How to learn the ideas of Confucianism during the Northern Wei Dynasty

For the intellectuals at that time, metaphysics naturally had its value, but when the leaders who held important positions in the state began to only talk about metaphysics and did not pay attention to practical work, the country often came to the brink of extinction. The reason why Confucianism, which has been highly respected by the rulers since the Han Dynasty, has been subverted by metaphysics is as follows:

1.The situation of endless conquest at the end of the Han Dynasty completely broke the ideal situation in Confucianism;

2.In order to avoid the trouble, many forces chose to delve into metaphysics so as not to be killed;

3.The growing growth of metaphysics makes it necessary for even the big families to achieve the goal of entering the government through metaphysical learning.

The original idea for academic discussion has become a lot of obsessions that refuse to let go, and those issues that are really related to people's livelihood and suffering have been abandoned, which also indirectly led to the chaos of the country during the Jin Dynasty.

1. The environment provided by troubled times In ancient times, no matter what kind of ideas the ruler wanted to promote, his fundamental purpose was to use the content to better control the people, and then help him rule a country for a long time. However, with the rise of the princes at the end of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty was left with an empty shell without deterrence, and many people also strongly questioned the legitimacy of Confucianism. <>

Second, in order to better eradicate dissidents and control the entire court, political forces and parties vying for fame and prestige will exclude all those who do not agree with their own ideas. In order to be able to escape such a turmoil, many people had to show their indisputable position with the world by studying metaphysics, so many people who studied metaphysics at that time were only superficial. <>

Third, it is necessary to maintain the gate valve, but as this fashion continues to ferment in the court, the forces that really control the situation will also favor those who study metaphysics in the process of selecting talents. In order to ensure that the younger generations of his family can smoothly inherit the glory of the family, it has become a habit to teach metaphysics from an early age. <>

Do you know any famous people who have made great achievements in metaphysics?

Because the imperial court was very turbulent at that time, and many people hyped up metaphysics in order to eradicate dissidents, many people did not dare to talk about Confucianism anymore.

It was because the emperor at that time admired metaphysics very much, so he began to promote the civil and military officials to suppress Confucianism, and in this case, Confucianism was gradually replaced.

This is because Confucianism at that time was no longer in line with the development of society, and it was also inconsistent with the system of the government, and metaphysics also appeared, which was very in line with the development of the times at that time, so it was slowly replaced by metaphysics in the end.

Confucianism in the Han and Tang dynasties was Confucianism in the form of refined learning.

Confucianism in the Han and Tang dynasties was an important period in the development of Confucianism in China, occupying an orthodox position in the field of social ideology. It was inherited from the pre-Qin Confucianism, suffered a heavy blow by the Qin Dynasty's book burning and pit Confucianism, and later benefited from the influence of Dong Zhongshu's "depose the hundred schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone", and the Confucianism developed in the Han and Tang dynasties adapted to the patriarchal society, the largest social existence at that time.

Confucianism in the Han and Tang dynasties synthesized the ideas of various schools of thought in philosophy, and integrated them with Buddhism and Taoism, which promoted the gradual transformation of the cosmic model of heaven and man into ontological philosophy, and developed in the process of rejection and compatibility of various schools and schools. However, in the study of scriptures, the cumbersome way of emphasizing the scriptures and interpreting them has made Confucianism a classic, and it has its side of being relatively backward in the requirements of social development.

This also laid the groundwork for the development of Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, and also put forward new requirements for the innovation of Confucianism in the Song Dynasty. The Confucian doctrine of benevolence and love for the people was not reused in the Qin Dynasty, which valued the rule of law, and suffered a heavy blow under the extreme cultural policies of the Qin Shi Queen.

Later, the Han Dynasty destroyed the Qin, which provided an opportunity for the revival of Confucianism. Confucian scholars have also been making their own efforts for the arrival of this opportunity: they either devote themselves to the study of doctrines, or simply join the peasant rebels at the end of the Qin Dynasty, and seek new political survival space for their doctrines with "revolutionary" actions.

The development of Confucianism:

"Hundred schools of thought" and the formation of Confucianism, Confucius and early Confucianism: In the late Spring and Autumn period, Confucius founded the school of Confucianism. The core of Confucius's thought is "benevolence".

He demanded that people should love each other, get along with each other, be tolerant of others, and "do not do unto others as you would have them do unto you." He stressed that rulers should rule the people with virtue and oppose harsh government and arbitrary torture.

He hoped to restore the ritual and music system of the Western Zhou Dynasty, "Ke has reinstated the rites", so that everyone's behavior meets the requirements of etiquette. Confucius pioneered the private reform of the lack of pedestrians to give lectures, advocating "education without class", breaking the monopoly of culture and education by the aristocracy. Confucius was revered by later generations as "the master of all ages" and "the most holy".

During the Warring States period, Mencius and Xunzi were two representatives of Confucianism.

Mencius pretended to be "benevolent government", and further put forward the people-oriented idea of "the people are precious, the society is secondary, and the monarch is light", and advocated that "nature is inherently good" in terms of ethics, and it is necessary to implement benevolent government to restore and expand people's goodness. Xunzi advocated convincing people with virtue, and put forward the famous thesis of "Junzhou and People's Water", emphasizing that the power of the people is huge.

