Tao Political Culture And Practice

From a new political culture perspective,this article approaches the impact of the Taoism-centered state governing system upon ancient Chinese politics and society.It analyzes the fundamental structure and evolution process of the Taoist governing politiˉcal culture and practice from five aspects,including,(1)Taoist state-governing perˉspective,content,its political practice during the early Han Dynasty,the political practice in Wei and Jin dynasties,and,(5)its impact.The purpose is to demonstrate that Taoist governing political culture was a basic sub-culture type,that it was proˉmoted as an ideology during its political practice in early Han,Wei and Jin dynasties,and that it had brought deep and extensive impact on ancient Chinese political culture and society. Taking naturalism as its aim and self-government as its interior structure,Taoist governing culture was a typical ancient Chinese democracy and freedom ideal.Its ideal personal political quality was embodied as sages and immortals.They observed as an onlooker the social and political development of that time,longing for their ideal state of"minimum size and fewest possible people".Extensively adopting the essence of Confucianism,Mohism,Logicianism and Legalism,the Taoist state-governing culˉture established its unitary but multi-component system.This was a welcome developˉment for the early Han Dynasty"the balanced separation of the three powers"political system and for the need of limited imperial power and it enabled the early Han regime to run under high efficiency.The prevail of Xuan discussion(Xuan was a philosophical===================...