author
active 2nd century B.C. Zhongshu Dong
A major Han dynasty thinker, politician, and writer, he is often linked with shaping Confucianism into a guiding ideology of the Chinese imperial state. His ideas tied moral government to cosmic order, giving his work a lasting place in Chinese intellectual history.
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春秋繁露
by active 2nd century B.C. Zhongshu Dong
About the author
Dong Zhongshu was a Chinese philosopher, politician, and writer of the Han dynasty, usually dated to about 179-104 BCE. He is best known for helping elevate Confucian thought at the imperial court and for arguing that a ruler's moral conduct was connected to the harmony of the cosmos.
Later tradition credits him with playing an important role in the establishment of Confucianism as state orthodoxy under the Han. He is also associated with bringing together Confucian ethics with ideas about yin-yang, Heaven, and natural patterns, creating a vision of government in which political order and the moral order of the universe were closely linked.
Dong Zhongshu is commonly connected with the text Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals, though scholars note that the work may have been compiled over time and not entirely written by him alone. Even so, his name remains central to discussions of early imperial Chinese thought and the long history of Confucian political philosophy.