Inquiry About Dong Zhongshu's Political Philosophy

As an important segment of the ancient Chinese political philosophy.Dong Zhongshu's thoughts of political philosophy are produced in the Western Han Dynasty.Faced with domestic strife and foreign agression,the royal family of the Western Han Dynasty urgently needs a set of theories which justifies the supremacy of imperial power so as to make it possible for them to unify the nation's politics,economy,and even cultural ideology.Looking far and aiming high,Dong Zhongshu is bold enough to develop the useful and discard the useless of pre-Qin philosophers' thoughts.With the Confucian classics as the main content,Dong Zhongshu not only reinterprets the Confucianism,but also designs a set of scientific and complete system of political philosophy,laying the political philosophy foundation for the reign of the feudal dominators.With the "Concept of Natural Law" as the theoretical foundation,Dong Zhongshu's political philosophy consists of theories concerning “ Divine Rights of Emperors",“Interaction of Heaven and Man”,“Human Nature”,"Three Principles and Five Virtues","Benevolent Government" and "Grand Unification".The whole system,to some extent,serves as the theoretical foundation for the development of the later feudal society.We should draw the beneficial ingredients from Dong Zhongshu's political philosophy for the service to the socialist politics.