Dong Zhongshu was born in a big landlord family in Guang Chuan, Hebei Province in the first year of Kawachinoayanofumi. He and GongSunHong learned The Spring and Autumn Ram from Confucian Hu Musheng since childhood.
According to legend, Confucius wandered all his life, but he never met a talent. In his later years, he knew that his thoughts were not valued by the rulers, so he retired from writing, and according to Lu Shi, it became Spring and Autumn Annals. Between the lines, it is ambiguous, and some places are obscure. In order to be understood by later generations, some people wrote biographies to explain the Spring and Autumn Period, and successively formed the teaching system of three schools: Zuo's Biography, Ram Biography and Gu Liang Biography. After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, in order to exclude alien thoughts and ignorant people and strengthen centralized autocratic rule, according to Lisi, he burned books to bury Confucianism, and burned all books except Qin history, legalism, medicine, agronomy and divination, and hundreds of books collected by the state, and buried a large number of Confucian scholars alive. The destruction of cultural classics is a heavy blow to Confucianism. However, the high-handed policy of the rulers of the Qin Dynasty did not and could not completely suppress the ideological language of a hundred schools of thought contending. On the contrary, if we want to stop, all kinds of languages, including Three Biographies of the Spring and Autumn Annals, will be passed on from master to apprentice in folk academic circles. By the early Han dynasty, it was more developed. Ram was introduced into Gu Liang relatively completely, recorded in books in the early Han Dynasty, and there were many learners. However, at that time, Huang Lao's quiet thought was dominant, and Confucianism represented by Yang Gongzhuan and Gu Liangzhuan could not replace it. The Qin dynasty ruled by law, so it ruled by law, exacting taxes and levies, and constantly pursuing service, which led to the intensification of social contradictions in an all-round way. Finally, the peasant uprising broke out and the Qin dynasty perished. After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, we were faced with economic depression and people's poverty. Even the son of heaven can't drink alcohol, so he can only take an ox cart. Politically, princes with different surnames controlled a large area of land and population, and Xiongnu in the north took the opportunity to invade and harass the south. The rulers and people of the new dynasty all hope to have a stable, peaceful and well-fed environment to recuperate, resume production and rebuild their homes. The rulers of the Han Dynasty summed up the lessons of the Qin Dynasty's death, and took Huang Lao's thought of doing nothing as their ruling thought, so the economy recovered and developed rapidly. Uncle and Lu Jia, born of Confucian scholars, made etiquette for Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, standardized the hierarchical order of the imperial court, and made Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, who hated Confucian scholars, sit up and take notice of Confucian scholars, making them too ordinary and in charge of court etiquette. Since then, the cultural undertakings of the Han Dynasty have developed slowly, and the academic atmosphere is relatively free. The imperial court set up doctors to study various theories, and folk lectures gradually resumed. In the fourth year of Emperor Huidi of Emperor Gaozu of Han Dynasty, the decree of destroying the private collection of poetry books in Qin Dynasty was abolished, and poetry books in hundreds of languages were publicly disseminated. It was in this atmosphere that Dong Zhongshu began his research on Yang Gong in the Spring and Autumn Period. He has been smart and studious since he was a child. After reading the works of pre-Qin philosophers, I took Hu Musheng as my teacher and devoted myself to the study of Gongyang in the Spring and Autumn Period. Dong Zhongshu studies very hard and is very attentive. He hasn't been to his garden for three years, and even the horse he often rides can't tell the difference between male and female. He delved into the classics and formed his own unique ideological understanding, confusing yin and yang with the five elements. Theological alchemy, with profound knowledge and good thinking, has become a great scholar who is familiar with the Five Classics, can tolerate arguments and is good at writing articles, and a gentleman who has advanced and retreated moderately in Rong Zhi.
He gained a high reputation. People called him Confucius of the Han Dynasty, and he was respected by people. Many scholars respect him as a teacher and learn from him. During the reign of Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty, due to his knowledge and reputation, he and his teacher Hu Musheng were appointed as doctors and began to recruit disciples. With the increase of influence and popularity, he enrolled more and more students. He hung a curtain in the lecture hall. He is talking inside and the students are listening outside. Sometimes, I listen to his proud students such as Lu Bushu and others. In this way, some people have studied with him for many years, but rarely listen to his lectures directly, and some people have not even met for many years. Dong Zhongshu widely accepted students, publicized Confucian classics, and objectively trained a large number of talents for the Han Dynasty. His students are famous for Chu University, and their officials are good at making public appearances. Lu is not a book, and the official is the chief. The rest are doctors, lang and other official positions 100.