Sima Guang, Political And Ideological Dynasty

The commentary of history is a sort of manner that the commenter expresses his thought. Guang Sima's commentary of history was also of politics as he said that the history was one aspect of the Confucianism. There are two character in Guang Sima's thought of politics, the realism and the eclecticism, which are as the angle of view of this paper. I would study Guang Sima's thought of politics in this dissertation which is composed of three portion which are his proposition of the reigning way, the regalism and the capacity of person.Guang Sima considered that the primary function of emperor was maintain the Rite. In his opinion, the Rite's essence which was the order of emperor and his liegeman and the form which included the name, the instruments, the ceremony and the custom should been unified. Guang Sima also had some Legal thought like Hanfeizi such as the nationalism, the power of king, the the name matching the reality and the rigid laws, etc. He believed that there were no difference between the rule by justice and by force and there were no antinomy between the duty and benefit.Regalism was a important part in Guang Sima's thought of politics. But on the other hand, he also accepted the rationality that a wicked emperor ought to be substituted by a better one. As the require of regalism, Guang Sima alleged confirmedly that a liegeman can but serve only one emperor. But it can be seen that he also considered the loyalism was not absolute through his admiring some famous minister who had served more than one master but had great achievement and his agreeing the liegeman's retiredness if his seigneur was heartless or unwise.Guang Sima's proposition of capacity embodied in the relation of the ability and the moral. When he was young, he believed that there was different between these two factor of capacity and he believed the former was more important than the later. When he was middle-aged, he believed that they were uniform. He considered that the humanity, the advisability and the courage were not absent for the regnal politics.Guang Sima was a Confucian metaphysician but not a pedant. He attach importance to the actual effect of the political theory and exerted himself to attemper the other theories and integrate some opposite category. Although he can't interpret all the history problem faultlessly because of some lack in his thought, his realistic style and the eclectic method still is the valuable contribution of political theory.