 (127–200) compiled an Yili edition from both the Old and New Text versions and wrote the first commentary. Wang Su
Wang Su
Wang Su was the son of the Cao Wei official Wang Lang during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. When Guanqiu Jian started a rebellion in Shouchun, Wang advised Sima Shi to lower the rebels' morale by treating their families with respect...

 (195-256 CE) wrote two books about the Yili and criticized Zheng, but Zheng's version became the basis for later studies and editions.

The Yili text was carved into the 837 CE Kaicheng Stone Classics
Kaicheng Stone Classics
The Kaicheng Stone Classics are a group of twelve early Chinese classic works carved on the orders of the Tang dynasty Emperor Wenzong in 833-837 as a reference document for scholars...

, and first printed from woodblocks from 932-953 CE (Boltz 1993:240). In 1959, archeologists excavated some 1st-century Han tombs at Wuwei, Gansu and discovered a cache of wooden and bamboo textual copies. They include three fragmentary manuscripts of the Yili, covering more than seven chapters.

The first Western translations of the Yili were in French (Charles-Joseph de Harlez de Deulin
Charles-Joseph de Harlez de Deulin
Charles-Joseph de Harlez de Deulin was a Belgian Orientalist, domestic prelate, canon of the cathedral of Liège, and member of the Academie Royale of Belgium, who studied and translated the Zoroastrian holy texts.The family of de Harlez was an old and noble family of Liège...

 1890 and Séraphin Couvreur
Séraphin Couvreur
Séraphin Couvreur was a French Jesuit missionary to China, sinologist and creator of the EFEO Chinese transcription in 1902...

 1916). John Steele (1917) translated the full text into English.

Content

The Yili translator John Steele summarizes the text.
The amount of repetition and unnecessary detail will make the reading of parts of the book almost as wearisome a task as was the translation of it; but when all is said and done, the details found here are an essential part of that picture of the public and private life, education, family interests, and work-a-day religion of an average man in the China of 3,000 years ago, which, gathered from the classical works of that nation, is without parallel, both for age and interest, in the literary history of the world. (1917 1:vii-viii)


The received text of the Yili contains seventeen pian 篇 "chapters; sections".
Yili Chapters
Number Chinese Pinyin Translation (Boltz 1993:235-236)
1 士冠禮 Shiguan li Capping rites for (the son of) a common officer
2 士昏禮 Shihun li Nuptial rites for a common officer
3 士相見禮 Shi xiangjian li Rites attendant on the meeting of common officers with each other
4 鄉飲酒禮 Xiang yinjiu li Rites of the district symposium
5 鄉射禮 Xiang she li Rites of the district archery meet
6 燕禮 Yan li Banquet rites (at state, not imperial, level)
7 大射 Dashe The great archery meet (state level)
8 聘禮 Pin li Rites of courtesy calls (state to state)
9 公食大夫禮 Gongshi dafu li Rites of the gong feasting a great officer
10 覲禮 Jin li Rites of the (imperial) audience
11 喪服 Sang fu Mourning attire
12 士喪禮 Shi sang li Mourning rites for the common officer
13 既夕禮 Ji xi li (Mourning procedures of) the evening preceding burial
14 士虞禮 Shi yu li Post burial rites for a common officer
15 特牲饋食禮 Tesheng kuishi li Rites of the single victim food offering
16 少牢饋食禮 Shaolao kuishi li Rites of the secondary pen victim food offering
17 有司徹 Yousi che The servant clearing the way


Compared with the other "ritual texts", the Yili contains some highly detailed descriptions. Take for instance, this passage about a shi (personator)
Shi (personator)
The shi was a ceremonial "personator" who represented a dead relative during ancient Chinese ancestral sacrifices. In a shi ceremony, the ancestral spirit supposedly would enter the descendant "corpse" personator, who would eat and drink sacrificial offerings and convey messages from the spirit...

ceremony.

Then the host descends and washes a goblet. The personator and the aide descend also, and the host, laying the cup in the basket, declines the honor. To this the personator makes a suitable reply. When the washing is finished, they salute one another, and the personator goes up, but not the aide. Then the host fills the goblet and pledges the personator. Standing, facing north to the east of the eastern pillar, he sits down, laying down the cup, bows, the personator, to the west of the western pillar, facing north, and bowing in return. Then the host sits, offers of the wine, and drinks. When he has finished off the cup, he bows, the personator bowing in return. He then descends and washes the goblet, the personator descending and declining the honor. The host lays the cup in the basket, and making a suitable reply, finishes the washing and goes up, the personator going up also. Then the host fills the goblet, the personator bowing and receiving it. The host returns to his place and bows in reply. Then the personator faces north, sits, and lays the goblet to the left of the relishes, the personator, aide, and host all going to their mats. (17/12, tr. Steele 1917 2:195-196)

External links

  • I li, Britannica Online Encyclopedia
  • Yili, Chinese Text Project
  • Yili, ChinaKnowledge
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