The inclusive embodiment of Confucius

Confucius advocated teaching without distinction in education, that is, anyone can become a useful person through learning. Confucian culture attaches great importance to work and ethics, and it is a very WTO-entering culture. But Confucius, as the ancestor of Confucianism, is actually quite indifferent to utility and flexible to ethics. These two aspects can be expressed in two sentences, that is, "the gentleman is incompetent" and "the gentleman is ruthless".

Confucius is a scholar. The average scholar studies hard at the cold window, with a goal in mind, that is, to become a professional in a certain field one day, so as to mix a stable career in society. It is taboo to say that a person is worthless, that is to say, he is worthless. Confucius said frankly that real people are not worthy. It is true that some people laugh at him for his erudition and lack of professional knowledge. He laughed at himself and said, then I'll drive a carriage.

In fact, Confucius has his own views on reading. He advocates that reading should be based on interest, and disapproves of the purely academic attitude of seeking knowledge for the sake of seeking knowledge ("the knower is not as good as the good, and the good is not as good as the happy"). He also advocates that reading is for self-improvement and despises vulgar literati ("the ancient scholars are for themselves, and today's scholars are human"). He has repeatedly stressed that it is important for a person to have real talent and practical learning, regardless of external fame and experience, similar to the saying "don't worry about not knowing yourself, but seek self-knowledge" repeated at least four times in The Analects of Confucius.

The phrase "a gentleman is not a tool" not only expresses Confucius' view of scholarship, but also his outlook on life. Once, Confucius chatted with his four students and asked them to talk about their ambitions. Three of them said they wanted to be military strategists, economists and diplomats. Only Ceng Dian said that his ideal is to set off in March next spring, make some friends, swim in the river, enjoy the cool in the forest and come back singing all the way. Hearing this, Confucius sighed, "My thoughts are the same as Ceng Dian's." The Saint's Sigh vividly expresses his unpolluted spirit, which greatly touched one of the most important literary critics after two thousand years, and changed his name to "Saint's Sigh" to commemorate it. Life is alive, why not be a tool and a home? As long as you live leisurely, isn't it better than slicing

Generally speaking, the academic circles believe that "benevolence" is the core of Confucius' thought. As for what "benevolence" is, there are different opinions, but they can't tell the scope of ethics. It is true that Confucius attaches importance to human relations, but he is a wise man after all. As long as a person is smart enough, he will never see through the relativity of all ethical norms. Therefore, the phrase "a gentleman has a husband without benevolence" comes from Confucius, and it is not surprising that he does not regard "benevolence" as a necessary condition for an ideal personality. Some people attribute benevolence to loyalty and forgiveness. In fact, Confucius never advocated foolish loyalty and excessive forgiveness. He always distinguishes between "the country has a way" and "the country has no way". When the country has no way, he can escape ("riding a fork and floating on the sea"). If he can't escape, he might as well talk less ("talking about the sun") and play dumb (the idiom "stupid" comes from the Analects of Confucius, and its original intention is not to describe complete stupidity. He doesn't like Christ. When your left face is hit, he wants you to send your right face up. Someone asked him if he wanted to "repay evil with good". He asked: What should be used to repay good? Then he said, it should be good for evil, good for evil.

Confucius is really a very reasonable person. He has common sense, knows the limits and is not paranoid at all. "Faith" is one of the connotations of "benevolence" stipulated by him personally. However, he clearly said that "words must be done and actions must be fruitful", which is the behavior of a rigid villain ("I am a villain"). The key is that there is no room for flexibility in the word "must", which angered the old gentleman. He also opposes being too cautious. We often say "think twice before you act", which is also from the Analects of Confucius, but Confucius does not agree. He said just think about it.

Maybe Confucius is not free and easy, I only raise one side. After all, it is pleasant to have this side, which makes me feel at ease to admit that Confucius is a qualified philosopher, because philosophers are all wise people. How can wise people be free and easy?

