The Research On Theory Of Emotion In Han Dynasty

Whether regards to history, philosophy or psychology, "emotion" is an important research subject, but previous historians hadn't paid too much attention on this project, as they didn't regard it as independent study target. The emotion theory of Han dynasty had changed a lot, and the conflicts and combination of emotion and Li, emotion and law had an important influence on the Han dynasty and later. The paper took "emotion" as a breakthrough point, trying to explore the relationships between emotion and Li, emotion and law.According to the characteristics of academia theory of emotion in pre-Qin and Qin Han dynasties, the paper roughly divided "emotion" into two levels. The first level is natural emotion and moral emotion, which was defined according to the different nature of emotion. Natural emotion refers to the original feeling, such as primitive and biological desires. Moral emotion refers to moral feelings, such as sense of compassion, shame, universal love etc. There are not fully boundaries between natural emotion and moral emotion. Another level is personal feelings and social emotion, which was defined according to different types of the emotional body. Personal emotion means individual feeling to things, while social emotion refers to the synthesis of emotional concept of value under the influence of social ideology. In Han dynasty, the dominant social emotion is emotional values with Confucian morality as its core.From the aspects of thoughts, the emotional philosophy in Han dynasty had distinguishing features, such as the theory "suitable emotion" by Huai Nan Zi, "consistency between TianTao and human emotion" by Dong Zhong-shu, "personality molding philosophy" by Liu Xiang, "emotion inspired by environment and LI's control on emotion" by Wang Chong, "the emotional theory focused on reality" by Wang Fu, "emotion inspired by Xing and mind control on emotion"by XunYue.All these theories showed characteristics of rationalization and politicization as times changes. Huai Nan Zi's "suitable emotion" theory adapted with the social condition in early Han dynasty, DongZhongshu's philosophies were the basis of the theory of BaWangTao. In eastern Han, on the one hand, BaiHuTongYi followed Dong Zhong-shu's mode, which put mysterious label on theory of Emotion. On the other hand, unofficial emotional theory transferred the theme to traditional culture of Confucian morality, such as Wang Fu and XunYue's theories took attention on morality. In conclusion, the main theme of emotional theory in Han dynasty changed from Tao to WangBa and then to self-examination, which also reflected the transformation of epistemology from humanity to rational value of Li. In addition to the changes, emotional theories in Han dynasty had common characteristics which mean they emphasized the realization of morality, hoping people to pursue self-perfection through emotional training, so as to maintain the stability of society as well as lead and supervise the morality of society.The centralization system was established in Han dynasty, and the introducing of Confucianism into laws was an important change in this period, of which a series of major landmark fully showed how the emotional impulse changed into social practice, and how the seriousness and authoritative of legal system gradually corroded by moralized emotion. In this process, the emotional factors played an important role, which opened the legal gap, made up for the deficiency of law. Emotion were foundation-laying and Bridges, by "keeping the gentleman out of punishment", "Relatives conceal crimes", "Exemption from disadvantaged groups" etc. Hierarchy, loyalty and filial were injected into the legislative spirit, and then became the soul of law. The competitive Li and law fused gradually.The relationships between emotion and Li, emotion and law are a complicated eternal theme, which is not only a kind of abstract thought, but also closely related to the social atmosphere. It initiated the social climate change in Han dynasty, which means local officials showed deeply kind heart in trial cases, and the custom of "emotion controlling and li following" emerged in the society. On the one hand, moral emotion of benevolence become flaunt symbolize marks, serious law was softened. On the other hand, spontaneous biological desires were inhibited and natural emotion is injected into ethical kernel, the understanding of the emotion changed from soothing towards controlling and destroying.Regarding Confucian emotional values as the core, Han dynasty formed a set of social control system, on the base of which, political power mansion was finished. This kind of emotional value was fundamentally limited in the patriarchal society, relying on the blood relations. If the social soil of patriarchal clan lost, emotional value concept based on the blood will be affected. Gang Chang ethics built on the emotional value will increasingly become unpopular.