Confucianism and China's traditional political philosophy, the political logic of Han and Confucianism, the Three Cardinals and the Five Permits are providence.

Confucianism and China's traditional political philosophy, the political logic of Han and Confucianism, the Three Cardinals and the Five Permits are providence.

Heaven and man are one, and the son of heaven inherits God's will from all peoples, and God gives God's will to all peoples through the son of heaven. Dong Zhongshu believes that although God's will is difficult to understand, we can observe God's will and Heaven's way through Yin and Yang, and God's will is embodied in God's will and Heaven's way.

The concept of yin-yang and five elements was used to explain the rise and fall of society at the end of the Warring States period, and it also had great influence at that time (see Historical Records Guan Zen Book). Dong Zhongshu inherited the spiritual orientation of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, and incorporated them into the ten elements of Heaven constructed by himself, which made Yin-Yang and Five Elements have both the nature of Heaven and the nature of Heaven, and endowed them with the connotation of human relations, politics and society, which made them humanized and became the norms and guidelines of human relations politics, social order and activities.

Regarding Yin and Yang, Dong Zhongshu endowed it with the value connotation of inequality and inferiority. He demonstrated that Yang dominates life and Yin dominates killing. Yang governs morality and Yin governs punishment; * * * There are virtues of giving, benevolence, forgiveness, love and life, and yin has the nature of taking, violence, urgency, evil and killing. Tianzhi "worships Yang but despises Yin" (Yang respects Yin). Since the sky worships the sun and the base is yin, the way to follow the sky should be based on punishment and life on killing. Therefore, Dong Zhongshu provided an argument for the Confucian thought of ruling by virtue.

The basic spirit of Confucian rule by virtue is to persuade good, guide people to do good, accumulate virtue and do good, and give full play to people's goodness; The focus of the rule of virtue is to encourage and reward people who are good, so that people can avoid evil and nip in the bud; The main form of rule by virtue is enlightenment, which regards the formation of the personality of the ruler's gentleman as the basis of politics and the virtue and ability of the gentleman as the basis of governance. It is precisely because of the virtue of a gentleman that the people will rush to the water and avoid disasters without prohibiting non-criminal killings. In order to demonstrate the inevitability of rule by virtue, Dong Zhongshu tried his best to dress up heaven as a kind and kind image: "The beauty of benevolence lies in heaven. Heaven is benevolent. Heaven nurtures everything, everything is born of it, nurtured by it, has nothing to do with it, repeats forever, and everything belongs to serving people. The meaning of observing extinction is boundless. People are born in heaven and are blessed. " ("Wang Dao Tong San") Heaven is also benevolent, which is "extremely benevolent in heaven". Therefore, history is not only "acting according to law, but also acting according to heaven", and it can form the divinity and respect of monarch and minister. Since heaven is "full of love", of course, the kings of the world must have different opinions in order to have a reward. "Heaven teaches virtue without punishment", and "You are engaged in it because of God's will, so you teach virtue without punishment" (Han Shu Dong Zhongshu Biography).

Moral education without punishment is not without punishment, it is a matter of choosing the weight of governing the country, not giving up this or that. Although Yang and Yin are respected and wronged, they are indispensable. According to Dong Zhongshu's understanding, "Tian Zhi is often placed in the shade, which helps a little, so the winner is Tokunosuke and the winner is Yonosuke." As far as everything is concerned, "Yin alone does not give birth, Yang alone does not give birth, Yin and Yang rise to the sky, and then give birth" (shun ming). Therefore, in Dong Zhongshu's view, morality and punishment should not be neglected, but should be prioritized, moral education should be given priority, punishment should be second, and punishment is often unnecessary, so it should be regarded as moral education. This is called "thick morality and simple punishment, so that heaven matches heaven" ("original meaning").

Dong Zhongshu not only endowed Yin and Yang with the value connotation of inferiority, but also re-established and demonstrated the Confucian ethical order. Dong Zhongshu believes: "Everything must be combined, there must be up and down, there must be left and right, there must be before and after, there must be inside and outside." ("Basic Meaning") This is the so-called Heaven and Nature. He believes that "heaven is natural, and the extremes of things must be reversed, so it is one of them." One without two, the journey of heaven is also. Yin and Yang are opposites, so they go out or in, or left or right (Heaven is not the only way). He believes that everything always has two opposing sides, and these two sides are always distributed in different time and space, either out or in time, left or right in space, so it is impossible for these two sides to form opposing and fighting sides. The two sides are always in a fixed position in time and space, that is, they always respect Yang and are second to Yin, while Yang is more expensive and second to Yin, and Yang is superior to Yin, and they are always a master and a slave. This is the so-called "no two, so it is called one." The opposing sides of things form a fixed master-slave relationship, which is heaven. Based on this, Dong Zhongshu put forward the theory of "three cardinal guides". He promoted the Confucian relationship between monarch and minister, father and son, and husband and wife from the "five ethics" of human beings (also having brothers and friends), and changed the relationship between monarch and minister, father and son, and husband and wife into absolute master-slave relationship, superior-subordinate relationship, and subordinate relationship. It is believed that "the righteousness of husband and wife, father and son, takes the way of yin and yang." The monarch is yang and the minister is yin; The father is yang and the son is yin; The husband is yang, the wife is yin (Original Meaning), and the heaven "Yang is expensive and Yin is cheap". Therefore, it is in line with "God's will" to respect the monarch, the father, the husband, the humble minister, the son minister and the woman minister. " If you are not a yang, the official is also, and if you are a yang, your father is also "("Heaven distinguishes people "). It is the rule of benevolence and righteousness, and it is the best in the world. The sky is the dew of the king, and the land is the minister; Yang is the husband's life, and Yin helps the woman. Spring is for father, summer for son, autumn for death and winter for pain. The three cardinal principles of king can be sought from heaven. "("Basic Meaning ")" The son of heaven was ordered by heaven, and the princes were ordered by the son of heaven; The son is ordered by the father, the male and female servants by the king, and the wife by the husband. Anyone who is ordered, Tianjing. " (shun ming)