2. The structure of Confucius' humanitarian thought

Qian yongsen

Abstract: Confucius is the founder of Confucianism, not the complete recipient of Zhou Wenhua. The reason why he "follows Zhou" is related to his highest ideal of pursuing order. Much of our understanding of Zhou Wenhua is the result of Confucius and his later research, and Ziwuyu is just a way for Confucius to change his mind on the premise of "following Zhou". There is no core concept in the functional system of Confucius sociology. The gentleman's personality system, the benevolence system as a cultural value and the etiquette system composed of social structure and rules are mutually stipulated and restricted. They are all time-sensitive and historic subsystems in the process of continuous transformation, and together they form a broader balanced and orderly civilization structure.

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The history of China's philosophical thought was written by Confucius. For more than two thousand years since the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius thought has been a classic text studied, interpreted, even criticized and refuted by scholars. It can be said that as many people think about Confucius' thoughts, there are many different faces of Confucius. Scholars of different times have different knowledge backgrounds and talents. Influenced by the academic fashion of the times, they interpret Confucius from different logical starting points and angles for different motives. Prejudice and even prejudice are inevitable. In the interpretation of traditional texts, there is constant communication and dialogue between the reader and the interpreted, individual details and the overall structure of the text, and both sides of the interaction contain creativity and initiative. Just as Confucius' foresight in the culture of rites and music in the Zhou Dynasty constructed his own ideological system, which stimulated the vitality of memory and made it give full play, it is an inevitable requirement of the new era to interpret Confucius' thoughts in classic texts at a new logical starting point, which will further clarify Confucius' thoughts and stimulate the creativity of thinkers.

There are usually two schools of research methods about Confucius' thought: one is diachronic research, that is, trying to restore the historical truth of Confucius' thought from the aspects of Confucius' life time and life, ideological, cultural and social roots and its influence on later studies; The second is the study of temporality, that is, the philosophical method, which is more concerned about the essential significance of Confucius' thought to the development and evolution of human society than the original meaning, and discusses the possibility of the thinking system and logical evolution arising from his words and deeds. Hirsch distinguished between "meaning" and "meaning". Meaning refers to the only thing the author holds, but the meaning of a work is varied and depends on people's interpretation of the work. Post-scholars' understanding of classics is historic and uncertain, especially in terms of meaning. I am here to discuss the significance of Confucius' thought.

I don't want to discuss and care whether Confucius thought cries out for saving slave society or aims at feudal society construction. There is no doubt that there are young Confucius and old Confucius in the existing materials about Confucius' thought; There are Confucius as a teacher and Confucius as an independent thinker. There are thoughts that disciples understand and thoughts that are completely misunderstood. It is an impossible task to sort out its clues one by one. Thinkers like Confucius are usually suddenly inspired by ideas, but they must have their relevant theoretical background. I am concerned about how Confucius constructed his ideological system, or what kind of theoretical background he expressed his thoughts, attitudes and behaviors.

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In Hegel's eyes, Confucius is only a practical wise man in the world, not a philosopher. "There is no speculative philosophy in him-only some kind, worldly and moral lessons, from which we can get nothing special." He even thought that "in order to maintain Confucius' reputation, it would be better if his books had never been translated." "Hegel's Confucius thought' can't get anything special from it' is of great significance to China culture and even the whole East Asian culture. Hegel's understanding of Confucius is not only based on a few imprecise translations, but also only sees scattered moral lessons, without touching the overall structure of Confucius' thought, and it is impossible to deepen the grasp of some details from a holistic perspective. Because Hegel constructed a unique philosophical development history of "world spirit" on the road of the development of western civilization. The late Professor Fu Weixun, who studied Buddhism, also denied that Confucius was a philosopher. But Mencius was a philosopher, and Confucius only told you the conclusion, not how it came about. But even so, the conclusion must have its philosophical basis and deductive way. Fu Weixun's premise is that he can't be considered a philosopher unless he explains the source of his thoughts clearly in plain words. Based on this inference, neither the Zen monk who pays attention to the way of doing things without writing, nor Yan He of Taizhou School in the next season, are philosophers, and Sakyamuni probably was not a philosopher when he was alive.

