“刑不上大夫，礼不下庶人”释义

“刑不上大夫，礼不下庶人”并非大夫犯罪不受刑罚惩罚，庶人则是“唯刑是惩，不予礼遇”。这句话的实义是指“五刑”中，无专门针对大夫的刑条，大夫犯罪由“八辟”议其轻重并予以处罚；礼不下庶人则是庶人因忙于生计和没有条件置办行礼用的祭品，故而对庶人不作某些礼的要求，如酬酢之礼即是也!

An Explanation about “Criminal Law Not Applying to Senior Officials and the Etiquette not Applying to Common People”

That Criminal laws did not apply to the senior officials and the etequette did not apply to commom people is not to say that the ctimes committed by senior officials were not punished and common people did not apply to etiquette completely. The definite meaning of this sentence is that there was not special criminal laws for senior officials in the Five Criminal laws. The crimes of senior officials were punished by Eight Judges according to their status. Because common people were always busy about their livelihood and had not money to spend for worship offerings, they were not required to apply to sone etiquette, such as exchange of toasts.