Discuss On The Influence Of Confucian Philosophy On Social Conduct In Pre-Han Dynasty

Chapter one deals with the rise and it's civilizing measures of Confucianism in the Early Han Dynasty.During that time,the society as a whole showed on an extremely frivolous visage of putting much value on warrior and great profit,so people were eager to incorporate the society into the set of etiquette.However the etiquette shaped by Shusun Tong was according to the system of Qin's superior emperors and inferior ministers,and it was limited to the etiquette in the court,and did not contain the criteria for social life,so it was not complete.At the same time,the ideas of inactivity of Huang Di and Lao Zi were no longer adapt to the development of the society.Together they provide favorable conditions for the rise of Confucianism.Then as an ideology,the government tried to carry out the Confucian moralization by the measures:upbuilding Taixue and Junxue to cultivate confucianists and Confucian officials;by choosing "Xiaolian" to show people with "filial piety";set Sanlao to advocate "filial piety" according to the characteristic of rural society. Although it's political resistence was reduced,the Confucian tried to carry out their moralizing idea.But we should notice that Confucian moralizing behaviors were enormously suspected because they may got popularity by practising "Tiaojiao".The second chapter refers to the transformation of "filial piety" and it's influence in pre-Han dynasty.In Western Zhou Dynasty,filial piety was widely used,and it was Confucius who firstly limited filial piety to describe the relations of parents and ancestors.At the basis of supporting parents,Confucius and Zeng stressed the inner feeling of respecting parents.When parents made mistakes,Confucius believed that children should obey their parents when parents were righteous,and expostulate when parents were not righteous.Based on this,Zeng abstracted such principles as assisting parents with righteousness,exhorting between father and children,expostulating tirelessly in tactful words and so on.The filial piety of Mencius was different from that of Confucius and Zengzi.He spared no effort to safeguard family relationships, asserting "nonexhortation between father and children" and emphasized that children should obey parents unconditionally.From that time forward,the classic of Filiality focused on the philosophical argument of the legitimacy of filial piety in the three cardinal guides of DongZhongshu,in this way,it provided a theoretical guide for the rule of filial piety.Filial piety in the Western Han Dynasty as a whole had the following characteristic:Firstly,the theory of filial piety in the Western Han Dynasty focused more on social and political ethics rather than family ethics because of the political considerations of filial piety in the rule of filial piety.Secondly,the principles of equal personality,assisting parents with righteousness and exhorting between father and children in Pre-Qin Confucian were gradually shrinking,while termless obeisance to parents and elders were rising.Thirdly,the promotion of filial piety made the three-year mourning and ceremonious exequies popular,while at the same time sorrow feelings were decreasing.In addition,the prevalence of filial piety indirectly encouraged the formation and development of revenge Confucian cultures,resulting in the inherent contradictions in the ethical and legal appeals.The third chapter talks about the transformation of the ideas of loyalty and it's influence on Junchen Ruler and Minister.The original meaning of loyalty was also extensive.When Confucius and Mencius talked about loyalty,it referred to exerting the inherent morality of individuals and the relationship with others,not specifically to the ethic of rulers and ministers.Even when discussing the relationship between rulers and ministers,they also insisted on the equal relationship.However,since the time of Xunzi,the conditions of the ministers were lowering while rulers were rising. This trend was more and more obvious in the western Dynasty.For example, DongZhongshu believed in that rulers guided subjects and placed it in the first place in the three cardinal guides.By doing that,the pattern of superior sovereign and inferior subject was founded and the regality hanged over the world.Meanwhile,to carry out the philosophy of all the people on God's earth were the subjects of the king, on the one hand,people shifted filial piety in family ethics to political ethics,on the other hand,they tried their best to argue that loyalty and filial piety was homogeneous, and compare the relationship between rulers and ministers to filiation to ease up the conflict between the public and family,but it won't be harmonized radically.Seeing from the concept of "filial piety" and "loyalty",we can find that why the government try to advocate "filial piety" is to sparlplug "loyalty" actually.So when family ethics encounter the political ethics,the government will defend the political ethics finally,it indicates the strengthen of state idea.The fourth chapter refers to differentiating righteousness from profit.In the C Confucian theory "Yi" means not only the explicit behavioral norms but also the one of the inner dharmas in pre-Qin dynasty.But it mainly refers to explicit behavioral in Qin and Han dynasty.Even that,it was not observed