任德不任刑

重德政而不重刑罰。這是漢代董仲舒對(duì)德刑關(guān)系的看法。針對(duì)漢初因襲秦朝“刑治”所帶來(lái)的弊政，董仲舒重申了儒家的德治理念，提出“任德不任刑”的法律主張。他認(rèn)為君主應(yīng)當(dāng)實(shí)施德政，以教化作為治國(guó)的主要手段，而不應(yīng)一味使用刑罰。隨著儒家思想在漢代政治中的不斷強(qiáng)化，“任德不任刑”直接促進(jìn)了古代道德與政治的融合。

Morality-ruling over penalty-ruling is the view of Dong Zhongshu， a scholar of the HanDynasty， on the relationship between virtue and punishment. To deal with the drawbacksof “penalty-ruling” passed down from the Qin Dynasty to the earlier Han Dynasty， Dongreiterated the Confucian concept of “morality-ruling” and proposed “morality-ruling overpenalty-ruling.” He believed that emperors should adopt moral rule， with moralization asthe primary means of governance and that they should refrain from solely relying onpunishment. Since Confucianism played a pivotal role in politics in the Han Dynasty， theconcept sped up the integration of morality and politics in ancient China.

引例 Citation：

天道之大者在陰陽(yáng)。陽(yáng)為德，陰為刑；刑主殺而德主生。是故陽(yáng)常居大夏，而以生育養(yǎng)長(zhǎng)為事；陰常居大冬，而積于空虛不用之處。以此見(jiàn)天之任德不任刑也。（《漢書(shū)·董仲舒?zhèn)鳌罚?/p>

（天的運(yùn)動(dòng)變化規(guī)律在于陰陽(yáng)。陽(yáng)即德治，陰即刑罰。刑罰主張殺生，而德治主張使人生存。因此，陽(yáng)常常停留在炎熱的夏天，把生育滋養(yǎng)長(zhǎng)大作為職事；陰常常停留在隆冬，而積蓄在空虛不被使用的地方。由此看出，上天是重德治而不重刑罰的。）

Yin and yang are the laws that guide the movement of the whole universe. Yang represents ruleby virtue while yin embodies punishment. The former advocates nourishing life while the lattermeans destroying life. Therefore， yang prevails in summer， in which all things grow and develop.Yin prevails in winter， in which all things come into storage. This shows that nature valuesmorality over punishment. （The History of the Han Dynasty）