On "Harmony" Political Ethics Of Confucianism In Pre-Qin Dynasty

Harmony has been the inherent spirit and a prominent character of the traditional Chinese culture, which indicates the ideas of harmony, concord, compromise and conciliation and is a collective representation of rational principle. Should we summarize the political ethics ideas of the Confucianism in Pre-Qin Dynasty in one word, it shall be "harmony". For the Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty, establishing a harmonious hierarchical order of society and an effective overall governance of the nation had been their lofty political goal. In this thought, harmony was both a strategy for individual conducts and a principle for establishment of society;both a realm of self-realization and an embodiment of peaceful world;both an instrument and a goal of the political ethics. Therefore, harmony and politics had inseparably constituted the basic connotation and value of the political ethic thought of Confucianism in Pre-Qin Dynasty.The "Harmony" political ethics of Confucianism in Pre-Qin Dynasty was a necessary product of development of history. The Warring States Period witnessed a great historical revolution, i.e. the transition from slave society to feudal society, which gave rise to major changes to the politics, economy and culture of the society. On the one hand, the order of the society was changed from the old "Courtesy" to a chaos of "ruin of Courtesy and music", a society without order. Facing with people craving for peace and a society changing greatly, ideologists of various schools had to develop their theoretical answers to the change of the situation and the perspective of the society. Thus, Confucius took the lead to consciously establish a political ethics with "Harmony" as its connotation which was further enriched and developed by Mencius and Xuncius. On the other hand,the "Harmony" culture heritage and ethic spirit of early China had served as the ideological and cultural source of the "Harmony" political ethics. Consciousness of cultivation culture valuing harmony between nature and human being enlightened this political ethics while the practice of rule of moral in Tangm, Yu, particularly Zhou Dynasty provided the direct reference and the six ancient classical works served even as the idealistic source thereof. It may be said that the "Harmony" political ethics of Confucianism in Pre-Qin Dynasty is a logistical development of the ancient Chinese ideological culture and ethic spirit.The hierarchical structure with patriarchy and blood as the link inherently determined the human relations characterized in ancient Chinese society. Members of a patriarchal clan and all members of the society should be intimate with and respectful to each other, should be affectionate subject to the order of superior and inferior. Standard for political system and harmony of hierarchical order based on blood relationship was the political ideal pursued by the Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty. As a result, being intimate and respectful became the fundamental ethic they wanted to safeguard. For ruling class, the purpose of "Harmony" was to keep the social order so as to realize long term peace and security. From this standing, the Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty valued the status and role of ordinary people in the nation very much and accentuated that the interest of ordinary people was the basis of the power of the monarch. They believed that "a nation shall take people as its foundation" was a condition precedent to a harmonious politics and that allowing the people to live peacefully and happily was a guaranty to the harmony and stability of the society. The idea of founding on people in the "Harmony" politic ethic of the Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty shines humanism.The idea of "integration of man and nature" was nourished in the soil of Chinese cultivation culture. Being the fundamental spirit oftraditional Chinese philosophy, it is also the philosophical basis of the "Harmony" politic ethic of the Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty. The idea of "Integration of man and nature" supplied the Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty with such a special and meaningful world outlook and way of thinking that enabled them to find a theoretical basis for the political harmony of the society. The ultimate achievement of the political ethic is the "integration of man and nature", but the supreme "nature" therein should be implemented in the world of human relations. Both transcending and deepening into are required. It was within this framework of thought that the Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty based their "Harmony" political ethic on the "integration of man and nature". Founding on people and assumption of good humanness is the cornerstone of human nature thought of the "Harmony" political ethic of the Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty. Confronting with a political situation of fierce turbulence, endless war and roaring complaint and resentment of people in the Warring States Period, for the Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty who were actively involved in the society and valued the livelihood of people as well as the order of society, to advocate "kindness" and stress "Courtesy" for pursuit of the