Research On The Thoughts Of The Law Of Politics In Ancient China

The Law of Politics, in a narrow sense, is a legal department confined only to Constitutional law. While from a broad perspective, it includes not only the Constitutional law, but also the Constitution and Administrative law. With the above two concept could come easily the so called Comprehensive understanding of The Law of Politics.The core of Law of Politics includes four parts as following: the fundamental issues related to state power, the problem of limiting the power, ensuring the basic rights of citizens as well as the democratic decisions. It has been widely recognized that the mature pattern of Law of Politics and its thoughts emerged from the modern West. But the similar regulations, practice and theory which could be compared with Law of Politics can be traced back much earlier. During the primitive society,the slave society and the feudal society,there has been such kinds of elements with a less mature pattern. In this sense, the Law of Politics could be separated into mature and less mature pattern, which is the so-called Patterns Theory of Law of Politics. The social environment in pre-Qin times has provided good conditions for the development of the early thought of Law of Politics.Lots of rudiment of Law of Politics ideas could be found in the works of various schools of thought and their exponents in pre-Qin times, which is exactly the core of this thesis. China has become an absolutism society since Qin Dynasty and the blooming time of A hundred schools of thought contending in Spring and Autumn has ended thereby. The later Law of Politics theory was inherited from the rudiment in Spring and Autumn, especially true for philosophers in Ming and Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the research of the works of various schools in Spring and Autumn, is quite meaningful for the theoretical framework of Law of Politics in Ancient China.The theory of human nature is an important issue for the research of the thought of Law of Politics, which is worthy to be emphasized on. In Spring and Autumn time, there was no consensus among philosophers. It firstly came from the Confucius thought that the humanity is good, and got development from Mencius. On the other hand, Hsun Tzu thought that the humanity is evil, and his student Hanfei advanced the theory. All of these theories on humanity in Spring and Autumn tried to serve for state-governing wisdoms. In fact, humanity has two faces in terms of good and evil. With the good sides, it will be useful to lead people to better, and with evil,it will therefore to remind of devising effective system to limit power, in case of losing control. After good comparisons of the human nature theory between West and Ancient China, we find that they can draw lessons from each other. This kind of research is helpful for the study of Law of Politics.Where is the legitimacy of the political powers? How do the powers come into existence and evolve? Which is the best state-governing way? All of these could find answers in Law of Politics. Concerned with the social environment that the old social order is losing control while the new one has not been established yet, A hundred schools in Pre-Qin Dynasty have discussed these issues and brought up different theory of governing society, in which some hold negative opinions towards the existing ruling ways, such as letting things take their own course without interference from governing from Taoism, anarchy from Zhuang Zhou, while some suggested improving governing ways, such as Confucianism, Legalism and Mo Tzu thought.Lv Shi Chun Qiu, based on the above ideas, constructed a New Theory of Ruling, with a way of developing what is useful and discard what is not.The democracy theory with a modern sense could not appear in Pre-Qin Dynasty. But People-based thoughts in Pre-Qin Dynasty did not contradict the theory of democracy.There is a need to draw lessons from People-based thoughts in Pre-Qin Dynasty for developing modern democracy.Democracy as a opposite of autarchy has three different meanings: the core value, the rules and the procedure, in which the core value is the decisive factor. The top sign of all kinds of democracy is the concept Taking Human Beings as the Essential. Confucianism in Pre-Qin Dynasty brought up a series views which took Human Beings as the Essential. There are two different relationships between the government and People. on the one part, the emergence, decision and deeds should fit in with wishes of people.On the other part, all the decision and deeds of the government should accord with interest of people. People-based thoughts contain those two aspects. Furthermore, the first part also contains supervision on the government and the integrity of the government.The Chinese culture put great effort on social order, which is good for social stability.Although there is contradiction between ideas of People-based thoughts and obey monarchy'commands, some inspiration also could be found to study the Law of Politics.Moreover, the traditional Chinese culture think highly of harmonious order and the morality of government officials ,which also is beneficial to the Law of Politics study.The theory of western democracy base on individualism, while, People-based thoughts in Ancient China base on collectivism.Both of them have its own flaws which can not be overcome by itself. Only learning from each other can meet the final ends for all.The collectivism from People-based thoughts in pre-Qin times has provided great value for the development of the democracy.The mature thoughts of limiting powers came out in modern times, but the rudiment of limiting powers could be found in the works of the schools in pre-Qin times.Limiting powers not only includes limiting the uppermost power but also limiting common powers.In the pre-Qin Dynasty, there were not effective rules to limit uppermost power, but, the thought of limiting uppermost power could be found.During the Spring and Autumn Period, the war among vassals made the people homeless. And all kind of officeholders made the people poorer and poorer. Facing this kind actuality, all the schools brought up different theories of limiting powers.All this rudiment of limiting powers could not emit the phenomenon of autocracy and misuse of power, but all this considerations were valuable. The ways to limit powers could be a peaceful one or a violent one, and the first is the common way and the second is special way.The rudiment of the thoughts of protecting people's rights could be found from the works of the schools in pre-Qin times.The premise of protecting people's rights is Taking Human Beings as the Essential. Most ideologists in pre-Qin times thought that human beings is more valuable than supernatural beings, and some ideologists believed in that people but not the monarch is the host of the state.All of these thoughts has furnished firm ground for protecting people's rights.Every schools brought up its own theory.Furthermore, the thoughts of equality, liberty, democracy, against-war and protecting life could also be found in the works in pre-Qin times.So plentiful thoughts of the Law of Politics were not out of the void, these thoughts succeed quite a lot ideas from predecessor and affected later generations.All these thoughts affected greatly the development of theory of human nature, equality, democracy and protecting peoloe's rights, some of which were achieved in Ming dynasty and the beginning of Qing dynasty.Besides, if we can emit the stubborn impression of the mature form of the Law of Politics in modern times, it will not be too difficult find its influence on the system of protecting rights, limiting powers and democracy.In a word, through the research of the rudiment of the thought of Law of Politics in pre-Qin times, the fundamental framework of the rudiment of the thought of the Law of Politics in Ancient China would come out. However, since this kind of research is just a beginning, and there is a long way to go.