“礼不下庶人,刑不上大夫”探究

摘要

从语言层面看，“礼不下庶人，刑不上大夫”可以被理解为“礼法不以身份高低论贵贱”。句子表达的意义分两个层面考虑：从礼的角度看，礼制有追求平等的一面，礼学重视民众，现实中依据对礼的掌握程度来决定身份升降；从法的角度看，惩罚有特定的法律依据，惩罚与违法行为相关，刑罚追求公平，身份因素淡化。因此这种理解符合当时的观念和现实。%From its language description,“the common not regulated by ritual,scholar-bureaucrat not by penalty”can be comprehended as the law of Ritual is not to be explained to determine distinguished or humble identity according to the status of a person.The meaning of the sentence is considered from the following two aspects.According to Ritual,the law of Ritual pur-sues equality for its emphasis on the common and the promotion and demotion are determined by the mastery of Ritual.Accord-ing to the law,the penalty is set by particular laws and is quite relevant to illegal behaviors.The penalty pursues fairness as well as identity factors are weakened.Therefore,the above comprehension quite meets the demand of the views and reality at that moment.