A Research On The Ecological Thoughts In Qin And Han Dynasties

Qin and Han Dynasties was the important period during which the ancient ecological thoughts of China was getting more and more advanced and fruitful.However,researches on this subject has been still weak.In this thesis,historical documents and archaeological materials,the method of historical geography,ecological ethics,demography,sociology,ethnology are used to explore the cultural origin and social origin of the ecological thought in Qin and Han Dynasties,revealing the human spirit behind the ecological protection,the evolution of the knowledge system and the anxiety of people when facing the ecological degradation at that time.In this thesis,Yueling,the ideology of exploiting and protecting natural resources according to the rhythm of season and the thought of Heaven Father Earth Mother are deeply explored too.So the deep connotation of environmental protection and ecological ethics in Qin and Han Dynasties are revealed.In addition,in this thesis,the important role of ecological thoughts played in practice was also discussed so as to help us to understand the role and function of the ecological thought better.The ecological thoughts in Qin and Han Dynasties had profound historical and cultural origins.The ancient worship of totem and environmental taboo were the original awareness of environmental protection,and also the cultural origin of ecological thoughts in Qin and Han Dynasties.The ecological wisdom of the Confucian,Taoist,Mohist school etc.during Spring and Waring States period made up another origin.Yueling,which came into being from traditional farming civilization,constructing an ideal order which showed the harmony between man and natrue,was also an important source of ecological thoughts in Qin and Han Dynasties.Frequent natural disasters and the decline of the quality of ecological environment constituted the social origin of the ecological thoughts in this period.The causes of environmental problems were complicated,including both natural and artificial aspects.The former contained mainly the political polices and behavior,suchas the polices of encouraging fertility,wars and military garrison which also had the negative effects on environment and the extravagant lifestyle of the royal family and the rich.At the same time,the climate change during this period,the violent movement of the earth crust and other natural factors also caused a considerable degree of influence on the ecological environment.Both natural and artificial reasons caused the various natural disasters such as flood,drought,locust disasters ect.,which caused a series of disastrous social consequences.These were the social origin of ecological thoughts in Qin and Han Dynasties.The connotation of ecological thoughts in Qin and Han Dynasties is very rich and fruitful.The first part is the thoughts of ecological harmony.Dong Zhongshu put forward the idea of the unity of human and nature.Although his idea was quite mysterious,its emphasis on the harmony between man and nature was obviously valuable.The harmony between man and nature was also the main tone of Huainanzi.Medical books of this period also showed this viewpoint.Besides,harmony between man and nature was always the background of people's ideal kingdom.Secondly,people in Qin and Han Dynasties believed nature had its objective laws.So people must respect it and never violate it.The exploitation and utilization of natural resources must follow the rhythm of time.Protection and utilization should be combined together and never “drain the pond to catch all the fish”,which happened to coincided with the concept of sustainable development,reflecting the wonderful ecological wisdom in Qin and Han Dynasties.The ideology of “protection and utilization according to the rhythm of time” had a clear reflection in Yuelin,which gave very detailed specification for each month.In addition,the thoughts on protectin of the land resources,water resources,forestry resources and even wild animal resources was also appeared accordingly.Thirdly,the ecological ethics of “Heaven Father and Earth Mother ".Dong Zhongshu put forward the idea that a person's behavior must comply with ethical requirements and the ethical requirements also must comply with the way the heaven was,which extended Confucian ethics from the relationship between people to the relationship between man and heaven.Taipingjing elaborated the thought of “Heaven Father and Earth Mother”.Man should love and respect their “parents”or they were just undutiful children.It showed typical culturalcharacteristics of China.In addition,in Qin and Han Dynasties,people also developed a feeling of respect for all creatures and for life,and at the operational level,the interpersonal ethics was extended to human and animals.As the only moral creatures of the universe,man should take their moral responsibility to other creatures.This was,to a large extent,consistent with the concept of “Man as the Moral Agent of the world" in the field of modern ecological ethics.A monographic study on the thinkers helps to show general features of the ecological thoughts in Qin and Han Dynasties.In the fifth chapter,the ecological thoughts of Sima Qian and Ban Gu are Discussed so as to give a case study of the ecological thought in Qin and Han Dynasties.Although their aim and focus were different,their pursuit of harmony between man and nature were the same.The fruitful ecological thoughts of Qin and Han Dynasties was not far away from the real life at that time.On the contrary,it was widely rooted in social practice and had a positive impact.First of all,the laws and imperial edicts contained obvious characteristics of conforming to the season,protecting the nature,which showed that the spirits of Yueling had been absorbed by the policy system of the state.Secondly,after the disasters interpretation pattern was created by Dong Zhongshu,natural disasters became a barometer of political order.In face of the power of nature,the Emperor and the ruling group always showed a sense of awe and set up a system of responsibility allocation to deal with the heaven's blame."Harmony between man and nature"," Harmony between Yin and Yang" had become the core demands of the feudal dynasty.Thirdly,ecological thoughts has been actively practiced in agricultural production.During Qin and Han Dynasties,the "Heaven-Earth-Man" three-in-one ecological agriculture pattern was formed and played an important guiding role in the agricultural production process.Finally,in face of the frequent occurrence of natural disasters and the following social disasters,many learned people opposed seriously the extravagance and advocated a simple way of life and consumption,which,to a certain extent,corresponded to the concept of sustainable consumption and deserved full appreciation of us.Learning from history makes us wiser.The ecological wisdom in Qin and Han Dynasties has a certain reference value for people today when dealing with theecological crisis and practicing sustainable development.Although the thoughts is still in a relatively simple stage and with some mysterious color,we should never deny its ecological value contained in the core of it.