子曰：八佾舞於庭 Confucius Said: Having Eight Rows of Dancers to Perform in Courtyard

孔子的礼乐理论强调在扮演教育任务上，礼与乐是不能分开的，音乐与舞蹈对净化人心十分重要。礼节列明不同社会阶层，音乐则是社会不同阶层间的调节者。这种调节可以维持社会安定与达到统治者治好社会的政治目标。

在体现礼节时，我们应该以正确的态度来执行。例如，在祭拜时，我们应该诚心敬畏神灵；服丧时，我们应该真心为死者致哀。相同的，服务诸侯时，士大夫应该谦恭；管理人民时，统治者应该仁慈。如果没有了情感成分在内，礼节就变成了空洞的形式。遵守法规的行为需要以内心为依据。不然，礼节只是管制人们行为的机制而已。

礼节对于产生社会习俗的任务重大，因为它告诉人们他们对他人应有的责任以及合理的期望。形式化的行为渐渐的内化、欲望有所寄托、个人修养就成了正确的社会标志。

由于礼仪是重要的社会法规，人们以它们为准而行事。所以当孔子听到季孙氏违背礼节而以六十四个人在他的庭院中奏乐舞蹈，孔子自然不高兴。在周朝，不同阶级的人在举行祭拜市在庭中舞蹈所能用的舞蹈人数是不同的：天子有八行，每行八人、诸侯六行、大夫四行、一般官员两行。季孙氏为鲁国大夫，用六十四人，可说是粗暴地采用了专属于周王的礼节。

孔子谓季氏，「八佾舞於庭，是可忍也，孰不可忍也？」

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The Confucian theories on music and dance stressed that music and rites were indispensable in performing their education role, and that music and dance were vital in purifying people's mind. Rites set down social class differences, while music was a mediator in the society of all classes. This mediation could maintain the social stability and reach the rulers' political goal to well run the world.

In performing rites, what must be emphasised is that one has to perform them with the correct attitude. For example, when performing a sacrifice, one has to feel reverence for the spirits; when carrying out the rites of mourning, one has to feel grief for the decreased. Similarly, in serving his lord, a minister was to be respectful; in governing his people, a ruler was to be benevolent. Without this emotional component, ritual becomes a hollow performance. Acting in conformity with the rules of proper conduct requires an inner dimension for its foundation. Otherwise, ritual will only be the mechanism of regulating people’s behaviour.

Rites therefore have prominent role in the creation of social mores, as they inform people about their duties to others and also of their reasonable expectations of them. Formalized behavior becomes progressively internalized, desires are channeled and personal cultivation becomes the mark of social correctness.

Since rites are paramount social law, people have to act according to them. He was therefore very upset when he heard of Jisun family’s violation of rites by getting eight rows of dancers to perform in his courtyard. During Zhou dynasty, different ranks in society were allowed different number of dancers to perform outside the ancestral hall during memorial ceremony: the King could have eight rows of eight dancers, feudal lords six rows, minister four rows, and official two rows. The head of Jisun family officially held only the position of minister, and his use of eight rows of eight dancers thus shown an outrageous usurpation of ritual prerogatives of the Zhou king.

Confucius said of the head of the Ji family, ‘He is having eight rows of dancers to perform in his courtyard. If he can bear to do this, what may he not bear to do?’