A New Probe Into Ouyang Xiu's View Of History

Ouyang xiu is a famous historian and a pioneer of literature and neo-confucianism in the northern song dynasty.He put the neo-confucianism through the history,took the ancient Ming dao as the foundation of governing history,and took the important meaning of the spring and autumn annals as the principle of writing history.Ouyang xiu wrote a lot of books.He once participated in the compilation of the new book of tang dynasty and independently completed the history of the new five dynasties.In addition,there is a collection of poems,essays,odes,sonatas,inscriptions,and other literary works,namely the complete works of ouyang xiu.Therefore,based on the complete works of ouyang xiu and the history of the new five dynasties,this paper,under the condition of making full use of the literature,reorganizes the historical thoughts contained in these two works,and discusses and analyzes ouyang xiu's historical thoughts from three chapters,so as to have a new understanding of ouyang xiu's historical thoughts.1.Ouyang xiu's ancient and modern thoughts mainly include three aspects:the rise and fall of the people in the cause of chaos,the identification and warning of the ancient and non-modern times,and the general view of change.Ouyang xiu took the right path of the Ming dynasty as his own duty.From the ancient and modern levels,he thought deeply about the rise and fall of the dynasty.He thought that the rise and fall of the dynasty were decided by the personnel and had nothing to do with the heaven.During the reign of emperor renzong,the northern song entered a period of extreme prosperity.Ouyang xiu in other concentrated on the ancient analogy,exhorted the rulers to stay away from women,distinguish jester,at the same time,learn the former generation of arrogant soldiers and tyrannous generals,the lessons of chaos,restrain the general;Ouyang xiu teacher ancient but not stick to mud ancient system,his thought has the characteristic of "changzhong".That is,under the premise of adhering to Confucianism,to solve practical problems according to The Times.Ouyang xiu's general view of change of time shift and difference is mainly reflected in reinterpretation of orthodoxy and reform of historical and legal theory.After the founding of the northern song dynasty,the "five virtues" could not prove the legitimacy of its inheritance.Ouyang xiu's flexibility is also reflected in his reformof historical law.He did not hold the ancient law in mind and had a new understanding of the compilation of historical books.Second,ouyang xiu's thought on the world mainly includes three aspects: the concept of rites and law,the concept of emperor and minister,and the concept of saving the world.Ouyang xiu took Confucianism as his belief,revealed the reason for the rise of Buddhism from the perspective of rites and righteousness,criticized the hypocrisy of Buddhism,and proposed to revive Confucian ethics to eliminate the spread of Buddhism.Ouyang xiu's thought of rejecting Buddhism is relatively mild compared with han yu's thought of expelling Buddhism,but its fighting power is far greater than han yu's,which is highly respected by later Confucian scholars.In ouyang xiu's eyes,the five dynasties and ten kingdoms were extremely chaotic times with "bad rites and bad music".There were no princes and ministers,no father and son,no couple,and moral bankruptcy.Therefore,he attached great importance to the construction of social morality and reiterated the four dimensions to stabilize the social order.Ouyang xiu hoped that through the way of correcting the name and determining the division,he could clearly define the responsibilities of the monarch and the minister and effectively carry out social governance.At the same time that the country's prosperity and security also need the emperor and minister and heart,the two work together to seek the world;Ouyang xiu lived in an era in which the social contradictions were increasingly intensified.There were civil revolts within,barbarians outside,and the emperor and ministers were weak.As a member of the reformist school,he defied the suppression of the powerful and the old school and wrote to the emperor many times.He also discussed the evils of the society from many aspects,criticized the shortcomings of The Times,and begged the emperor to pay attention to the social problems and make every effort to rule.Iii.Ouyang xiu's national thoughts mainly included three aspects: the view of respecting xia and abating yi,the view of preparing troops to guard the border,the view of ruling yi,and the view of ruling yi with mercy and economy.Ouyang xiu took respecting the han nationality as the center and thought deeply about the national problems at that time from the aspect of respecting the king.As a traditional Confucian,he still insists on respecting xiabei nationality in his heart,and believes that thehan nationality is far superior to other nationalities in culture and other aspects.He still called other ethnic groups the barbarians,thought barbarians do not know courtesy,no faith,more cunning,his thought with the characteristics of han nationalism;In the face of the khitan and tangut national regimes,ouyang xiu advocated the use of military force against the tangut,believed that we should adopt an active defense policy to resist the khitan,and opposed the song court and the peace talks between the tangut and the tangut.In view of song renzong's weakness,he actively wrote a letter,and stated his interests,thinking that troops should be prepared for war,so that the barbarians would not dare to spy on "China".Ouyang xiu thought that the song dynasty should adopt the method of combining kindness and power to solve the national problems,so as to highlight the song dynasty's tianwei,highlight the superiority of the central plains culture and achieve the purpose of huaihua.