Northern Wei Period Of The Spread Of Confucianism

Confucianism is one of the most important parts of Chinese culture. TheNorthern Dynasty is a period of splitting and merging in Chinese history. At that time,Confucianism was seen as a decline period in Chinese Confucianism history.Therefore, on attention was paid to study Confucianism. Not until1980s did this issueattract researchers’ attention; there were many studies on Northern Confucianism.However, most researches mainly focused on the merging of Confucianism and theethnics and feudalism, the struggling and merging of Confucianism, Buddha andTaoism and the evolution of Confucianism, etc.The transmission of Confucianism in Northern Wei Dynasty was from twoaspects: from the upper class to the lower class of society and from the elite’s stratumto social people. It was spread from the top to the bottom. From the Dynasty of Weiand Jin on, some reserved areas of Confucian culture switched to the political centerof Northern Wei Dynasty. Ways of spreading were mainly focused on the advocatingof government, the determination of emperor, the Confucianism of governmentofficers, the establishing of entire educational system of Confucianism and thetransmitting of Confucianism. The large majority of population migration spurred onthe migrating of Confucianism intellects and the transmitting, merging anddeveloping of Confucianism.The transmission of Northern Confucianism was the important part of thedevelopment of Northern Wei, which influenced the aspects of politics, economics,culture and custom. It was not only the whole process of the development NorthernWei, but also the process of penetrating and spreading Confucianism to the society. Asto politics, the Northern Wei dominators applied the theory of Confucianism topolitical structure. As to culture, the mind of Confucianism was made to be theofficial ideology of Northern Wei. Along with passing on feudal rites, Confucianismwas regarded as the core the social value from the perspective of social culture. It issound to say that the development and transmission of Confucianism becomes themain power of the social transition of Northern Wei. On the other hand, the socialtransition of Northern Wei promotes the spreading of Northern Confucianism.