Xunzi proposed "sex is evil", emphasizing the use of etiquette and music to regulate people's behavior and make people good. After the transformation and development of Mencius and Xunzi, the Confucian system was more complete, and Confucianism was more able to meet the needs of society. In the late Warring States period, Confucianism developed into a great sect among the hundreds of princes.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Confucianism in the Han Dynasty dominated the world, and the situation of being in a supremacy position was broken, and with the rise of Taoism, Buddhism was introduced and prevailed, and the development of Confucianism was severely challenged.

The Confucian theories of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties lagged behind. In the more than 300 years of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, there was not a single Confucian master. Apart from the development of atheism, there has been little progress in philosophical ontology.

Although Fan Zhen put forward the concept of "the quality of the form of the god, and the use of the form of the god", which has the significance of the theory of body use, it has not been fully discussed. Compared with the philosophy of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, it has not advanced much. Compared with the ontology of Buddhism, it is a big step behind.

Although Confucianism was broken and in decline during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the tradition of Confucianism was not interrupted. Because of this, Confucianism in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and the subsequent Confucianism in the Sui and Tang dynasties have gone through a tortuous development process and have become an important stage of development of the two Han Dynasty classics and the Song and Ming dynasties.

There are many views on the decline of Confucianism in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties periods, and even exist.

In general, it is better, with the foreshadowing of the previous "dethrone the hundred schools of thought and respect Confucianism", the main ideas of people at that time were basically Confucian. At the time of Emperor Xiaowen's reform, he also proposed a rule of "learning the etiquette of the Han people, respecting Confucius, governing the country with filial piety, advocating the atmosphere of respecting the elderly and providing for the elderly." It can be seen that the development of Confucianism at that time was still relatively good.

This Confucianism stagnated during the Wei and Jin dynasties, when metaphysics was prevalent, very empty, and a kind of metaphysical idealism.

During this period, people liked to talk about Lao Zhuang's Taoist metaphysics, and the development of Confucianism was sluggish during this period. . .

After the introduction of modern Western civilization into China, Confucianism has gone through four stages of development: preparation, germination, transmutation, and initiation under the conditions of collision and integration of Chinese and Western civilizations.

a) Preparation stage. From the Opium War to the Wuxu Reform is the preparatory stage of modern Neo-Confucianism, which is mainly manifested in the fact that Confucian scholars passively accept some contents of Western civilization under the impact of Western civilization in order to strive for self-improvement.

b) Embryonic stage. From the Wuxu Reform to the Xinhai Revolution was the embryonic stage of Neo-Confucianism, which was mainly manifested in the increasingly mature social reform ideas of Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and others, that is, using Confucianism to explain the reform ideas. His representative works include "The Book of Datong" and so on.

3) Transmutation stage. On the basis of learning from the experience of Western democracy and thinking about the maladministration of the West, Sun Wen imitated the Confucian system and established the theory of civil rights and the theory of separation of political power and the separation of powers. In the "Founding Strategy", Mu imitated Zhou Li, formulated very detailed procedures and rituals such as "meeting" and "motion"; In the speech of "Nationalism", the Confucian morality of "loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, faithfulness, and peace" was restored as the basis for the rejuvenation of the nation; In the lecture of "Civil Rights", the Confucian concept of "sages, sages, intelligence, mediocrity and stupidity" is used to explain the distinction between true equality and false equality; In the lecture of "Minshengism", the Datongism advocated by Confucianism is used as a synonym for Minshengism and socialism.

4) The stage of opening the case. From the May Fourth Movement to the founding of New China, it was the beginning of Neo-Confucianism. At this stage, it is mainly manifested in the research of Confucianism that Liang Suming, Zhang Junli, Xiong Shili and others began to carry out under the banner of "Neo-Confucianism".

The political basis for the founding of Neo-Confucianism was that the official ideology of the time, the Three People's Principles, contained Confucianism. This stage is characterized by the fact that the activities of Neo-Confucianism are mainly embodied in the field of thought; The goal of Neo-Confucianism is to interpret and develop Confucianism under the premise of bridging Chinese and Western cultures. His representative works include Liang Suming's "Rural Construction" and He Lin's "The New Development of Confucianism".

The main achievements are Xiong Shili's inheritance of the "Neo-Confucianism Thought System" constructed by Wang Xinxue and Feng Youlan's "New Philosophy". Generally speaking, Neo-Confucianism is basically based on the "inner sage and outer king" of Confucianism, and it appeared at a time when Confucianism was widely condemned.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucianism was born During the Qin Dynasty, it was stifled because it contradicted the needs of the rulers During the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu put forward the idea of "deposing the hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone" and was adopted by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Confucianism became the orthodox ideology Song and Yuan dynasties Confucianism integrated the ideas of Buddhism and Taoism The emergence of the "Three Religions and Confucianism" Cheng Zhu Lixue and Lu Wang Xinxue further consolidated the position of Confucianism During the Ming and Qing dynasties, capitalism sprouted and some Confucian scholars who followed the trend appeared, such as: Li Zhen, Huang Zongxi, Gu Yanwu, Wang Fuzhi Late Qing Dynasty During the New Culture Movement, because Yuan Shikai proposed "respecting Confucius and restoring Confucianism", some radical patriots even put forward the slogan of "Down with Confucius", and now people put forward a dialectical view of Confucius's thoughts