Zhu Cheng: From Heavenly Dao to Indoctrination: Dong Zhongshu's Public Thoughts

Zhu Cheng

Abstract: Dong Zhongshu continued and developed the public thinking orientation of pre-Qin Confucianism, and constructed a public thought with "heaven", "king", "rites" and "teaching" as the core concepts. Dong Zhongshu endowed the transcendent "Heavenly Dao" with a public and universal meaning, thus laying the foundation for human public life and its order. In real public life, the monarch, as the "unitary" system of public power, not only has high authority, but also bears the greatest public responsibility, so on the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen the core position of the monarch's order, and on the other hand, it is necessary to use the will of heaven to restrain and restrict it, so as to ensure that the monarch always takes the public well-being of the people as the first priority. In order to construct a good order of public life, it is necessary to strengthen the spirit of etiquette and its normative requirements advocated by pre-Qin Confucianism, and use identity names to clarify the differences between people, so as to ensure that people have certain expectations for their own good life. In solving the problem of public disorder, the way of education takes precedence over the tools of political punishment, and public education with Confucian values as the content is the only way to popularize the spirit of heaven, the will of the king, and the rule of etiquette among the people, while respecting Confucianism, establishing schools, and promoting virtuous and virtuous people are the specific measures and suggestions used by Dong Zhongshu to implement public education. Dong Zhongshu's public thought is an important joint in the Confucian public thought, which plays a symbolic role in the in-depth understanding of China's political ideology and cultural tradition.

Keywords: publicity, Dong Zhongshu, Heavenly Dao, public education

Dong Zhongshu has attained the application and remembrance of the royal road, and the public problem of controlling chaos in the world is the core of his lifelong thinking. After the Qin, Han and Ding Revolutions, the Han Dynasty formally established a "great unification" state power, but the ideological construction did not match it. How to lay the ideological foundation for the thorough realization of "bringing order from chaos" to the end of the day has become the focus of Dong Zhongshu's thoughts. Starting from the position laid down by Confucianism in the pre-Qin period, Dong Zhongshu put forward a strategic proposal of "unification and general strategy" for the public political and social life of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty At the same time, it emphasizes the Confucian doctrine of etiquette, which ultimately boils down to public education in order to achieve the goal of governance of "rule from chaos". With the core concepts of "Heaven", "Jun", "Rites" and "Teaching", Dong Zhongshu demonstrated the continuation and development of Confucian public thought, and hoped to improve and strengthen the public governance of the Han Dynasty regime, so as to build a stable and benign public order for all the people of the world.

1. The Heaven of the Public and the Order of the Public

People cannot be separated from the group, and public life is the inevitable way of existence of people. Confucianism is well versed in the way of human public existence, and is most concerned with the order of real public life, so the problem of controlling chaos involving the community is the most important in the content of Confucianism in the past dynasties. From the founding of the Han Dynasty to the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, although the situation of all-out war since the late Warring States period ended, in fact, it did not get the ideal "good governance". Expecting "good governance" is the ideal of every dynasty, but in practice it is often not realized, Dong Zhongshu believes that "the current Han Dynasty succeeded the Qin, like a rotten wood dung wall, although you want to govern it well, you can do nothing." The reason why the Han Dynasty "wanted good governance" but could not get it was that it did not "change" the ideological foundation of the Qin Dynasty in time. In Dong Zhongshu's view, "reform" means to change government decrees and education, that is, to carry out changes on the ideological basis of state rule, and to rebuild the "five permanent ways of benevolence, friendship, etiquette, knowledge, and faith" advocated by Confucianism, so as to adapt them to the emerging dynasty of "great unification." Dong Zhongshu's ideology and the transformation of his education began with the construction of "the sign of heaven and man" and "the feeling of heaven and man".

For human survival experience, the natural existence of "heaven" is a fait accompli, which no one can deny and ignore, and how to understand the relationship between heaven and man not only reflects the intuition of human experience, but also requires the rational abstraction of human beings, and fully demonstrates the ability of human nature. In pre-Qin philosophy, "heaven" was not only a natural existence, but also often regarded as a volitional existence, believing that there was a "mandate of heaven", "heavenly dao" or "heavenly will", and it was closely related to human life. Dong Zhongshu continued the thinking of pre-Qin philosophy, and deepened the construction of the relationship between heaven and man from the two levels of experience and abstraction. For Dong Zhongshu, "heaven" is the corresponding existence external to man, but the relationship between heaven and man is not separated, but the existence of reciprocal corroboration, and this association has eternal continuity, "heaven" and "man" exist naturally intertwined, and can echo each other with "man" in the will, the so-called "heaven and man's sign, the way of ancient and modern". On the one hand, Dong Zhongshu traces the orderliness of human life to "heaven", regards "heaven" as the source of "personnel" and all things related to it, and emphasizes that "life cannot be a man, and a man is also heaven". "Heaven" is of decisive significance to the existence of human beings; "Heaven" has the highest authority, and the "king" who is in the highest position of human order must also respect heaven; "Heaven is the ancestor of all things, and all things are not born from heaven." "Heaven" is also the source of all things, giving birth to all things. Through similar expressions, Dong Zhongshu shaped the original and supreme meaning of "heaven", and clarified the origin and ruler of the order of human life. On the other hand, Dong Zhongshu uses human life and its order to show the will of heaven and the way of heaven, "seeking the small number of days is better than people". The will of "heaven" is not suspended in the air, but must be displayed above the personnel: "The talisman of heaven and earth, the vice of yin and yang, is permanently set in the body, the body is like the sky, the number is related to it, and the fate is connected to it." "The number of days of a person" is known by a person; The righteousness of kings and ministers, fathers and sons, husbands and wives, is all taken from the way of yin and yang." The way of yin and yang is the order of heaven and earth, and human beings construct the human order from the way of yin and yang changes perceived in daily life, so that the human order also corresponds to the universal order of heaven. The order of human life shows the universal "providence" and thus has a universal and public meaning. For human beings, "heaven" has the greatest sense of universal publicity, and everyone can feel the power of nature and its laws, so the construction of the relationship between heaven and man can make the differentiated human life gain a public basis. The changes of yin and yang, the four seasons, the five elements, and the rain all have their own laws, that is, the natural order, which can be perceived by people. When the rain falls, everyone benefits, and disasters occur frequently, and everyone suffers. When it comes to perceiving natural variations, people are best able to form a universal consensus. To put it simply, when the wind and rain are smooth, it means that the order of human life is in line with the way of heaven and is therefore justified, and when a disaster occurs, it means that the order of human life is not in line with the way of heaven and therefore needs to be adjusted. When the order of human life is out of order, "Heaven" will remind people in its unique way, so that people can collectively perceive that "the country will be defeated by the unrighteousness, and the heavens will send it to the disaster". When people can't and can't criticize realpolitik, they can only turn to "heaven" to warn about realpolitik, and use heaven's will to build consensus and make statements about personnel. It can be seen from this that the purpose of Dong Zhongshu's construction of "the relationship between heaven and man" is not to describe the relationship between the existence of the universe, or not to describe the laws of nature, but to expect to use the laws of nature to construct the rationality of human order, and to "push the way of heaven to clarify human beings", which is the basic premise of his theory of human order. In other words, Dong Zhongshu's description and argumentation of the relationship between heaven and man are to further show the natural order of the world, to give the Confucian ideal order to the sacred and authoritative meaning, and to lay the foundation for the construction of the ideal order of the world with a more universal and public "way of heaven".

