Study On Dong Zhongshu’s Cultivation Thoughts

China has the tradition of cultivation since ancient times, cultivation not only for regulate the personal moral and ideas, but also has a great significance on political power and social order. Dong Zhongshu is one of the representatives of Confucian in the West-Han Dynasty, He inherited the traditional cultivation theories of Confucian and integrate many other theories in Pre-Qin Period, Elaborated his original cultivation thoughts Based on the actual situation of the West-Han Dynasty. Dong Zhongshu’s cultivation thoughts mark that the cultivation system has been established in traditional Chinese society, on the Background of National unity, Dong completed the transformation of Confucian from the original theory to the reality and practice, it has an important influence on Later dynasties.The situation of West-Han Dynasty has an important impact on Dong’s thoughts. On the one hand, West-Han Dynasty encounter some new troubles like social gap and local separation after the recovery and development in early years; on the other hand, loosely culture atmosphere makes thoughts in Pre-Qin Period revival and integrated gradually, this academic trend have implications on Dong Zhongshu’s research. On the background of early West-Han Dynasty, Dong absorbs other thoughts in Pre-Qin Period based on the cultivation thoughts of traditional Confucian, and uses the philosophy of heaven and the theory of humanity as his theoretical basic, he presentation the cultivation thought systematically, and was finally recognized by the Emperor Han Wu. Thus, the "oust others doctrines, the overwhelming Confucianism." was established, based on it, Dong expanded the contents of his cultivation system.About the objective of cultivation, Dong lists three aspects:improve humanity cultivation, personnel training and maintaining social stability.About the principle of cultivation, Dong proposed his famous theory of "three cardinal guides and the five constant virtues", and give prominence to the "ruler guides subject". Dong developed the ethical theory in Pre-Qin Period. The theory of "three cardinal guides and the five constant virtues" has a far-reaching impact on the whole feudal society. About the function of cultivation, Dong compared cultivation as an embankment, it can consolidate the power, so cultivation has political meanings, and it’s a political strategy.One of the notable features of Dong’s cultivation thought is the generalization of educated, including everyone in society, from emperor to ordinary people, they all have the necessity to accept cultivation. First, emperor is the primacy of a dynasty, he should study the classics of Confucian, practice what he learn and become a saint. Then, the emperor can implement the cultivation to guide the people to become educated. Second, officers between emperor and the ordinary people, they are major teachers, so Dong proposed to enhance the level of their moral by the ethic rules of Confucian. The last, the cultivation of ordinary people affects the stability of the dynasty, so Dong proposed to cultivate ordinary people by the demonstration of emperor, administration of officials, education of local schools and the cultivation by etiquette and music in rural area.Dong’s cultivation thought demonstrate some outstanding characteristics on the aspect of form, function, content and methodology, it constructs the complete system of cultivation in feudal society, it have had a profound impact on the West-Han Dynasty as well as the later feudal dynasty, it also contribute to the heritage of Confucian and the formation of the national spirit. On the other side, it’s undeniable that there are some obvious limitations in Dong’s thoughts. Learning from history, the starting point and ultimate point of this article is to fully explore the practical significance of traditional culture. After the analysis of Dong’s cultivation thought, and the relationship between ancient cultivation thought and contemporary ideological and political education, we can get some revelation. In this paper, there are three aspects:first, the inspiration for ideological and political education in terms of function; second, the inspiration for ideological and political education in terms of content; last, the inspiration for ideological and political education in terms of method.In short, there are two. different points compared with the traditional Confucian in Pre-Qin Period. First, Dong has made significant breakthrough and development in the theoretical level, his cultivation thought also become the model of later feudal dynasty. On the other hand, which is more important is that the ideal of Confucian cultivate become a reality by a series of system design of Dong. So, the cultivation thoughts of Dong Zhongshu is a subject that worthy of study. This paper is to study the cultivation thoughts of Dong Zhongshu, understanding the situation of cultivation in West-Han Dynasty, summarize the historical experiences and lessons. At last, this paper provides some references for ideological and political education.