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Rites and Ceremonies 515 Although the Customs of a Degenerate Age May Seem Unalterable, It Is Still Possible to Change People for the Better and Cultivate Better Customs. The following happened when Lu Gong of the Later Han dynasty became magistrate of Zhongmou. A chief of a commune borrowed an ox from a man in his village but refused to return it to its owner. When the owner sued the chief, Lu Gong ordered him to return the ox to its rightful owner, but the chief continued to keep it for himself. Lu Gong lamented, “My efforts to cultivate the people no longer work here.” When he decided to leave his post, unloosening the seal with a string, all the clerks in the yamen tried to hold him back. Upon learning what had happened, the chief of the commune was ashamed of his wrongful conduct and went into a jail by himself after returning the ox to its owner. Around that time Yuan An, magistrate of Hanan, ordered a yamen clerk named Fei Qin to inspect the district. Fei Qin found a boy watching a pheasant. He asked, “Why did you not catch the pheasant?” The boy answered, “It is still a young bird.” Deeply impressed, Fei Qin reported this to Magistrate Yuan An: “Now harmful insects do not cross our borders, enlightenment reaches down to the level of beasts, and our children possess benevolence; these three things are very uncommon.” When Yuan An reported this to the court, the emperor was also impressed. When Cheng Baizi was appointed assistant magistrate of Shangyuan and first arrived in his district, he found a man trapping birds with a limed pole. He took away the pole from the man, broke it, and told him not to catch birds in this way again. When he quit his post and returned home, he boarded his boat in a suburb of the district. Then he heard several people in the boat talking about catching birds with limed poles. They said that no children had dared to catch birds ever since the assistant magistrate had broken the limed pole of the man. This indicates that the orders of the magistrate can be obeyed without being too strict. CHAPTER : PROMOTING LEARNING The School in the Olden Days Was a Place Where Propriety Was Practiced and Music Was Taught. However, Because Both Propriety and Music Have Deteriorated , the Current School Education Consists Merely of Reading Books. The states ruled by feudal princes in the old days all had royal academies [xuegong ], and their curricula were hardly different from those of the National University [Taixue] in the capital, where the imperial court was located. They taught 254. An official of the Later Han dynasty. His courtesy name was Zhongkang. The story here is introduced in the biography of Lugong in the Book of the Later Han. 516 book VII “three virtues and three kinds of conduct” [sande sanxing] and “six arts and six rites” [liuyi liuyi], and the virtues [de] basically consisted of moderation [zhongyong] and filial piety and fraternal duty [xiaoyou]. The pedagogical methods for these curricula were memorization and recitation [fengsong] and dialogues made of questions and answers [yanyu]. During the spring and autumn rites and music were taught, and during the summer and winter poetry and calligraphy . The most dominant curricula were music, dance, stringed instruments, and singing, and therefore, the manager of music [dianle] was in charge of education during the age of Yao and Shun, and the music director [sile] during the age of the Zhou. The county schools in our days derive from those established by the feudal princes in the olden days. However, music and dance had already disappeared in the classroom; so had stringed instruments and singing. Looked at this way, the so-called promotion of learning [hŭnghak] is a futile cause that only appears plausible. The stringed instruments were kŏmungo and lutes, and songs [ka] were folk songs [feng] and festal odes [ya]. Because the disciples of Confucius in their teaching gave priority to playing stringed instruments and singing, Zilu used words like shengtang and rushi when he played the lute. Shengtang is music for high officials, and rushi is music for the audience in the hall. In studying poetry [Classic of Poetry], Bo Yu made a reference to the “Odes of Zhou and the South” [Zhounan] and “Odes of Zhao and the South” [Zhaonan], which were meant to be sung to the accompaniment of stringed instruments, not...

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