In the Confucian discourse system, corresponding to the transcendence of the Heavenly Dao, the royal way means the ideal order of human real life. "The three outlines of the royal road can be sought from the sky. In Dong Zhongshu's view, the source of the royal road and its discipline lies in the way of heaven, and the legitimacy of the royal way also comes from the way of heaven. For human life, "heaven" and its will are public and are shared by different people, so the royal way and its discipline also have a public character and should be universally observed. Dong Zhongshu believes that the way of heaven and earth, as the common source of people and things, is also the public premise for the establishment of the order of human life...... The way of kings and ministers, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives is taken from this". In the view of traditional Confucianism, the relationship between the monarch and the minister, father and son, and husband and wife represent the basis of the order of human life, and the relationship between the monarch and the minister is based on the public life of the community, while the relationship between father and son and husband and wife not only represents the order of private life, but also represents the family relationship, the relationship between the elder and the young, and the relationship between gender in public life. Thus, the three outlines of the royal road have become the general summary of the entire social life order, and the three outlines seek from heaven, that is, the order of human life seeks from heaven. As long as the way of heaven is universally public, then the order of the Three Principles is universally public, and thus can become a common norm in people's lives. In addition, the government of the royal road is also matched with the order of the heavenly way, Dong Zhongshu pointed out: "The king is worthy of the sky, which is called his way." There are four times in the sky, and the king has four governments, and if the four governments are four, the general class is also. Because the legitimacy of the royal way comes from the way of heaven, the means of governance such as celebration, reward, punishment, and punishment implemented by the monarch and the order of life established by it also have legitimacy, and its norms must be observed by the people. From this, Dong Zhongshu argues the rationality of the royal road and the necessity for people to abide by it.

The humanistic order that Confucianism attaches importance to is presented in the normative form of "rites". Similar to the pre-Qin Confucian view that "great rites are in the same festival as heaven and earth" ("The Book of Rites and the Book of Music"), Dong Zhongshu believed that "rites" were constructed by imitating the way of heaven and earth. There are hierarchies in nature, and there are hierarchies in human life, and this hierarchical relationship is related to people's rights and obligations in life. As we all know, in pre-Qin Confucianism, "li" is the orderly relationship between people determined by natural and social factors such as blood, politics, seniority, and gender. Observance means that people have a clear understanding of their status and position, and arrange their words and deeds according to the established status, so as to fulfill the obligations required by the status and status, and also enjoy the allocation of resources and honor commensurate with the status. If everyone is able to act according to the norms of etiquette, then public and private life will achieve harmony and even achieve great harmony, which is the core concept of Confucian etiquette. Since "rites" have such an important orderly significance, people should arrange their lives according to the norms of etiquette. Needless to say, although etiquette is a norm that people should observe in community life, in reality, people often observe etiquette not because they recognize the importance of etiquette to human life, but because they will be punished for violating it. In life, "this is the case" and "it should be so" are not consistent, and Confucianism still expects people to be able to accept the education and observe the etiquette, rather than the fear of punishment, so for Confucianism, it is necessary to explain the question of why the etiquette should be observed and use it to educate people. Confucianism gives "rites" a lofty status, either the holy king makes rituals for fun, or imitates the order of rituals according to the way of heaven and earth, in short, it is to strengthen the authority, sacredness, and universality of "rites". Dong Zhongshu clearly linked "rites" with the order of heaven, believing that it was created "following heaven and earth, body yin and yang", as long as heaven and earth remain unchanged and yin and yang are not chaotic, the ritual order will have permanence and universality. Since people have felt the existence of the way of heaven and the will of heaven, they should abide by the common etiquette norms and form an orderly community of life. From the sublime and sacred nature of the Heavenly Dao, Dong Zhongshu constructed the universality of human order and etiquette norms.

The universality of the way of heaven and earth determines the inevitability of the human order, and the existence of the public way of heaven also determines the public nature of the human order. Dong Zhongshu's theory of "Heaven and Man Induction" starts from the experience and feelings that people can communicate with, and proves the correlation between the laws of heaven and the human order, and its fundamental purpose is to demonstrate the universality of the Confucian way as his belief. As Yang Guorong pointed out, "Looking at Dong Zhongshu's theory of the relationship between heaven and man, including his theory of heaven and man's induction, the humanistic concept that man is the goal and the most precious person in the world has always been consistent." The way of heaven is the theoretical premise of Dong Zhongshu's construction of human order, he uses people's public consensus to describe the sublime and sacred of the way of heaven, and puts forward a set of corresponding order concepts of heaven and man, the purpose of which is not to explore the way of heaven, but for the sake of "personnel", the way of heaven is to describe personnel, and the human order is the focus of his concern. On the question of how to "rule from chaos", Dong Zhongshu believes that the reason why "good governance" has not been achieved is that the Confucian way has not been clearly explained from the dimension of "the sympathy of heaven and man", and the Confucian way has not been displayed, applied and educated in the picture of the order of "the sympathy of heaven and man", so he tried to lay the foundation for his ideal humane order by constructing the corresponding world schema of heaven and man, and discussed the issues of public power, public norms and public education in the humane order under this framework.

