Study Of Humanities In Dong Zhongshu's Philosophy

Dong Zhongshu, the greatest Confucian scholar of Han Dynasty, who linked the preceding and the following development of Confucianism, had done active research on the fields of the relationship between Heaven and man, catastrophes and destiny and natural changes. Dong Zhongshu aimed at combining the theory of Yin and Yang, Huang-Lao teachings and Legalist School to meet the needs of the promising landlord class in his A Memorial to the Throne on Recommending Wise and Virtuous Men and Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn Annals, then his theory was soon be adopted. The theory covered the relationship between Heaven and man, human nature, morality and righteousness ect.Dong Zhongshu's emphasis on man diluted man's heaven-worship. He tried to think about the harmony among heaven, earth and man to look for man's position in universe and then proposed his idea of humanism. Dong Zhongshu discussed morality, ability, virtue and aspiration profoundly and advocated school education, appointing the virtuous, government by virtue, paying equal attention to virtue and law and finding out man's value of ability and virtue. He required man should change to adapt himself to the times and advocated education and offered the opportunity for man's development as well as set a good example of feudal society. Dong set up a set of ethic doctrines which emphasized man and pointed out that only if the society developed and man's life went well-off, can man develop freely. Believing men were born equal, he told Emperor Wu Di man was most precious in nature and the salve system should be abandoned and the power of killing should be controlled. As for the field of human body, he put forth man should preserve good health and full energy and cultivate his morality, meanwhile, he search for the best environment for man's living. His ideas of controlling of nature towards man and man's understanding of nature makes us reflect on ourselves.Dong Zhongshu rethought the theory of the goodness or the evil of human nature and illustrated deeply that the etiquette and enlightenment was a flag that guided the people to be goodness. But in was inevitable that it included the prophet of the upper category's nature and the limitation of lower category's nature.Dong Zhongshu put forward the duality of the theory of righteousness and benefit--- to the sovereign, righteousness was more important than benefit while to the people, the two shared the same importance, and in this way the distance between the rich and poor can be narrowed and the society can be kept stable. The people did what they can do to serve the country and reach the harmony of the man's development and the order of the society. He also put forward the value of the headworker and stated.The thesis questions Dong's doctrine of the"Three Cardinal Guides"and the interaction between Heaven and man, and appreciates his humanism as well as pointing out his disadvantage of neglecting the function of women. This thesis tries to build a framework of Heaven and man where man can develop and realize himself freely, but to develop oneself is conditioned and orderly and it's the external representation of self-binding. Dong's research on the outlook of universe and the existence of man is scientific and his theory is the best choice of society's development and man's improvement and the elite of Han's philosophy.