* * * It has been discussed that men in China are generally dominated by political power, clan power and theocracy, while women in China are dominated by husband power in addition to the above three powers. The four powers mentioned by * * are actually embodied in the "three cardinal guides" put forward by Dong Zhongshu. Being a minister means political power; Father is a child, which means family rights; The husband's wife procedure means the husband's rights; In addition, "five principles and three cardinal guides can be sought from heaven" is theocracy. It can be seen that the four powers of "representing all feudal family law thoughts and systems" were all crowned by Dong Zhongshu. Dong Zhongshu is the theoretical founder of "four ropes".

If Dong Zhongshu demonstrates the Confucian rule of virtue and its order by the order of yin and yang, then his theory of five elements provides an activity mode and behavior mode for Confucian ethics and realistic official management.

Dong Zhongshu understood the five elements as a mechanical formula with time and space, order and mutual success. He said: "There are five elements in the sky, including wood, fire, earth, gold and water." "Wood is the beginning of the five elements; Water is the end of the five elements; Soil, among the five elements; This is the second order today. " "Wood is left, gold is right, fire is in front, water is behind, and soil is in the middle". "Wood lives in the east in spring, fire in the south in summer, gold in the west in autumn, water in the north in winter, and ... the center of earth residence is called Tianrun." The above is the temporal and spatial order of the five elements. The formula of mutual success is: wood fires, fire produces soil, soil produces gold, gold produces water, aquatic wood. Gold wins wood, wood wins soil, soil wins water, water wins fire, and fire wins gold (five elements win together). Dong Zhongshu believes that the above formula is eternal. This unchangeable formula of mutual success reflects the relationship between social ethics, which is the relationship between giving and receiving. The relationship between giving and receiving is equivalent to that between father and son, and the relationship between receiving and receiving is equivalent to that between father and son. For example, "making a fire with wood" means "making a fire with wood", so the opposite is "making a fire with wood", and so on. Dong Zhongshu said: "The giver is also his father. All I received were sons. Often because his father makes his son, heaven is also. " He added, "So the five elements are also a trip for dutiful sons and loyal ministers." (meaning of five elements)

Dong Zhongshu put forward the "five permanents" according to the five elements, saying: "A king should practice the five permanents of benevolence, friendship, courtesy, knowledge and faith." (The biography of Han Dong Zhongshu) The "five permanents" are the five ethics proposed by Dong Zhongshu. Constant, meaning benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, trust in people or eternal common sense and routines in the world. In Dong Zhongshu's view, the Five Changde is not only the five Changde in the world, but also the code of conduct for kings to be blessed by ghosts and gods. "Five spiritual practices make you blessed by heaven and enjoy the spirit of ghosts and gods". Therefore, the five permanent members are different from the three cardinal guides. They stipulate a horizontal relationship between people and a code of conduct for people.

The proposition of "Chang and Three Cardinals" weaves an order network that is up and down, left and right, criss-crossing. The "three cardinal guides" can be described as a kind of relationship structure based on social and family relations, while the "five cardinal guides" are the code of conduct and behavior of people based on human nature. The three cardinal guides and the five permanent members have built a complete and systematic social order and behavior pattern for the traditional society in China.

Dong Zhongshu also put forward the activity paradigm of social economy, politics, religion and life according to the relationship between the five elements: wood is the nature of spring and agriculture is the foundation. Persuade farmers, no one is available. Fire grew in this dynasty in summer. Do good for Cai Mao; The official can get it and make it work; Reward merit and seal virtue; Wealth, poverty, is sealed. Born and raised in the midsummer, I am an official of the gods, following the palace system, and I would like to distinguish husband and wife, plus the kindness of my relatives. Kim, beginning of autumn is murderous. Flags, drums, sticks and cymbals were erected to punish thieves and prohibit tyranny, so the masses were mobilized to mobilize the army. Water is stored in shade in winter. At the beginning of the ancestral temple sacrifice, the emperor sacrificed to heaven and the princes sacrificed to the ground. Closed-door palace, big search, sentence, crime. (See "Five Elements Inverse Shun")

Dong Zhongshu also set up officials and posts according to the five elements, which are connected with the five permanent members. He believes that the four farmers are the trees of the East, the main ones are benevolent, and the grain-saving ones are Sima. Sima is the fire of the south, wise and wise, and the world is at peace, giving birth to companionship. Division camp is the land of the central government, and the main system is loyal to the matter of governing the people and still believes, so Stuart was born at the right time. Stuart is the gold of the west. He upholds justice. He has no bandits, thieves and prison lawsuits. Scott is the water of the north, respects the law, and the people live and work in peace and contentment, thinking about agriculture. (See "Five Elements Living Together") Dong Zhongshu believes that the five senses are "governing if they are suitable, and chaos if they are contrary". However, in the case of rape, the five senses will be limited by mutual win. Sinon is a traitor and Si Tuleideng is a murderer; Sima Wei, Scott is the whole; Stuart is a thief, Sima is the whole; Scorpion chaos, the company is the whole; If something goes wrong in the camp, people will rebel. Dong Zhongshu completely brought social chaos control into the schema of five elements contending.

You Ran, a native of Lu at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, was a disciple of Confucius. Famous for political affairs. "Historical Records and Biography of Zhong Ni" says: "A city with 2,000 rooms and a family with a hundred times, you can also ask for a gift."