Traditional Ethics and Contemporary Society of China 981990255X, 9789819902552

Table of contents :
Preface
Contents
1 Introduction
1 Some Questions About Chinese Ethical Thought
1.1 Research Objects of the History of Chinese Ethical Thought
1.2 The Stages of the History of Chinese Ethical Thought
1.3 The Main Problems Studied by Chinese Ethical Thinkers
1.4 Basic Features of Chinese Ethical Thought
1.5 The Emergence and Evolution of Traditional Chinese Moral Codes
1.6 Attitudes and Methods of Studying the History of Ethical Thought
2 Theoretical Understanding and Methodological Principles of Critical Inheritance of Traditional Morality
2.1 A Historical Overview
2.2 General Principles
2.3 Why the Proletariat Can Inherit the Morality of the Exploiting Class
2.4 How to Understand the Relationship Between the Universal and the Particular in Critical Succession
2.5 How to Understand the Special and Universal Significance of Moral Propositions and Moral Imperatives
2.6 Criteria for Distinguishing Between the Best and the Worst
2 The Ethics Thought of the Western Zhou Dynasty with the Duke of Zhou’s “Respecting Morality and Protecting the People” as the Core—Ethical Thoughts in Book of Documents, Book of Changes and Book of Songs
1 The Ethical Thoughts of Duke Zhou Reflected in Book of Changes
2 Ethical Thoughts in Book of Changes
3 Ethical Thoughts in Book of Songs
3 Founder of Confucianism–Confucius’s Ethical Thought with “Benevolence” as the Core
1 The Life of Confucius and the Historical Background
2 Social Morality with “Love” as the Core
3 Strengthening the Moral Norms of Filial Piety and Loyalty
4 Theory of Moral Cultivation of “Retain Yourself and Follow Social Norms”
5 Multi-level Ideal Personality of “Gentleman”, “Benevolent” and “Sage”
6 Thoughts of “Govern by Virtue”
7 The Righteousness-Benefit View of Righteousness Comes Before Interest”
7.1 About “Righteousness Before Profit”
7.2 “The Mind of the Superior Man is Conversant with Righteousness; the Mind of the Mean Man is Conversant with Gain”
8 Confucius and Confucianism
8.1 Reasons for the Long-Standing Importance of Confucianism in Ancient Times
8.2 The Primary Content of Confucianism
8.3 How to Understand the Confucian School
8.4 The Contemporary Significance of Confucian Ethics
8.5 The Right Attitude Towards Confucius and Confucianism
4 Ethical Thought in Mohism of Impartial Care and Equal Emphasis on Righteousness and Interest
1 The Life of Mozi and His Works
2 Ethical Thoughts with “Impartial Love” as the Core
3 Principle of Equal Emphasis on Righteousness and Benefit and Utilitarianism in Ethics
4 Against Fatalism for Anti-aggression
5 Labor Creation Theory of “Labor to Survive”
6 Religious Ethics of “Heaven Can Appreciate the Good and Punish the Evil”
7 Moral Cultivation Theory Based on Behaviour
8 Political Thoughts of Promoting the Worthy and Identifying Upward
5 Development of Confucius’s Ethical Thought by Mencius and the Debate with Gaozi
1 The Life of Mencius and His Works
2 Opposition Between Innate Goodness and “Man’s Nature is Indifferent to Good and Evil”
3 Intuitive Knowledge, Intuitive Ability and Conscience Are the Core of Morality
4 Cultivation Theory Based on Innate Goodness and Conscience
5 Intentionalism of Righteousness Over Benefit
6 Value on Goodness
7 Five Bonds and Its Guidelines
8 Gaozi’s Theory on Human Nature of “Nature Comes with Birth”
6 Taoist Ethics of “Nonaction” and “Detached from Righteousness and Benefit”
1 The Ethical Thought of “Returning to Naturalness and Truth” in Tao Te Ching
1.1 The Life of Laozi and the Book of “Laozi”
1.2 The Worldview of the Book of “Laozi”
1.3 The Gist of the “Laozi”
1.4 The Philosophy of “Doing Nothing but Doing Everything”
1.5 The Moral Ideal of Return to the Infant
2 Yang Zhu’s Ethical Thought of “Cherishing Oneself” and “Self-Favoritism”
2.1 The Life of Yang Zhu
2.2 The Core of Yang Zhu’s Thoughts is ‘Valuing Oneself’ and ‘Rebirth’
2.3 Yang Zhu’s Theory on Happiness
2.4 The Social Role of Yang Zhu’s Thought
3 Zhuangzi’s Ethical Thought of “Righteousness Over Benefit”
3.1 Zhuangzi’s Life and Works
3.2 From Epistemological Relativism to the Ethical Idea of Transcendental Good and Evil
3.3 Zhuangzi’s View of Life
3.4 Emphasis on the Nature of Man, the Transcendence of Righteousness and Profit, and the Rejection of the Bondage of Confucian and Mexican Morality
3.5 Zhuangzi’s Theory of the Ideal of Life
3.6 The Duality of Zhuangzi’s Ethics and Its Historical Influence
7 The Ethical Thought of Legalism of “Benefit Over Righteousness”
1 The Ethical Thoughts of Legalism in Qi(State) in Guan Zi
1.1 The Life of Guanzi
1.2 An Ethical View of the Complementarity of Ritual and Law
1.3 The Humanism of “Seeking Benefit Avoiding Harm”
1.4 A Preliminary Exploration of the Relationship Between Ethics and the Material Basis
2 Han Fei’s Ethical Thought
2.1 The Life of Han Fei
2.2 His Progressive View of History
2.3 All Men Are Self-conscious
2.4 Interaction Between People Is a “Counting” (or Calculating) Relationship
2.5 A Refutation of Confucian Benevolence and Morality
2.6 Ruling Scheme that Combines Law, Tactics and Power
2.7 Comments on Han Fei’s Thought
8 The Ethical Thoughts of Xun Kuang, the Representative Ethicist of Pre-qin Dynasty
1 The Life of Xunzi
2 The Human Nature Theory of “Love Benefits” and “Hate Harms”
3 Interpretation of “Courtesy” as a Normative System
4 The Complementary Thoughts in Politics and Ethics of “Govern by Virtue” and “Govern by Law”
4.1 Xunzi’s Definition of “Rites” and “Law”
4.2 “Rites” and “Law” Should Be Given Equal Importance
4.3 The Role of “Law” in Governing a State
4.4 The Role of “Rites” in Governing a State
4.5 “Rites” and “Law” Can be Complementary
4.6 “Ritual” Is More Fundamental Than “Law”
4.7 Governing the State and Cultivating Personal Moral Character
4.8 Inspiration from Xunzi’s Political Ethics
5 The Concept of Righteousness and Benefit of “Man Can Pursue Both Righteousness and Benefit”
6 Moral Education Theory Emphasizing “Law” and “Rite”
9 Systematization of Confucian Ethics—Ethical Thoughts in Book of Rites and Book of Filial Piety
1 Ethical Thoughts in the Great Learning
1.1 Ethical Thoughts in the Great Learning
1.2 The Ethical Thought of Doctrine of the Mean
1.3 The Ethical Thought of the Conveyance of Rites
1.4 Ideas on the Ethical Relationship Between Husband and Wife in the Book of Rites
2 The Ethical Thought of the Book of Filial Piety
10 Dong Zhongshu’s Theological Arguments for Confucian Ethics
1 Life of Dong Zhongshu and His Works
2 The Reason for “Venerate Confucianism Only”
3 Interactions Between Heaven and Mankind and Gifted Morality
4 About “Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues”
5 Human Nature Theory of “Fail to Do Good Things Even with Goodness in Nature”
6 Motivation Theory of “Correct Moral” and “Declare Behavior”
7 The Concept of “Benefit Does Good to Body” and “Righteousness Nourishes Mind”
11 The Improvement of Confucian Ethics Norm System and the Establishment of Its Orthodox Status—The Baihuguan Conference
1 Reasons for the Baihuguan Conference
2 Baihuguan Conference and Prophecy Theology
3 Establishment of the Orthodox Status of “Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues”
4 Significance of Baihuguan Conference
12 Criticism of Theological Ethics
1 Yang Xiong’s Ethical Thought
1.1 Life and Writings
1.2 The Human Nature Theory of “Human Nature is also a Mixture of Good and Evil”
2 Wang Chong’s Ethical Thought
2.1 Life and Writings
2.2 The Materialist View of Nature and Epistemology
2.3 Theories on Human Nature
2.4 On the Relationship Between Material Life and Morality
2.5 The Good and Evil Nature and the Fate
2.6 Nurturing Virtue and Strength
3 T Wang Fu’s Ethical Thoughts
3.1 Life and Writings
3.2 Against “Virtue by Position”
3.3 Ritual and Righteousness Born of Abundance
3.4 “Righteousness is Worth Praising, but Profit Deserves Critique”
13 Ethical Thought in the Song and Ming Periods
1 Lu Jiuyuan’s Ethical Thoughts
1.1 Life and Writings
1.2 “Mind” as a Rational Entity
1.3 Mind as Reason
1.4 The Cultivation Theory of “Establishing the Greatness”
1.5 The Saintly State of “All Things Are in Me” and “the Universe is My Mind, and My Mind is the Universe”
1.6 A Re-conceptualization of Lu Jiuyuan’s Ethical Thought
2 Wang Shouren’s Ethical Thought
2.1 Life and Writings
2.2 The First Thing in the World is to “Study and Learn from the Sages”
2.3 Conscience Can Know Good and Evil, and It is the Master of the Heart
2.4 “To Be Conscientious” Means Self-Improvement in Moral Cultivation
2.5 “Knowing and Doing” is the Unity of Moral Understanding and Moral Behavior
3 Establishment of the Orthodox Status of “Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues”
3.1 The Development of Chinese Ethical Thought by Song Thinkers in the Light of the History of Chinese Ethical Thought
3.2 The Main Contributions of Song Thinkers to Chinese Ethical Thought
3.3 The Importance of Carrying Forward the Excellent Moral Traditions of the Chinese Nation in the Light of the Current Modernization of Developing Countries
4 A New Exploration of Li Zhi’s Ethical Thought
4.1 Selfishness is in the Nature of Man
4.2 Dressing and Eating is Human Physics
4.3 Emphasizing the Autonomy of Moral Conduct and Opposing the Bondage of Feudal Conventions
4.4 Limitations of Li Zhi’s Thought and Lessons in Thinking
5 Liu Zongzhou’s Idea of “Prudence and Independence” and Its Role
5.1 Prudence is an Important Way to Become a Saint and a Sage
5.2 Prudence is the Most Important Test of one’s Moral Character
5.3 Prudence is to Promote the “Original Heart”
5.4 The Four Stages of Prudent Cultivation
14 Traditional Ethics and Moral Development
1 Confucianism and Political Rule
2 Traditional Morality and Contemporary Moral Development
3 Traditional Culture and Talent Cultivation
3.1 The Basic Characteristics of Traditional Chinese Culture
3.2 Traditional Culture and the Development of High Quality Human Resources
4 Brief Discussion on Traditional Virtues
4.1 The Virtue of “Public Loyalty”
4.2 “Awareness of the Problems” and “Preparedness for Danger”
4.3 Modesty and Hard Work
4.4 “Respect for the Elderly” and “Orderliness of Elders and Children”
4.5 “Be Kind to Your Parents” and “Be Dutiful to Your Parents”
4.6 “Chengmen Lixue” and the Promotion of Traditional Virtues
15 Moral Development and Governance
1 Confucian Thought on Rule of Morality
1.1 The Formation and Development of Confucianism’s Moral Governance
1.2 Moral Rule is not the Absence of Punishment
1.3 Moral Rule is not the Same as the Rule of Man
1.4 Both Rule of Law and Moral Rule
2 “Rule of Law” and “Rule of Morality” Should Complement Each Other
2.1 The Differences and Links Between the “Moral Rule” of Today and the “Moral Rule” of Ancient Times
2.2 The Different Roles of Law and Ethics
2.3 Integrating the Rule of Law and Morality
2.4 Some Countermeasures and Suggestions
3 Moral Development and Governance
3.1 Historical Controversies
3.2 Strategies for Governing a Socialist Society
3.3 The Main Elements of the Rule by Virtue
4 Some Questions About “Govern by Virtue”
4.1 Will “Rule by Virtue” Lead to the Rule of Man?
4.2 Will the Promotion of “Ruling the Country by Virtue” Affect the Implementation of “Ruling the Country by Law”?
4.3 Will the Promotion of “Ruling the Country by Virtue” Hinder the Democratic Political Process in China?
4.4 How to Understand the Rule of Morality and the Rule of Law in Ancient China?
4.5 Is the Promotion of “Ruling by Virtue” a Way to Rule the People or the Officials?
4.6 What is the Scientific Meaning of the Socialist “Rule by Virtue”?
5 The History, Theory and Practice of “Rule by Virtue”
5.1 On the Relationship Between the Rule of Law and Morality
5.2 On the Relationship Between the Rule of Virtue and the Rule of Man
5.3 On the Content of Moral Governance
6 The Theoretical and Practical Significance of “Ruling the Country by Virtue
6.1 Theoretical Reflection on “Ruling by Virtue”
6.2 On the Practical Implementation of the “Rule by Virtue” Principle
6.3 Theoretical and Practical Significance of the Idea of “Ruling the Country” by Virtue
Appendix
Inherit and Carry Forward the Fine Moral Traditions of the Chinese Nation
On Promoting Good Chinese Ethics Traditional Thinking
The Right Attitude and Approach to Inherit the Fine Moral Traditions of the Chinese Nation
What is the Fine Moral Tradition of the Chinese Nation
Promoting China in the Construction of the Four Socialist Modernizations: The Importance of the nation’s Fine Moral Traditions
Promoting the Fine Moral Traditions of Ancient China: A Few Noteworthy Points
The Fundamental Purpose of Promoting the Fine Moral Traditions of Ancient China
Guiding Ideas for Promoting Good Morals in Ancient China
Promoting the Fine Moral Traditions of Ancient China While Attention Should Be Paid to the Promotion of Chinese Revolutionary Moral Traditions
Promote the Fine Moral Traditions of Ancient China, with Emphasis on the Question of the Distinction Between “Neo-Confucianism” and Confucianism, It is also a Current Issue Worth Noting
Be Aware of Unhealthy Retro Thinking Such as Feudal Superstition
The Traditional Ethical Culture of the Chinese People: Future Value Orientation
Should Traditional Chinese Culture “Die Out”?
How We Should Approach Tradition
How We Should Really Approach Traditional Culture
On the Traditional Morality of the Chinese People: “Essence” and “Dross”
Basic Principles for the Inheritance of Traditional Ethics and Traditional Culture
A Dialectical Analysis of the Fine Moral Traditions of the Chinese Nation
The “Essence” of the Chinese Moral Tradition and Macro Judgement of “Dross”
The “Five Constants” in Traditional Chinese Ethics
The “Three Principles” of Traditional Chinese Ethics
Promote the Fine Morality of the Chinese Nation with Patriotism at Its Core Tradition, Development and Construction of a New Socialist Ethic
Using the Past for the Present, Pushing the Envelope
Traditional Chinese Ethics Must Be Treated with a Correct Stance
The Treatment of Traditional Chinese Morality Should Respect the Objective Law of Cultural Transmission
The Treatment of Traditional Chinese Morality Should Be Analyzed on a Case-By-Case Basis
The Right Methodology for Approaching Traditional Chinese Ethics
The Core and Mainstream of Traditional Chinese Virtues
An Analysis of Ancient Chinese Thinkers’ Discourses on Qigong
Qigong and the Prevention and Treatment of Diseases and the Prolongation of Life
Qigong and the “Wisdom of the Ears and Eyes” and the Development of Intelligence
Qigong and the Cultivation of Temperament and Moral Character

Citation preview

Guojie Luo

Traditional Ethics and Contemporary Society of China

Traditional Ethics and Contemporary Society of China

Guojie Luo

Traditional Ethics and Contemporary Society of China

Guojie Luo School of Philosophy Renmin University of China Beijing, China

ISBN 978-981-99-0255-2 ISBN 978-981-99-0256-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0256-9 Jointly published with China Renmin University Press The print edition is not for sale in China (Mainland). Customers from China (Mainland) please order the print book from: China Renmin University Press. © China Renmin University Press 2023 Translated by ‘B&R Book Program’ This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publishers, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishers nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publishers remain neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Preface

After the publication of the History of Chinese Ethical Thought, which I edited, the idea was born at that time to systematize my thoughts on traditional Chinese ethical thought and its far-reaching impact on modern society, as a record of my insights and experiences in studying and researching traditional Chinese ethical thought and traditional Chinese morality over the past 50 years. I have had a special interest in traditional Chinese ethical thought and morality since I was a child, and I have always taken to heart the life and deeds of some famous thinkers, politicians and moralists in Chinese history, taking them as examples for myself to study. After went into Renmin University of China in 1960 and started my work on the education of ethics, I got a good opportunity to study the discipline further. My systematic study and research of traditional Chinese ethical thought and Chinese traditional morality can be divided into two stages. The first stage is from 1985 to 1990. During this period, mainly because of the task of editing the History of Chinese Ethical Thought, I spent most of my time at work and studied the writings of ancient Chinese philosophers and ethicists, including Confucius, Laozi, Mozi, Zhuangzi, Mencius, Xunzi, Han Fei and other thinkers. I wrote many notes about their ethical thinking. This study has enabled me to further understand and appreciate the profound ethical thinking of the ancient Chinese thinkers and has led me to the conclusion that the ancient Chinese philosophers were all extremely rich in ethical thinking and had passion and love for ethics, and that the ancient Chinese ethicists were all very good at philosophical thinking. Even when discussing the so-called metaphysical theory, they never stopped exploring the roots of these problems from an ontological point of view. This phenomenon can be said to be a characteristic of Chinese philosophy and an important difference between Chinese philosophy and Chinese ethics and Western philosophy and Western ethics. The second stage of my study of traditional Chinese ethical thought and traditional morality lasted for nearly three years, from 1993 to 1996. During this period, as I accepted the task of editing traditional Chinese ethics, which was organized by the then State Education Commission, I had to give up many important tasks at hand, including the National Social Science Foundation projects I had undertaken, to concentrate on organizing almost all the comrades engaged in the study of the v

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history of Chinese ethics and traditional ethics in the country, gathered at Renmin University of China and pooled their ideas to write the five-volume traditional ethics. If my study of the History of Chinese Ethical Thought in the 1980s focused mainly on the ethical thoughts of ethical thinkers of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, my study of traditional Chinese ethical thought in the 1990s focused mainly on the norms of traditional Chinese morality and how to inherit and carry forward the fine Chinese moral tradition. This latter stage of study has given me a more urgent need to adhere to the correct ideological orientation, to observe, grasp and apply these ideas in a comprehensive manner, to know, understand and grasp them scientifically, analytically and correctly, and to contribute to the better strengthening of socialist moral construction and socialist spiritual civilization in China. It is because of the above professional interests and the importance of this topic that I have decided to compile my thoughts on Chinese ethical thought and traditional morality over the years into this work, in the hope that my views on Chinese ethical thought and traditional morality can be corrected by experts. Beijing, China June 2012

Guojie Luo

Contents

1

2

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Some Questions About Chinese Ethical Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Research Objects of the History of Chinese Ethical Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 The Stages of the History of Chinese Ethical Thought . . . . . . . 1.3 The Main Problems Studied by Chinese Ethical Thinkers . . . . 1.4 Basic Features of Chinese Ethical Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.5 The Emergence and Evolution of Traditional Chinese Moral Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6 Attitudes and Methods of Studying the History of Ethical Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Theoretical Understanding and Methodological Principles of Critical Inheritance of Traditional Morality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 A Historical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 General Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Why the Proletariat Can Inherit the Morality of the Exploiting Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 How to Understand the Relationship Between the Universal and the Particular in Critical Succession . . . . . . . 2.5 How to Understand the Special and Universal Significance of Moral Propositions and Moral Imperatives . . . 2.6 Criteria for Distinguishing Between the Best and the Worst . . . The Ethics Thought of the Western Zhou Dynasty with the Duke of Zhou’s “Respecting Morality and Protecting the People” as the Core—Ethical Thoughts in Book of Documents, Book of Changes and Book of Songs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Ethical Thoughts of Duke Zhou Reflected in Book of Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 1 1 5 6 13 18 24 28 29 37 38 39 40 41

43 43

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2 Ethical Thoughts in Book of Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ethical Thoughts in Book of Songs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

4

5

Founder of Confucianism–Confucius’s Ethical Thought with “Benevolence” as the Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Life of Confucius and the Historical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Social Morality with “Love” as the Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Strengthening the Moral Norms of Filial Piety and Loyalty . . . . . . . . 4 Theory of Moral Cultivation of “Retain Yourself and Follow Social Norms” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Multi-level Ideal Personality of “Gentleman”, “Benevolent” and “Sage” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Thoughts of “Govern by Virtue” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The Righteousness-Benefit View of Righteousness Comes Before Interest” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1 About “Righteousness Before Profit” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2 “The Mind of the Superior Man is Conversant with Righteousness; the Mind of the Mean Man is Conversant with Gain” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Confucius and Confucianism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.1 Reasons for the Long-Standing Importance of Confucianism in Ancient Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2 The Primary Content of Confucianism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3 How to Understand the Confucian School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.4 The Contemporary Significance of Confucian Ethics . . . . . . . . 8.5 The Right Attitude Towards Confucius and Confucianism . . . . Ethical Thought in Mohism of Impartial Care and Equal Emphasis on Righteousness and Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Life of Mozi and His Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Ethical Thoughts with “Impartial Love” as the Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Principle of Equal Emphasis on Righteousness and Benefit and Utilitarianism in Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Against Fatalism for Anti-aggression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Labor Creation Theory of “Labor to Survive” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Religious Ethics of “Heaven Can Appreciate the Good and Punish the Evil” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Moral Cultivation Theory Based on Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Political Thoughts of Promoting the Worthy and Identifying Upward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

52 57 61 61 66 73 79 83 86 91 91

94 99 100 102 112 117 119 125 125 127 131 135 137 139 142 144

Development of Confucius’s Ethical Thought by Mencius and the Debate with Gaozi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 1 The Life of Mencius and His Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Contents

2 Opposition Between Innate Goodness and “Man’s Nature is Indifferent to Good and Evil” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Intuitive Knowledge, Intuitive Ability and Conscience Are the Core of Morality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Cultivation Theory Based on Innate Goodness and Conscience . . . . 5 Intentionalism of Righteousness Over Benefit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Value on Goodness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Five Bonds and Its Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Gaozi’s Theory on Human Nature of “Nature Comes with Birth” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

7

Taoist Ethics of “Nonaction” and “Detached from Righteousness and Benefit” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Ethical Thought of “Returning to Naturalness and Truth” in Tao Te Ching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 The Life of Laozi and the Book of “Laozi” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 The Worldview of the Book of “Laozi” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 The Gist of the “Laozi” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 The Philosophy of “Doing Nothing but Doing Everything” . . . 1.5 The Moral Ideal of Return to the Infant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Yang Zhu’s Ethical Thought of “Cherishing Oneself” and “Self-Favoritism” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 The Life of Yang Zhu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 The Core of Yang Zhu’s Thoughts is ‘Valuing Oneself’ and ‘Rebirth’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Yang Zhu’s Theory on Happiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 The Social Role of Yang Zhu’s Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Zhuangzi’s Ethical Thought of “Righteousness Over Benefit” . . . . . 3.1 Zhuangzi’s Life and Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 From Epistemological Relativism to the Ethical Idea of Transcendental Good and Evil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 Zhuangzi’s View of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4 Emphasis on the Nature of Man, the Transcendence of Righteousness and Profit, and the Rejection of the Bondage of Confucian and Mexican Morality . . . . . . . . . 3.5 Zhuangzi’s Theory of the Ideal of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.6 The Duality of Zhuangzi’s Ethics and Its Historical Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Ethical Thought of Legalism of “Benefit Over Righteousness” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Ethical Thoughts of Legalism in Qi(State) in Guan Zi . . . . . . . . 1.1 The Life of Guanzi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 An Ethical View of the Complementarity of Ritual and Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 The Humanism of “Seeking Benefit Avoiding Harm” . . . . . . . .

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148 153 156 162 165 166 169 175 175 175 178 179 181 183 185 185 187 191 193 194 194 197 200

206 210 212 217 217 217 220 222

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1.4 A Preliminary Exploration of the Relationship Between Ethics and the Material Basis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Han Fei’s Ethical Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 The Life of Han Fei . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 His Progressive View of History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 All Men Are Self-conscious . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Interaction Between People Is a “Counting” (or Calculating) Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 A Refutation of Confucian Benevolence and Morality . . . . . . . 2.6 Ruling Scheme that Combines Law, Tactics and Power . . . . . . 2.7 Comments on Han Fei’s Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

9

The Ethical Thoughts of Xun Kuang, the Representative Ethicist of Pre-qin Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Life of Xunzi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Human Nature Theory of “Love Benefits” and “Hate Harms” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Interpretation of “Courtesy” as a Normative System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 The Complementary Thoughts in Politics and Ethics of “Govern by Virtue” and “Govern by Law” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 Xunzi’s Definition of “Rites” and “Law” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 “Rites” and “Law” Should Be Given Equal Importance . . . . . . 4.3 The Role of “Law” in Governing a State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4 The Role of “Rites” in Governing a State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5 “Rites” and “Law” Can be Complementary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6 “Ritual” Is More Fundamental Than “Law” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7 Governing the State and Cultivating Personal Moral Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.8 Inspiration from Xunzi’s Political Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 The Concept of Righteousness and Benefit of “Man Can Pursue Both Righteousness and Benefit” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Moral Education Theory Emphasizing “Law” and “Rite” . . . . . . . . . Systematization of Confucian Ethics—Ethical Thoughts in Book of Rites and Book of Filial Piety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ethical Thoughts in the Great Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Ethical Thoughts in the Great Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 The Ethical Thought of Doctrine of the Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 The Ethical Thought of the Conveyance of Rites . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 Ideas on the Ethical Relationship Between Husband and Wife in the Book of Rites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Ethical Thought of the Book of Filial Piety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

223 225 225 226 228 230 232 234 236 239 239 241 245 249 250 251 253 253 255 256 257 259 259 262 267 267 267 278 285 287 289

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10 Dong Zhongshu’s Theological Arguments for Confucian Ethics . . . . 1 Life of Dong Zhongshu and His Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Reason for “Venerate Confucianism Only” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Interactions Between Heaven and Mankind and Gifted Morality . . . 4 About “Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues” . . . . . 5 Human Nature Theory of “Fail to Do Good Things Even with Goodness in Nature” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Motivation Theory of “Correct Moral” and “Declare Behavior” . . . . 7 The Concept of “Benefit Does Good to Body” and “Righteousness Nourishes Mind” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Improvement of Confucian Ethics Norm System and the Establishment of Its Orthodox Status—The Baihuguan Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Reasons for the Baihuguan Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Baihuguan Conference and Prophecy Theology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Establishment of the Orthodox Status of “Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Significance of Baihuguan Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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313 313 316 317 325

12 Criticism of Theological Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Yang Xiong’s Ethical Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Life and Writings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 The Human Nature Theory of “Human Nature is also a Mixture of Good and Evil” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Wang Chong’s Ethical Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Life and Writings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 The Materialist View of Nature and Epistemology . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Theories on Human Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 On the Relationship Between Material Life and Morality . . . . 2.5 The Good and Evil Nature and the Fate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6 Nurturing Virtue and Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 T Wang Fu’s Ethical Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 Life and Writings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Against “Virtue by Position” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 Ritual and Righteousness Born of Abundance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4 “Righteousness is Worth Praising, but Profit Deserves Critique” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

327 327 327

13 Ethical Thought in the Song and Ming Periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Lu Jiuyuan’s Ethical Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Life and Writings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 “Mind” as a Rational Entity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 Mind as Reason . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 The Cultivation Theory of “Establishing the Greatness” . . . . . .

