Jizi Study

Jizi, the famous statesman at the end of Shang Dynasty, was entitled by Confucius as one of the "three noble-minded sages at the last stage of Shang Dynasty" together with Weizi and Bigan. The imprisoned Jizi was released after Emperor Wu’s expedition to overthrow the Shang Dynasty. Unwilling to serve the Zhou Dynasty, Jizi fled to Korea and established Jishi Korea in the Korean peninsula and spread the advanced political and economic system and propriety culture as well as promoted the local civilization and social progress, making Korea the famous "Oriental Country of Gentlemen". Above all, Jizi made groundbreaking achievements for the founding of Korea. What was set down in his book Hong Fan was Jizi’s nine conceptions for the administration of the country. The study of Hong Fan can facilitate the exploration of the early China’s strategies and methods of governing a country and the understanding of the ideology before the Western Zhou Dynasty. In view of this, I have gathered the historical data of Jizi’s surnames and clans, life story and the evaluations of the latter generations, with the purpose of seeking to make a comprehensive exposition of Jizi. This paper is divided into four parts to make a systematic exposition about it.The first part is the introduction of Jizi. This section firstly discussed the surnames and clans of Jizi, and verificated that Marquis Ji was not Jizi and these two homophone Jis with different Chinese characters were actually names of two different clans. Jizi’s surname was Zi. In addition, Jizi reacted correspondingly to the changes of the political situation in the late Shang Dynasty and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty:foreseeing the corruption of Shang from the small clue that Emperor Xin began to use a pair of ivory chopsticks, psyching out, fleeing to Korea, writing Hong Fan, establishing the "Oriental Country of Gentlemen". Through the introduction of the background and deeds of Jizi, a preliminary understanding of his conducts and moralities could be obtained.The second part is about the ancient Korean "diwang", which of great importance for the study of Jizi’s entering court. The exploration of this issue, the unfolding argument of the renovation and development Jizi exerted on the locale and the full affirmation of Jizi’s contribution to the civilization of ancient Korea were demonstrated in this part.The third part peeps into Hong Fan, in which Jizi’s ideal of country management is condensed. From the writing background of Hong Fan, the detailed outline the nine domains and their impacts on the Duke of Zhou, Confucius, this section dives into intellectual achievements of Hong Fan.The fourth part is the ending of this paper, which mainly outlines the evaluations of the latter generations towards Jizi. This section serves to briefly summarize the behaviors and moralities of Jizi.