Chapter 18 Chapter Five: The Characteristics and Historical Position of Confucianism

We have briefly reviewed the history of the origin and development of Confucianism, and made a survey of its influence in the world. Now let us make a general evaluation of it from different angles and by comparing it with other thoughts. In terms of social and political systems, Confucianism is different from Taoism, Mohism, Legalism, and peasantism. It neither maintains the ideal of classlessness and statelessness, nor supports the idea of ​​a purely regional state. Instead, it insists on the unity of family organization and political organization. Maintain the political system and ethics of the patriarchal clan hierarchy.After the Qin and Han Dynasties, the political system of autocratic monarchy emerged in China, and Confucianism developed the function of serving autocratic monarchy.Because its political ideas are completely in tune with the reality of Chinese society, it can be designated as a statue and become the mainstream of traditional culture.No social and political theory in Chinese history can compete with it, and no religion can crush it.After the Eastern Han Dynasty, Taoism and Buddhism both flourished for a while, but they only cared about the spiritual liberation of people, and other aspects of social life were still controlled by Confucianism.After Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism absorbed Buddhism and Taoism and took care of this matter, Confucianism regained its dominance in an all-round way, while Buddhism and Taoism declined because their functions were replaced.Confucianism met the needs of traditional Chinese society, so it played a role in stabilizing social order, consolidating the feudal system, and promoting the high development of feudal economy and culture; but for the same reason, it hindered the development of capitalist production relations at the end of feudal society. The germination of science and the growth of scientific and democratic consciousness.

The principle of Confucianism in dealing with the relationship between classes and ranks is not only courtesy (hierarchical order), but also harmony (harmony), which is the spirit of joy and benevolence.Confucianism emphasizes that rulers have the responsibility to care for and love the people, and to implement benevolent and virtuous governance to them.Doing so is first of all in line with the spirit of the foreign king, because as the representative of Confucianism said, "the people are the foundation of the country", "the people are more valuable than the emperor", and the emperor is set up for the people, so that the people have enough food and clothing, which is good governance. Can you consolidate your regime?Secondly, this is also in line with the spirit of inner sage, because benevolence is the ultimate good, the way of heaven, and one can enter the sanctuary as one with benevolence, and become a great sage just like Yao and Shun.Confucianism has always had a consciousness that Dao is higher than politics, and believes that real politics must conform to Confucian Dao, not the other way around.Therefore, outstanding representatives of Confucianism always insist on using their own way to demand and even criticize the monarch, and dare to resist the throne with virtue.They used benevolence as a weapon to attack the tyrannical government of the monarch and the world, and to a certain extent defended the interests of the people.

The benevolence spirit advocated by Confucianism is not only a political principle for alleviating class conflicts, monarch-subject conflicts, and monarch-people conflicts, but also an ethical principle for coordinating family, clan, countryman and the world.Historically, the thoughts of "loving others", "giving generously to others", "loyalty" and "forgiveness" not only formed the family and the interpersonal relationship of mutual care and mutual love within the family, but also cultivated the spirit of saving lives, respecting the elderly and loving the elderly in society. The good customs of young people have formed a general awareness of "all brothers in the world" and shared blessings and shared difficulties, and cultivated a beneficial atmosphere of mutual care and harmonious coexistence among people.From this perspective, the meaning of benevolence goes far beyond the scope of serving the feudal society, it has universal and permanent value, and has become an idea and virtue praised by human beings from generation to generation.

Confucianism is also called Confucianism, but unlike Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and Islam, it is in the world rather than out of the world; it does not pursue the happiness of the other side, or the external transcendence, but focuses on the real politics, ethical life.Before modern times, this attitude of Confucianism was the most rational.Of course, Confucianism is not without the spirit of transcendence.As the contemporary New Confucianism says, Confucian transcendence is inner transcendence.In Mencius, mind and nature were linked together; in the Song and Ming dynasties, Confucianists absorbed the wisdom of Buddhism and Taoism, and proposed that the principles of heaven are human nature or the human heart.In this way, for human beings, the law of heaven is both transcendent and internal, and people can achieve the spiritual state of being one with heaven (reason) in the moral life of the present world, and thus be transcended.In this sense, we say that Confucianism also has a certain religious nature.The secular nature of Confucianism has influenced the two religions of Buddhism and Taoism in China. They also pay great attention to maintaining the secular relationship between monarch and minister, father and son, so that China will not have religious obsession, avoiding the opposition between church and political power in Europe, which is very important to society. Stability has a certain promoting effect.But there are advantages and disadvantages. Without the backing of an all-knowing and omnipotent God, secular ideals and moral laws do not have a strong inspiration or rectification effect for many people; Opposition, there is a gap in society that allows new ideas and new production methods to emerge and develop relatively freely.