349 349 349 350 353 354

329 332 332 333 336 338 340 342 343 343 344 345 346

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3

4

5

1.5 The Saintly State of “All Things Are in Me” and “the Universe is My Mind, and My Mind is the Universe” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6 A Re-conceptualization of Lu Jiuyuan’s Ethical Thought . . . . . Wang Shouren’s Ethical Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Life and Writings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 The First Thing in the World is to “Study and Learn from the Sages” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Conscience Can Know Good and Evil, and It is the Master of the Heart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 “To Be Conscientious” Means Self-Improvement in Moral Cultivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 “Knowing and Doing” is the Unity of Moral Understanding and Moral Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Establishment of the Orthodox Status of “Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 The Development of Chinese Ethical Thought by Song Thinkers in the Light of the History of Chinese Ethical Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 The Main Contributions of Song Thinkers to Chinese Ethical Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 The Importance of Carrying Forward the Excellent Moral Traditions of the Chinese Nation in the Light of the Current Modernization of Developing Countries . . . . . . A New Exploration of Li Zhi’s Ethical Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 Selfishness is in the Nature of Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Dressing and Eating is Human Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 Emphasizing the Autonomy of Moral Conduct and Opposing the Bondage of Feudal Conventions . . . . . . . . . . 4.4 Limitations of Li Zhi’s Thought and Lessons in Thinking . . . . Liu Zongzhou’s Idea of “Prudence and Independence” and Its Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 Prudence is an Important Way to Become a Saint and a Sage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 Prudence is the Most Important Test of one’s Moral Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 Prudence is to Promote the “Original Heart” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4 The Four Stages of Prudent Cultivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

14 Traditional Ethics and Moral Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Confucianism and Political Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Traditional Morality and Contemporary Moral Development . . . . . . 3 Traditional Culture and Talent Cultivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 The Basic Characteristics of Traditional Chinese Culture . . . . .

358 360 363 363 364 366 369 373 377

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382 382 383 386 389 393 395 396 397 398 399 405 405 431 442 443

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3.2 Traditional Culture and the Development of High Quality Human Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Brief Discussion on Traditional Virtues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 The Virtue of “Public Loyalty” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 “Awareness of the Problems” and “Preparedness for Danger” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 Modesty and Hard Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4 “Respect for the Elderly” and “Orderliness of Elders and Children” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5 “Be Kind to Your Parents” and “Be Dutiful to Your Parents” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6 “Chengmen Lixue” and the Promotion of Traditional Virtues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Moral Development and Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Confucian Thought on Rule of Morality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 The Formation and Development of Confucianism’s Moral Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Moral Rule is not the Absence of Punishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 Moral Rule is not the Same as the Rule of Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 Both Rule of Law and Moral Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “Rule of Law” and “Rule of Morality” Should Complement Each Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 The Differences and Links Between the “Moral Rule” of Today and the “Moral Rule” of Ancient Times . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 The Different Roles of Law and Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Integrating the Rule of Law and Morality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Some Countermeasures and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Moral Development and Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 Historical Controversies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Strategies for Governing a Socialist Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 The Main Elements of the Rule by Virtue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Some Questions About “Govern by Virtue” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 Will “Rule by Virtue” Lead to the Rule of Man? . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Will the Promotion of “Ruling the Country by Virtue” Affect the Implementation of “Ruling the Country by Law”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 Will the Promotion of “Ruling the Country by Virtue” Hinder the Democratic Political Process in China? . . . . . . . . . . 4.4 How to Understand the Rule of Morality and the Rule of Law in Ancient China? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5 Is the Promotion of “Ruling by Virtue” a Way to Rule the People or the Officials? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6 What is the Scientific Meaning of the Socialist “Rule by Virtue”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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511 513 515 517 518

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5 The History, Theory and Practice of “Rule by Virtue” . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 On the Relationship Between the Rule of Law and Morality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 On the Relationship Between the Rule of Virtue and the Rule of Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 On the Content of Moral Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The Theoretical and Practical Significance of “Ruling the Country by Virtue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1 Theoretical Reflection on “Ruling by Virtue” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 On the Practical Implementation of the “Rule by Virtue” Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 Theoretical and Practical Significance of the Idea of “Ruling the Country” by Virtue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

520 521 524 530 534 534 538 540

Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

Chapter 1

Introduction

1 Some Questions About Chinese Ethical Thought China is one of the earliest countries in the world in terms of civilization development, with a long history and a glorious culture. It is known as an “ancient civilization” and a “nation of manners”, and therefore has richer and more distinctive ethical thoughts and moral concepts than other countries in the world. The vast historical materials left in Chinese history reflect the customs and moral conditions of different times and societies from different perspectives and express the different ethical thoughts of thinkers. Today, against the background of the scientific and technological revolution and the cultural exchanges between the East and the West, the study of Chinese ethical thought and the moral tradition in the cause of socialist modernization is of great significance not only for building a socialist spiritual civilization with Chinese characteristics, raising and improving the moral level of society, and thus promoting its modernization.

1.1 Research Objects of the History of Chinese Ethical Thought The history of ethical thought is about the emergence, development, connection and development patterns of various morality and ethics. Morality and ethnics are both important contents of ethical thought, which are related but different. From the root, they all come from human society and are people’s reflection on their own morality. However, ethics are relatively profound and comprehensive, with a certain theoretical system, while morality is relatively simple and fragmentary, mostly scattered in history, literary, arts, religions, laws, and political systems. The study of the history of Chinese ethical thoughts is not a superficial understanding of the emergence, development and connections of various mortality and © China Renmin University Press 2023 G. Luo, Traditional Ethics and Contemporary Society of China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0256-9_1

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ethics, but further research in the inherent and inevitable connections, and an inspection of how these concepts and doctrines occur and develop under the influence of a certain economic structure and political system. That is to say, we should learn about the conflicts, influences, assimilation, and inheritance among them and their development in accordance with logic. The history of ethical thoughts should not only show a strong sense of history, but also have distinct characteristics of ethical thoughts. It should be able to reflect in detail the historical outlook and internal laws of mortality and ethics that conflict, absorb, inherit and develop in history. For a long period in history, Chinese ethical thought has been integrated with philosophy, literature, religion, history, politics and laws. Not until the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, Chinese academia had been classified by Confucian classics (Jing), historical records (Shi), philosophical writings (Zi) and miscellaneous works (Ji), without a relatively clear division of disciplines, and it was impossible to form a relatively independent ethics discipline. Although many contents of them have deeply discussed all aspects related to the value of life, good and evil of human nature, moral principles and cultivation, until the Xinhai Revolution, China did not have monographs named after “morality” or “ethics”. In a sense, The Analects of Confucius and The Analects of Mencius can be regarded as the earliest two ethical works in the history of Chinese ethics, but they also contain a large number of social and political thoughts. Zhu Xi’s Elementary Learning can be regarded as a monograph on moral education (he claims that this book is to explain the issue of “being a good person”). In Song-Ming Confucianism or Neo Confucianism, academic ideas were generally more inclined to explore how to behave (i.e., how to “become a sage”), or to study how to govern a country by exploring how to behave. Chinese philosophy became more and more ethical, and ontology and epistemology in the works of philosophers were also subject to ethics. In a sense, it can also be said that the content of Neo Confucianism is morality, but the moral theory is still combined with politics and philosophy. Although the concept of “ethics” has appeared in The Book of Rites, it has not been possible to establish terms and categories exclusive to ethics in the history of Chinese ethics for a long time. Around 1910, Liu Shipei wrote the Ethics Textbook with reference to western ethics works and ancient Chinese ethical thoughts, but it was still fragmented. However, the West has formed an independent and systematic ethical system from 400 BC to the 300 BC which was the era of Aristotle. China is a country famous for its civilization and etiquette. Ethical thoughts have always been integrated with various ideas, and it has failed to form a relatively independent theoretical system in disciplines, which is related to the characteristics of traditional Chinese ideas. This is said to be unique in the history of Chinese thought. This feature also increases the difficulty of studying the history of Chinese ethics to a certain extent. If we cannot find and abstract various ethical ideas and mortality from a large number of historical materials and to conclude a framework system of Chinese ethical ideas that conforms to its logic, we are not able to achieve significant results in this field. In addition to studying from “Jing”, “Shi”, “Zi”, “Ji” and the works of many Chinese thinkers, it is also necessary to discuss and summarize Chinese ethical thoughts from China’s historical works such as the Twenty-four Histories, as well as political and legal works.

1 Some Questions About Chinese Ethical Thought

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In studying and researching the history of Chinese ethical thought, we should also pay attention to the difference and connection between it and the history of Chinese philosophy. The history of philosophy is the history of people’s understanding of the most general laws of development of human thought and the world. The aim of study it is to learn the lessons from the history of human cognition, illustrate and promote the truth. The history of ethical thought is the history of human’s understanding of their own moral relations and social morality, and it has its own special characteristics. Since the history of philosophy and the history of ethical thought have different objects of study and different focuses, their conclusions are sometimes different. While ontology is idealistic and tends to confuse, obliterate, or even reverse the relationship between subjectivity and objectivity in epistemology, Chinese ethical thought contains a wealth of valuable content. If we only see the common places of the history of philosophy and the history of ethical thought, but not the differences, we are bound to apply the framework of the history of philosophy to the history of ethical thought and draw conclusions that do not correspond to the facts; similarly, if we only emphasize the differences between the two but does not see their connections, making ethical thought completely go to the opposite direction from people’s world view and epistemology, we will go to the other extreme. Both of these tendencies are harmful to the study of the history of ethical thought and should be avoided. It is also wrong to think that we have mastered the history of Chinese ethical thought by simply extracting the social, political and moral thoughts of certain thinkers from the history of philosophy combining them. To study and research the history of Chinese ethical thought, it is necessary to probe into the laws of the development of Chinese ethical thought, the structure of Chinese thinkers’ thought system and theoretical contributions, and especially to make a scientific and factual explanation of the emergence, development, evolution and mutual influence of each ethical thought in history. Here are some examples to illustrate the difference between the history of Chinese ethical thought and the history of Chinese philosophy, which are easier to understand. For example, in Neo-Confucianism, Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming emphasize the important role of “mind”. From the perspective of epistemology, since they denied that the objective world is the source of knowledge, it often leads to wrong results in the process of learning. However, it is important to emphasize the role of “mind” in the study of ethics. One of the most important moral phenomena studied in ethics is “conscience”. In ethical research, people have not yet revealed the truth that “mind” is “conscience” of people. Conscience is an important field of study in ethics. According to Butler, a famous British ethicist of the eighteenth century, ethics should begin with conscience, without which moral evaluation and moral choice cannot be made. The happiness theory, proposed by a famous German ethicist Feuerbach, also explains conscience with great efforts. Chinese ethicists have also worked hard to study the conscience or the innate mind. Wang Yangming’s proposition of “unity of knowledge and action” does, in some cases, confuse knowledge and practice in terms of philosophical ontology and epistemology, but in fact, his “aim of words” is not to discuss philosophical issues, but to explore the relationship between moral consciousness and moral behavior. He repeatedly emphasizes the need to understand his “aim of

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words”, that is, to be moral, and to be consistent in word and deed. For example, “knowing filial piety” must be unified with “doing things out of filial piety” in order to truly “know filial piety”. Another example is “” that Mencius’ talk about cultivating “the spirit of the great” cannot be understood in an ontological sense. The “greatness and rigor” that can be “between heaven and earth” is achieved through the understanding of “righteousness”. Through long-term moral cultivation, it forms a state of mind that is free from shame and subterfuge, selfless and fearless, and courageous. It is this kind of righteousness that has nurtured countless national heroes in future generations. Therefore, in studying the history of Chinese ethical thought, we must pay attention to the connection and difference between the concepts and categories of ethic and philosophy, and that between the ethical meaning and the philosophical meaning of a proposition. At the same time, it is necessary to pay attention to the “aim of words” in many issues in the history of Chinese philosophy. We should research them from the perspective of ethics, rather than applying philosophical conclusions to the history of ethical thought. To study and research the history of Chinese ethical thought, we must also pay attention to learn about the situation of China from a global view, to explore and summarize the national characteristics of Chinese ethical thought in comparison with that of other countries, and to analyze and clarify the good and the bad in a scientific way. This is not only to summarize the past, but also to guide the present and the future. At present, we are trying to build a Marxist ethics system with Chinese characteristics. However, what are Chinese characteristics? Many aspects need to be further studied to answer the question. Therefore, we emphasize that we should pay attention to the special and unique moral traditions, national customs and psychology of China in research, and reveal the pattern of development of Chinese ethical thought through comparison between China and the West. Engels pointed out in his “Anti-Dühring” that “the concepts of good and evil have changed so much from one nation to another, from one age to another, that they are often in direct contradiction with each other.” The concept of good and evil mentioned here can actually be regarded as a general term for ethical thought. Each nation and each era has a particular understanding of good and evil. In the past period of history, we have paid more attention to the differences in the concepts of good and evil in different times, and to the differences in that of different classes in society, which is certainly correct. However, while studying the ethical doctrines and moral concepts in history from historical development and class distinction, we often ignore the national characteristics of moral concepts and ethical doctrines, which is one-sided. We know that a nation is a stable community with a common language, a common territory, a common economic life, and a common mindset expressed in a common culture, which are all formed throughout time. Every nationality has to go through primitive society, slave society, feudal society and capitalist society. Meanwhile, each society and each class may have roughly the same economic system and ideology. But each nationality has its own pathway of development, forming a special language,

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mindset and traditions, and thus forming a special national morality. Chinese traditional morality and ethical thought are formed by the Chinese nation under specific economic, political and socio-historical conditions, so it is important to study and summarize the features and development patterns of ethical thought that are different from those of other nationalities. In recent years, people have been focusing on comparing Chinese and Western ethical thought, indicating dynamic ideas and a broader view. Indeed, without understanding the development of Western ethical thought and its main theories, it is impossible to summarize Chinese ethical thought at a higher level. Therefore, through the comparative study of the history of Chinese and Western ethical thought, we can understand the characteristics and values of Chinese ethical thought more deeply and accurately. However, the comparison of Chinese and Western cultures, especially ethical thought, must be based on the promotion of the excellent culture and ethical tradition of China. We must adopt a historical, dialectical and scientific attitude and method, instead of a historical nihilistic approach that praises the West and devalues China. In the comparison, we should not only see the downside of Chinese ethical thought, which inevitably maintained feudal rule and bound individuality in the long history of feudal society, but also see the merits contained in it. The main purpose of our comparative study of Chinese and Western ethical thought is to provide a more accurate, complete and comprehensive overview of the norms, categories and characteristics of Chinese ethical thought, with a view to constructing an ethical system with national characteristics that can promote China towards modernization, towards the world and the future.

1.2 The Stages of the History of Chinese Ethical Thought According to the historical characteristics and logical rules of the emergence, development and evolution of Chinese ethical thought, this book divides it into eight periods: Shang(Yin) dynasty to Spring and Autumn Period, Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period to Qin, Han dynasty, Wei and Jin dynasties to Sui and Tang dynasties, the Northern Song dynasty to the mid-Ming dynasty, the midMing dynasty to the Opium War, the Opium War to the May Fourth Movement, and the May Fourth Movement to the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The first period is the pre-Confucian period from Shang(Yin) dynasty to Spring and Autumn Period. This period was the beginning of Chinese moral concepts and ethical thought. Due to the lack of historical materials, the ethical thought of this period has not been studied enough. The second period is from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Qin Dynasty. This period is the foundation and formation of China’s feudal ethical thought, and it is an important period in the history of the development of ethical thought in China. The third period is Han dynasty. This period is when feudal ethical thought was systematized, and its dominance was solidly established.

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The fourth period is from Wei and Jin dynasties to Sui and Tang dynasties. This is the period of evolution of feudal ethical thought, including the impact of metaphysical ethical thought on feudal orthodox ethical thought and the struggle and interpenetration of Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist ethical thought. The fifth period is from the Northern Song Dynasty to the middle of the Ming Dynasty. This period is the period of deepening and maturing of feudal ethical thought. The sixth period is from the middle of Ming Dynasty to the Opium War. This is the period of the decline of feudal ethical thought and the budding of modern early enlightenment ethical thought. The seventh period is from the Opium War to the May Fourth Movement. This is the period of the formation and development of modern Chinese bourgeois ethical thought. The eighth period is from the May Fourth Movement to the founding of the People’s Republic of China. This is the period when Marxist ethical thought spread and developed in China and struggled with the landlord-bourgeois ethical thought.

1.3 The Main Problems Studied by Chinese Ethical Thinkers The special conditions of survival and development of the Chinese nation have shaped the special interest of Chinese thinkers in moral thinking. We can clearly see that the origin of Chinese philosophy is different from that of ancient Greece. Rather than exploring the origin of everything in the world, and seeking too much for people’s own enjoyment, it explores the meaning and value of life and the important role of morality in the development of human society. From the beginning, Chinese ethical thinkers emphasized the importance of “matching the Mandate of Heaven with virtue”, stressing public justice, opposing self-interest, underlining benevolence, love, sincerity and respect. Starting from individual moral cultivation, they used a certain system of norms as the precepts that people must follow to seek the principles of cultivating their moral character, cultivating their family, ruling the country, and pacifying the world. The issues addressed by Chinese ethical thinkers can be summarized in the following ten aspects. (1) The relationship between moral principles and material benefits, or the relationship between morality and interests This is a fundamental issue in the history of Chinese ethical thought, and it can be divided into two aspects. The first aspect of the relationship between morality and interests is about the root, essence, social role and law of development. In ancient China, many thinkers have explored this issue in depth, revealing to various degrees of the dependence of morality on people’s material life and considering the improvement of people’s living standard as the basis for raising their moral level. For example, Guan Zhong said: “When the granaries are full, the people follow appropriate rules of conduct.” (Guanzi-Mumin) On the one

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hand, Confucius advocated that “the people’s interests should be taken into account” (Analects of Confucius—Yao Yue). That is, let people’s legitimate personal interests be satisfied according to their demands. On the other hand, he emphasized that people must be educated when they become rich. Education in Confucius theory is a kind of moral cultivation in terms of it contents. According to Han Fei, “In the spring of the famine year, the young child will not be fed; in the autumn of the sanguine year, the unfamiliar guest will be treated. It’s because of alienating the flesh and bones and loving passing guests, but because of the amount of food.” (Han Fei Zi—Five Moths) Wang Chong further developed the idea, saying: “Comity comes from milk and honey, and conflicts come with scarcity. When there is enough grain and food, ritual and righteousness is born; when ritual and righteousness are solid, the foundation of peace is established.” “Good and evil deeds do not come from human nature, but lies in hunger. In this sense, the act of ritual and righteousness comes from abundant food.” (Lunheng-Zhiqi) These ideas all emphasize the relationship between people’s moral level and material life from different aspects and to different degrees, and they all have reasonable factors. Of course, it is not dialectical and scientific to connect people’s moral level with material life stiffly, but it is a great step forward from the idealistic view that attributes the root of morality to reason and God. The second aspect of the relationship between morality and interests is related to the question of the relationship between individual interests and overall interests. The answer to this question determines the principles of moral norms, the standards of moral values, and the direction and methods of moral activities of a certain moral system. In the history of Chinese ethical thought, during the pre-Qin period, there was a controversy about righteousness and benefit, in which Confucianism, Mohism, Daoism, and Buddhism each had its own view. Confucianism values righteousness over benefit, and regards the distinction between righteousness and benefit as a criterion for evaluating the morality of an individual, stressing the importance of morality and disregarding the role of “benefit”. In Confucianism, “righteousness” refers to the moral principles of a certain society, while “benefit” refers to personal interests. Confucius said: “The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is conversant with benefit.” (“Analects—Li Ren”) Mencius said: “Why must the king say the word ‘benefit’? There are only benevolence and righteousness.” (Mencius—Liang Hui Wang I) It is in this sense that Mencius equates benefit with evil and righteousness with goodness, saying: “Those who get up early to do good are good people; those who get up early to seek for benefit are villains. The difference between them lies in the distinction between benefit and righteousness.” (Mencius—Jin Xin I) The Mohism advocates “impartial love and mutual aid” (Mozi—Impartial Love III), which gives equal significance to both righteousness and benefit. Mozi clearly stated that “nothing is more important than righteousness” (Mozi—Esteem for Righteousness). At the same time, he pointed out that “righteousness is also benefit” (Mozi—Canon I), taking the interests of yeomen and working people as the greatest righteousness. Thinkers of Legalism value benefit over righteousness and believe that all people are selfish and have a

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“selfish mind”. Therefore, the ruling class should make good use of the selfish mind to achieve their own goals. Unlike Confucianism, Mohism and Buddhism, Taoism disregards both righteousness and benefit. The ideas of Taoism transcend benefit and morality, opposing the argue about righteousness and benefit among Confucianism, Mohism and Buddhism. In the Song and Ming dynasties, the dispute between righteousness and benefit evolved into the argue between righteousness and desire. The “Justice” and “Reason” were often regarded by ruling class thinkers as “public” which is the highest morality, while human desire and private desire were regarded as the greatest selfishness, which was incompatible with morality. It was on this theoretical premise that the Taoists proposed “preserving justice and eliminate human desires”. In the mid-Qing Dynasty, the anti-reason thinker Dai Zhen believed that “reason exists in desire” and “goodness comes from desire”, and thus put forward the theory that “desire cannot be removed nor exhausted, but should be tempered”. Since ancient thinkers did not have a precise definition of the meaning of “desire”, it caused great controversy. The problem of the relationship between the desire and reason is actually the relationship between the interests of the state, society and individuals as well as their happiness. The ancient Chinese ethical thinkers discussed this issue in a broader way, with richer contents and more unique ways. (2)

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The question of the highest ideal of morality The highest ideal of morality is the highest standard of life, which can also be said to be the highest level of life. Confucius took “benevolence” as the highest ideal of morality, Mozi took “impartial love” as the highest ideal of morality. Zhuangzi took “inaction” as the highest ideal of morality. In Doctrine of the Mean, “sincerity” is taken as the highest moral ideal. In their view, as long as the highest ideal of morality is realized and the highest state of morality is reached, one is a “saint”, “benevolent”, “supreme”, and “sincere”. According to the ancient Chinese ethical thinkers, the purpose of learning is to change one’s temperament and cultivate one’s disposition so that one can eventually become a saint or a pure person. The highest ideal and principle of morality are closely related, and together they form the core of an ethical doctrine system. Questions about human nature This was a special concern of ancient Chinese ethical thinkers. Almost all important ethical thinkers have studied the issue of human nature. The question of human nature generally includes three aspects: what is the dominant tendency or nature of human? In other words, is human nature good or evil? Is human nature innate, or is it acquired? Is human nature universally the same, or is it different from people to people? The reason why Chinese ethical thinkers paid special attention to the study of human nature is mainly related to the fact that they concerned about the cultivation of people’s morality. The discussion of human nature is also about what makes human beings different from animals, what is the nature of human beings, and what is the relationship between human nature and social ethics and moral norms (which also includes the content of how to improve human values). In the history of Chinese ethical thought, the root of good and bad human nature is often related to the origin

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and essence of morality. The views of ethical thinkers on human nature often affect their political ideas. Therefore, the study of human nature is of great significance. The problem of moral cultivation Chinese ethical thinkers, starting from Confucius, attached great importance to self-restraint, internal litigation, prudence and introspection, emphasizing self-reflection, self-cultivation and “well behaved”. In the Song Dynasty, the concept of “cultivation” was further developed. Therefore, the theory of cultivation plays a very important role in the ethical thought system of ancient Chinese ethical thinkers, It is one of the important contents of Chinese ethical thought for thousands of years that emphasizes on behavior, practice, temperament and moral cultivation. In the long development process, this theory of cultivation was combined with research on psychology, education and cultivation of political talents, and played a special role in the development of Chinese society and the consolidation of the feudal system. The formation of moral character In connection with the theory of moral cultivation, moral character was also one of the issues to which the ancient Chinese ethical thinkers paid special attention. The study of moral character and the cultivation of ideal moral personality complemented each other, and sometimes were often integrated. For example, loyalty, filial piety, temperance and righteousness are moral characters in ethical doctrine, and in a certain sense, they are important components of the ideal personality formed in moral practice. Since ancient times, Chinese ethical thinkers have emphasized the importance of wisdom, benevolence and courage. They value the virtues of being respectful, generous, faithful, sensitive, and beneficent. They stress good characters of modesty, moderation, self-discipline, and generosity to others. They emphasize diligence, simplicity, integrity, and honesty. All above can be said to be the moral characters that people should possess. Of course, the thinkers of exploiting class always give these moral characters an interpretation that is conducive to the interests of the ruling class, and brand them with the label of exploiting class. The discourses of ethical thinkers on morality in history do have feudal elements, but they also contain the nationality and people hood, which we should study and use today. Moral evaluation The standard of moral evaluation is also a long-standing debate in the history of Chinese ethical thought. Confucius clearly proposed that the criteria for good and evil are righteousness and benefit. He regarded this as the only principle to distinguish “gentleman” from “villain”. In addition, on the issue of motive and effect, Mozi was the first to put forward the idea of “combining the will and merit to treat people” (Mozi—Lu’s Question), in which he combined the concepts of “will” and “merit”. Mencius also talked about “will” and “merit”. He emphasized them both, depending on situations. Zuo Zhuan (also known as The Commentary of Zuo or The Zuo Tradition) records many specific examples of moral evaluation, all of which emphasize both motive and effect. For

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example, “Zhao Dun killed his ruler” in 607 BC and “Xu Zhi killed his ruler” in 533 BC are both examples that emphasize the effect. Dong Zhongshu’s onesided emphasis on motive led to the so-called “conviction by intention” in the Han Dynasty, which means that “if one’s intention is evil and he or she does cause consequence, one will not be spared from execution” (Hanshu—Bibliography of Xue Xuan and Zhu Bo). The so-called “gentleman’s intention” means that in terms of moral evaluation, it is mainly based on motives. They also proposed the opposition between “mind” and “will” and “deeds” and “traces”. Wang Tong of the Sui Dynasty even proposed the so-called “judgement on the mind and signs” in “Wen Zhong Zi”. Here, “will”, “mind” and “intention” all refer to motivation, while “work”, “deeds” and “traces” refer to effect. Question of the meaning or value of life In general, this question can be divided into the following aspects: Why do people live? Is life meaningful, or meaningless? If life is meaningful or valuable, what is the meaning or value? How do people view life and death? How can the value of an individual be maintained for as long as possible when human life is limited? How can one be considered immortal? These are also important questions that have long been discussed in the history of Chinese ethical thought. In Zuo Zhuan, there is a saying: “‘The greatest is to establish virtue, the next is to make contributions, and the last is to make statements’. If you have gone but your deeds remained for long, you are immortal.” (Zuo Zhuan—549 BC) In the history of Chinese ethical thought, the “Three Immortalities” were regarded as three different goals in the pursuit of life, which had an important influence on later thinkers. How do people deal with pleasure? How do people view their passions? Should people indulge or abstain, or should they let nature take its course? Should people do their duty for the state and society (of course, though the state and society are feudal)? Moreover, should life be positive or negative? Who determines the fate of a person’s life? Is it determined by God or by society, or is it self-made? All these questions are of great concern to Chinese ethical thinkers. The study to solve these questions is still of great significance today. The relationship between necessity and freedom in morality This issue contains three meanings. First, the relationship between moral behavior and objective necessity. On the one hand, Confucius said, “Death and life are destiny, wealth and nobility are upon heaven”. (Analects—Yan Yuan). In the saying, Confucius emphasized that life is determined by destiny. On the other hand, he especially emphasized the autonomous and active choice of moral behavior, “I want to be benevolent, so I can be benevolent” (Analects— Shu Er). According to Confucius, “fate” or “heaven” is a force to which people are bound to obey, but there are also things that can be realized after they have taken the initiative. Mozi clearly suggested that “force” and “fate” are opposed, but people can overcome and change the dictates of fate by relying on their own initiative. Zhuangzi, on the other hand, believes that the ideal sage can forget about ritual and righteousness, forget about his own existence, and thus obtain

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the freedom beyond objective necessity. Secondly, the question of whether there is freedom of moral choice among multiple possible moral conflicts in the same situation and what criteria it should be based on is the so-called “give and take” problem, according to Mencius. Generally speaking, Confucianism, Mohism and Taoism all emphasize the dynamic role of the choice of moral behavior. Confucius said: “A man of will and benevolence does not seek life to harm benevolence but could kill himself or herself to become benevolent.” (The Analects of Confucius—Wei Ling Gong) Mencius said, “The fish is what I want, and the bear’s paw is also what I want. I cannot have both, so I have to give up the fish and take the bear’s paw. Life is what I want, and righteousness is also what I want. The two are incompatible. I would give up life to take righteousness. Life is what I want, but I want it more than life, so I do not want it. Death is what I hate, and what I hate is more than death, so I suffer from it.” (Mencius—Gao Zi I) This discourse contains an extremely profound theory of moral choice. Third, the necessity and freedom of morality also contains the relationship between the moral norms of ruling class and the development of individual personality. That is the question of whether people must be bound by certain social moral norms. In the Wei and Jin dynasties, there was a great controversy between “Confucian ethical code” and “nature”. Long after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty revered Confucianism, Chinese society was under the confinement of “ritual is Confucian ethical code”, so this controversy can be regarded as another ideological turning point. The socalled “Confucian ethical code” refers to the teaching that each social class should be secure in its own name and position, is about the moral code of human relations. In Wei and Jin metaphysics, “nature” mainly refers to the natural state of human nature. Some people believed that the dogma of the “Confucian ethical code” was not conducive to the development of human personality and was harmful to it. So they demanded emphasis on human nature. And this led to a series of arguments about the “Confucian ethical code” and “nature”. In the past, some thinkers saw this controversy only as the impact of metaphysics on Confucianism, without noticing the relationship between necessity and freedom contained in it, which is incomplete. The problem of moral norms The ethical thinkers of each era would summarize the moral activities and moral relations of their time out of the needs of time and the interests of the class they represented. They would also propose or formulate a moral system needed by the class they represent to regulate social relations and maintain social order. Generally speaking, when formulating a moral system, it is necessary to put forward the general principles that run through these norms. For example, Confucius emphasized benevolence which can run through wisdom, courage, filial piety, fraternity, loyalty, and trust, as well as respect, generosity, sensitivity, and kindness. Mencius emphasized benevolence and righteousness, but also proposed that father and son have kinship as foundation, ruler and minister have righteousness as foundation, husband and wife should respect each other, elders and children should obey the order, friends should have trust.

