殷末周初以史为鉴意识与思想维新运动

The Awarenes of the Mrroring Capacity of History and the Movement of Thought Renewal at the End of Shang and the Beginning of Zhou

周初统治者针对夏人、殷人突然灭亡的重大事件,反思历史,以史为鉴,认真总结经验教训,形成了一场思想维新运动。针对殷商统治者"天命不变"的思想,提出了以民为本的天人合一观:"民之所欲,天必从之";寻找到了新的统治民众的思想方法:"明德保民",这后来成为整个中国古代社会别具特色的政治伦理思想;并且以《周易》为主的哲学变易观代替了殷人的"天命不变"思想。

At the beginning of Zhou the Zhou rulers reflected upon the big events that witnessed the perishing of the Xia People and of the Yin People. Such reflections aiming at learning the lessons of history, in a way like looking at oneself in a mirror, led the thought renewal movement at the beginning of Zhou. Against the Shang＇s doctrine of the invariability of heavenly destiny, the Zhou rulers promoted the idea of harmony between the human and the heaven, according to which the common people would be considered the basis of ruling. The new doctrine of the Zhou may be best expressed in the phrase： ＂The heaven gives what the people want.＂ In this renewed political thought, the principle of ruling became ＂respecting moral excellence and protecting people＂. This principle of ruling became the basis of the political ethics that was characteristic of all ancient Chinese history in later times. On the philosophical level and concurrent with the Zhou＇ s thought renewal movement, the philosophy of change, as expressed in YIJING the title of which is translatable as the Book of Change, also replaced the view of invariable destiny as held earlier by the Shang People.