On the issue of human nature, Confucianism generally holds the view that nature is good.Compared with the theory of evil nature, especially the theory of evil nature of Christianity, the theory of good nature does have shortcomings that cannot be ignored, but overall it also has obvious advantages.In terms of prohibiting people from doing evil, Confucianism is not enough to deter people, but it can play a considerable role in persuading people to do good and become holy.Confucianism attaches great importance to the value of human life and personal dignity because it recognizes the goodness of nature.Human beings are living beings, and human life is innate, so human life is at stake, and everyone has their own right to life. This right should be recognized by everyone, and any behavior that disregards human life should be condemned and resisted.Man is also a moral subject. Since man is inherently good, "everyone can be Yao and Shun", or we can say that man is a sage by nature.Therefore, although Confucianism does not emphasize the equality of people in law, it emphasizes that there is no moral difference between the emperor and the common people.Because of this, everyone has their own dignity.That's why Confucius said: "Three armies can take command, but a man can't take ambition." ("The Analects of Confucius Zihan") "Confucians...you can be killed but not humiliated." ("Book of Rites Confucianism") This kind of thought of personal dignity is conducive to cultivating people's sense of ownership, and is also conducive to transforming into the concept that everyone is equal before the law.

Confucianism places special emphasis on group consciousness.Confucian scholars recognized the significance of family and society to human survival and development long ago.Xunzi believed that the reason why people can defeat beasts is because people can form groups, that is, people can form groups—family and society.Confucianism attaches great importance to and actively maintains the order and harmony of the group, thinking that this is the fundamental guarantee for the survival of the group.For this reason, the concepts of "respecting rituals" and "exercising morality" are advocated, and the concepts of "peace is the most precious" and "protecting harmony and peace" are advocated.Confucianism emphasizes the subordination of the individual to the whole, and believes that everyone has an unshirkable responsibility to the society. It holds a negative attitude towards Buddhas and Laos who deny social responsibility, and believes that if a person does not fulfill his duties to the society, he is a selfish person.For this reason, he put forward a series of glorious sayings such as "the world is the public", "the public forgets selfishness, the country forgets the family", "worry about the world's worries first, and enjoy the world's joy later", "everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the world", etc. Moral principles are our great wealth of thought.Confucianism teaches people to love groups, especially patriotism.Influenced by Confucianism, people with lofty ideals love the people, mountains and rivers, history, and culture of the motherland, and have always worked hard for the prosperity of the motherland.When the country is in crisis and the nation's life and death are at stake, they stand up, face hardships, and sacrifice their lives to participate in the battle. Facing the enemy's butcher's knife, they are righteous and generous.In the history of our nation, there are a string of shining names: Wen Tianxiang, Lu Xiufu, Shi Kefa, Deng Shichang, Ji Hongchang... Their unswerving loyalty to the motherland and their epic achievements are permanent monuments in people's hearts and patriotism. A vivid teaching material of doctrine.

Confucianism has a strong concept of humanity and moral idealism.It is believed that the difference between human beings and animals lies in human history and culture, as well as in human moral concepts and behaviors.The reason why people are human is that they accept the education and influence of cultural traditions since ancient times, and cultivate humanity and human cultural character in themselves.Without the transformation of humanities, there will be no civilized human beings. Different from Legalism's idea of ​​"teaching with the law" and "using officials as teachers", Confucianism has always attached importance to moral and cultural education.Under the guidance of this spirit, all dynasties after the Han Dynasty vigorously promoted Confucianism education. Schools of various levels and types were set up from the central government to the local government to teach the Five Classics, Four Books and historical knowledge.The establishment of the five classics doctor system in the Han Dynasty, and the imperial examination system after the Sui and Tang Dynasties greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of scholars to learn Confucian classics, greatly improving the literacy rate and the popularity of cultural knowledge.At the same time, both the government and private individuals paid attention to explaining classics, compiling historical books, writing books, collecting books, and exchanging academic knowledge, etc. These achievements also occupy an important position in the history of world culture.

