A Research Into Dong Zhongshu's Ideology Of Ethical Politics

To study the traditional Culture of china, it's necessary to examine its mainstream-Confucian Culture, which is a culture with ethical feature, a culture of ethical features, which binds ethic and politics together and serves as the main characteristic of Confucian Culture as well. The feature of Confucian Culture, which originated from Confucius, enriched by Mencius and Shomcius, and concluded by Dong Zhongshu eventually. Hence, the study on Dong Zhongshu's ideology of ethical politics is conclusive to the understanding of Confucian Culture and research as well. Dong as a most outstanding master on the study of Confucian Classics, a well-known philosopher and ideologist of Han Dynasty, was also a master who influenced china's political ideology tremendously for 2000 years from Qin and Han dynasty to Qin Dynasty, only second to Confucius. Liu xiang who was a scholar of XiHan Dynasty once said,"Dong has the talent just like Wang Zuo, even Yi Lv can't surpass him." Liu Xin a scholar of the same period also remarked, "Zhongshu studied assiduously on Confucius after the destruction of learning in Qin Dynasty. He based his study on the six branches of classics and became the chief representative of Confucian classics, thus, the scholars of his time unified on his research. Zhou Guidian, a current scholar, also thought that Dong Zhongshu valued and recommended only Confucianism, which made Confucian Classics come into being, made Confucianism become the spiritual pivot of Chinese nation; and his theory of Big Unification had certain influence on maintaining a unified nation. Dong Zhongshu with his distinct background of Han Dynasty advanced his theory of ethical politics, which not only provided unprecedented opportunities for the development of Confucianism, but also set the fundamental framework for the political ideology and culture of Han Dynasty. Furthermore, it also influenced the development of China's feudal society's politics, ideology and culture, which had a long history over 2000 years as well. However, Dong's position in the history of China's ideology and culture had not been recognized as it was for some reasons. The current thesis made an objective and justified appraisal of Dong's position, based on the Dong's ideology on ethical politics. What's more, it posed a new perspective for further understanding of Confucian features and some valuable bases for reference of contemporary political theory and practice. The relationship between politics and ethic is always concerned by thinkers of all ages, and it is a realistic question of political and ethical life for current China. The central committee of CPC centered on Jiang Zemin advances the strategic principle of 'to administer the nation with legist ration to administer the nation with virtue'. This strategic decisionis correct without doubt, therefore, to implement the strategic principle must seek out the beneficial nutrients from China's traditional culture. Hence, the research on China's traditional politics, on Dong Zhongshu's ideology of ethical politics in particular is of great practical significance.Dong Zhongshu's ideology of ethical politics has constructed a tight and through system of ethical politics with the theory of Heaven and Man as its metaphysical bases and the theory of human nature as its humanity bases, took the Big Unification theory as its value pursuit, adopted the theory of cultivation and the theory of moral penalty as its realistic means. This thesis took the logical exhibition method, the historical examination research method, the wide culture definition perspective and analysis method, etc., to carry out the research, which had made the current research succeeded in breaking through the conventional obstacles of evaluation appraisal method on the survey of historical figures. It had shifted its focus on pure appraisal on historical figures to the origin and development of Dong Zhongshu's ideology of ethical politics. It had also endeavored to expound exactly and explore its complete and abundant connotation, an...