Three Ritual Classics (original) (raw)

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Set of three Chinese classics

The Three Books of Rites or Three Ritual Classics (simplified Chinese: 三礼; traditional Chinese: 三禮; pinyin: Sānlǐ), is a collective name for three Confucian books the Etiquette and Ceremonial, the Rites of Zhou, and the Book of Rites.[1] The name was coined by Zheng Xuan in the Eastern Han.[2]

In the early years of the Western Han "Book of Rites" was originally a term for the Etiquette and Ceremonial, but the Eastern Han Zheng Xuan included the Etiquette and Ceremonial, the Book of Rites, and the Rites of Zhou as the Three Ritual Classics, and wrote a commentary on the Three Ritual Classics, the Tang dynasty The "Book of Rites" was called "Xiaodai Liji" in the Tang dynasty, and later people gradually called the "Book of Rites" as "Three Ritual Classics".[3]

The Three Ritual Classics have always been difficult to read, their language is archaic, their text is brief, and they are known to be difficult to understand,[4] For example, many of the architectural structures and scales of the palaces in the Book of Rites have not been covered, and they have been "repeatedly changed over the ages, gradually becoming different from the old", so that when reading the Rites, the palaces of the Son of Heaven and Lords are often imagined to be a castle in the sky.

1. ^ Theobald, Ulrich. "The Confucian Classics (www.chinaknowledge.de)". www.chinaknowledge.de. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
2. ^ 最早《尚書·舜典》已有三禮之名：“咨！四岳，有能典朕三禮。”漢代孔安國注：“三禮，天地人之禮。”，《隋書·禮儀志一》：“唐、虞之時，祭天之屬為天禮，祭地之屬為地禮，祭宗廟之屬為人禮。故書云命伯夷典朕三禮。”
3. ^ 皮锡瑞《经学通论》述：“三礼之名，起于汉末，在汉初但曰礼而已，汉所谓礼，即今十七篇之仪礼，而汉不名仪礼，专主经言，则曰礼经，合记而言，则曰礼记，许慎、卢植所称礼记，皆即仪礼与篇中之记，非今四十九篇之礼记也，其后礼记之名，为四十九篇之所夺，乃以十七篇之礼经，别称仪礼，又以周官经为周礼，合称三礼，盖以郑君并注三书，后世盛行郑注，于是三书有三礼之名。”
4. ^ 黃侃《禮學略說》提及： “禮學所以難治，其故可約說也：一曰，古書殘缺；一曰，古制茫昧；一曰，古文簡奧；一曰，異說紛紜。”

《欽定古今圖書集成·理學彙編·經籍典·三禮部》, from the Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China