| Sima Tan’s article Analysis of the Main Ideas of Six Schools was documented in Biography of Sima Qian,Shi Ji,scholars of pre-Qin period were divided into six main schools in the article.Main thoughts of the six schools were summarized and their merits and demerits were analyzed in the article.It said,the Great Annotation of Yi said that all kinds of measures were taken by all the people of the world for a certain purpose.Governing the whole world was the certain and same aim of the six different schools,which were known as Yinyang,Confucianist,Mohist,Namingist,Legalist,while the opinions and measures of them were different in some ways.Some of their theories were echoing down and study by the later scholars while the other were not.In the article Daoism were named as “Daode school”,which was close to the opinion “regarding both Dao and De as noble” of Laozi.At the same time we could know that both Dao and De were important opinions and elements of Daoism in the eyes of scholars of Han dynasty.It was 77 times that the character “Dao” while 45 times the character “De” appeared in Laozi as I counted.Though the frequency of “De” appeared in the book was less than “Dao”,showing that the status of “De” was lower than “Dao”,it still an important opinion and element the “De” was in the Daoism.It was greatly long the history of the thought of “De” had,the writing form of “De” was shaped during Zhou dynasty,and the matched political ideology showed great maturity.Phrases “brilliant De” and “fine De” appeared in inscriptions of bronze objects with a high frequency,which belonging to monarchs as a kind of quality,carrying the asks for legality of political power of Zhou’s people.The experience of destruction of Shang dynasty was summarized,the ideology of “matching one’s De to the domination of Tian(or the highest lord)” was established by Zhou’s people.It was the main opinion that Tian preferred the monarchs who possessing De of this kind of ideology.But this explanation system was subjected to huge impact by the destruction of Western Zhou dynasty and the evolution of society.It would started from the research of the writing form of “De” in this paper,inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells and bronze objects would be analyzed for studying the original meaning of “De”,while the origin and development of“De” would also be analyzed simultaneously.The Western Zhou dynasty went to its end,the politics of Eastern Zhou dynasty took a sharp turn for the worse,the flourishing of culture and ideology was the reflection of the political chaos.The ideology of“De” gained brand new life when it was reconstructed by Confucius and Laozi,becoming animate again.“De” was reconstructed dimensionally by Daoism represented by Laozi,what’s different from the ethical reconstruction by Confucius.A longitudinal dimension taking “practicing De or not” as standards was constructed which was based on the former complanate dimension with “goodness” and “evilness”,“virtual” and “immorality” as standards.“De” became a concept with more solidarity and concretization.Meanwhile,the “De” of “Dao”was name “Xuande” in Laozi,which was the ideal monarchs should learn from.The explanation and discussing towards “De” in Laozi and Zhuangzi was more concrete.The proposition that what kind of people were owning “De” inside themselves got more concentration in Zhuangzi while the book set great concentration to the self-spiritual practicing.The political connotation of the concept “De” in Laozi and Zhuangzi’s school of Daoism would be demonstrated,the origin and evolution of the concept would be analyzed in the second part of this paper.As another different school of Daoism,the school of Huangdi had less influence in history,because of the lack of its own documents.The unearthed document Four Books of Huangdi from Mawangdui in 1972 uncovered a part of the truth of this school.Now the book was regarded as an achievement of Jixia school.Although “Dao” was still important in the book,but the book absorbed the advantages and good opinions of any other schools.“De” in the book was regarded as a kind of tools to govern the whole world,whose meaning was close to “grace”,while both it and punishment were used simultaneously.The concept “De”would be analyzed and demonstrated,the similarity and difference of “De” of this school also would be study in the third part of this paper.The fact could be found that the concept “De” gained different connotation from different branches of Daoism,then great influence on the later society was produced.The great influence of the concept “De” of Daoism would be analyzed and demonstrated in the last part of this paper.The influence on the three aspects: cultural,social and political,would acquire more attention in this part. |