2. Representation of public power and its limitations

In the Confucian discourse of public order, the order of human life is tied to the authority of heaven and the authority of heaven, and the core of human life order lies in the holy monarch and king. In the view of Confucianism, in the overall human order pattern of "monarchs, ministers, fathers, and sons", the king is the hub of public order, inheriting the mandate of heaven, upholding the people, and having the highest power in the world, which is the key to the implementation and promotion of the Confucian royal way. As the bearer of the mandate of heaven, the king occupies the most important position in public life because he has the most noble and supreme authority of practical public power, and also bears the heavy responsibility of rectifying and maintaining good order in the world. From the perspective of the historical system itself, the monarch is the key to achieving the order of "bringing order from chaos to order". Traditional Confucian public thought is inseparable from the monarch as the hub of power, and how to understand the public power possessed by the monarch and how to legitimize the use of this power has always been the key problem that Confucian public thought wants to solve. In Dong Zhongshu's thoughts, there is also a reflection on this issue.

As we all know, political power is in response to public life, and public life needs to be regulated by public political power, whether it is held by the majority or a minority, political power has a natural public nature, so it is often called "public power". Although in an autocratic society, political power is also for public affairs, and in this sense, the power of an absolute monarch is also public. In the hierarchy of public power, there is a relationship between "one" and "many". "One" is the core of public power, and "many" refers to the implementation and operation of decentralized and division of power, which means that public power should deal with all members of the community. In the traditional Confucian hierarchy of public power, "one" refers to the monarch, and "many" often refers to the division of labor and the institutions that perform their own duties, and of course, includes all the people in the world. This is especially evident in the "Spring and Autumn" ram studies, which preach "great unification". Dong Zhongshu emphasized the central position of the king in the human order with the interpretation of "one yuan" in the "Spring and Autumn Period" ramology, representing the beginning of public power. He pointed out, "The Spring and Autumn Period is the meaning of one yuan, one is the beginning of all things, and the yuan is the so-called great also." It is said that one is the element, depending on the beginning and wants the original. "Spring and Autumn" explores its origins, and starts with the noble. Therefore, those who are kings should be righteous in their hearts, and they should be righteous in their hearts, and they should be righteous in their hearts, and they should be righteous in their hearts, and they should be righteous in their hearts, and they should be righteous in all directions." The power structure here is "monarch - court - hundred officials - people - four directions (the world)", with clear hierarchies and order. The "Spring and Autumn Period" Ram Theory advocates the "one" and "yuan" in public political life, "one" means the uniqueness of the source, and "yuan" means that this "uniqueness" has the nature of a big root. The combination of "one" and "yuan" means the "great unification" of power in public and political life, and "the great unification of the Spring and Autumn Period" is the common scripture of heaven and earth, and the friendship between ancient and modern. In actual political governance, the monarch, as the supreme recipient of the mandate of heaven and the way of heaven, has become the "unitary" of public power. The monarch, the court, the hundred officials, the people, and the Quartet constitute the different levels of power and the objects of its use recognized by Dong Zhongshu, which can be said to include all levels of the entire human life community. Judging from Dong Zhongshu's exposition, the monarch's "righteousness", that is, moral restraint of self is the origin of the good operation of public power, and has the meaning of the root, although there may be problems in the operation of power at other levels, but these problems only have phased and partial damage, and once the monarch fails to "be righteous" here, then there is a problem at the source, which will bring fundamental and overall negative consequences. Obviously, Dong Zhongshu placed the monarch in the position of "unity" in order to maintain the power structure of the monarch's "great unification" and regarded the monarch as the symbol of the most concentrated and source significance of public power.

As the unitary system of public power in traditional society, the king is a symbol of cohesion and gathering of people, "the king, the people go, the king, do not lose his group, so he can make all the people go to it, and the group of the world is invincible in the world." The king is ordained by heaven, and different people can unite because of the presence of the king and overcome the difficulties of life with collective strength. Dong Zhongshu believes that on the issue of order, the way of heaven is embodied in the king, so people should "return to it with one heart", which is common sense. All the people of the world are of one heart to it, as if it were to their parents". It is precisely because the king inherits the way of heaven and gathers the hearts of the people and undertakes the public duty of connecting heaven and man, so he should carry forward his fine political qualities and use the public power he has been given, not only to unite the greatest number of people, but also to influence other vassals who use public power. Dong Zhongshu answered the question of how the monarch should deal with the relationship with the people and the ministers, and he held that "keeping morality" and "exercising power" are the two principles for the monarch to handle interpersonal relations well, and "keeping morality" is the continuation of pre-Qin Confucianism and has idealism; and "exercising power" shows that Dong Zhongshu also attaches importance to the actual operation process of power, which is realistic. The purpose of "keeping morality" is to enable the people to be attached to the people, so as not to lead to a situation in which the people are scattered and the country is in turmoil; "ruling power" is to form a prestige and enable the ministers to correctly use their public power, so that there will be no rebellion among the kings and lowly ministers. Both of them were centered on the king to establish a good public political order, with the intention of maintaining a public life in which "one reigns over many".

Once the supreme authority of the monarch in traditional societies is established, his will becomes the public observance of the members of the community. Dong Zhongshu believes that establishing the authoritative position of the monarch can enable the members of the community to have something to rely on, and provide a premise for the formation of a political situation and public order of "great unification." He proposed: "Therefore, the king of Ming looks at the underworld, listens to the silence, the heavens and the earth are covered, all the countries in the world dare not know his duties, and the person who receives the order does not show his subordinates to know it, so the same way can not be the first, the same situation can not make each other, this is also his teaching." From this point of view, there is no one who has the right to remove the king, and there is no one who can control his power, and there is no difference between the noble and the low, and he can hold all his positions, so the gentleman is cautious. The excellent monarch ("Ming Wang") carried the way of heaven, was the highest representative of public power, and used the "enlightenment of heaven" to educate the world and all the people, and realized the public order of the poor in power, the noble and the low. The holy king was able to reasonably regulate the people's desires for life, "Therefore, the saints controlled the people, so that they had desires and did not celebrate festivals, so that they could be simple and not without desires, and they had no desires, and each had enough to be satisfied, and the king was successful." Allowing the spontaneous desires of the people to swell will lead to disorderly contention, but excessive suppression of the people's desires will lead to social stagnation, and the regulation of the holy king will not let the people be selfless and desireless to ensure the progress of society, and not let the people's desires too much lead to social disputes, so that the progress and order of society are within a controllable range. It can be seen that the king is the macro-regulator of social development, and according to Dong Zhongshu, this is the embodiment of "monarchy". In short, the monarch is the core of the order of his time, to which people should be obeyed as the supreme authority, as Hegel said: "Whoever speaks the will of his time, tells it to that age and makes it come true, he is the great man of his time." What he did was the inner thing and essence of the times, and he made the times realistic. Similarly, Dong Zhongshu regarded the monarch as the representative of the will of the state and was able to turn it into reality, thereby shaping the spirit of the times and its order, and influencing the development direction of public life of the whole society.

