Gu famously said, "Rizhilu" began: "There is national subjugation; There is death in the world. Debate between national subjugation and national subjugation? Yue, changing his surname to the name of national subjugation; Benevolence is an obstacle. As for attracting animals to eat people, people will kill each other, which is called the death of the world. Why did the talk of Wei Jin people ruin the world? It is the so-called words of Yang and Mo in Mencius. As for those who make the world without a father or a king, those who enter the beast are also ... from the beginning, but the meaning is unknown and biased towards the world. ..... is an old friend who protects the world, and then knows the country that protects it. The protector of the country, his princes and ministers, and the meat eaters ask for it. People who protect the world are contemptible and responsible. " [4]
As can be seen from Gu's original text, his original intention is to distinguish between "the world" and "the country". "Tianxia" is an important concept of Confucianism, and it is not a simple natural space. As the Confucian ideal of life, "self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world" is the highest goal of political ideal. "The World" pinned China's ancient ideal of great harmony, and it wanted to express an ideal or value support about political order. The spatial structure and arrangement of "Tianxia" contains artificial subjective construction, and a specific order arrangement can be expressed and realized through this constructed spatial structure. The world is the ultimate source of Tao, and human order is only a reflection of heaven. [5] The legitimacy of ruling the world ultimately comes from heaven, so the world order arranged according to the world structure is the "natural" order. In a word, "the world" is a concept that includes Confucian political order view, political ideal, and the intersection of human nature and nature. [6]
According to the general connotation of "the world" in Confucianism, "the rule of the world" should refer to the destruction of some value and order, and it is in this sense that Gu used "the rule of the world". He pointed out that during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, ethics and morality were ruined, and "benevolence and righteousness fill the way, but as for attracting animals to eat people, people will eat each other" was "the death of the world". It can be seen that "national subjugation" refers neither to the extinction of a nation or a country (there was no concept of a nation or a country in the modern sense at that time), nor to the extinction of China culture in general, but specifically to the fundamental spirit of China culture, that is, the extinction of Confucian ethics. "Zhengshi" was the title of Wei Shaodi during the Three Kingdoms period (240-249 AD). At the beginning, Sima was authoritarian, politically sinister, and scholars were decadent, and metaphysics began to prevail. The social unrest in the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty not only washed away the unified social order, but also led to the complete collapse of the mainstream values of Confucianism. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "ousted a hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone", the Wei and Jin Dynasties were a historical period in which the dominant position of Confucianism was completely subverted. Therefore, it is no accident that Gu chose this historical period as an example of "conquering the world". Now, Gu lashed out at Wei-Jin Metaphysics for "abandoning Confucian classics, respecting Laozi and Zhuangzi, disdaining etiquette and advocating freedom", which led to "ignoring the danger of teachers, forgetting father and doing things that are not monarch" and "leaving the world without father and entering the beast", which led to "the death of the world".
The concept of "destroying the world" is based on the "difference between man and bird" in Confucianism, which is an important principle in Confucian values. According to Confucianism, it is precisely because the saints performed rituals and taught people to be human beings that ancestors got rid of the state of animals and entered the realm of human beings. Therefore, universal ethics is the foundation of human beings, the essence that distinguishes human beings from animals, and the core of the "world". Preventing people from becoming animals has always been the top priority of "saints". [7] Because Confucian ethics has risen to the height of human nature, it has become the standard to distinguish people from animals. Therefore, no matter how high or low, as long as individuals (ordinary people) have the responsibility to defend ethics. "Those who protect the world, ordinary people are despicable and responsible." It can be seen that Gu's original intention of "every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the world" is not to call on people to stand up and defend the country and the nation, as explained by modern people, but to defend Confucian ethics, which is what Gu wants to defend in the final analysis.
Compared with the "world" as the foundation of human beings, "country" only refers to the dynasty, which the ancients often called "the country has been destroyed since ancient times", and the "country" here refers to the "dynasty". National subjugation is the change of dynasty, which is what meat eaters want. "National subjugation" (regime change) is by no means a trivial matter in the eyes of the ancients, but it does not mean the end of the world. "A country that has existed since ancient times" shows that regime change is acceptable. It is said in the poem that "destiny is impermanent", and a dynasty runs out of luck and is replaced by a new dynasty, which is itself the proper meaning of the theory of destiny. Even if the dynasties change, the "destiny" remains the same, "the sky remains the same, and the Tao remains the same." Gu Yanwu firmly believes that "there must be iterations when the husband dies, and China will not die." [8] Dynasties can be replaced, and China culture (Confucian ethics) must last forever.
Emphasizing the difference between "national subjugation" and "national subjugation" shows that "the world" is the highest value in the Confucian value system, and the importance of "the world" (general ethics) is obviously higher than that of "the country" (dynasty). If "national subjugation" is inevitable, it is absolutely unacceptable. In the relationship between "tianxia" and "state", "tianxia" is the political legitimacy basis of the ruling form of "state" (dynasty). If the "world" is not guaranteed, what is the legitimate reason for the existence of the "country"? The core idea of Gu's Zheng Shi is to attack metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties, emphasize "ruling the world" and highlight the extreme importance of universal ethics with "three cardinal guides and five permanents" as the core. This concept of "world country" embodies the values of ethical (cultural) supremacy and is called "cultural supremacism". [9] It is in sharp contrast with the supremacy of national interests based on the nation-state. [ 10]
Gu wrote this passage under the background of the collapse of the Ming Dynasty and the entry of the Qing Dynasty into the Central Plains. As a Confucian intellectual, Gu always promised not to cooperate with his adherents in the Qing Dynasty. The article "Official History" is about Wei and Jin Dynasties, but it has the meaning at that time. But in fact, according to the logic and standards of care, the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty were still just "subjugating the country" rather than "subjugating the world".