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The Aspect of transition of responsibility which was worked in the before Qin period in ancient China

천영미 1

1성신여자대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to investigate that the main ruling mechanism which was found in Chinese thought of the Before Qin Dynasty was "Responsibility". Until now, existing studies divided that age into Eun[殷] Dynasty, Ju[周] Dynasty, and the Warring states period[春秋戰國時代] and studied ancient Chinese thought in the context of history. But if we continue to study according to this pattern, we make mistakes of missing the core factors. So we can fix their characteristics such as Eun[殷] Dynasty is under theocrazi, Ju[周] Dynasty is under Heaven's will, and the Warring states period[春秋戰國時代] is under promotion of morality and powerful legislation to recover the stability in society. But if we investigate the thought of the Before Qin Dynasty through prism of responsibility, we can rediscover overlooking factors in existing studies. So in this study, I captured an aspect of responsibility which was born in Eun[殷] Dynasty under theocrazi and tried to investigate about that. Also, in Ju[周] Dynasty ruling system, I found their innovative politics plan. The leader of Ju[周] Dynasty captured skeptical view about eternity of Heaven's will and leader's responsibility in the end of Eun[殷] Dynasty and accepted them very actively. Their trial like this was unheard of plan and established a new direction in ancient Chinese politics. After Ju[周] Dynasty's ruling order was collapsed, lots of confusions were resulted in. At last the king of Je[齊], Huangong[桓公], suggested Hegemony[覇道] to recover stability in society. So in this study, I tried to investigate that Hegemony was planning politics system by expression of leader's responsibility, not dogmatic military power. Through this process, I could find the serious meaning and role of Hegemony which was run by the king of Je[齊], Huangong[桓公]. Confucius[孔子] expanded responsibility from partial leaders to each person. So in this study, I tried to investigate the aspect of responsibility in the Warring states period[春秋戰國時代]. And then I found that the unity of society could be achieved on the basis of each person's responsibility. After Confucius' death, lots of fights broke into for survival and domination in the Warring states period[春秋戰國時代]. Mozi[墨子] thought that Confucianists lost their will and ability for the Confucius' Benevolence[仁] realization. Because they were indulged into excessive etiquette, music, and ceremony, they lost the essence of Confucius' thought. So in this study, I tried to focus on Mozi[墨子]'s innovative system and found that he suggested the realization of public welfare as a solution to recover stability in society. In the end of the Warring states period[春秋戰國時代], unshakable legislations by tyranny of leader and abuse of power were asked. So in this study, I investigated about legislation of Shang Yang, school of law[法家]. And then I found out that his legislation was very different from Han Fei Tzu[韓非子]'s. Shang Yang's legislation is powerful, reasonable, fair, and it had a great achievement about enforcement of fair law at the first time in ancient China.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.