Of course, more and more people regard Confucius as one of the pioneers of oriental philosophy. They must first try to find the core of speculation and logic in their scattered quotations, hoping to rebuild a philosophical theory system for them. "Benevolence" is often regarded as the core concept of Confucius' ideological system. Du Weiming believes that the primitive form of Confucianism is centered around Confucius' benevolence, and uses the famous words of European and American academic circles to define benevolence as a kind of "philosophical anthropology". Kuang Yaming's Biography of Confucius and Guo Moruo's Ten Books of Criticism also regard benevolence as the core of Confucius' thought. Therefore, Mr. Yang Guorong said: "Benevolence is the core of Confucius' thought, which is an accepted view. "In fact,' recognition' is just an overconfident wishful thinking, and there are still many people who hold different views. Cai Shangsi has experienced a transformation from the Confucian ideology with benevolence as the core to the ritual as the core. He thinks that the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are just Confucian etiquette. The ideological trend of criticizing Confucius, which reached its climax from the May 4th Movement to the Cultural Revolution, was mostly criticized from the perspective of "courtesy".

In fact, in the pre-Qin era, the understanding of Confucius' thoughts by Confucius disciples was already ambiguous. After the death of Confucius, his disciples wandered in various vassal countries, gathered disciples to give lectures or engage in economic and political activities to publicize and practice Confucius' theory. Because disciples have different knowledge background and personal temperament, they also have different choices and interests in Confucius' theory, so there are different factions and divisions within Confucianism. Ceng Zi respects filial piety, Mencius shows benevolence, and Xunzi pushes gifts. In the history of philosophy, the post-study of great philosophers is often "how to learn to be close to each other's nature, which has a long history and will eventually benefit." Today's debate is just a continuation of the division between Mencius and Xunzi. In fact, the so-called core is often the initial concept of narrative, and the different choices of core are the premise of ideological innovation.

In modern times, discussing the different attitudes of Confucius' thought from the perspective of academic thought mostly implies a premise: a thinker must also be based on speculative philosophy, and a talented ideological giant should be able to construct a theoretical framework with a strict logical thinking system. In fact, suppose there is a static closed body with a certain structure or center. In different philosophers, this center has been given different names, such as entity, idea, God and "benevolence" in Confucius' philosophy. Although many scholars advocate that the spirit and path of eastern and western philosophy are different, they are still trying to find the philosophical foundation and the core of the system behind Confucius' quotations. Due to the loss and confusion of ancient books, we have no direct and exact evidence to prove whether Confucius really wrote Yi Zhuan and founded his philosophical system. On the other hand, there is ample evidence to prove that Confucius did know, read and even carefully studied Zhouyi, and perhaps some speculative achievements in his later years were unknown. Hegel obviously didn't know the relationship between Confucius and the Book of Changes, and he also admitted that "China people also noticed abstract thoughts and pure categories, and the ancient Book of Changes was the basis of this thought". There are few speculative and pure categories in The Analects of Confucius, and some important theoretical terms often still point to the concrete experience world. It can be seen that Confucius did not regard the thought of Zhouyi as the inevitable philosophical basis for establishing his ideological system. This may be related to Confucius' rejection attitude caused by his misunderstanding of Zhouyi when he was young, but more importantly, it depends on Confucius' lifelong ambition and cultural choice. The greatness of ideological giants is the same, but they are always endowed with their own unique cultural choices.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucius, as the successor of Zhou Wenhua, took it as his duty to rule the world. Therefore, it is not important to build a speculative philosophy system. What is important is to focus on the present and think about the ways of social integration and order, coordinated development of individuals and society, and people's living and working in peace and contentment. This is the continuation of humanitarianism since Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and it is also an important issue that China, a vast area, composed of many tribes, has paid attention to for generations. Therefore, Confucius' ideological system does not necessarily have a unique logical starting point and ideological core. What matters is not the logic and speculation of theoretical deduction, but its secularity and practical reliability. It can accommodate individuals and society, inherit tradition and change, and combine ideals, beliefs and life here. Therefore, Confucius established the functional system of sociology. In this system, Confucius focused on the specific behavior orientation and social significance of the concepts of gentleman, benevolence and etiquette, thus forming three interrelated subsystems, namely, the personal personality system, the cultural value system of benevolence, righteousness, wisdom and trust, and the social control system of etiquette.

