Political Value Research Of Taoist Inaction Thought Before Wei And Jin Dynasty

In the early19th century, since the rise of the New Culture Movement, a series of western political values represented by science and democracy has been introduced into our country rapidly, promoting the progress of technology and development of economy in modern China, pushing forward the political democratization process simultaneously. The development and course is the main trend that China moves toward modernization from tradition. At the same time, the Chinese traditional political culture represented by Confucianism is regarded as a stumbling block to China’s modernization process. Criticizing Confucianism thoughts is conductive to clear away the sense of identity hierarchy and authoritarian ideology in people’s thought. But on the other hand, it also results in the reasonable contents in traditional culture, such as ethical thought to deal with social interpersonal relationship, philosophical thoughts that emphasize the balance between human society and the nature, and kingcraft and so on are excluded.Since the reform and opening-up in the1980s, the economy of China has been developing rapidly. But the advancing pace of the culture failed to keep up with the development speed of economy. Especially the values in the core of national thought have been developing slowly.About this point,we can see from the total moral decline in the modern China society. So the issue of the reconstruction of the national values is prominent. In this meaning, cognizing the modern western political value, understanding the traditional political values contained in China’s traditional culture is the first step to restore the national political values undoubtedly.The western political values such as democracy, liberty, equality, order and justice are the wanted object of elites from the late Qing Dynasty. Of course, they are the guide and core aspects to reconstruct the national political values. This paper attempts to explore the traditional political values of "inaction" thought in Taoist school, to examine whether it contributes to the construction of modern national political values system. Taoist "inaction" thought generally experienced three stages before Wei and Jin Dynasty, and this paper will explore according to this clue using historical method and political value method.Firstly, the "natural inaction" thought of Lao Tzu. Namely following the nature, do not interfere with the development of everything. Lao Tzu is the initiator of inaction thought, and his inaction thought is taken in and carried forward by many ideologists. But containing too much primitive thinking modes and unreasonable thinking modes make it difficult to become a kind of traditional political value. But the thought of limited government and autonomy contained in it is the summary of political experience by Lao Tzu, and very similar to the requirements of modern values, such as democracy, liberty and rule of law.Secondly,"peripateticism inaction" thought represented by Chuang Tzu and "anarchic inaction" thought that tends to the extreme. The main content of "anarchic inaction" thought is to beyond the reality and content with the external environment, paying no attention to govern the country and pursuing the quiet of heart. As a kind of philosophy of preserving one’s own life, it pays too much attention to preserve one’s own life but neglects individual subjective initiative. But the philosophical liberty and equality spirits contained in the thought of Chuang Tzu are the basis of liberty and equality as the political values. Although "anarchic inaction" thought of Chuang Tzu post-ism and Wei and Jin Dynasty contains much unreasonable elements, the spirit of counter-authority contained in it is the typical representative of counter-authority thought in China’s history.Thirdly, the "general inaction" thought of Huang-Lao school. That is, no interfering with the development of things by individual lust and desire, bringing individual subjective initiative into play based on following the development law of things. This is the summary of Taoist inaction thought based on the blend of thoughts of many schools by the scholars of Huang-Lao. And this is the mature symbol of Taoist inaction thought. It became the official ideology in early Han Dynasty, promoting the realization of "Rule of Wen and Jing". So "general inaction" is the typical representative of Chinese traditional political value-inaction thought. At the same time,"general inaction" contains the ideological condition of the rule of law-the natural law thought to some degree.