38 Dong Zhongshu

Made Confucius Thought The Ruling Doctrine

Dong Zhongshu (179-104 BC) was an iconic Ru (Confucius) scholar during the time of Emperor Wudi of Han Dynasty. He had been an official for a short time, then set up a school teaching students. The Emperor had often invited him for advice when meeting some big and knotty problems. As in that said in piece 31, when Emperor Wudi took the thrown, the empire was in a new point of “take-off”. Dong Zhongshu offered Wudi a presentation Way for selecting talents, in which he brought forward the idea of “make Ru School the ruling doctrine and dismiss all other schools of thought”. He stressed on the importance of practicing “Three Principles” and “Five Virtues” to build new social orders.

About three principles, Dong said: On the basis of natural rule of “interaction between Heaven (God) and human being”, Emperor was the son of Heaven, and ruled people on Heaven’s behalf. Dong’s three principles were: Emperor dominated people (including official), father dominated son, husband dominated wife. Three principles could help strengthen centralized power and improve social order.

About five virtues, Dong revised Mencius’ idea, held: Human’s kind-heart must be cultivated through education (Mencius said only “Man was kind-hearted in origin”).So Dong suggested educating people with three Virtues: Love, Righteousness, Politeness, Wisdom and Honesty. The five virtues had become the norm of behavior for Chinese all walks of life for thousands of years.

The historical contribution of Don Zhongshu was that he made Ru (Confucius) School the national dominating doctrine, and honored Confucius as the greatest sage and teacher in Chinese history.