中国人的精神5.6
方疏桐
I said that the State religion which Confucius taught is a Code of Honour, and I told you that Confucius made this Code out of the law of the gentleman. But now I must tell you that long before Confucius' time there existed already in China an undefined and unwritten code of the law of the gentleman. This undefined and unwritten code of the law of the gentleman in China before Confucius' time was known as li (礼) the law of propriety, good taste or good manners. Later on in history before Confucius' time a great statesman arose in China—the man known as the great Law—giver of China, generally spoken of as the Duke of Chou (周公) (B.C. 1135)—who first defined, fixed, and made a written code of the law of the gentleman, known then in China as li, the law of propriety, good taste or good manners. This first written code of the gentleman in China, made by the Duke of Chou, became known as Chou li—the laws of good manners of the Duke of Chou. This Code of the laws of good manners of the Duke of Chou may be consideral as the pre—Confucian religion in China, or, as the Mosaic law of the Jewish nation before Christianity is called, the Religion of the Old Dispensation of the Chinese people. It was this religion of the old dispensation—the first written code of the law of the gentleman called the Laws of good manners of the Duke of Chou—which first gave the sanction for the sacrament and inviolability of marriage in China. The Chinese to this day therefore speak of the sacrament of marriage as Chou Kung Chih Li (周公之礼)—the law of good manners of the Duke of Chou. By the institution of the sacrament of marriage, the pre—Confucian or Religion of the Old Dispensation in China established the Family.
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