Dong Zhongshu believes that "the greatness of Tao originates from heaven", and natural personnel are all subject to destiny, so the political order and political thought reflecting destiny should be unified, and his Confucianism greatly safeguarded the centralized rule of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty!
The first of the three strategies he provided for Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was: the unity of heaven and man, and the divine right of monarch.
Heaven is the supreme master of the universe and has absolute authority, which is created by man. The unity of heaven and man makes the destiny more important than ever in showing the authority of the monarch. The monarchy is based on grace, and it is a godsend. Man is dictated by heaven, taking heaven as the carrier and representing the will of heaven to rule and govern the world. All subjects must absolutely obey the monarch, and "bend people and extend the monarch, bend the monarch and extend the sky", thus making the authority of the monarch absolutely sacred. While affirming the divine right of monarchical power, Heaven-Man Induction also took the astronomical phenomena as warning signs, spurred and restrained the emperor's behavior with different disasters, and regulated the Cambodian monarch to abide by the virtue of law and heaven and implement benevolent government. Kings should be bound by heaven and not do whatever they want, which undoubtedly has the function of restricting imperial power in the period of absolute monarchy and is conducive to political restriction and balance.
The second is to expose and criticize Confucius and suppress a hundred schools of thought.
He advocated that "punishment is supplemented by virtue, and punishment is far from virtue", and tried to correct the serious defects of the law through the Spring and Autumn Prison. People think that people should be kind. Dong Zhongshu's virtue mainly refers to the law of human relations. Confucius and Mencius believe that there are five ethics in the world, the so-called monarch and minister, father and son, couple, brother and friend. Dong Zhongshu, on the other hand, chose to change it to "Three Cardinal Principles", taking the monarch as his minister, the father as his son and the husband as his wife. Then the five virtues advocated by Confucianism (benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith) are combined into the "five permanent members". And think that the three cardinal guides and the five permanent members can be sought from heaven and cannot be changed.
"Three cardinal guides and five permanent members" has always been regarded as the basis of the ethical order in feudal society. But at the same time, it also played the purpose of balancing the power of the monarch. The "father is the son" in the "Three Cardinals" makes the emperor (the son of heaven) also "filial", and the emperor must also believe in the induction between heaven and man, implement benevolent policies, and realize the restriction and control of Confucian monarchical power. The alliance between Confucianism and power has greatly enhanced the influence of Confucianism on the whole society and its attraction to officials.
The third is: the spring and autumn period is unified and the king is respected.
Dong Zhongshu's idea of "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone" is not only to respect Confucianism, but also to establish a unique ideology of governing the country and serve political unity with ideological unity.