Dai Des Records of Ritual is a collection of 40 texts purporting to record the teachings of ancient Chinese rulers as well as the teachings of Confucius, his disciples, and his later followers on topics, broadly speaking, about creating society and ordering the world. The original collection contained over 80 texts, first collected sometime around the first century BCE, with Dai De as the attributed editor. By the sixth century CE, a number of texts were lost, leaving the Da Dai Liji in its received form, which is presented here in English alongside the Chinese.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Translation of
Chapters with Traditional Numbering
39 Rulerly Words
40 Duke Ai asks about Five Kinds of Comportment ()
41 Duke Ais Inquiry with Confucius
42 Three Roots of Ritual
46 Investigations into Ritual
47 The Calendar of the Xia
48 Protectors and Mentors
49 Zengzi Singles Out the Tasks of an Exemplary Person
50 Zengzi on the Root of Filial Piety
51 Zengzi on Putting Filial Piety into Effect
52 Zengzi on the Greatest Kind of Filial Piety
53 Zengzi on Serving Ones Parents
54 Zengzis Regulatory Sayings: Part 1
55 Zengzis Regulatory Sayings: Part 2
56 Zengzis Regulatory Sayings: Part 3
57 When Zengzi was Ill and Near Death
58 Zengzi on the Heavens are Round
59 King Wu Ascends the Throne
60 General Wenzi from the State of Wei
62 The Virtuous Influence of the Five Emperors
63 The Lineage of the Emperors
64 Encouraging Learning
65 Zizhang Asks about Entering Office
66 Profound Virtue
67 Hall of Clarity
68 A Thousand Chariots
69 The Four Dynasties
70 Shun of the Yu Clan Carries Out Virtue
71 The Documents of Official Announcement
72 King Wen on Appointing People as Officials
73A The Rulers Move [ the Deceased into] the Temple
73B The Rulers Offer Blood Sacrifices at the Temple
74 Minute Distinctions
75 The Use of Weapons
76 Some Leisure Time
77 The Affairs of Holding an Audience with Rulers
78 Throwing Arrows into the Ceremonial Pot
79 The Capping Ceremony of a Duke [ ]
80 The Source of Lifes Allotment
81 The Concept of Change and the Source of Lifes Allotment
Bibliography
Index
Nai-Yi Hsu Ph.D. (2022) earned his doctorate in Religious Studies from Indiana University. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at National Taiwan University, where he researches and teaches early Confucian philosophy, focusing on its ethical and political dimensions.
Michael D. K. Ing, Ph.D. (2011), Harvard University, is Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University. He is the author of The Dysfunction of Ritual in Early Confucianism (Oxford University Press, 2012) and The Vulnerability of Integrity in Early Confucian Thought (OUP, 2017).
