The Evolvement Of Cofucian Regality Ideas In Pre-Qin Dynasty

During the Spring and Autumn Period, Patriarchal clan power system underlying official appointments became unstable and shaken, and Zhou's king, called a Son of Heaven, at the top of the power, loosen his control over military affairs, politics and economies of other feudal princes, consequently with their strength sharply swelled. With the vibration, the underpinnings of social relations based on the power were changing significantly, being defined by the curtailing Patriarchal clan connections, as a contrast to Bureaucratic development which is closely in relation with geopolitics, attaching more importance to solons, and substitution of subinfeudation system with salary system. Following the sharp changes in social power system, the effect of the manners and music culture on political power had altered in a strong sense. On the one hand, it should be affirmed that the culture still played an important part in the political power, but on the other, its political role had greatly changed, compared with its part during the Xi-Zhou Period when the manners and music culture played a role of maintaining the hierarchy of powers: son of heaven, seigneur, and minister, while during the Period of Spring and Autumn the culture, in a sense, served as a means for the ministers and the vassal monarchs to raise their social status, and symbol of incepting their influence. In the course of the battling for powers, not just the upper rulers, for purpose of strengthening their positions, but the lower civilians, bettering off their living conditions, led a rush of study in the society, the wave bundling with the needs of social power, under its thrust, the Confucian science came into being, with a strong marriage with powersIn the process of sharp social changes, Kongzi, deeply influenced by the manners and music culture of Lu State, inherited and developed regalia thinking which carried over from the Zhou Dynasty, and as a result, presented the regality ideas of "self-control and resuming manners" based on the zhou's culture of manners, attempting to revive the proper social order by resuming Zhou's manners and the toppling grading system of powers. He rested the resumption upon the inner moral culture, hoping the grading system could be followed self-consciously by enhancing the moral initiative. Throughhis untiring efforts, the core of the Confucian ideas was well-established.There was a trend of differentiation of the regality thinking before Kongzi's death, and after his death, the Confucian ideas in pre-Qin dynasty were evolved into two aspects of actualization and idealization represented respectively by Xia-He and Zengzi. In Zixia's combination of the Confucianism into social practice, the regality thinking changed, consequently Fa's regalism arising. Zengzi and his supporters acceded to and developed the idealistic component of the Zengzi's ideas, and insisted on vindicating regality by virtue and morality, and intervening monarch by morality and justice. And further, Zisi inherited zengzi's ideas and made the ideal elements of the Confucian regalism more systematic and holy. Zisi's group created seigniory system on the basis of "morals", linking the rulers' moral with the heaven and temper, saint with kingcraft.During the time of the Warring States, the bureaucrat polity advanced further, and the states' kings were all courteous and condescending to the wise and scholars, soliciting talents, and trying to make political reforms to strengthen their states. Mengzi accepted zisi's idea, and summed up the historical experiences, and further carried forward the Confucian regalism. Relying upon humanism, he put forward the thoughts of the people above the monarch, and balancing the right of king.The evolvement and perfection of the Confucian ideality was the process of the Confucian thinking into great troubles in the Warring States, during which the patriarchal clan eupatrid power dwindled , and bureaucracy system expanded, and the relations between emperor and his subjects enhanced, and in the sharp competition for survival, the realistic solutions to any problems were what the seigneurs really concerned, while the principal advocates such as Zengzi, Zisi, Mengzi prompted the hopes to establish the standards of morals and ideality, but the deviation of the Confucian ideas from the actual needs of monarchs made the Confucian progress once plunge in great difficulty.The difficulty of the Confucian ideal regality in the time of the Warring States could be reflected by the fact that the opinions of Mengzi and some others were not adopted by the many states' rulers, and by the monarchs' indifference to the means of using benevolence to strengthening their rein, and by the tragedies in pursuing ideal regality during this period. And also, the difficulty spurred people's rethinking, and urged the Confucians to seek for integration of regal ideals with reality. For this purpose, Xunzi undertook the mandate of boosting the Confucian regality ideas progress.