(East-West Question) Zhang Jian: How did the relationship between the "governor-master-subordinate" and "government-master-auxiliary" come into being in ancient China?
China News Agency, Beijing, April 25th: How did the relationship between "political bishop and subordinate" in ancient China form?
Author Zhang Jian, Professor of Renmin University of China, Director of the Education Communication and Popularization Committee of the International Confucian Federation
The historical characteristics of the relationship between state and church in ancient China are generally called "government bishop subordination" and "government bishop assistant", which are not exactly the same as "theocracy", "state religion rule" or "state church separation" in other parts of the world.
To explain this problem, we must first analyze the causes of the characteristics of the relationship between state and church.
In the five thousand years of world civilization history, thousands of religions have emerged, and correspondingly, various political-religious relationships have been formed.
From the perspective of studying the relationship between state and religion, we divide the political system into three levels, namely political power, political ideology and political culture.
Political power is the core element of the political system, and whoever controls the political power plays a leading role in national politics.
The formation of political culture is not only the result of ideological propaganda, but also formed by the combined influence of a country's long-term history and culture and the actual social, economic and political conditions.
"Qianlong style copper gilt inlaid turquoise pagoda".
Photo by China News Agency reporter Hou Yu
Once religion and political power are combined, the deepest form of the combination of church and state relations is formed—theocracy.
Its basic feature is the combination of religious leaders and kingship, or the religious leader is the king, or the king is also the religious leader. Religion is the ideology of the country and dominates the political culture of the people.
In such a country or region, religion is the only social ideology, and it dominates all other forms of culture.
The second form of state-religion relationship is "state-religious rule", mainly referring to the Middle Ages in Europe.
At this time, political and religious power and religious organizations had been separated, but since Christianity was the common belief of all European countries at that time, the monarchs of various countries had to ask the pope or bishop to perform anointing and coronation for them if they wanted to obtain political legitimacy.
During this period, all European countries regarded Christianity as the national religion, so people also called this state-religious relationship "the rule of the state religion." Christianity became the ultimate standard for social judgment, and the religious court became the highest legal institution.
The third form is Western politics of "separation of state and religion", which first appeared in modern times in European countries with the most intense and darkest conflicts between state and religion in the Middle Ages.
Its manifestation is: the legitimacy of political power is based on the theory of popular sovereignty, and the power of managers comes from the consent of the managed, and is subject to the supervision of the managed.
Religion is separated from public power and becomes a purely private affair, mainly addressing the spiritual beliefs of the people.
In the field of political culture, "Jewish-Christian" thought is still the deep cultural gene of the political legitimacy of modern western countries.
The "separation of state and religion" cannot be understood as the fact that religion no longer plays any role, but that religion cannot directly enter political power, and the role of religion has entered the political and cultural field at the bottom of society.
The vast majority of medieval countries in the world took a certain religion as their political ideology, and China was one of the few exceptions.
Since the "Axial Age" in ancient China, traditional religions have been marginalized.
Confucius is the founder of Confucian culture, inheriting the tradition of Duke Zhou of "matching heaven with virtue".
Although he did not deny the existence of "mandate of heaven", he attached importance to various religious sacrificial activities, and the focus of Confucianism had completely shifted to the aspect of the human world.
As far as Confucius' political philosophy is concerned, he put forward the "rule of virtue" of "governance with virtue", "the rule of law with virtue, and the rule of law with propriety", in order to compete with the "rule of law" of the Legalists.
In the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the great Confucianist Dong Zhongshu used the theory of Yin and Yang as an intermediary to integrate the political thoughts of Legalism, Taoism, and Mohism into the Confucian system, and established a Confucian political science system of "morality dominates punishment" and "unification of Spring and Autumn". With the strong support of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the construction of the Chinese imperial social and political ideology of "removing all schools of thought and respecting only Confucianism" was completed.
In September 2021, the Confucian Temple in Changchun City, Jilin Province will hold an antique sacrificial activity to commemorate the 2572nd birthday of Confucius.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Yao
When Confucian scholars constructed their own political theories during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, they would inevitably encounter the problem of the relationship between politics and religion. Some of Confucius's expositions laid the foundation for the Confucian religious view.
"You don't talk about strangeness, strength, chaos, and spirit." "If you don't know life, how can you know death."
However, Confucius also attached great importance to various religious sacrificial activities, because "be careful to pursue the distant future, and the people's morality will return to the people", and religion is an important means to educate the people.
Therefore, Confucius put forward "the righteousness of serving the people, respecting ghosts and gods and keeping them far away", which is a kind of understanding inheritance of traditional religion.
Confucian scholars after the Warring States Period, based on Confucius' view on religion, interpreted the ancient religions since three generations and put forward the political proposition that "the saints teach with Shinto, and the world obeys", and regard religion as the implementation of political education. Tool of".
Under the transformation of Confucian scholars, the ancient religion of three generations of political and religious integration has become the "ritual religion" after the Qin and Han dynasties, including "sacrificing to the sky", "sacrificing ancestors", "sacrificing the society and rice" and other national sacrificial activities. Theological symbols.
However, the traditional religion at that time only had concepts and etiquette, and there was no religious organization, so no one could stand against the political power. It was just a political culture attached to the Confucian ideological system.
