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In the long history of ancient China, the glory of Confucianism shines for thousands of years, among which Dong Zhongshu's figure is particularly prominent.
Born in a scholarly family in Jingxian County, Hebei Province, he received Confucianism since he was a child and has an in-depth study of Confucian classics, especially "The Spring and Autumn of the Ram".
In the cultural sky of the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu was like a dazzling star, and his ideas became an immortal legend in history.
01
In the long history of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang's rebellion marked the beginning of a new era, but it also left a question of the legitimacy of the rule.
During the Western Han Dynasty, the main contradictions in society were concentrated between slave owners and slaves, landlords and peasants.
The slave-owning class relied on large numbers of slaves for agricultural production, controlled mines and iron smelting, and profited from the sale of basic commodities such as fish, rice, and salt. Slaves not only did hard manual labor in the outdoors, but also worked as domestic laborers in the slave owners' homes.
At the same time, the contradictions between the landlords and the peasants manifested themselves in different forms of exploitative relations.
The exploitation system of the Han Dynasty included both the state's strategy of light taxation of the peasants and the phenomenon that the peasants had to rent land from powerful landlords in order to survive.
Against this backdrop, it is a fascinating question as to how Dong Zhongshu's educational ideas exerted influence within the empire.
After all, Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty by force, and the question of "why the world should accept Liu's rule" gradually surfaced after his death.
This problem is not only a challenge to the ruling authority, but also a huge threat to social stability, and the unresolved struggle for legitimacy may lead to frequent internal and external struggles and endanger the country's long-term peace and stability.
However, when Emperor Wu Liu Che succeeded to the throne, he faced challenges that went far beyond that.
He sought a solution through the "call for talents" and hoped to find a way to govern the country from a wide range of opinions.
In the process, a character named Dong Zhongshu appeared, whose stories and ideas left a deep mark on later Han Dynasty politics.
Dong Zhongshu was initially known for his unique way of lecturing.
When he lectures in class, he imparts knowledge inside the tent, while the students can only listen outside the tent.
Although his approach is regarded as a quirk, it does not detract from his influence in the education world.
Dong Zhongshu's academic enthusiasm can be seen, and he even did not set foot in the carefully built garden of his home for three years in order to study knowledge.
When Liu Che was confronted with the main contradiction of the country, he had to think about how to adjust the policy of governing the country in the early Han Dynasty.
Although Huang Lao's doctrine advocated "quiet inaction" and "rest with the people" in the early years of the Han Dynasty, which may have been appropriate in the context of economic decline and people's livelihood hardship, with the passage of time and the increase of social wealth, Huang Lao's art unexpectedly provided space for the growth of princes and local powers, and social contradictions also changed.
During the reign of Emperor Wu, the centralization of power was strengthened internally, and the invasion of the Xiongnu was resisted externally, and these new political tasks required adjustments in the policy of governance.
The question of the selection system of court officials was also placed in front of Emperor Wu.
At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, most of the officials sent by the meritorious officials were of high quality and could meet the needs of officials from the central government to the local government.
However, with the passing of the founding heroes, there were problems with both the quantity and quality of the imperial court officials.
Meritorious officials and relatives attempted to monopolize the selection of officials, protect their own interests, and prevent the emperor from selecting officials from other classes.
How to establish an effective training and selection system to ensure that talents can be used has become another difficult problem that Emperor Wu has to face.
02
Dong Zhongshu was not Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's personal mentor, nor was he a powerful minister of the government and the opposition, and even he had very few interviews with Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
However, his influence on Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the entire Han Dynasty, and even later generations on Chinese thought and culture is incomparable. Why did Emperor Wu of Han respect him so much?
The answer lies in a series of ideas and suggestions put forward by Dong Zhongshu, which profoundly influenced the concept of governing the country of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
"Depose a hundred schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone" is not only a slogan, it represents the beginning of an ideological revolution.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty adopted Dong Zhongshu's suggestion and discarded the doctrines of the other princes and hundreds of schools, except for Confucianism.
This decision not only changed the political ecology of the time, but also had a profound impact on the lives of ordinary people.
The Three Principles and Five Constants became the moral norms of society, and the induction of heaven and man became the philosophical basis for explaining natural and social phenomena.
The three outlines are the principle that the monarch is the minister, the father is the son, and the husband is the wife, which is the foundation of the social order.
The five constants are the five moral norms of benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, and faith, and are the norms of personal cultivation.
In the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, these ideas were elevated to the orthodox ideology of the state, becoming the cornerstone of education and political decision-making.
The concept of celestial and human induction, on the other hand, that changes in the natural world are interrelated with the political and moral conditions of human society, meaning that the actions of kings and common people directly affect celestial phenomena and natural disasters, further strengthens the application of Confucianism in politics.
The reason why Dong Zhongshu was able to leave a strong mark in the Han Dynasty and even the entire feudal era is not how high his official position is, but how his ideas are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and become the spiritual pillar of Chinese feudal society.
It is precisely these ideas that have built China's 2,000-year-old feudal social structure and values.