Therefore, the king of "Spring and Autumn" is not evil, and the minister is not good. All good is to the king, and all evil is to the minister. With the help of the ram theory, Dong Zhongshu admired the authority of the monarch, and in order to reflect the high prestige of the monarch, he even attributed all the good of governance to the king, and the evil of governance to the executor. However, since the king has the most central power, he has the greatest responsibility. "The monarch, the Yuanya, the monarch, the Yuanya. In Dong Zhongshu's discourse system, "yuan" is the root of the big roots. "Jun" is in the public power system, and it is also where the big roots and big roots are. Since the king means the source of power in the public life of the world and the most fundamental bearer of the "Tao", then whether there is auspiciousness or calamity, we must look for the cause from the king. "The Yuan is the beginning, the words are right, the Tao is the king, and the king is the beginning of the man. Wang Zheng, then the vitality and smooth, when the wind and rain, the stars see, the yellow dragon down; Wang Zheng, then the sky changes, the thief spirit is seen. "As the founder of the human order, the monarch is not only responsible for the failure of the royal order, but the occurrence of disasters must be traced back to the improper royal way, which means that the king is responsible for the impropriety of the human order. It can be seen that Dong Zhongshu gave the king the highest authority on the one hand, and emphasized the king's greatest responsibility for the order of the world on the other hand. Dong Zhongshu emphasized the responsibility of the "gentleman" in public life: "The gentleman is the head of the country, the speech action, the cardinal of all things, the hair of the cardinal, the end of honor and disgrace. This means that the monarch, as the "head of the state", because he is the cardinal of public life, should be more cautious, correct his words and deeds, solicit opinions widely, treat others with an open mind, gain the trust of the people, and be aware of everything that happens in social life, only in this way can he truly assume his public responsibility. People in public life have as much power as they have, and so do their responsibilities.

As the hub of public order, the monarch is not only here to rule over the people, but also to contribute to the realization of a better life for the people. The ideal monarch is not to rule the people, but to guide the people to live an orderly life through education, "the five emperors and three kings rule the world, dare not have the heart of the monarch and the people, tithe, teach love, make loyalty, respect the elders, kiss and respect, do not take the people, so that the people do not live for three days, and the people give people enough." In Dong Zhongshu's view, although the monarch has the highest power, he should not only have the heart of the monarch and the people, and put himself above the people, but should shoulder the sense of responsibility expected by the people of the world to govern the world. In the ideal public governance, heaven and man correspond, the sky is auspicious, the people have the right time, the people live a prosperous life, and the public order is good, which has achieved the effect of real royal governance.

The monarch has the supreme authority of "one to rule more", and correspondingly, at the same time, he also bears the greatest responsibility to maintain the righteousness of the world, and must seek the public welfare of the people of the world. In order to better exist as an authority, and in order to better assume public responsibility, the power of the monarch must also be restrained. As mentioned earlier, the way of heaven is the source and basis of the supremacy of the monarch, so the power that binds the monarch must also start from the "heavens". Dong Zhongshu used the construction of the celestial and human induction system to lay the foundation for the public power of the monarch and the public order of social life, and at the same time used this celestial and human system to limit the monarch's power. As Professor Gan Chunsong pointed out, "Dong Zhongshu's line of thought is that although heaven provides the basis for the order of respect and inferiority, by elevating the status of heaven, it also sets a precondition for the monarch's governance - following the way of heaven." How to restrain the power of the monarch? Dong Zhongshu believes that the power of the king is controlled by the way of heaven, and "the husband and the king cannot be ignorant of the heavens." The king must not only know the heavens, but also "take the heavens as his father" and obey the will of heaven. Therefore, those who are called the Son of Heaven should regard the sky as a father, and the heavens should be filial piety." For Confucianism, "filial piety" means obedience to the will, and thus, "Shitian" means to accept the will of "Heavenly Dao". Dong Zhongshu proposed, "The law of "Spring and Autumn" is to follow the king with people and follow the sky", "Qu the people and stretch the king, bend the king and stretch the sky, and the righteousness of "Spring and Autumn" is also". The people obeyed the king's will, and the king obeyed the will of heaven. "Qu Jun Shen Jun" is to form the cohesion of public life and establish personality authority to maintain the order of life, while "Qu Jun Shen Tian" is to limit the power of the monarch and construct a transcendent force above the monarch to restrain the monarch. In the history of Confucianism, Dong Zhongshu's discussion of the limited power of the monarchy is similar to Mencius's denial of "Yao Yitianxia and Shun". Mencius pointed out that the change of the position of the Son of Heaven is not a succession relationship between two individuals, but a combination of heaven's will and public opinion. In other words, power is public and should be determined by public will, not by private individuals...... Heaven and man, so it is said: The Son of Heaven cannot use the world and people" ("Mencius, Wan Zhang"). Mencius believed that the transmission of power is related to the will of heaven, but the will of heaven is manifested in the will of the people, the so-called "heaven listens to the people, and heaven sees the people as the people" ("Shangshu Tai Oath"), so in a certain sense, it is the public will of the people, not the private will of the monarch, that determines the transmission and use of public power. On the question of the public power that binds the monarch, Mencius confuses the will of heaven with the will of the people, replacing the private with the public. Dong Zhongshu also hopes to restrain the power of the monarch, but he expresses the will of heaven with the calamity of heaven and auspiciousness, and uses this to determine whether the monarch promotes the royal road and whether the people have been educated by the royal road. In this way, even if the appropriateness of public politics is directly judged by disasters and auspiciousness, it does not depart from the people's lives and their will, and public opinion also plays a certain role in restraining the monarchy.

