A Study On The Thought Of Monarchical Self-Cultivation In Governing Principles Of Ancient China

In ancient times,a monarch played a central role in state governance,and the supremacy of the monarchical power,with fewer constraints,might bring adverse consequences.Therefore,in the absence of heteronomy to the monarchical powers,the monarch's display of self-discipline is particularly important as the monarch's morality concerns not only the individual morals but also the social stability or chaos and the rise or fall of the state.The monarch's moral cultivation is the foundation of successfully governing a country and bringing peace and equality to the world.Throughout the past,most of the founding monarchs who ushered in the glorious chapter of an empire emphasized moral cultivation,and the monarchs who despised moral cultivation led the county nowhere.In the early years of the Tang Dynasty,Wei Zheng,Yu Shinan,Chu Liang,Xiao Deyan,and other scholars were instructed by Li Shimin,Emperor Taizong and the second ruler of the Tang Dynasty,to extract the essence of ancient Chinese classics,history,and philosophy books to provide reference and golden criteria for governmental administration.An ideological and theoretical system was thus established with the concepts of “cultivation of oneself,properly managing the family,successfully governing a country,bringing peace and equality to the world” as the core.It is hailed as a monumental work that provided the ideological and theoretical basis for Emperor Taizong to turn swords into plowshares,manage state affairs well and ensure national security,and finally usher in the Zhenguan Period,a historical period known for its prosperity and political integrity.It is also a classic work embodying the core concepts and basic philosophy of excellent traditional Chinese culture.Titled Governing Principles of Ancient China,the book was lost in China after the Southern Song Dynasty.Fortunately,it was brought to Japan by Japanese envoys,and subsequently attracted the attention of the Japanese royal family.Several versions appeared in the process of circulation,and then returned to China in the early years of“Jiaqing”.The work served as the reference for the management of government affairs and focused on political skills to analyze the success and failures of the ancient monarchs in governing the state through abundant examples,and fully reflected the relationship between the monarch moral cultivation and the governance of the state,for which it can be called a great work displaying the Chinese way of leadership.By exploring the ideas on moral cultivation of the monarchs in the Governing Principles of Ancient China and how the ancient monarchs realized the rule of virtue through moral cultivation,this research aims to provide a theoretical basis for the governance pattern of contemporary leaders in practicing “moral cultivation to bright benefits to others”,and to furnish the historical and cultural basis for the inheritance and promotion of the excellent traditional Chinese culture for building a harmonious world.When examining the meaning of “moral cultivation” in Chinese,we know that“moral cultivation” literally means “embellishing the body”,and that later it changed to “cultivation of the body and mind”,representing the transition from the embellishment of the outside to the cultivation and improvement of the inside.The Doctrine of the Mean defines the goal of moral cultivation as becoming sages and men of virtue and the “Eight Items” of the Great Learning establishes moral cultivation as an important hub for the connection between “good morality” and “good politics”.The idea of moral cultivation in Governing Principles of Ancient China is characterized by obedience to justice,which is specifically expressed as “unremitting efforts to make self-improvement” and “benevolent virtue to the accommodation of all things”.The Governing Principles of Ancient China sums up the relationship between the individual morality of the previous monarchs and the rise and fall of the state,and concludes that“insightful and perceptive monarchs put state affairs before themselves,while unscrupulous monarchs indulge themselves in destroying the state”.It upholds the concepts that “moral cultivation is fundamental” and that “the key to governance lies in human element” and advocates the principle of governing the state by following the path of “being sage within and kingly without” based on the example of Emperors Yao and Shun.The Governing Principles of Ancient China-Book of History not only touches on the moral cultivation of the monarchs but also emphasizes the effects and application of “moral respecting and people protection”,which shows the combination of “monarch's virtues” and “principle of administration”.The exploration into the reasons for its inclusion in the part for monarch's moral cultivation in the work can better reflect the selection principles.It has been found by comparing the selected texts with the original texts that the principles of the selection and compilation of the articles on monarch's moral cultivation in Governing Principles of Ancient China display the following three characteristics: revealing the way of prosperity and decline through upholding virtues and ending evils;demonstrating the virtues of the sage monarch by focusing on the political skills and drawing lessons and references from the past to guide the present,and pointing out the statecraft ideology in reality by offering welltrimmed words and simple application cases that are easy to follow.It shows that the Governing Principles of Ancient China offers a simplified solution to present articles on moral cultivation,and the in-depth study of its ideas on the moral cultivation of the monarchs can lead to the understanding of the connection between the moral cultivation of the monarchs and state governance.This research creates a theoretical system of moral cultivation based on “the unity of knowledge and action” as the horizontal logic and morality and ethics as the vertical logic.On basis of this system,it explores the ways of moral cultivation of the monarchs in the Governing Principles of Ancient China.First of all,as far as the horizontal logic is concerned,the “Eight Items” of the Great Learning propose that moral cultivation takes righteousness as its origin,and that to achieve moral cultivation,righteousness is required as the main guide,so “the unity of knowledge and action” is a prerequisite to realize this process.From the perspective of theoretical logic,the factor that hinders the“unity of knowledge and action” is selfishness,therefore moral cultivation is a process of removing the material desires,eliminating selfishness,demonstrating sincerity,achieving innate knowledge,and restoring the noumenon of innate knowledge.In terms of the theory of human nature,the Governing Principles of Ancient China holds that the nature of human desires is peaceful and that the acquired habits are harmful to peaceful human desires.Therefore,the habits of selfishness should be removed,and the innate nature of perfection and culmination should be preserved so that the mind and body are united with the universe,thus establishing