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If we find a more important concept as the beginning of the narrative, then "adult" is the key concept that runs through the whole ideological system. Because people are the actors and undertakers who realize value and guide society. The Analects of Confucius contains Lutz's question to adults. Confucius said, "If you know what Wu Zhong knows, people don't want it. Bian Zhuangzi's courage, Ran Qiu's skill, courtesy and music can also be an adult." Yue: "What is the necessity of being an adult today?" It is easy to see what is right. You can become an adult if you don't forget your life for a long time. Liu Xiang also wrote in Shuo Yuan: Yan Yuan asked Zhong Ni: "What about the adult journey? "Confucius said:" The journey of adults depends on the principle of temperament, the change of things, the understanding of mystery and the source of swimming. If so, it can be called an adult. If you know justice, you should bow with righteousness and lick your body with ceremony and music. Husband's benevolence, righteousness, propriety and music, adult's journey is also. If you are ignorant, your virtue will be carried forward ... "("Shuo Yuan "Volume 18) The behavior of" adults "should conform to the values of benevolence and righteousness and etiquette norms. Adults should be human, perfect their personality and be kind and polite.

Confucius also put forward the word "gentleman" as a model of being a man. Gentleman originally refers to the aristocratic class under the feudal system. Confucius said that the meaning of gentleman has changed, and it is often used to refer to people with noble morality, but to people with moral humanity. The basis of this change is that a gentleman is a respected person with a high social status and assumes the leading responsibility of society. In the Spring and Autumn Period, with the gradual disintegration of aristocratic society and the change of social structure, the connotation of a gentleman has also changed. There are many statements about gentlemen in the Analects of Confucius, which are general and have no clear classification. This may just explain the transformation process of the concept of a gentleman. For example, "a gentleman who is not kind has a husband, and a benevolent person has no villain." (Xianwen) means that the difference between a gentleman (aristocratic class) and a villain is that a gentleman can be benevolent, and a villain is not qualified to be benevolent at all. But also began to associate gentleman with benevolence. Another example is: "gentlemen are harmonious but different, villains are the same but not harmonious" (Lutz); "A gentleman is Thai but not arrogant, and a villain is arrogant but not Thai" (Lutz) is about the difference between a gentleman and a villain. The more important rules are as follows: Confucius said, "I know nothing about learning." The benevolent does not worry, the wise does not doubt, and the brave is not afraid. Zi Gong said, "Confucius is a Taoist." ("Xian Wen") Luz asked the gentleman. Confucius said, "Cultivate one's morality to respect." And said, "Is that all? He said, "Self-cultivation can help others." Say, "Is that all?" He said, "Cultivate yourself to protect the people. "Cultivate yourself to protect people and encourage them to get sick." (Xianwen) The so-called gentleman is the same as the "scholar" in the Analects of Confucius. "It is not enough to think that a scholar is pregnant." Gentlemen and scholars are "people" of "adults", but they are the embodiment of benevolence and the followers of etiquette. Confucius mixed these concepts with different connotations, which reflected his process of building a personality system. A gentleman should have three precepts, three fears and Jiu Si. (Ji's) The acquisition of these qualities must be achieved by learning rites and music, sage's words, deeds, self-cultivation and self-discipline. In Confucius' ideological system, a gentleman, as a moral subject, never exists as an individual, is not the center of the world and the fundamental purpose of action, but a part of the whole society and a point in the "relationship", which embodies neither individualism nor collectivism, but the key to the communication and interaction between the social and cultural value system formed by long-term historical development and the control mechanism of social stability and balance.

