Yang Zengxin’s Governance Over Xinjiang And Chinese Traditional Culture

Chinese traditional culture, especially Confucian thought, embodied in every aspect of Yang Zengxin’s governance practices. It is obviously presented on coordinating the relationship between central and local government, strengthening local administrative system as well as dealing with internal and external relations in Xinjiang. In the relations between central and local government, Yang Zengxin upheld traditional “unification” thought and insisted in the idea of “recognize temple not recognize God”, that is, fully displaying the local initiative in the premise of maintaining national unification. Through making a clear of the administrative membership relations and strengthening county system, he achieved Xinjiang’s internal unification, which had a actual significance of guaranteeing national territory and sovereignty; In the construction of people’s livelihood, Yang eased social contradictions through “open a water source and reduce outflow” and improving official to promote the standard of people’s livelihood; In external relations, Yang upheld the idea of “middle course”, maximally protecting national interests with mitigating the dangers of outside forces. Finally, he brought out the outcome of“resisting foreign aggression” and “inner security”, which is good for ensuring the stability and development of the frontier area. In a word, Yang Zengxin had protected national and local interests, through creatively mastering the core of traditional culture.