Although Sanhuan respected Confucius, Confucius hated them very much because they were powerful, did not take Lu Hou seriously, and often did things that violated etiquette. The ancestors of these three doctors are all Lu Huangong, so every time the family worships ancestors, they do it together. In a family sacrifice event of Dr. Sanhuan, he actually sang a poem called "Yong". According to the Zhou rites, this song should be sung during the sacrifice of the Son of Heaven, during the removal of the sacrifice. Therefore, Sanhuan's singing of "Yong" is a serious act of transgression.
When Confucius heard about this, he was very angry and said: "There are two verses in Yong: 'The Son of Heaven is the main sacrifice, solemn and solemn.'The princes are on the side, respectful and harmonious. 'Don't the three doctors know their identities?'It is too much to dare to sing such a poem in a family sacrifice!”
The most powerful of the Three Huans was Ji, and Confucius hated him the most. When Confucius was thirty-five years old, Lu Zhaogong held a grand sacrificial ceremony to commemorate his father, Lu Xianggong. Dance music is an important part of the ritual. The ranks of the dance team are called "佾" (Nianyi). According to the weekly rites, the Son of Heaven uses the dance of eight hundred (that is, eight hundred and sixty-four people), the princes use six hundred (Lu Hou can use this grade), and the doctor uses four hundred (such as the family of Sanhuan).
At the ceremony of Lu Xianggong, people were surprised to find that there were only two people left in the Lu temple dance!It turned out that Lu Hou's dance team was brought to his home by the Ji family (see "Zuo Chuan: Twenty-five Years of Zhaogong"). What's even worse is that the Ji clan actually made them dance the dance of the Eight Hundred that only the Son of Heaven can use!When Confucius heard this, he was angry and said in a loud voice: "It's the opposite, it's the opposite, it's just lawless!."If you can endure this thing, what else in the world can't be endured?"But what can we do?As a saint, the level of scolding the street is just that, and he can talk happily.
Do you think Confucius is angry like that, can Lu Zhaogong give up?Finally one day, at the instigation of several other doctors, Zhao Gong raised an army to attack the Ji family, and as a result, the Ji family united the Meng family and the Shu family and beat Zhao Gong away. Zhao Gong fled to the state of Qi and never returned. The country of Lu has no monarch, and the power is in the hands of the Ji family. Confucius saw that this country of Lu was simply unable to stay, so it was better to go abroad to hide and be quiet. So, Confucius also came to the country of Qi.
When he arrived in the Kingdom of Qi, Confucius heard an ancient piece of music called "Shao", which is said to have been composed during the time of Emperor Shun. As a great artist who is proficient in music theory, Confucius was fascinated by listening to it, and he didn't know the taste of meat for three months, and said: "I really didn't expect that a good ** can make people intoxicated to this point!" ”
As a well-known expert in ritual music, Confucius was warmly received by Qi Jinggong. Jing Gong asked Confucius, "Sir, what do you think is the most important principle in politics?" These words made Confucius fall into deep thought. I have to say that Qi Jinggong is a very aspiring monarch who wants to restore the hegemony of Duke Qi Huan back then. But he made a lot of mistakes in politics, he was so happy with his achievements, and he was greedy for money. The nobles of the public office are also very corrupt, and that Tian Xizi (Tian Qi) took the opportunity to pretend to be public and private, and invited people to buy people's hearts. Jing Gong is also obsessed with beauty and does not establish a prince, which can be said to be the way of the monarch and the minister, father and son.
Thinking of this, Confucius replied meaningfully: "A king must have the appearance of a king, a minister must have the appearance of a minister, a father must have the appearance of a father, and a son must have the appearance of a son." Qi Jinggong didn't seem to understand the deep meaning of Confucius's words, and echoed in his voice: "What you said is really good! If the king has no king, no minister, no father, no son, even if mountains of grain are piled up in front of me, I am afraid I will not be blessed! "Actually, the Qi State has a hidden crisis at this time, and it is the descendants of this Jing Gong who are not blessed. After the death of Jing Gong, the Qi State soon fell into chaos - Tian Qi killed the heir designated by Jing Gong before his death, set up a new monarch, and established himself as the prime minister, and since then the Qi State has been under the Tian clan.
Although Qi Jinggong valued Confucius very much, the doctors of Qi did not like him. Confucius lived here for less than two years before returning to the state of Lu. Back in Lu, Confucius continued to study his poems, books, rituals, and music, and taught his apprentices. He was already well-known at the time, but he was very modest and still often asked others for advice on etiquette.
Once, Confucius went to the Taimiao Temple to participate in the ceremony of sacrificing the Duke of Zhou, and asked the person who presided over the sacrifice about the details of the ceremony. Someone sneered next to him and said, "Who said that this surnamed Kong is familiar with Lile!" When I entered the temple, I asked this and that. Later, Confucius was told this, and Confucius smiled and said, "Although I am a scholar specializing in ritual music, how dare I put on an omniscient appearance in front of those who actually preside over the ceremony?" The researcher should learn from the practitioner, which is a courtesy in itself. ”
Confucius studied ritual music in this way in order to inherit the rites of Zhou Gong and restore order in the world. Confucius was concerned about the chaos of the time. For a while, he didn't eat, he didn't sleep, he thought and thought all day, and he didn't come up with any good solution for several days. Finally, one day he understood that it was useless to just lock himself in the house and think nonsense. Only by standing on the shoulders of the saints and striving to learn the ways of the saints can we find the best answers.
Confucius was quite moved by his experience of painstaking meditation. He said: "If you only know how to learn stupidly but don't think about it, the more you learn, the more confused you become, and finally you will learn to become a pulp; On the other hand, if you only know that one person is blind and does not learn the wisdom of his predecessors, the more he thinks about it, the more paranoid he becomes, and it is difficult to fall into the devil. ”
In Confucius's view, morality is knowledge, and knowledge can be learned. On the other hand, if you don't study hard, many of the virtues that could have been called virtues will also become shortcomings. For example, one of his students is called Zilu, who has a straightforward personality and is quite brave, but he is also a little stunned. Confucius once instructed him, saying, "Zhongyou, you sit firmly and listen to me." There are six most important virtues: benevolence, wisdom, faithfulness, uprightness, courage, and fortitude. But there is only charity but lack of knowledge, and it is easy to be deceived; Good at playing clever but not easy to learn, frivolous and unreliable; Only talk about honesty but don't understand anything, and it is easy to be hurt; Straightforward and uneducated, that's just snarky; If you are brave and uneducated, you will definitely make trouble and bring disaster upon yourself; Resolute but short-sighted, it will become more and more arrogant. Look at how many of them you have? ”
The History of Chinese Thought, Chapter 26.