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He also proposed the four principles of benevolence, righteousness, ritual and wisdom. In the history of Chinese ethical thought, not only ethical thinkers paid attention to the study of moral norms, but also politicians. Even emperors personally presided over the discussion of moral norms and promulgated edicts to promote and implement the norms in the interests of the ruling class with supreme authority. The most important moral code of Chinese feudal society, the “Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues”, was known to everyone and became the guideline for all people’s behavior. Chinese ethical thinkers have conducted profound, comprehensive and systematic researches on moral norms in general areas and special areas such as marriage and family. They have also discussed moral norms in terms of work ethics. The code of ethics, to a large extent, reflects the characteristics and moral traditions of the nation and its civilization and society. Therefore, it should be one of our focuses. (10) The problem of rule of moral and rule of law This is a question of ethics and morality as well as that of politics and law. What is the most powerful means of maintaining social order and consolidating the governance? The rule of law or the rule of morality? If there is a balance between rigidity and flexibility, then which should be the dominance and which is subordinative? What are the social roles of morality and law? In the history of Chinese ethical thought, there are answers to these questions, such as moral determinism, morality and law combination, and moral uselessness. However, since an important feature of ancient Chinese society was the integration of politics and morality, politics was often ethicized and ethics was often politicized. In this way, almost all ethical thinkers linked their ethical thoughts with social and political issues and derived from them the methods of governing the state and society. And most politicians also attached great importance to ethical and moral issues, linked them with legal and political issues, combined moral education with legal constraints, and often put moral means in the first place. In ancient Chinese history, the ruler of the Zhou dynasty summed up the reasons for the fall of the Shang dynasty. And the ruler of the Han dynasty summed up the lessons of the failure of the Qin dynasty. Also, the rulers of Song and Ming dynasties discussed how to consolidate the political rule in declining period. The result was that “rule of moral” was considered superior to “rule of law”. Ethical thinkers in Western Zhou proposed “moral respect and prudent punishment”. Later, other thinkers established the theory of “correct mind, sincere intention, cultivating morality, educating the family, ruling the country, and pacifying the world”. They regarded self-moral cultivation as the basis for implementing a good politics. According to Confucianism, the purpose of moral cultivation is to achieve what Confucius said: “Cultivate oneself in order to appease others” and “Cultivate oneself in order to appease the public” (Analects—Xian Wen). Some Confucian schools after Confucius and Mencius also advocated that morality determines politics, society and history, and exaggerated the role of rule of moral, which resulted in historical idealism.

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Above are the ten questions that ancient Chinese ethical thinkers have focused on. Their answers to these questions reflect the tradition of our nation. Various answers were provided to these questions in long history, reflecting the deepening of the ancient people’s understanding of themselves and of moral relations and moral phenomena in society. Moreover, we can see that all these questions revolve around the basis of ethics, namely, the relationship between morality and interests. This shows that the study of ethics by ancient Chinese thinkers was not fragmentary and superficial, but systematic and profound, covering a wide range of fields.

1.4 Basic Features of Chinese Ethical Thought What are the characteristics of Chinese ethical thought? This is an important question that we must explore in studying the history of Chinese ethical thought. At present, China is in a period of unprecedented changes in economic, politics, culture and ethics. The reform of the economic system and the political system is attracting discussions from all sides. In connection with current situation, the absorption of foreign culture, the transformation and development of Chinese traditional culture are noted by the academia of ideology. In other word, we should figure out how to adapt Chinese traditional culture to today’s development. Against the time background, though it is quite difficult, it is important for us to make a deeper reflection and a more comprehensive valuation of traditional Chinese ethics and morality in the contexts of Chinese reforms, the development of world culture, and the comparison of Chinese and Western theories. In the process of studying traditional Chinese ethical thought, we believe that there are two tendencies that should be avoided. One is to exaggerate the negative elements of Chinese ethical traditions and national psychology, and to believe that traditional Chinese ethics is more drawbacks than strength, and should be totally rejected. Some people even think that Chinese traditional ethics and culture are negative factors that hinder China’s development, which is one-sided. While China is focusing on opening up and learning advanced technology from abroad, a few people have developed a national inferiority complex that everything in China is inferior to the West. They even think that Western culture can be generalized as a whole, and learning from the West should be “bold” and “comprehensive”. In their view, in addition to advanced science and technology, democracy, freedom, and moralities in marriage and family are all the things we should learn. Some people even promote Western ideas consciously or unconsciously—individual liberation, individual striving, individualism and sexual freedom. They believe that traditional Chinese morality can only be a shackle to fetter the development of people’s individuality, and cannot promote people’s subjectivity and initiative. Although they see the negative aspects of traditional Chinese ethical thought and recognize that traditional Chinese ethical thought must be analyzed and criticized in today’s context of reform, they ignore or even erase the positive side of traditional Chinese ethical thought, which is not comprehensive.

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Another tendency also exists in dealing with traditional Chinese ethical thought. Some people think that only the thought of Confucianism can save China in the current reality, for the reason that the core of Chinese traditional ethical thought is Confucianism, and Confucianism contains the “humanistic spirit” which is unique in the world. In foreign countries, the capitalist world has seen a spiritual crisis (murder, drug addiction, prostitution and so-called sexual liberation) in parallel with the high development of material civilization. The social crises in the West lies in the increase of divorce rates, the proliferation of illegitimate children, the breakup of families, the lack of education for teenagers, and the deterioration of social morality. So, some Westerners are also trying to find a way out from Eastern civilization. In Asia, morality of benevolence of Confucianism is being taken seriously by countries such as Japan, Korea and Singapore. In order to maintain their own stability, these countries are raising the banner of Confucian advocacy: benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom. They are also using it to harmonize their social relations. Therefore, some people believe that the morality and social customs of the Chinese people can be renewed if the “Confucian pathway” is reintroduced. In a certain sense, these activities can also be called the “Confucianism rejuvenation” movement or the “NeoConfucianism” movement. We believe that Confucian ethics as a whole is compatible with feudal social and economic relations. There are strengths in traditional morality, but it is also unilateral to think that the revival of Confucianism will save us from the spiritual crisis brought about by modern civilization. Therefore, it is better to identify the characteristics of Chinese ethical thought (of course, they have to be derived from comparison) and to analyze them appropriately before we can discuss how we should deal with traditional Chinese ethical thought. What are the most fundamental features of traditional Chinese ethical thought? How should we deal with them? We believe that, in general, traditional Chinese ethical thought can be initially summarized into six aspects, namely, the importance of ethical relations or values, spirituality, humanity, holistic view, manner and behavior, and the importance of putting oneself in the place of another. The six aspects of traditional Chinese ethical thought are interrelated, thus forming a whole system. Ethical relations and values are the starting point of traditional Chinese ethical thought. Spirituality is the pillar of traditional Chinese ethical thought, with humanity as the core, holistic view as the destination; manner and behavior as the fundamental requirements; and putting oneself in the place of another as the important method. (1) Compared with the West, Chinese traditional ethical thought attaches special importance to ethical relationships The ancient Greek thinkers also talked about the different obligations of different people and put forward different requirements of ethical morality. For example, Plato pointed out that God created three classes of people out of gold, silver, bronze and iron: legislators and guardians (rulers of the state), soldiers (defenders), and craftsmen, farmers and merchants.

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According to Plato, legislators and guardians were the first class, soldiers were the second class, and craftsmen, farmers, and merchants were the third class. People of each class could only do what was proper for the class to which they belonged, and could not exceed it. He believed that among the four virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance and justice, the first three corresponded to one kind of person each, and “justice” meant “doing your own thing and not interfering in the affairs of others”. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and other thinkers also talked about the relationship between parents, rulers and ministers, masters and slaves. In “Politics”, Aristotle gave a theoretical account of such relationships. However, such studies never extended to a thorough and comprehensive examination of various ethical relations in society or that in general, and did not analyze or summarize ethical relations as an important content of ethics. Since the Middle Ages, the relationship between God and human has replaced the relationship between person and person. Thus the West has never been able to comprehensively answer the question of how to get along with others in different classes. This is a big difference between Chinese and Western ethical traditions. The earliest record of how people should get along with each other is found in the Chinese classic “Book of Documents—Canon of Shun”. Shun said to his minister Qi, “Qi! The people are not kind, nor obedient to the rites. Now you are an officer, you should promote the five principles dealing with ethical relationships, but be tolerant.” It means: the people are not united enough, and the five kinds of relationship between people are not very harmonious. Now I give you the place of officer to let you educate them in these aspects. And in your education, you must be tolerant. The five relationships are the family-based relationships between father, mother, brother, and son. Before BC 2000, during the period of Shun’s governance, Chinese traditional thought had already proposed to deal with the five relationships between people. Since then, the idea of “cultivating the five kinds of ethics” (Zuo Zhuan—6th Year of Duke Huan) and “promoting the five kinds of ethics everywhere” (Zuo Zhuan— 18th Year of Duke Wen) have been adopted in China. Five kinds of education were carried out in all parts of the country, and it was further proposed that the moral obligations of these five aspects were “father’s righteousness, mother’s kindness, elder brother’s friendship, younger brother’s respect, and son’s filial piety”. These obligations are aimed at achieving “internal peace and external success”. In other words, as long as the father is morally righteous, the mother is kind, the elder brother is friendly, the younger brother is respectful, and the son is filial, the family and society will develop harmoniously. Later on, Confucius’ ideas of ethical relationship expanded the concept of filial piety more explicitly—“if the ruler behaves like a ruler, the minister will behave like a minister; if the father behaves like a father, the son will behave like a son”. Therefore, the ethic relations in traditional Chinese ethical thought had a connection with family and hierarchy, and expanded from family ethics to social ethical relations. In the “Analects—Xue Er”, there are a few passages devoted to ethical relations: Zi Xia said: “If one can admire the sage, ignore sexual desire, try best serve one’s parents, e bold to sacrifice one’s life to serve the ruler, make friends with biggest sincere, and

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be faithful in one’s words, I am sure he or she has learned a lot, even though he or she denies.” This short passage involves four kinds of ethic relationships: husband and wife, father and son, ruler and minister, and friends. “Zengzi said: “I reflect on myself three times a day: Was I faithful to others? Was I sincere to friends? Have I reviewed the lessons from teacher?” Confucius said: children should be filial piety to parents, be respectful to teachers, be prudent to speak, be faithful to words, be friendly to others, and be close to those kind people. If children have done all above and still have energy to learn, then they should learn knowledge.” In a certain sense, these two passages both talked about brotherhood. Of course, in Confucianism, the most important thing is the father-son relationship, which is the so-called filial piety. In all ethical relationships, Confucius not only emphasized that “a minister should serve his ruler with loyalty” and “a ruler should make his ministers with propriety” (Analects—Ba Yi), but also said clearly that if people do not behave in the ways of ruler, minister, father, father or son, even if there is food, the ruler cannot enjoy it. “Duke Jing of Qi asked Confucius about his governance. Confucius said to him, ‘if the ruler behaves like a ruler, the minister will behave like a minister; if the father behaves like a father, the son will behave like a son.’ The duke said, ‘Good! If a ruler does not behave like a ruler, a minister will not be like a minister; if a father is not like a father, a son will not be like a son. Although we have enough food, I cannot eat it.’” (Analects—Yan Yuan) Here the significance of filial piety and loyalty to the ruler is pointed out, but Confucius focuses mainly on “filial piety”. Mencius, while presenting his own view of social development, also pointed out that although human beings, no longer like animals, can do farming, planting and cultivating grains, “if they live without education, they are nearly like animals”. and learned to harvest, and to cultivate the grains, they were close to animals because they “lived without education”. Therefore, “the sage was concerned about it, and he appointed officer Qi to educate people in ethical relationships”, that is, “father and son have kinship as foundation, ruler and minister have righteousness as foundation, husband and wife should respect each other, elders and children should obey the order, friends should have trust.” (Mencius—Teng Wen Gong I). The five bonds proposed by Mencius is the most basic summary of ethical relations in feudal society. It can also be said that all ethical relations in feudal society are summarized in these five bonds. And the whole “Mencius” is a discussion and argument on how to maintain these five bonds. Of course, the relationship between the individual and the society seems to be invisible here, but in fact, Mencius uses the relationship between ruler and minister to include the relationship between the individual and the whole, the individual and the society, and the individual and the state in feudal state. Five bonds are five relationships between individuals. Each of the five relationships has two sides, and each side has its own obligations and responsibilities according to the supreme standard for handling the relationship between the two sides. According to Mencius, the relationship between ruler and minister was not as one-sided and absolute as in later feudal societies, and was a democratic thought. “The people are the most important, the community is second, and the ruler is the least.” (Mencius—Jin Xin II) “If a ruler treats his ministers as his hands and feet, then his ministers will treat him as trusty; if a ruler treats his ministers as his dogs and horses, then his ministers

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will treat him as countrymen; if a ruler treats his ministers as dirt and mustard, then his ministers will treat him as an enemy.” (Mencius—Li Lou II) “Emperor Xuan of Qi asked, ‘Emperor Tang banished Jie, and Emperor Wu crusaded against Emperor Zhou. Do you know?’ Mencius said: ‘They are recorded in historic books.’ Emperor Xuan said: ‘Is it acceptable for a minister to kill his ruler?’ Mencius said: ‘the one who breaks benevolence is called a thief, the one who breaks justice is called brutal. The one who is both thief and brutal is called tyrant. I just heard that Emperor Wu killed a tyrant and never knew that he killed the emperor as a minister.’” (Mencius— Liang Hui Wang II) Of course, the relationship between ruler and minister is a special political and ethical relationship in the exploitative class society. The words “serve” and “make” themselves signify an unequal hierarchy. This hierarchical relationship between ruler and minister has been reinforced by Confucianism and the ruling class in later times. It has penetrated into all aspects of society, so that today, old customs such as patriarchal rule, personal arbitrariness, hierarchy, slavery and flattery still seriously affect human relations in modern society. According to Mencius, the education of ethical morality is the most important. When discussing the traditional Chinese ethical thought that emphasizes ethical relations or the value of ethical morality, we must pay attention to getting rid of its negative influence. Under the strict hierarchical system of feudal society, in the period after the Song and Ming dynasties, inequality not only exists in the relationship between ruler and minister, father and son, and husband and wife, but also in the relationship between elders and children, resulted by the system of succession of the first son. Thus, in all ethical relationships, except for friends who remained equal, all other relationships were divided into two extremes. At one end is the supreme, the noblest, and the highest. And at the other end is the lowest and the most insignificant. The people at the lowest end seem doomed to be a subordinate in the relationship between they and others. They exist for the other, and they are not allowed to have their own individuality, freedom, or special needs. They should sacrifice everything and do their duty within their own class, which is the “Divine Principle”. While their normal development, necessary freedom and legitimate needs as human being are often described as “secular desires”, which are against the requirements of ethics and are treacherous. This abnormal and perverted development of ethical relations is linked to the feudal hierarchy. Today, although the feudal hierarchy no longer exists, its negative effects still need to be noted. (2) The second important feature of traditional Chinese ethical thought is that it attaches importance to the spiritual realm and considers moral needs as the highest human needs. From the view of the origin of morality and the fundamental difference between human beings and animals, Western thinkers believe that human beings are rational animals and that they can control their feelings with reason.

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1.5 The Emergence and Evolution of Traditional Chinese Moral Codes The traditional Chinese moral codes have experienced a long process of evolution. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty (the tenth century BC), China, “state of etiquette”, has attached great importance to the promotion of moral norms among people, and made the observance of moral norms an important aspect of being a person, handling affairs, running a family and governing a country. This tradition continued until the founding of the New China. During the time, China’s social system was mainly slave and feudal. Although the country experienced a short time period of the modern semifeudal and semi-colonial society, during which some elements of western bourgeois morality were absorbed, the norms of feudal morality still played a significant role. The systematic examination of moral norms in Chinese history is provided here to organize the evolution of moral norms and serve as a reference to establish a system of socialist moral norms. As long as we adhere to Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory as our guide, and “apply the ancient to the present”, we will certainly be able to carry forward the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation and combine them with the spirit of the contemporary era. In this regard, the socialist moral code will have more national characteristics and be more pleasing to the general public. (One) According to historical documents, we have roughly sorted out the following clues about the development of traditional Chinese moral codes. 1.

2.

Ancient Chinese society attached great importance to moral norms and moral education. As early as 5000 years ago (the Yao and Shun periods), people already noticed the importance of moral education and moral codes. According to the Shang Shu, the tribal leader Shun was aware of the moral problems that had arisen in society at that time (“the people were not close to each other, and the five qualities were not respectful”), so he made Qie “become the chief of the five teachings”. Specifically, it means that the official in charge of education Che was given the task of carefully educating the people in the five areas of morality (father, mother, older brother, younger brother and son). During the Yin and Shang dynasties, the concepts of “Zhong” (“loyalty”) and “Xiao” (“filial piety”) became important moral ideas to meet the needs of a slave society that was bonded by blood ties and centred on family. As is shown in the Shang shu, it became an important moral requirement to be filial to one’s parents and dedicate to the people. In the meantime, as an important norm in dealing with people, “Jing” (“respect”) had already been agreed upon by the people. At the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, politicians and thinkers paid more attention to the social conditions, political needs and moral relations of the time. They realized the significance of morality in consolidating power and maintaining social stability. Therefore, while strengthening moral education, they also introduced some moral codes including “Ai (“Love”)”, “Jing

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4.

5.

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(Respect)”, “Hui (Beneficence)”, “Qin (Diligence)”, “Jian (Frugality)”, “Qian (Modesty)”, “Xiao (Filial piety)” and “You (Fidelity)”. In the middle of the Spring and Autumn period, the book Guanzi clearly set out the four main moral codes: “Li, Yi, Lian, and Chi” (“propriety, righteousness, honesty and sense of shame”). Guanzi said that there were four Wei for a country. One Wei disappears, and it will be tilted; two Wei disappear, and it will be dangerous; three Wei disappear, and it will be overturned; four Wei disappear, and it will be ruined. The tilting can be corrected; the danger can be secured; the overturned can be revived; but the destruction cannot be reversed. “Four Wei” is explained by Guanzi as “propriety, righteousness, honesty and shame”. Specifically, there are four primary principles for a state’s governance: “propriety, righteousness, honesty and sense of shame”. If one is missing, the country will be tilted; if two are missing, the country will be dangerous; if three are missing, the country will be overturned; if four are missing, the country will be destroyed. The tilting can be corrected; the danger can be secured; the overturned can be revived; but the destruction cannot be reversed. In the 18th year of the reign of Lord Wen, the Five Teachings and the Four Virtues were discussed in general terms. The “Five Teachings” are the five aspects of moral education, namely, “father should show righteousness; mother should show kindness; brothers should show love and respect; son should show filial piety”; the “Four Virtues” are the four most basic moral codes, namely, “Xiao, Jing, Zhong, Xin” (“filial piety, respect, loyalty and reliability”). In the 26th year of the reign of Lord Shao, Yan Ying, a senior official of the state of Qi, discussed the Rites of Zhou and outlines the “ten principles of righteousness”, that is, the ten basic moral codes: “the ruler issues order, while the officials revere the ruler; the father show kindness to the children, while the children hold their filial piety; the brothers show love and respect as they should do; the husband and the wife show gentleness and harmony in marriage; the mother-in-law show kindness to the daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law should be obedient to the mother-in-law’s wishes”. These 10 basic moral codes of 20 Chinese characters, summarizing all aspects of human relations at the time, were a relatively comprehensive moral code in ancient times. A great official of the state of Qi, Yan Ying, emphasized these 20 Chinese characters of morality and explained them further, saying that “the ruler should issue orders while obeying propriety; the officials should obey the order while staying loyal to the ruler; the father should be kind and teach the children; the son should be filial and give advice to the father if needed; the elder brother should be loving and treat all equal; the younger brother should be respectful and obedient; the husband should be gentle and reasonable; the wife should be soft and decent; the mother-in-law should be kind and tolerant; the daughter-inlaw should obedient and meek”. In his opinion, only in this way can the moral requirements be met. While Confucius strongly advocated “Ren” (benevolence), he also attached special importance to “Li” (propriety). If the “Ren” he referred to is a fundamental moral principle, while “Li”, in most cases, referred to basic moral

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norms. Confucius regarded “wisdom, benevolence and courage” as the three most fundamental moral principles, while at the same time proposing “modesty, lenience, honesty, diligence and beneficence” as the five moral principles of society. “Ren” is well-acknowledged as Confucius’s highest level of morality. He believed that as long as one could be respectful, lenient, trustworthy, diligent, and beneficent, one could reach the state of “Ren”, as is mentioned by him that “If you can achieve the five aspects, you are benevolent.” Furthermore, his students summarized Confucius’ moral conduct and moral qualities into five most important aspects, namely, “gentle, virtuous, respectful, frugal and humble”. In the Analects, Confucius also advocated “Zhong (loyalty)” and “Shu (forgiveness)”. His student Youzi emphasized “Xiao (filial piety)” and “Ti (fraternity)” (filial piety and fraternity are the basis of benevolence). “Zhong” means to endeavor to do errands; “Shu” means willing to forgive; “Xiao” means being obedient to one’s parents; “Ti” means to love and respect one’s brothers and sisters. In a certain sense, we can also say that Confucius and his students put forward three basic principles of morality: “Zhi, Ren, and Yong” (“wisdom, benevolence and courage”). In the meantime, they also put forward some basic norms of morality: “Zhong, Shu, Xiao, Ti, Gong, Kuan, Xin, Min, Hui, Wen, Liang, Jian, Rang” (“loyalty, forgiveness, filial piety, fraternity, modesty, lenience, honesty, diligence, beneficence, gentleness, kindness, frugality and humility”). Mencius inherited Confucius’ moral code and developed it in a new way. He stressed the importance of “benevolence and righteousness” as the core and principle of morality. He was strongly opposed to selfish thinking and behavior. He believed that all moral requirements should be based on benevolence and righteousness, and that only when benevolence and righteousness were practiced could the state be stable, human relations harmonious and society develop. He also proposed the Five Principles: “kinship between father and son, righteousness between ruler and official, family duty difference between husband and wife, respect between elders and youngsters, and trust between friends”. Meanwhile, the four moral codes “Xiao, Ti, Zhong, and Xin” (“filial piety, fraternal duty, loyalty and honesty”) were emphasized by him. In addition, Mencius regarded “Ren, Yi, Li, and Zhi” (“benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom”) as innate moral concepts that were inherent in the human heart, as well as the basic moral codes that everyone should observe. In this regard, it can be concluded that Mencius regarded “Ren, Yi, Li, Zhi, Xiao, Ti, Zhong, and Xin” (“benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, filial piety, fraternity, loyalty and honesty”) as the eight most basic moral codes. The Book of Rites, which was written around the end of the Warring States period to the time of the Qin and Han dynasties, also outlined the “ten principles of righteousness”, i.e. the ten basic moral codes in twenty Chinese characters: “the father show kindness to the children, while the children hold their filial piety; the brothers show love and respect as they should do; the husband show gentleness to the wife; the wife show softness to the husband; the motherin-law show kindness to the daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law should

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8.

9.

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be obedient to the mother-in-law’s wishes the ruler shows benevolence, while the officials show loyalty”. If we compare the 20 characters with the other 20 outlined by Yan Ying (“the ruler issues order, while the officials revere the ruler; the father show kindness to the children, while the children hold their filial piety; the brothers show love and respect as they should do; the husband and the wife show gentleness and harmony in marriage; the mother-in-law show kindness to the daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law should be obedient to the mother-in-law’s wishes”), it can be seen that the former has a clearer meaning and is easier for the general public to understand and remember. The former emphasizes the morality of kinship relations between father and son, brothers, and husband and wife in a patriarchal society bonded by blood ties and centred on family. In the Rites of Zhou, the “Six Virtues” and “Six Acts” were introduced to teach the public. The “Six Virtues” consists of “Zhi, Ren, Sheng, Yi, Zhong, and He” (“knowledge, benevolence, nobility, righteousness, loyalty and harmony”). “Zhi” means having knowledge of life senses; “Ren” means loving people; “Sheng” means owning high moral conduct; “Yi” means justice; “Zhong” means devotion to one’s own heart; “He” means harmony. The “Six Acts” are “Xiao, You, Mu, Yin, Ren, and Xu” (“filial piety, friendliness, closeness of inner and outer families, trust and compassion”). “Xiao” means being filial to one’s parents; “You” means being good to one’s brothers; “Mu” means being close to one’s family; “Yin” means being close to one’s foreign relatives, “Ren” means trusting one’s friends; and “Xu” means providing relief for the poor. In the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu proposed the “Three Guides” and “Five Norms”, which have had a profound influence on Chinese history. As early as the Warring States period, Han Fei put forward the moral requirement of the feudal hierarchy that “officials should serve their ruler, offspring should serve their fathers, and wives should serve their husbands”, which was in fact the rudiments of the “Three Guides”. “The Three Guides were the three basic principles for the maintenance of feudal rule and the embodiment of the hierarchy. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Dong Zhongshu emphasized the “Three Guides” (the ruler is the guide of the officials, the father is the guide of the son, and the husband is the guide of the wife) and further proposed five basic moral codes, i.e. “Ren, Yi, Li, Zhi, and Xin” (“benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and honesty”). In China’s long-established feudal society, the “Five Norms” played a positive role. Even in modern society, if analysis is performed from a historical materialist perspective, they still contain certain reasonable elements. Since the Song Dynasty, together with the decline of feudal society, moral codes emphasized more on the supremacy of the “Three Guides”. Zhu Xi combined the “Xiao, Ti, Zhong, and Xin” (“filial piety, fraternal duty, loyalty and honesty”) with “Ren, Yi, Li, and Zhi” (“benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom”), as proposed by Mencius, and raised them to the level of the “heavenly principles”. He said that “Xiao, Ti, Zhong, Xin, Ren, Yi, Li, and Zhi are all principles”. In essence, he was only elevating the eight moral codes he

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advocated to the level of “heavenly principles” and putting a sacred aura around them. 10. After the Song Dynasty, more attention was paid to the women’s chastity after the death of their husband, as well as the principles of “Zhong, Xiao, Jie, and Yi” (“loyalty, filial piety, chastity of women and righteousness”). Before the Song Dynasty, the four principles have been introduced as moral requirements of society, although they were rarely disused together. In addition, “Jie” was basically used to describe a person’s moral integrity at that time. Since the Song Dynasty, the four were combined as the basic moral codes, and “Jie” emphasized more on women’s chastity. In addition, some thinkers linked “Xiao, Ti, Zhong, and Xin” (“filial piety, fraternal duty, loyalty and honesty”) and “Li, Yi, Lian, and Chi” (“propriety, righteousness, honesty and sense of shame”), as proposed by Mencius, to the “Eight Virtues”. 11. The Qing Dynasty also focused on moral education. In the ninth year of Emperor Kang Xi’s reign (1670), the Qing Emperor Xuan Ye, in the name of the emperor, issued sixteen holy edicts as the basic norms for the “hua min cheng su” (educating the people and forming a good fashion): “first, respect filial piety and fraternal subordination in order to emphasize (hierarchical) human relations; second, be firm with the clan in order that its harmony may be obvious to all, third, harmonize with the villagers in order to avoid contention and court cases; fourth, emphasize agriculture and sericulture in order to have sufficient food and clothing; fifth, esteem thriftiness in order to appreciate the uses of money; six, promote schools in order to support scholarly habits; seven, wipe out heresy in order to exalt correct views.; eight, explain the law in order to caution the foolish and the ignorant; nine, radiate etiquette in order to improve customs; ten, strive in whatever business is proper to you in order to accomplish our people’s aspirations; eleven, exhort children and younger siblings in order to prevent wicked behavior; twelve, prevent false accusation in order to not to harm good and honest people; thirteen, give no shelter to fugitives or deserters so as to avoid involvement in their crimes; fourteen, pay all taxes in order to avoid being dunned for them; fifteen, unite the neighbourhood watch system in order to suppress banditry; sixteen, resolve quarrels in order to respect human lives.” In the 20th year of the Kangxi reign (1681), the sixteen oracles were explained in detail with stories and images, and became the “Imagery of the Oracle”, which was widely publicized and became a household name. It was even printed and distributed in large numbers again in the 29th year of the Guangxu reign (1903). After the Xinhai Revolution, the revolutionary democrat Sun Yat-sen said in 1924 that for a thrived country, it was necessary to develop not only force and culture, but also “morality, as the nation will have the lasting political stability with good moral codes”. He suggested to retore the inherent morality so as to restore the nation’s status. He mentioned that when it came to China’s inherent morality, what the Chinese people should not forget first is loyalty and filial piety; second, benevolence and love; third, faith and righteousness; fourth, peace. From the original narrative, these eight

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Chinese words denote six basic moral codes, namely, loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and love, faith, righteousness, and peace. Afterward, Chiang Kai-shek took over the eight words proposed by Sun Yat-sen and added four more words from Guanzi, namely, “Li, Yi, Lian, and Chi” (“propriety, righteousness, honesty and sense of shame”). The “Four Wei and Eight Virtues” was thereby generated and promoted for decades as the basic moral code of the people in order to safeguard the rule of the Kuomintang. In the meantime, during the KMT’s rule, the “Youth Code” (also known as the KMT’s Party Code) was introduced: “loyalty and courage, filial piety, benevolence and love, faith and justice, peace, propriety, obedience, diligence and thrift, neatness, helpfulness, scholarship and perseverance”. In addition, the content was also written into more common phrases, i.e. “Loyalty and courage are the basis of patriotism; filial piety is the basis of a family; love is the basis of acceptance; faith and justice is the basis of a career; peace is the basis to resolve affairs; propriety is the basis of governance; obedience is the basis of responsibility, diligence and thrift are the basis of service, tidiness is the basis of a strong body; helping people is the basis of happiness; learning is the basis to help the world; perseverance is the basis of success.” The students of the school were asked to recite the code together with the Premier Sun Yat-sen’s Will at their weekly meeting. (Two) From the above review and examination of history, we can see the following issues that deserve our attention. Firstly, in ancient China, Confucian statesmen and thinkers attached special importance to the role of morality in social life, and even regarded morality as a fundamental strategy for state governance. They considered “dao zhi yi de, qi zhi yi qi” (government orders to govern the people, and criminal law to constrain them) as a more effective and fundamental way of state governance. On this basis, the ancients stressed that “virtue is the essence” and “virtue is the foundation of the state”. They believed that it is important to recognize the significance of “governing the people with virtue” for state governance, as “when virtue is established, there will be no more trouble of riots”. In other words, as long as people can act in accordance with moral requirements, the state and society can keep stable and be governed for a long time. Secondly, in ancient China, Confucian statesmen and thinkers attached great importance to moral education. They outlined moral codes that could be adapted to social needs, and constantly supplemented, implemented and developed the moral codes to make it efficient in regulating the relationships between people, maintaining social stability and the long-term peace of the country. Thirdly, to sum up moral norms, the ancient Confucian statesmen and thinkers strove to analyze the moral situation of society in the light of its most primary moral needs, and summarize the moral norms that best suited the social requirements at the time. The codes should be concise and precise so that easy for the public to understand and remember. After the establishment of moral codes, dissemination

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and education are firstly required to improve people’s moral cultivation and selfdiscipline. In addition, it is also crucial to form a strong public opinion to give morality full play in social life.