rule of moral and the harmony of hierarchical order, there should be a reasonable and strong precondition of humanness. They believed that among all the things in the nature human being was the noblest, and the goodness of human nature was the ethic basis for, while ruling by goodness was the idealistic way to a harmonious politics. Thus, the assumption of good human nature had inevitably become the humanness basis for the "Harmony" political ethic of the Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty. It can be seen therefrom that both the emphasis of the Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty on the relationship between nature and man and their advocacy of good human nature related finally to the political functions thereof with the purpose of finding a theoretical basis and value foundation for the "Harmony"political ethic."Harmony with Difference" is the marrow of the "Harmony" culture of the Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty and also the basic principle of their "Harmony" political ethic. As early as in the late of Xizhou Dynasty, Shi Bo raised the proposition of "Harmony producing things and identity discontinuing" from the view of dialectic relation between harmony and identity. Confucius made the judgment of "decent people harmonizing with difference among them while base people identifying themselves without harmony" based on his in-depth understanding and corrective comprehension of "Harmony". The Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty believed that things in the world were harmonious without identifying themselves, were different without conflicts among them;being harmonious for joint growth and development, being different for complementation and supplementation. Applied to the social political life, "Harmony with Difference" was the basic principle for handling social political relationship. First, the interests and conflicts between the monarch, administrating ministers and superior officials and the people shall be coordinated and handled well, the second, the relationship between the monarch and the officials within the ruling class shall be coordinated and handled well. With maintaining the ruling order as the basic point, the overall situation shall be considered and preserved while differences between parts and individuals shall also be recognized;the interests of collective and the nation shall be stressed while interests of parts and individual shall also be attended at the same time. Goodness, integrity, courtesy, wisdom and credit are the utmost ethic norms and conduct codes of the "Harmony" political ethics of Confucianism in Pre-Qin Dynasty. For the level of operation and practice, Goodness is the moral basis and ethic principle of the harmonious politics, Integrity is its standard of conduct and guideline of value, Courtesy its moral norm and systematical guaranty, Wisdomits representation of ability and reflection of behavior and Credit its requirement administration and rule of exchange.Harmony of social politics, human relations and between man and nature is the idealistic pursuit and integral system of the "Harmony" political ethics of the Confucianism in Pre-Qin Dynasty. Harmony of human relations is the precondition of social stability and also the basis for politic harmony. "Loving family members" is starting point of human relation harmony, "Loving other people" is extension and goal of the same, and loyalty and tolerance is "bond" thereof. Harmony between man and nature specifically manifests the "Integration of man and nature" of the Confucianism in Pre-Qin Dynasty in the political ethics. Human being is the product of long time evolution of the nature, and society is a harmonious unity of man and the nature. The harmony of social politics is the focus of the "Harmony" political ethics of the Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty. The ideal of rule of moral in terms of hierarchical order of patriarchal relations, Great Harmony as well as harmonious politics and ordered nation are the core of their political philosophy and their lifetime goal.The Confucians in Pre-Qin Dynasty extremely cared about how to realize and guarantee a harmonious and orderly political situation and society. For this aim, they took "Courtesy" as the basis to make systematical design and arrangement for the "Harmony" political ethics. First, they determined the social structural basis for the harmony of group and individuals, which took "Courtesy" as the conduct norm and institutional requirement to make difference between honorable and base, noble and mean, to group with appropriateness and to distinguish with order. Second, they advocated for each keeping his/her own business and performing his/her own obligations in accordance with his social class. Firstly, based on the assumption of human nature, the necessity of classifying the society was theoretically proved. Secondly, with "Courtesy" as the core andstandard, the social classification was divided into two levels: classification of social status and classification of profession. Thirdly, the function of "Courtesy"—"grouping" and "distinguishing", particularly the "distinguishing" of social status was taken as the method of social classification to finally realize the political goal of harmonious hierarchical order. Essentially, "Courtesy" is the institutional guaranty for the hierarchical order.