Chapter 17 Section 17: Ethical awareness

I have written so much that I can now answer the questions you asked me earlier.You ask me, you will remember that there is no belief in God taught by religion - how can one make people, the mass of mankind, follow and obey the moral code taught by Confucius in the national faith - an absolute duty of loyalty to the emperor ?I revealed to you that it is not the belief in God taught by religion that makes a man truly obey the moral law or the law of moral conduct.I show you that religion is able to make men obey the laws of moral conduct chiefly because an organization called the Church awakens and kindles in men the revelation or living emotion which makes them obey those laws.Now to answer your question, I will tell you that the teaching system of Confucius is called Confucianism, the national belief in China, just like the church religion in other countries, the means of making people abide by the code of moral behavior is also through the church in other countries Organizations such as churches in religion.In Chinese Confucianism, the organization in this national belief is the school.The school is a church in the national faith of Confucius in China.As you know, the word "teaching" in Chinese for religious belief is also teaching for education.In fact, since the church in China is a school, faith in China means education and self-cultivation.The purpose and goal of Chinese schools is not to teach people how to make a living like today's modern Europe and the United States, but just like the purpose and goal of church religion, it is to teach people to understand the so-called basic commandments of Mr. Froude, "don't lie" and "don't steal"; In fact, teach people to be good people. "Whether we are well-mannered or not," said Johnson, "whether we want to be useful or pleasant, it is essential to have a pious moral sense of right and wrong; Reasonable opinion supported by facts. (z-6)

We have seen that the church of church religion can make people obey the code of moral conduct by awakening and lighting up people's revelation or living emotion, and it awakens and lights up people's revelation or living emotion mainly by stimulating and arousing The boundless admiration, love and fanatical emotion of the masters and founders of religions.Well, there is a difference between the school - the church in the national faith of Confucius in China - and the church in the church religion of other countries.School - the church in China's national belief, it can indeed make people abide by the code of moral behavior by awakening and lighting up people's revelation or living emotions, just like the church in the church religion.But the methods that Chinese schools use to awaken and lighten people's discrimination or living emotions are different from those used by churches in other countries' church religions.The school, the church in China's Confucian national belief, does not awaken and light enlightenment or living emotion by stimulating and lighting the infinite admiration, love and fanatical emotion for Confucius.Confucius certainly inspired a feeling of boundless admiration, love, and fanaticism in his immediate disciples during his life, and after his death among all the great men who studied and understood him. and wild emotion.But we know that Confucius, neither in his life nor after his death, inspired the same admiration, love, and fanaticism in the masses of mankind as the founders of the other great religions of the world.Ordinary people in China do not praise and worship Muhammad like ordinary people in Islamic countries, or praise and worship Confucius like ordinary people in European countries praise and worship Jesus Christ.In this respect, Confucius does not belong to the category of founders of religions.In order to be a religious founder in the European sense of the word, one must have a special and even unusually strong emotional nature.Confucius was in fact an ethnic descendant of the Shang royal family, the dynasty that ruled China before the one in which Confucius lived - a race with the same strong emotional nature of the Hebrew people.But Confucius himself lived in the dynasty of the Zhou royal family, which is a race with a good rational nature similar to the Greeks. The Duke of Zhou belonged to this race. As I said, he was the founder of the former Confucian belief, or A true representative of the period of the Old Testament faith in China.Therefore, if we make an analogy, Confucius was of Hebrew origin, possessed the strong emotional nature of the Hebrew race, and at the same time received the best intellectual education, and possessed the best intellectual cultivation that Greek civilization could give.In fact, just like the great Goethe in modern Europe, one day the Europeans will realize that the great Goethe has the most perfect humanity, and is the true European produced by European civilization, just as the Chinese realize that Confucius has the most perfect humanity , he was a real Chinese born out of Chinese civilization - I would say that, like the great Goethe, Confucius was educated and cultured, so he did not belong to the category of founders of religions.In fact, during his lifetime Confucius was not known to all but his closest and most immediate disciples. (z-30)

I said that Chinese schools, which are the churches of Confucius’ national beliefs, do not awaken and lighten enlightenment or living emotions to make people abide by the code of moral behavior by arousing and awakening praise, love and fanatical emotions for Confucius.So how do Chinese schools awaken and light up inspiration or living emotions to make people abide by the code of moral conduct?Confucius said: "Prosper in poetry, establish in rites, and succeed in music." The school - the church of the Chinese national faith - is to awaken and lighten people's inspiration or living emotions by teaching them poetry, so that they can obey The Code of Moral Conduct--Indeed, the writings of all the true great men of literature have, as I have said, the inspiration or living emotion which is found in all the codes of moral conduct of religion.Matthew Arnold, speaking of Homer and the nobility of his poetry, said: "The nobility of Homer's poetry, and of the works of a few great men of literature, can purify the ignorant and transform him."In truth, whatever is true, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any virtue, if there is any praise --Schools, the churches of the national faith in China, will make people think about these things, and by making them think about them, awaken and lighten the revelation or living emotions, so that they can abide by the code of moral conduct. (z-26)