What does it mean to be "suspicious" when ghosts and gods are fake?

"Divining and killing people in the name of ghosts and gods" means: pretending to be ghosts and gods, time and day, divining and deceiving people, killing people who deceive people.

From Wang Zhi, selected from The Book of Rites edited by Dai Sheng in the Western Han Dynasty.

Excerpt from the original:

Be firm in making a fake, argue with reason when telling a lie, learn to know nothing, avoid knowing nothing, and kill people with suspicion. Suspect the public and kill people with ghosts, time and divination.

Translation:

Kill those who are deceitful and stubborn, hypocritical and eloquent, fall into heresy and think they are knowledgeable, and their words are exaggerated to confuse people. Kill those who cheat by pretending to be ghosts, gods, timekeepers and diviners.

Extended data

Wang Zhi refers to the rules and regulations governing the world by ancient monarchs in China, which is one of the earlier chapters on the national legal system. The content involves the system of sealing the country, official position, respecting officials, offering sacrifices, funeral, punishment, building cities, selecting and allocating officials, and school education.

The Book of Rites is an important collection of laws and regulations in ancient China. Originally, there were forty-six articles, beginning with Quli and ending with the four-system funeral. However, due to the length of Quli, Tan Gong and Miscellaneous Notes, most versions divide them into two parts, so there are 49 articles in total.

The book mainly describes the pre-Qin ritual system, which embodies the pre-Qin Confucian philosophical thoughts (such as the view of heaven, world outlook and outlook on life), educational thoughts (such as personal cultivation, educational system, teaching methods and school management), political thoughts (such as educational politics, building a harmonious society, ritual system and criminal law) and aesthetic thoughts (such as the theory of material sense and the theory of harmony between rites and music). It is an important material for studying the pre-Qin society.

The Book of Rites reflects the social, political and cultural background and family structure from the pre-Qin to the Han Dynasty, and gives a detailed explanation of the relationship and behavior norms among family members, forming a unique family ethics norm that guides contemporary ethics.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Wang Zhi