What is the reason why China's Confucianism has spread so far?

For thousands of years, Confucianism has been passed down from generation to generation in China. During this period, in order to continue the glory of Confucianism, since Confucius, many scholars have inherited and further developed the Confucian spirit, such as Dong Zhongshu and Er Cheng.

However, everything has two sides. Since the opening of the port in the late Qing Dynasty, the status of Confucianism has suddenly declined, and the reasons are quite complicated, such as the limitations of Confucianism and people's prejudice. However, it is inevitable that Confucianism will continue to this day after thousands of years of ups and downs.

In Yan Xiaoer's view, Confucianism can continue to this day, one of the reasons is that Confucianism meets people's needs for an orderly society, and the other is that the spiritual core of Confucianism has the characteristics of "flexibility", which has to start with the "golden mean" put forward by Confucius.

1. Confucianism meets people's needs for an orderly society. The phrase "survival of the fittest" applies not only to the competition between people, but also to the "life and death contest" between "cultures".

As we know, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period is a peak period of China's cultural development. Confucius went around preaching Confucianism with "self-denial and courtesy" as the core, and was finally rejected everywhere. However, at that time, perhaps not many people could think that Confucianism was the biggest "potential stock" and became the mainstream culture of China feudal society for thousands of years, although it was difficult at the beginning of its birth.

However, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Mohist and Legalist thoughts, which had many followers and were all the rage, gradually disappeared.

The reason is that, compared with Legalists and Mohists, Confucianism meets people's demand for an "orderly society", which is one of the reasons why Confucianism can last forever.

Although Confucianism is often ignored or even excluded in the war years, it cannot extinguish the vitality of Confucianism in the war years, because even in the war, the general direction of war is still "building an orderly society", so as long as the "pursuit" of an orderly society is not extinguished, Confucianism will have room for survival.

In contrast, Mohism tends to maintain the "bottom people" to the extreme, and its core idea of "universal love" is good, but because it is too ideal in practice, it is only a matter of time before this culture finally disappears. However, legalist thought often becomes the "blade" of those in power and is too "ruthless" in practice. In extreme cases, it will be destroyed like Mohism.

Mohism caters to the people at the bottom of the war years, Legalism caters to those in power during the war years, and Confucianism caters to Chinese descendants who are looking forward to "building an orderly society." Therefore, it is no coincidence that Confucianism can last for thousands of years.

2. Confucianism's "golden mean" spirit makes its "long life" always full of toughness, and the so-called ending always presents a rigid state, which we can see from the rise and fall of vegetation. Similarly, Confucianism can continue to this day, one of the reasons is that Confucianism contains a resilient "golden mean" spirit.

Confucius once said:

"The doctrine of the mean is also a virtue, and it is extremely embarrassing, and the people are fresh for a long time."

Cheng Yi's explanation of Confucius' golden mean in the Northern Song Dynasty made people shine. He said:

"Impartiality is not easy to call mediocrity. The winner is king, and the world is right. Mediocrity, the theorem of the world. "

That is to say, in Cheng Yi's mind, not going to extremes and moving slowly is the just truth of everything. Cheng Yi's interpretation did reveal some core points of Confucian and Confucius' doctrine of the mean.

Confucius' doctrine of the mean emphasizes finding a suitable position in "extreme" and "secondary", because impartiality is different in different situations and times. Here, the idea of "the golden mean" also contains simplicity and flexibility in both literature and talents.

Or, more appropriately, Confucius' "golden mean" also tells us to be flexible under the principle. The so-called principle lies in the orderly development of social order.

In other words, it is this golden mean of "going too far" that makes Confucianism constantly "adjust" for thousands of years. When the cultural core is alienated, it will set off an "innovative" change, one after another.

Although there is a certain gap between Confucianism after the pre-Qin period and Confucianism in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucianism has always been active and flexible around the cultural spirit of "benevolence" and "moderation" and focused on "maintaining social order", so it is not surprising that Confucianism has been enduring for a long time.

Please treat Confucianism in different periods rationally. All along, all kinds of things of birth, illness and death have been staged in our lives. One kind of things developed luxuriously because of its large number of "audiences", and correspondingly, the old things gradually disappeared because of the limitations of its "extreme" display. For example, we now have a great demand for the Internet, where the development of smart products such as mobile phones and computers is becoming more and more prosperous. On the contrary, we seldom use traditional methods to convey information. In this era of underdeveloped technology, similar "letters" and "mail buckets" can be seen everywhere, and they are becoming more and more rare due to the decrease of our demand.

Similarly, the demand for culture is the same.

The significance of Confucianism to Chinese children is not only an objective "culture", but also a "rule representative" used by feudal dynasties to manage people and consolidate power.

In Confucianism, there is the crystallization of human civilization and wisdom, which was first discovered by Confucius when his ancestors established social order in Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, and also the inheritance of the laws discovered by human beings in maintaining social order and stability.

Confucianism contains the "cultural accomplishment" of our Chinese nation for thousands of years, which contains the great spiritual core of our nation and the efforts made by countless ancestors to maintain social stability and realize "one country under the world".

The function of Confucian culture, to some extent, is to help us overcome the innate selfishness in nature, and to warn us not to indulge in the enjoyment of material desires, but to find a new world outside the spiritual world in self-discipline, or to borrow a sentence from Mencius, the reason why people are different from animals is that they have "four ends", that is, "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom" advocated by Confucianism. We have never inherited some "forms" of Confucianism in the past, but the "spiritual core" behind words and forms.

For example, we should not continue the "self-indulgence" in the form of "monarch and minister", but should continue the connotation of "loyalty" in this form.

In short, Confucianism can continue to this day, firstly because it caters to people's needs for an orderly society, and secondly because it pays attention to the "golden mean" spirit of principle and flexibility. Facing the spirit of Confucianism, Yan Xiaoer wants to say that it is more rewarding to treat Confucianism in different periods rationally and extract the spiritual core of Confucianism in different periods than to deny it blindly.

Note: This article is the original and exclusive release of Yan Xiaoer's philosophical works. Any infringement such as handling and plagiarism will be investigated once found. The pictures in this paper come from the Internet, and some materials come from the Internet. They were hacked and deleted (within two weeks). Please enjoy this series.