Rituals That Don't Reach, Punishments That Don't Impugn: Jia Yi on the Exclusions from Punishment and Ritual‪.‬

The "Qu li" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] chapter of the Li ji [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Record of rituals) contains what may be the best-known ritual prescription that has come to us from ancient China: "Ritual does not extend down to the common people; punishment does not extend up to grandees" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. (1) The fame of these lines contrasts with the ample historical evidence that no such rules functioned in pre-Qin China. In the "Jie ji" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Levels and grades) chapter of the Xin shu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], the early Han political thinker Jia Yi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (200-168 B.C.) deploys the same ideas--with particular emphasis on exclusion from punishment--as part of a larger argument focused on how the ruler is affected by his treatment of subordinates. These notions become part of Jia Yi's normative discussion of the abstractions and praxes that serve to preserve the ruler's majesty, and form part of his explication of the relationship between ritual practice and political hierarchy. Perhaps most importantly, since historical records indicate that Jia Yi successfully persuaded his sovereign to exempt high-ranking officials from punishment, his use of the lines marks the first time these ideas crossed over from theory to reality. I will preface my discussion of Jia Yi with a brief outline of some other exegetical approaches to understanding the injunctions, from Han as well as modern scholars. It is not my intention here to disprove other interpretations, but rather to analyze Jia Yi's take on these ideas. These other understandings serve to provide context and contrast to Jia Yi's understanding. The lines in question have been variously interpreted; to accept a given interpretation in one context is not necessarily to reject another interpretation in a different context.