國立臺灣大學政治科學論叢

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This article, based on the author’s previous research on the concept of li (principle) found in the Book of Xunzi and Mr. Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals, attempts to elucidate the meanings and roles assigned to the concept of gong (fairness/impartiality) in the thoughts of these two political treatises. While the previous article had demonstrated that the concept of li in the Xunzi and Mr. Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals provided their theories with a core principle for which the socio-political order could build an empire to cover the world-wide scale of its territory, this article tries to show that the concept of gong mainly functioned to manifest this principle in the realm of the actual policies for ruling the people of the world. More concretely, the main theoretical function of Xunzi’s concept of gong can be found in his argument that the principle for a socio-political order which had initially been embodied by the ancient sage rulers, became accessible to middle ruling-class people called “shi” (officer-aspirants) as a practicable virtue. In this line of argument, Xunzi had even regarded gong as a virtue to be practiced by ordinary subjects. In contrast, the concept of gong in the thought of Mr. Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals remained as a virtue to rather be practiced by the ruler himself. As is shown in the argument of the “Guigong” chapter, it was a virtue that the Son of Heaven would have to put into practice for the people of the world just after attaining the nourishment of his body. On the other hand, the argument in the “Guigong” chapter went one step further: its author even applauded the abdication of the throne by sage rulers Yao and Shun. Such an argument ironically meant that the first thing to be done after someone succeeded to the throne was to yield it (to the wisest person in the empire). In this point, the concept of gong in the political philosophy of Mr. Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals contained more or less a thorny tension between its fulfillment and its results.