The Study Of Gongyang School’s "Great Unification" Thought In Han Dynasty

At the end of West Zhou Dynasty,the power of the king declined and the system of rites and music collapsed.In Eastern Zhou period,with the kingdom spliting into numerous states,the re-establishment of social order and unification became the most significant and urgent request.In the late period of the Warring States,the Qin regime developed rapidly because of Shang Yang Reform and established the unified regime to end the division of Tianxia.The Qin regime ruled the territory effectively depended on the system of prefectures and bureaucracy,which was different with Zhou’s ruling order.The establishment of Qin Dynasty put the thought of "great unification" proposed by Gongyang Zhnan into practice for the first time ever,but unfortunately,the rule of the Qin Dynasty just maintained for more than a decade.Han Dynasty inherited from Qin Dynasty not only the system frame of "great unification",but also a series of questions in transition period which lead to the Qin’s ruin On account of this consideration,the "great unification" thought in Han Dynasty included political institution and social governance.Chapter one elucidates the source of "great unification" thoughts in Gongyang School,including the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Tianxia worldview of Pre-Qin Confucianism.Firstly,the Spring and Autumn Annals was the original canon of Gongyang School,the formation of Gongyang Zhuan,even the entire theories of Gongyang School were based on the interpretation of the Spring and Autumn Annals.On the one side,Gongyang scholars insisted than Confucius is the author of the Spring and Autumn Annals to promote the position of the Spring and Autumn Annals and Gongyang School.On the other side,they insisted that every word has profound connotation in the Spring and Autumn Annals,and this was the basis to interpret the Spring and Auhmn Annals openly.Secondly,Gongyang Zhuan was written on ancient books in the period of Emperor Jing of Han after the oral transmitting phase dated from Zixia.During this long process,scholars of Gongyang School were deeply affected by Confucianism and the Tianxia worldview of Pre-Qin Confucianism became the origin of "great unification" thoughts in Gongyang School.The Tianxia worldview of Pre-Qin Confucianism included two aspects:"Tianxia" was the maximum range of rule while acquisition of"Tianxia" was the supreme goal of govern.In order to achieve this goal,Pre-Qin Confucianism scholars raised the doctrines of rectification of names and correcting the others with self-cultivation.Chapter two to chuster five expound the "great unification" thought of Gongyang Zhuan,Dong Zhongshu,Sima Qian,He Xiu respectively.Gongyang Zhuan is a pioneering book in Gongyang School,the "great unification" thought includes two aspect:connotation and practice.The connotation aspect comprises three thoughts:attaching importance to initiation,veneration of King Wen of Zhou,without exclusion the other nations.The practice aspect comprises the reconciliation of four relationships,they are indoctrination and conquest,sons born of the legal wife and concubines,monarchs and ministers,Huaxia and barbarians.Dong Zhongshu epitomized the theories of Gongyang School in Han Dynasty and combined the"great unification" thought with the theory of heaven-human induction to create a new "great unification",thought which was different from Gongyang Zhuan.His "great unification" thought put the heaven as ultimate basis,and put the relationship of heaven-king-human as main line.To summarize,His "great unification" thought meant the king cultivate the people and administrate the world based on destiny and heavenly principles.Sima Qian learned from Dong Zhongshu and wrote Historical Records to inherit the Spring and Autumn Annals.Although he was not a scholar of Gongyang School in the strict sense,he still inherited and developed the thoughts of Gongyang School.Sima Qian put heaven as ultimate basis of his "great unification" thought just like Dong Zhongshu,but on the other side,he constructed a national genealogy to retrospect the common ancestor of Huaxia and barbarians in a historical perspective,which was a historical basis of his "great unification" thought.On this basis,the "great unification" thought could be realized by utilizing indoctrination and conquest to solve the practical issues in Han Dynasty.He Xiu lived in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.In that period,the status of New Text Confucianism declined while the status of Ancient Text Confucianism rose and the authority of emperor waned.So his "great unification" thought exhibited realistic significance which distinguished itself from previous Gongyang scholars’ theories.Firstly,He Xiu regarded honouring the king and limiting the power of ministers,civilizing barbarians with the system of rites and music as two cores of the "great unification" thought.Secondly,he believed than the practice of the "great unification"thought was a long-term evolutionary course including troubled times,peace times,great harmony times and will come true gradually from the inside to the outside,from the near to the distant.Therefore,Pre-Qin Confucianism scholars,Gongyang Zhuan,Dong Zhongshu,Sima Qian,He Xiu made contributions to the formation of the "great unification" thought respectively.Pre-Qin Confucianism provided ideological resources and Gongyang Zhuan elucidated the "great unification"thought systematacially.Dong Zhongshu sought for the metaphysical ultimate basis of the "great unification" thought with the theory of heaven-human induction.Sima Qian constructed a national genealogy to retrospect the common ancestor of Huaxia and barbarians,and searched out the human basis in historical process.He Xiu proposed the theory of "San Ke Jiu Zhi" to expound the historical courses of the "great unification" thought,to stipulate the missions of emperor and the range of kingly way in different epochs.So the "great unification" thought of Gongyang School could be summarized as follows:the heaven acts as the ultimate basis,a wise emperor acts as the core,acknowledgin the otherness of Huaxia and barbarians while distinguishing them with morality,realizing the goal of unification from the near to the distant with the way of self-cultivation.