A Probe Into WangFu's People-centered Thought

Wangfu (born in Linjing, An'ding, now it is called Zhenyuan, Gansu province), was a famous thinker and social critic, withdrawn from the world all his life and devoted all his energy to the writing of the book the thoughts of a hermit, the book, which had far reaching impact, involved social problems at that time, satirized the losses and failures of the governing body, revealed the cruel deeds of the Establishment, aimed at criticizing the reality and seeking after the governing measures. His thoughts involved political policies and military forces, economic strategies, ethics and moralities, social customs, learning and self-cultivation, he developed the thought of "people-based" governance in Pre-Qin Period to a more perfect stage, and achieved the theory from "the people as the base of the God", "people as the base of the King", "multi-element people based theory" to "people as the base of a nation". By following the Confucianism' thoughts of "the people as the base of a nation" since Pre-Qin Dynasty, he definitely put forward the theories of "the people as the base of a nation" and "the laws and policies of the governing body must serve the people". A review of the thoughts of a hermit, we can see that the theory of "people-centered thoughts" highlighted the book, he not only discussed it in theory, but put it into various parts of his thoughts, including his thoughts on the social reform, economic development, governing policy, and the interrelationships between people-valued thought, national defense, military and prosperity of a nation,. What's more, he set the practical approaches to realize his thoughts, such as "to love people", "to benefit people", "show concern and sympathy to people", "to enrich people", "to listen to the grass root", "sympathize people in livelihood frequently", and selected outstanding talent among the grass root, etc., all these viewpoints glittered brilliantly at that time, they are also invaluable sources for examining and exploring the traditional cultural phenomenon of "people-centered thought" at present.The thesis, based on the summary of previous research, presents a rather clear panorama of the thought by consulting numerous reference books. Firstly, it deals with the evolvement of the people-centered thought before Wang Fu period; Secondly, it discusses the main points, the approaches to realize Wang Fu's people-centered thought, and its causes; Lastly, it gives a brief summary to its historical significance.