Why is Dong Zhongshu's theory of heaven and man a kind of alienated cultural thought?

Dong Zhongshu's theory of "harmony between man and nature" is a huge and complex theoretical system, which integrates the contents of "God's Heaven", "Nature's Heaven" and "Human Ethics". The emergence of this theoretical system had a great influence on the political culture of the Western Han Dynasty and even the whole traditional society of China in the next two thousand years. According to the traditional view, Dong Zhongshu's theory of heaven and man is a theology of worshipping heaven with "heaven" as the "king of gods". Even though his "Heaven" includes "Natural Heaven" and "Just Heaven", it is still dominated by "Heaven of the Gods". Or take its "heaven" as "personalized nature", as Mr. Feng Youlan said in the History of China Philosophy: "Dong Zhongshu's so-called heaven, that is, the sky opposite to the earth, sometimes refers to the nature with intelligence and will. The term "nature with intelligence and will" seems to be self-contradictory. The heaven mentioned by Dong Zhongshu actually has intelligence and will, but it is not a god with personality, so it is called nature. " These views are well-founded, but I am afraid they are also biased. Dong Zhongshu's "Heaven" contains many natural factors, but his "Nature's Heaven" actually plays an intermediary role in his whole study of heaven and man, aiming at linking "God's Heaven" with the real "man", thus constructing a complete "Humanism and Legalism" system, so as to illustrate the legitimacy of the Western Han regime and how to maintain this regime and even the political purpose of long-term stability.

The interpretation of the heaven of the gods.

As early as the early Western Zhou Dynasty, the discussion about "Heaven of the Gods" sprouted. In the Yin and Shang Dynasties, Zhou people used "heaven" instead of "emperor" to refer to the supreme god, thus giving it all the meaning of religious god. The poem says, "When you wait for Zhou, your fate will never change. Yin Shi is more sensitive and will only be in Beijing. " [1] Zhou people's "God's Heaven" also illustrates two problems: the emperor is the son of heaven, so the legitimacy of the regime is solved; The rise and fall of kingship is the result of destiny, which is eternal. Therefore, to respect morality and protect the people, it is necessary to rely on morality as a supplement. This is a question of maintaining the long-term stability of the regime. However, the relationship between heaven and man in the Western Zhou Dynasty was still in a state of direct contact between heaven and man, and its theoretical form was still thin.

It is Mozi's theory of heaven and man that inherits the concept of "the heaven of the gods" in the Western Zhou Dynasty. First of all, Mozi demonstrated the existence of personality god, that is, "Heaven". This "heaven" is lofty, and its function is implemented according to the words and deeds of social people. After inheriting the basic pattern and essence of the unity of man and nature in the Western Zhou Dynasty, Mozi further clarified: "The son of heaven has goodness, and heaven can reward him;" The son of heaven has had it, and heaven can punish it. " "There must be ominous killings." [2] Heaven can show disasters according to people's words and deeds, and reward good and punish evil. In this way, Mozi's "God's Heaven" established the religious status of legislation for the world. However, Mozi's thought of "Heaven's Nature" serves his theoretical core of "Universal Love" and "Undestiny". On the one hand, the thought of "Heaven of the Gods" strives to find the root existence for its whole theoretical system, thus laying a sacred and convincing foundation for its theory; On the other hand, the political structure of absolute monarchy makes it impossible to limit the power of kings on the earth, and the theory of "Heaven" just plays a role in limiting the power of kings and popularizing its own theoretical theory. Therefore, it can be said that Mozi's "Tian Wen" is not so much to provide ruling advice to the monarch at that time, but to better publicize his political views by limiting the power of the monarch.

It should be pointed out that before Dong Zhongshu, the idea of learning from heaven was very popular, and the content of learning was actually the nature embodied by heaven. The so-called "gentlemen are eager to strive for self-improvement" means "self-improvement" with "health". Therefore, "heaven" is actually an intermediary. This process can also be described as "getting carried away". Dong Zhongshu is obviously learning from heaven, but he is proud of his image. He has learned the nature of heaven, but he has not forgotten the intermediary. On the contrary, he made it absolute and sacred, thus giving it a religious status. This is the process of extracting the "God's Day" from the "Nature's Day". Once it appears, it exists outside the "Nature's Day".

