Thought Reseach On Yanzi's Spring And Autumn Annals

As a classic masterpiece,Yanzi's Spring and Autumn Annals mainly recorded the statements and deeds of Yan Ying,a sagacious Prime Minister at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period.It was preliminarily written at Jixia Academy in the Warring States Period,finalized by Liu Xiang in the Western Han Dynasty and handed down to the posterity.However,this book suffered adverse fortune during its life.Because the book was not representative work of schools,the ancient scholars didn't pay attention to it.Furthermore,because it was regarded as a pseudograph,the book suffered excessive suspicion and criticism.Since the modern times,people have deeply studied the schools,literary forms,writing time,author,collation and exegesis of Yanzi's Spring and Autumn Annals.But the attention to its ideological content was relatively deficient.It was not until 1972 when bamboo slips of Yanzi was unearthed on Mt.Yinque,Linyi,Shandong that the authenticity of this book was basically established.At the same time,academic circles also ushered in a good opportunity about the discussion of thoughts in Yanzi's Spring and Autumn Annals.But until now,compared with other pre-Qin scholars,research on the thoughts of this book is still quite weak,and most of researches were presented in single paper in a fragmented and repeat way.Kinds of literatures,such as pre-Qin Scholars Studies,Intellectual History,and History of Philosophy,may never mention the thoughts in Yanzi's Spring and Autumn Annals,or just make a simple comment.So far there is not a comprehensive-studied doctoral dissertation related to it.It is regrettable for a pre-Qin classic literature.This paper employs multiple methods in ideological history studies and insists on basing speeches on materials,seeking truth from facts and making reasonable inference only,instead of conjecturing without foundation.It strives to explore all kinds of thoughts implied in this book under the background at that time.Since Duke Huan of Qi ascended,Yan family started to climb to the politic stage.Though Yan Ying's forefather has received plenty of recognition from Duke Huan,he hasn't entered into the core part of royal court.Yan Ying's father Yan Ruo was both wise and brave,so he has been appreciated a lot by Duke Ling of Qi,and performed immortal feats in the battle of conquering Lai.Yan Ying was the peak of the politic history in Yan family.He has served three monarches,namely Duke Ling of Qi,Duke Zhuang of Qi and Duke Jing of Qi,and was famous among feudatories.After Yan Ying died,due to the influence of their personal talents and historical circumstances,his descendents moved towards declination gradually.The way that served three monarchs with a loyal heart fully revealed Yan Zi's idea of "harmony in diversity" on monarch and subject.The Yan's Family had association with The Chen's Family in the early years and their relationship was harmonious.The friendship between Yan Zi and Chen Huan Zi was especially profound.The family of Yan was born in the state of Qi State for generations.As a member of the family,Yan Zi devoted himself to assisting the imperial government,however,for the family of The Tian's Family that may replace the regime of The Jiang's Family in the future,his attitude was subtle.Yanzi also handled the relationship with general colleagues,sycophants,Shu Xiang,Confucius and common people,etc.flexibly and skillfully.Liu Xiang had a great influence on Yanzi's Spring and Autumn Annals.In his book Yanzi's Recounts,the number of the chapters was contradictory.The loyalty spirit in his political career influenced the arrangement of chapters in Yanzi's Spring and Autumn Annals deeply,so the four sections(chapters),Superior Advice,Inferior Advice,Superior Query and Inferior Query,ranked the top of the book.As a responsible bibliographer,Liu Xiang also summarized and arranged other materials about Yanzi carefully,which reflected the position of different contents in the mind of Liu Xiang.It could be seen from Han Shu Biography of Liu Xiang that his thoughts and experience was similar to Yanzi's Spring and Autumn Annals that "ghosts and gods caused catastrophe","advocated virtuous officials and got rid of treacherous officials","suppressed senior officials and dismissed exterior relatives" and"advocated frugalness and simple burial".The thoughts of monarch and subjects in Yanzi's Spring and Autum Annals were progressive:"a monarch can choose his subject and a subject can also choose his monarch","If a monarch was fatuous and rites were breached,a subject can disobey and reprimand him","If a monarch fell into trouble,a subject shouldn't die for him.If a monarch was exiled,a subject shouldn't see him off." "A monarch of people should preside over national policies.A subject of monarch should govern the country" and "keep away from tyrants and turbulent states",etc.The people-based thought,in addition to the influence of the pre-Qin culture and historical background,was mainly based on a clear understanding of the people's role in the history and reality,which produced a deep sense of anxiety.The talent thought advocated employing and appointing talented person from the aristocratic stratum of State of Qi under the background of clan kinship.Although this scope had been widened,it still seriously hindered the development of civilian talents.The thought of ruling by proprieties was different in that it approved of the illegal propriety,objected to the complicated and misleading Confucian propriety,advocated that the country outweighed the propriety and the affection outweighed the propriety on special occasions.It followed the principle of advocating reality and frugalness and expressed Yanzi's liberal idea of ruler and subject and progressive idea of history,which was also related to the literature nature of the book and the historical background of the organizer,Liu Xiang.Yanzi's Spring and Autumn Annals upheld the implementing of statutes.The ruling-by-law thought of this book contained many Confucian factors,so it appeared to be mild.But it was a double-edged sword,and would harm the nation and the people if it was used by the fatuous emperor and treacherous officials.The economic thoughts in Yanzi's Spring and Autumn Annals were mainly manifested in one word,"thrift",with thick conservatism.In Yanzi's Spring and Autumn Annals,Jin and Lu Sates were respected and emphasized,but Wu and Chu States were belittled and disparaged,which reflected the different attitudes of Qi State towards different vassal states in the middle and late stages of Spring and Autumn Period,and was also affected by the nature of literature in this book more or less.The military ideas of Yanzi's Spring and Autumn Annals mainly opposed to the war,which was related to the people-oriented core idea and the era environment.However,it did not just blindly oppose to the war;instead,it also advocated that the emperor could fight under certain mature conditions.The dialectical thoughts of Yanzi 's Spring and Autumn Annals had great realistic pertinence,which was related to the identity of Yanzi,and represented the practice-based characteristics of China's traditional philosophy.The book doubted the destiny and spirits,but it was not complete,which was related to the social environment at that time and the development law of atheism.There were complicated relations between all thoughts in Yanzi 's Spring and Autumn Annals,they were an indivisible whole.Furthermore,"history of three ancient generations","background of the Spring and Autumn Period and the culture before pre-Qin scholars" and "local culture in State ofQi" had great influence on the formation of the thoughts in this book..To sum up,this paper makes almost a full range of analysis of rich thoughts implied in Yanzi's Spring and Autumn Annals and has many innovations,in the hope of contributing to the research and dissemination of excellent traditional culture in China.