• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.42
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• pp.133-164
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• 2014

In "Lu's Spring and Autumn", the ideas of all the schools before Qin Dynasty were compiled and the diagram of the Trinity of heaven, earth and man using the category of Yin-yang and the five elements of the universe since the ancient times was established. This can be assessed to be the blueprint for a unified empire closely connecting time and space, and objects in heaven and on earth centered around human beings. In specific, Yin-yang and the five elements of the universe were combined to categorize and schematize all things in the universe, and connect them to human affairs at the same time. Its contents convert almost all academic fields including politics, economics, society, military, astronomy, geography, medical science, education and history. Particularly, the documents popular during the age of civil wars and the ideas of Jikha scholars were synthesized and specified. Yet, it went beyond simple collection of the thoughts and documents since the ancient times in terms of contents and forms, and the method of 12 months for 1 year was selected and prescript was expanded to the various fields of politics and the society. In the Twelve principle, Yin-yang and the five elements, and the ten celestial stems and the earthly ones were combined, the contradiction from the process was solved, and the Rules of Four Seasons Thought was completed. Therefore, even though some parts of the idea of Yin-yang and the five elements in "Lu's Spring and Autumn" is found here and there from other documents, the unificative systematization of the whole has an important meaning in the history of thought. In summary, it has been proved that the Rules of Four Seasons Thought in "Lu's Spring and Autumn" was not limited to the physical unity of Yin-yang and the five elements of the universe, but qualitatively specified particularly in the aspects of agriculture from the people's side and politics from a leader's position.