The Order Pursuit Of Confucian Dao Theory In The Mid-northern Song Dynasty

Song period Confucianism was focused on the theoretical construction of public order at the national level,and this generally manifested itself as ethics-centric government in which morality was infused into the process of governance.It took public demonstration of the legitimacy and universality of said morality as its central discussion topic,in which the basic approach was to anchor the human world of ethics to a metaphysics of morals.During this bygone century,however,scholarly research on Song Confucianism has been oriented primarily towards theoretical clarification and the construction of systems,whereas there has been relatively little attention given to the overarching scholarly aims of the Song Confucians.Scholars who wish to reveal the pragmatic aims of Song dynasty Confucianism need to take a step back from conceptual clarification and systems-construction,and return to the historical world which produced that type of thought;discussions of the specific theoretical content of Song Confucian governance and its construction can then return from the realm of historical analysis back to the realm of thought.Pre-Qin Confucian theories of governance established a paradigm for theoretical discourse in which the pursuit of social order was expressed by the concepts of “dao”(?)and“li”(?).This paradigm made recourse the concept of“natural spontaneity”in order to make an objective assertion of the universality and legitimacy of morality:dao and li were precisely “the natural” according to the Way of Heaven(?),which simultaneously corresponded to the “oughts” of human ethical conduct,and thus was formed the “correlation of the Heavenly and the human” theory of pre-Qin Confucian philosophy of government.This theory of the correlation of the Heavenly and the human employs comparison,analogy and simulation to expound upon the similarities and correlations between the Heavenly and the human,whereby to give a proof of the legality and legitimacy of the prevailing human social order;this is a type of proof based on lived experience of both human productive enterprise and daily life in which proof is made via an intuited similarity of Heavenly and human circumstances.The Song Confucianists took the continuance of both the Way of Confucius and Mencius and the revival of the governance of the Three Dynasties as their project,and their theory of governance inherited the pre-Qin Confucian paradigm of using“dao”and“li”when discoursing upon governance.However,during the course of theirselective appropriation and modification of elements of Buddhism and Daoism,they made an integration of the concepts of“the heartmind and individual nature”(??)and“the Way of Heaven”(??),wherewith to establish the authority of the morality underwriting their ethics-centric government.Song dynasty ethics-centric government directly inherited the pre-Qin Confucianists'problematique with regard to supplying a proof of legitimacy and universality,but placed greater emphasis on completion of demonstrating the universality of the morality of Confucian ethics-centric government via integration of the concepts of“individual nature and fate”(??)and“the Way of Heaven.This process ran in a progression from early Song emphasis on structural“governance techniques”onwards to later emphasis on the need for genuine rectitude as the“moral fundament of governance”of which such structural“governance techniques”would be one particular functional expression.At the same time,however,such doctrines as Buddhist??nyat?,Daoist wuwei and their ilk dispelled both the“governance techniques”and the“moral fundament of governance”alike as merely physical and transient,which during the middle Northern Song period prompted the establishment of a metaphysical grounding for said“moral fundament of governance”,viz.,the construction of a“daoti”(??).The construction of the daoti was in fact an elevation of the“moral fundament of governance”to metaphysical status,of which Wang Anshi,Zhang Zai and the Cheng brothers are the prime representatives.The construction of the daoti marks the completion of the public demonstration of the truth of Confucian ethics-centric governance which had been underway since the pre-Qin period.Specifically,Wang Anshi greatly esteemed the Analects and the Mencius in his early period,becoming the Northern Song's pioneering proponent of the “theory of moral nature and fate ”,thereby establishing for political governance theory the fundament-and-functional-expression mode of thought with regard to the role of the“ moral fundament of governance ” in guiding and channeling the structural“ governance techniques ”.In his middle period,however,his thought took a turn towards esteem of the Documents,Odes and Rites of Zhou,by which he wished to show the necessity of the political reforms which he advocated.This change in the preferred canonical targets of exegesis for Jing Gong – Wang Anshi's honorific title –was more or less a turn from esteem of the Four Books(Analects and Mencius)towards esteem of the Five Classics(Documents and Odes).This change was emblematic of a shift in emphasis towards structural “ governance techniques ” and a relative dereliction of any further elucidation of the “moral fundament of governance”.In thelanguage of Chinese philosophical hermeneutics,dao-qua-functional-expression is subsumed within dao-qua-fundament,and the former is that by which the latter is manifested.But Jing Gong placed considerable weight on the former as the manifestation of the latter,and in emphasising “ expedience as the fundament ”brought about a situation in which dao-qua-function was treated as a second autonomous fundamental entity;that is to say,structural “ governance techniques”and the “moral fundament of governance” each became “twin fundaments”,thereby failing to adequately link up “inward sageliness” with “outward kingliness” in accord with the fundament-and-functional-expression mode of thought.Jing Gong attempted to eliminate this “ twin fundament ” heterodoxy through an attempt to reconstruct “dao” in its completeness and totality,launching