朱元璋一改历代因袭前朝礼制的传统,开国之初即弃元礼不用,而另谋擘划一代礼制,有其特定的历史情境。元明之际"华风沦没、彝道倾颓"的礼俗现状使传统社会的伦理秩序受到严重挑战,不仅为朱元璋的礼治宏图提供了反面借鉴,也使他深刻地认识到礼治的治政作用,从而将礼治推到"国之纪纲"的政治高度,并且属意于创立一代礼制。朱元璋的制礼思路主要是因袭前代之制,稍加损益以合时宜,但元代五礼皆以"国俗"行之,带有浓厚的蒙古特色,严重偏离了历代相承的"礼统",不堪新诞生的汉族政权袭用,构成明初礼制变革的根本原因。自元礼观之,明初礼制变革是种断裂,但以周汉唐宋以来的"礼统"观之,明初礼制变革是对元代礼失百年的一种反正,又是一种延续。
Given the particular situation,Zhu Yuanzhang designed a new set of etiquettes instead of inheriting the etiquette of the Yuan dynasty. The disorder of etiquette and custom of late Yuan and early Ming let Zhu yuanzhang realize the function of etiquette,and determined to create a new etiquette system for Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang's etiquette design mainly inherited from the previous dynasties,since the etiquette system of Yuan Dynasty had strong characteristics of Mongolia nationality unacceptable for the Han regime,which served as the fundamental reason of his etiquette reform. Though Ming's etiquette reform is a kind of rupture from the perspective of Yuan's etiquette,it is a restoration and extension of the etiquettes of Zhou,Han,Tang and Song dynasties.