A New Research On The Shanrang Legend Of Ancient China

It is well-known that Yao ,Shun amd Yu, the greatest sages of virtue and kings of Tang-Yu Period in the legend of ancient Chinese, appointed people of virtue and capability, then abdicated and handed over the crown to them. All the deeds of their lead were named Juxian Shanrang by the people, especially the Confucianist and Mohist School in Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Although there was also an argument about the truth of the legend in the period of Warring States, along with the policy of Duzun Rushu ( Confucianism was the soul rule theory over the other school )in Han Dynasty, the Confucianism thought about Shanrang legend have had a profound influence in ancient Chinese history.Since the late 19^th century, especially early 20^th century, Shanrang thought of Confucianism with the famous legend had attracted academic circle's concern and research interest again, and there are generally three kind of viewpoints about them, the Yigu School (Some scholars who took a sceptical attitude to the extant historical document and maintain to overthrow the traditional history system of early China so as to rebuild it.) denied the truth of the legend and argued that all the legend was fabricated by Mohist and Confucianist school in Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Other historian, for example, Professor Xu Zhongshu thought that the legend contains much material or information from the pre-history, we should decipher and distinguish them from the other elements which were added by people when the legend handed down during the ancient time. Contrary to the mentioned views, Professor Wang YUzhe pointed that the ancient documents both denying and believing the truth of the legend are of equal importance, we should discover the fact from the two sides. In the last decade of 20^th century, a series of archaeological discoveries provided many new materials about the research domain and greatly improved its condition. Of the new materials, the bamboo slips of Tang Yu Zhi Dao, Zi Gao, Rong Cheng Shi unearthed in Hubei Province from graves of Chu kingdom in Warring States Period are significant for the study on Shanrang legend and Juxian Shanrang (appointing people of virtue and capacity, abdicating and handing over the crown to them) thought of Confucian and Mohism School. After textual research, the time of the several ancient documents can now be ascertained basically. Tang Yu Zhi Dao and Zi Gao should havebeenwritten at the early period of Warring States in the light of a comprehensive examination on its content as well as the historical background during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. and Rong Cheng Shi should in the middle of the same time. Because the systematical theory on "Shan Rang" before Mencius has long been lost in the extant traditional documents of Confucianism, doubtless, the new discovery of the above unearthed ancient document is significant academically.This dissertation is written on the basis of profound analysis which combinating with ancient documents, archaeological discoveries, anthropological materials and the writer try to give systematical research on the Shanrang legend including its sources, background, political system, religious rites, its influences on Ancient Chinese history, and involving the origin and formation of early Chinese civilization and the writer's conclusion is that the civilization of China is much earlier than people imagined before. The dissertation also give a diachronic analysis on the texts about the Shanrang thought of the various schools during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, especially the Confucians, Mohist, Daoist and Legalist school. Furthermore, the writer generally evaluated the interaction relationship between the development of Shanrang thought with the legend and the social changes of that time.