How to understand Confucius's philosophical views of "benevolent people love others" and "the golden mean", and talk about its significance of the times.

The golden mean is a characteristic of the Chinese nation and means not to go to extremes.

This is from a behavioral perspective.

Benevolent people love others

In terms of human inner nature. (Mr. Mou Zongsan)

To understand nature and the way of heaven, we must first start with benevolence. What is benevolence? The meaning of benevolence is difficult to grasp. We can understand it from two aspects:

First, briefly speaking, this is the meaning of treating benevolence as the purpose of virtue, that is, benevolence in benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom, and trust. Mencius also emphasized the four virtues of benevolence, justice, etiquette, and wisdom. In this way, benevolence means benevolence and love for others. "Be kind to relatives and benevolent to the people, benevolent to the people and love things" are all manifestations of benevolence. This seems relatively simple and superficial. However, the meaning of virtue cannot actually fulfill the fundamental meaning of benevolence in Confucius' mind, that is, it cannot enable us to understand the profound and rich meaning of benevolence. Therefore, secondly, let’s talk about it more deeply. Based on my understanding over the past few years, Confucius’ benevolence is “creativity itself.” Confucius expressed various expressions of benevolence in the Analects. If we can sum it up and be good at understanding its meaning, then his words only reveal this "creativity itself". Who can represent this creativity itself? According to Christianity in the West, there is only God. Confucius regarded benevolence as the final entity of all things in the universe. It is not an active force attached to something. This "creativity itself" was later called "the truth of life."

Benevolence is the essence of all things in the universe. First of all, it is not material, but spiritual. Putting aside everything else and looking solely at the meaning of benevolence, the Neo-Confucians of the Song and Ming dynasties would not have misunderstood it. However, Tan Sitong of the Qing Dynasty later described benevolence as ether in his "Xue of Ren", which became a concept in physics. This is completely wrong. Secondly, this spiritual entity must be understood through two concepts: one is awareness and the other is health. Feeling comes from the heart. Awakening does not need to be talked about in terms of awareness, but must be talked about in terms of the "feeling of sadness" in the heart itself. It has moral significance. From the perspective of pathos, feeling means that life is not rigid or sticky, which is the opposite meaning of insensitivity. So now we understand consciousness from the pathos of life. The so-called health refers to the health of "moving vigorously without stopping", which is also spiritual. This is not the impulse of natural life or biological life. It is said in the Book of Changes: "Heaven moves vigorously, and a gentleman strives to constantly strengthen himself." The Book of Songs says: "It is only the destiny of heaven that Yu Mu continues." Zhongyong quoted this saying and praised it, saying: "The reason why this heaven is heaven". "The reason why Heaven is Heaven" is the essence of Heaven and the virtue of Heaven. Confucianism's heaven is not the heaven of astronomy and physics, but focuses on the virtues of heaven. From "the sky is blue", we can see the content of heaven. This content of heaven is the virtue of heaven, which is also the way of heaven. "It is only the destiny of God that Yu Mu will continue to do so." That is to say, wherever the way of heaven moves, the order goes there. Therefore, when the Tao is transported here, it will work here, and when it is transported there, it will work there. This "Destiny of Heaven" never stops. Even if we don't realize it, it works silently. Therefore, it is said that "Yu Mu is endless". "Yu Mu" means profound.

Zhongyong went on to say: "The virtue of King Wen was so pure that it was endlessly pure. This is why this article is called Wen." King Wen's personality is the same as the way of heaven, and King Wen's life is the same as heaven. This is because there is a true essence at work behind King Wen's life, so he can not fall and walk as vigorously as the sky, so his virtue is "endless". It’s not that what is true today will not be true tomorrow. This means that a walking truth will always be present in his life. This sentence can also be used to refer to Confucius, because Confucius is also like this, so we call him a saint. Confucius pointed out the true nature of life and the meaning of benevolence from this place. Therefore I say: Ren is "creativity itself". Who can ever present this "creativity itself"? Confucius said, "Yan Yuan did not violate benevolence in three months." This shows the difficulty of "not violating benevolence." Sometimes you seem to be able to stay calm for three years and keep studying hard. Isn't this better than Yan Zi? Actually it doesn't count. Because you study hard, because there is a gravitational force outside attracting you to study. Once that gravity disappears, I'm afraid you won't study hard anymore. The work of "not violating benevolence" requires a person's self-consciousness. He must always consciously work hard to achieve virtue. This is easier said than done.

It is easy to understand sex through ren.