a campaign of canonical exegesis and textual exposition with “the one dao” as its hallmark.However,due to both his adoption of the terse exegetical style of the Han period Confucianists Kong Anguo and Zheng Xuan and,additionally,due to the fact that many of his exegeses seemed strained and far-fetched,the “dao” as revealed by his exposition failed to attain general approbation,and failed to realise the “dao” in its complete unity.This meant that during the course of his governmental tenure and the enactment of his political reforms,he had to rely on “power”(?)qua proxy of the emperor in order to suppress rival forms of dissident “dao”,which in turn sharpened the focus on the issue of tension between “dao” and “power”.Jing Gong promulgated a doctrine of “ individual moral nature and fate”,into which,however,was commingled various Buddhist and Daoist elements,and he was thereby unable to construct a morally authoritative “ daoti ” with respect to governmental ethics.The establishment of a metaphysical grounding for morality would firstly require an undermining of the theoretical foundations of Buddhism and Daoism.This task was achieved by Zhang Zai,who employed the notion of “vacuity”(“ ? ”)and its assembly and dispersal in expounding both a cosmogony and a cosmological ontology.The intention behind this cosmogony was to make a refutation of the foundational Buddhist and Daoist ideas of(respectively)??nyat? and wuwei:insubstantial-but-real “vacuity” assembled into substantial qi,which in turn was the basis for formation of the furniture of the universe(literally,the “ ten thousand things ”);this was to show that the ten thousand things were substantial rather than empty in their existence: this would decisively refute the foundations of Buddhism and Daoism,and become the basis for Zhang Zai ' s issuance of a famous quadripartite phrase in affirmation of the spirit of the Confucian dao.As for the cosmologicalontology,the ontological status of “vacuity” was certified via its putative attributes of“pure unity”,“tranquility” and “insubstantiality”,attributes which were asserted to have been partaken in by humans during the course of cosmogonical development.This assertion was proffered as explanatory of the lofty origins of the heartmind and individual nature,thereby to imbue them with a moral elevation and universality,in turn giving morality an exalted cosmological warrant.Yet on Zhang Zai's account of it,the “vacuity” of the so-called “Great Unity of Pure Vacuity” contained both the qi of nature and the qi of substantiality as a single reified entity which was suspected of being merely physical rather than metaphysical.Theoretically speaking,a physical qi was insufficient to furnish morality with a supreme warrant,hence Heng Qu – Zhang Zai's honorific title – made only what was an as yet still flawed establishment of a daoti.Subsequent to Zhang Zai's exposition of the Heavenly dao,the Cheng brothers in their construction of a daoti made a division of the two aspects of Zhang Zai ' s“ vacuity ” – viz.,the qi of nature and the qi of substantiality – dividing them respectively into metaphysical li(?)and physical qi.Firstly,they effected a shift in the operative language from that of dao to that of li,establishing talk of li as the mode of discourse for that which concerned social order.At the same time,they completed an ontological proof which stipulated that “the Heavenly is precisely li”,imbued the“ li of Heaven ” with moral content via the stipulation that “ individual nature is precisely li ” and moreover made a demonstration of the metaphysical status of“ governance techniques ” and the “ moral fundament of governance ” via the stipulation that “the rites are precisely li”.In doing so,the Cheng brothers effected a transition from their forebears' externalist proofs to internalist proofs characterised by “the top-to-bottom unity of the Heavenly and the human”,moving onward from externalist comparison and analogising to complete integration of the “heartmind and individual nature” of the human dao with the “natural spontaneity” of the Heavenly dao,they thereby established the “oughts” of the human dao upon the foundation of the “necessities” of the Heavenly dao,and in doing so completing the metaphysical grounding of morality in ethics-centric government,which is to say an elevation from“ governance techniques ” and a “ fundament of governance ” to the theoretical construction of a daoti: human-heartedness(?)and the right(?)constitute the“ moral fundament of governance ” which guides and channels the structural“ governance techniques ” of law and rites;at the same time,in meeting the challenges presented by Buddhism and Daoism,the Cheng brothers ennobled the moral“fundament of governance” by promoting it to the level of “Heavenly dao” and/or“ Heavenly li ”,thereby completing the metaphysical grounding of Confucian ethics-centric government and its associated morality.The metaphysical grounding and dogmatisation of the morality of ethics-centric government,however,brought about a theoretical crisis.Firstly,despite the fact that metaphysically-backed morality was effective at bequeathing a supreme imprimatur upon social governance,nevertheless its tendency towards dogmatism resulted in the appearance of the problem of “oppression by way of li”.Secondly,given the fact that the supreme dao was “absolute truth”,it was soon coopted as a form of ideological dictatorship to reject any dissident theories.Finally,morality was only one of the strategies used to bring about social order,and in exalting morality as an embodiment of Heavenly dao and Heavenly li,the Song Confucians formed it into a fundament which thereby obscured the fact that public order was pluralistic in its actual realisation.Reflecting upon this aforementioned,examination of traditional Confucian theories of governance from the perspective of the historical factors influencing the formation of “contemporary” nation-states,one may extract much historical material from the process of “innate evolution” from “contemporary” to “modern” which may yet be of value in the governance of a contemporary nation-state.