1.6 Attitudes and Methods of Studying the History of Ethical Thought Like those of studying ethics, the attitude and method of studying the history of ethical thought are issues that need to be gradually resolved in the future. As a social discipline, its most fundamental research method is the Marxist method: the materialistdialectical, class-analytical, and historical. However, for all their importance as guides, these methods in no way imply—and indeed cannot—replace the specific methods of each particular discipline. Therefore, these fundamental approaches must guide, or be the basis for, the identification of research methods unique to the history of Chinese ethical thought. The research methodology in the history of Chinese ethical thought should also be systematic and multi-layered. The most general research methods in the social sciences, standard practices in the history of ideas, techniques in the history of ethical thought, and unique processes in Chinese ethical thought. These methods require exploration and conclusion in future research work. It may be challenging to find ways to incorporate the methods of psychology, sociology, anthropology, education, moral education, and other disciplines in the light of the specificity of the ethical history thought itself and integrate and innovate. Some observations are suggested here on the methods of studying the history of ideas in general and the history of moral thought in particular, and the techniques of studying the history of Chinese ethical thought in particular. The most fundamental thing is to take the basic theory of Marxism as a guide in analysing and studying the history of the development of Chinese moral concepts and ethical ideas. The most fundamental thing is to take the basic theory of Marxism as a guide in analysing and studying the history of the development of moral concepts and ethical ideas in China. The study should be examined under certain historical conditions, such as under a specific economic life and political system, to analyze which classes and strata these ideas and doctrines represent, what role they play in politics, and what status they have in history of ethical thought. Adopting the basic theory of Marxist ethics to guide is not to apply some words and phrases of Marxism and label the ethical ideas and moral concepts of the ancients; nor is it to use the moral concepts and ethical ideals of the ancients as illustrations or examples to justify the conclusions of Marxist ethics; instead, it is to take into account the different situations of different historical eras and to analyze the particularities of other moral concepts and ethical ideas from a global perspective. We should explore the specificities of different moral concepts and ethical beliefs and examine the internal links between moral concepts and honest views of other societies and eras and the regularity of

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their development to serve the construction of socialist moral and ethical doctrines with Chinese characteristics. More specifically, the following aspects must be noted. First, we should be objective and impartial in presenting the facts, that is, in a factual manner. When studying the history of Chinese ethical thought, one always introduces the various moral concepts and ethical doctrines in history. Such an introduction requires that the reader be informed accurately and comprehensively. In other words, it is necessary to start from the historical facts1 and try to explain clearly in what social conditions and for what personal purposes an ethical idea was formulated and what problems it was intended to solve. It is also important to objectively and accurately explain the original meaning of this moral idea, its effect, and its impact in the future. The so-called “unbiased objectivity” does not distort the author’s original purpose and “gives every ethicist a full opportunity to state his or her case.” Giving an objective introduction should be a rule that must be followed in every study of the history of ideas. Whether or not historical materialism is upheld is how moral concepts and ethical doctrines are treated in the past. It is wrong to think that history and historical thought are similar to a submissive girl who can be groomed and conditioned by anyone. It is also incorrect to argue that since class positions and class analysis methods are emphasized, objective presentation is not possible. The first thing to do in studying the history of Chinese ethical thought is to give a factual account of the various moral perspectives and ethical doctrines in the history of Chinese ethical thought. Objective presentation is not the absence of guidance from historical materialism; on the contrary, it is one of the principles of historical materialism to reflect history honestly. However, an objective introduction is not objectivism. For a long time in the past, when an article or a monograph was seen as “objectivist,” people would be dismissed as having no class perspective, or as not adhering to or even losing their lowly position, or at least as being influenced by the so-called impartial and hypocritical preaching of the bourgeoisie, etc. The most direct consequence of this approach is that people are afraid and reluctant to give an accurate account of the subject’s ideas and views and even encourage a tendency to do so. The trend is to think that one can criticize the subject of the study without a comprehensive and objective understanding of the subject’s ideas and views and by simply grabbing a few sentences in isolation. Although many ideologists of the exploiting classes have been criticized a thousand times, their ideas have not yet been presented objectively, and no convincing conclusions can be drawn about 1

It is worth mentioning that, starting from historical facts, the study of the history of Chinese ethical thought begins with the research and examination of ancient history relating to ethical thought. This is necessary to achieve an objective and impartial presentation. For example, Wang Guowei once proposed the ‘dual evidence method’, that is, to use ‘new material underground’ to test and supplement ‘material above ground’ in order to achieve a reliable identification of ancient historical materials. Many of his works, such as the arrangement of the Shang emperors in the Oracular Inscription, the inter-editing of the Yin Chronicle and The Table of the Three Generations in the Records of the Grand Historian, the book of A Study of the First Prince in Yin Bu Ci, and The Continuation of the First Prince in Yin Bu Ci, are precise works that have had a major impact on the history of ancient thought, especially the study of thought before the Spring and Autumn Period of the pre-Qin dynasty. It is of great importance for the current and future study of the history of ancient Chinese ethical thought, as well as the history of pre-Qin ethical thought in particular.

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them. On the other hand, this is the reason why they have not been refuted so far. Objectivism, on the other hand, must be analyzed in detail. Some bourgeois thinkers believed that science was incapable of critical and partisan evaluation and stressed that scientific research should be “unbiased” in all matters. It should itself be supraclass, universal, and non-partisan. This is an excuse for them to pass off their ideas as those of the whole population to denigrate the research of proletarian thinkers as unscientific. For this reason, Lenin sharply criticized the narrow objectivism of the bourgeoisie. He remarked that as with subjectivism, objectivism is incompatible with Marxism, for the party perspective of Marxism, which is entirely consistent with the objective necessity of social science, emphasizes the need to direct the study of social science to party consistent conclusions with the course of events. Thus, the party spirit principle is opposed to narrow objectivism, but it does not mean there is no need for an objective attitude. We should pay particular attention to this when studying the history of ancient Chinese thought, especially the moral views and ethical ideals of the ancient exploiting class thinkers. It is not easy to give an objective and unbiased account of the ideas of ancient thinkers in work concerned with the history of ideas. It is true that among bourgeois scholars, many people had the reputation of being unbiased and fair. Among bourgeois scholars, there were indeed many who used to boast of their impartiality and fairness. However, their narrow class prejudices divorced their promises from their actual practice (Binkley’s Conflict of Ideals’ presentation of the Marxist view of values is an exemplary illustration of this). It is precise because Marxists can uphold common principles to give a genuinely objective and impartial representation of all exploiting class ideologues. Secondly, we ought to conduct a systematic, dialectical and in-depth study. This requires the researcher not only to provide a proper introduction to the moral concepts and ethical thinking of ancient and modern China but also to search for the relationships between ethical thinkers who have influenced each other and their succession and development to find the intrinsic and necessary connections among them and gain a common understanding. Certain moral concepts and ethical doctrines must be studied in depth from all angles to reach the correct conclusions. Specific moral ideas and ethical principles must be studied in depth from all angles to make the right decisions. This understanding involves the psychological activities of human emotions, will, beliefs, and conscience, the practical activities of human moral behavior and habits, and various political and ethical life aspects. In Bacon’s Novum Organum, he once stated that: Historically, those who have studied science have been either empiricists or solipsists. Empiricists are like ants; they collect and use. Rationalists are like spiders who make their webs. But the bee takes a middle way. It gathers material from gardens and fields but transforms and digests this material with a power of its own. Actual philosophical work is just like this. For it does not rely only or mainly on the power of

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the mind, nor does it collect the material from natural history and mechanical experiments and preserve it in memory in its entirety as it was. Genuine philosophical work alters and digests and keeps this material in the intellect.2 Using the power of reason to change, digest, and understand from a Marxist perspective means that we should analyze, synthesize, summarize, and organize these ethical ideas according to the principles of historical materialism. So that we can arrive at a rule-based understanding of the development of Chinese ethical thought to make a high degree of unity between material and opinion, practice and theory, it is also essential to consider when these ideas were first introduced, who developed them based on their predecessors, and who interpreted them in the light of new circumstances. We will seek to recognize the theoretical contribution and historical merit of those who first developed critical ideas. For those who essentially repeat the views of their predecessors and their theories, however, only a brief introduction is given. Thirdly, we shall make historical, class-based assessments. The primary purpose of the historical evaluation is to examine these ideas’ progressive or reactionary role in the social conditions of the time and the subsequent historical development. Of course, such an approach sometimes inevitably leads to the suspicion of favoring the past over the present. However, as long as one adheres to the historical materialist viewpoint, the thesis that things are constantly evolving and reflects the evolution of ethical thought in history as it is, even if the text is not balanced in terms of length, it does not detract from the essence of the issue. Class valuation means using the Marxist method of class analysis to evaluate the functional role of different ethical ideas at the time. When assessing a philosopher, it is important not to judge him solely based on his political progress or his political success or failure. The political reactionary and theoretically absurd ethical doctrines must also be evaluated in terms of whether they have rational elements and contributed to the development of Chinese ethical thought from the opposite side so that their significance in the history of the development of Chinese ethical thinking can be correctly assessed. The desire of most ethicists is directed towards developing a new Marxist theory of ethics and building on the innovations of their predecessors. To be innovative, it is essential to grasp the basic Marxist theory and understand the issues raised in the development of the discipline and its history. There can be no correct innovation without learning and mastering the fundamental ideas of Marxism, while there can be no real innovation without education and getting an account. Thus, understanding and grasping the achievements and characteristics, shortcomings and flaws, the continuity of development, and the regularity of ethical thought of the Chinese nation over the centuries will lay a solid foundation for establishing a Marxist theory of ethics with Chinese characteristics. This is where our study and research into the history of Chinese ethical thought comes in.

2

Department of Philosophy, Peking University, Department of Foreign Philosophy History Teaching and Research, Peking University, Beijing, China: Selections from the Original Works of Western Philosophy, vol. 1, pp. 358–359, Beijing, Commercial Press, 1981.

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Fifthly, we need to acquire an accurate method of comparison. The first is how to make an East–West comparison. One should grasp more accurately and deeply the respective strengths and weaknesses of the history of Chinese ethical thought and Western ethical thought through analysis and dissection at different levels and in other aspects to remove the trash and dust from traditional Chinese honest view. At the same time, it is also necessary to absorb the essence of Western ethical thought to build a new communist moral system and Marxist ethics with Chinese characteristics. There are two types of bias to prevent here. One is the belief that only Chinese morality and ethics are the best. Even the West has turned its attention to traditional Chinese characters and ethical thinking. Hence only Chinese ethics and morality can save the West and the whole world from moral decay and degradation. The other is the belief that traditional Chinese ethics and morality are undesirable. This is the idea whereby Chinese ethical thinking favors the harmonization of norms and the restraint of individuality, and therefore there is no concept of striving for self-improvement. On the other hand, Western ethical thinking emphasizes self-striving, individual development, and positive enterprise. As a result, they advocate abandoning the Chinese tradition and learning from the West. Both of these views are one-sided and wrong. Our task is to recognize and discover the strengths and weaknesses of Chinese and Western ethical thought rather than to make subjective assumptions about them. The second is the comparison of related disciplines, that is, comparing the history of Chinese ethical thought with other associated fields in Chinese history. To study the content and mechanism of the interplay between ethical thought, political and legal thought, and the political and legal system therein, the history of Chinese ethical thinking can be compared with the history of Chinese political thought, the history of legal opinion, the history of the political system and the history of the legal system in the light of the politicization of ethics and the medicalization of politics in ancient China. By doing so, we will be able to grasp the characteristics, essence, and social role of traditional Chinese morality and ethical thought more accurately and profoundly. All in all, either comparison aims to gain a deeper understanding of the characteristics and laws of development of Chinese ethical thought, thus serving today’s moral practice and ethics study.

2 Theoretical Understanding and Methodological Principles of Critical Inheritance of Traditional Morality The promotion of the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation is of great practical significance in strengthening the construction of socialist spiritual civilization. For a long period of time since the founding of New China, we have gone through a tortuous process in terms of how to treat Chinese cultural traditions correctly, especially how to treat Chinese ethical and moral traditions correctly. The influence and interference of “left” and “right” thinking, or the over-emphasis on “criticism” and denial of inheritance, or the total affirmation without distinguishing between

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the best and the worst, or the worship of Western civilization and the move towards national nihilism, etc., have all contributed to the emergence of these situations. There are many reasons for these situations, but in terms of theoretical understanding and methodological principles, there is no comprehensive, dialectical and scientific opinion on how to critically inherit traditional Chinese ethics and morality, nor has a Marxist methodological principle been established for inheriting traditional Chinese ethics.

2.1 A Historical Overview The understanding of traditional Chinese culture, especially traditional ethics and morality, has undergone a tortuous process in modern Chinese history. Erroneous views such as national nihilism and the wholesale restoration of Confucianism have been widely prevalent. After the founding of New China, the Chinese Communist Party, guided by Marxism, put forward the correct approach to the critical inheritance of ancient Chinese culture, established the principle of absorbing its essence and discarding its dross, and correctly solved the problem of the attitude and approach to traditional ethics and morality. However, in the course of concrete practice, this approach has been constantly interfered with, and there are many experiences and lessons that we should seriously consider. Looking back on the 40 years since the founding of New China, we have been influenced by both “leftist” and rightist ideas in our approach to the traditional ethics and morality of the Chinese nation. From the theoretical point of view, there has never been a comprehensive and scientific definition of how to critically inherit, and after criticizing the so-called “abstract method of inheritance”, no methodological principle of Marxist critical inheritance has been established, so much so that the term “critical inheritance” has become only critical. The reference to “critical succession” became synonymous with criticism only. 1976 Before the year 2000, due to the “leftist” influence of political movements, ideological reform movements and academic criticism, people were accustomed to discarding traditional ethics and morals as old morals that safeguarded the feudal ruling order, thus creating an atmosphere of total rejection of traditional morals in the whole society. 1978 For a period of time after 1997, due to the proliferation of liberalization, national nihilism was in full swing and the theory of total westernization was revived, with a blanket rejection of traditional culture and traditional morality. If I were to divide the 40 years into stages, these could be broadly divided into five stages, according to my own considerations, in terms of the “left” and “right” approaches to traditional morality: First, at the beginning of the liberation of the country (from the 1949 year to the 1957 year), China was in an important period of thorough liquidation of the reactionary influence of the feudal landlord class, and the class struggle was very acute. The task of opposing feudal morality, with loyalty to the king and filial piety at its core, was also extremely difficult and complex.

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The feudal ethics of loyalty and filial piety were a means of reconciling class conflicts and easing the class struggle. Due to the historical background and the needs of the class struggle at the time, we basically adopted a completely negative attitude towards traditional ethics and morals. Although this attitude was necessary for the political struggle of the time, it was incomplete and unscientific for the Chinese nation, which had thousands of years of excellent traditional morality. Thus, while this struggle against feudal morality was a great victory, it also had the effect of “overdoing” it, causing people to overlook the good side of traditional morality. Secondly, from around the time of the anti-rightist struggle to the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, this was a period of continuous development of “leftist” thinking. In parallel with the development of “leftist” ideology in the political life of the country as a whole, the criticism and negation of traditional Chinese ethics and morals were further strengthened. Theoretically, the critique of Feng Youlan’s theory of moral inheritance contains the inevitable conclusion of denying that traditional morality can be inherited. 1957 In 1 the symposium on the history of Chinese philosophy, Feng Youlan argued that “there are some philosophical propositions in the history of Chinese philosophy which, if we are to understand them comprehensively, we should take note of their two meanings: one is the abstract meaning and the other is the concrete meaning”, and that “in understanding certain philosophical propositions in the history of philosophy, In understanding certain philosophical propositions in the history of philosophy, we should put their concrete meaning in the first place, because it is directly related to the concrete social situation in which the philosopher who made them found himself. But its abstract meaning should also be taken into account, and to ignore this aspect is also incomplete”. Feng Youlan cites a number of philosophical propositions to show that the concrete meaning of these propositions cannot be inherited, while their abstract meaning can be inherited: “What Confucius calls ‘love for others’ also has an abstract meaning and a concrete meaning. In terms of the concrete meaning, Confucius’ ‘love for others’ has a scope. Confucianism advocates kinship, believing that people are related by blood and that there is a difference in love. In the case of the nobles of the time, those who were related to them by blood were of course also nobles. Confucius talked to them about ‘loving people’, but of course, he loved the aristocrats more than anything else. This is the concrete meaning of Confucius’ words. In terms of its abstract meaning, since Confucius’ so-called ‘man’ has a similar meaning to that of what is now called ‘man’, his so-called ‘love of man’ is not without its current meaning of ‘love of man’. In the abstract sense of the word In an abstract sense, ‘loving people by being frugal’ is still correct and useful, and can be inherited. We are now advocating the idea of running a frugal society and caring for the people, aren’t we?”. Later, Feng Youlan added: “The adjectives ‘abstract’ and ‘concrete’ are very likely to cause trouble. They should be changed to general and specific.” Feng Youlan’s theory, known as the “abstract law of succession”, has been sharply criticised. It should be said that there are indeed questionable aspects of this formulation, such as whether all concrete meanings cannot be inherited? Is the abstract

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meaning of all can inherit? On the question of inheritance, shouldn’t a distinction be made between the dross and the essence? The criticisms and debates of some comrades are normal. But later, as academic discussion was replaced by political criticism, a series of political hats took the place of peaceful academic discussion. The political “left” ideology, in dealing with traditional culture and traditional ethics, theoretically denied the necessity and possibility of inheriting the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation. This critique, in fact, denied and criticized all3 the theories that claimed that “there is a certain relationship of inheritance between ancient and modern or old and new morality”. 1962 In 2007, the national theoretical community criticized Wu Han’s theory of moral inheritance (or moral transformism). Wu Han wrote an article, “Speaking of Morality”, in Frontline magazine1962, No. 110 of the year, in which he said: Now, society has changed and the rule of the landowning class is gone. With it, their moralism has lost its relevance and usefulness. This cannot be doubted. The question is whether some parts of the moral doctrine of feudal society are worthy of criticism and inheritance by the present generation. I thought it was there. For example, in the past, one had to be loyal to the monarch, but today, shouldn’t one be loyal to the country, to the people and to the cause of socialist construction? Another example of filial piety is to be kind to one’s parents. When parents are old and unable to work, shouldn’t children take care of them? As for the virtues of honesty, diligence, courage, hard work and ambition, could they not all be transferred to today? Shouldn’t it be an important principle of socialist business management that not only feudal morality, but also bourgeois morality, be financially prudent and multiply money? Of course, the essence has changed, the bourgeoisie exploits workers to make money for themselves, while socialist business management, with the conscious efforts of workers, increases wealth for the country and for the people, changing the face of poverty. Thus, morality is the morality of the class, and morality changes with the change of class rule, but there is another side to it, which is that the proletariat can critically absorb some parts of both feudal and bourgeois morality and change them essentially to serve the politics and production of the proletariat. What follows is a critique of this theory of his. Two months later, in Front Line 1962, No. 116, he published another article, “More on morality”. In addition to stressing that the succession he described “should be a critical succession”, he still maintained his views: If the proletariat is not good at absorbing some of the good things of the past ruling class, or even rejecting them altogether, then it seems that it will have to inherit them from the ancient proletariat, or create them itself out of thin air. Wu Han also quoted Lenin: “Proletarian culture did not fall from the sky, nor was it invented by those who pretend to be experts in proletarian culture. Proletarian culture should be the inevitable result of the development of all knowledge created by 3

Zhang Dai-nian, ‘On the Class and Inheritance of Morality’, in Social Science, 1986 (2).

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human beings under the oppression of capitalist, landlord and bureaucratic societies”, and that “in a broad sense, morality belongs to the scope of culture”. Wu Han also quoted the words of Mencius: “Wealth and nobility cannot be lusted after, poverty and poverty cannot be shifted, and might and strength cannot be bent” and the words of Wen Tianxiang: “When the time is poor, the festival is seen, and one by one, it hangs in the sky” to illustrate that morality can be critically inherited. Wu Han is a historian, and his interpretation of some concepts is inaccurate in terms of theoretical rigor. However, unlike Feng Youlan, he did not want to put forward a general methodological principle on inheritance, but only to emphasize in practical terms the necessity and importance of the inheritance of good traditional Chinese morality. At first, it was normal for some comrades to criticize him. However, the criticism of Wu Han’s theory of moral succession became a political criticism as well. This criticism continued until the Cultural Revolution (around that 1963 time 7, Zhou Yang, Guan Feng, Lin Iushi and others, in the name of criticizing Jiang Fazeng’s theory of moral succession, also criticized Wu Han’s theory of moral succession in an ultra-leftist manner). This escalating criticism further denied the inheritance of traditional Chinese ethics and morality, and the so-called “inheritance with criticism” became a synonym for the inability to have any inheritance. 1965 The discussion of the historical drama Hai Rui Zhan Gui (The dismissal of officials) in January 11 was in fact a major critique of the traditional ethics of the Chinese nation. One of the central issues in this discussion was the issue of the so-called “clean officials” and “corrupt officials”. As Wu Han emphasized the importance of inheriting good moral traditions in a socialist society, he advocated the inheritance of Hai Rui’s “great man” spirit of being upright, defying violence and standing up to the sky. 1965 On the 1110 day of January, 2008, Yao Wenyuan published a long article in the People’s Daily entitled “Review of the New Historical Drama < Strike of Hairui >”, which labelled the historical drama “Hai Rui Zhan Gui” as “a poisonous plant”, thus turning this academic debate into a veritable criticism, which eventually led to Wu Han’s suicide. Yao Wenyuan, in his “Review of the New Historical Drama < Strike of Hairui >”, says: Comrade Wu Han tenaciously propagated the theory that historical dramas should make the “fine virtues” of certain characters from the feudal era “penetrate into the hearts of people and become part of the morality of socialist communism” (Wu Han, “Talking Again about Historical Dramas”). We are not discussing the issue of morality here (which is also an issue that has been confused by bourgeois scholars, writers and philosophers), but if Hai Rui’s thoughts and actions are treated as “an integral part” of communist morality, as in The Removal of Hai Rui, then what else is there to learn from Mao Zedong’s thought, what ideological reform, what integration with workers, peasants and soldiers, what revolutionary are? Yao Wenyuan’s argument is tantamount to denying the inheritance of the moral qualities of the outstanding figures of the Chinese nation for thousands of years. He argues that all loyal officials and Qing officials in the feudal era served the feudal emperors and were, without exception, “loyal defenders of the interests of the landowning class”, which is “the essence of Hai Rui’s class and the starting point and destination of all his actions”, arguing that This is also “the class essence of

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Hai Rui, which is the starting point and destination of all his actions”, and that “the ‘uprightness’ and ‘greatness’ advocated by the landowning class have their specific class meanings, and cannot be confused with the revolutionary and combative nature of the proletariat”. Thirdly, during the Cultural Revolution, the traditional Chinese ethics and morality were completely rejected, both in theory and in terms of behavioral norms, bringing this ethical and moral view of national nihilism to its peak. 1966 In January 2008, Lin Biao called on the Red Guards to “break all the old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits of the exploiting class” and launched a nationwide campaign on an unprecedented scale called “Breaking the Four Olds”. While destroying national historical relics, all traditional morality was denounced as the “Four Olds”. It was under the guidance of such ultra-leftist ideology that not only Hai Rui was rejected in its entirety, but also such patriotic heroes and heroines as Yue Fei, Fan Zhongyan, Wen Tianxiang and Shi Kefa were all described as loyal subjects of the feudal landowning class, seeking “security for all generations” for the emperor, and thus could only be criticized but not inherited. 1966 1128 On January 1, 2009, Jiang Qing made a one-sided distortion of Mao Zedong’s views on “pushing out new ideas” in his speech at a conference of the literary and artistic circles in the capital: More than 20 years ago, Chairman Mao put forward the direction of literature and art to serve the workers, peasants and soldiers, and raised the issue of introducing new ideas. To bring out the new is to have new, popular content, and national forms that are pleasing to the people. There are many contents that are difficult to bring out new, such as ghosts, gods and religions, so how can we inherit them critically? I don’t think so. Because we are atheists, we are communists, and we do not believe in any gods or demons. Another example is the feudal morality of the landlords and the bourgeois morality, their natural morality, which is meant to oppress and exploit people, can we critically inherit what oppresses and exploits people? I don’t think so. … An important aspect of our Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is to sweep away all the old ideas, old culture, old customs and habits of the exploiting class. Although we still use some of the words, the content is completely different. For example, the feudal landowners were loyal to the king and to the feudal class, but we are loyal to the Party, to the proletariat and to the working people. The so-called temperament of the feudal class, for example, belongs to the emperor and the feudal class, but we are talking about the revolutionary temperament of the proletariat, which means that we must have unwavering faith in the proletarian and communist cause and will never yield to the few enemies who oppress and exploit the people. So, the same word for loyalty and temperance is still used, and the class content is completely opposite. It is a programmatic text that appears in a far-left light, rejecting all national cultures and especially moral traditions, which cannot be inherited in any meaningful sense except that we and the ancients still use certain common linguistic terms (but the class content is completely opposite). During the ten-year Cultural Revolution, in addition to Wu Han’s theory of moral inheritance, there were also large numbers of Liu Shaoqi’s theory of “black cultivation” and the theory of human nature of the landlord bourgeoisie. History has shown

