A Research On Hu Hong’s Political Thoughts Of Neo-Confucianism

Hu Hong was a famous Neo-Confucianist in the Southern Song Dynasty, he devoted his life to prospering the Neo-Confucianism and took this as his lifelong responsibility. His main academic works included Zhi Yan, Huang Wang Daji and so on. The Zhi Yan was his representative work, which covered the various aspects of thoughts on philosophy, politics, ethics and education and was worshiped and followed by Huxiang school. Therefore, this is an important literature for the present study of the Hu Hong’s Neo-Confucianism political thought. Although Hu Hong had never set foot in the official career in his whole life, his deep concern for the survival of the country and the revival of the nation has been revealed through his life stories, academic writings and letters. Based on the ‘Nature’ideology(Xing Ben Lun), which was the metaphysical status of ontology, Hu Hong proposed a series of theoretical principles and political reform measures for governing the country, which highlighted the Neo-Confucianism characteristics of his political ideas. The Neo-Confucianism was an important foundation for Hu Hong’s political ideas, which reflected the basic connotation of the Neo-Confucianism in return.Firstly, this paper introduces the current status of scholars’ relevant research on Hu Hong and expounds the research value and significance of the selected topic. It describes his life stories and major academic works in detail and elaborates the historical backgrounds that his political thoughts of Neo-Confucianism generated through political and cultural aspects. Taking Hu’s ‘Nature’ ideology(Xing Ben Lun) as the basis, the present study analyzes the ontology of “Nature”(Xing) in Hu’s Neo-Confucianism and illustrates the relationship between ‘Nature’(Xing) and ‘Taoism’(Dao), ‘Nature’(Xing) and ‘Neo-Confucianism’(Li) to explore how Hu Hong took the ‘Nature’(Xing) as the basic principle of the state politics as well as the important relationship between country governance and the ‘Nature’(Xing) of the sages. In addition, focusing on Hu Hong’s ‘Benevolence’ ideology(Ren), the present study elaborates his specific policies of benevolent governance from ‘Mercy heart’(Ren Xin) to the implementation of benevolent governance and furthermore from the revitalization of three generations’ politics to the implementation of filial piety and fraternal duty governance. According to Hu hong’s thoughts that administering a country through ‘Benevolence’ ideology(Ren), the present study also summarizes his proposition that building a country with state rituals, which showed his emphasis on the rites and music(Li Yue) culture as well as the revitalization of ethics and disciplines. The connotation of Hu Hong’s Neo-Confucianism political thought reflects his emphasis on the unity of ‘internal sages and external king’(Nei Sheng Wai Wang), his focus on Confucian orthodoxy(Ru Jia Dao Tong) as well as the statecraft and pragmatism, which are the important features behind his thoughts. In a word, Hu Hong’s political thoughts of Neo-Confucianism have a profound influence on the later scholars.