After the Han Dynasty, various religions that came from foreign countries and were born in the country could neither be combined with political power nor become the political ideology of the country. This determined that various religions in China could only be in a politically subordinate position. , play an auxiliary political role at the political and cultural level.
As Dao’an, a Buddhist monk in the Eastern Jin Dynasty said: “If you don’t obey the lord of the country, it will be difficult to establish the law.” Of course, some religions have played a role in opposing the current regime and become the spiritual arm of the rebels. Without exception, they will be ruthlessly attacked by the current regime. .
The thousand-year-old ancient temple "Lingyan Temple" was built in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Daozheng
An example of an ancient Chinese social and religious auxiliary political example is the identification with the "three cardinal guides and five constants" (the three cardinal guides refer to the father as the son, the ruler as the minister, the husband as the wife, and the five permanents usually refer to benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith). preach.
"Three cardinal guides" are the principles of social and political operation, and "five constants" are the basic ethics of society.
Any foreign religion entering China must express its attitude on this.
Identifying with the "three cardinal guides" is the political identification of foreign religions, and identifying with the "five constants" is the cultural and ethical identification of foreign religions.
For example, when Buddhism was first introduced to China, Zhi Qian, a layman from the Yuezhi Kingdom in the Eastern Wu Dynasty, translated the "Buddha's Said Amitabha Sutra" and said: "If you teach and follow all the precepts, then the ruler will lead him into goodness, and the minister will be taught, the father will teach his son, and the brother will teach him. Brothers, husbands teach their wives. Relatives and friends inside and outside the family, in turn teach words to teach goodness and Taoism.” Although the method of educating the people in Buddhism is different from that of Confucianism, in the process of educating, it is also the monarch who teaches the minister, the father who teaches the son, and the brother who teaches the brother. Brother, husband and wife, it is completely in line with the master-slave order stipulated in the "Three Cards".
Qi Song, an eminent monk in the Song Dynasty, used the Buddhist "five precepts" to interpret the Confucian "five constants", and used religious theology to assist in the demonstration of "the ethics of the basics".
In order to demonstrate the rationality of the existence of Islam in China, the Hui Confucian Wang Daiyu of the Ming Dynasty put forward the theory of "dual loyalty".
He said: "The three main things in life are to obey the Lord, the monarch, and the relatives." "Shunjun" and "shun relatives" mean the recognition of the "three cardinal guides".
He also used Islam's "five powers" (recitation, ritual, fasting, class, and court) to interpret the Confucian "five constants": he believes that reciting the scriptures and not forgetting the Lord is benevolence, giving the gift of God to the poor is righteousness, and worshiping God It is ritual to worship the ruler and relatives, to abstain from self-nature as wisdom, to perform pilgrimage and to keep promises and faith.
The full recognition of Chinese culture has made Islam and China's patriarchal social system compatible with each other.
Linxia Gongbei.
"Gongbei" is the name of the mausoleum of the Chinese Islamic sages, which is an Arabic transliteration.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee issued by China News Agency
In the late Ming Dynasty, Christianity was introduced into the Central Plains again, also under the banner of "aiding Confucianism" and "replenishing Confucianism", and appeared as an aid to politics.
Matteo Ricci introduced Catholicism to Chinese scholar-officials in the book "The True Meaning of God". In the "Introduction to the True Meaning of God", which is equivalent to the introduction to the whole book, he pointed out at the outset: "The rule of law is the only one, so the sages advise people to use Loyalty. Loyalty is like no two. The five relationships are the monarch, and the monarch and the minister are the first of the three cardinal guides. A man of justice, this is a clear trip." Matteo Ricci has a profound understanding of Chinese society, culture, and classics. Understand, know that the core value of Chinese society at that time is "three guidelines and five constants", and "the ruler is the guide of the ministers" is the core of the ethics of guidelines.
It is precisely because Matteo Ricci's Sinicization of Catholicism has won the support of many scholars and even the emperor.
So Xu Guangqi did not find any conflict between Christianity and Confucianism after reading "The True Meaning of God".
He said: "Among the thousands of words, it is impossible to ask for a single word that is not in line with the main purpose of loyalty and filial piety, or to ask for a single word that is not beneficial to the human heart and the world."
The final result of ancient Chinese religious governance is the formation of a political-dominated, religious-actively assisted state-religious relationship model, whose historical experience can provide reference for contemporary social governance.
(Finish)
About the Author:
Zhang Jian, male, Han nationality, was born in March 1953.
Professor of the School of Continuing Education of Renmin University of China, a specially-appointed expert of the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee, the vice president of the International Confucian Association, the director of the Popularization Committee, the visiting professor of the Central Institute of Socialism, and the dean of the Nishan Shengyuan Academy.
He has long been engaged in the research work on the history of Chinese religion and Chinese philosophy.
Independently completed or co-authored: "General History of Chinese Religion" (Volume 2 and 2), "History of Political and Religious Relations in Ancient China", "Religion, Politics and Nation", "Social Theoretical Investigation of Ethnic Religions", "Ethnic and Religious Policies in China's Past Dynasties", "Comparison of the History of Political and Religious Relations between China and the West" He has published more than 20 books, including "Research", "Confucianism and Chinese Religion", "History of World Religions in the Middle Ages", etc., and published more than 200 papers such as "Confucianism and Chinese Politics", "The Formation of Confucian Religious Views and Its Historical Influence", and "National Religious Policy and National Unity". articles.