Dong Zhongshu, born in 179 BC, was a philosopher in the Western Han Dynasty. He was a famous scholar of modern literature in the Spring and Autumn Period of Yang Gong in the Western Han Dynasty. Emperor Jingdi was a doctor and Emperor Wudi was a sage. He advocated combining Confucianism with the needs of the society at that time, absorbing the theories of other schools and creating a new ideological system with Confucianism as the core.

The core of Dong Zhongshu's political philosophy is the theory of great unity, including territorial integrity, political unity and ideological unity. Dong Zhongshu experienced four dynasties and the heyday of the Western Han Dynasty, and died in BC 104. His only works are The Story of the Spring and Autumn Annals, and Shu Dong's original works are lost, which should be collected and edited by later generations.

Extended data

Dong Zhongshu thinks:

Dong Zhongshu put forward a series of very important philosophical thoughts for the rulers at that time by summarizing the political experience in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Dong Zhongshu emphasized the rule of virtue, and extended the idea of governing the country by virtue on the basis of the induction between man and nature, which played a very far-reaching role in promoting the social development at that time. Dong Zhongshu said that these thoughts were summed up by saints from the sky, and everyone must abide by them, which embodies the theocratic concept of group power, and was deeply valued by the rulers at that time, which had a great influence on later generations' thoughts.

In a word, Dong Xue is a combination of "six arts" and "the skill of Confucius" in the pre-Qin period, which is based on the hybridization, grafting, slapping, perfunctory and transformation of various theories including Yin and Yang, Five Elements, Confucianism, Taoism and Mohism, name, miscellaneous and even techniques.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Dong Zhongshu