The Merciful Despotism--The Study On Jia Yi's Political Ideas

Jia Yi is a great ideologist in the early age of Han Dynasty. In order to consolidate the early Han Dynasty which was established in centralized autocratic rule, he put forward a political program, that is benevolent dictatorship.Jia Yi's Thoughts about politics focus on power and institutions. He did not trust humanity's role in politics. On his mind, equality cause dispute and the dispute leads to chaos. He advocated to build a a centralized autarchy country with pyramid political structure .Pyramid is divided into three level, that is the emperor, minister, and civilian. People in the different class have different rights and obligations. The higher the level, the greater the power. The emperor is the most distinguished person in the world and has supreme power . Jia Yi criticized the level transgression that Existed in early age of Han Dynasty, and suggested the way to solve the problem. He advocated governing the country by rites and punishment, making people get used to the idea of Social classification to comply with the hierarchy with the rites,. He advocated punishing people who transgress the class . And He advocated training the emperor into a holy man by means of perfect education.Jia Yi advocated governing the country graciously. He think that both of common people and administrative officer are very important in politics . The emperor can not govern the country without the support of them . So the emperor should regard the common people as the foundation of the politic and dedicate in making people rich and live a comfortable life .He also think that the emperor should select officer democratically and treat them with comity.On the one hand , Jia Yi advocated despotism ,on the other hand he advocated gracious Policy. It seems to be contradictory .In fact they are same in philosophy. Examing the content of his idea ,we clearly know that he advocated regarding the common people as the foundation of the politic and treating administrative officers with comity. It just aim at serve for despotism. Jia Yi take mercy to despotism with the purpose of preventing despotism from autocracy. He want to make the emperor close to his people by mercy, he believe if the emperor show his mercy to his people, the people will love and support the emperor. Then the despotism can sustain. So we know that the essences of Jia Yi's political thought is despotism.In the age of early Han Dynasty, the imperial system of government has been established. And the emperor became the lord of the world. Despotism conform to the general trend of the times and historical development. While the Thinkers pre-Qin Dynasty provides a theoretical argument for despotism. So with this Historical background and theoretical heritage, Jia Yi presented its policy of administration which is benevolent despotism. Jia Yi's political ideology meet the political need of the new country witch formed after the breakdown of patriarchal politics.