Philosopher
Lu Jia
240–170 BCE
Minister to the founding Han emperor whose New Discussions is the earliest surviving Han treatise on political philosophy, grounding the Way of government in the patterns of Heaven.
Lu Jia served as a minister to Gaozu, the founding emperor of the Han dynasty, who commissioned scholars to write works useful for running the empire. Lu Jia’s New Discussions is the earliest surviving treatise of the Han on political philosophy and practical government.
Its structure, moving from theoretical foundations that link politics to the cosmos to the practical application of political ideas, became a common pattern in Chinese political writing for centuries.
Key ideas
- The Way from Heaven’s patterns
- The first sage set out the human Way by observing the patterns of heaven and earth. Political and ethical principles are therefore rooted in the world itself, not merely constructed by people.
- Ethics, politics and culture as one
- Lu Jia did not separate ethics from politics, or either from culture as a whole; later sages added ritual and other conventions on top of the Way discerned in nature.
- The continuing need for sages
- People tend to stray from the Way, so the example and direction of sages is always needed.
- Tradition
- Chinese
- Region
- Han China
- Schools
- Confucianism
- Themes
- How to govern
Key works
- New Discussions (Xinyu)
- Read free at Wikisource (in Classical Chinese)
Sources
- Alexus McLeod, Philosophy in Han Dynasty China, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy