• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.142
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• pp.265-294
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• 2017

In the early days of human history, the governing groups of rulers needed to justify their rule. The cause of rule became the ruling ideology. In China, the backbone of the ruling ideology was originally referred to as 'Di(帝)' or 'Shangdi(上帝)', who was later replaced by 'Tian(天)', Heaven. So there was a claim that Heaven gave the cause of the rule. This idea is the 'Tianming (天命)' idea. When the Zhou(周) Dynasty took control of the central government, the 'Tianming' idea had had a relatively sophisticated form. It was the 'Zhouli(周禮)' that organized the systematic order of the Zhou Dynasty. After this system collapsed, those who recognized 'Zhouli' as a desirable social system considered the collapse of 'Zhouli' as a situation of turbulent age. It was Qin(秦) State that unified all of the states of the period. However, after the unification, the Qin Dynasty fell sharply. The next dynasty was the Han(漢) Dynasty. The new ruling powers of the Han Dynasty needed to justify their regime. That means that it was necessary to establish the ruling ideology of the Han Dynasty. The representative of the ruling ideology of the Han Dynasty was Dongzhongshu, whose thought was based on Confucianism. His thought was related to "Chunqiugongyangzhuan(春秋公羊傳)", an interpretation of "Chunqiu(春秋)". This interpretation perspective is based on the idea of religious Heaven. Dongzhongshu thought that there were co-communions between Heaven and humans. His thought has the meaning of political theology in which rulers hold the basis of the rulers' sovereignty.