Dong Zhongshu doesn't have much direct discussion on "God's Heaven". There are two places that directly talk about "God's Paradise":

Heaven is the king of the gods, and the land of kings is the most revered. [3]

Heaven is the king of the gods. Things are unprepared, although immortals are particularly useless. Why do you say that? People who sacrifice to the land gods are laughed at in Spring and Autumn Annals. Confucius said, "Heaven is condemned and has nothing to pray for." This is the law. Therefore, Qin has never received Zhou Guoya's blessing. There is a poem that says, "Only King Wen, be careful, show your power." It is not people who are blessed, but also achievements, a blessing from heaven. "Biography" said: "Zhou is a virtuous man. As for the four men who were pregnant, four children gave birth to eight, all of whom were handsome men." The reason why this day is prosperous is beyond Zhou Guoli's reach. [4]

It can be seen that Dong Zhongshu's Tian Wen is explaining why the dynasty rose and fell, which is actually the legitimacy and rationality of the regime and how to maintain long-term stability. Although the regime of the Western Han Dynasty has been basically consolidated and the national strength has reached its peak, these two issues have always been the core issues that emperors have paid attention to. In particular, a figure like Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who was the King of Jiaodong at the age of four, the Crown Prince at the age of seven, and the Emperor at the age of sixteen, faced the excellent political situation carefully consolidated by his successive emperors. It should be eagerly anticipated by a king with a broad and far-reaching political vision to achieve the imperial career with such advantages. In terms of social culture, after Huang Lao's theory played a practical role in adapting to the rest stage in the early Western Han Dynasty, it was difficult to correspond to the powerful national strength at that time in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and it began to be ignored by the ruling class and society. Therefore, it has become an urgent task for Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to seek new theoretical theories on the ideological level of political culture in order to better support the regime of the Western Han Dynasty and further consolidate and improve the status and strength of imperial power, which naturally puts forward the problem of "Tao is the most important and reason is the extreme" [5].

On the basis of predecessors, Dong Zhongshu further incorporated the "Heaven of the Gods" into his system of learning between man and nature, which provided a theological explanation for the Western Han regime in the period of Emperor Wudi.

The first is the legitimacy of the regime. On this point, Dong Zhongshu discussed it from two aspects: "the divine right of the monarch" and "Wang Peitian". "The God-given monarch is also a God-given monarch" [6], "Only the emperor is endowed by heaven, and the world is endowed by the emperor" [7], "The God-given monarch is beyond the reach of human beings" [8], which is the so-called divine right of monarch, and the king is the "God-given monarch", not human resources. And "Wang matches the sky, which means the way" [9], an ancient writer, connected with three paintings, is called the king. Three painters, heaven and earth people, and even one of them, know their way. Take the thoughts of heaven and earth and participate in it. Who can be a non-king? "[10] To act for the king, we must conform to the destiny. "An ordered king must sacrifice to heaven first, which is the thing of being a king" [1 1], that is, like King Wen, he carefully shows his gods and seeks more happiness. "Wang Cheng acts according to God's will" [12] naturally conforms to Heaven, thus providing a reasonable basis for the existence and operation of political power. It can be seen that Dong Zhongshu successfully solved the legitimacy problem of the Western Han regime through the exposition of "the divine right of the monarch" and "the kingly way matches the heaven", and once it comes to "doing kingly things", it naturally involves the maintenance of the regime and how to maintain long-term stability.

Since the monarchy is sacred, the maintenance of political power, on the one hand, of course, still depends on God's will, but should conform to God's will. As mentioned above, it is necessary to "do it with God's will", "do it with God's will, and do it under God's will", [13] specifically, it is necessary to "make Germany not suffer punishment" because "the sky is big." Dong Zhongshu believes: "People born in heaven are not for kings. And the heavenly king thinks the people are also. Therefore, virtue is enough to comfort the people, and it is a gift; Those who are evil enough to harm the people will fall from heaven. " [15] The emperor is diligent in governing the people, which means "there is a road" and everything is peaceful; On the contrary, it is "no road", and the disaster from heaven is different, which is used to warn the son of heaven: "The country must go out of the road, and the disaster from heaven must be informed first; I don't know how to introspect, but I am weird and scared; I don't know how to change it yet, but I was hurt and even defeated [16] until its highest form "rebirth". However, Dong Zhongshu also pointed out: "Those who are not in the world of great death must do their best to raise and live in peace, but only the strong and weak." [17] It can be seen that Dong Zhongshu demonstrated the issue of regime change at the level of "persistence" in order to alert and enlighten the monarch, but it is undeniable that this theory is also applicable at the level of "destruction" or "reconstruction".

It is not difficult to see that "God's paradise" has always been in an absolute dominant position, whether in the legitimacy of political power or in the maintenance of political power. Different from the predecessors, Dong Zhongshu introduced "Heaven of Nature" as a medium to communicate "Heaven of God" and "Heaven of Man", thus providing a theoretical basis for explaining why "Heaven of God" can command and safeguard kings.