Abstract:

As the mainstream historical research in the 20^th century, historical materialists have provided unique understanding of Chinese traditional rites. Since GUO Mo-ruo’s Research of the Ancient Chinese Society, materials of rites have gained great attention, which can be seen in early works of historical materialism by FAN Wen-lan, JIAN Bo-zan, LV Zhen-yu, HOU Wai-lu and others. According to historical materialism, rites reflect essentially the nature of a particular class, so they denounce rites fiercely, regarding them as specific phenomena in a certain society in a certain time and believing that ritual study will perish along with the collapse of the feudal society. The issue of rites provides key historical and institutional support for the theory of the forms of society. The analyzing method of rites in the early materialist view of history has been used and developed with awareness in the works of later scholars like YANG Kuan and YANG Xiang-kui. YANG Kuan’s research of rites including Ji（emperor’s ploughing the field）, Guan（puberty rite of men）, She（shooting）, Dasou（military practice under the name of hunting）, Zhijian（meeting etiquette） and Xiangyinjiu（banquet ceremony in the township） elevated himself to the academic peak. The research of rites from the materialist view of history mainly focuses on the overall history rather than trivial textual examinations. Influenced by the academic trend of suspecting the past, these scholars maintain that the literature on “three rites” and related rituals formed later than historically stated. Moreover, they attempted to go beyond the Confucian classic studies and pay particular attention to the rites in economy and society. Despite great academic achievements, there exist two major deficiencies in their study: on the one hand, they don’t have clear judgment on the nature and age of rites; on the other hand, the practice of dogmatization and labelling exist in their argumentation. Consequently, different researchers drew different conclusions from the same historical materials of rites due to different understandings and explanations.

Key words: materialist view of history, research of rites, division of ancient historical periods, GUO Mo-ruo, YANG Kuan