Order Reconstruction And Dynasty Revival:a Study On The Governing Thought Of Shuo Yuan

Liu Xiang was the imperial minister of the Western Han Dynasty,a famous litterateur,a scholar of classics,a political thinker,and one of the famous scholars of the Western Han Dynasty.His book Shuo Yuan,which has been studied by the academic circle,contains rich political thought.But the studies till now is still relatively weak.This paper chooses Shuo Yuan as the topic of the thought of governing the country,which is helpful to supplement and enrich the political thought of the Yuan,Cheng,Ai and Ping periods in the late Han Dynasty.The purpose of Liu Xiang’s compilation of Shuo Yuan is very clear,that is,to take it as advice,"support Han and Liu" rectify the order,revitalize the royal power.This is also the gist of the ruling thought in Shuo Yuan.On the basic thinking of governing the country,Shuo Yuan emphasizes the system of rites in the first place.Shuo Yuan directly continues the pre-Qin Confucian understanding of rites,emphasizing that the essence of rites is the principle of status hierarchy.In order to highlight this point,Shuo Yuan absorbed the legalist "clear identity " concept and legalist "power" thought.In the traditional Confucian thought of ritual system,he injected the understanding of "clear identity" of law,and believed that the support of the rank of king and subject was power.Shuo Yuan attaches great importance to the relationship between the emperor and the minister in the system of rites,hoping to form a stable hierarchical order within the monarchy political system.Therefore,it is proposed that the emperor "understand talents",the minister "handle affairs",the emperor and minister each do their own thing,and finally reach the ideal situation of"emperor and minister get along with each other in harmony".On the basis of emphasizing the order of status hierarchy,Shuo Yuan pays special attention to the thought of ritual.If the system is the binding stipulation of people’s behavior,then the system ceremony marked by the ritual is the ritualization and symbolization of the system.The implementation of "ritual" can continuously strengthen the status hierarchy’s constraints on people’s behaviors and even thoughts from the level of consciousness and mentality,and strengthen the status hierarchy to control and control people’s behaviors through the rituals and symbols dissolved in social and political life.The ritualization of "rites" can shock people’s hearts and emotions,cultivate and consolidate people’s political belief and loyalty,and finally achieve the function of discipling people’s behavior and thinking through operation and practice.In the view of Shuo Yuan,"ritual" has the political effect of restricting people’s behavior through system norms and ritual exercises.In general,the thought of ritual system in Shuo Yuan emphasizes the interpretation of actual political relations,which is more realistic than the characteristic of the pre-Qin Confucian thought of ritual system,which reflects the realistic demand orientation and the characteristics of Confucianism in governing the country.As far as his political affiliation was concerned,Liu Xiang was a firm believer in the theory of respecting the monarch and firmly maintained the centralized monarchy.Therefore,Shuo Yuan attaches great importance to "Code of conduct for the monarch"(君道)and puts forward many requirements.Shuo Yuan draws on the Taoists’ idea of "govern by non-interference",that is,to follow the laws of nature.However,as a way of governance,Shuo Yuan still insists on the idea of "govern with good deeds"which puts virtue first,emphasizing kindness and impartiality.A monarch should be able to know,respect and use the talent,and be good at accepting remonseurs and following their advices like a stream.These understandings continued the traditional Confucian thought of "Code of conduct for the monarch" and were a continuation of the orthodox Confucian thought of governing the country since the early Han Dynasty.In the way of political decision-making,Shuo Yuan insisted on dogmatism and incorporated dogmatism into the royal way.It clearly required that the authority of the monarch should be absolutely strong.Dogmatism,as a way of decision-making,was the embodiment of the powerful authority of the monarch.The thought of "Code of conduct for the monarch" in Shuo Yuan strengthens monarchical power and centralization in many aspects,and it is taken as an important condition for the realization of state governance.This is also the reflection of Shuo Yuan broke through the limitation of the governing thought in the period of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty,along with the adjustment of the governance in the period of Emperor Yuan,and paid more attention to the political practice.Liu Xiang,as the representative of the intellectual class in the late Western Han Dynasty,had a deep understanding of the intellectual ’s virtue and political affiliation.On the basis of inheriting the cognition of intellectual’s virtue since pre-Qin Dynasty,Shuo Yuan pays attention to the moral and political regulations of scholars.The author believed that the key points of scholars’ virtue were selfless and virtuous,while moral cultivation centered on being cautious and prudent,especially requiring scholars to practice "modesty" and be careful in words and deeds.In the view of Shuo Yuan,the political orientation of the scholar and gentleman lies between the ideal Tao and the king of actual political life.Morally,he is bound by the dual constraints of loyalty and filial piety,and participation in state governance is his ultimate political belongment.Shuo Yuan inherited the Confucian tradition of governing the country,but in fact continued the rule of law since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty,the rule of virtue as the main,the rule of law as a supplement,emphasizing the way of civil and military,pay attention to the implementation of the rule of virtue,benevolence and education.Shuo Yuan reiterates the Confucian thought of benevolent government,the purpose of implementing benevolent government is to "benefit the people",to give the people’s land and do not take the farming time.At the same time,Shuo Yuan also pays special attention to the relationship between "music" and moral governance and education,holding that "music" is directly connected with the human heart,and then connected with people’s virtue and behavior.Shuo Yuan highlights the role of the music of rites and music system in the rule of virtue,and holds that "the politics of rites and music and punishment" is indispensable in the way of governing the country.In addition,Shuo Yuan also proposed not excessive punishment,that is,to "advocate morality and delay punishment".Shuo Yuan also talks about the thought of running a country of frugality.The crux of the ruling thought in Shuo Yuan is the centralization of the monarchy,which holds that only by insisting on "rites and music as well as conquering all from the son of heaven",can the ruler make rites and music and"conduct morality",so as to achieve the effect that people in the world "have no thoughts and refuse to accept".Have power and centralization,this is the political essence of the governing thought of Shuo Yuan.On the whole,Shuo Yuan’s country strategy thought is very distinctive.From the perspective of the development of political thought in Western Han Dynasty,the governing thought of Shuo Yuan was influenced by the thought of heaven and man in early Han Confucianism,but its mainstream was a continuation of the political thought of pre-Qin Confucianism.If the thoughts of divination and anti-divination formed an ideological trend since the middle of Western Han Dynasty,then Shuo Yuan continued the way of governing the country since the middle of Western Han Dynasty and maintained the trend of the thought of miscellaneous Kings in Western Han Dynasty.At the same time,it also complied with the trend of social and political decline in the late Western Han Dynasty,and was more pragmatic in governing the country in order to meet the needs of the monarchy,so as to leave an important page for the political thought of the Han Dynasty.The governing thought of Shuo Yuan can provide useful reference and historical mirror for contemporary Chinese national governance.Of course,the traditional society is a centralized monarchy,and the modern Chinese society is fundamentally different.The former is that the state power is controlled by the special political interest group headed by the monarch,the so-called privatization of public power;The latter is "the people are masters of the country",and the general members of society become the social and political subjects,namely the masters of the country.The essence of traditional governance thought is to serve the monarchy and its ruling group.As a historical reference,it should be stripped of its political essence and choose some beneficial elements from it.For example,this paper sorts out the innovation of the governing thought of Shuo Yuan:the rule of etiquette,the rule of music and virtue,cautious and self-cultivation,which not only reflects the characteristics of its governing thought,but also the innovation of the governing thought of Shuo Yuan in this paper.At the same time,as the outstanding legacy of Chinese traditional political thought,it helps to promote the construction of Chinese discourse of modern political theory.