In Dong Zhongshu's thought, the monarch concentrates the will of public power given by "heaven", which is the source of human order, which can unite people's hearts and maintain the smooth operation of public power. Focusing on the monarch as the center of public power can create a political situation of "great unification" and realize the order of public life in which "one reigns over many". At the same time, the monarch bears the greatest public responsibility for human life, and is concerned with the well-being of the people's life, so it is necessary to strengthen the public nature of the monarch's power, and the monarch as an individual must be restrained by public will. It is the way of heaven that can restrain the monarch's power, and heaven judges the legitimacy of the monarch and his actions by auspiciousness and calamity, and corrects the mistakes of the monarch in the process of using public power. It should be said that based on the political reality in history, Dong Zhongshu had to maintain the political authority of the monarch's "great unification", but based on the ideal of Confucian public thought, in order to ensure that the purpose of the monarch's power is to protect and develop the people's lives, he also gave the Heavenly Dao an authority higher than that of the monarch, so that there is a "Heavenly Dao" above the public power, so as to ensure the public nature of the power.

3. Strengthening public norms

In the community of human life, the reason why stable and good public life and its necessary order can be maintained lies in the existence of a certain certain certain public norm that all members of the community can recognize or abide by. Pre-Qin Confucianism had a deep understanding of this, and established a set of normative systems centered on the "ritual system" to explain and strengthen. For Dong Zhongshu, whether it is to construct a humanistic order or maintain the authority of the monarch, it is inseparable from the strengthening of realistic public norms. Taking the "Heavenly Dao" and "Heavenly Will" as references, Dong Zhongshu tried to deduce the universal norms of public life for the present and future generations through the historical narrative of the Spring and Autumn Period and its interpretation, and strengthened the Confucian etiquette and public order.

In Chinese diction, the words "chaos" and "zhi" are relatively speaking, "zhi" means a definite order under established norms, and "chaos" means the failure of norms and the collapse of order. Dong Zhongshu believes that the source of chaos lies in the existence of differences in human life, and if differences are allowed to spread and grow, order will become chaotic. He proposed, "All the sources of chaos are suspicious and subtle, and gradually grow into a little bigger." It is an objective reality that there are differences in people's lives, and if they are allowed to expand unchecked, then there may be disorderly competition between all parties to satisfy their own desires. Dong Zhongshu believes that if people's different positions in life are not clarified, they will inevitably rob each other and chaos will occur. Since we have realized that the source of all kinds of chaos lies in differences, how can we prevent this disorderly state of chaos? Dong Zhongshu proposed, "The sage should not be suspicious of those who are suspicious, those who are subtle, and those who are not subtle, and those who are not subtle, should not be suspicious, and should guard against fleas." The way of the sage, the embankment and the like, is called the degree system, called the etiquette, so the noble and the lowly have the same, the clothes are systematic, the court has a position, and the township party is orderly, then the people have concessions and dare not fight, so one is also". In order to prevent human differences from leading to the division and chaos of the community, the sages, who are the guides of the human order, build a "dike" for the desires of human nature, and this "dike" is the norms of life, that is, institutions and etiquette. System and etiquette means that the differences between people are determined through clear norms, the differences are fixed within the scope of common recognition and acceptance, and the rights and obligations are arranged according to the differences in status and status in daily life, and everyone in the community can know their own status and thus know their rights and obligations, and everyone has clear and good expectations for their own life development. Everyone has good expectations about their life prospects, which is necessary for the formation of an ideal social order. In the "Book of Rites", it is said: "Let the old have an end, the strong have a use, the young have a growth, the widowed, the lonely, the lonely, the disabled, all have support, men have a share, and women have a home." People reach a consensus on differences, and everyone can construct good life expectations, so that an orderly community can be formed, and the differences in life are regulated by systems and etiquette to achieve the consistency of order. Therefore, the sage's rule is also due to the nature of heaven and earth, and the benefit of the perceptual knowledge, so as to establish a system of respect and inferiority, and to equal the difference between the noble and the lowly. Like all people who have an understanding of civilized order, Dong Zhongshu believes that the quality of norms and system construction has a great bearing on the problem of controlling chaos in public life, and is the premise of peace in the world. The way of peace means good public order, means that the world can be governed, forming a situation of "heroes and handsome men do not look at each other, so governing the world is like the palm of your hand".

Another way of saying that the world is governed is "to peace", that is, to build a long-term stable public order, which is the "great cause" of the monarch to imitate the three kings. In addition to following the example of heaven and constructing a political order of "great unification" of the monarchy, Dong Zhongshu also placed special emphasis on "profoundly examining the name." "The end of ruling the world is to judge the great, and the end of the great is to examine the name. Dong Zhongshu believes that the first thing in the governance of the world is to determine the "name", and "the end of the country is the right name". The so-called determination of "name", for different people, is to first clarify one's own identity, and link one's identity with the etiquette norms of words and deeds, which is an extension of Confucius's idea of "correct name". "The famous, so other things are also, the relatives are heavy, the sparse are light, the venerable is human, the humble is quality, the near is detailed, the far is omitted, the words are not hidden, the clear feelings are not left behind, the people's hearts are not rebellious, the ancient and modern are coherent and not chaotic, and the meaning of the name is also. For people, the problem of "name" is only meaningful in the interaction between people, and there is no real human relationship between kings and ministers, fathers and sons, and there will be no names of kings and ministers, fathers and sons, and there will be no ethical norms such as kings and ministers, fathers and sons. The determination and use of different names in human life means that people should arrange and restrain their words and deeds according to their own position in public and private interactions, so that a deterministic order can be formed and maintained, otherwise it is a loss of human order, that is, the chaos of social life.

