Looking For Authoritative Moral Foundation

The ruling rationality 1s an important problem which any ruling circles must face.Through analyzing the process that the ruling circles of early Han Dynasty pursued theirruling rationality, I think that as early as between Shang and Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Gongestablished the basic model of Chinese traditiona1 politics theory by putting fOrwardinterdynamic relations among 'heaven', 'monarch' and 'the people' through rethinkingprofOundly the historic fact that West Zhou Dynasty took the place of Shang Dynasty.Though in this model, the ruling rationality originates from 'heaven', but because that'heaven will surely obey what the people desire', then, the monarch's moral character,especially the benevolent ru1e carried out by the monarch, becomes the essentialconditions to build ruling rationality.It is a relatively long period of time before the ruling circles of early Han Dynastyhad cognition to ruling rationality.When Liu Bang began to rule Han Dynasty, he debated with Lu Jia, one of hisofficials, on how to govern a country. Lu Jia thought it was not that Qin Shi Huang didnot want long period of order and stability though he exercised cruel ruling, but he onlydepended on legalists to rule the country whi1e neg1ected the morality's function in theruling process, and consequently, he became utterly isolated in the end. Therefore, LuJia suggested Liu Bang to adopt the ruling plan the core of which was mora1ity andvlrtue.When Wen Emperor and Jing Emperor were in power, they carried out the policy torecuperate the people and rehabilitate the economy for a period of time, and this madesocial economy develope greatly. However, at that time, the problem of rulingrationality had not been solved yet. It is mainly embodied in the following threeaspects((l) The power distribution among the imperial family and the dukes; (2) Thetyrannical landlord annexed a great deal of land. This made some peasants break offthe household register and become refugees, while at the same time make some othersattach themselves to the nobility and landlord and do not be controlled by the centralgovernment. Thus, the central government's ruling basis was greatly weakened, (3)The merchant's forces expanded. On one hand, they associated with the princes tomake rival claims as an equa1 to the government, and on the other hand, their suddenrich gave an impetus to the peasants to abandon their land, their indulging in dissipationlead to 1uxury and waste in the whole society. And this seriously corrupted the currenttendencies in society. Under such social background, Jia Yi suggested Wen Emperor to'take the people as fundermentals' and 'emphasize on agriculture and curb thecommerce'; Chao Cuo suggested Jing Emperor to weaken the vassal states in order todefend the monarch's autocratic government.lIn the period of Han Wu Emperor's ruling, the West Han Dynasty had already been ingreat prosperity in politics and economy, etc. However, the social problemsoverstocked from Wen Emperor and Jing Emperor hadn't been solved yet, and on thecontrary, when the governors debated on whether or not to declare war to Xiongnu, theseproblems became outstanding. Because if they declared war to Xiongnu, a powerfuIcentral government must be needed, but the relationships between imperial power andminister power formed in the times of Liu Bang's ruling was a realistic block for greattalented Han Wu Emperor to establish autocratic monarchy, and the guiding idea'govern by doing nothing that goes against nature' which was fOllowed by the governorssince early Han Dynasty also became a theoretical block to it. The writers of "HuaiNan Zi" wanted to solve this theoretical problem, but because of Liu An's special status,they didn't express their viewpoints toward the monarch's centralization of state power,therefore, they could not solve this problem. Dong Zhongshu conformed to the historicalrequest. He made the use of the conceptions of 'Y...