Hu Anguo’s Thoughts About Chunqiu Under The View Of Neo-Confucianism

As a pioneer of HuXiang School,Hu Anguo played a role in academic history of Southern Song Dynasty and Song and Ming Dynasties.He integrated the neo-confucianism in Song and Ming dynasties with the explanation of Chunqiu.He governed Chunqiu with heavenly principle and established the study of Chunqiu with heart,principle and the thought of present use.The first part,Hu Anguo’s learning experience and academic spreading.Hu Anguo was born in the time of regime change between Northern Song Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty.He floated in bureaucratic post all his life,but his political career was only seven years.He showed his character in his political life.He wrote Chunqiuzhuan with thirty years.His goal was playing a part in present use and tided over the difficulties and saved the society into trouble.The second part,the transition of the study about Chunqiu from Dong Zhongshu to Hu Anguo.The master of Gongyang school,Dong Zhongshu was the pioneer of studying Chunqiu.He integrated yin-yang and five elements into Chunqiu and took advantage of it to talk about calamity.He advocated heaven-human induction that made his theory mystical.In the middle period of Tang Dynasty,Danzhao school found a way to interpret scriptures by giving up the memoirist and chasing the lection.Three persons of virtue criticized GongYang school.They eliminated the absolute authority of the heaven and abandoned the theological theory about heaven-human induction.They interpreted classics by gathering Zuozhuan,Gongyangzhuan and Guliangzhuan which had positive significance.By the Northern Song Dynasty,Sun Fu made history of explaining the Spring and Autumn.He viewed honoring the king as the principle of right and wrong.Cheng Yi also had unique insights about Chunqiu.Although he wrote a small part of the work,he had already infused heavenly principles in his work.As a inheritor of Luo school,he inherited Cheng Yi’s way to interpret classics.Meanwhile,Hu also inherited Dong Zhongshu’s theory about heaven-human induction and Danzhao school’s theory and the thoughts of Sun Fu and Cheng Yi.In general,it had a transition from Dong Zhongshu to Hu Anguo about the core of Chunqiu.Dong Zhongshu talked about heaven-human induction and Hu talked about the principle of heaven-human induction.The third and the fourth parts,Hu Anguo’s thoughts about heart,principle and disposition of Chunqiuzhuan.It was reflected in understanding the foundation of heart and heavenly principle.Firstly,as a master of neo-confucianism,Hu Anguo thought highly of heart.In the aspect of ontology,he contacted heart with yuan.Yuan was benevolence and heart.As a govemor,he should carried out his duties and based on heart to realize the function of heart and govern the country by benevolence and heart.He contacted ontology with function.Secondly,heavenly principle is the core of Hu Anguo’s thoughts.Understanding heavenly principle from personnel matters was main content.Hu Anguo said goodness in Chunqiu was heavenly principle.And he contacted Chunqiu with heavenly principle.It contacted heavenly principle with personnel matters and achieved the combination of heaven and human.The fifth part,the main thought of Chunqiuzhuan about practical application.Hu Anguo built a political philosophy system of heavenly principle and personnel matters.Firstly,Hu contacted the governor with heaven,the governor was the law in the world and had supreme status.Respecting the governor and controlling the ministers was heavenly principle.Besides,Hu proposed governor’s righteousness and ministers’duties.The relationship of governor and ministers was not separated.Secondly,Hu Anguo thought heavenly principle was the relationship between justice and benefit.The governor need be cautious on justice and benefit and used justice to govern the country.People should get along with each other and loyal to the king.Thirdly,Hu Anguo advocated respecting the governor.Meanwhile he hoped to use heavenly principle to restrict the monarchy.So he brought in the theory about saints.Saints were heavenly principles.Hu used saints to limit monarchical authority and regulate the basis and clean the source in order to the whole world as one community.The sixth part,the structure of development and generation between Zhouyi and Chunqiu.Hu Anguo blended Yixue into Chunqiu.He made clear the disaster in Chunqiu with yin-yang in Zhouyi to explain the principle of heaven-human induction.Human should complied with heaven and played the subjective role.Although human and nature had closely connection,the had respective operation law.It was a big change from Pre-Qin period and Han and Tang dynasties.The seventh part,Chunqiuzhuan’s influence to the later generations.When Huzhuan had finished,it immediately be chased of governors.It became an official book of imperial competitive examination.But its imaginary way of interpreting classics suffered from criticism of scholars.For example,the master of neo-confucianism Zhu Xi felt dissatisfied with appraising of Chunqiuzhuan.Wang Chuanshan also remolded it answered the needs of the times,such as the transformation from respecting emperors and belittling overlords to respecting emperors and valuing overlords.In the meantime,he advocated driving off the barbarians that showed Wang Chuanshan’s nationalistic integrity.When Manchu were in power,Chunqiuzhuan with no foundation gradually declined.