The Research Of The Four Chapters Of Guan Zi

The Four Chapters of Guan Zi are four important documents of the Pre-Qin's scholars. They hold an important position in the history of Chinese philosophy. As only four common chapters of Guan Zi in the past more than two thousand years, they haven't been taken seriously. Only in the 1940s, along with the progress of Chinese philosophy, when scholars were rearranging and annotating the historical materials of Chinese philosophy in ancient books, Guo Moruo and Liu Jie made the concept of The Four Chapters of Guan Zi. They also considered them to be an important link of Chinese philosophy.The Four Chapters of Guan Zi includes four chapters in Guan Zi,. The four chapters are Xin Shu the first; Xin Shu the second; Bai Xin; Nei Ye. Though as the formation of Guan Zi, The Four Chapters of Guan Zi were not wrote by one writer and not finished in a short time, we can still take them as a whole on research. Though each chapter has its particular emphasis, the Fore Chapters shows bright colors of Huang-Lao school. The Four Chapters inherited and developed the theory of Tao in Lao Zi. In The Four Chapters, Tao is "void and formless...moves but cannot be perceived"; that is, Tao is wholly imperceptible. Because The Four Chapters interpreted Tao as Jing Qi, the Tao is truly an concept of matter. The theory of Tao is the metaphysical base of the whole thought system. The theory of nourishing of life and the theory of how to govern the country are all build on the metaphysical base.The theory of nourishing of life in The Four Chapters holds that all people's movements need Jing Qi. Once, Jing Qi left body completely, the person dies. Movements of life will consume Jing Qi, so along with people's life movements, the Jing Qi will be lilttle ande little in people's body. So the key of the theory of nourishing of life is to know how to gain Jing Qi. To gain much Jing Qi have to control the heart. It dwells in "emptiness" and "tranquility". By emptiness is meant "no holding" of anything in the mind and by tranquility is meant keeping the mind in peace. The theory of how to govern country is the extension of the theory of nourishing of life. The Four Chapters holds that the king is the key of the government. If the king can keep his heart in "emptiness" and "tranquility", it not only made the king had a long life, but also made the country be governed good. In practical life of politics, The Four Chapters developed the "rule of Non-activity" into a new theory that "Non-activity is the way of sovereigns while activity is the way of the inferiors". In another respect, The Four Chapters advocated the theory of names and realities. It asserted: "objects have their proper shapes, and all shapes have their proper names", and that "this means that the name should not go so far as to exceed the reality, nor should the reality surpass the name"; that is, the name and the reality should correspond to each other.The thoughts of The Four Chapters had been influenced by the Confucian school and the Legalist school. It affirmed the affection of law in governing country and absorbed the Confucian school's rite and music to regulate heart. The Four Chapters of Guan Zi aimed how to nourishing of life and governing country, accordance with the theory of Dao and Jing Qi, compromised doctrines of several schools, but its main idea should be owed to the Taoist school.