Mid -Autumn Festival meets Teacher's Day

The Mid -Autumn Festival is similar to Teacher's Day -in fact, the National Day is also similar; but this year's two sections are very rare. It is said that this "coincidence" only three times this century. The media editor asked me to talk about it. I immediately thought of the five words "Tian Di Jun Kou", the Mid -Autumn Festival was related to the "pro", and the Teacher's Day was related to the "teacher".

The ancient households were mostly in the middle of the middle hall, and the words "Tian Di Jun Kou Teacher" were written in the middle of the hall. The ancestral tablets are generally only invited during the sacrifice, but the tablet of the kingjun teacher is worshiped all year round. The establishment of the Republic of China, the emperor system was changed to the republic, and the word "king" was replaced accordingly to the word "country". A few years ago, I went to the south, and they could still see their relics in the middle hall of some old houses.

Don't underestimate this tablet, it concise and accurately reflects the basic structure and fundamental spirit of Chinese religion. The book "Chinese Way: Faith, Life, and System" recently published by my newly published classics and the comparison of Chinese and Western comparisons were fully discussed. As the text of Yingjing, we only talk about "pro" and "teachers" here.

First of all, start with the heavens and the earth. According to historical books, the "Jedi Tiantong" and Di Yao "Qin Ruo Haotian" in the Five Emperors laid the center of the Chinese religious system -Jingtian. "Only the sky is big", the position of heaven is equivalent to the main god of the western deities, but has no personality. A word that Confucius said to Zigong well explained the attributes of heaven: "Why do he say? Four o'clock, everything is born, what the heavens are?" God is the whole of all things that live in four o'clock, Of course, such a heavens have no personality and do not speak -thus are completely different from the Western personalized gods.

If you say nothing, people must grasp the heavenly Tao, only "observation of astronomy." Therefore, the Chinese attach great importance to "heaven". During the Di Yao era, "the sun, the moon and the stars, and the time to teach the people." To respect the sky, it must be born in the sky, and the implementation is born on time, and the festival comes from this. Chinese festivals are generally determined according to the time of the day, which is very different from Western festivals. This is the Mid -Autumn Festival: the winter solstice, spring equinox, summer solstice, and autumn equinox divide one year into four sections. People first sacrificed the moon on the day of the autumn equinox, and then changed to August 15th.

Fuyang City, Anhui Province held the "Sacrifice Moon, Ancient Rhymes, Tiehua Celebrate Mid -Autumn Festival". Hanmo Photo

The religious spirit of respecting heaven also gives the Mid -Autumn Festival with family reunion. Born all things, including people, people are born in heaven and earth. This is the most intimate manifestation of heaven. Therefore, in Chinese culture, home has noble sacredness. As the "Filial Scripture" said: "The body is skin -skinned, the parents of the subject", the life of a person is from the parents; Confucius said: "Three years of childbirth, and then avoid the parents of the parents." Only to survive. Parents are the creators of their children. They are not the contractual relationship between each other or the relationship between the vulgar feeding and being supported, but the relationship between the source of life in the sense of life theory. Zeng Zi said: "The body of the body, the body of the parents", the life of the parents is left on the child, and the three constitute the home. The life of the family is integrated, and the "pro -pro -person" people who do not distinguish between each other are naturally fell in love with each other.

A child participated in the ceremony of the sacrifice in Nanning with his family in Nanning, Guangxi. Photo by Yu Xiangquan

Based on the spirit of respect, the ancient Chinese sages affirmed the "pro" and established it as the most basic ethical norms. Most of the traditional Chinese festivals serve this righteousness, creating the timing and etiquette of family reunion, blind date love, Mid -Autumn Festival is one of them. Disposal on the festival of all year and four seasons, always urging us to go home, visit our parents, sacrifice their ancestors, and reunite with brothers and sisters to love each other.

On September 8, 2022, Fengshan Village, Liwei Town, Funzhou, Jiangxi invited good mother -in -law and good neighborhood representatives to make moon cakes together, and sent Mid -Autumn Festival moon cakes to the hands of lonely old people. Photo by He Jianghua

The child's body continues the life of his parents, of course, "dare not destroy"; parents want their children to "stand in a sidewalk", so they value their children's education -in the world's civilizations, Chinese parents attach great importance to their children's education.

Parents can teach their children's common sense, but the "avenue" of life and society must be taught by "teachers". The role of a teacher in Chinese society is similar to the priests and priests in the civilization of divine religion, and has won high respect. Confucius was respected as the "Master of the Holy Pioneer" and has been worshiped by officials and folks since ancient times. Since the Tang Dynasty, the temple worship Confucius has been established in various places, and his outstanding disciples and the most outstanding Confucian Confucianism in later generations have gradually been added. They are the masters of the world. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, the festival ceremony of Ding Ri on the mid -spring and autumn of Zhongchun and Qiu is the most solemn, which is equivalent to Teacher's Day. It was determined that September 10th was the Teacher's Day in 1985, which was not far from the summer calendar.

Yangzhou, Jiangsu held a ceremony of sacrifice. Shen Dongbing Photo

As for the education of the teacher, you can summarize it in four words: Jingtian, Zhongjun, filial piety, and adult. The significance of respecting the sky and filial piety has been explained above. Zhongjun is also very important, because "the monarch, group also", the role is to organize the group, organize countless discrete people into a country, and play a leading role, so that members can avoid the "jungle status" of mutual war, collectively produce publicly produce public publicly produce public publicly produce public publicity, collectively produce public publicly publicly produce public publicly publication of public publicity. Product, thus continuing life, improving the situation, and endless. Seeing the situation of poverty and backward countries in the world can understand how important a country with good organizations to the people is to the people's survival and development. Therefore, Zhongjun is a vital ethical norm of the world -today is patriotic, maintaining the stability of social and political order. A person knows the norms of Jingtian, patriotism, and filial piety, and gradually grows into people who are moral and autonomous and courageous. You can observe and think about it. Do you have such a sense of role today? I believe many people are not very satisfied. This is a big problem we face. However, in recent years, the situation has improved significantly, especially in the context of changes in the world structure and the relative decline of the United States. The more clear cultural consciousness, teach children to respect the sky, patriotism, filial piety, and adults.

The winner of the Seventh Medal, Zhang Guimei (Middle), model model of the times, president of Women's Senior High School, Huaping County, Lijiang City, Yunnan Province, Dean of Huaping County Children's Welfare Institute. She has taken root in frontiers of frontiers for more than 40 years, and she uses education to block the intergenerational transfer of poverty. Photo by Liu Ranyang

According to the current statutory festivals, Teacher's Day, Mid -Autumn Festival, and National Day are the front and rear feet. This is the accidental result of historical evolution. Patriotic, respect for teachers; the three are unified by respecting the sky. According to this, people's daily life also has a sacred meaning: respecting teachers and knowing "Tao", which can be "going to school"; in the country in the country, the country is long and the civilization is long, but the family is immortal; Filial piety, sacrificing ancestors, and breeding offspring, the life of the individual can be immortal in the heavens and the earth.

(Author: Professor of the School of International Relations, Renmin University of China)

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