The poor order determined according to the identity name is the fundamental spirit of Confucian "etiquette", and "keeping etiquette" is the premise of good order. "Good gifts" are observance of public norms, and only when people obey norms can they be called "good". Similar to Xunzi's discussion on the origin of "rites", Dong Zhongshu believes that it is normal for people to have desires, but the problem is that desires should be controlled under reasonable norms, and the etiquette system is to control desires within a reasonable range...... It is advisable to correct the law, and not to go up and down, in case of desire." As a public norm in human life, the law and etiquette are produced by controlling people's desires and preventing chaos. Husband, the body and the anti-chaos also". Food, food, men and women are the basic desires of human beings, but if these desires are not controlled by "etiquette", they will become chaotic and public life will become disorderly. Therefore, Dong Zhongshu emphasized, "Therefore, the gentleman is rude and does not speak, and is rude and does not move." Through the strengthening of etiquette norms, Dong Zhongshu adheres to the position of Confucian etiquette, and Dong Zhongshu's construction of public norms is related to his interpretation of the Spring and Autumn Period and his belief in the "righteousness of the Spring and Autumn Period".

Dong Zhongshu pointed out that "Spring and Autumn" respects courtesy and trust, faith is important to the ground, and courtesy is respectful to the body." Taking faith and propriety as the criterion for judging, Dong Zhongshu made an analysis of the cases of chaos control in history, and showed the position of commending "respecting propriety" and criticizing people and things that "violate propriety". The law of the world is the etiquette law that the people of the world abide by publicly, which is the "Spring and Autumn Righteousness" in Dong Zhongshu's mind. As far as etiquette norms are concerned, "Spring and Autumn Righteousness" also means "the first king of the law", and "Spring and Autumn" is also good for the world, good at retro, ridiculous, and wants to be the first king of the law". In the process of public governance, the spirit of etiquette is unchanged, and what changes is only the external form of the etiquette system, and the specific system and etiquette change with the times. "Now the so-called new king will change the system, not change his way, not change his reason, under the command of the sky, change the surname to change the king, not the previous king but the king. If one repairs the old karma because of the previous system, and does not change anything, it is no different from the previous king and the king...... If the outline, ethics, reasoning, politics, education, customs, and literary meaning are all the same, why should they be changed? Therefore, the king has the name of reforming, and there is no easy way. What remains unchanged is the spirit of order in human life, which is the "principle of human ethics" that cannot be changed, and what is changeable is the specific system of life and specific norms, which can change with the changes of the times. In this regard, the new monarchs of the past dynasties "resided, changed titles, corrected Shuo, and changed colors" did not change the order and normative spirit of the ceremonial system, but only a change in the external form.

From the above, it can be seen that Dong Zhongshu linked the problem of public chaos control with whether the norms of etiquette and governance were observed, and believed that the reason for the "chaos" was that people magnified the differences in human life, indulged people's desires without normative education, and did not use norms to control the differences in a stable and orderly state, which led to the struggle between people. In order to solve this problem, Dong Zhongshu carried forward the spirit of Confucian etiquette, attached importance to the etiquette norms in human life, and hoped to fix the differences between people with identity names, and match them with specific etiquette norms, so as to ensure that people have a clear understanding of their rights and obligations. Dong Zhongshu continuously strengthened various specific norms from the interpretation of the Spring and Autumn Period, showing a distinct sense of public norms, which is the strengthening of pre-Qin Confucian etiquette and the Confucian awareness of public norms.

Fourth, the completion of public education and ideology

As a loyal inheritor of pre-Qin Confucianism, Dong Zhongshu was concerned about the order of life in the present world, and the focus of his thinking was on the problem of public chaos. In order to solve the problem of chaos, Dong Zhongshu used the way of heaven to demonstrate the sacredness and authority of the Confucian way of ethics, and also demonstrated the necessity of the monarch to construct a "great unification" order with "one imperial many", and also paid attention to maintaining the order of public life from the dimension of etiquette and norms. Above, Dong Zhongshu from the "heaven", "king" and "etiquette" three dimensions of thinking about the problem of public chaos, how to make the spirit of heaven, the will of the monarch, etiquette and other general acceptance of the general public, is the necessary meaning of public governance to be realized, Dong Zhongshu believes that the complete solution to the problem of public chaos lies in the universal implementation of Confucian education. In the famous "Three Strategies of Heaven and Man", Dong Zhongshu's discussion of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is to emphasize the importance of public education for the people and how to promote the signs of heaven and man, the way of ancient and modern times, and the order of etiquette and righteousness in people's lives through public education.

Dong Zhongshu believes that education is indispensable to people's lives. In terms of the theory of human nature, Dong Zhongshu believes that human nature is simple, and will not naturally fulfill the way of benevolence and righteousness, and only education can achieve the "adult state" mentioned in Confucianism, and "simplicity is sex, and sex cannot be achieved without education". Man's natural assets are the beginning of human nature, and in man's natural assets, there is both a greedy side and a benevolent side. Regarding human nature, Dong Zhongshu has a vivid analogy, the goodness of people is like "rice", and human nature is like a seedling. In this process of transformation from "he" to "rice", that is, in the process of growing up from simple nature to benevolent and righteous people, education plays a key role. Good should be taught, improper and sexual". In other words, the reason why people do good is the work of education, and the reason why they do not do good is because of human nature. Dong Zhongshu also once argued that human nature is like the raw materials of clay and gold, and what kind of utensils it becomes depends on how it is cultivated. The kind of people who members of the community might become also depended on what kind of education the king promotes. Broadly speaking, starting from the theory of human nature, Dong Zhongshu demonstrated the necessity of "education" to "become good" for "adults". Only when simplicity is cultivated through the royal way of the day after tomorrow will people embark on the path of benevolence and righteousness and adapt to an orderly public life.

Dong Zhongshu not only emphasized the importance of education from the perspective of human nature, but also further explained from the dimension of public order that the issue of education is related to the root of chaos, and this is also the core theme of his education thought: that is, education is ultimately for public governance. "Whoever does not stand up for edification, and all the people are not righteous. "The key to the way of governance is to educate the people with benevolence, righteousness, etiquette and music, so that people can accept the way of benevolence and righteousness, so as to obtain a peaceful public order." Therefore, the holy king is gone, and the descendants are hundreds of years old for a long time, which is the work of etiquette and education." Dong Zhongshu appealed to history to demonstrate the importance of education to public order, and believed that the reason why there was a long period of "governing the world" in history was because of the implementation of etiquette and music. He pointed out, "It is the old religion that is established and the evil is stopped...... The king of the ancients knew this, so he ruled the world in the south, and he did not take education as his main task." Specifically, in history, Yao Shun "indoctrination is great, the world is harmonious, all the people are peaceful, benevolent and friendly, each has its own place, the action should be courteous, and the middle way is calm", and the Zhou Dynasty "restored and revered the education." The indoctrination has been understood, the customs have been established, and the children and grandchildren will follow it, and they will not be defeated at the age of five or six hundred years." In Dong Zhongshu's view, the ideal rule of three generations is because of the implementation of public education, which has formed good customs and stable order. Judging from historical experience, how to educate the people has a bearing on whether or not the world can achieve long-term peace and stability.

