【Reading Historical Notes】
Author: Xu Ying (Professor, School of History and Culture, Henan University, Editor of the Editorial Department of Historical Monthly)
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the old social order was broken, and the new social order had not yet been established. The changes of the times in which the old and the new alternate have inspired a number of classic theories on the rule of criminal ethics. In the face of the rapidly turbulent social reality, the Taoists, who were known for their "metaphysics", also put forward their own theory of governing the country by criminal virtue: a kind of thinking that relies on the way of heaven and transcends the opposition of Confucianism and law. This kind of idea of combining criminal virtue derived from the way of heaven is elaborated and discussed in detail in the representative literature of Huang Lao Taoism, Huang Lao Silk Book.
"Huang Lao Silk Book" refers to the four ancient books in front of the second volume of the silk book "Lao Tzu" unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb: "The Scriptures", "The Sixteen Classics", "Title" and "Daoyuan", which are known as the "Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor" in the academic circles. The "Taoists" in "Historical Records: On the Essence of the Six Schools" that "take nothingness as the foundation and follow the principle as the use" are mostly in terms of Huang Lao Taoism. The "Huang" of "Huang Lao" refers to the Yellow Emperor, and the "Lao" refers to Lao Tzu. Based on the legend of the Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu's thoughts, this school of Taoism is compatible with the learning of a hundred schools of thought in response to the requirements of the times, and expounds a statecraft strategy that combines the law and the Tao. Therefore, the beginning of the silk book is cloud: "Tao Shengfa." (The Scriptures, the Tao)
Following Lao Tzu's ideological vein of "man is the law of the earth, the earth is the law of the sky, the heaven is the law of the Tao, and the Tao is the law of nature", on the one hand, the "Tao of Life" of the Silk Book implements the highest ontological Tao of Lao Tzu at the level of realpolitik, and the nameless, intangible, and unfathomable props are the various legal systems of human society; on the other hand, it also raises the legal system of human society to the level of cosmology, and has the supreme ultimate basis of the Tao. Therefore, as the specific content of the law, criminal virtue also has the dual connotation of heaven and personnel in the silk book.
In the "Views" chapter of the "Sixteen Classics", the Yellow Emperor started from the creation of heaven and earth and all things, and extended the guidelines that should be followed in governing the country: "Spring and summer are virtues, and autumn and winter are punishments." Virtue first, then punishment to maintain health. Here, "spring and summer are virtues, autumn and winter are punishments" first refers to the role of heaven and the laws of movement. In spring and summer, the warmth of heaven and earth makes all things sprout and grow, and this kind of natural growth and enrichment of all things is called "virtue" in the silk book; in autumn and winter, the day by day the cold makes all things decline and wither, and this kind of natural derogation and killing of all things is called "punishment" in the silk book. At the level of the Heavenly Dao, criminal virtue refers to the profit and loss of life and death in heaven. In this regard, the silk book also sometimes directly calls it "heavenly punishment" and "heavenly virtue". Secondly, the natural laws shown by the way of heaven provide a basis and model for the realpolitik of human society, at the level of personnel, criminal virtue refers to the reward and punishment system of human society formulated by the monarch in accordance with the natural law of life and death in the four seasons. This kind of reward and punishment system used to educate the people under the way of heaven is also a kind of "virtue before punishment" policy, that is, the monarch governs the country with virtue in spring and summer, and punishment in autumn and winter as the basic principle, "youth should grow, and shun su autumn to kill and punish" ("Zhuangzi Tianyun" Cheng Xuanyingshu). The natural world is harmonious, stable and orderly under the action of the two forces of punishment and virtue, and all things are also endlessly growing and extending between the gains and losses of criminal virtue year after year. Huang Lao Boshu believes that if the monarch can imitate the force of nature to exercise his ruling power, take the law and reproduce the life and death gains and losses of the heavenly way and punishment, one is a reward for the people, and the other is a prison sentence, he will have a bumper harvest, the people will prosper, the monarch and the ministers will be harmonious, and the country will be rich and strong, and he will win a decisive victory in the war of annexation and rebuild the collapsed social order.
Unlike Lao Tzu and other primitive Taoists who focused on the "invisible", Huang Lao Taoism in the tide of the Warring States period not only admired the way of heaven, but also paid attention to personnel, and was committed to the establishment of the law of form and name, so his theory was more practical. As far as the four seasons of punishment and morality are concerned, combined with the relevant records of "Lizheng", "Young Officials" and "Seven Ministers and Seven Lords" in the "Guanzi", the preferential policies implemented in the spring and summer mainly include: assessing titles, rewarding officials and lords, reducing harsh and miscellaneous political affairs, controlling the collection of taxes, dredging rivers, encouraging men and women to marry, not building large buildings, not digging mountains, not shooting birds and beasts, etc. In short, it is to follow the season of birth and nourishment of the Lord of nature, take advantage of the vitality of spring and summer, and help all people to produce. In the autumn and winter, they organized the people to conduct military training, reviewed and assessed the crimes, and carried out such things as crimes, sentences, and executions, that is, they followed the autumn and winter to rein in the executions and martial arts, and admonished the subjects to obey orders. In addition, for the newly established country, the Silk Book also formulated a set of "seven-year government" that lasted longer than the four seasons of punishment and morality: "One year to follow its customs, two years to use its virtue, three years to the people to gain, four years to issue orders, [five years to punish the right, six years to respect] the people, seven years to levy." In the first three years of the "Seven Years of Government", the monarch applied virtue: obeying the folk customs, appointing sages, opening up the mountains, and reducing taxes, so as to increase the people's income, develop production, enhance national strength, and win the hearts and minds of the people; After six years of nurturing and admonishing "morality before punishment", the people will follow the order and compete to contribute to the country.
