Biography of Dong Zhongshu

Author: Wang Yongxiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-04-01
Features: This biographical study begins with the era in which Dong Zhongshu lived, drawing on the social contradictions and tasks, the state of natural sciences, and the evolution of academic thought during the Qin and Han dynasties. It briefly outlines Dong Zhongshu's life—his studies in classics, his career in government, and his construction of the feudal theoretical framework. The focus is on his reformed Confucian system: the cosmology of natural theism, the teleology of "Heaven and Man's" (response), the of "change with constancy," the epistemology of distinguishing physical reality and the true will of Heaven, the theory of "human nature improves with education," the feudal ethical thought centered on "the Three Bonds and the Five Constant Virtues," the evolutionary historical view of reforming governance and adapting rituals to people, the theory of the "Kingly Way" dependent on Heaven, the doctrine of the unity of Confucianism, the reformist idea of "transforming the chaos," and thus clarifying Dong Zhongshu's position in Chinese history and the history of academic thought. This book breaks the conventional view of Dong Zhongshu as a reactionary thinker and re-establishes his image as a progressive intellectual who dared to reform and govern during the ascending period of the feudal society.