华夏德性政制史论微

Abstract

Imperial China regime can be defined as virtue regime and the basic conflict is between aristocratic families and monarchs. Strong aristocratic families’ powers would lead to a good virtue situation but poor governance of the monarchs; on the contrary, the centralized power of the monarchs would lead to strong governance but a poor virtue situation. In the system of ritual of Zhou, the hierarchy status comes from the heaven, and certain status requires proper virtue. In the Spring and Autumn periods, status and its proper virtue can not match with each other anymore, and virtue became rootless. In such a situation, Confucius generalized the basic principle of the ritual of Zhou as “respect”(敬), which separated the form of the ritual and the principle of the ritual. Besides, he emphasized that there must be a principle of “benevolence”(仁), which means to love others. Mencius emphasized the principle of “humility”(让), which was the ground of propriety, and he thought that the person who had certain virtue should hold proper status. Therefore, Mencius overturned the previous order of status and virtue, and set up a different paradigm and a new political principle of benevolence politics. The “chaju”(察举) system in Han dynasty came from the principle of Mencius, and it was the fundamental of the virtue regime of the two thousand years imperial period. From Han to East Jin(东晋), the aristocratic families were very strong, and, even at the end of East Jin dynasty, some aristocratic families can claim to share the state with the emperor. In Tang dynasty, the centralized power of the monarchs is strong, and the imperial examination was a way to weaken the influence of aristocratic families. As a result, when the aristocratic families were controlled and declined, virtues became rootless; and, at the end of Tang dynasty, the moral condition of the state was deteriorated. In Song dynasty, New-Confucianism flourished, and scholars tried to rebuild well-known families and to reconstruct moral principles. For example, Chengyi (程颐) advocated family tree; Zhangzai (张载) explained the patriarchal institution; Fan Zhongyan (范仲淹) practiced yitian (义田)；Zhuxi (朱熹) wrote Family Ritual (《家礼》). As a result, the well-known families and virtue revived. Meanwhile, how to avoid the threat of aristocratic families to monarchs became a problem. Till Ming dynasty, Qiujun (丘浚) recommended the ritual of Yin(殷) to set the principle of love due to relatives (亲亲之爱) above the decreasing measures of the love due to relatives (亲亲之杀), thus, avoiding the decreasing measures of the love due to relatives became the steps in the honor due to worthy (尊尊之等) of the state. Western political institutions deeply influenced modern Chinese society, and the traditional moral was fiercely criticized. The Revolution of 1911 destroyed the union of institution and virtue in imperial period, and caused the virtue lost its foundation. How to unite the democratic tradition of West with Chinese tradition of loving relatives and benevolence? In this article, the author suggests a way of “quasi-family”(拟家族), which might unite the traditions of both West and East, and make the traditional Chinese culture a solid foundation of constitutionism.