Dai De (), also known as Da Dai, (; more formally, "Dai the Greater"), birth and death unknown, was a Confucian scholar of the

western Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and a warring in ...

. He was active during the reign of

Emperor Xuan of Han Emperor Xuan of Han (; 91 BC – 10 January 48 BC), born Liu Bingyi (劉病已), was the tenth emperor of the Han dynasty, reigning from 74 to 48 BC, and was one of the only four Western Han emperors to receive a temple name (along with Empero ...

and then

Emperor Yuan of Han Emperor Yuan of Han, personal name Liu Shi (劉奭; 75 BC – 8 July 33 BC), was an Emperor of China, emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty. He reigned from 48 BC to 33 BC. Emperor Yuan promoted Confucianism as the official creed of the Chinese go ...

(48–33 BC). He was the brother of Dai Ren () and the uncle of

Dai Sheng Dai Sheng (), also known as Xiao Dai, (), birth and death unknown, was the Scholar of Rituals to Emperor Xuan of the Former Han dynasty. He was the son of Dai Ren () and the nephew of Dai De. He was a native of Liang (now Shangqiu, Henan) and ...

. He was a native of Liang (now

Shangqiu Shangqiu ( zh, ), Postal romanization, alternately romanized as Shangkiu, is a city in eastern Henan province, Central China. It borders Kaifeng to the northwest, Zhoukou to the southwest, and the provinces of Shandong and Anhui to the northeast ...

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

) and a founder of the New Text Confucian (Simplified:今文经学; Traditional: 今文經學 ''Jinwen jingxue'') exegesis of “classical texts concerned with codes of conduct” (Simplified: 今文礼学; Traditional: 今文禮學: ''Jinwen lixue'') during the Former Han dynasty. He was traditionally credited with producing a substantially edited version of the ''

Book of Rites The ''Book of Rites'', also known as the ''Liji'', is a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. The '' ...

'' (''Li Ji'') that bore his name: ''Dai the Greater's Book of Rites'' (大戴禮記 ''Da Dai Li Ji''). Dai de and Dai sheng were at the shuqiu Pavilion meeting held by the emperor focused on deciding points of Confucian cannon the

Guliang Zhuan The is considered one of the Chinese classics, classic books of ancient Chinese history. It is traditionally attributed to a writer with the surname of Guliang in the disciple tradition of Zixia, but versions of his name vary and there is no de ...

commentary on the

spring and autumn annals The ''Spring and Autumn Annals'' is an ancient Chinese chronicle that has been one of the core Chinese classics since ancient times. ''The Annals'' is the official chronicle of the State of Lu, and covers a 242-year period from 722 to 481&nbs ...

won against the

Gongyang Zhuan The ''Gongyang Zhuan'', also known as the ''Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals'' or the ''Commentary of Gongyang'', is a commentary on the '' Spring and Autumn Annals'', and is thus one of the Chinese classics. Along with the '' Z ...

commentary this meeting inspired the

Bai hu tong ''Bai Hu Tong'' (, also , ) is a Confucianism, Confucian text based on the held in 79 CE. History The traditional view of this text is that it was compiled by Ban Gu (32–92 CE) on the orders of the Emperor Zhang of Han (57-88 CE). The nam ...

white tiger hall meeting. In Da Dai li ji the small calendar of the xia or hisa is inserted it is a calendar of the xia dynasty and might be the oldest book in China It describes pheasants going into the water to become big mollusks this is an expression to mark the seasons and is also seen in the book of rites. But in regards to the Da Dai li ji Dai's prestigious name could have been attached to an edited version of the ''Book of Rites'' in order to legitimate a much-revised text. Traditionally in the Book of sui the preceding version was said to have consisted of an initial 131 essays (篇 ''pian''), to which an additional 83 were subsequently added. Dai is said to have reduced the resulting 214 essays to 85, which his nephew, Dai Sheng, was then supposed to have further reduced too 46 then 3 additional essays were added later to reach a final total of 49. however, to attribute these revisions to either Dai De or Dai Sheng is debatable, both of whom were, nevertheless, trained as Confucian scholars specializing in various texts concerning "codes of conduct" (禮 '' li rites''). Dai's reputed influence on these texts on Rites which include the ''

Rites of Zhou The ''Rites of Zhou'' (), originally known as "Officers of Zhou" (), is a Chinese work on bureaucracy and organizational theory. It was renamed by Liu Xin to differentiate it from a chapter in the '' Book of History'' by the same name. To rep ...

'' and the '' Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial'', is also uncertain.Jeffrey K. Riegel, “Li chi 禮記,” in Michael Lowe, ed., ''Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide'' (Berkeley CA: The Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1993), pp. 293-97; Michael Lowe, “Dai De,” in Xinzhong Yao, edl, ''RoutledgeCurzon Encyclopedia of Confucianism'' (New York: Routledge, 2003).

References

Han dynasty classicists People from Handan Han dynasty writers Writers from Hebei {{Confucianism-stub