03
Dong Zhongshu lived in an era of fierce social contradictions, but his thinking was not limited to the social and political structure of the time.
In the field of science, the natural sciences of the Western Han Dynasty, including astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and the theory of the five elements of yin and yang, have made great progress.
In Dong Zhongshu's time, scientific progress and social contradictions went hand in hand, showing the complex face of a civilization developing in many aspects at the same time.
When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, he was determined to make a big career, which provided an opportunity for the revival of Confucianism.
Neo-Confucianism, founded by Dong Zhongshu, not only enriched cultural life, but also became a theoretical system for maintaining centralized power, and with the support of this theory, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ruled more solidly.
Education is at the core of Dong Zhongshu's thought, and through the theory of human nature, he inherited and developed the pre-Qin Confucian concept of education, especially emphasizing the importance of moral education.
He believed that education was not only the imparting of knowledge, but also the process of cultivating moral character, and his educational philosophy played an important role in the society at that time, laying the foundation for the development of Chinese education in later generations.
It is in such a society of contradictions that natural sciences such as astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and the theory of the five elements of yin and yang have also developed accordingly, reflecting that knowledge and wisdom are also nurtured in the midst of social turmoil.
Especially in terms of academics, after inheriting the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty gradually gave up the idea of respecting the law and began to advocate the learning of Huang Lao, in order to seek social tranquility and the people live and work in peace and contentment.
However, during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the cultural policy of the empire underwent a fundamental change, and Emperor Wu's ambitions prompted him to support the revival of Confucianism, while Dong Zhongshu's neo-Confucianism became the theoretical support for maintaining centralized power.
04
The course of Dong Zhongshu's life is intertwined with the rise and fall of the five dynasties of Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, Empress Lu, Emperor Wen, Emperor Jing, and Emperor Wu.
During his long career of 93 years, Dong Zhongshu not only witnessed the political changes of the Han Dynasty, but also profoundly influenced the political landscape of the Han Dynasty.
His name is the same as that of Confucius and Zhu Xi, and the three represent three important stages in the development of Confucianism and constitute three milestones in the development of Confucianism.
His academic career began at the age of thirty, when he was already a well-known scholar.
Despite this, he did not rush into a career in office, but chose to teach and educate people.
His teaching career left a deep mark on history, and his disciples were all over the world, including many later ministers and ministers.
Among them, Sima Qian was one of the outstanding disciples inspired by Dong Zhongshu's spirit of "not peeping into the garden for three years", and he inspired himself to complete the brilliant "Historical Records" with this spirit.
However, Dong Zhongshu was not just a teacher, he became a doctor during the reign of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, which paved the way for him to influence the emperor with his own doctrines in the future.
In the virtuous countermeasures, Dong Zhongshu's advice was appreciated by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and he began his political career.
He served as the state minister of Liu Fei, the king of Jiangdu, and Liu Duan, the king of Jiaodong, and although he failed to reach the peak politically, his teachings and recommendations still had a profound impact on Han politics.
In 121 B.C., Dong Zhongshu returned home after abandoning his official position due to illness, and at this time he was no longer a university scholar who only recruited students, but became the founder of the ideological foundation of the feudal rulers.
When the imperial court encountered major problems, it would still consult him. He was depressed at home and continued to write books, among which "Spring and Autumn Dew" and "Virtuous Strategies" are the most praised by the world.
In 106 BC, Dong Zhongshu completed the last recital of his life, and then died of illness at the age of ninety-three.
He was buried in the western suburbs of Chang'an, and when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty passed by his cemetery, he deliberately dismounted to pay tribute to Dong Zhongshu, and Dong Zhongshu's tomb was therefore called "Xiama Mausoleum".
05
Dong Zhongshu undoubtedly played a pivotal role in the construction of the ideological framework of the Han Dynasty.
Dong Zhongshu advocated Confucianism as a national philosophy and contributed to the establishment of the bureaucratic system.
From the perspective of historical materialism, the evaluation of Dong Zhongshu is not static.
Politically assessed as Dong Zhongshu's merits outweighed his faults, and he established a system that laid the foundation for the long-term stability and governance of the Han dynasty.
However, when we look at it from the perspective of culture and civilization, Dong Zhongshu's limitations and shortcomings begin to emerge.
His strong Confucian monism actually limited the pluralistic development of ancient Chinese culture, and may have inhibited the free flow and innovation of ideas to a certain extent.
At a deeper level, the importance of civilization ecology is far greater than that of institutional ecology, and Dong Zhongshu's contribution is to provide an institutional feasibility for national governance, but what can really make a country go to glory is the prosperity and progress of its civilization ecology.
In this regard, Dong Zhongshu's role is limited, and the "technical" means he adopts to regulate human behavior with a fixed institutional framework may reflect a kind of strategic lack of self-confidence.
Therefore, when we evaluate a historical figure, we must base ourselves on a multi-dimensional investigation.
Dong Zhongshu undoubtedly has great achievements in the construction of the political system, but from the perspective of civilization development, his role is relatively limited.