On the one hand, Confucius attached great importance to self-realization. "Ancient scholars are themselves, and today's scholars are human beings". (Xianwen) "Being yourself" means self-improvement and self-realization in virtue. Confucius always "takes the past instead of the present", and "the past" is the ideal form in Confucius' mind. Taking "being a man" as your own "is to turn the evaluation standard to yourself." Learning for oneself is a major feature of Confucius' Confucianism. "Man can preach, but not preach" (Wei Linggong) affirmed man's freedom and initiative in the sense of cultural creation. The resulting China cultural spirit is optimistic and confident about self-efforts, and a sense of self-responsibility and mission to know what not to do. In Confucius' view, self plays a leading role in both moral practice and moral cultivation. Whether the subject follows the principle of benevolence to shape himself depends on his own choices and efforts, not external forces. Confucius said, "Benevolence is far away. I want to be kind, I am so kind. " ("Uncle") "Do it for benevolence and for the people? "("Yan Yuan ") and said:" Is it possible to take its strength as benevolence for one day? I have never seen anyone who is weak. "It's covered, but I don't know what it is." ("Li Ren")

On the other hand, self-realization is not a closed concept that excludes others and society. The independent choice and realization of self-worth itself includes the coordination and balance of the relationship between individuals and society, and through the concept of "loyalty and forgiveness", the moral subject communicates with the whole society. Confucius said, "If I take part in it, my Tao will be consistent." Zeng Zi said, "Wei." When the child came out, the master asked, "What is it?" Ceng Zi said: "The master's way is loyalty and forgiveness." Hu Shi believes that "consistency" and "loyalty and forgiveness" are not only the philosophy of life, but also the main methodology of Confucianism. It should be said that it is insightful. Self constitutes the starting point of the whole behavior, but it can't stop at self-achievement. It is not to cultivate unique personality, but to promote others to achieve people and talents. It can be said that establishing a person and becoming a talent are the content and purpose of establishing a person and an adult, and it is in the process of becoming an adult that the virtue of self has been further completed. At the same time, it also means that the individual's self-realization transcends his own realm, points to the group and reaches the realm of benevolence. As Confucius said: "A benevolent person has made a career and tried his best to achieve his goal, and can draw inferences from others, so it can be said that he is also benevolent." (Yongye) From a methodological point of view, the principle of loyalty and forgiveness is a kind of "externalization", which is close to the self-crossing person after Mahayana Buddhism, although the connotation of adult and becoming a Buddha is completely different.

The so-called "self-cultivation" means moral cultivation, which includes two aspects: one is to restrain and standardize one's own behavior, coordinate with the overall rules and systems of social groups, and promote their development; First, to cultivate one's own inner character, that is, to identify with and actively create symbols such as values, beliefs and languages that constitute a cultural model, is to "internalize" the beautiful morality contained in the social and cultural value system into one's own character, and extend it to others through personal efforts and the concept of "loyalty and forgiveness", so as to socialize, concretize and institutionalize the cultural value system and provide an integrated force for the maintenance and development of the whole society. The cultivation of internal character and its "externalization" are seeking benevolence, while the restraint and standardization of external behavior and its "internalization" are following etiquette. Internal and external interaction also shows that Confucius' thought is neither self-enclosed nor self-expanded by later corrupt scholars. The abstract cultural value system with "benevolence" as a whole and the socialized standard system with "ceremony" as a whole are intertwined here, influencing and promoting each other. As the stipulation of actors, "gentleman", "scholar" and "benevolent" also constitute a self-contained personality system and become the internal driving force to promote cultural and social development. If we must seek the core of Confucius' thought, it is better to say that the ideal personality of this nameless Confucius is the core spirit of Confucius' humanitarian thought.

