It turns out that philanthropy in the mainland has been showing signs since the Spring and Autumn Period.
The measures taken by Guan Zhong at that time became an important theoretical source of philanthropy in the mainland.
Today, let's start from "Guanzi" and see what policies Guan Zhong has put forward to benefit the people!
Pipe, "later generations are called Zhong". He was a famous thinker, politician and strategist in ancient times, and during the more than 40 years he assisted the Duke of Qi Huan, the country was at the beginning of the decline of the royal family and the continuous expansion of the territory of the princes.
During this period, Guan Zhong vigorously implemented internal reforms, committed to improving economic strength, developing production and life, enabling the people to live and work in peace and contentment, respecting the king externally, and assisting Qi Huan Gong to achieve hegemony. Historically, during his reign, Guan Zhong redefined the social order of various countries and resisted foreign aggression, and his act of governing the world, his diplomatic proposition of respecting the king and the people, and the principle of employing people to win the trust of the people were deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Liang Qichao praised Guan Zhong as "China's biggest politician". Sima Qian's "Historical Records" has "The Biography of Guan Yan" to discuss his anecdotes. The book "Guanzi" is named after Guan Zhong, which records Guan Zhong's actions and thoughts on the governance of the Qi family.
Among them, "Herdsmen" and "Entering the Country" mainly record the policies and measures of governing the country, but they also contain rich philanthropic ideas.
Pipe is a charitable act during the political period
(1) At the beginning of his term of office, he put forward the idea of people-oriented
The importance of people-oriented thought is mentioned in many places in "Guanzi", and Guan Zhong further inherits and practices it. For example, when talking about the reason for Xia Wei's demise in "Light and Heavy Armor", Guan Zhong pointed out that it was because of the tyranny of the ruler, but Shang Tang was different from Xia Wei in that he cared for the people, which coincided with Mencius's "winning the world, winning its people, and winning the world" ("Mencius: Lilou Shang"), which is the reason why Shang Tang won the world.
It is precisely because of the accumulation of these theories that Guan Zi said: "The beginning of the husband and the overlord is also people-oriented, the principle is the country's solidity, and the chaos is the country's danger." He emphasized that if you want to achieve the royal cause, you must first realize that the people are the leading force in the development of the country, and everything must be based on the people.
Only by obeying the will of the people can the enthusiasm of the people be brought into play, and it is also a warning to the king that the people are vital to the country. To conform to the will of the people is to relieve the people of their worries and make them stable, to support the poor and make the people rich, and to solve difficulties and make the people happy. Everything is people-oriented, which is the core and key to the governance of the country.
It is not difficult to see that Guan Zhong believes that the premise of long-term peace and stability of the country is to coordinate the relationship between the ruler and the people, and put the people at the core, so that the country can be united and prosperous.
(2) Respect the people and love the people for the government
Based on the people-oriented thinking, "Guanzi" advocates that the people should be the people-oriented, advocate taking the people's suffering as the top priority, and adopt the opinions of the people. "Those who want to be the world must reuse their country, and those who want to serve their country must reuse their people." If we want to run the country well, we must use our national power prudently and put the people at the top of our priority in governing the country.
"Guanzi" also mentions that "the ruler regards the people as the sky." As the monarch of the people, we must always regard the people as the sky, for a country, the people are convinced and dependent, the country can be peaceful and harmonious, the people coordinate and cooperate, the country can be united and strong, and the people's hearts are turned back, the country is in danger and gradually declines.
This also fully reflects the Guanzi's people-oriented thinking. "Guanzi" also derived from the idea of loving the people, benefiting the people, benefiting the people, and reassuring the people, and only when the ancient kings applied these ideas to the governance of the country would they be able to dominate the world. As the ruler of the country, he must follow the law, and if he takes the people and the land as the core, he can make the world obedient, and if he focuses on self-interest and autocracy, the people will be betrayed.
In his opinion, the reason why the ancient sage monarchs were able to cultivate internal affairs, love the lives of the people, and be unforgettable for future generations benefited from winning the hearts of the people.
And the tyrannical and brutal rulers of the mainland in ancient times, because they did not consider the people, led to the precariousness of the dynasty and the loss of the temple country. Therefore, the primary task of peacefully administering the world is to gather the hearts and minds of the people and attach importance to them.
Based on the people-oriented thinking, "Guanzi" attributes the country's politics to the people's efforts to win the people's will, which has won the support of the people. He also demanded that love for the people be listed as the foundation of government, pay attention to the implementation of moral government, and love the people like children.
The way of loving the people in "Guanzi" is to do: use the state to control the country, use the society to control the society, and use the clan to control the clan, so as to form a self-regulating and self-regulating governance system.
As a result, the relationship between them will be closer, and the people will be able to complement each other, and the people will unite as one, live in harmony, and the people will live more and more prosperously. The "Five Auxiliaries" also discussed the policy of loving the people of Xingliude, that is, "generous to the living", "lenient in government", "Kuang in urgency", "revitalizing the poor", "losing with wealth" and "leaving it to benefit".
Although these patriotic policies reflect the consciousness of the ruling class and are aimed at winning the hearts of the people and making them obey the rulers, they have also achieved the purpose of caring for the people and helping the disadvantaged groups in practice, and have become a huge impetus for the development of China's philanthropy.
