A Study Of Liu Zongyuan's Political Ethics And Its Practical Significance In The Contemporary Cause Of Anti-corruption

The traditional Chinese society was ethics-centered with profound and extensive thoughts. The traditional political ethics was an precious heritage, the valuable parts of which are sure to play a positive role in the construction of today's political civilization, if they can be developed in the present-day situation.The prosperity of Tang Dynasty, the heyday of Chinese feudal society, especially its early stage, created a rather free and favorable environment for thoughts and ideas. Thereby, scholar-bureaucrats then were generally optimistic and had positive ideals and ambitions, which was characteristic of scholars including Liu Zongyuan and was vital to the cultivation of advanced culture at that time. Liu Zongyuan, as an active and enthusiastic political activist in the middle Tang Dynasty, continued to make efforts to apply political thoughts to practice in spite of his different directions of practice in his earlier and later years. What's more important, he is not only a practical political activist, but an outstanding political theorist. His practice was based on systematic theories summarized into a complete system of political theories, which could be found in his political attitudes such as the ideas of centralization of state power and a clean government, the people first idea of officials serving people, serving the country and the people, and his understanding of talents being sages and men of virtue and so on. Moreover, after a brief study of Liu Zongyuan's career of being an official, we find that he, whatever situation he was in, gave no thought to his own benefits and tried his best to eliminate the bad and take advantage of the good wherever he went to work within his reach. His noble official ethics of loyalty to his post, benefiting people, and remaining uncorrupted should be valued by today's people.At present, with China's reform and market economy entering a new stage, prevention of corruption is a great challenge for the continual and permanent leadership of Communist Party of China. Therefore, whatever the changes, the essence of positive traditional ethics, which were relatively independent and could be carried on, can always be absorbed and adopted in the new era and play its unique role in the construction of new ethics because of their general adaptability to new times. And Liu Zongyuan's political ethics, as part of traditional ethics, will also be of practical significance in the present-day construction of ethics in China.