The most important concept of gentleman's self-cultivation is "benevolence". Benevolence undoubtedly occupies a very important position in Confucius' thought, but Confucius does not have an exact definition, but defines and discusses it through dialogues in different specific situations and comments on human events, thus making abstract concepts point to concrete things and secular life. Therefore, every discussion about "benevolence" cannot be regarded as Confucius' full understanding and definition of benevolence. For example, in The Analects of Confucius Yang Huo, it is recorded that Zhang Wenren was kind to Confucius: Confucius said, "Doing five things in the world is kindness." Ask him: "fairness, tolerance, faith, people and benefit." Courtesy is not for prisoners, forgiveness is not for people, sincerity is considerate, sensitivity is meritorious, and goodness is enough to make people. In other words, gentlemen and Confucian scholars have acquired certain qualities through study and cultivation, so they can be "easy before difficult", "sincere in words" (Chanting Leaves), "respectful at home, faithful to deacons" (Lutz) or "resolute and dull" (Yan Yuan). Even "they gave the people" ("Xian Wen"), and "died for justice". (Wei Linggong) Cai Yuanpei's Ethical History of China says that what Confucius calls "benevolence" means "unifying all virtues and completing the name of personality". This is absolutely true. "Benevolence" was originally a beautiful and complete meaning, and Confucius promoted it to a universal concept representing all good moral qualities, cultural values and traditional beliefs, rather than a simple and concrete moral concept. Cheng Hao understood "benevolence" in this way: "A scholar must be a prophet of benevolence. A benevolent person is like a thing, knowing benevolence, righteousness and faith are all benevolent people. If you know this truth, you just keep it sincerely ... "(Volume 2 of Henan Cheng's suicide note) is the key. Feng Youlan also believes that "benevolent" means "a man of all virtue" and is interpreted as "the highest virtue". In Confucius' view, "benevolence" is a universal cultural value orientation, which can be internalized into the inner character of the actor (benevolent) in the process of observing etiquette, guiding and adjusting one's actions in society, thus reaching or approaching an expected social role. On the one hand, Confucius put forward some basic principles on how to achieve such a state, such as "help others by giving to others", "love" (eternal career), "Yan Yuan" and "filial piety is the foundation of benevolence!" (Xue Ji) and so on, these principles have gradually become the symbol of Confucianism. On the other hand, Confucius had a specific behavioral orientation to the questions of different disciples in different situations at that time. These answers are related to the social situation at that time and the basis of knowledge, culture and belief, and have no universal significance. Confucius did not intend to regard these as eternal proverbs. Later scholars are either superstitious and confused by the complexity of the discussion, or cite a little to explain its profound meaning but not as good as the rest, or are mixed with the concept of virtue and propriety without knowing its original meaning.

"Rite" is another extremely important concept in Confucius' thought. Rite is a custom and external norm naturally formed within a nation, including taboos, but it has a certain social and political integration function since its formation. Zhou rites also evolved from Zhou customs. In the expansion of the political field, they merged the customs of various places and ministries, including Xia and Shang tribes, and tended to be politicized, ethical and gradually complicated. It is not the result of personal subjective shaping, but the result of historical and cultural evolution. The five rites mentioned by Confucianism, namely, good luck, fierceness, hospitality, military service and good manners, are all concrete etiquette, which is not artificially created by politicians or thinkers, but an order maintained by changing power while the clan is formed and expanded. On the one hand, "Duke Zhou made rites and made merry" shows the outstanding contribution of Duke Zhou in the formation of rites and music culture, and it is also the product of Confucian sanctification movement. I'm afraid the main function of the Duke of Zhou is to help Zhou Li reach the four realms with martial arts, that is, to make a whole China with Zhou Li and form a new order in the vast area. According to the archaeological data of the Western Zhou Dynasty, it can be found that the basic formation and stability of Zhou Li was about the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty. It can be seen that the development of ceremony is the formation of order.