國立臺灣大學政治科學論叢

Based on the analysis and discussion of the political thought in the book “Qianfu Lun”, this article aims to reorganize the perspective on political thought during the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, giving it contextual meaning.

As a writer of political theory during the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, Wang Fu is both representative and highly influential. This article attempts to examine and rearrange Wang Fu’s political thought in three aspects: the ethics of political roles, governance methods of indoctrination and decrees, and economic proposals and policies for enriching the frontier.

This paper also argues that in the process of dialogue and interaction between fundamental-oriented thinking and pragmatic thinking, Wang Fu drew a political solution that was based on the genuine environment and its feasibility. This kind of political thought not only had a substantial influence on his contemporaries but also had inherited traces of convergent traditions of thought since the mid-Warring States period, reflecting the process of interaction among Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism.

In this regard, Wang Fu’s “Qianfu Lun” contained a rigorous discussion and contribution to Chinese political thought, providing an important perspective for the understanding of political thought in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty.