Biography of Dong Zhongshu

Author: Wang Yongxiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1995-09-01
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 in the Qin and Han dynasties. It succinctly 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 phenomena and the true will of Heaven, the theory of "human nature improves through education," the feudal ethical thought centered around "the Three Bonds" and "the Five Constant Virtues," the evolutionary historical view of reforming according to Heaven and regulating rites according to humanity, the theory of the "Kingly Way" dependent on Heaven, the doctrine of the unity of Confucianism, the idea that reform in chaotic times must involve "transformation," and thus clarifying Dong Zhongshu's position in Chinese history and the history of academic thought. This book breaks the previous stereotype of viewing Dong Zhongshu as a reactionary thinker, instead portraying him as a progressive intellectual who dared to reform and govern during the ascending period of the feudal society.