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that under the guise of criticizing the morality of the feudal class, they actually wanted to criticize and deny the new socialist moral relations that had been formed over the years since the founding 20 of New China, and attempted to replace the socialist ethical and moral principles of serving the people with the extreme individualism of the bourgeoisie. Under the banner of class struggle, under the guise of opposing “favoring the past over the present” and the worship of the dead, the Chinese nation has lost its own traditions, let alone inheriting good traditional ethics and morals. Fourthly, the “criticism of Lin and Confucius” and “evaluation of the law and criticism of Confucianism” campaigns in the latter stages of the Cultural Revolution had extremely serious political and economic consequences, and at the same time, they had a major nationwide criticism of Confucianism, especially Confucian ethics. The “criticism of Lin and Confucius” and the “evaluation of the law and criticism of Confucianism” campaigns at the end of the Cultural Revolution had extremely serious political and economic consequences. From the perspective of traditional ethics and morality, the Confucian moral thought centered on “benevolence” and “propriety”, the “Way of Confucius and Mencius” and the “Way of the Middle Way”. The Confucianism of “virtue”, “benevolence and righteousness”, “loyalty and forgiveness”, etc., were rejected in an unanalytical, comprehensive and absolute manner. After labelling Confucianism as reactionary, conservative, attempting to restore the old system and reversing history, the philosophers and ethical thinkers in history such as Confucius, Mencius, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan were all regarded as apologists for the restoration of the reactionary class and the creation of public opinion for the counter-revolution, and their personalities and ideas were “deeply exposed and criticized” They were “deeply exposed and criticized” for their personalities and ideas. Fifthly, the idea of total westernization is a “total negation” of traditional national ethics from another direction. 1980 For a long period of time, due to the influence and corruption of Western values on some people’s minds, there was a trend of wholesale Westernization in China. In the view of some people, modernization means “Westernization”, and Westernization must be a comprehensive, thorough and complementary transplantation of Western science and technology, political system, ideology and even ethics into China. This is the so-called “overall westernization theory”. It is under the guidance of this ideology that the “theory of the use of Western bodies in Chinese”, the “theory of yellow civilization and blue civilization”, the theory of traditional ethics and morals stifling humanity and fettering individuality, the “isomorphic correspondence theory” between Mao Zedong’s thought and Confucian culture, and the “theory of traditional Chinese civilization” have all been adopted. “The traditional Chinese ethics and morals and the excellent traditional culture of the entire Chinese nation have been slandered and attacked from the right, the “theory that traditional Chinese culture binds the ego” and the “theory that traditional Chinese personality is a slave personality”. The banner of national nihilism was raised in a vain attempt to deny Chinese traditional culture and traditional ethics in order to open the way for wholesale Westernization and the promotion of Western bourgeois values. The bourgeois liberals in China, in conjunction with the hostile forces of the West, are trying to

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corrupt the masses of the Chinese people, especially the youth, in terms of values and morals, in order to achieve their goal of peacefully evolving China into a capitalist society. An important element of the “total westernization theory” is to oppose the socialist ethics and values with the western ethics and values. The advocates of total westernization realize that in China, the excellent traditional ethics and morals of the Chinese nation, after being critically inherited under the guidance of Marxism, are also an important force in resisting the western ethical and moral outlook. Therefore, the reason why some people regard the excellent traditional ethics of the Chinese nation as a shackle that hinders reform and opening up, fetters the development of individuality and is not conducive to the development of a commercial economy is that they want to carry out wholesale westernization under the pretext of opposing tradition. In their opposition to traditional Chinese culture, the national nihilists, in particular, have described the ethics and morality of Confucianism as being of no use. On the one hand, they see traditional Chinese culture as an inseparable whole that cannot be distinguished between the best and the worst, and in order to break it down, they must break it down as a whole, and in order to deny it, they must deny it as a whole, using the total denial of Confucianism to achieve the overall denial of traditional Chinese culture. They take a metaphysical approach to Confucian ethics and moral thought, saying that “bad is absolutely bad” and generalizing the whole thing, even thinking that Confucian ethical thought is the “three principles and five rules” and that nothing else seems to exist. Some even say, “From the perspective of human cultural history, especially the history of thought, Chinese cultural tradition has neither the flourishing of sensual life nor the self-awareness of rational introspection, but only the withering of life itself, that is, the double death of sensual fascination and rational sobriety”. I believe that traditional Chinese culture is long overdue for a successor. Of course, when we review the false theories of national nihilism that have negatively affected traditional Chinese culture, ethics and morality since the founding of New China, from both the left and the right, we should also pay attention to the traditional conservative trend of uncritically reviving Confucianism. Before the May Fourth Movement, Confucianism, which served the feudal ruling class, had a history of more than two thousand years in China and could be said to be deeply rooted and influential. After the May Fourth Movement, although traditional Confucianism was under attack by the “Down with Confucianism” movement, the idea of reviving Confucianism continued to gain momentum during the Kuomintang rule, and the so-called “Neo-Confucianism” has continued to develop the ideas of Confucianism. At present, in Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas, some so-called neo-Confucian schools, which aim to create a “new inner sage” and a “new outer king”, as well as some propagandists of the so-called “Confucian capitalism”, are all promoting the revival of Confucianism. They even attempt to replace socialist culture and socialist ethics with Confucian culture and ethics. Although there is not yet a large market for this kind of thinking in China, it is still worthy of our vigilance. The socialist system is based on an economic foundation based on public ownership, while traditional Chinese ethical thought, which is based on private ownership,

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has served the feudal system based on private ownership for a long period of history. The inheritance of good traditional Chinese ethics should be, first and foremost, an inheritance of the good moral qualities of the working people. For historical reasons, the working people did not have the right to learn cultural knowledge for a long period of time, and were unable to summarize the moral principles, moral norms and moral ideas they practiced and followed, much less to produce systematic and theoretical results (works such as the Mozi already reflected the ethical and moral ideas of small producers to a greater or lesser extent). The work of theorizing and systematizing morality could, on the whole, only be undertaken by intellectuals within the ruling class. Therefore, when inheriting traditional morality, we must carry out a class analysis. The thinkers and theorists within the ruling class, in their theoretical writings, not only serve the ruling class, but also inevitably reflect, to varying degrees, the ideas, views and social mores of the various strata of society. The theories on morality that they summarized served the aims of the ruling class, to safeguard the interests of the ruling class, but also had the noble aim of harmonizing interpersonal relations, improving the moral quality of people and moving them to a higher moral level. The fundamental purpose of inheriting and promoting traditional Chinese morality can only be to give socialist morality a richer content, a national form that is more pleasing to the masses, and a cohesive and centripetal force with national characteristics, so that collectivism, patriotism and socialism can truly become the main theme of our society in terms of ideology. This is precisely what distinguishes us from the so-called “revival of Confucian culture” and from those who advocate “Confucian capitalism”. The correct treatment of traditional Chinese ethics and morality is a major theoretical and practical issue that deserves our special attention. 40 We should seriously reflect on and sum up the lessons we have learned over the years in dealing with traditional Chinese ethics and morality. Both “left” and “right” are one-sided and will lead us astray in our understanding. We must set things right on the issue of the inheritance of traditional ethics and morals, rectify the “left” and “right” misconceptions, analyze our traditional ethics and morals in a realistic manner, and vigorously promote our fine traditional ethics. Traditional Chinese morality covers a great deal of ground, including both the best and the worst, and in some cases the best and the worst are combined and mixed together. The attitude towards traditional Chinese morality should adhere to the principles of critical inheritance, discarding the bad and taking the good, synthesizing and innovating and using the past for the present. “Critical inheritance” is a general principle that emphasizes that our inheritance is a critical, selective and purposeful inheritance guided by the theory of historical materialism, and that it is an inheritance based on the principle of the interests of the general public. “It is an important requirement for inheriting cultural heritage, especially traditional ethics and morals, and is an inheritance that promotes the essence and discards the dregs, an inheritance that has been chewed and digested.” Inheriting traditional Chinese ethics and morals, we should pay attention to the work of “synthesis” and “innovation”. On the other hand,

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we should also pay attention to sorting out, comparing and identifying the ethical and moral heritage of all mankind, and be good at absorbing what is useful in it and synthesizing it with the traditional Chinese ethics and morals, so as to create an advanced spiritual civilization of mankind. The main purpose of “using the past for the present” is to adapt to the needs of socialist construction with Chinese characteristics, to solve various problems related to ethics and morality in real life, to create a good moral environment for the economic construction of China, and to ensure that the construction of material civilization in China can follow the main purpose is to meet the needs of socialist construction with Chinese characteristics, to solve the problems of ethics and morality in real life, to create a good moral environment for the economic construction of China, and to ensure that the construction of material civilization in China can develop more healthily along the socialist road. In the education to promote the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation, special emphasis should also be placed on the need to closely integrate our fine moral traditions with the revolutionary traditions of our Party and our army, with the requirements of socialist morality, and into the general system of building socialist morality with Chinese characteristics. The traditional virtues of the Chinese nation are not only not contradictory to our revolutionary traditions, but are also an important source of revolutionary traditions. It is precisely because we have inherited the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation that our revolutionary traditions have become more powerful and vital; it is only when the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation are combined with our revolutionary traditions and with the moral requirements of socialism that they can become more relevant to the times and become part of the moral system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and can play an important role in training new socialists, raising the moral level of the general public and improving social morality. Only then can it become an integral part of the socialist moral system with Chinese characteristics, and play a more important role in cultivating new socialists, raising the moral standards of the general public and improving social morals.

2.2 General Principles Marxist historical materialism holds that the proletariat should adopt an attitude of both criticism and inheritance towards the traditional culture, especially traditional morality, in the history of the nation, criticism is for the better inheritance, inheritance contains criticism, criticism is not a complete negation but a kind of renunciation, inheritance is not a copy but a new meaning. Comrade Mao Zedong once said: “Today’s China is a development of historical China; we are Marxist historians, and we should not cut off history. From Confucius to Sun Yat-sen, we should take stock and inherit this precious heritage.4 ” It also says: “Cleaning up the development of ancient culture, eliminating its feudal dross and absorbing its democratic essence, is 4

Selected Works of 1991 Mao Zedong, 2 edition, 2 vol.

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a necessary condition for developing a new national culture and increasing national self-confidence; but it must not be incorporated uncritically.5 ” In other words, the critical inheritance of historical heritage is “like the food that we must chew in our own mouths and through gastrointestinal movements, sending in saliva, gastric and intestinal juices, breaking it down into its essence and dross, then excreting the dross and absorbing the essence, in order to be beneficial to our bodies”.6 According to the requirements of historical materialism, we can put forward a general principle on the inheritance of morality, namely, “to inherit critically, to discard the dregs and take the essence, to integrate and innovate, and to use the past for the present”. “Critical succession” is a general principle that emphasizes that “succession” is a selective, discriminatory and purposeful succession guided by the theory of historical materialism, and that it is a succession based on the principle of whether it is in the interests of the general public. “It is an important requirement to inherit cultural heritage, especially traditional ethics and morals, and it is an inheritance that promotes the essence and discards the dross, an inheritance that has been chewed and digested. “Inheriting traditional ethics and morals, we should, on the one hand, analyze and compare the ethical and moral thoughts of the hundred schools of thought in Chinese history, summarize and synthesize them, and form a new thought that meets the needs of the times, so that it can become an integral part of socialist ethics. On the other hand, the ethical and moral heritage of all mankind should be collated, compared and identified, and what is useful should be absorbed and integrated with traditional Chinese ethics and morality, so as to create an advanced spiritual civilization for mankind. The main purpose of “using the past for the present”, which emphasizes the critical inheritance of traditional Chinese morality, is to solve the practical problems related to ethics and morality in real life, so as to meet the needs of the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In the current process of building a socialist moral system with Chinese characteristics, the critical inheritance of traditional Chinese morality can also make our socialist morality richer in national characteristics.

2.3 Why the Proletariat Can Inherit the Morality of the Exploiting Class Most of the traditional morals in history, in terms of class affiliation, belong to the ideology of the exploiting class and serve the politics and economy of the exploiting class. Why is it that these morals, which basically serve the politics and economy of the exploiting class, can be inherited by the working people and the proletariat? 5 6

Ibid., pp. 707–708. Ibid., 707 pp.

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According to historical materialism, man is a social animal with a social nature, and when he enters a class society, the different classes must have their own class nature. For a long period of history, people lived in primitive societies where they were only social without class (although, of course, class is also a kind of sociality in a certain sense), and in the future, when they enter a communist society, class will disappear again and people will return to a time when there was no class but only sociality. It is only when human society enters a class society that it is divided into different classes due to different interests, and thus people’s ideology is marked by class. In a class society, people are always divided into different classes, but at the same time they have a common social nature. Since people live and interact in the same society, they must form some minimum, simple rules of public life that must be observed among themselves, even between the exploiting and exploited classes. Although, for a certain period of time, these rules of public society, which have been developed over the centuries by human society, have been incorporated into the ideology of the exploiting classes and even destroyed by some people, they are still the necessary rules for people to live and develop and for people to get along with each other, and should be inherited and promoted in accordance with the requirements of the new era. The social life of human beings and the common social nature of human beings are the social reasons for the emergence of common moral norms in human society. It is incorrect to believe that there can be no common, minimum norms of human behavior in a class society. Why is it possible and necessary for the proletariat to inherit the moral heritage of the past, including the moral ideas, theories, principles and norms of the exploiting classes? In terms of theoretical understanding and methodological principles, there is indeed the question of how to correctly understand the relationship between the general and the individual. For a period of time in the past, as mentioned earlier, on the one hand, there was a “leftist” theory which denied that the morality of the exploiting class could be inherited; on the other hand, there was also the idea of inheriting the whole of it without distinguishing between the best and the worst. In the former case, one of the reasons why some people deny that traditional morality can be inherited is that they only see that traditional morality was formed in a specific historical period and belongs to the ideology of a specific class, and do not see that it also contains common elements that are common to all times. The error of those who advocate total inheritance is that they exaggerate the universal elements contained in traditional morality and fail to see the need to change it in the light of the development of the times and the unprecedented historical mission of the proletariat.

2.4 How to Understand the Relationship Between the Universal and the Particular in Critical Succession According to Marx and Engels in The German Ideology, even in a society of antagonistic classes, there are both antagonistic and common interests between the classes,

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and “this common interest exists not merely as a ‘universal thing’ in conception, but above all It exists in reality as the interdependence of individuals who are divided among themselves”.7 The ideologists of the ruling class, in order to safeguard the long-term interests of the ruling class, used this common interest not only to formulate moral norms for social stability and to raise the banner of this common, universal interest against foreign aggression, but also to develop nature and build water resources in accordance with this common interest. The ruling officials of successive generations were fundamentally concerned with safeguarding the interests of the ruling class, but they were mindful of the common, universal and shared interests of the various classes that coexisted. Confucius, a thinker of the pre-Qin dynasty, once put forward the idea of “benefiting the people for their own benefit”, which, as understood today, means benefiting the people according to their own interests. In terms of his particular purpose at the time, this was naturally to maintain and consolidate the political stability of the ruling class, but it should be said that it was also to the benefit of the people. Similarly, Mencius’ proposal to ‘reduce criminal laws and taxes’ was intended to ease class conflicts, but objectively it also had a beneficial effect on the development of production. The universal and the particular, the abstract and the concrete, the general and the individual, are philosophically interlinked and inseparable. From the perspective of ethical and moral thought, any system of moral thought inherently contains a dialectical relationship between the general and the individual, the abstract and the concrete, the universal and the particular. Any individual, concrete and special moral thoughts, moral propositions, moral requirements and moral norms are bound to contain general, abstract and universal contents. From the dialectical point of view, the individual contains the universal, and the universal can never be outside the individual, but only within the individual. From the point of view of the inheritance of ethical and moral thought, we should first of all acknowledge that anything general, abstract and universal exists in connection with something individual, concrete and particular, and that they can only exist in these individual moral thoughts, moral propositions, moral requirements and moral norms. But we should also see that what is general, abstract and universal often transcends a particular time and place, a particular class interest and a particular concrete meaning and contains some common, universal and acceptable content for other times.

2.5 How to Understand the Special and Universal Significance of Moral Propositions and Moral Imperatives When a moral imperative is formulated, it is first and foremost a requirement for the interpersonal relations of the society of the time, for the stability and harmony of the social order of the time. In slave and feudal societies, the maintenance of the 7

The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, 371956 in 1 Chinese, 3 vol.

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hierarchy of the time was also taken into account, and this was its special significance at the time. Because of the social, historical and class limitations, when the ancients put forward certain moral propositions, moral requirements and moral codes according to the special circumstances and purposes of the time, they often thought they had discovered the eternal truths of human moral life, and regarded these moral propositions and moral requirements as enduring for all time, thinking that “if the sky remains unchanged, so does the Way”. This metaphysical understanding is, of course, completely wrong, but these moral requirements, generalized according to particular circumstances and purposes, still reflect certain moral requirements that people in social life have to observe in common, i.e. they reflect some general, abstract and universal norms of behavior between people. These norms also contain what Lenin called the rules of public life that have been developed by mankind over the centuries, that is, the common moral norms that people have developed in their long and common social life. As Engels pointed out in his Anti-Dühring, certain common historical contexts inevitably lead to certain commonalities in morality. This “commonality” is the theoretical basis on which we are able to inherit traditional morality today, and the methodological basis on which we are able to critically inherit it today, by discarding its particular, concrete, individual characteristics and grasping its universal, abstract, general properties that are applicable today.

2.6 Criteria for Distinguishing Between the Best and the Worst Finally, we should also point out that the promotion of the best and the elimination of the worst is the basic principle of our inheritance of traditional Chinese morality. So what criteria do we use to distinguish between the best and the worst? In our view, the criteria for inheritance are peoplehood, progressiveness and science. At present, the most fundamental criterion for distinguishing between the best and the worst is whether it is conducive to the interests of the Chinese people at large, whether it is conducive to promoting the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, whether it is conducive to building and forming a socialist moral system with Chinese characteristics, and whether it is conducive to forming the self-confidence and cohesion of the Chinese nation. Those that meet the above requirements are the essence, otherwise they are the dross. What meets the above requirements is a correct understanding of the current objective reality, and is scientific in nature. If an idea is scientific, it can correctly and forcefully promote the continuous development of things, and it is progressive, and if it is progressive, it must be able to reflect the interests and demands of the general public, and therefore it must be popular. To inherit critically is to inherit the essence of scientific, popular and progressive nature.

Chapter 2

The Ethics Thought of the Western Zhou Dynasty with the Duke of Zhou’s “Respecting Morality and Protecting the People” as the Core—Ethical Thoughts in Book of Documents, Book of Changes and Book of Songs

1 The Ethical Thoughts of Duke Zhou Reflected in Book of Changes The Shangshu was first called simply the Book of the Book, but during the Han Dynasty it was called the Shangshu. After it became a Confucian classic, it was also known as the Book of the Book, a compilation of political and other records from the periods before the Spring and Autumn Period, collected by historical officials. The Shang Shu was written in a definitive form in the pre-Qin period. Confucius attached great importance to the Shang Shu and he often quoted from it to teach his disciples, while Mozi also often quoted from it as an argument. In addition, Mencius, Zuo Zhuan, Guoyu, Liji, Xunzi, Han Feizi and Lü’s Spring and Autumn also quoted from the Shang Shu.1 There is a distinction between the ancient and modern Shang Shu. The ancient text of the Shang Shu was written in16 the ancient language and was lost when King Lu Gong dismantled the old residence of Confucius in the walls during the reign of Emperor Xiao Jing of the Han Dynasty. In the Eastern Jin dynasty, Mei Ze offered another copy of the ancient text. It has been proven by experts that the ancient text is a forgery. The present-day Shang Shu was treasured by Fusheng during the Qin Dynasty. During the Qin Dynasty, when the books were burned, Fusheng was a doctor of Qin and hid the Shangshu, which was passed on to him during the Han Dynasty. It was passed on by Fusheng, and later there was a copy of the Qin Oath, adding up to a total of one 2829 chapter. Some of the modern Shang Shu 29 chapters may have been incorporated by Confucians after the Spring and Autumn period, and need to be carefully analyzed. The earliest of the Shang Shu chapters is the Yao Dian, which describes the events of Tang Yao and Yu Shun and reflects the end of primitive society and the beginning of slave society in China. It is possible that the Yao Dian was recorded by the late Yin and early Zhou dynasties on the 1 By Mr. Chen Mengjia’s count, the nine books of the Analects, Mencius, Zuo Zhuan, Guoyu, Mozi, Liji, Xunzi, Han Feizi, and Lü’s Chunqiu cite the Shu in one 168 article. See Chen Mengjia: The General Theory of the Shang Shu, 1 chap 2005.

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basis of hearsay. Fan Wenlan believes that it is a systematic record of the events of the Zhou dynasty, which was compiled by the historians of the Zhou dynasty from hearsay. Gu Jiegang, on the other hand, believes that it was written by someone in the Qin and Han dynasties. The most recent record of historical events in the Shang Shu is the Qin Oath, an oath taken by Duke Mu of Qin in the Spring and Autumn period (c. 628BC-BC627). The Shangshu is of great value as it is mainly a record of official documents and historical events from around 400 the 11century BC to the 627 year before. These historical sources contain many moral concepts and ethical ideas worthy of study. The Shangshu is not only one of the earliest historical documents in China, but it has long been regarded as an extremely important classic that has had a significant impact on Chinese society. We can say that, as a collection of political and historical documents, the Shang Shu incorporates moral thought and moral education into the political and historical narrative, combining the political and historical narrative with the cultivation of moral character and temperament, thus achieving the goal of regulating the relationship between people and maintaining the long-term peace of the country. Many of the books in the Shang Shu, such as Yao Dian, Gaotao Mu, Hong Fan and Qin Oath, contain important ethical ideas that need to be explored. The Duke of Zhou, surnamed Ji Dan, also known as Shu Dan, was the son of King Wen of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the younger brother of King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty. After the death of King Wu, he assisted King Cheng (the son of King Wu) in ruling the country. The political and ethical ideas in the Book of Shang Shu were mainly put forward by the Duke of Zhou. The Duke of Zhou summed up the experience of ruling at that time and put forward the ideas of “matching virtue with heaven”, “respecting virtue and protecting the people” and “being clear in virtue and careful in punishment”, thus giving a new interpretation to the theory of the Mandate of Heaven since the Yin and Shang dynasties. He further argues for the legitimacy of the Zhou dynasty’s rule. More importantly, he emphasized the importance of “respecting virtue and protecting the people”, especially the importance of morality in maintaining rule and regulating the relationship between the ruler and the ruled, and the role of “moral probation” and “moral education”. “The role of ‘moral probation’ and ‘moral education’ was recognized”, and this had an extremely important influence on later Chinese political and ethical thought. Confucius, a famous thinker of the Spring and Autumn period, held the Duke of Zhou in high esteem and, as his successor, inherited and developed his political and ethical ideas. The Duke of Zhou not only put forward the important idea of ‘respecting virtue and protecting the people’, but also formulated a set of political systems and moral codes to maintain the social order of the time, which was later referred to as the ‘Rites of Zhou’ or the ‘Code of the Duke of Zhou’. This is known as the “Zhou Rites” or the “Code of the Duke of Zhou”. Of course, it is unlikely that he alone formulated the Zhou rites, but it is clear that the Duke of Zhou played a role in their formulation and implementation. In terms of the content of Chinese ethical thought, it is one of the characteristics of Chinese ethical thought to emphasized the special significance of “moral rule”. From the Shang dynasty onwards, rulers have constantly proclaimed that their power

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was bestowed by “Heaven” and that they were entrusted by “Heaven” to govern the common people. After the destruction of the Shang, the Western Zhou also emphasized the importance of the “Mandate of Heaven”, arguing that the Western Zhou was able to destroy the Shang because the “Heaven” was not satisfied with the Shang’s rule over the common people, and therefore gave this power to the Western Zhou. Why did Heaven, which held all the power in the world, suddenly take the power of ruling the people out of the hands of the Shang and give it to the Zhou dynasty of the Ji surname? According to the theory of the Duke of Zhou, the most important reason was that King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty did not obey the will of Heaven, he did not have morality himself, and he was unable to govern and educate the people with virtue. It was for this reason that the Duke of Zhou made a direct link between the morality of the ruler and the granting of power to him by the “Heaven”. On the one hand, this was to create public opinion and to show the people that the Zhou dynasty was ruled in accordance with the will of Heaven; on the other hand, it was also to warn, caution and educate the rulers of the Zhou dynasty to learn the lessons of the fall of the Yin dynasty. In the Shang Shu Kang Jiao, it is clearly stated: “But the order is not constant, you remember! If we are not to be wasteful, the Ming will obey the order, the Gao will listen, and the people will be well off.” The meaning here is that you must realize that there is no certainty in the great order of Heaven, so think about it carefully! Do not cut off the sacrifice of our ancestors because you have not ruled the country well, but try to fulfil your duties and listen to my teaching regularly, for only by ruling the people well will we be able to enjoy peace and prosperity. This idea of “but the order is not constant” was put forward by the Duke of Zhou in his admonition to Kang Shu. At the same time, the Duke of Zhou also put forward the principle of “Ming De and Prudent Punishment”, which established that when governing the people, punishment should be used with particular caution and moral probation should be strengthened. Throughout the Shangshu, the Duke of Zhou repeatedly points out that rulers lose their power because they have lost their virtue, and that they have the mandate of heaven because they have virtue. The Mandate of Heaven is transferred by virtue, because the supreme “Heaven” is virtuous and therefore demands virtue from his descendants. In the Shang Shu—Zhaogao, it says: “I must not fail to supervise the Xia, and I must not fail to supervise the Yin.” This means that the lessons of the Xia and Shang dynasties must be learned. It is also said, “The king should respect the place of work and should not fail to respect virtue.” This means that the king should also be respectful and cautious and set an example by not failing to respect virtue, thus emphasizing the importance of the king’s virtue. It was in this context that the Duke of Zhou repeatedly emphasized that for the ruler the purpose of honoring virtue was to protect the people (‘it is difficult to protect a small people’), and so he closely linked ‘honoring virtue’ and ‘protecting the people’. The “virtue” referred to by Duke Zhou was to protect the people (“it is difficult to protect the small people”). By “virtue”, the Duke of Zhou meant that he should “not be too happy or too careless” (Shang Shu—Kang Jiao), not be greedy for comfort and enjoyment, and “know the difficulties of harvesting” (Shang Shu—Wu

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Yi). Strictly speaking, the ‘virtue’ referred to by the Duke of Zhou was, in most cases, the morality of the ruler, a political morality. However, the rulers of the Zhou dynasty had already realized that it was not easy to ‘protect the people’ and that the rulers themselves had to have the necessary morality. For in the Duke of Zhou’s view, only if the ruler himself was not greedy for enjoyment, if he could appreciate the feelings of the people, if he could give them favors, if he could be moral himself, could he educate the people and make them moral. This idea of the Duke of Zhou was developed by Confucius and Mencius, and eventually became the systematic idea of “benevolent government” and “the way of kings”, which has had an important influence in the history of Chinese ethical thought. Virtue in the Shanshu has the following meanings: First of all, “virtue” is given to the ruler by heaven, and it can also be said that “virtue” is always associated with the will of “heaven”. In the Shang Shu—Zhaogu, it is said, “The king should use his virtue to pray to heaven for eternal life.” In other words, only by acting in accordance with morality can the Son of Heaven pray for the longevity of the mandate he receives. It is only when the Son of Heaven possesses the virtues required by Heaven that he can gain the support of the people and maintain his rule. Secondly, “virtue” It is a quality or a name that is not easily applied to ordinary people, a moral quality that should be possessed by the sons of heaven, the nobility and so on, and only by them. The so-called “untouchables” of course could not be said to have “virtue”, which was the privilege of the ruling class. Virtue was the privilege of the ruling class. If one had virtue, one could gain and retain dominance, if one lacked virtue, one should lose dominance, and if one had no virtue, one would not have dominance at all. The Zhou regarded virtue as the personal character of the ruler, which at the same time contained a certain sense of restraint on the will of the king, but at the same time recognized the king’s dependence on and monopoly of virtue. Only the king could ‘match heaven with virtue’, and thus divine and royal power were united in the Zhou tianzi. Of course, no ruler of the exploiting classes could truly possess such virtue. By virtue, we mean both the need to do things properly and the need for rulers to be tolerant and intolerant of others. Once again, ‘virtue’ also has the meaning of moral code. For example, in Shang Shu—Hong Fan, it is said: “And Kang, who was well and colored, said: ‘I am good at virtue.’ You will be blessed. The people of the time are only as good as the emperor.” In other words, if someone tells you in a humble manner that what he likes is the morality you have established (or a person of high moral character), you should reward him with some benefits, so that people will follow the moral code established by the king as the supreme rule. The word ‘virtue’ here clearly has the meaning of a moral code, and I am afraid that the Son of Heaven would not have rewarded someone who did not love the morality or moral code that he advocated. Finally, “virtue” is also a means used by the emperor or noble rulers to influence, manage and rule the common people. The Shang Shu—Hong Fan says: “Use the three virtues”, “one is righteousness, the other is rigidity and the third is softness”. Here, the moral influence, i.e. moral government, is the main thing. This idea of “clear

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virtue and prudent punishment” later became a systematic and complete method of ruling with both virtue and power and with both leniency and fierceness. The Shangshu attaches great importance to virtue. The Shangshu-Zhaoqiu admonishes, “But if you do not respect virtue, you will fall early in your life.” The entire political thought of the Shang Shu can be said to be the implementation of a ruling experience centered on the rule of virtue. In the Shang Shu there is a text called Hong Fan, the whole of which recounts the advice given to King Zhou of Yin when he visited his uncle Minzi after the destruction of the Shang. According to the book, “Hong” means “great”, and “Fan” means “law”. Fan (范) means “law”. The word “Hong Fan” means the fundamental law. In ancient times, law meant statute and regulation. Since the Hong Fan was handed down by Minzi, it is of great importance to our understanding of the moral concepts and ethical doctrines of the ruling class of the Yin or early Zhou dynasty. The traditional view of the date of the Hong Fan is that it is a political document from the early Western Zhou. Some people have questioned its late appearance, suggesting that it may have been developed during the Warring States period. Since the Hong Fan is quoted several times in Zuo Zhuan, it must have appeared at least before the middle of the Spring and Autumn period. In any case, the fact that it expresses the moral thinking of the slave-owning class of the Shang and Zhou dynasties is certain. The author of the Hong Fan divided what he considered to be the Great Law, the most important norms, into nine areas, also known as the Nine Categories of the Hong Fan, which consisted mainly of the theological worldview of idealism, the political laws and moral norms and requirements for the maintenance of the slave hierarchy. What are the “Nine Categories of the Hong Fan”? The Hong Fan says: first, “the five elements”, second, “respect for the five things”, third, “agriculture and the eight governments”, fourth, “the five disciplines”, fifth, “the use of the empire”, sixth, “the use of the three virtues”, and seventh, “the use of the brightness and the doubt”. The nine categories are: ‘Use the five blessings, use the six extremes of power’. Of these nine categories, the following are related to ethical thinking: Firstly, “respect the use of five things”. In other words, a person (mainly a member of the ruling class) should carefully consider five aspects in dealing with others in the world: “First, appearance, second, speech, third, sight, fourth, hearing, and fifth, thought. Appearance is respectful, speech is obedient, sight is clear, hearing is intelligent, and thinking is wise. The respectful for the suave, from , Ming for the philosophical, Cong for the strategy, Rui for the sage.” This means that one should pay attention to attitude, two to language, three to observation, four to hearing, and five to thinking. The attitude should be respectful, the language should be obedient (reasonable), the observation should be clear and understandable, the listening should be clever, and the thinking should be thorough. If you are respectful, you will be able to take things seriously; if you are obedient, the world will be governed; if you observe things thoroughly and clearly, you will not be deceived; if you listen to advice wisely, you will be wise; and if you are sensible and reasonable, you will meet the requirements of a sage (you will become a saint).

