The Research Of Dong Zhongshu’s Legal Philosophy Thoughts

Dong Zhongshu, a famed Confucian in the Western Han Dynasty, devotes his lifeto promoting Confucianism, dabbling in philosophy, politics and law, etc. Despite thefruitful research attainments on Dong’s legal thoughts, they are mostly facialresearches about the history of ideas, focusing mainly on the list of Dong’s theories,which possesses great advantages in combing the outlines but does poorly inexploring deep into his thoughts. The reason is that listing the contests of thoughts canlead to the hodgepodge of politics, economics and ethics, and lack the systemicanalysis from the perspective of laws. Therefore, under the premise of notfragmenting the integrity of Dong’s legal thoughts, the philosophical analysis ofDong’s legal thoughts can deepen our understanding of his legal thoughts and furtherour knowledge on the Chinese philosophy. By reviewing Dong’s works, it is notdifficult to find out that they are abundant in the thoughts of philosophy of law andthe study on such thoughts is significant for the integrity of the entire academic study.The legal philosophy is a discipline that analyzes the theories and principles oflaws from the angle of philosophy, and the explorations into the ontology and theirvalues are an essential part of the study on the philosophy of law. In terms of thetheories of ontology, Mr. Zhang Dainian asserts that ancient Chinese philosophy isrich in the thoughts of ontology, and Lao Zi is the founder of Chinese ontology, whichmainly deals with fundamental principles and basis about the universe and nature. Theontology of philosophy of law is similar, specifically dealing with the major researchmethods of traditional Chinese ontology, the origin of laws and the theoretical basis,which have all been discussed by Dong, demonstrating rich and complete thoughts ofontology. Dong upholds the traditional Confucianism and regards laws as the systemof rules of governing a country. The system comprises rites, amusements, politics andpenalty, which jointly realize laws’ functions of education, regulation and penalization,the values of laws. Dong figures out that laws are created because of the evil human nature and the primal laws are made by the saints according to the will of God with anaim to resolve the disputes caused by the evil human nature. The reason why rulesmade by the saints are regarded as laws is due to the following two reasons, accordingto Dong, one is the saints are born with perfect virtue and are in the optimal positionsin accordance with Dong’s theory of “Three Grades of Virtues”. The laws made bythe saints are free from selfishness and for the people, which serves as the formaltheoretical basis; the other is that the laws made by the saints are in the light of God’swill, and the conceptions that God and man mutually assist and interact are basic inDong’s philosophy. Subsequent to showing that both the ruler and common peoplehave to conform to God’s will, Dong bluntly expresses that benevolence is the core ofGod’s will. Hence, benevolence is the true theoretical basis and the ultimate standardto distinguish the laws from non-laws.Based on the standpoint of benevolence, Dong enthusiastically pursues laws’values of moralization, restricting rulers and equalization, which guides the people todo good turns, limiting rulers’ powers and bringing welfare to people. The Confucianthoughts adjusted by Dong on the one hand are in consistence with the Confucianismin the Pre-Qin Period that stresses benevolence and on the other hand impresses therulers with the grand unification. Therefore, his thoughts and ideas are hailed andadvocated and exert far-reaching influence on the authentic philosophy of law. Theyembody the Confucianization of laws and the conception of “virtue first, penaltysecond”, of which the pursuits such as bringing welfare to people, equalization andbenevolence are still of great value for reference even today.