The Thought Of Kingcraft In Hu Anguo "Spring And Autumn Annals"

The ultimate goal to rebuilding order in Song Dynasty is to revive"Rule of Three Generations", while the essence of"Emulating from Three Generations"is to revive the Thought of Kingcraft which is in conformity with the goal of reconstructing Confucianism. The so-called"Kingcraft"refers to the thought of former Kingcraft of three generations in ancient times. Since the"king"of three generations themselves were the integration of political and moral authority,"Kingcraft"covers two implications of"respecting kings"and"revering kingcraft"and express Confucian ideal of"unity of king and kingcraft". Although the ideal seems to be utopian, it is a resolute belief in Confucians'heart. Hu's"Spring and Autumn Annals"implying rich Thoughts of Kingcraft, is one of the prominent representatives of study of"Spring and Autumn Annals"in Song Dynasty."Respecting the King"is the tradition in"Spring and Autumn Annals", and that in Hu'"Spring and Autumn Annals"is the inheritance of tradition and injects new elements for the tradition as well. For the political service of strengthening imperial authority and centralizing all powers, Hu illustrated the thought of"respecting the king and depreciating subjects in"Spring and Autumn Annals"and"respecting the king and suppressing the feudal princes". The thought of respecting the king in Hu'"Spring and Autumn Annals"implies the desire for reestablishing the order of"great unity", namely, a ritual conquest from the king. A series of countermeasures adopted to safeguard the stability of political structure and ruling order were revered as"Law from forefathers"by descendant kings, which were approved and illustrated by bureaucrats. The illustration of"Law from forefathers"in Hu's"Spring and Autumn Annals"mainly spotted at the following three aspects, namely, advocating"military leadership can't be granted to others except the king"; guarding against political affairs interfered and embroiled by imperial clans, relatives of the king and imperial harem; promoting that subjects uphold"integrity of loyalty". In short, all of these are to"respect the king", namely, to safeguard the imperial authority and centralize all powers.Although Hu approves"respecting the king", but he does not advocate"absolute imperial authority". He hopes that the king upholding the quality of the universe becomes the ideal ruler with integration of the king and kingcraft which is the ultimate goal of"revering kingcraft". The gap difficult to bridge between political reality and kingcraft ideal with"Dao system"detaching from"political system"is handed down by Confucian sages from generation to generation. Confucians who inherit the thoughts of sages engage in seeking ideological weapons to constrain imperial power. Hu's thought of"respecting kingcraft"discards kismet theory, calamity theory and other thought to constrain the imperial power; Dong's theory of interaction between heaven and human beings and Dan Zhao School's thought of"promoting creed of the king and advocating the regularities of the king"have tremendous impact upon Hu's"Spring and Autumn Annals". In order to respect kingcraft, neo-Confucianism constructs the pedigree of"kingcraft domination". Although Hu does not come up with the theory of"kingcraft domination", he is blessed with conscientiousness of"kingcraft domination". Under the traditional political system, criticizing the king is an illegally ritual behavior which conflicts with political ethics of"revering king and depreciating subject". In order to get out of the dilemma, Hu proposes the hypothesis of"sages set themselves up as heaven"believing that sages where the heavenly principles lie in are eligible to depreciate the king, while Confucians including Hu in Song Dynasty inheriting"thought of sages"are eligible to criticize the king. Therefore, whether"Spring and Autumn Annals"or"On Politics"is full of derogatory words on monarchy and politics. Criticizing the king and commenting on current affairs derogatorily imply the thought of"respecting kingcraft". The thought of"respecting kingcraft"in Hu's"Spring and Autumn Annals"fully embodies cultural subjectivity and political consciousness of"serving the king by kingcraft"and"constraining the king by kingcraft"in Confucianism."Kingcraft", the integration of"respecting king"and"revering kingcraft", embodies the harmonious conformity of political and moral authorities and perfect combination of"sacred position"and lofty quality, which is the ideal politics of traditional Confucianism. The thought of reviving kingcraft of Confucianism in Song has been implied in Hu's"Spring and Autumn Annals". Hu's political ideal is not only influenced by Confucian collective consciousness in Song but affluxes in the flow of the consciousness and makes the kingcraft ideal full of more sense of history. Hu's kingcraft ideal is based on"element"consistent with"heavenly principle", the value of which is embodied in the arguments of righteousness and benefits between king and hegemony, while the approach of realizing kingcraft lies in"the world belongs to the publics". Hu's kingcraft ideal is also reflected in the expectation of the ideal relationship between ruler and subjects."Spring and Autumn Annals"develops the traditional theory of"integration of ruler and subjects"; considers that"bureaucrats"are"the accompany of the king"; and proposes that both the subjects and the king can be at heavenly position and take the heavenly responsibility together, which reflects the politics and culture of"ruling the world with bureaucrats"Politics of Kingcraft is not only a description of the ideal social panorama, but also a summarization of the governing manner of ideal politics. As a mode of nation's governance, the political kernels of the Kingcraft are the civilian-oriented policy of benevolence and the rule by virtue. Due to the special historical reasons, the"civilian -oriented"thoughts are extremely active. There are profound internal relations between the civilian-oriented policy and the politics of Kingcraft. It is believed in Hu's"Spring and Autumn Annals"that the idea of nation-founding of the Kingcraft is civilian-oriented, and the governing principles for the civilians are"the employment of the civilians at the proper seasons" and"never exhausting the power of civilians"; while the political pursuit of the Kingcraft is to"be happy and share concerns with the people". The order of the Kingcraft is an order of rule by rites. Rites, heavenly principle (Natural justice) and the Kingcraft make a conceptual link that could be explained with one another, and they are deeply correlated. Hu Anguo, under the instruction of the view of rites which reflects the features of that time, illustrated the ideas of the"rule by rites"in the"Spring and Autumn Annals", and connected it with the doctrine of the Kingcraft. Hu integrated the monarchal recreation of body and mind, as well as the political activities into the restriction and norm of rites, and proposed the requirements including ruling the mind by rites, ruling the body by rites, ruling the family by rites, and ruling the country by rites. And the order for"ruling by rite"reflects what Neo-Confucianism advocates in Song dynasty, and it is also the law of the monarch to achieve the undertakings of sage kings.