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Secondly, “to establish the use of the imperial pole”. Huang is the king. The ultimate, the supreme rule. The phrase “to establish and use the imperial pole” means that the principle established by the Son of Heaven is supreme. What exactly is this supreme principle? The Hong Fan says: “Huangji: the emperor builds up the ultimate, collects the five blessings of the time, and uses them to give the common people a good deal of attention. But when the people are in the extreme, they are in the extreme. The emperor is the only one who can make the ultimate. Where the people of the earth are capable of doing, doing, and keeping, thou shalt remember them. If you do not agree with the extreme, if you do not suffer from blame, the emperor will accept it. And when he is well, he will say, ‘I am good in virtue.’ Then thou shalt be blessed. And the people of the time were only the best of the emperor.” Because this passage is ancient, concise and profound, later generations have had different interpretations of this supreme principle. In the vernacular, we translate the passage as follows: The Son of Heaven should establish the supreme principle of pooling the five kinds of happiness and rewarding them all together to his subjects. In this way, the subjects will embrace the principles established by the Son of Heaven. At the same time, the Son of Heaven will be able to demand that his subjects observe the principle that no one who is a subject is allowed to form a private party to commit misdeeds. As long as people do not form private parties, they will take the principles established by the Son of Heaven as their highest principles. All subjects should think and act for the Son of Heaven, and should hold themselves to the principles established by the Son of Heaven, bearing this in mind. Although the actions of the subjects sometimes fall short of the highest principles, the Son of Heaven should be lenient with them as long as they do not reach the level of sin. In this way, the moral code established by the Son of Heaven was to be observed as the supreme rule. It follows that the so-called imperial pole, the supreme principle, is the supreme norm of morality and law that is adapted to the requirements of the ruler’s interests. Here the norms of the law and the moral demands of the ruler on his subjects are united in one. Thirdly, “use the three virtues”. The Hong Fan says: “The three virtues are integrity, rigidity and softness. Ping Kang uprightness, strong Fuyou just grams, Xie You soft grams. The three virtues are uprightness, rigidity and flexibility. He is the only one who can make blessings, the only one who can make power, and the only one who can make food. There is no such thing as blessing, power or food. If I do, I will harm my family and my country. The people are so isolated that they are unlawful.” This means that there are three ways of governing the people: one is to be able to correct the integrity of the people, the other is to win by virtue, and the third is to win by virtue. In order for the state to be peaceful, it is necessary to correct the integrity of the people. Those who are too tough to be close to must be suppressed with firmness; those who are close to must be treated with gentleness. The lowly must be suppressed, but the noble must be treated with gentleness. Only the Son of Heaven has the right to give happiness to people, only the Son of Heaven can give punishment, only the Son of Heaven can eat good food. A vassal has no right to give happiness, no right to give punishment, no right to eat good food; otherwise, he will bring harm to your royal family and harm to your country. And men will thus depart from the ways of the king, and little people will thus commit crimes.

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“Although the Three Virtues were political techniques for governing the state and its subjects, they also expressed the ethical views of the rulers of the time. It is clear that the “righteousness” of the ruler was to correct the wrongs of the world by means of moral and legal norms that were in the interests of the ruler. If the ruler’s interests and norms are met, the situation is ‘straight’; if not, the situation is ‘crooked’, and the ‘crookedness’ must be corrected in order to return to ‘straightness’.” The ruler rides on the head of the people and makes a fool of them. It was only right that the ruler should ride over the people and do what was right; the slightest misdemeanor by the untouchables would be a treason. That the moral values of the ruling class are derived entirely from their immediate interests is extremely clear. The moral codes and judgements of the ruling class are entirely self-serving, and this is not disguised in any way. The ideas of “rigidity” and “softness” reflect the class nature of morality. The “soft” way is not suitable for mediating between the rulers and the untouchables, but only for the “wise”, for mediating within the ruling class. Fourthly, “The five blessings are used in the direction of the six extremes of power”, which is the ninth category in the Hong Fan. This is the ninth category in the Hong Fan. The Hong Fan says: “The five blessings are longevity, wealth, health and tranquillity, good virtue, and final life. The six extremes are: one is bad luck, shortage and fracture, two is illness, three is worry, four is poverty, five is evil, and six is weakness.” This means that the five kinds of happiness are: first, longevity, second, prosperity, third, peace without disease, fourth, virtue, and fifth, a long life and a good death. The six punishments are: one is to die early and not to die well, two is to be sickly, three is to be sad, four is to be poor, five is to be ugly, and six is to be weak. It is clear from this that ‘fortune’ means happiness. As far back as 11 the century BC, Chinese statesmen and thinkers had already paid much attention to the study of happiness, and had considered it in terms of the two opposing aspects of good and evil, misfortune and happiness. In the West, Thoreau, who lived between the 7 centuries B.C.E. and B6. C.E., had a systematic explanation of happiness that had an important influence in the West. Thoreau’s interpretation is largely the same as that of the Huntsman. Happiness, as Thoreau calls it, consists of the following: (a1) having moderate wealth; (b2) not being physically crippled and free from disease; (c3) not being subject to any misfortune or misfortune and always being able to be happy; (d4) having good children and grandchildren; and (e5) being able to have a good death. By way of comparison, we can see that the ‘five blessings’ described in the Hong Fan are basically the same as Thoreau’s interpretation of happiness. However, unlike the ancient Chinese thinkers who emphasized longevity first and wealth second, Thoreau’s interpretation of happiness is different. More importantly, the ancient Chinese thinkers saw “you are good at virtue” as an important aspect of happiness, i.e., the love of virtue and the desire for a noble spiritual life as a form of happiness, whereas Thoreau, a Western thinker of several centuries later, did not include this in his explanation of happiness. This shows that moral thinking in ancient China was somewhat more profound than in the West. The interpretation of ‘blessing’ or happiness means not only personal happiness but also the welfare of the subjects. As the Hong Fan emphasizes, “Only the blessings

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of the king are to be restored, and only the prestige of the king is to be restored, and only the food of the king is to be restored. There is no such thing as blessing, prestige or food. If a minister has any blessing, prestige or food, it will be harmful to his family and harmful to his state.” It can also be seen from the Shang Shu that filial piety was already given an important place as a moral code, in keeping with the patriarchal system that had developed in the society of the time. From the very beginning, the Shang Shu places great importance on filial piety. According to the Yao Canon, Yao said to the lords of the four directions, “I have reigned for seventy years, which of you can replace me?” The lords replied, “Our virtue is so humble that we are not worthy of the throne of the Son of Heaven.” Later, Yao was told that there was a man who was in a difficult situation among the people and had not yet married, whose name was Yu Shun. Yao asked, “What is his virtue?” The lords said, “Yu Shun is the son of goze. His father was not rightminded, his mother was a liar, and his brother, named Xiang, was arrogant, but Shun managed to get along with them, and by his filial piety he was able to convince them that his family was in good hands, so that they all changed their ways and did not become wicked.” Yao said, “Then I will put him to the test!” So he gave Shun his two daughters as wives and asked him to handle government affairs. The result proved that Shun was indeed a very virtuous man. Yao was so pleased with him that he passed on the throne to him. During the Zhou dynasty, filial piety was not only strongly advocated by the ruler as a moral code, but its implementation was also protected by law. In the Shang Shu—Letters of Kang, the Duke of Zhou admonishes Kang Shu: Feng is a great evil and an enemy, but he is unfilial and unfriendly. If a son does not obey his father, he will be hurt; if a father does not have a son, he will be sick of his son; if a brother does not think of the heavenly manifestation, he will not respect his brother; if a brother does not think of the sorrow of his son, he will be unfriendly to his brother. He did not think of his brother, nor did he think of his son’s sorrow, nor was he friendly to his brother. But he did not offend our rulers, and the heavens were in chaos with our people. He said: “It is the King of Wen who will punish you quickly, and there will be no pardon for the punishment.” This passage says: “Feng” (Kang Shu)! The kind of person who commits the greatest crimes is the one who is not filial and friendly. A son who does not respectfully do what his father asks him to do makes his father very sad; a father who does not love his son hates his son; a brother who does not consider the authority of heaven does not treat his brother with respect; a brother who does not consider the grief of his young brother treats him unkindly. When the people come to such a state of ungratefulness and unfriendliness, they do not come to us as rulers to confess their sins, so that the great law which God has given us to rule the people is seriously undermined. You should then kill them immediately according to these sins and in accordance with the law of the land. It is clear from this that filial piety and respect for one’s parents and brothers were not only important moral codes, but were also protected by law. The Zhou, unlike the Yin, were more liberal in their use of punishment. The death penalty was not imposed lightly on those who committed a major crime, even if they did not intend to do so. However, those who

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were ungrateful and unfriendly were severely punished. This situation shows that the slave system, which was bound by blood clans, had to pay attention to the moral code of filial piety in order to maintain its survival and stability. In the late Spring and Autumn period, Confucius further elaborated on the importance of filial piety, and the Analects of Confucius explicitly states the idea of filial piety as the root of virtue. The thought of filial piety in the Analects of Confucius was developed from the above-mentioned thought of the Duke of Zhou. In the Shang Shu there is already a description of the moral standards of the ideal political figure, which is arguably the earliest record of the ‘ideal personality’ or ‘moral ideal’ in the history of Chinese thought. The Oath of Qin in the Shang Shu is said to record the misconceptions of Duke Mu of Qin. As a result of his failure to listen to the advice of his minister Jian Shu, the Qin state suffered a crushing defeat in a war. He was painfully aware of the importance of an ideal loyal servant. The Duke of Qin said: “I think of a minister who has no other skills, whose heart is not at rest, and whose heart is as tolerant. A man’s skill is as good as his own, and a man’s heart is as good as his mouth. If we can tolerate them, we can protect our children and our people. If a man is skilled, he will take the risk of being ill, and if a man is holy, he will disobey him so as not to reach him. It is not tolerated, so that we cannot protect our children and grandchildren. The unstable state is said to be caused by one person; the glory of the state is also the celebration of one person.” This passage concentrates on the ideal personality of an official and a politician, the criteria of which are: a person may have no other special skills, but he is faithful and sincere, of high moral character, generous and tolerant. He is not jealous of others’ skills, as if he had them himself; he not only speaks highly of others’ virtues and skills, but he really likes them from the inside. Such a magnanimous person is able to find and recommend talents and use them well for the benefit of his descendants and subjects! A narrow-minded person who is jealous of others and hates them when they have skills, or who suppresses others’ virtues when they have good qualities, so that they are not known to the king, will not be able to ensure the happiness of his subjects. Such a person is dangerous! Here we also come to the conclusion that the state is in danger because the ruler has used the wrong people, and the state is in peace because the ruler has used the right people. It should be said that there is some depth to the discussion of political ethics in the Qin Oath. From the point of view of social governance, it is only when people of the above-mentioned high moral character are selected as officials that the state will be safe, the people will be stable, and the rule will be consolidated. Such a person would not only be able to recommend talents in various fields to the ruler, but would also be able to identify the so-called “holy men” who would set a moral example for society. The term ‘holy’ was no longer a term of respect for the previous king, but referred to a person of high moral character. The morality of political officials, as set out in the Qin Oath, was based solely on the interests of the supreme ruling group, to be loyal and useful to it, and this was the fundamental requirement for the morality of political officials. The idea of the ideal personality of an official and a politician, as contained in the Qin Oath, has had a profound historical impact. It was also quoted in the University of

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the Qin and Han dynasties, and was based on the ethical system of thought established in the University. The ruling class of successive generations also mostly used this idea to admonish their officials in order to maintain their rule more permanently.

2 Ethical Thoughts in Book of Changes I-Ching is also called Book of Changes or Zhou I. It is a book of divination in Zhou Dynasty. The “Divination” here means to predict future developments. In ancient China, diviners would use diagram numbers of certain hexagrams and certain lines to forecast people’s fortune and whether things can go smoothly or not. And I-Ching is a book that summarizes the theory of these predication laws. The book was written around the twelfth century BC, a very early era in China’s history. It contains almost all the aspects of people’s life and society at that time. Thus, I-Ching is an extremely rare and precious historical material not only in China, but also in the world. I-Ching also reflects a lot of political, moral and educational thoughts at that time. Although the reflection is usually fragmentary in contents, using simple words to describe plain thoughts, and always mixed with many superstitious speculations. It’s still helpful for us to understand the social moral situation and ethical thoughts around twelfth century BC, as long as we can make a correct analysis from the perspective of historical materialism. Normally, I-Ching consists of three parts, part one, part two and Ten Wings. The first two parts are original scriptures, while the third part, Ten Wings, is actually the oldest commentary on I-Ching. There is a saying goes: “If a scripture has commentaries, it’s just like a bird has wings.” That’s how Ten Wings got the name. Most scholars believe that the first two parts of I-Ching were completed in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, but Ten Wings was separately written by different authors during the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period. As mentioned above, I-Ching was originally used for divination, it has a total of 64 hexagrams and 384 lines. Each hexagram has 6 lines. Basically, the hexagram is composed of Yin and Yang lines, which are used to illustrate the various changes formed by the interactions between Yin and Yang. When practicing divination, diviners will interpret the certain line and hexagram they get, and then predict the fortune. In the book, the symbol “-” is used to represent Yang, and “–” represents Yin. There are eight kinds of figures evolved from Yin and Yang. Respectively they are: Qian(乾) Kun(坤) Zhen(震) Xun(巽) Kan(坎) Li(离) Gen(艮)

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Dui(兑) Then these eight diagrams are stacked on top of each other to form 64 hexagrams. Each hexagram has its image, name, explanations for hexagrams and lines. Noble actions are always associated with success and good luck in I-Ching, such as: 谦。亨,君子有终。 初六:谦谦君子,用涉大川,吉。 六二:鸣谦,贞吉。 九三:劳谦,君子有终,吉。 六四:无不利, 谦。 六五:不富以其邻,利用侵伐,无不利。 上六:鸣谦,利用行师征邑国。 For the first sentence, “谦” is a name for hexagram, it means humility. “亨” here can be translated as going smoothly, so the explanation of this sentence is: If a gentleman behaves modestly, there will be good results for him. Then talking about the second sentence, “谦谦” is cautious, while “Ji” also means good results. Thus, the whole sentence means with the attitude of cautious, gentlemen will surely pass through the dangers of crossing the great river. The third sentence can be explained as if one person is famous and humble, he will have good luck. In this sentence “鸣” equals famous, and “贞” is another saying of divination. In the fourth sentence, “劳” refers to merits in ancient China, so the real meaning of this sentence is if one person keeps humble with much merits, he will have good results in his actions. The next sentence has a word “ ”, which is the synonym of “挥”. “挥” is explained as working hard in Shuowen, so the sentence is telling us we need to be humble and hardworking, then everything will be fine. “You are poor because of your neighbor country” means if your property has been plundered by neighbor countries, then they are the criminal ones, you can gather an army with justice and win the wars. Finally, the last sentence can be translated as if one country is mighty but not arrogant, then the country will be unconquerable when fighting with vassal states. To conclude, hexagram “Qian” divides humility into three categories, be famous and humble, be meritorious and humble, be hardworking and humble. Through the partition, it can be seen that ancient Chinese people already had a clear and deep awareness of moral behavior. They also had the ability to generalize these behaviors, and further connected moral modesty with smooth actions. On the other hand, IChing regards modesty as the premise of good luck, or in another words, people in ancient China believed that modest persons will surely have good luck. This kind of perspective also reflects their superstition, to some extent. In addition to the “Qian” hexagram, ethical thoughts are also evolved in “Heng”, “Song” and “Jie” hexagrams. For example, the “Heng” hexagram talks about constancy of virtue, the “Song” hexagram involves loyalty and morality, and the “Jie” hexagram also mentions frugality. Despite the massive analysis we did on

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hexagram names and explanations for hexagrams and lines, we still believe that further research on I-Ching’s ethic thoughts is needed. We observed the word “De” for so many times in I-Ching. Its meaning is moral behavior, moral quality and moral evaluation. The “Yi” hexagram says: “有孚惠 心,勿问元吉,有孚惠我德。”. The meaning of this sentence is: If we have captives, comfort them with good words not material treatments, then captives will respect my virtue. The word “孚” here means captives, but there is also another explanation for this word, that is trustworthy. Thus, the meaning of the whole sentence will be: If I am trusted by people, they will believe in my morality. We cannot decide which version of the translation is correct. However, the thing we want to highlight here is that in both versions, the word “De” clearly shows the meaning of individual morality. Besides, in the “Song” hexagram, there is also a say goes: “食旧德,贞厉,终吉。或 从王事,无成”. The word “De (德)” refers to the inherent morality, not the personal one, but the morality required by the society, or in other words, the ruling class at that time. It is clearly stated here that if one can cultivate the inherent virtue, even though the divination is dangerous, there will be a good result in the end. Last but not least, we can also see the concept of “De” in the “Heng” hexagram. “不恒其德,或承之羞,贞吝。”, this sentence says if people cannot maintain their own morality for a long time, they will definitely be humiliated by others and then lead to difficulties. Therefore, if divination shows this hexagram, the results will be misery. Another saying is: “恒其德,贞,妇人吉,夫子凶。” The general explanation of this saying is women need to follow her husband as righteousness. This is her way of maintaining virtue for a long time and there will be good luck. The explanation may not be clear enough, but it also highlights the importance of “maintain one’s morality”, so it’s acceptable. The concepts of “big shot”, “gentlemen” and “villain” also appears a lot of times in I-Ching. After analysis, we can easily find that people at that time had a clear distinction between political ideals and moral ideals. For example, they regarded “big shot” as a alternative name of those powerful and influential people, and “gentlemen” as a name of those men with noble morality. According to our statistics, “big shot” was mentioned for 13 times in I-Ching, all of which refer to powerful persons, while “gentlemen” was mentioned for 20 times, all of which refer to moral persons. Therefore, based on the original text we can say that “big shot” is people in power, but he maybe immoral (of course he can be a moral person too), and the situation with “gentlemen” is totally the opposite. In general, it’s more appropriate to interpret “big shot” as powerful people, and “gentlemen” as people of virtue. In order to distinguish “big shot” and “gentlemen” in a clearer way, we can do a further reading on the first hexagram “Qian” of I-Ching. 乾。元,亨,利,贞。 初九:潜龙,勿用。 九二:见龙在田,利见大人。 九三:君子终日乾乾,夕惕若,厉无咎。 九四:或跃在渊,无咎。 九五:飞龙在天,利见大人。

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上九:亢龙,有悔。 用九:见群龙无首,吉 By analyzing these sentences, we can easily understand that “big shot” refers to influential people. Take the third and sixth sentences as examples, they all mentioned “大人” (big shot). The meaning of the third sentence is: if a dragon appears in the open fields, there will be good luck for people who see the dragon. The dragon here is a metaphor for big shot. Thus “a dragon appears in the open fields” refers to a powerful person comes to the populace’s place. If you got this line, it’s suitable for you to visit noble persons. Similarly, the sixth sentence says about a dragon flies really high in the sky, which indicates that one person will be successful in his career, so when somebody get this line, he will have a good chance to be promoted when going to visit a big shot. However, when it comes to the “gentlemen”, the statements are totally different. In “Qian” hexagram there is a saying goes like: “君子终日乾乾,夕惕若,厉无咎 。” It means: a virtuous gentlemen will be strict with himself, being diligent and introspective every day. By doing this, even if he is in a dangerous situation, he will be safe and sound. (乾乾Qianqian: means work hard without feeling tired, 惕 Ti: means beware). Another saying in “否” (Fou) hexagram says: “否之匪人,不利君子 贞,大往小来。” According to Shiwen, the word “否” (Fou) means being hoodwinked. That is to say, if villains hoodwink other people, the situation will not be favorable for gentlemen. The sentence is talking about an obvious social issue at that time. Apart from the explanations we mentioned above for “big shot” and “gentlemen”, some people think that the “big shot” in I-Ching refers to the nobles, and “gentlemen” refers to the emperors, dukes and ministers. In our opinion, this explanation is not preferable. Back to the topic of “gentlemen”, what kinds of virtue should gentlemen have? Except the moralities we mentioned above, such as humility, frugality, diligence and making friend with worthy people, gentlemen also need to have the virtue of trustworthiness. The hexagram “Zhongfu” in I-Ching says: “有孚挛如,无咎”, it means if one keeps his word and stick to this virtue, then there will be no disaster in his future. And hexagram “Weiji” says: “贞吉,无悔。君子之光有孚,吉。” The commentary for I-Ching explained “孚”(fu) as trustworthiness, so the whole sentence means the glory of a gentleman lies in the faithfulness of his words and deeds, that’s why he can have good luck. One thing to highlight is, the word “孚”(fu) has two interpretations, it has the meanings of captives and trustworthiness. In addition, “gentlemen” should also have the virtue of not coveting wealth and power. In “Dun” hexagram, the author said that: “好遯,君子吉,小人否。” The word “遯” means to retire. In another words, gentlemen don’t chase for wealth and power. They tend to retire early, and then luckily, they avoid calamities. Yet villains tend to do the opposite things, that’s why they don’t end well. The “Dun” hexagram not only shows that gentlemen should not be greedy for money and official positions, but also further proves that our definitions for “big shot” and “gentlemen” mentioned above are correct. Beside the emphasis on people’s basic moral qualities, the author of I-Ching attached great importance to the significance of “观”(Guan) in moral. In I-Ching,

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“观”(Guan) has the meanings of “observe” and “examine”. The “Guan” hexagram mentions both the observation towards objective things and the observation towards oneself and others. In the “Guan” hexagram, there are also many sentences that mentioned the word “观”(Guan), for instance, “童观,小人无咎,君子吝”, “观我 生,进、退”, “观我生,君子无咎”, “观其生,君子无咎”. In the first sentence, “童 观”(Tong Guan) refers to a naive and simple observation. “Such kind of observation do no harm to villains, but it will cause trouble to gentlemen and make them fall into a difficult situation.” This is what the whole sentence want to express. On the other hand, when it comes to the interpretations of the second and third sentences, there do exist some divergence in the academic circle. The main disagreement lie on how to interpret “观我生” and “观其生”. In a common sense, scholars tend to interpret the word “生”(Sheng) as people or officials. According to this interpretation, the second sentence means the emperor needs to examine his people and officials regularly, then he can know if he has appointed the capable officials. Similarly, the third sentence tells the emperor to observe other countries’ people and officials regularly, so that he can know whether his governance is appropriate or not, and then avoid the man-made calamity. However, the word “生”(Sheng) can also be explained as grow or progress. The reason why a gentlemen can have no mistakes is that he can notice the growth of himself and others, and draw lessons from the process to improve his moral quality and intelligence. We can also find many arguments in I-Ching which support this explanation. Based on this interpretation, the meanings of those sentences will be changed into: If one can examine himself regularly, he will know when to advance and when to retreat. If one can observe others’ life-courses regularly in order to distinguish good and evil, then he will be free from mistakes. In this sense, both of the two sentences have the same meaning as “君子终日乾乾,夕惕若,厉无咎”, which is the sentence we mentioned above. Interestingly, the mindset of “observing my life” and “observing others’ life” has caused an important influence to the ethical thoughts in later era. We can easily find the well-known dictum said by Zeng Zi in Chapter Xue er of Confucian Analects: “吾日三省吾身:为人谋而不忠乎?与朋友交而不信乎? 传不习乎?” (Every day I examine myself on these three points: in acting on behalf of others, have I always been loyal to their interests? In intercourse with my friends, have I always been true to my word? Have I failed to repeat the precepts that have been handed down to me?) The idea in this saying is actually a further development for “observing my life”. At the same time, Confucian’s saying of “见贤思齐焉,见 不贤而内自省也” (When we meet with men of worth, we should think how we may equal them. When we meet with worthless men, we should turn into ourselves and find out if we do not resemble them.) in Confucian Analects: Chapter Liren is derived from “observing others’ life”. I-Ching had an significant influence on Confucius’ mind. He used to say: “Let me live a few more years to 50 years old, then I can learn I-Ching and make no major mistakes.” (From Confucian Analects: Chapter Shu er) The reason why he said so is because Confucius viewed I-Ching as a very important book related to morality. According to the Historical Records: the Biography of Confucius, in Confucius’ later years, he was so fond of reading I-Ching that he broke the cowhide ropes that wore the bamboo slips of the book many times. This story should be a real fact based

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on history, rather than a general compliment. Confucius once compiled I-Ching and used it as a textbook for moral education for his disciples. Therefore, it’s natural for him to attache much importance on I-Ching.

