On the afternoon of June 23rd, 2006165438+1October 23rd, Professor Mou Fasong of the History Department gave an academic report entitled "Orthodoxy in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties". Professor Mou first pointed out that almost contemporary Qin and Han empires and Roman empires eventually collapsed due to barbarian invasion, showing many similarities. However, after the disintegration of the Roman Empire, the West was never unified. After more than three centuries of division, China gave birth to the most powerful unified empire of Sui and Tang Dynasties in the world at that time, and the historical development of China and the West was different from then on. He believes that studying the "orthodoxy" of this period is of great significance to understanding the continuity and unity of China's historical development, which is unique in world history. Then, Professor Mou started from the original meaning of "orthodoxy" and traced it back to the orthodox problem in Han Dynasty. He believes that the so-called "orthodoxy" of later generations was established by Ouyang Xiu's "orthodoxy" in the Northern Song Dynasty, that is, "the world is the best if it is combined." However, the so-called "great harmony" and "great unity" in the Biography of the Spring and Autumn Ram, which Ouyang Xiu was based on, changed with the changes of the times, and finally formed the orthodox concepts of "harmony between man and nature" and "political unity" in the Han Dynasty. In the process of establishing dynasty orthodoxy between Han and Tang dynasties, the theory of five virtues (wood, fire, earth, gold and water) was widely used as a view of destiny endowed by divine power. During the Western Han Dynasty, in the early years of Emperor Wendi and Emperor Wudi, scholars proposed several times to change the water virtue of the Han Dynasty, which continued the Qin Dynasty, into earth virtue, but all failed. It was not until Dou Taihou's death that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty corrected New Moon Tiande. Later, Wang Mang used the trend of changing morality into more morality to rectify the morality of the previous generation on a large scale, which made the Qin Dynasty in a leap position and changed the Western Han Dynasty into a fire morality, thus creating a legal basis for the Xin Mang regime to call Tude a usurper of the Han Dynasty. Although Wang Mang finally failed, after the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu followed Wang Mang's fire virtue as Han, and replaced fire with earth as the fate basis of peasant uprising and independent regime in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Subsequently, Professor Mou focused on the orthodox issues in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Since the separation of the three countries, from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Sixteen Countries, to the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the demand for orthodoxy has been directed not only at the past political entities that existed in the same space diachronically, but also at other political entities that existed in different spaces at the same time. Therefore, the problem of orthodoxy is not only reflected in the re-evaluation of the orthodox status of the former dynasty and even the rearrangement of Germany and its order, but also in the fierce competition between the two sides for orthodoxy. At the same time, with the integration of ethnic factors, orthodoxy and standards have been greatly affected. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, various warlords competed for orthodox status. Later, Cao Pi, Liu Bei and Sun Quan established their own orthodoxy, competing with each other in politics, diplomacy and culture, and restored the unification of the Han Dynasty, thus promoting the stability of the orthodox connotation and the patterning of the orthodox argument, providing a model and idea for the foreign monarchs in the sixteen countries to pretend to be orthodox and rebuild orthodoxy in the future. At that time, the compilation of historical books such as The History of the Three Kingdoms, The Spring and Autumn Annals of the Han, Jin and Qing Dynasties also reflected the strong demand for orthodoxy, which was actually the reflection of orthodoxy in the compilation of history in real politics. During the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern Dynasties, the political power established by ethnic minorities needed a lot of time to prove its legitimacy. They went through a very complicated and tortuous process-from denying Wei-Jin orthodoxy to recognizing Wei-Jin legalists, from recognizing Wei-Jin legalists to recognizing the orthodox status of Wuhu, and finally completely denying Wuhu orthodoxy and inheriting Wei-Jin legalists in the era of Emperor Xiaowen's reform, thus locking the sixteen countries of Wuhu into a pseudo-leap cold palace. This process is generally consistent with the sinicization of northern minorities and their political power, the integration of northern Hu ethnic groups and the process from division to unity in the northern and southern dynasties. Because Emperor Xiaowen resolutely abandoned Wuhu's legal system and inherited the Western Jin Dynasty, the Northern Wei Dynasty was designated as Shuide. Later, the Eastern Wei Dynasty, the Northern Qi Dynasty, the Western Wei Dynasty, the Northern Zhou Dynasty and even the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and then to the German era, formed a series of legal systems in the Northern Dynasty, which were in contrast with the German era and legal systems in the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties, and finally achieved national reunification. In fact, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the North and the South usually obtained diplomatic recognition from each other, and the diplomatic envoys between the North and the South were constantly on the line. On the one hand, it is a dispute over orthodoxy, on the other hand, it is an increasingly close economic and cultural exchange, and the differences between the two sides are narrowing. Finally, Professor Mou discussed the orthodox ideas in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties from the perspective of political legitimacy. He believes that although the ultimate source of China's ancient orthodoxy or political legitimacy is destiny, destiny is based on "virtue", and virtue is the core value of Confucianism. He spoke highly of the cultural connotation and significance of China's ancient orthodoxy in the light of the orthodox debate in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. At the same time, he also pointed out that in terms of the two orthodox standards, the standard of "the world is one" has gradually become the most important indicator to measure orthodoxy, which can break through the limitations of the theory of destiny and the limitations of regions and races to some extent. The orthodox cultural connotation and the standard of unification provide guidance and internal motivation for China to move from division to unification and maintain political unification for a long time. Professor Hao of Shanghai Normal University made a wonderful comment on this speech. He pointed out: "For ancient historians in China, orthodoxy is a serious political issue. In the long-term historical development of ancient China, orthodoxy gradually developed into an interpretation system or interpretation system for the legitimacy of ancient political power. The thinking, discussion and political behavior of the ancestors on this issue is a unique cultural phenomenon or cultural landscape in China. " He believes that this academic lecture, "with a grand argument and a broad vision, pays attention to both macro-explanation and micro-demonstration", demonstrates and points out that China's strong orthodox ideas or orthodox culture in ancient times is one of the important reasons for the long-term continuation of China's ancient civilization. Professor Mou's exploration of orthodox thoughts in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is of great academic significance for explaining the process from "disunity" to "unification" in Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties. Since ancient times, China's separatist regimes have achieved national unity and prosperity in the process of striving for orthodoxy.