A Discussion On Dong Zhongshu's Political Philosophy

Dong Zhongshu is one of the most important philosopher in the history of Chinese philosophy. Aiming at adapting Confucianism to the new times and developing Confucianism itself, Dong absorbed ideas critically from thoughts of various philosophical schools existing in the period of pre-Qin times to the early Han times with which he improved the theory of Correspondence between Man and Heaven, a component of the traditional kismet theory. Based on this, Dong expounded the Unified Whole theory first put forward in Gongyang Zhuan and established a relatively perfect and systematic political philosophy to justify the legality of the Han government and preserve the political and ideological unification of the Han throne. His action turned on a new leaf, putting political theory of Confucianism into use.Dong's political philosophy is one of the mature political thoughts in the feudalist China. It provided the Western Han Dynasty and the subsequent dynasties with a new ruling strategy and influenced Chinese history profoundly. It can be counted as a representative of Chinese traditional political philosophy. This thesis studies it with the purpose of bring out and make use of the political wisdom and experience contained in Chinese philosophy. In fact, political philosophy is traditionally the main focus of Chinese philosophy, which is a perspicuous characteristic of Chinese philosophy. It will be of grand theoretical and practical significance to understand this tradition and characteristic of Chinese philosophy, and turn Chinese philosophy into a practical theory that can be applied to the management of the current society, facilitate the reformation and development of China's political system.