(3) Do practical things that benefit the people and benefit the people
"Guanzi" advocates promoting the prosperity of the country through the idea of benefiting the people, and the people live and work in peace and contentment. "It also governs the people, and it ends with the benefit of the people. The measures to benefit the people of "Guanzi" are to ensure the survival and development of the people from the perspective of seeking benefits for the people, which fully reflects the philanthropic idea of "Guanzi" benefiting the people.
As for the meaning of benefiting the people, "Guanzi" believes that: first of all, benefiting the people is an indispensable part of gaining the hearts of the people, and only through benefiting the people can we gain the love of the people. Second, benefiting the people helps to bring the people to obedience, and when there is a conflict, the people will stand in the perspective of the state and obey the monarch. However, it is far from enough to only benefit the people, and it is necessary to fully integrate the idea and measures of loving the people into the measures to benefit the people, so as to lay the foundation for the prosperity of the country and the happiness of the people.
The implementation of the idea of loving the people has narrowed the distance between the people and the monarch, prompted the people to submit to the monarch, and the combination of benefiting the people and loving the people can promote social development and national stability, and also ensure the people's livelihood.
"Guanzi" governs the country, cares about the overall situation, and attaches importance to charity. The philanthropic idea of "Guanzi" is the deepening and development of Xia Shang Xizhou's measures to provide for the elderly and respect the elderly. First of all, "Pipe" pays attention to "the twilight of the profit, the public is competent." ("The Law"), we must always give the people benefits and love, and eradicate selfishness, so that the people will be happy and happy.
Secondly, "Guanzi" emphasizes that if you want to attract the people of the world and obey us like flowing water, you must benefit the people and devote yourself to the development of charity.
This is said to be to the people of the world" ("Light and Heavy Armor") to the people who have lost the ability to pay taxes to borrow for a long time, to bury the people who have nowhere to settle after death, and to do their best to let the people who are hungry and cold have clothes to wear and food supplies, and only when the poor are relieved, the people will be obedient and close.
Finally, "Guanzi" closely links the stability and unity of the country with charitable measures such as poverty relief, pension and respect for the elderly. As a result, "Guanzi" put forward nine policies to practice the idea of benefiting the people and benefiting the people, that is, the "teaching of nine benefits". "Guanzi" advocates that the country should be the center, and the long-term stability of the country and the people's will should be the main goal of charity.
He advocated the establishment of special official posts in the state to carry out a series of assistance and relief for the families of the old, weak, sick and disabled, widows, widows, loneliness, and poor and deceased, and strive to solve the difficulties that the people are most practical and concerned about. The emergence of the "Nine Blessings Teaching" has enabled the elderly to be supported, orphans and children to be helped, and the sick to be protected, and the whole society has formed a harmonious style of sharing blessings and difficulties.
(4) Aim to enrich the people
During the Spring and Autumn period, the monarch had realized that the abundance of granaries was the main guarantee of the people's livelihood. Who will store the grain, "Guanzi" advocates hiding the wealth from the people. "Guanzi" believes that if the people are poor, they will make desperate bets and commit crimes, causing chaos in the country. Only when the people live a prosperous life can they keep to themselves, abide by the law, obey the monarch, and the country can be stable.
To enrich the people, we must first take the development of agriculture as the goal, "strengthen the ability, go to the useless, and then the people can make the rich" ("Wufu"), the monarch should put the fundamental basic things in the first place, and remove the useless things, in order to promote the people to be rich to the greatest extent, and also advocated that the planting and cultivation of useless crops should be stopped when farming, and vigorously advocated that the people "plant mulberry and hemp, raise six horses" ("herdsmen") to help the people live a prosperous life. Second, it is necessary to save penalties and pay taxes lightly.
"Guanzi" believes that the cultivation of crops is limited by the season, and the people cannot work for a long time. Therefore, it is necessary to proceed from the laws of nature, and the people can also rest moderately, so that even if the national strength is not so strong, the country and the people can be safe. If the people are violently plundered and the people's power is used unlimitedly, then no matter how strong the national strength is, it will not help.
Finally, we need to protect industry and commerce. "If the public is light on its taxes, people will not be hungry. By reducing taxes and strengthening trade with foreign people, we can promote economic development and protect people's livelihoods. Compared with the Analects, Mencius, and other Confucian doctrines, the book Guanzi is larger in scale and richer in content.
Sprinkled with about 160,000 words, the volume is vast and large, and it contains the ideas of the Tao, the name, the law, and the knowledge of astronomy, land, economy, politics, and military affairs, which is an important basis for us to study the country's policies and legal ideas at that time.
However, due to the long process of writing "Pipe", some precious details have long been lost in the long river of history. However, most people in the world agree that the name of "Guanzi" is based on the deeds of Guan Zhong, and "Guanzi" is a work of Guan Zhong respected by Jixia Xuegong, which was compiled by Liu Xiang.
It can be said that Guan Zhong, Jixia Xuegong and Liu Xiang are all authors of "Guanzi". We can compare the process of writing Guanzi to cultivating the land, so that the early record of Guanzi can be seen as sowing seeds, the Jixia School Palace in the Warring States Period can be seen as carefully watering and providing nutrients, and finally the compilation of Guanzi by Liu Xiang in the Western Han Dynasty is the time when Guanzi bears full fruit.
Guan Zhong, a famous thinker and politician in the pre-Qin period, assisted Qi Huan Gong to achieve hegemony and became a model of prime minister in Chinese history. The book "Pipe" was born.
Although the book "Pipe" was not specially compiled for charity, many of the humanistic ideas in it have played a role in promoting the progress of philanthropy.