It is not difficult to see from this that the rule of punishment and virtue of Huang Lao Taoism is different from that of Confucianism and Confucianism, although it is based on the flexibility and elasticity of "bending into" all things ("Sutra and Six Points"), and according to the characteristics of some things themselves, there is a tilt in literature and morality, such as "three times of success, one time of punishment" ("Sutra and Treatise"), etc., but on the whole, it is a doctrine of both punishment and virtue. At the same time, the silk book is not a dualistic relationship between punishment and morality, but interdependence, "Sixteen Classics: Surname Dispute" said: "Emperor Tiande, non-punishment is not good; Criminal virtue is mutually supportive, and adversity is like success. ”
The Silk Book's "mutual support of criminal and moral relations" is obviously rooted in Lao Tzu's theory of the unity of contradictions and opposites, that is, the two sides of contradictions and opposites are interdependent and transform each other under certain conditions. Although "virtue begins in spring and grows in summer." The punishment begins in autumn and flows in winter" ("Pipe: Four Hours"), but the deeper law of the operation of the Heavenly Dao is actually "Win Yin Bude...... "Sixteen Classics and Views"): When the slaughtering spirit of the harsh winter is in full swing, the power of virtue has quietly sprouted and slowly grown; when the power of virtue gradually accumulates to the deep spring like the sea, the blessing of long-term nourishment will be widely spread between heaven and earth, so that all things will grow strongly. This is the transition from punishment to morality. On the contrary, the long-term nourishment accumulated in the hot summer triggered the germination of punishment, and the power of punishment gradually accumulated and grew in a subtle way, until it finally replaced the virtue of spring and summer, forming a full-fledged slaughter in autumn and winter. The monarch conforms to the way of heaven and earth, the principle of the four times, and governs the country with the technique of "virtue first and then punishment", and also regularly alternates the use of punishment and reward two means of governance, and is good at observing the subtle changes in the situation, grasping the opportunity, and carrying out the conversion of government decrees appropriately and timely between rewards and punishments, so that the national strength will continue to enhance and prosper in the cycle of accumulation, transformation, re-accumulation and re-transformation.
"The Sixteen Classics: Guotong" says: "If the two are famous, they will be successful." "The two sides of the contradiction establish their own existence in the opposition of the two and each have their own name and operate in an orderly manner, and they are interdependent and complementary to each other. Through a deep understanding of the dialectical relationship between criminal and moral education, Huang Laoboshu repeatedly emphasized that criminal punishment and culture and education should cooperate with each other and be used simultaneously. It is worth noting that Lao Tzu's "Movement of the Opposite Way" reveals the law of the movement of things in a cyclical and opposite way, but in the extremely cruel living environment of the nations, the idea of "the use of the weak Tao" in the silk book is sometimes abandoned. Different from Lao Tzu's softness and weakness, indifferent and indisputable, after the "Sixteen Classics and Views" argued the monarch's punishment and reward system with the heavenly way and criminal virtue, he said in the conclusion: "When the day is right, it is all broken; "Break" means "to decide", and "when the day comes, it will be decided" shows a kind of "decisive decision" courage and positivity, with a more enterprising attitude, into the "king of the world" competition. In the chapter "Sixteen Classics and Five Righteousness", the author also said: "Those who fight are fierce, and those who do not fight will not succeed." Under the way of heaven, the subjective initiative of human beings to "fight" lies in fully understanding and making use of the laws of nature, and actively promoting the development of things in a favorable direction.
As prominent scholars in the Warring States Period, Confucianism, Taoism, and Law were all committed to saving the world and making up for defects with the rule of criminal virtue in the turbulent tide of the times. Confucianism advocates benevolence and virtue, advocates emphasizing virtue and light punishment, and expects the monarch to "treat virtue with virtue and courtesy" (Analects of Confucius). In the view of the Legalists, the Confucian principle of "governing with virtue" is not feasible, and the Legalists advocate strict punishment and strict punishment and subduing the hegemony of the people with force, believing that only "punishment first and then reward" and "punishment to stop punishment" are the best ways to deal with troubled times. Different from them, Taoism, through the observation and understanding of the laws of nature, because of the natural nature of human nature, and the synchronization with the way of heaven to conserve the national strength and people's livelihood, constructed a gentle and flexible, Tiandao theory of the royal way: "Spring and summer are virtue, autumn and winter are punishment, and virtue is first and then punishment is to maintain health." As another way of governing the country in addition to Confucianism, the Taoist thought of criminal virtue represented by Huang Lao is also an important part of ancient Chinese ideology, culture and political wisdom.
Guangming Daily (2024-04-22 Edition 14)
Source: Guangming Net-Guangming Daily