明朝人的礼观念及其行为实践

People's Concept of Etiquette and Practices in the Ming Dynasty

传统中国之礼,或曰起源于“戏”,或曰起源于宗教祭祀。礼一旦确立,既是一种道德规范,又是一种社会秩序。时至明代,因社会变迁而引发明代的礼观念发生了诸多变化,进而影响了明朝人的行为实践。在礼与情的关系上,明朝人提出基于人生、人情之上的新见,实现了从“以礼为情”向“礼由情生”的转向;借助于对“礼”与“非礼之礼”的辨析,将礼定义为内心的自觉;无论是朝廷行政,还是学者所论,礼与法无不有趋于合流之势;在礼与俗的关系上,则是礼通过简易化、通俗化的历程而渗透到地方社会的治理实践之中。明末清初,士大夫开始致力于礼教秩序的重建,礼观随之趋于中庸化。

The traditional Chinese etiquette is thought to have originated in“drama”or religious sacrifice.Once etiquette is established,it became the norm of morality as well as social order.In the Ming Dynasty,the concept of etiquette changes a lot because of social changes,which in turn affected the behavior and practice of people.In terms of the relation between etiquette and human feelings,the Ming people put forward a new opinion based on life and human feelings,transforming“taking etiquette as feelings”to“etiquette born from feelings”.With the help of differentiating and analyzing the concept of“etiquette”and“indecent etiquette”,etiquette is defined as inner self-consciousness.Whether in royal court administration or scholar research,etiquette and law were tending to merge.However,in the relation between etiquette and customs,the former permeates into the social governance practice through the process of simplicity and popularization.During the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties,the scholar-bureaucrats aimed to rebuild the feudal ethics order,and the concept of etiquette tends to be the golden mean.