In human culture, morality has a special significance.Xunzi pointed out that the reason why human beings are superior to minerals, plants, and animals and are "the most expensive in the world" is because human beings not only have quality, life, and consciousness, but also because they have "righteousness"-moral concepts.Therefore, advocating morality and righteousness is the core content of Confucian ethics.It requires people to strictly draw the boundaries between public and private interests, righteousness and interests, and the boundaries between natural principles and human desires.To think that people live only to satisfy their own self-interest and ignore the constraints of moral laws is to reduce themselves to animals.In terms of moral cultivation, Confucian scholars have summed up the rich practical experience of embodying the truth and cultivating the mind, and learned after learning.Due to excessive attention to the humanities, especially moral cultivation, most of the Confucian scholars lack the enthusiasm and interest in seeking knowledge about the phenomena and laws of nature. own political ethics.Although Confucianism is not destined to reject science and technology, and many Confucian scholars are also mathematicians, astronomers, medical scientists, etc., in the eyes of mainstream Confucianism, science and technology are so-called skills and cannot be compared with the "road".This is the difference between Confucianism and ancient Greek natural philosophy, especially modern western natural science tradition.People have both spiritual needs and material needs, which are met by humanities, social sciences and natural sciences respectively. The two cannot be neglected. To cultivate people who only pay attention to moral cultivation but cannot solve the problems of people's material life is not enough. It will bring happiness to the society; similarly, cultivating people who only understand science and technology but have no ethical concepts is by no means a blessing for mankind.

There is a spirit of self-improvement in Confucianism. "Tian Xingjian" in "Yi Zhuan" and "Gentleman strives for self-improvement" and "Gao Rixin, day by day, and day by day" in "Great Learning" both teach and encourage people to work hard and self-motivate, so as to constantly climb the peak in morality and career.To be self-improvement is to overcome oneself, to have the courage to overcome any difficulties without fear of difficulties and obstacles, and at the same time to have lofty goals, and never stop because of small achievements.Confucius himself is a typical example of self-improvement. In terms of personal learning and self-cultivation, he is not satisfied with "not being confused" or "knowing the destiny of heaven", but has always wanted to reach the highest state of "doing what one wants without transgressing the rules".The same is true in the pursuit of political ideals.When traveling around the world, he saw that the ruler of the time was unwilling to practice Confucianism, but he never bowed to fate, insisting on "knowing what is impossible and doing it."He persisted in his way and believed that one day people would realize that his way was correct.Since Confucius, Chinese people with lofty ideals have used this spirit to inspire themselves and keep improving.Since modern times, individual self-improvement has developed into national self-improvement. This spirit supported us to defeat the Japanese bandits and win the first complete victory in the anti-aggression struggle in a century.

In terms of way of thinking, Confucianism also has its own characteristics and outstanding contributions.One of its characteristics is to think holistically and comprehensively about the world.Like Taoism and other ancient Chinese thoughts, Confucianism focuses on the movement and change of the whole world and the relationship between various things, rather than the specific composition of each thing.In the world picture they drew, the universe is a system, everything in the universe and human beings are in a web of interconnected and interacting relationships, and nothing is isolated; at the same time, nothing is static Yes, they are all driven by the two opposing forces of yin and yang, and they are endlessly and cyclically moving and changing.This is a simple dialectical thought, which has its own advantages and inevitable shortcomings. It is not good at doing analytical research on specific things, and its understanding lacks the necessary clarity in both quality and quantity. .This shortcoming determines that Confucianism's explanation of natural phenomena is essentially different from modern natural science.First, the experience it bases on is the experience gained from daily life, rather than the experience gained from scientific observation and experiment; The "cause" of the phenomenon, instead of finding the law from the scientific data of the phenomenon as in modern natural science, is generally expressed by the quantitative relationship between the phenomena.The development of various sciences today will move from analysis to synthesis. This synthesis is different from the ancient simple synthesis, but the ancient comprehensive thought can give modern people a useful inspiration after all.Many Western scientists are looking for wisdom from the East, which is a proof.

