| The Confucianism started to fall since Wei and Jin Period. Buddhaism and Taoism, however, became prevalent. Emperor Sui Wen unified the nation in 589 A.D. Though he advocated Buddhism, he also showed his great respect for Confucianism. Emperor Sui Yang initiated an exam system to enroll talents for the country and he decreed that Confucian classics should be used as textbooks. Confucianism thus regained its strength very quickly. Wei Zheng, a famous Tang Dynasty minister, lived in a time when Confucianism regained its political sway, in addition to his Confucian family's influence, and acquired the very essence of Confucianism, which was of no avail to him because the time, the end of Sui Dynasty, was warlike. After Xuan Wu Gate coup d'etat in 626 A.D, Wei Zheng met with the emperor of Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin , who was in eager pursuit of peace. It was under this emperor that Wei found his opportunity to exercise his Confucian ideas. This paper starts from the formation of Wei Zheng's Confucianism, focuses on his Confucian principles like "to straighten the emperor morally", "to practice merciful administration", elaborates the function of Wei Zheng's Confucianism, and finally, sums up the characteristics, historical status and modern significance of his thoughts.This paper divides into four parts:The first part discusses the formation of Wei Zheng's Confucian thoughts, which consists of a Taoism core and a Confucian crust, primarily from the background of his time and family.The second elaborates on Wei Zheng's Confucian thoughts put to practice, including "to improve oneself to serve the emperor", "to improve the emperor to build the emperor's morality", and "to run the state with merciful policies".The third part relates the effect of Wei Zheng's thoughts, subdivided into how the thoughts made the Emperor an emperor of historical significance and how the thoughts made Zheng Guan period of Tang Dynasty an example of states-running.The fourth part concludes the characteristics and historical status of Wei Zheng's... |