In terms of the strategies and approaches of public governance, parallel to the way of indoctrination are often the tools of political punishment. The regime requires people to obey the established will and norms, and because people are afraid of violence, the political punishment apparatus can of course maintain public order within a certain range. However, in Dong Zhongshu's view, indoctrination is the foundation of public governance, and political and criminal violence is the end of public governance. "Religion, the foundation of government, prison, the end of government, its affairs are exotic, its use is also one, it must be in line with each other, so the gentleman is also important. In other words, good public governance should give priority to the way of education, "The way of the saint cannot be governed by power alone, but must be edified...... It can be seen that although Dong Zhongshu also attaches importance to the necessity of "mighty" politics for real public governance, and he also understands that punishment is needed in real life to prevent the chaos caused by people's indulgent desires, compared with the fundamental role of moral education, the tools of political punishment are obviously in a secondary position and cannot be used alone. Dong Zhongshu's way of education is mainly based on the Confucian principle of benevolence, righteousness and filial piety, hoping to achieve public governance through the education of benevolence, righteousness and filial piety. "The rule of "Spring and Autumn" is between people and me, so those who govern people and me are benevolent and righteous, and those who are benevolent and righteous are righteous to me. The Confucian principle of benevolence and righteousness is the background color of Dong Zhongshu's public thought, and he hopes to use benevolence and righteousness to deal with the relationship between people and himself in public life, so it is necessary to extend the principle of benevolence and righteousness to the people. Dong Zhongshu believes that the chaotic order in governance is manifested in the emergence of disasters, and this is the result of "abolishing morality and religion and letting it be punished" in political life. The torturer shall not rule the world." Dong Zhongshu raised "moral education" to the height of "heavenly will", so that "moral education" has the basis of heaven. At the same time, he also believes that the reason why morality cannot be promoted is precisely because of the obstruction of tyrannical politics in reality. The implication is that if we want to promote morality and religion that is in line with the way of heaven, we must change our course and resolutely abandon abusive government. Confucius once said: "The Tao is governed by government, and the people are exempted from shame; Dong Zhongshu followed Confucius's idea of public governance, and strengthened the role of education in the formation and maintenance of good public order by comparing the teaching of virtue and propriety with the tools of political punishment.

Since indoctrination is so important to public governance in Dong Zhongshu's public thought, how should indoctrination be promoted or carried out among the public? The officials who established the school, and the state and county raised Mao materials and filial piety, all of which were issued by Zhong Shu. From the perspective of public thought, Dong Zhongshu had three major achievements in his life, namely, the so-called "overthrowing a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism", establishing Taixue, and promoting filial piety and honesty, all of which are related to how to implement the public policy of education. Of course, what Dong Zhongshu did was to make suggestions to the monarch, not to directly implement policies. In order to achieve the order of public life by "bringing order from chaos to order," Dong Zhongshu put forward a policy proposal centered on "education."

The first is to unify thinking with Confucianism. In public life, indoctrination is the means by which public power realizes its own order goals and will to rule, and different regimes may use indoctrination to achieve their political intentions. Therefore, when the public power realizes that the way of indoctrination takes precedence over the tools of political punishment, the question of "what to educate" becomes the most important question. Dong Zhongshu believes that in line with the order of public life of "great unification," the content of public education must be unified, otherwise it will cause new chaos. According to Dong Zhongshu's assumption, if there is no unity of thought, there is no unity of action. How to unify thinking? Dong Zhongshu clearly expressed his Confucian stance: "Those who are not in the six arts of Confucius's sorcerers are all out of their own way, and they should not be allowed to advance at the same time." As mentioned earlier, Dong Zhongshu argues that the Confucian way of ethics is in line with the way of heaven and has universal applicability, so it is in line with the will of heaven to promote education with the way of Confucianism. In this way, it is the way of heaven to unify the thinking with the Confucian way, then the public education can be achieved, "the heretical doctrine can be extinguished, and then the discipline can be unified and the law can be understood, and the people know what to follow." When the Confucian way is universally accepted, the heresies that lead to chaos will naturally disappear, discipline and etiquette will be uniform, the people will have clear expectations of their own lives, and stable and good public order will be just around the corner. In promoting the unity of society, Dong Zhongshu uses the Confucian way to carry out unified education, which is of positive significance, but for the suitability of the members of the community, the uniformity of ideology is lacking. Of course, for Dong Zhongshu, who pursues deterministic public governance, the self-suitability of the individual may not be within the scope of his consideration.

The second is the construction of schools. The school is the main place for centralized and specialized education within the community, carrying the public function of knowledge, ideology and cultural inheritance, not only cultivating talents but also inheriting civilization. In schools, "Taixue" is the highest institution specializing in education, and Dong Zhongshu believes that "Tai Scholar is the place of the Magi, and the origin of education." "Taixue" symbolizes the orientation of the national ideology and its educational content, so it is the institution that people in the world are most concerned about, and it is also the "original source of education". In order to consolidate the monopoly of the Confucian religion of benevolence and righteousness, Dong Zhongshu emphasized the need to establish schools at different levels to pass on it, and the specific measures were that the central government built Taixue and the local government built the Xuan order, forming a set of systematic specialized educational institutions, inheriting the Confucian classics, and leading public life by cultivating talents and disseminating Confucian values. Dong Zhongshu proposed, "Establish a university to teach the country, set up an order to transform it into a city, gradually let the people be benevolent, the people of Mo are friendly, and the people are courteous, so the punishment is very light and those who do not commit it are forbidden, and the customs are beautiful in the practice of education." From the imperial court to the localities, schools at different levels should be built to promote indoctrination, and the content of indoctrination is the Confucian way of benevolence and righteousness. Confucianism has been in place since ancient times, and Confucianism expects to promote Confucian values in public educational institutions, and hopes to use public power to promote Confucian values, just as Mencius expected: "The teaching of the order of the Confucianism is to declare the righteousness of filial piety." In the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu's policy and suggestions continued the above-mentioned ideals of pre-Qin Confucianism, and were realized to a certain extent with the help of political power, that is, the implementation of Confucian education through the establishment and leadership of public educational institutions established by the government.