3 Ethical Thoughts in Book of Songs The Classic of Poetry was regarded as one of the Five Classics as early as Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. The poems in it date from around the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period. The poems in the Classic of Poetry are divided into three categories: Airs, Court Hymns, Eulogy, and comprise a total of 305 poems, known as the 300 Poems. The book gives a clear and profound description of social relations and social phenomena from the beginning of the Western Zhou to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, covering about 500 years, from politics, economics, customs, and morality. Moral relations, an essential aspect of social relations between people, are an indispensable element reflected in the Classic of Poetry. Although some of the material in the Classic of Poetry does not directly address moral issues, it is an essential reference for our study of moral concepts and ethical doctrines in early China. Although the Classic of Poetry is a collection of poems assembled, collated, and redacted by the ruling class and its literati, and in many places, it reflects the thinking of the ruling class, it is still an expression of the thoughts and feelings of the working people. In a certain sense, we can say that because this collection of poems reflects the various aspects of people’s social life in a more realistic way which provides a clear assessment of the various social phenomena of the time, offering criticism of horror, brutality, and cunning, and expressing praise for integrity, kindness, beauty, hard work and faithfulness. It is also an educational material for dealing with the world. The Classic of Poetry does not state what moral principles people should observe among themselves, nor does it systematically set out any moral code but incorporates excellent and evil in its literature and art and paints a realistic and vivid picture of moral relations among people and social, moral phenomena in the form of poetry. Everyone who reads it can learn from it, cultivate their temperament, and achieve the goal of adjusting the various relationships between people in society at that time. The book’s purpose is to regulate the relations between people in the culture of the time. Like the Books of Chow, the Classic of Poetry treats ‘morality’ primarily as a noble quality possessed only by the sons of heaven or nobility. The poem ‘Major Court Hymns’ in the Classic of Poetry is thought to date from the early years of Western Zhou, and many of its verses directly reflect the moral qualities of the ruler and ‘morality.’ The poem ‘Wen Wang’ celebrates King Wen of the Zhou. He is not only said to have been ordained by God to rule the country but also to have been a ruler who was able to convince people with his virtue. The Da Ming says: ‘This great and wise ruler was careful to be respectful and humble. He served the heavens diligently and brought us countless blessings. His virtues were bright and open, so

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he bore his ancestral lineage as king.’ This means that King Wen, who was careful and prudent, knew how to serve God and could obtain blessings; he never violated his virtues and was, therefore, able to gain the trust of the nations. In addition, the word ‘morality’ is found in many passages such as ‘Wen Wang,’ ‘Da Ming,’ ‘Si Qi,’ ‘Huang Sui,’ and ‘Ha Wu,’ all of which have this meaning. The ‘morality’ of the nobility, in particular, played an essential role in the stability of the social order and the consolidation of the ruling class’s power. In the Classic of Poetry, the poem ‘to know filial piety is to have morality’ admonishes people to be respectful and virtuous. The Zhou Song—Min Yu Xiao Zi is also said: ‘Sighing at the greatness of my late father, I have been filial throughout my life,’ believes that the greatest virtue is always to be able to practice filial piety. The greatest virtue of all is always to carry filial piety. In the Da Ya—Ha Wu, they further said: ‘Even King Cheng is convincing and a good example. The virtues of filial piety and obedience to the ancestors are long-lasting, and the king’s virtues are long-lasting.’ The idea of filial piety is a moral law that people should abide by. It is clear from the Classic of Poetry that filial piety was already the most important code of conduct in society at the time, the earliest moral requirement in the form of a legend. With filial piety as a basic rule, this moral philosophy reflected the economic and political nature of the clan system of the time. The Zhou dynasty was a class society where enslaved people opposed enslavers. The ideology and moral values of society were divided into two mutually antagonistic forms. It is valuable that in addition to expressing and celebrating the moral qualities of the ruling class, there are also poems in the Books of Chow that reflect the moral values and ideology of the working people. In Odes of Wei—Fa Tan, a verse reads: ‘Why do you bring home three hundred harvests when you do not sow or reap? Why do you have pigs and badgers hanging in your courtyard when you do not hunt in winter or at night? Those officials and gentlemen do eat for nothing.’ This last sentence, in particular, highlights the fact that the so-called ‘moral’ noble lords in power are parasites who do not work and eat for nothing. The gentleman here refers to a virtuous person among the reigning nobles. The moral values of the oppressed and exploited working people were fundamentally different from those of the nobles. The so-called honest members of the aristocracy used the working people as cruelly as the other aristocrats and were therefore not truly righteous. The Shuo Shu goes further: ‘Vole, vole, don’t eat the wheat I grow! I have served you so hard for many years, but you have not treated me well. I vowed to get rid of you and to go to the land of love and mercy. O, the land of love and mercy is where I belong!’ The working people compare the noble lords who exploit them to the rats who steal their food and yearn for ‘the land of love and mercy’ free from oppression and exploitation. Some of the poems in the Classic of Poetry are, on the one hand, against the corruption of the noble lords. On the other hand, the lyrics promote the idea of enjoying a timely and restrained practice of pleasure. The poem in the Odes of Tang– Xi Shuai says: ‘The cricket enters the hall in the cold of the day, and the year is fast approaching its end. If we do not seek pleasure in the time, the days and months will not last. You must not overdo it, but do not delay your duty. The wise and virtuous

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people are more alert to this.’ This poem advocates that we should live in a time and not let time go by in vain. But it also reminds people will be condemned if they overdo it and forget their proper business. This idea of ‘enjoying happiness in time’ but in moderation contains the philosophy that what goes around comes around. Most of the views that advocate pleasure are the views of the exploiting classes. The first hedonistic view of life in the history of Chinese ethical thought came from the Book of Songs, which played an essential role in developing later ethical thinking. The Classic of Poetry did not explain how and in what ways to enjoy oneself. During the Warring States period, the book of Lieh Tzu—Yang Zhu developed the view of fun in the Classic of Poetry and formed a complete and systematic theory of enjoyment. The Classic of Poetry has a significant proportion of content reflecting men and women’s love lives and morals. In the Airs of the States—Zhou Nan—Guan Ju, ‘The waterfowl that chirps Guan inhabits the sandbar in the river. A good and beautiful girl is a good mate for a good man.’ This poem is not only beautiful in its lyrics but, more importantly, reflects the poet’s elegant and noble sentiments. The poem as a whole is a source of beauty and goodness. The match of a moral and talented man should be with a beautiful and virtuous girl, as the beautiful, kind-hearted girl by the river is exactly the kind of partner that a gentleman desires. It is evident that in ancient times, love between a man and a woman was not only about the beauty of the object but also about the beauty of the heart, that is, about the nobility of character. In the Odes of Bei, a poem entitled Lv Yi says: ‘Green silk thread, green silk thread, is sewn by your own hands. I think of what my deceased virtuous wife did so that I usually have fewer faults.’ The poem is about the poet himself seeing his wife’s green silk dress, which she had made during her lifetime, and thinking of her. The author remembers that his wife was a hard-working and upright person, and he rarely made mistakes under her supervision. He, therefore, mourns her with great sorrow. The poem is a sorrowful and lingering reflection of the husband and wife’s loyal and steadfast love. The verse Odes of Yong—Bo Zhou says: ‘The cypress boat is drifting along the riverbank. The young man with his hair and eyebrows is the one I adore. I will not change my mind until I die. My God, my mother! I don’t trust his heart!’ The lyrics celebrate the sincere relationship between a man and a woman and complain about the lack of freedom of marriage in society at the time. The Classic of Poetry is not only a celebration of faithful love between a man and a woman but also a scolding of immorality in relationships and families. The poem Odes of Bei—Ri Yue says: ‘Sun and moon, you rise from the east every day. I respect you as my father, I love you as my mother, but you do not repay me with kindness. How did things come to this? You have not received a good end!’ This poem describes the resentment and anger felt by the woman because of the abuse she received from her husband. The verse Odes of Wei—Meng says: ‘three years after marriage, I have kept my wife’s ways. I have not hesitated to do heavy housework. I rise early and sleep late, not mind the hardships, and I am busy.’ The poem is about a working woman and a farmer who fall in love, get married and live together in poverty for several years. Later, as their family gets better off, her husband becomes more overbearing and ruder to her. The older she gets, the more he mistreats her. The poem depicts the sadness of a woman who has lost her husband’s love and is

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subjected to his abuse. The verse condemns the bad behavior of some men who treat their wives with ill intentions and duplicity. The poem Odes of Wang—Zhong Gu has a Leon’ says: ‘A woman has been abandoned, and her heart is sour with prolonged panting and short sighing. A woman is abandoned, and her heart is sore.’ This is a description of a woman forsaken and displaced after marrying an immoral man. She is left with no one to turn to and is devastated. The poem expresses deep sympathy for the woman’s plight. The Books of Chow relentlessly exposes and satirizes the immoral family life of the ruling class. The three poems in Odes of Qi, entitled Nan Shan,2 Bi Gou,3 and Zai Qu,4 all expose the scandalous affair of Duke Xiang of Qi, who fornicated with his half-sister Wen Jiang. The Odes of Bei—Xin Tai5 reveals and depicts the shady occupation of his daughter-in-law by Duke Wei Xuan. The poems on love, marriage, and family life in the Books of Chow reflect the moral values of the ancient Chinese people, especially the working people, who were upright and pure. These ideas influenced later Chinese ethical concepts about marriage relationships.

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‘If she was married, why did she follow him?’. ‘Wen Jiang married to Lu and returned to Qi with many servants along the way.’ 4 ‘Wen Jiang returns to Qi and is free to do as she pleases.’ 5 ‘Setting a net to catch a fish, only to find a toad in it.’ 3

Chapter 3

Founder of Confucianism–Confucius’s Ethical Thought with “Benevolence” as the Core

1 The Life of Confucius and the Historical Background Confucius was a native of the state of Lu at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. He was born in the 22nd year of the Duke of Lu (551 BC) and died in the 16th year of the Duke of Ai (479 BC). Confucius was born into a declining noble family. According to the Book of Rites—Tangong Part 1, Confucius described himself as a man of Yin, ‘meaning he was a descendant of the Yin merchants. The fourth generation of Confucius’ ancestor, FuJia Kong, was a nobleman of the state of Song and served as the Grand Secretary of State, holding the military power of Song. Later, he was killed in a political struggle, and his son, Confucius’ great-grandfather, moved to the state of Lu. Confucius’ father, Shuliang He, was an elderly commandant of the local Lu garrison. Confucius’ mother was Yan Zhengzai. After his father’s death, Confucius’ mother took him and moved him to the central capital of the state of Lu (now Qufu in Shandong). In the Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian says: ‘Confucius was born out of wedlock between Shu Lianghe and a woman named Yan,’ ‘After Confucius was born, Shu Lianghe died and was buried in Mount Fang. Confucius did not know where his father’s grave was, and his mother did not want to tell him. ‘After Confucius’ mother died, she stopped the bier at the quay of the five fathers and did not bury it out prudence. His father’s mother, who had been buried in the village, told Confucius where his father’s grave was located, and Confucius went and buried his mother with his father on Mount Fang’. What is the meaning of the phrase ‘born out of wedlock’? Why did Confucius’s mother hide her husband’s grave from her son for so long during his lifetime? These questions have been debated throughout history. In any case, Confucius’ early years were unfortunate. His family was reduced from nobility to commoners, and he and his widowed mother lived in miserable conditions. Confucius himself said, ‘I lived a difficult life as a child so that I would do such menial work.’ (Analects of Confucius—Tsze Han). Confucius experienced the hardships and

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poverty of the world in his early childhood, and this can be said to be a social root of his later thinking of ‘benevolence.’ Confucius lived at a time when slavery in China was disintegrating, and new feudal relations of production were beginning to take shape. From the end of the Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period, the period was the first cultural climax in ancient China. The political and economic developments and the emergence of a hundred schools of thought contributed to the development of artistic thought and theory, especially the development of ethical and moral reflection. Confucius was the first thinker of this time and the last thinker of the previous era. He has a historical position in the history of thought as a pioneer and a successor. As a young man, Confucius was a minor official in the state of Lu, managing the granaries and tending the cattle and sheep. Later, he specialized in the rites and rituals of ancient times as he learned to conduct weddings and funerals for the nobility. He also recruited students and founded a school of Confucianism that focused on the study and propagation of the rules and ethics of the slave-owning class. In his middle age, Confucius was a member of the Imperial Court of Lu and was also a member of the Imperial Court of Lu. In his later years, he devoted himself to education and the compilation of classical texts to systematically explain and disseminate his teachings. Lu was the fiefdom of Duke Dan of Zhou and the cultural centre of slavery at the time as it preserved a rich collection of Zhou classics and a complete system of cultural relics. Confucius delved into the sophisticated moral and political thought of the slave system and became a thinker who had a significant influence on future generations because he was educated in the rites and morals of the Zhou dynasty from a young age. The end of the Spring and Autumn period was a time of intense social change in China. The use of iron tools and the promotion of oxen plowing led to the further development of agricultural production. Progress in social productivity made it possible for the individual show to take place on a household basis, thus creating the conditions for new feudal relations to dominate the system of social relations. The class struggle of the enslaved people against their masters was decisive in the disintegration and collapse of slavery and contributed to the reform of the new landowning class. Under slavery, the enslaved person was a talking instrument without any freedom, bound to work every day in the enslaver’s square fields. The enslaved people were forced to rebel against their masters’ cruel oppression and exploitation. Some enslaved people destroyed farming tools, others fled to the mountains, and others gathered in revolts. The flight of enslaved people and the rebellions destroyed the nine squares system and changed the relations of production in slavery. Some small and medium-sized enslavers began to use new exploitation methods—they gathered fugitive slaves and made them work the land in large numbers, then collected rents. In this way, social relations and class structures gradually changed, giving rise to a new feudal class. The feudal landowning class adopted more progressive methods of production, which greatly liberated the productive forces. As a result, runaway slaves came to work on the landowners’ fields. In this way, the landowners’ economic power proliferated and became increasingly important in social production.

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The economic power of the emerging landowning class led to a political struggle to take dominion over the slave-owning class. In 594 BC, the state of Lu, where Confucius was born, introduced a system of taxation on private land and recognized the legitimacy of private ownership of land, providing a legal basis for the further gathering of enslaved people to reclaim the land. The Jisun, Shusun, and Monsun clans were the first to develop. In 561 BC (10 years before the birth of Confucius), Jisun, Shusun, and Monsun divided up the ruler’s land, enslaved people, and property. After 25 more years, they divided the kingdom into four. Ji Sun received two shares, while Shu Sun and Meng Sun each received one share, and the taxation system was applied to all of them. However, the slave-owning aristocrats were not satisfied with this failure, and they joined forces to regain the power they had lost. During the Spring and Autumn period, there were severe conflicts between powerful clans and the Office and annexations between lords and vassals and between powerful clans. It was the violent social upheaval that led to the collapse of slavery. The feudal system was thus gradually established. The political and economic struggles were fierce, and so was the battle over ethical ideas. People of different classes and factions have tried to find their basis in morality and use it to achieve their political ambitions to achieve their political aims. Moral relations between people are an aspect of their social relations. They are very much a constraint on the collective behavior, the individual and the individual, and other relations between the individual and society. The ancient Chinese thinkers paid particular attention to the relationship between ethics and politics. They believed that it was in the interests of the ruling class to summarize the moral relationships between people and elevate them to a theoretical level, and then outline a set of principles that would serve the interests of the ruling class to maintain the social order of the time and to serve their style better. On this basis, the various ethical ideas of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods emerged. It is worth pointing out that although slavery and feudalism are two different social forms with other characteristics, they have many standard links. Both social forms were characterized by a hierarchy of patriarchal clans in the particular historical conditions of China. Although enslaved people became peas enslaved and gained relative personal freedom in feudal society, they were still dependent on the feudal landlord. Strict hierarchical rules almost equally defined society as a whole. In enslaved people and feudal societies, a person acquired specific rights and duties by being a member of a particular class and having a certain status. Within the particular case of the patriarchal clan, ethics between father and son, ruler and subject, brother and wife, and friends in both enslaved person and feudal societies could apply both to general principles and certain essential norms. The distinction between these two social systems is still apparent today. But for many thinkers in antiquity, the difference was not so clear. They were dimly aware that the two systems were different. However, they sometimes defended the aristocratic rule of the enslavers and sometimes defended the emerging feudal system concerning specific political events and struggles for power. This was especially true for some of the more progressive and enlightened thinkers of the slave-owning class. They had aspirations for reform and were more complex in their thinking to better defend the hierarchy they aspired to.

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At a time of significant political, economic and ideological, and cultural change, Confucius stood up for the ruling class’s interests, taking into account the five elements of social stability, interpersonal harmony, political integrity, national unity, and the improvement of people’s moral qualities. Whether in his initial career or founding a school to educate, he was keen to promote his ideas and theories to realize his social and political ideals. He wanted to maintain the rule of his time, but at the same time, he demanded the improvement and even innovation of the unreasonable. On the one hand, he wanted to “adopt the rites and norms of the Zhou dynasty,” but on the other hand, he wanted a commonwealth society in which there would be “a fair and reasonable distribution of wealth and no poverty.” Confucius emphasized the importance of ethics and morality in regulating relations between people and the importance of benevolence and love for others. He advocated that ‘to restrain oneself and restore rites is benevolence’ and that ‘rites’ were a set of political institutions, moral codes, and rituals established by society. However, Confucius did not advocate that these rites should be applied to the relationship between people in their original form. Before Confucius, there were the so-called Xia rites, Yin rites, and Zhou rites. Confucius did not think that the Zhou rites could be changed, but rather that they could be modified. What Confucius meant by detracting from the rites of the Zhou was to adapt them to the needs of the times so that they could serve to maintain social stability and promote interpersonal harmony under the new social conditions. Confucius witnessed the brutal rule of the slave-owning class over the enslaved people, which often led to riots. Therefore, he stressed the need to benefit the people. Confucius saw the brutal competition between the slave-owning class and the feudal lord class. So, he proposed to love people and remain loyal and forgiving. The complete system of ethical thought established by Confucius became the master of the honest review of the slave-owning class. His ethical thought contained a profound understanding of human moral relations and a positive concern for human beings. To a certain extent, he responded to the demands of a time of significant change. His ethical ideas were not only adopted by the new landowning class but also became the most influential moral ideas in Chinese feudal society. Confucius was a great transitional ethical thinker in China in the late Spring and Autumn period. He was the last thinker of the slave society and the first thinker of the feudal society. The system of ethical thought he established is rare in China and the history of moral reflection in the world. Faced with the great destruction of the rules and regulations of feudal ritual at the end of the slave society, Confucius wanted to establish a hierarchical theory of ethical relations in which “a ruler should behave like a ruler, a courtier should behave like a courtier, a father should behave like a father, and a son should behave like a son.” But he was dissatisfied with the decadence and brutality of the slave-owning class and wanted to make some theoretical improvements to this relationship as far as possible. As an ethical thinker, Confucius’ social and political ideal was to establish a unified state with a prosperous people, a potent form, political clarity, social stability, and interpersonal harmony. On the one hand, he vigorously defended the hierarchical system of the time and insisted on the relationship between inferiority and superiority: “A ruler should behave like a ruler, a courtier should behave like a courtier, a father like a father, and a son like a

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son.” At the same time, he believed that the ruler of a state must be a person of high moral character. Confucius believed that only by placing wise men and gentlemen in leadership positions and relying on the strength of their moral character could the people turn towards them. On the one hand, he believed that the Son of Heaven and the king should not be betrayed, but at the same time, he believed that one should oppose those oppressive and unjust rulers. He said, “A ruler should behave like a ruler, a subject like a subject, a father like a father, and a son like a son,” which also meant that a ruler should behave like a ruler and a father like a father. (It was in this way Mencius of the Warring States brought out the more progressive aspects of Confucius’ thought and transformed and developed it.) What if the king is not like a king and the father is not like a father? In Confucius’ view, the wise man should shun or allow others to overthrow a politically dark state. Based on a summary of ancient Chinese moral traditions, Confucius proposed the general framework of “benevolence” as the moral core of society and “rites” as the ethical principles of organization. He also advocated the use of wisdom, courage, respect, generosity, faith, sensitivity, benevolence, warmth, goodness, frugality, and concessions as the practical virtues of interpersonal relationships. All moral principles and practical virtues must be based on the core of benevolence and the direction of decency. This is his incredible creation and historical contribution as an ethical thinker. Confucius was at a time when the time was changing between the past and the present. His main characteristic was that he was neither conservative nor radical but advocated a middle-of-the-road approach to the improvement of society. In assessing the historical role of Confucius, it is essential to distinguish between the interpretations of Confucianism used by successive kings to maintain and consolidate the rule of their exploiting classes and the content of Confucianism itself. It is also essential to distinguish between the one-sided, extreme, and even erroneous interpretations of Confucianism by later Confucianists and the thought of Confucius himself. It is often the case in history that a theory or doctrine has a value in its own right, but some parts of that theory’s value have been submerged and have failed to achieve the desired effect; some features have been exploited and distorted, even to the point of having harmful effects in history. It is not the thinkers themselves who are responsible for the above. As a thinker of the exploiting class, Confucius’ ideas were mainly a defence of the ruling class’s interests. Confucius’ ideas should be treated with a critical inheritance. But the use of Confucianism in feudal China has rigidified most of its ideas: such feudal moral codes as loyalty, filial piety, moderation, and righteousness, and especially the one-sided foolish loyalty and filial piety, which would not be Confucius’ ideas at all. Confucius was active in compiling ancient historical documents and collecting disciples to disseminate these ancient cultures actively. However, Confucius claimed to be a man who ‘expounded the doctrines of his predecessors without expressing his own opinions; hence there are no books written by him that have been handed down. The Analects is a reliable historical source for studying Confucius’ ethical thought, also a record of his words and deeds recorded and compiled by his disciples and re-disciples.

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2 Social Morality with “Love” as the Core Confucius’ most significant contribution to the history of ethical thought is that he was the first to discover humankind’s importance and emphasize its importance in political and moral life. In a sense, it can also be said that Confucius consciously examined human beings from categories and discovered the relationship between individuals and categories. From the historical development of humanity, in primitive society, after a long period of separation from the animal world, although in everyday work and mutual interaction, gradually formed a necessary but straightforward code of conduct between human beings, gradually with the feelings of solidarity and love and the customary tradition of mutual help and cooperation, the formation of the concept of good and evil. However, primitive man had not yet separated the clan from the individual and did not have a clear idea of the ‘individual,’ but only integrated himself into the idea of the clan. These circumstances made it impossible for primitive man to consciously consider the relationship between the individual and the category from a group perspective. The creation of private ownership and the disparity in wealth between people led to a privileged class and the emergence of a slave society. The slave-owning course stressed that they were ‘human beings’ but never treated enslaved people as such. They used their wealth, position, and power to keep the slave at their disposal and turn them into talking tools. Enslavers used every means to make their slaves ignorant and slow so that apart from working, they only knew how to eat, sleep and reproduce. It can be clearly stated that the enslaved person is devoid of personality in socio-political life. However, as many slaves were transformed into serfs and tenant farmers in Confucius’ time, social relations became complex, suggesting that the relationship between slave owners, feudal lords, serfs, and tenant farmers needed to be adjusted politically and ethically. During the significant societal changes, the ruled class showed itself to be necessary. The ruling class had to recognize and value them as human beings ethically and morally. As the master of the ethical thought of the slave-owning class, Confucius explored the question of the human being in terms of the relationship between individuals and humans. This is the earliest systematic discussion of the human being in the history of ethical thought in China and the world. As Confucius interpreted them, human beings had a multifaceted meaning, including enslavers, feudal owners, free people, and enslaved people. The core of Confucius’ ethical thinking is ‘benevolence,’ which can also be described as ‘loving others.’ The Analects of Confucius contains many references to ‘benevolence,’ including the following important ones: Fan-Chi asked Confucius about ‘benevolence.’ Confucius answered, ‘Loving others.’ (The Analects of Confucius Yan Yuan) Zhong Gong asked Confucius what was ‘benevolence.’ Confucius answered, ‘The Emperor must be severe and respectful when he conducts business and serves the people to receive dignitaries and perform significant rituals. Do unto others as you

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would like others to do unto you. There is no complaint about working in a state, nor about working in the fief of a minister.’ (ibid.) Zigong said, ‘What if there is a man who can give much to the people and help them? Would that be considered a benevolent person?’ Tzu said, ‘He is not just a benevolent man, he is a saint! Even Yao and Shun had difficulty in doing so. The benevolent person should help others with the mindset they want to establish and develop and do what they want to do. To compare oneself to others in everything is the way to practice benevolence.’ (The Analects of Confucius Yongye) Zi Zhang asked Confucius what is ‘benevolence.’ Confucius said: ‘To be able to practice the five virtues in every way’. You are a benevolent person. Zi Zhang asked, ‘Which five, may I ask?’ Confucius said: ‘Be respectful, be generous, be honest, be diligent, be sensitive and be kind. By being respectful, you will not invite insults. Being courteous will be embraced by all. If you are honest, you will be appointed by others. With diligence and sensitivity, you will achieve merit. When you are kind and generous, you will command people.’ (The Analects of Confucius Yangcai) Yan Yuan asked what is ‘benevolence.’ Confucius said, ‘To restrain oneself so that both speech and action come to ritual is to be benevolent. Once you have done this, all the people of the world will praise you for your benevolence. Practicing benevolence depends on yourself; does it depend on others?’ Yan Yuan said, ‘Yan Yuan said, ‘May I ask what the specific way to practice benevolence is.’ Confucius said, ‘Do not look at what is unseemly, do not listen to what is unseemly, do not speak about what is unseemly, and do not do what is unseemly.’ Yan Yuan said, ‘Though I am not wise, allow me to do as these words say.’ (The Analects of Confucius Yan Yuan) Zigong said, ‘I do not want others to put unreasonable things on me, nor do I want to put unreasonable things on others.’ Confucius said, ‘Oh, Chi, this is not something within your reach to give.’ (The Analects of Confucius Gongye Chang) The above six articles are, in my opinion, the most important statements of Confucius’ thought on benevolence. The last of these is not a statement by Confucius, but rather a play on his ideas by his disciple Zigong, but it represents Confucius’ views on benevolence. The above articles have three meanings: firstly, explaining the meaning of ‘benevolence.’ Secondly, they are ways of being benevolent. The third is the specific requirements for achieving ‘benevolence.’ The most critical, concise, and precise explanation of benevolence is ‘loving others.’ In ancient times, the word ‘benevolence’ was commonly used to refer to human beings. In The Analects of Confucius Liren, Confucius said, ‘There are different types of mistakes that people make. So by observing the nature of the mistakes a person makes, one can tell what kind of person he is.’ In The Analects of Confucius Yongye, ‘A benevolent man falls from the well.’ In The Analects of Confucius Xianwen, ‘Asked what kind of man Guan Zhong was. Confucius said, ‘He was a talented man. He deprived Bo of the fief of three hundred households in the parallel counties so that Bo could only eat coarse food. Yet, he did not complain until his death.’ All this shows that benevolence and human beings are intertwined. In The Doctrine of the Mean, it is more straightforward to say that ‘benevolence is

