The Study Of "Righteous Army" In The Warring States Period

“Righteous Army” is a military concept firstly put forward by Mencius,which was born in the background of the wars between the Seven Warring States.This concept is not related to the concrete issues in wars but the thoughts about the relationships between politics and wars.It focuses on the reasonableness and righteousness of wars from the perspective of ethical politics.When analyzing the wars in past history,Mencius regarded the “righteousness”as the standard to judge whether a war is reasonable or not,and considered the “Righteous Army” as the necessary means for “benevolent” to unify the country.It extolled those righteous wars like “Tang Wu Revolution” and negated the reasonableness of conquering and annexing wars since Spring and Autumn Period.At the same time,scholars from Confucian school also contended with those from Legalist school,Taoist school,Logicians School,etc.Although the Confucian school has set the definite standard for“benevolence” and “righteousness”,the thought of“Righteous Army”,objectively speaking,gives people the chance to beautify the wars.Therefore,after the concept of“Righteous Army” was put forward by Confucian School,in the middle and late Warring States period,it was absorbed and utilized by the scholars from Military school,Huang-Lao Taoist school,and Eclectics represented by the book Mister Lv’s Spring and Autumn Annals.The discussion and analysis in this paper are developed according to the four aspects as follows.The first chapter focuses on the origin and background of the thought of“Righteous Army”.The discussion in this chapter involves two aspects.In one aspect,the legality of wars in Spring and Autumn Period is in doubt.In another,the legality of wars in Warring States Period is totally invalid.The second chapter concerns the the development history of the thought of“Righteous Army”,in which the opinions of early Confucian school about the righteousness of the wars,the birth of the thought of “Righteous Army” of Mencius,and the development of the thought of “Righteous Army”of Xunzi are stated and discussed.The third chapter concentrates on the contending between various schools in Warring States Period as to the thought of “Righteous Army” and the reasonableness of the war.In this chapter,the discussion revolves around the views of various schools about the reasonableness of the war,in cue of three history periods,the early,middle and late times of Warring States Period.The fourth chapter involves the discussion about all schools’ views in the middle and late times of Warring State Period,which were affected by the thought of“Righteous Army”.In this chapter,the discussion revolves around how the schools in the middle and late times of Warring State Period absorbed the thought of “Righteous Army”.