The third is to carry out talent reserves. In the Confucian education system, virtuous people are the most guiding and exemplary, and Confucianism constantly strengthens the ideal personality of sages and gentlemen, with the purpose of setting a benchmark for personality, hoping to lead the people with the fine character of sages and gentlemen. At the same time, the monarch should also make good use of talented officials to make government decrees smooth and politically clear. Therefore, in public life, virtuous people can not only become a benchmark for the people to follow, but also directly participate in public governance activities and contribute their talents to "peace and tranquility". Dong Zhongshu believes that although the Han Dynasty has not been established for a long time, there have been obvious problems in the use of talented officials. Dong Zhongshu once criticized the improper employment of people at that time: "Today's officials have died and taught them a lesson, or they do not accept the law of the Lord, tyrannize the people, become traitors, be poor and lonely, suffer and derelict their duties, and do not even meet Your Majesty's wishes." It is based on the error of yin and yang, the atmosphere is congested, the masses are widowed, the people are not helped, and the officials are unknown, so that this is also the case. Dong Zhongshu pointed the blame for the failure of education and the resentment of the people at that time to the officials, believing that it was the improper employment of people that led to the poor royal road, and the officials were responsible for not forming a good order. Under the circumstances at that time, although Dong Zhongshu could not directly criticize the monarch, he also tactfully advised the monarch, because the power to employ people and the orientation of the use of talents lies with the supreme ruler himself. It is precisely because of this that Dong Zhongshu hopes that the monarch and the imperial court will pay attention to the cultivation of talents, "The minister wishes that His Majesty will prosper Taixue, put the Master in place, and raise the people of the world. Based on this understanding, Dong Zhongshu advocated that the state should extensively recruit talents, not only to provide a talent reserve for public governance, but also to guide and educate the people by setting talent benchmarks. This proposition, which is known as the "virtuous and upright" policy, expects the state to be able to seek merit at all levels, and of course, whether it is "virtuous and upright" depends on whether they truly respect Confucian values. Dong Zhongshu believes that "if the sages are all over the world, the prosperity of the three kings will be easy, and the name of Yao Shun can be reached." Virtuous and upright people are not only good officials engaged in public governance, but also the standard for the state to select officials, so that all the people of the world will take them as models, and this will achieve the effect of public education. The implementation of the national policy of "promoting virtue and integrity" means completely changing the Legalist practice of "taking officials as teachers" and turning to people who study Confucian classics or abide by Confucian moral norms as exemplary examples for people to follow in public life. The reserve and use of "virtuous and upright" people as talents in the field of national public life means that those who have the ability to handle public affairs must first possess private morality that conforms to the standards of Confucian values, which has had a far-reaching impact on traditional Chinese political life after the Han Dynasty.

From the elucidate of the way of heaven to the strengthening of the throne, from the emphasis on etiquette to the implementation of education, Dong Zhongshu's public thought has been systematized. So far, Dong Zhongshu has completed the construction of Confucian ideology and its institutional support, that is, formed a political and religious system with Confucianism and ethics as the core: the Confucian way of ethics in line with the way of heaven is the leading way to unify the thought, and the way of education is given priority over the tools of political punishment to carry out public governance, and at the same time, the system of establishing schools and recommending talents should be used to ensure that the guiding role of Confucianism can be played and continued.

Summary

To a certain extent, he consolidated the universal foundation of Confucian public thought, strengthened the position of the monarch as the legitimate representative of public power, carried forward and developed the application of the Confucian spirit of etiquette in public life, promoted Confucianism to become a dogma of public education, advocated the "great unification" of power and ideology in public life, and to a certain extent promoted the Confucian theoretical vision to become a public system of the "great unification" dynasty. Dong Zhongshu elevated the humanistic way established by pre-Qin Confucianism to the level of heavenly and heavenly will, and strengthened the universal significance of Confucianism by constructing a set of matching five-element cosmology for human public life. In Dong Zhongshu's view, "heaven" is a supernatural personified existence, "those who are with heaven will be governed, and those who are different from heaven will be in chaos". Heaven is similar to human beings, and it establishes a universal public way for human life through the method of "heaven and man feeling each other". Therefore, on the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen its core position of the "great unification" order, and on the other hand, it is necessary to restrain and restrict it with the will of heaven and public opinion, so as to ensure that the monarch always takes the public well-being of the people as the first priority. "Etiquette" is the concentrated embodiment of the norms of human life, and the practical differences between people must be determined in the way of etiquette norms, so as to ensure that people determine their own identity and status, so as to better have clear expectations of life, and then arrange life and build good public order within the etiquette norms. From the perspective of human nature, people need to be educated in order to achieve public personality, in the dimension of achieving public personality and maintaining public order, the teaching of morality and propriety should be more effective than the tools of political punishment, therefore, the public power represented by the monarch should effectively implement the Confucian way of education through unifying thoughts, establishing schools, and commending sages. In summary, Dong Zhongshu's public thought has formed a system through the four core concepts of "heaven", "king", "rite" and "teaching", which is not only the inheritance and strengthening of the pre-Qin Confucian public thought, but also plays a leading role in the overall influence of Confucian thought and culture in public life in later generations, thus becoming a joint point for understanding China's political ideology and cultural tradition after the Han Dynasty. Of course, Dong Zhongshu's way of thinking of "feeling the relationship between heaven and man" has a mystic tendency, and the strengthening of the authority of the monarchy and the coercive implementation of the ideology have also brought negative historical impacts, which is an important link in the process of the absolutization of public power and the ideological simplification of public life in traditional Chinese society.

Source: Ethics Research, Issue 6, 2023. This reprint is only for academic exchanges, not for other purposes, if there is any infringement, please contact, thank you very much!

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