Book: Ethics and ritual in traditional China. Page 1

If your father calls you, run headlong, even spitting meat out of your mouth, if you are having lunch; if the parents are unwell, express anxiety in looks and manners.

A decent person at a party should eat a little, no matter how the host insists.

Marriage in China has never been the business of those entering into it. Marriage was only a means to prolong the life of the family, to make it seem to exist forever.

If parents offer to eat something that is not to your taste, do not pretend that you are dissatisfied. If you are given clothes to your liking, you should wear them. If the son likes his wife, but the parents do not, he is obliged to divorce her. Otherwise, read it.

Home is the holy of holies. You should not, except in extreme cases, borrow dishes from neighbors, especially use the same well, bathhouse, not to mention clothing. Whistle or point fingers at home.

Any request of the parents must be warned and executed instantly, carefully, without antics, yawns, scratching.

A respectful son, like his wife, should get up with cock crows, wash quickly, comb his hair, get dressed and immediately go to his parents. With bated breath, they should respectfully ask how they slept, if they were cold, if the bed and clothing were comfortable, if they were still experiencing any inconvenience, if they were sick. Then you need to help your parents get up, wash, take care of breakfast for them, and only after that you can leave for a while for other things.

A wise ruler is obliged to know the people who help him, must tirelessly improve himself, honor the worthy, respect dignitaries, treat the people like a father, treat princes with kindness, and be tolerant of distant foreigners. In a lean year, his clothes and departure look simpler, and his food is not accompanied by music.

The attributes and instruments of government are justice, trust, harmony, humanity.

The ruler and the people are one and the same. What is the ruler - such is the people.

The root of everything is the order of things, based on strict socio-political distinctions and going back to distant sources. The basis of a stable society. Pledge of social harmony. The foundation of a prosperous state.

Everyone must strictly know his place and the corresponding scope of rights and privileges, the number and nature of obligations. And not only to know, but also to be strictly guided by this, taking into account also the fact that everything in the world is in dynamic equilibrium, that is, it fluctuates depending on circumstances, conditions of time and place. But fluctuations are fluctuations, and the foundations are unshakable.