The Historical Formation of “The Son of Heaven Acts as the Father and Mother of the People”: A study centered on the Hongfan
“天子作民父母”的历史生成——以《洪范》为中心

摘要

“天子作民父母，以为天下王”是“家天下”政治伦理中关于君民伦理的核心思想理念。本文考察这一理念的历史生成问题，认为它孕育于夏商两代政治文明的母体中，经过殷末王权暴政和周革殷命的历史催产，最终在商末政治精英箕子的深刻省思中分娩而出。论文首先辨析《洪范》“皇极”畴的文本结构与思想逻辑，论证“作民父母”理念在“皇极”畴中具有内在的一贯性，当出自箕子而非后世学人增入，但“天子”之称则为西周宗法制确立后改写或增写的结果。进而从夏商以来的德政传统与殷商晚期的王权强化两个维度，揭示这一理念历史生成的思想渊源与现实条件。本文认为，“天子作民父母，以为天下王”的核心意义在于以家庭伦理的形式赋予君王养民、教民的政治责任与伦理义务，以此弥合“家天下”政治中难以调和的君民矛盾，使之形成一个和谐统一的社会政治共同体。

Abstract

“The Son of Heaven acts as the father and mother of the people, and thereby becomes the king of the world” is a core ideological concept regarding the ethical relationship between the ruler and the people within the political ethics of the “family-state” (jia tian xia). This paper examines the historical formation of this concept and argues that it was conceived in the political civilization of the Xia and Shang dynasties, catalyzed by the tyrannical kingship of the late Shang and the revolutionary transition from Shang to Zhou (the Zhou conquest), and ultimately brought to fruition in the profound reflections of Jizi, a political elite of the late Shang. The paper first analyzes the textual structure and logical reasoning of the “Huangji” (Great Standard) section in the Hongfan (Great Plan), demonstrating that the idea of “acting as the parent of the people” is internally coherent within this section and should be attributed to Jizi rather than being a later interpolation. However, the title “Son of Heaven” (Tianzi) was likely a revision or addition after the establishment of the patriarchal clan system in the Western Zhou. Furthermore, the paper reveals the intellectual origins and practical conditions for the historical formation of this concept from two dimensions: the tradition of virtuous governance since the Xia–Shang period and the strengthening of royal power in the late Shang. This paper contends that the core significance of “The Son of Heaven acts as the father and mother of the people, and thereby becomes the king of the world” lies in its use of familial ethics to endow the sovereign with the political responsibility and ethical obligation to nurture and educate the people, thereby reconciling the otherwise irreconcilable contradiction between ruler and ruled in the “family-state” political system and forging a harmonious and unified socio-political community.