The second feature is the principle of moderation in observation and handling.The doctrine of the mean is to stick to both and use the middle, and to be harmonious without being different. Confucianism observes and handles the relationship between people and people, and between people and nature according to this principle, and avoids various one-sidedness.While negating the Cultural Revolution, people also negate its philosophy of struggle, because the one-sided emphasis on struggle has caused serious harm to our cause.So can we emphasize harmony from now on, and regard harmony as the basic spirit of Chinese philosophy?This is not correct, it is another kind of one-sidedness, at least not in line with the reality of Confucianism.In the relationship between peace and fighting, Confucianism neither blindly advocates struggle nor blindly advocates harmony.Because both of these tendencies violate the spirit of the mean.Confucius said: "Only the benevolent can be good and evil." ("The Analects of Confucius Liren") Since it is said that "the benevolent loves others", why should there be good and evil?Love is the general principle, it is for human beings, but in a specific group of people, the situation is complicated, there is always a distinction between good and bad, good and evil, whether you should also love the wicked, only talking about harmony and not love. What about struggle?Confucius advocated that there are good and evil, and if one does not practice evil, that is, the principle of struggle, one cannot practice love for human beings. This is the most obvious truth.From the perspective of the relationship between human beings and nature, Confucianism is indeed advocating harmony, but it also includes struggle, because there is no pie in the sky, and people must ask nature for survival. The so-called harmony is only a limit. , To ensure that natural resources can be regenerated and maintain the natural environment continues to be suitable for human survival, in short, to achieve a balance between demand and maintenance.Therefore, combining harmony and struggle, fighting does not abolish harmony, and harmony does not abolish struggle, this is in line with the Confucian principle of the mean. Finally, we would like to point out that Confucianism is open rather than closed.From the beginning of Xunzi, he absorbed the thoughts of Taoism and Legalism, and "Confucianism on the outside and law on the inside" became the creed of the rulers of all dynasties.The combination of Confucianism and Yin Yang and Five Elements in the Han Dynasty produced Confucian classics thought represented by Dong Zhongshu.In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it combined with Taoist thought to produce metaphysics.After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Confucianism absorbed the concepts of Buddhism and Taoism and became Neo-Confucianism-Confucianism.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Xu Guangqi merged Confucianism and Christianity, and Liu Zhi mastered Confucianism and Islam, both of which were successful.Since modern times, representatives of modern New Confucianism have tried to combine it with modern Western thought, and this work is continuing. Precisely because Confucianism is open, it has strong adaptability.In ancient times, it was not only adapted to the Han nationality and minority areas in China, but also to Korea, Vietnam and Japan, which promoted the development and progress of civilization and culture in these regions and countries. However, its openness seems to have a certain limit, and it is difficult for the Confucian system of thought to integrate ideas with a large gap, such as modern and contemporary ideas.Modern New Confucianism wants to draw out the difficulties encountered by democratic political system and scientific academic system, which is a powerful proof. Confucianism, from the beginning of Confucius, especially Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, to the outbreak of the Opium War, has played an important role in the development of China's feudal society, economy and politics, the formation of splendid ancient culture and the cultivation of national culture and psychological quality in more than two thousand years. a positive impetus.But at the same time, it also had many negative effects.Especially since modern times, as a complete ideological system, Confucianism has been unable to guide us to step out of the traditional society and realize modernization and modernization. On the contrary, it always makes us passively beaten.Just as the prosperity of ancient times cannot be entirely attributed to it, neither can the backwardness of modern times be entirely attributed to it, but in general it is undoubtedly outdated.So, besides its historical glory, does Confucianism have any practical significance for us? Confucianism includes many aspects, such as etiquette, rites, and three cardinal principles in terms of social and political systems; monarch-subject ethics, family ethics, personal ethics, self-cultivation theory, realm theory, pedagogy, and philosophical thinking in ethics.Due to changes in social life, its basic system has been broken, and the etiquette system and the three cardinal principles have been abolished. However, many contents of Confucianism, such as the way of thinking and ethical thoughts it advocates, often include universal significance beyond it. The things of the times, especially the basic morality of human social life that it reveals from generation to generation, still have vitality today and in the future. This should be carefully inherited and promoted as a family heirloom left to us by our ancestors. However, on the other hand, these ways of thinking and moral thoughts are all related to the specific social system and social life at that time, and their specific development is always limited by the social conditions at that time, and the general significance is greatly discounted in reality. .Therefore, the positive aspects of Confucianism are not ready-made for today's people, but they have to go through a process of refinement, that is, a process of critical inheritance.For example, Confucianism has the spirit of patriotism, which is naturally an excellent tradition, but in reality, Confucian patriotism is associated with loyalty to the emperor. The country that many people love is a specific dynasty with a certain surname.This requires us to be selective about Confucianism, neither discarding it because of its specific manifestations, nor overestimating it because of its abstract universal meaning, thinking that it is ready-made. We believe that in the era of reform and opening up, and today's transition to a socialist market economy, criticizing and inheriting Confucianism can make positive contributions to the construction of a new world outlook and a new moral system; it will improve national self-confidence and enhance national cohesion. Resisting corruption and all ugly phenomena and building socialism with Chinese characteristics will also play a positive role.