A Study On The Political Ethics Of "Guan Zi"

"GuanZi" is such a book which detailed the thoughts of the pre-Qin period scholars in GuanZhong School. The thesis aims to speculate and unscramble the book "GuanZi" in political ethics perspective, linking theory with practice, trying to analyze which part has already could not adapt to the change of modern society and needs to be abandoned, and which part still glittered with his political wisdom so that can be used to promote the reform of China’s political system, advance citizen’s morality and the education of socialism honor and shame.In this paper, the political ethics thought of the book "GuanZi" is put as the main object of study. In the analysis of foundation of the social, historical background and theoretical sources of the political ethics thought of the book "GuanZi", the thesis focuses on the following three main points:Firstly, the paper states the specific connotation of the four-dimension which is that propriety, righteousness, integrity, and honor, and then, probe into the way that enlightening the honor of the people to achieve the four-dimension. Secondly, the thesis discusses about the ideological content of virtue and rules of law thoughts, discusses in detail its governing thought of moral governing and law governing. Thirdly, the paper focuses on analyzing the thought of "grazing people" of the book "GuanZi". On the basis of the theory of "profit and avoid loss" human nature, the book aims to maintain the dominance of the ruling class by the way "loving people","enriching people", and "protecting people" to get the support of the people to achieve their political objectives and prosperous rule.The last part of the article discusses the limitations and inspiration of the political ethics thoughts of the book "GuanZi". Its limitations are mainly in the thought of "grazing people":essentially its thought of "loving people","enriching people","protect the people" is just a mean to consolidate the rule of kings, and it is different from the notion of "people based","governing for the people" which we are talking about today. The political ethics thought of the book "GuanZi" informs us that:We should stick to the way of combining the rule of law with the rule of virtue, improving the official virtue education and civic moral education, building a harmonious society and really service for the people.