Combination of Law-Governing and Virtue-Governing: The Perspective of Social Governance Centering on Zichan

Abstract

This paper intends to closely examine the abundant historical data on the theory and practice of Zichan’s social governance, which were recorded in The Commentary of Zuo. For example: Zichan thought the minister who had good reputation, morality and integrity can make people submit through clemency. Propriety is the law of heaven, the root of earth, and the dependence of people. Zichan cast the penal code, separated the law from traditional rituals, and described severity as fire which is fierce and violent. People feared it, but few died from it. This can be summarized as Law-governing and Virtue-governing. The author used the typical characteristics of social transition in the Spring and Autumn Period, which is a special social transformation from slavery society to feudal society. During that period, the feature of social system is rite disintegration and has a transition from the God to man. It will be argued that based on the social governance which was elaborated by Zichan, and the effects recorded in The Commentary of Zuo, the author considers that the collection and research articles pertaining to this part of the literature can provide materials and ideas of relevance for research on social governance in China, especially the Chinese aristocracy in the Pre-Qin dynasty. The effective forms of governance at that time could enrich the theoretical resources for contemporary China, and may have relevance for scholarly research in political philosophy in other cultures.