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Article
Research on Dong Zhongshu’s Five Elements Thought
Author(s)
WEI Keyin
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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2023.11.003
Affiliation(s)
Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
ABSTRACT
Dong Zhongshu reordered the Five Elements, that is, wood, fire, soil, gold, and water, and believed that this was the order given by heaven and could not be changed. The Five Elements are related to each other. The relationship between the two adjacent to each other is the relationship of generation and father-son; the relationship between the two separated is reciprocal. The soil is in the middle, and the soil has the noblest morality. Therefore, Dong Zhongshu’s view of “Filial piety is natural” originates from the father-son relationship between the Five Elements and the nobility of soil virtue. According to the Five Elements, the state management should set up five kinds of official posts in order to achieve the purpose of interdependence, mutual restriction, balance, and promotion. Dong Zhongshu matched the Five Elements with the four seasons, and believed that each of the Five Elements had its own virtues, and thus extended it to the virtues of the monarch. Dong Zhongshu linked the Five Elements with the five things, thinking that the five things of the king will affect the Five Elements; the five things are appearance, speech, sight, listening, thinking, which is given by heaven. To govern the country and the people the king must have five important cultivations.
KEYWORDS
Dong Zhongshu, Five Elements, the Five Elements intergrowth, the Five Elements overcoming, five things, Book Chunqiu Fanlu
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