the concept of the unity of the universe featured by “the unity of nature and man”.The noumenon of the heart reaches“state of the mean where feelings like joy,anger,sorrow and happiness are kept in heart”,and the behaviors are “in the state of harmony when expressed in conformity with moral standards” to achieve “the unity of knowledge and action”.Secondly,as far as the vertical logic is concerned,“carrying forward the moral excellence in men”means that the subject at the individual moral level personally seeks publicity and removes private interests,and “pushing the people to remold themselves” is the application of the practice of “carrying forward the moral excellence in men” on the level of social-ethical relations by extension.The above constitutes the theoretical basis and concrete construction of the moral cultivation system.Finally,on the practical level,it is the application of the idea of moral cultivation based on the above dual logic by the monarchs in the Governing Principles of Ancient China.The “consummate virtues”and “great norms” mentioned in The Doctrine of the Mean summarize the moral and ethical structure of ancient Chinese traditional concepts: “The three kinds of moral character(of the great norms)of sagacity,charity,and courage are generally respected under the heaven...The relation between the monarch and his subjects,the relation between the father and the son,the relation between the husband and the wife,the relation between brothers,and contacts with friends are the five aspects(of the great norms).” Therefore,the third chapter of this study sorts out the ideas of individual monarch's moral composition and cultivation in the order of sagacity,charity,and courage,which unfolds as follows based on the sequence of “unity of knowledge and action”: learning to master the knowledge and apply knowledge in practice;extending benevolence to and taking care of others;seeking self-examination,correcting the mistakes and seeking improvements.The fourth chapter summarizes the ideas on monarch's moral cultivation on the ethical level in the Governing Principles of Ancient China,which is expanded in the order of the relation between the father and the son,the relation between the monarch and the subjects,and the relation between the monarch and the people: filial piety is the foundation of morality and can be used to run the state;remaining modest,respectful and cautious in action;taking people to the heart,abstaining from luxury and adhering to thrift.This paper shows the main ideas of the monarch's moral cultivation in the Governing Principles of Ancient China through the above framework,explores the influence of the monarch's moral cultivation on the relation between the monarch and the subjects,and the relation between the monarch and the people through collating the examples of the monarch's moral cultivation in“The Governing Principles of Ancient China”,extends to the influence on the monarch's throne and clarifies the views of “the match between virtues and posts”,“granting posts to appropriate men of virtue”,and “incessant moral cultivation will result in the powerful control of the throne” conveyed in the Governing Principles of Ancient China.The study of the ideas of the monarch's moral cultivation in The Governing Principles of Ancient China serves as the historical reference for “drawing lessons from the history” and has the contemporary value of “making well-prepared plans for the future generations”.First of all,in terms of historical references,by combing through the typical historical cases of how monarchs ascended the throne,this paper finds that they took over the state by three means,i.e.taking advantage of existing conditions offered by Heaven,strong military forces,and mighty power against the trends.These founding monarchs adhered to self-discipline and social commitment,and their features including the “continuous self-improvement” and “ample virtue and accommodation of all things” have an important influence on the establishment of the country and the succession of the monarchs.Secondly,by comparing the practices of the second emperor of the Qin Dynasty in “taking over the throne and defending it against the trends” and “taking over the throne against the trend and defending it as the time called for it” of the Emperor Taizong of Tang,it is concluded that only by truly implementing the ideas on monarch's moral cultivation as described in The Governing Principles of Ancient China can the country be well-governed.Finally,by revealing the law of historical transmigration,and collating the relationship between the monarch's moral cultivation and the prosperity and decline of the nation's fortunes,this paper concludes that “the strict moral cultivation can easily lead to good governance while selfindulgence without restraint can easily lead to the decline of the state”,and proposes that under the integration of politics and morality,the monarchs should follow the example of Emperors Yao and Shun to establish a political system with sophocracy,i.e.the political rule by philosophers as the basis.Specifically,in terms of principle orientation,state governance should “follow justice rather than the ruler”,which means that the sages and men of virtue shall serve as the supreme leaders of the country and represent the interests of the people,and if the monarch is not virtuous,he would be deprived of the qualification to be the monarch.In terms of institutional measures,a“philosophers' establishment” is adopted to create a system that truly benefits the people from the “philosophers' perspective” who regard the world as one family and all the people under Heaven as one person.In terms of practice,the monarch is not only the supreme ruler but also the relative and the teacher of the people,putting people's interests first and extends benevolence to everyone under Heaven.In terms of contemporary values,first of all,it points out that the hereditary system of the monarch's throne relies too much on the self-discipline of the monarch,which has its historical limitations and is not suitable for today's society.However,the exploration into the ideas on monarch's moral cultivation in The Governing Principles of Ancient China is conducive to contemporary people and leaders in promoting the virtue of personal moral cultivation in the practice of “properly managing the family,successfully governing a country,bringing peace and equality to the world”.In terms of properly managing the family,leaders' improvement of moral cultivation is conducive to promoting the harmony of family relations and actively promoting the leaders to take the lead in establishing a good family style.In terms of successfully governing a country,leaders remaining strict in moral cultivation,self-discipline,selfrespect,honest in performing their duties,and caring for the people can help prevent formalism,bureaucracy,hedonism,and extravagance and truly put the people's interests at the center and serve the people.In terms of bringing peace and equality to the world,the moral cultivation of leaders is important to building true equality and harmony,the good mutual assistance between countries,political parties,religions,and between nations.