The Establishment,Expansion And Preservation Of The Republic-A Study Of The Statecraft In Discourses On Livy

This paper, its research object is Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy, beginning with the statecraft which Machiavelli provided in Discourses on Livy as the clue to discuss. Text analysis as this paper's fundamental research method, which attempt to reveal the shade line(the justification of historical experience's legitimacy) hidden in the light line of statecraft. In the process of reading Discourses on Livy, we find that Machiavelli sums up many effective historical experiences, while also working to turn these historical experiences into universal and constant law of history. Because the experiences from the past, may not be suitable for today, but the purpose of Machiavelli's writing about Discourses on Livy is trying to guide his time through commenting on the former ten volumes of Livy's History of Rome. Therefore, only turning the historical experiences into the laws of history could achieve the purpose of writing Discourses on Livy. Otherwise, Discourses on Livy is only a collection of historical experience, without having any values in the thought history. So, in addition to clarifying the statecraft that written in the open of Discourses on Livy, this paper also analyzes the road of historical law's justification that hidden in the dark.This paper includes four parts, the first three parts corresponding to the three volumes of Discourses on Livy, which have deeply interpreted some important chapters in each of these three volumes. The last part is a summary of the paper.The first part of this paper corresponds to the first volume of Discourses on Livy, which around how to establish a country(republic) to unfold my discussing. In this volume, Machiavelli gave us the ideal way which could establish republic(liberal regime) and the realistic choice under the condition that can't be able to succeed in establishing republic. Machiavelli's discussions focus on how to establish a republic in the country full of corrupt folk, he provided two ways establishing country in the corrupt national, i.e a good man establish dictatorship and a tyrant become good. In addition, I also focus on twenty-sixth chapter in this section, not only because this chapter's content is closely related to how to establish a country, but also because Strauss' s interpretation of this chapter is unconvincing.The second part corresponds to the second volume of Discourses on Livy, which around how to achieve a country's effective expansion to unfold my discussion. In this part, my discussion focuses on the preface, the third chapter, the fifth chapter, the twenty-ninth chapter, the thirtieth chapter of this volume. In this volume, Machiavelli believes that the Roman expansion depends on virtue rather than luck. This section focuses on the essence of Roman virtue?ability to grasp the natural law, and analyzes the the relationship between natural law,destiny and virtue. In addition, this part also clarifies the foundation of human society: natural law, and reveals the natural law as a basis hidden under the historical experience, thus, the historical experience also sublimates into the historical law.The third part corresponds to the third volume of Discourses on Livy, which around how to maintain a country for a long time to unfold my discussion. In this part, my discussion focuses on the first chapter,the ninth chapter,the twelfth chapter,the thirty-first chapter,the thirty-sixth chapter of this volume. Machiavelli believes that maintaining a country for a long-time must often return to the initial state, he highlighted the path of “sage guiding”which could help us return to the initial state. This path is actually to emulate the virtues of distinguished Roman citizens. This part focuses on the analysis of the practice principles behind these virtues, the core of these principles is to grasp the relationship between virtue,destiny,natural law and inevitability.The forth part is a summary of this paper, and it also briefly analyzes the reason that Machiavelli turned to natural law in Discourses on Livy.