This is not what is commonly called human nature nowadays. The nature mentioned by Confucius and Mencius does not refer to the nature manifested by biological instincts, physiological structure, and psychological emotions, because this kind of nature is manifested by the structure of the individual. The nature of Confucius and Mencius is explained by understanding the meaning of benevolence. The so-called nature of "nature and the way of heaven" is to understand its original meaning from the perspective of benevolence as "creativity itself". Man takes this "creativity itself" as his nature. This is the most unique thing about human beings. Human nature is the essence of human beings. It is your essence, my essence, and the essence of all things in the universe. Only man can take this creativity itself as his nature, while animals can only use instinct as their nature. Not to mention the tiles and stones. The nature of tiles and stones is their individual structure. Confucianism tells people to fulfill their nature. If they don't fulfill their nature, they will degenerate into beasts. "Performing one's nature" means fully realizing this creative meaning. This creativity itself falls in man and is human nature. If we look at it from the perspective of universal universality, it is the way of heaven. Nature is subjective, and the way of heaven is objective. This is determined by the concept of benevolence. Both of these aspects are encompassed by benevolence, and they are connected into one concept. But creativity itself is the essence of life. We talk about restorativeness, which means restoring creativity itself. How to recover? This means that Confucius only wants people to practice benevolence and become benevolent, while Mencius wants people to fulfill their nature, and to fulfill their nature is to fulfill their benevolence. You can know heaven by doing your best.

I think the golden mean is the principle of rationality. Let's first look at how the book "Zhongyong" interprets the word "中". (The word "yong" can be interpreted as "constant", which is not a core concept) "The Doctrine of the Mean" says: "The joys, anger, sorrows and joys are not expressed in the middle, but when they are expressed, they are all called harmony." To achieve neutrality, the heaven will have its place and all things will be nurtured. 』

"Emotions, anger, sorrow and joy" are emotions and sensibility. Before emotion occurs, it is natural to be rational. So what does "all come out in the middle" mean? We can refer to what Dachengzi said: "The joy and anger of the sage are tied to things and not to the heart. He is angry when things are worthy of anger, and is happy when things are worthy of joy." "Obviously, this "when you are angry" and "when you are happy" is "should", which is also "reason".

"Zhong" and "harmony" are two sides of the same body. If there is a middle part, there must be a middle part, and vice versa. Since "中" is "unreleased", it is therefore invisible. We can only see "中" from "和". (Confucian scholars in the Song and Ming dynasties discussed the issue of "neutralization" a lot. You can refer to "Yangming Zhuanxilu")

So, what is "neutralization"? "Principle" means "middle". "The golden mean" means "the pursuit of reasonableness."

Let’s look at it from another angle. "Happiness, anger, sorrow, joy" or what? It's a value judgment. "Happiness" is recognition in terms of value, and "anger" is rejection in terms of value. "Emotions, anger, sorrow, and joy are tied to things and not to the heart." This means that value judgments start from the object, not from me. In today's terms, it is "objective." Objectivity is rationality.

Of course, if we only talk about it here, then Confucian philosophy would be too simple! "The Doctrine of the Mean" begins with the statement that "the destiny is called nature, and the will of nature is called Tao." This "Tao" is naturally also the "Golden Mean" or "Middle Way". Since "Zhong" is "Li", it means that "Li", "Xing" and "Ming" all have the same meaning, but the focus is different. "Nature is reason", so the "middle way" is "reason". Combined with the previous discussion on "emotions, anger, sorrow and joy", it is not difficult to understand why there is a saying of "nature and emotions". The so-called "nature and emotion" means using the "middle" of "reason" to correct the "bias" of "emotion".

So here comes the problem. What exactly is "reason"? What is "sex"? What is "fate"? Confucianism has no limitations on these concepts. We can say that any limitations and definitions of these concepts are wrong. Because any definition must be included in the concept of "reason" (obviously, this is true for any definition we see in books). Since it is a part, it is naturally impossible to define the whole. This is the same as "only in this mountain" It's a truth.

So how to understand "rational destiny"? "Heart". Because the four concepts of "rational life mind" are the same. Therefore, Zeng Zi "examined myself three times", Mencius "seeked for peace of mind", and Yang Ming "reached the conscience", are all cognitive processes of "returning to one's bow" and "devoting one's heart". In Mou Zongsan's words, it is called "anti-enlightenment realization".

Whether we accept the influence of classics or inherit more traditional culture than we imagine, we often lack correct guidance. "There are serious misunderstandings in our understanding of traditional culture. When we talk about ancient culture, we think of personnel struggles in the palace. In fact, it is just ancient political culture. It obviously cannot cover it, let alone replace the humanistic culture dominated by benevolence and rationality. ” Therefore, we call on the book market to have more ancient classics that are truly suitable for young people to read, instead of catering to the vulgar needs of the so-called popular public.

It is in this sense that belief in culture must be established. What truly changes the fate of individuals, and even countries and nations, ultimately lies in culture. "Some research experts from all over the world have reached a consensus that whether the economy can develop, whether it is as large as the world or as small as a country or region, is rooted in culture. They take China as an example. It is precisely because of the elimination of class struggle that the With the cultural concept of reform and opening up, my country’s economic development has become a subsequent miracle. From this, it is not difficult to see that culture is the final guarantee that determines the destiny of individuals, regions, cities, and even nations.”