Research On Zuo Zongtang’s Ethica Thought And Ethical Practice

Zuo Zongtang was an outstanding statesman, strategist as well as a ideologist who was rich in ethical thoughts in the modern history of China. Hu Linyi, who was a contemporary of Zuo, once highly praised his brilliance as "all around China, there’s no one could surpass him" Liang Qichao, who also thought highly of Zuo, called him as "the first great man of China in recent five centuries". In2000, the News Week of US opened up a new column named as "One Word in Millennium", which published fifty wise celebrities in the past one thousand years and three Chinese were included. They were Jenghiz Khan, Zuo Zongtang and Mao Zedong. Thus, we can figure it out that Zuo is not only a national famous notability, but a world-famous one. Recent years, this historical personage has been widely studied and discussed, about whom a great number of thesis and monographs has also been published. These studies, however, particularly emphasize on Zuo’s economic thoughts, national thoughts, thoughts of west-China development and pragmatism, etc, and studies on his ethics are measly. Besides, these studies are lack of systematicness and intensive study. The author takes "Studies on Zuo Zongtang’s Ethic Thoughts and Practice " as a thesis, with the purpose of generalizing Zuo’s ideological system as well as his contributions in his whole life, so as to let the present and future generations have a more comprehensive knowledge about Zuo Zongtang.Throughout Zuo’s ethic thoughts, they are supposed to include the following aspects. Firstly, deeply influenced by the traditional Confucianism, especially the "principle of feudal and conduct", he took the spirit of being patriotic and loyal to the throne as the primary. Secondly, as great changes about the debate of justice and interest had taken place in modern China, based on his knowledge and experience of Neo-Confucianism, Zuo raised his own idea about the relationship between justice and interest. The difference between his justice and interest view and the traditional one is that he put "upholding interest" in a especially important position, which no doubt has a firm tie with the domestic strife and foreign aggression at that time. In addition, after studied the thoughts of Zuo, we can find that he had his owe achievement in politics, education and military. In political ethics, for instance, he came up with the view of rectifying bureaucracy.By studying his ethic thoughts, it is easy for us to recognize its practicalness, because his whole life is practical, and all his ethic thoughts about economics, politics, military and education are closely related to ethic practice. And it is his continuous practice that constitutes the source of his thoughts. For example, his economic ethics was raised and carried out in business activities. As long as we analyze his thought carefully, we could discover that some economic ethics are included in his business activities. Because during his activities of developing economy, Zuo Zongtang not only focused on how to develop economy, but how to develop it reasonably and ethically. Wei Yuan once put forward a proposal,"learning merits from the foreign to conquer the foreign", which Zuo appreciates very much, in Map Journal of the Oceanic Nations. Eliminating the obsolete concepts "self-fettered", he introduced western science and technology as well as advanced machinery equipments, and founded Foochow Shipyard in1866and Lan Zhou Textile Bureau in1880. Economically, all of his businesses--reducing taxes, building roads, building dam, popularizing silk and running industries--were colored with the ethics of developing national economy and being patriotic and loyal to the throne. Admittedly, Zuo’s economic ethics mingled with his business activities from beginning to end. Likewise, his political, military and educational ethics were also closely linked with his political, military and educational activities. These proved that Zuo Zongtang raised and carried out his ethic thoughts during his practice. Thus, we can conclude that he is not only a ethical thinker, but also a ethical practitioner. For our insight into the developments and changes of Chinese ancient ethics as well as the development of the socialist China, Zuo Zongtang’s ethic thoughts and practice still have a fundamental practical significance.This thesis is divided into seven chapters.Chapter1is the introduction, mainly including the background of this subject, sorting previous academic references and research findings (including study of Zuo’s thought concerning economy, education, nation,"Lixue", Northwestern Development and pragmatism). There is also some explanation about the foundation and significance of this subject and the basic ideas and the basic ways of the study.Chapter2mainly discusses the historical background for the generation of Zuo’s ethical thought and the origin of his thought. The social and historical background is that the Qing Dynasty was beset by the enemies from within and without. The traditional Confucianism is served as the origin, the Hunan culture as the foundation, the enlightenment of the intellectuals of the landlord rank (such as Wei Yuan, Lin Zexu, Zeng Guofan etc.) as the direct sources, the ideology and culture in the Western world of the ascending period as the indirect sources. In Confucianism, politics should be functioned in accordance to morality, which is also the base of Zuo’s politic ethical thought. The evolution of the debate of justice and interest is also the root of Zuo’s ideas that upholds both justice and interest.Chapter3has presented the general characteristics of Zuo’s ethical thought form both theoretical and practical aspects, which provide the theoretical support for the structure arrangement. There are three primarily characteristics, i.e,"regarding Cheng-Zhu Confucian as the root" is the moral standard;"observing morality and saving Chinese nation" is the moral goal;"Chinese-style Westernization" is the moral practice.Chapter4typically shows the content of Zuo’s ethical thought. Zuo Zongtang has read a lot of the Confucian classics since childhood, thus he is greatly influenced by Confucianism. He particularly agrees with Confucianism about ideas of "regulating oneself, the family, country and the world", thus patriotism is the most important part of his thought. Meanwhile, Zuo has creatively put forward the idea of upholding interest, also known as his particular economic thought, i.e."upholding both justice and interest". Rising from the grassroots class, Zuo Zongtang deeply know the sufferings of the common people and abhor the officials who commit corruption. Therefore, he comes up with some politic reforms in term of his moral politic views, like inspection, punishing the corrupt officials, firing the unqualified officials, upholding clean politic and praising upright officials. Concerning military morality, there are the ideas of "the improvement of spirit is the most important task for an army." and "there must be strict discipline and rules in an army." When it comes with environmental morality, he maintains the focus must be on water conservancy and forestation. He also states that the policy must be in accordance to the local environment.Chapter5is about the ethical practice of Zuo Zongtang’s whole life. There are the practices of his politic ethical thought, economic ethical thought of "upholding interest", military ethical thought, educational ethical thought, and environmental ethical thought and so on. Zuo is not only a great thinker, but also an outstanding practitioner. All the experience have enriched his ethical thought, the more important thing is that they have made great contributions to the development of the whole society.The last part is the closing, which is intended to make a conclusive statement, and shows how to study Zuo Zonglang’s ethical thought critically for us under the new historical conditions in the new era, and offer some new expectations to it.