Chapter 17 The Philosopher Who Theorized the Han Empire Dong Zhongshu
Dong Zhongshu, according to the current regional division, is a native of Hengshui, Hebei Province, born in Guangchuan (Jingxian County, Guangchuan Dadong Guzhuang Village). He is a scholar and the author of "Spring and Autumn Dew", "Spring and Autumn Decisive Matters" (also known as "Spring and Autumn Prison Break"), "Shi Bu Yu Fu" and so on.
His most well-known achievement is to put forward the theory of "heaven and man induction" and "great unification", and further said that "all those who are not in the science of the six arts and the art of Confucius are all in the same way, do not make them go together", "overthrow the hundred schools of thought, and respect Confucianism alone", and was a philosopher who theorized the Han Empire.
How did Dong Zhongshu integrate the previous schools of thought in the Han Dynasty? He mainly learned the lessons of the Qin Dynasty and changed them step by step, such as the imperial examination, which had a prototype in Dong Zhongshu's time, but the mainstream was still the inspection (recommendation system). Later, the Tang Dynasty began on a large scale. The imperial examination and the inspection examination are constantly rising alternately.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty issued an edict to solicit strategies for governing the country, and after the rule of Huang Lao in the early Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had to relocate the rich and fight against the powerful. Dong Zhongshu wrote "Countermeasures for Promoting Virtue", advocating that the people should be educated, and meritocracy is the case.
Dong Zhongshu has a good routine of writing articles and metaphysics. For example, the numbers in the laws of nature.
As he propagated, the king has four politics (celebration, reward, punishment, and punishment), and the heavens have four seasons; benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith are combined with the five elements.
Dong Zhongshu revised Zou Yan's explanation of the Five Virtues Doctrine and changed the dynasty. To a certain extent, Dong Zhongshu has the same thing as today's astrolabe readers.
Dong Zhongshu learned the lesson of the Qin Dynasty when he burned books and pit Confucianism, and unified his ideas to be much more positive and gentle (the emphasis is on positive), not to ban other ideas (so as not to create a vacuum of thought), but to choose one of the hundred (Confucianism) to give the status of the state religion. This is better than sparse, using the imperial examination as a reason, hoping that those who become officials will learn Confucianism, and Confucianism does have good points. This way of promotion has far-reaching significance, and the distinctive characteristics of Chinese civilization have been formed, and the land and population are divided and merged, but the spirit is not dispersed.
Just like farming, don't let you plant blindly, don't let you not plant, but plant hybrid rice, over time, you all like hybrid rice, and hybrid rice has become your community of interests and feelings.
Dong Zhongshu successively served as the king of Jiangdu Yi and Liu Feiguo for ten years. In the fourth year of Yuan Shuo (125 BC), he served as the prime minister of Liu Duan, the king of Jiaoxi. Four years later, he resigned and returned to his hometown, writing books behind closed doors. Whenever there was a major event in the imperial court, envoys and court officials were still sent to inquire.
Dong Zhongshu went through three dynasties in his life, spent the heyday of the Western Han Dynasty, and died of illness in 104 BC at the age of 75. After his death, he was favored by Emperor Wu and was buried in the Xiama Mausoleum in Chang'an (Dong Zhongshu's tomb, the people who have dismounted from the horse, so it is called the Xiama Mausoleum, and the later language is falsely known as the shrimp toad tomb). Now in his hometown in Hengshui, he has also built Dong Zi Xue Palace and Dong Zi's former residence, where you can go sightseeing and understand history.