because people payed more attention to the realistic benefit.From the concept "differentiating righteousness from profit" we can see clearly the standpoint of Confucian in early Qin dynasty,when the relation of righteousness and profit were talked about.For example,Confucius called for that we should not forget moral principles at the sight of profits,and Mencius claimed that righteousness should be emphasized while profit be looked down upon which was also believed by the Confucian in early Western Han Dynasty.Under the laissez-faire atmosphere of that time,esteeming power and valuing profit began to derive.However with the prevalence of Confucianism,the thought that righteousness should be emphasized while profit be looked down upon wad widely accepted in the late Western Han Dynasty.By reviewing the reality of society,we can find that,in fact, during the Western Han Dynasty,valuing profit had not been changed at all.At that time,people in the whole society advocated profit and power,lived on the fat of the land,buried generously and espoused extravagantly.In the face of benefits,the thought of valuing righteousness and despising profit advocated by the Confucian was extremely powerless.The fifth chapter discusses on respect for the older,honor of teachers and esteem of courtliness.Respect for the older was firstly discussed here.In local communities, the old men were respected,for it helped to maintain the local orders and cultivate filial piety,hence the government of Western Han prompted the society to form the tradition of respecting the old by vouchsafing property,walking stick symbolizing honor and some privileges on tax and law.Honor of teachers were placed in the second place.In the society of Pre-Qin there had been attitude that doctrines were superior to power,while the unifying of Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty made an opposite results.However,teachers played a necessary role in the transmission of Confucian culture.By working as teachers of emperors,Confucianism directly influenced them.Thirdly was esteeming courtliness.Courtliness was one of the virtues of Confucian.But in the early Han Dynasty,affections and brothers became indifferent,which resulted in depravation of the social ethos and slaughter of monarch's kindred for imperial power.In order to change this situation,the government of Western Han Dynasty exerted all its powers to call for courtliness, which were widely accepted later.But in the late Western Han Dynasty,the spread and popularization of courtliness provided thought foundation for the usurpation of Wang Mang.Husband guiding wife is concerned about in the sixth chapter.The love and marry of females Pre-Qin were relatively free and they did not pay much attention to chasteness.But the more recent time,the trend of superior men and inferior women was more apparent.However,the relationship of men and women was quite loose in the Western Han Dynasty.Even though Dong Zhong-shu had demonstrated that "Husband guides wife" on philosophy,and established the tone of superior men and inferior women,he hadn't demanded that the woman marry only one man in her life. Liu Xiang's Lien(u|¨)zhuan and BanZhao's N(u|¨)Jie had that demand but did not influence much on people.In contrast,the concept of "the husband and wife were combined with Yi" gave females in the Western Han Dynasty great autonomy in deuterogamy and remarry.As a whole,the conditions of women in society and families were higher in Western Han Dynasty than any other subsequent dynasties,though the opinion of superior men and inferior women was still dominant.Chapter seven is about the impact of Confucianism on western Han.First,along with the strengthening of Nation consciousness,bureaucratic politics of Qin and Han had to strengthen the control of society by variety of measures.They tried to conduct a concordant social foundation with great efforts.The characteristics of bureaucratic politics determined that it would bring everything into governing and make all kinds of society force equivalent.But once a kind of trend was formed,a kind of opposite social trend will also be formed to fight against it.The result of fight was that the philosophy of people in western Han changed,namely,on one hand,they impressed themselves;on the other hand they sought freedom of themselves.The Second is about the agitation of pragmatism and the thoughts of esteeming ancient society.The ancient Chinese philosophy evolved towards rationalistic and pragmatism,under this trend,in order to get the attention and the adoption of the rulers,Confucianism duly carded out a self-transformation and Confucianists also tried to adapt to the need of rationalistic government,in turn,it stimulated the tropism of pragmatism of being well versed in Confucian classics and using.However the thoughts of esteeming ancient society were still very strong in Han Dynasty because Confucianism claimed that we should make a point based on the ancient times,and Confucianists of Han Dynasty cited the ancient thought to criticize current politics.In the late Han Dynasty, the thoughts of esteeming ancient society cumulated to its most,and Confucian idealism got to the pinnacle in the New Dynasty under Wang Mang.Even this result in the demise of Western Han Dynasty,the battle of these two thoughts laid the social foundation of the new orders in Eastern Han Dynasty.