| The historical thought in ancient China has its own theoretical proposition, theoretical form, frame structure and internal logic. But the mode of thinking in ancient China also has its own features, the distinction of ontology, epistemology and praxis is so vague; the divide between fact judgment and value judgment is not clear; the boundary between objective world and subjective world is not obvious. So the world outlook in ancient China such as "Tian(天)versus Wu(物)”,‘’Dao(道)versus Wu(物)”or"Dao versus Qi(器)”,also has the same characteristic like the mode of thinking. In ancient China there always has some communication way among the universe, society and individual. All these things have a profound impact on the historical thought in ancient China.The origin of historical thought in the pre-Qin Period is pretty early, but the comparative mature thought originates from the historical warning thought(历史鉴')in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. Since then the rulers constructed a macroscopical framework like "Tian-Merit of the ancestors-Emperor-protecting the populace-maintaining the benefit for one family’s descendants", based on the religious Tian. So that the historical thought has a tight relationship with the religious thought, the concept of state, the political aspirations, and the ancestor worship consciousness. And between the late Western Zhou Dynasty and the late Spring and Autumn Period, many great ideologists developed a new social administration theory based on philosophical Tian and human nature by the social transformation. The religious Tian has transformed from a personal god to a supreme rational god. The scholars also have found the general characteristics of human nature. The social development has been interpreted as the history of human being, one person’s destiny is totally decided by itself, human being as a community should hold their own destiny, and the emperor’s status has been instead by the political regulation in the interaction way between Tian and human being. Ruling populace by god, human nature and science has become a general political system. And the national concept also has transformed from a racial concept to a cultural concept by the military threat declining between the minority race and Huaxia(华夏)group. One world one culture and one world one administrative system have become a consensus. In this time, the historical thought is regulated by the religious Tian and philosophical Tian. Up to the Warring States Period, a lot of scholars continue to developing the social administration theory originated from the Spring and Autumn Period, and have made the historical thought into a mature philosophical system. Han Fei’s historical thought is a part of this historical developing process, and also has its own theoretical characteristics.The great ideologist named Han Fei lived in late Warring States Period, who is one of the greatest representative figures of the Legalists in the pre-Qin period. His understanding of history also grouped into a system, has its own understanding perspectives, theoretical propositions, judging and selection criteria. So we try to put Han Fei in the central position, explore the theoretical morphology and internal logic of his historical thought. There were three research methods about Han Fei’s historical thought in the past one hundred years, the fist two using evolutionism and materialism as the theoretical foundation, and the third putting Han Fei’s historical thought into historical changing theory. We might see the theoretical level of Han Fei’s historical thought by evolutionism and materialism, but Han Fei’s subjective stature was instead of by the theories. And through the historical changing theory, we can not see the full view of Han Fei’s historical thought. Therefore, we convert perspective, try to research the theoretical morphology of Han Fei’s historical thought under the grounds of the development trend of historical thought in the pre-Qin Period, the relationships among the scholars in the pre-Qin Period, the interaction between thought and society.Han Fei’s law theory based on human nature, takes Dao and Li(理) as the philosophical foundation. And in Han Fei’s mind, the law is the Li of society, so the law and human nature are connected by Li in metaphysic field, and the sages ruling common people by law in society becomes the people’s Daoli(道理), and then the law and human nature become a unitary paradigm. In his law theory the conspiratorial tactics and power also have been controlled by the law and Dao. So in Han Fei’s mind, his law theory has become a general rule including the universe, human nature, society, history, contemporary era, future and etc. His historical thought just was constructed on his law theory.Han Fei excluded uncontrollable factors from the historical movement through the power named Ziran(自然). His historical thought based on his law theory, and the total history is the history of ruling by law. The historical beginning is settled on the era of Yao(尧) but not the beginning of human being. After the era of Yao, the development of history has been included into the process like "the sages creating the civilization-the inherited sages interpreting the historical achievements-social development transforming between order and disorder". He used the trichotomy to divide the historical stage, and also approved on the general method like "Five Emperors Period-Three Kings Period-Five Hegemons Period-Contemporary era". The former represents Han Fei’s theoretical mind of historical development, and the latter makes Han Fei’s thought into a common field with another scholars in the pre-Qin Period. The relationship between history and contemporary era in his law theory includes diverse aspects, and the historical development direction appears to different dimensions in the historical process which is alternating between order and disorder.There is a direct relationship between the authenticity of the history and the authority among different doctrines, so nearly every scholar in the Warring States Period who has to interpret the history through their own theories. Therefore Han Fei also criticized many problems such as ruling by morality, assigning the efficiency man to the social administrative posts, making the king give the highest power to a great man, overturning the corrupt dynasty, holding the political power temporarily by a great man, fighting for the hegemony among different kingdoms, lasting war among different kingdoms, worshiping ghosts and gods and etc. His attitude towards the historical problems has a tight relationship with his criticizing on social problems, social ideals and another scholars’doctrines. So generally they all have a series of problems about social administration and also have reached some consensus through the argument process.In Han Fei’s law theory, the ideal society includes three social roles, social hierarchies, and the relationship among monarch, bureaucrat and populace also has been arranged into his law system. But the revolution problem has got a legal position in his theory, and the populace has to be ruled by the monarch and bureaucrat, and living in his ideal society the congenital and acquired inequality has been decided by the law, there is no transforming mechanism among different hierarchies in the peacetime. So that the right and obligation for the lowest hierarchy are so tortile, they have to afford heavy obligation but nearly have no right, and the distribution mechanism along with the population growth also has been decided. Therefore Han Fei’s ideal society just is a utopia.We followed three frame structures such as "Dao-law-history","history-contemporary era-future" and "monarch-bureaucrat-populace" to research Han Fei’s historical thought. And based on his law theory, every social role, social hierarchy got its own position appropriately, and the body order, social order and universe order have been gotten together through the structure of "heart-body-family-substratum administrative unit-kingdom-the whole world"In Han Fei’s doctrine, ontology, epistemology and praxis, fact or value judgment are mixed together, so Dao, Li and the law, historical cognition and historical ontology also have been banded together. The law is the general and particular rule of everything, and also is the inside and outside rule of everything. So in Han Fei’s mind, the history of human being is a history of ruling by law. He has got rid of the influence of god and ghosts, but reserved Tian, destiny, fate and Ziran, so the availability of his law is just appropriate for Dao Li theory. Therfore the disorder part of human being’s history maybe come from some unreasonable, mysterious factor. |
PDF Full Text Request