Mencius said, "He who fills humanity with strength dominates it.
King of benevolence and virtue. "
Persuading people with strength and reasoning are the fundamental differences between them.
It is indeed the nature of tyrants to convince others by force, but in the Spring and Autumn Period, even bullying must be carried out in a false sense of justice. While convincing people with strength, the five tyrants can also appeal to respect the king to resist foreign countries; The hegemony of legalists in the Warring States period needed no reason except force. However, those who practice kingship must be rational and powerful, otherwise, justice or justice will still be difficult to be done.
Hegemony advocates politics and force, and rapidly promotes the skill of "strengthening the country" (Biography of Historical Records and Shang Jun). Its principles and purposes (such as respecting the king and making Qiang Bing rich) are not beautiful, but they are often just the banner of internal exploitation and external plunder, just a cover for deceiving people, with completely different purposes.
That is to say, as far as the five hegemony in the Spring and Autumn Period is concerned, its effect is only partial justice, local and short-term international stability, and it is impossible to fundamentally resolve disputes, resulting in a long-term world political situation.
Legalists inherited and developed hegemonic political thoughts and methods.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the five tyrants could rectify the world by faith. By the time of the Warring States Period, legalists had all turned to bullying by intelligence and conquering by force, helping the Qin Dynasty win and achieving the goal of "covering the world" and "governing the world".
China has the idea of advocating "great unification", but how to realize it is a relatively principled issue.
Therefore, the evaluation of this ending in history has always been more destructive than reputation.
Wang Dao advocates benevolence and courtesy (benevolence is called virtue in cultivation and virtue in management; Seeing that the law defines the system as a ritual system, the moral standard is higher than the pursuit of political achievements (the king puts morality first, followed by things), and emphasizes the long-term stability of society by winning over people's hearts.
The thought of kingship is a political proposition put forward by Confucianism against hegemonic political thoughts and behaviors.
Although the hegemony of "respecting the king and rejecting the foreign countries" contributed a lot, it was mixed with too much self-interest. Therefore, Qi Huangong, the first of the five tyrants, was ridiculed by Confucius as "rude" and criticized Guan Zhong as "petty".
When Mencius met with Qi Xuanwang, he didn't talk about "Qi Huan and Jinwen" to show his position of "valuing the king and despising the tyrant".
In fact, I realized that bullying was not enough to fundamentally eradicate the decline and chaos in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
Pursuing the idea of kingly way is not to ignore utility, but to build utility on a more humane, far-reaching and reasonable solid foundation. The ultimate goal is still "Great Harmony in the World", and an ideal political environment suitable for human life will be established on a larger scale.
Although Wang Dao is difficult to do, its theory has been deeply rooted in people's hearts.
Thus, military strategists also regard "defeating the enemy without fighting" and "attaching the enemy to the distance" as the highest realm of war.
It can be seen that its influence is far-reaching.
What needs to be pointed out here is that Qi Huan's epigraphy hegemony is different from legalist hegemony, but has something in common with Wang Dao, which adapts to the needs of social development and makes due historical contributions.
But it puts its role in international affairs more on its own interests and lacks higher political ideals, so it can't maintain its hegemonic cause in the end.
In this regard, Ru Song and Lv Zuqian commented: "If the trend of the world is not prosperous, it will decline, and if the world does not advance, it will retreat.
If you are strong enough to stop here, you can't stay strong; If you stop at hegemony, you will not be able to protect it.
"(The Meeting of Kuiqiu in Donglai Boyi)" Strong and stop at strong, and hegemony and stop at hegemony, especially in small ears ". We should expand our mind and improve our political realm. "Being king for a tyrant is the best place in the world" and expect to meet the wishes of all people in the world. This is the ultimate goal we should pursue.
Throughout the history of later generations, in the process of China's successive reunification, all the teachers of kings who can "hang the people to fight" often dominate one side by seeking strength, and then achieve their great achievements in kingship.
Although kingly politics has never really been realized in the history of China, and the so-called "peaceful and prosperous times" mostly belong to "Farewell My Concubine" or "Confucians' Yin Law" and "Confucians' Outside Law", people have never given up their pursuit of this political ideal.
Pure ideal only exists in academic theory, which can only be used as the guidance and evaluation standard of practice, not as the only way.
In view of the historical reality, can it be concluded that the hegemony initiated by the five scholars in the Spring and Autumn Period can be transformed into the foundation and the necessary development stage to realize kingly politics?
Didn't Confucianism in history also put forward a compromise plan of "rolling with the punches"? Its purpose may be to leave a new path for hegemonic politicians.
Therefore, we can't confuse the pursuit of hegemony by the five sons in the Spring and Autumn Period with the hegemonism of legalists' pure "law, art and power", which completely harms others and benefits themselves, and completely denies it.
On the other hand, today, although the cold war has ended, the crisis is still lurking.
Disputes over economic interests, religious and cultural conflicts, ethnic confrontation crisis and terrorist attacks are rampant one after another.
Behind the prosperity of science and economy, its decline and chaos are worse than during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
The curtain of globalization is opened under such circumstances.
Different from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Battle of Wang Ba at that time was based on unified territory, no matter how different it was.