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the virtue of loving others when looking at others.’ The original meaning of benevolence is two people, and it refers to the relationship between people. Confucius made ‘benevolence’ the core of his thought system, which means human beings are at their heart. Confucius summed up the ideas of his forebears on benevolence and developed what he called the highest principle to be followed in human relations. ‘Loving others’ is the essence of Confucius’ benevolence. From the above-quoted lines from the Analects of Confucius on benevolence, it is clear that what is meant by ‘benevolence’ and ‘loving others’ is, above all, that we should treat other people as our kind and the same as ourselves in our relationships with them. We are to understand the desires and wishes of others with our desires and wishes. When I have a passion or request of my own, I always think that everyone around me, and indeed everyone else, also have such a request or want. Therefore, you should meet the exact wishes and desires in satisfying your wants and desires. Likewise, if I do not like what others impose on me, I should never impose such things on others. This shows that the way to love others is to respect others and treat others as we would like. The idea of putting oneself in the shoes of others is what Confucius called ‘the way of loyalty and forgiveness.’ In The Analects of Confucius Liren, Confucius said, ‘Oh Zeng Shen! My doctrine can be threaded together with a fundamental principle.’ Zeng Shen replied, ‘Yes.’ After Confucius had gone out, the other students asked, ‘What does this mean?’ Zeng Shen said, ‘The doctrine of the Master is nothing more than loyalty and forgiveness.’ According to Confucius, one fundamental thing runs through his moral theory. Zi Gong asked, ‘Is there a word that can be practiced for life?’ Confucius said. ‘Probably ‘forgiveness’! What you do not want for yourself, do not inflict on others.’ (The Analects of Confucius Wei Ling Gong) Zongzi interpreted this as ‘the way of loyalty and forgiveness,’ which is basically in line with Confucius’ original intention. From the perspective of the whole system of thought of Confucius, forgiveness is what Confucius calls ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. And loyalty is ‘One who wishes himself to be successful must also help others to be successful; one who wishes to develop himself must also help others to develop.’ Loyalty and forgiveness are expressions of ‘loving others,’ in the precise sense that one should respect and care for one’s kind. Of course, Confucius’ ideas of ‘loving others,’ ‘do not do to others what you do not want,’ and ‘to establish oneself and establish others, to achieve and achieve others’ should also be explicitly analyzed. Literally or in general, it contains the idea that all people should love their kind and that loving others means to love all people. But, in the strictest sense, the ‘loving others’, as Confucius called it, could only be for those within the slave-owning class, and not only were enslaved people excluded from the scope of love, but other ‘villains’ besides enslaved people were not worthy of love. In The Analects of Confucius Xianwen, Confucius argues, ‘The realm of benevolence is very high and difficult to attain. Even a gentleman has to pay attention to his efforts at all times, but it is even more difficult for a villain.’ In The Analects of Confucius—Liren, Confucius says: ‘Only those who speak of benevolence and love can love someone and dislike someone properly.’ Confucius said: ‘I have never met anyone who loved benevolence and someone who loathed benevolence. Those who

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love benevolence and virtue, then there is nothing better than this. He who despises unkindness and virtue only practices it so he may not have unkind things added to himself. Confucius also stated, ‘The gentleman learns Daoism primarily to help others people, while the little man learns Daoism to improve himself easily.’ (The Analects of Confucius Yanghuo) These statements by Confucius indicate that the love he advocates is, in its main content, love within the ruling class. A little mercy and favor are shown to the ‘villain’ or laborer to make enslave them easier. As a slave-owning thinker, Confucius always had to look out for the long-term security of the slave-owning class. He also had to make the moral principle of ‘loving others’ work for the slave-owning class’s specific interests and narrow purposes. However, Confucius’ idea of ‘loving others’ has a positive meaning. Confucius put forward the idea of ‘enlisting the people as if to undertake a major ritual,’ beneficially treating the workforce, being generous, benefiting them, enriching them, and teaching them. This is much better than the previous practice of enslavers not treating their slaves as human beings and is objectively beneficial to the working people. Confucius proposed that the most basic and essential way of practicing benevolence or loving others is to ‘think of others.’ Taking this literally means taking a step-by-step approach to practice benevolence, using the example of something close to you or your actions. Nonetheless, there is a specific meaning to the term proximity or behavior. ‘The word ‘other’ has two meanings: in one sense, the ‘other’ is oneself, i.e., one uses one’s feelings to extend oneself to others. Another meaning is that the ‘other’ is the person closest to oneself. In this sense, it should refer to one’s family members or other close people. Generally speaking, a man loves his parents, brothers, and wife. To love all people with the love of one’s parents, brothers and wife is an example of ‘thinking of others.’ The meaning of ‘thinking of others’ is based on moral principles such as filial piety and brotherhood and extends from love for family members and others close to them to love for all people. Confucius’ disciple Youzi understood this better when he said, ‘A virtuous man always seeks to grasp the root. When the heart is established, the way of benevolence arises. Filial piety and fraternal respect for parents and brothers are probably the roots of benevolence!’ It is clear from this that he regarded filial piety and brotherly duty as the foundation of goodwill and that by learning filial piety and fraternal duty well, benevolence or love for others would naturally emerge. The ‘being able to draw parallels’ method is entirely consistent with the principle of ‘kinship’ and the difference in love advocated by Confucius. It is a misconception that some people refer to loyalty and forgiveness to practice ‘benevolence.’ The core of Confucius’ ethical thinking is ‘benevolence,’ which contains a variety of moral requirements. In The Analects of Confucius, over a hundred references to benevolence. In summary, the specific ethical requirements contained in ‘benevolence’ are the following: Firstly, filial piety and fraternity are the minimum moral requirements of benevolence and are the foundation. A disciple of Confucius named Zai I thought that three years was too long to observe mourning after the death of a parent, and suggested that one year should be the best time to observe mourning. When Confucius heard this, he was upset and asked Zaiwo: ‘Does it not feel guilty to you to eat rice and wear

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brocade after less than three years of mourning?’ Zaiwo said, ‘No.’ ‘After Zaiwo left, Confucius rebuked Zaiwo, saying: ‘Zaiwo was unkind! A child is born three years before being completely separated from its parents. The three-year period of mourning is the standard rite of passage globally. Did Zaiyu not receive from his parents the love of three years of embrace?’ (The Analects of Confucius Yanghuo) Confucius himself regarded filial piety and fraternal duty as the minimum requirement for a benevolent person. By practicing filial piety and fraternal duty, one could ‘work in the fief of a minister without complaining.’ Secondly, the moral requirements of respect, honesty, wisdom, courage, generosity, diligence and sensitivity, fear of hardship, ‘to defend and preserve morality to the death,’ and ‘not being tired of teaching’ constitute the main body of benevolence. It is also close to benevolence in that it is straightforward, decisive, and simple. These moral requirements are scattered throughout the Analects of Confucius, and to achieve them is to be considered a benevolent person essentially. Thirdly, the specific moral imperative of benevolence also lies in the need to be kind and generous to the workers to be prosperous, courteous, and peaceful. In The Analects of Confucius Yanghuo, it is said that to practice the five elements of respect, generosity, faith, sensitivity, and goodwill in the world is to have achieved benevolence. In this context, the word ‘goodwill’ refers mainly to granting favors to workers. The term ‘generosity’ in this context means generosity and leniency. It can be used to regulate relations within the ruling class, and can also be applied, within certain limits, to the ruling class’s attitude towards workers. A benevolent man should ‘requisition the people’s labor to adhere to the time of farming and not to delay the time of cultivation and harvest.’ ‘If the people are ‘ruled by morality and disciplined by ritual, they will not only have a sense of shame but will also correct their mistakes.’ Confucius also praised Guan Zhong, saying: ‘The Duke of Huan called many alliances between the vassal states without using force, but it was Guan Zhong who helped. That’s his benevolence! This is his benevolence!’ ‘Guan Zhong assisted Duke Huan of Qi, who reigned over the lords and rectified everything under the sky, and he still benefits the people to this day. (The Analects of Confucius Xianwen) This is what a benevolent person should be: a person who can put the world right, cease war, and make the people live in peace and happiness. The moral category ‘benevolence’ encompasses a variety of moral imperatives. The ethical principle of ‘loving others’ and loyalty and forgiveness run through these moral requirements. Conversely, the three moral imperatives mentioned above embody, in different ways, the spirit of loving others and fidelity. The relationship between benevolence and ritual in Confucius’ system of thought cannot be studied without examining the idea of benevolence. In Confucius’ system of thought, ‘benevolence’ is central, and rites are subordinate to benevolence. In The Annals of Lu Buwei, it is said: ‘Confucius valued benevolence.’ It is also noted in Mencius—Teng Wen Gong (Part 2) that if the doctrines of Yang and Mo are not destroyed, and the principles of Confucius are not promoted, they are used to deceive the people and suppress benevolence and righteousness. Confucius said: ‘The gentleman takes righteousness as the basis, practices it according to rites, expresses it in humble words, and accomplishes it with integrity. That’s what makes you a

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gentleman! ‘(The Analects of Confucius Wei Ling Gong)’ If one is a man without benevolence and virtue, how can one treat the ritual system? If one does not have benevolence and virtue, how can one treat music?’ (The Analects of Confucius Bayi) ‘Rites, rites, rites, are they only about jade and silk? Is music, music, music just about bells and drums and other musical instruments?’ (The Analects of Confucius Yanghuo) Confucius was of the view that the mere form of rites was meaningless and that only when combined with the moral and political content could they guide people’s behavior. In The Analects of Confucius Bayi, it is written: ‘Lin Fang asked what the fundamentals of etiquette were. Confucius said, ‘Your question is of great significance! Instead of seeking formal luxury in rites, it is better to be frugal and simple. For mourning, instead of being facetious in ritual, it is better to be truly grieving in your heart.’ In The Analects of Confucius Zihan, Confucius said, ‘It is proper to make a ceremonial hat out of linen thread. But nowadays, it is more frugal to use silk to make a formal hat, and I agree with everyone. When a minister meets the king, he first kowtows at the bottom of the hall and then rises to kowtow, which is the proper etiquette. Now everyone grows and kowtows, which is a sign of arrogance. Although it is against everyone’s practice, I still advocate that we should kowtow at the bottom of the hall first.’ It is clear from these words that Confucius did not focus on the cumbersome ritual rituals but rather on their moral content and essence. When parents die, they are buried with rites. This is one of the specific requirements of filial piety set out by Confucius. However, Confucius believed it was better to mourn the deceased rather than elaborate on rituals. For general ceremonies, it is better to be frugal and straightforward rather than extravagant. It was in keeping with the traditional ritual to use hemp for the ceremonial hat. But everyone used silk so that they could be more economical. Confucius then agreed to replace the ‘hemp coronet’ with a ‘silk coronet.’ It was traditional for a minister to kowtow first at the bottom of the hall and then again after ascending to the court. After this time, the kowtowing at the bottom of the hall was dispensed with, and only the kowtowing after climbing the hall. According to Confucius, this was a sign of arrogance. Even though everyone did so, Confucius advocated the traditional ritual of kowtowing at the foot of the hall first. It follows that the liturgy reform is primarily a matter of whether it is ethical or not. That morality or benevolence is the content and ritual in the form. Confucius’ statements are unambiguous that morality or benevolence is the main focus and tradition is subordinate. ‘Rituals’ are also significant, and they are the ornaments and moderation of benevolence or morality. Confucius said: ‘You can get it by wisdom, but you cannot keep it by benevolence. Even if it is obtained, it will indeed be lost. Get it by wisdom, and benevolence can keep it, but if you do not exercise your authority dignifiedly, the people will not reverence it. It is obtained by wisdom and maintained by benevolence. It is imperfect to be able to exercise authority with dignity, but not to be able to mobilize it according to ritual.’ (The Analects of Confucius Wei Ling Gong) This means that if one has good intelligence, benevolence, and manners, but does not act with good manners, then one is not perfect. The literary role of ritual is highlighted here. Traditions must reflect morality or benevolence, and ways must qualify the practice

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of charity, and the two are only perfect when they work together correctly. Rituals are essential for the longevity of benevolence. At the end of the Spring and Autumn period, the position of the ruling class was very precarious. The slave-owning hierarchy had been shattered to the core, leading to the destruction of feudal rites and regulations. Confucius took upon himself the task of restoring the standard, regular order of hierarchy. He also wanted his favorite disciple, Yan Yuan, to join him in this cause. Yan Yuan asked what benevolence was, and Confucius replied: ‘To restrain oneself and bring one’s words and actions to the level of etiquette is to be benevolent. Once you have done this, all the people of the world will praise you for your benevolence. (The Analects of Confucius Yan Yuan) This was seen as a restoration of the authority of the Rites of Zhou and the regular order of the traditional patriarchal system. The requirement is challenging. Among the disciples of Confucius, only Yan Yuan could have achieved this. The meaning of ‘restoration of rites’ is not simply the restoration of the traditional Zhou rites but also the improvement of the traditional ‘rites’ to make them work again. When this is achieved, the superior and the inferior are inevitably each in their way. There is no trespass against the superiors, no aggression or disorder. This is, of course, a great benevolence. The restoration of ritual is the means, and the achievement of benevolence is the purpose. If the effectiveness of rites is restored so that all the world’s people know and practice them, then the phenomenon of unkindness will be eliminated. Then the sensation of unkindness will be eliminated from the world. If the rites are kept in force for a long time, the people’s benevolence will be maintained for a long time. For Confucius, the content of benevolence and the form of ritual are inseparable: without ritual, benevolence has no place and is not perfect. Without benevolence, practice becomes a hypocritical formality, a meaningless way. In short, Confucius’ idea of benevolence (loving others) is of great significance in the history of ethical thought in China and abroad. The main element of his ethical thought is understanding the human. What is more, it is a groundbreaking element in the history of moral understanding. In Confucius’s phrase ‘love others,’ the word ‘others’ encompasses different classes, including enslaved people. Confucius’ ‘love others’ is love with an unequal difference. ‘Love’ can be practiced between enslavers and between enslavers and workers. It is only the substance, the depth, and the manner of ‘love’ that differ. ‘Loving others’ was a progressive idea but had limitations in many ways. Confucius’s idea of benevolence (loving others) has dramatically influenced history. Even Feuerbach, the famous German bourgeois philosopher of the nineteenth century, praised Confucius’ concept of loving others. In Feuerbach’s über die Glückseligkeit, he says, ‘The Chinese sage Confucius said: Where a man is honest in heart, it is his way of thinking to other people as to himself. He does not depart from that moral law of duty that man’s rational nature imparts to him. He, therefore, does not inflict on others what he would not have them do to him.’1 In another place, he says this: ‘Do unto 1

The original text of The Doctrine of the Mean states, ‘When a person achieves loyalty and forgiveness, he is not far from the path of righteousness.’.

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others as you would have them do unto you.’ …… Among the many moral principles and precepts that men have thought out, this simple and commonplace principle is the best, the truest, and at the same time the most obvious and convincing. This principle appeals to the heart, for it makes one’s pursuit of happiness subject to the dictates of conscience. When you are happy, you do not want others to do what you do not want them to do to you, not to do what is wrong and evil. Then it would be best if you did not do them either. When you are unhappy, you would like others to do what you would like them to do, hoping they will help you. When you can’t do anything for yourself, you may wish others to do good things for you. Then when they need you, when they are unhappy, you do the same for them. This, according to Feuerbach, is ‘sound, pure, upright, honest morality. It is the morality of the human being that permeates blood and flesh, not the morality of illusion, hypocrisy, and moral pretensions.’2 Feuerbach’s understanding of Confucius’ benevolence from a bourgeois ‘category’ point of view, that is, from a modern humanist point of view, gives it a specific meaning that it does not have. Why did Confucius’ benevolence resonate so many thousands of years later and receive such high praise from the bourgeois thinker Feuerbach? This is something we should ponder.

3 Strengthening the Moral Norms of Filial Piety and Loyalty In Confucius’ ethical thought, the moral codes of filial piety and loyalty ranked very high. From the Yin and Shang dynasties onwards, social relations based on patriarchal clans were closely linked to maintaining this social system, thus extending filial piety to loyalty. The development and evolution of filial piety and devotion in the history of Chinese ethical thought reveal a unique feature of Chinese ethical thinking that has had a particular influence on the development of Chinese society. In the The Analects, it is written that “Duke Jing of Qi asked Confucius about the way of government. Confucius said, “A ruler should do his duty as a ruler, a minister should do his duty as a minister, a father should do his father’s duty, and a son should do his son’s duty.” To govern the state well and form an excellent social ethos, Confucius believed that two relationships had to be dealt with: one was the relationship between people in social and political life; the other was the relationship between people in their internal family life. For the former, the relationship between ruler and subject is the main one; for the latter, the relationship between father and son is the main one. Confucius focused on the morality of these two relationships because he was aware of the vital importance of managing them well. Filial piety as a moral code originated in the rituals of the Yin and Shang dynasties. It gradually developed from the meaning of “honoring the ancestors” to “filial piety.” 2

Selected Philosophical Writings of Feuerbach, vol. 1, pp. 577–578, Beijing, The Commercial Press, 1984.

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By the Western Zhou Dynasty, it had already been taken very seriously. “The teacher taught his pupils to follow the example of filial piety.” The “five teachings” and the “seven ethical codes” of the ancients were mainly about teaching people to know the ways of the father and the son. This was also a feature of ancient Chinese moral education and tradition. The concept of filial piety was of great importance to the consolidation and development of the clan system and the patriarchal system. It is no coincidence that the importance attached to filial piety in ancient China has profound economic and political roots. The concept of filial piety has a long history. To this day, filial piety still occupies an important place in the traditional morality of the Chinese nation. Unfilial purity is a significant breach of ethics and is severely condemned by public opinion. The Analects qualifies filial piety in a series of ways: In The Analects-Wei Zheng, Meng Yi asked what filial piety was. The Master said, “It is not being disobedient.” Soon after, as Fan Chi was driving him, the Master told him, saying, “Meng Sun asked me what filial piety was, and I answered him, - ‘not being disobedient.’” Fan Chi said, “What did you mean?” The Master replied, “Those parents, when alive, be served according to propriety; that, when dead, they should be buried. They should be sacrificed according to propriety.” When Zi You asked for advice on filial piety, Confucius said, “What is now called filial piety means that it is only necessary to feed one’s parents. Others keep even dogs and horses. If one is not respectful and obedient to one’s parents, what is the difference between that and breeding dogs and horses?” When Zi Xia asked what filial piety was, Confucius said, “It is most difficult to serve one’s parents by constantly maintaining a pleasant countenance. Is it filial piety to leave things to the young, to let the old enjoy good food and drink when available?” In The Analects-Li Ren, Confucius said, “While parents are alive, children do not travel far away from home; they must have someplace even when they go away.” Confucius said, “When serving one’s parents, one should politely advise them of their shortcomings, and if one’s advice is not taken, one should still treat them with respect and not disobey them. Only sorrow in your heart and not resentment.” Lord Ye told Confucius in The Analects-Zi Lu, “There was an upright man in my hometown whose father stole another man’s sheep, and he denounced it.” Confucius said, “The upright man in my hometown is different from this: the father hides it for his son, and the son hides it for his father; therein lies the uprightness.” From Confucius’ explanation of filial piety, there are many levels of ‘filial piety’. Firstly, one must provide for one’s parents, which he meant by “being able to provide” and “when something happens, the disciples will serve their labor; when there is wine and food, the master will serve it.” But this is only a minimal form of filial piety. It is not enough to consider this as the full content of filial piety. That is why Confucius said, “ But dogs and horses likewise can do something in the way of support; - without reverence, what is there to distinguish the one support given from the other?” Therefore, the second level of filial piety is to respect one’s parents. For the first time in the history of Chinese ethical thought, Confucius made ‘respect’ a vital element of filial piety, thus raising awareness of the importance of filial piety.

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-Respect for parents is more important than nurturing. Many ethicists since the Han Dynasty have interpreted filial piety in various ways based on the ideas of Confucius. In discussing the relationship between nurturing and respect for parents, Lu Donglai said: “Although there are eight precious tastes that are given in contempt, there is no pleasure in eating them, but if one eats a sparse meal of vegetables and spoons and offers them with courtesy and a pleasing color, the eater will feel that the food is tasty, and this is the so-called kindness to be pleasant” (The Collected Works of Mr. Lu Donglai, vol. 16). His view emphasizes the need for “respect” in conjunction with nurturing. Only when it is combined with respect for one’s parents can it be called an act of filial piety. Only ‘nurturing’ without respect cannot even be called ‘filial piety’, or rather, it does not deserve to be called ‘filial piety’. There is also the question of whether to “hide” or “tell” one’s parents in the act of “filial piety” to “honor” them. What attitude should one take towards one’s parents’ faults, mistakes, and evil deeds? Confucius believed that children should conceal their parents’ evil deeds. The dialogue between Ye Gong and Confucius in The The Analects illustrates Confucius’ view on this issue. However, in addition to concealing these wrongs and evils from their parents, they should not go along with them without criticism. Confucius believes that when parents have done wrong, the children should calmly and patiently express their views and advise them. If the parents do not listen to them, they should not quarrel with them but should respect them as usual and wait for an opportunity to advise them later. On the one hand, Confucius’ understanding reflects the limitations of filial piety due to the economic and political ties of clan law. On the other hand, it also reflects that Confucius sought to remedy the shortcomings of this ‘filial piety’ in which ‘the son is hidden from the father.’ This is different from some later Confucianists’ one-sided promotion of foolish filial piety. Filial piety towards one’s parents is about feeding and respecting them and must also be raised to a higher level, that is, to have a genuine pleasure in facing them. Confucius believed it was easy to keep the elderly well-fed and warm. The hardest thing to do was keep their faces happy while serving their parents. The Xiao Dai Lij i—Qu Li says: “One can hear in the silent and see in the invisible.” This phrase has two meanings: on the one hand, it means that people should be able to appreciate their parents’ wishes, feelings, and intentions in the absence of any sound. On the other hand, it means that only by treating the parents with a heartfelt “harmony” can the parents experience their children’s sincere “filial piety” silently and invisibly. In the Xiao Dai Liji—Ji Yi, it is said, “If a filial son has a deep love for his parents, his heart must be full of harmony; - if his heart is full of harmony, his face must show a pleasant countenance; if his face has a pleasant countenance, his whole attitude must be gentle and supple.” Although this is exclusively in terms of filial piety, it illustrates in a more profound way that only a deep and sincere, respectful heart in the heart can be manifested in the face. The filial son’s actions must also be under the rituals of the time, i.e., with the moral codes and practices. “When one’s parents are alive, one serves them according to ritual; when they die, one buries them according to ritual and sacrifices them according to ritual.” (The Analects—Wei Zheng). The emphasis on the importance of rituals has two meanings: on the one hand, children’s filial piety towards their

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parents must not violate rites, nor transgress them, neither fail to meet nor overstep them; on the other hand, even if their parents have thoughts and demands that violate traditions, the children must not be obedient to their parents’ needs that are not rituals. On the other hand, even if parents have ideas and conditions contrary to traditions, children should not be respectful by conforming to their parents’ non-ritual demands but should serve them according to the requirements of rituals. Confucius’ emphasis on rites has a double meaning. The fourth level of filial piety requires children to be strict in their conduct, be prudent, behave properly, and be of high moral character. In short, they must reassure their parents of their behavior. In The Analects, it is said: “Meng Wu Bo asked what filial piety was. Confucius said, “Do not let your parents worry about anything about their children, except when illness cannot be avoided.” What this means is that the most important thing for a son to do to be “filial” is to keep his parents from worrying about their establishment and actions. Sometimes the only thing one can’t wholly avoid is an illness. Therefore, a son should do the following: Nothing can make parents worry about themselves except their physical illness. Parents are worried about their children’s failure. If children are careful, they will be spared much of their worries. The Book of Filial Piety of the Qin and Han dynasties makes it even more apparent that “allowing oneself to grow up healthy and behave and do things according to the right principles so that future generations will admire one’s name, will let future generations know that one’s parents have taught one well and raised an excellent child, and this is the end of one’s practice of filial piety.” “The ultimate requirement of filial piety is that filial piety should be “initially expressed in supporting one’s parents, then in serving the king, and ultimately in being able to establish oneself in the world,” stressing that the importance of “establishing oneself” as a component of filial piety was stressed. According to Confucius, the most direct reason why one should be respectful to one’s parents is that everyone should repay their parents for the kindness they have given them. Zi Xia understood this idea of his teacher and pointed out that one should do one’s utmost to serve one’s parents. (See The Analects—Xue Er) To practice filial piety, one must also be careful about power and change. In Han Shi Wai Zhuan, vol. 8, it is said: One day, Zeng Shen had a fault. His father, Zeng Cai, took a stick and beat him. Zeng Sen did not run away but stood and took the beating. As soon as he woke up, Zeng Sen asked his father, “You are not ill?” The people of Lu praised Zeng Shen as a filial son. When Confucius learned of this, he told the disciples guarding the door, “When Zeng Sen comes, don’t let him in!” Zeng Shen thought he was not guilty, so he let others ask Confucius what the reason was. Confucius said, “Have you not heard how Shun used to be a son? When Shun was the son of a man, he stood still when his father struck him with a small stick; when his father struck him with a large stick, he fled. When his father wanted him to work, he was never by his father’s side; when his father wanted to kill him, he could not find him. Zeng Shen did not flee even when his father was in a full rage but let him beat him with a great rod; are you not the king’s people? How great a crime is it to let the king’s people be killed?”

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The story was added to the Shuo Yuan by Liu Xiang, but it is the same in general. Zeng Zi had done something wrong, but he did not neglect his father’s punishment and was even beaten to fainting. When he woke up, he asked his father if he was hurt, despite his injuries, and even played his zither and sang to please his father. Confucius did not consider this act an actual act of filial piety. Filial piety should be exercised with power and change. If a parent uses a small stick to punish, he will accept it. If the child is angry and uses a large bar, the child must find a way to escape. To do otherwise would be truly unfilial, for if he were to be beaten to death by his parents, he would have no one to take care of his parents in the future, but he would also make them guilty of murder. Therefore, when this happens, it is only filial piety to escape from the punishment of the parents. This idea of Confucius is entirely different from the foolish filial piety preached by Confucianism later on; when the father told the son to die, the son had to die. What should a filial son do after the death of his parents? Confucius said, “When his father is alive, it depends on his aspirations; after his father’s death, it is time to examine his concrete behavior. If he adheres for a long time to those principles which were right during his father’s lifetime, he can be said to have done his filial duty.” (The Analects—Xue Er) In this passage, Confucius emphasizes the implication that a son should carry on his father’s legacy. This passage reflects Confucius’ conservative stance. “Adhering to those correct principles during his father’s lifetime” refers to the good part of his father’s principles. For example, if a man’s father were guilty of stealing a sheep, a son, being filial, would also become a sheep thief for three years. This is absurd. Confucius admired those who did not change their ways. The Analects records a reference to this: “Zeng Zi said, “I have heard my teacher say that Meng Zhuangzi practiced filial piety in other ways, but it was difficult for others to do so without replacing his father’s old ministers or changing his father’s political measures.” In addition to a more in-depth discussion of filial piety, Confucius made the first explicit connection between filial piety and loyalty. This link extends the meaning of filial piety from respect for one’s ancestors and filial piety to allegiance to the king. Confucius believed that if a person could be respectful to his parents, he would be loyal to the king. We have already spoken of the importance of ren in Confucius’ ethical thinking. Therefore, it is necessary to present further the fundamental or starting point of “loving people with benevolence.” In Confucius’ view, the essential thing for a person is to see whether he can love and respect his parents and appreciate his brothers and sisters. Confucius believed that the first thing to look for in a person is whether or not he can genuinely practice humanism is whether or not he can respect filial piety and fraternal duty. If a person is respectful of his filial piety and brotherly duty, he will naturally be able to behave humanely. On the contrary, no matter how much a person preaches that he loves people and is humane, he does not know how to be respectful to his parents. It is impossible to love and care for others honestly. Confucius thus moves from ‘respect for one’s parents to ‘loyalty to one’s ruler,’ arguing that if a person is filial to his parents and respectful to his elder brother, he will not commit rebellion. Confucius put forward a critical theory: to cultivate the virtue of benevolence; one

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must start with filial piety and fraternity. As long as people were filial and fraternal, they would be loyal to the king. In a slave and patriarchal society, there was already a very close relationship between the family and the state. Confucius stressed the importance of “loyalty” many times. Generally speaking, Confucius believed that “loyalty” had three different meanings. The first meaning is to do one’s duty with all one’s heart. Confucius said, “Be regular at home, be serious in your work, and treat others with loyalty and sincerity.” (The Analects—Zi Lu) Zeng Zi said, “Has one done one’s best for others?” (The Analects—Xue Er) Confucius said, “Can one love a person and not toil for him? Can one be loyal to a man and not advise him?” (The Analects—Xian Wen) The word “loyal” here means to do one’s duty. Secondly, “loyalty” also means being faithful to one’s terms and actions. Confucius said, “Be faithful and generous in your words and actions, yet serious.” (The Analects—Wei Ling Gong). The word “faithful” here means to be true to what one says. Confucius has repeatedly stressed the importance of being faithful in word and deed, that is, to be true to one’s word. The third meaning of loyalty is the duty and obligation a subject owes to the king. In The Analects, Duke Ding of Lu asked Confucius, “How does a sovereign command his subjects, and how does a subject serve his sovereign?” Confucius replied, “The sovereign should call his subjects according to propriety requirements, and the subjects should serve the sovereign with loyalty.” According to Confucius, a subject must serve his sovereign faithfully. Only the Son of Heaven and the vassals were entitled to worship the famous mountains and rivers during the Western Zhou period. But the Ji, as a ruler of the state of Lu, went to worship Mount Tai. Confucius had mixed feelings about Ji’s unauthorized rituals. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, only the emperor could dance with 64 people, the vassal could only dance with 48 people, and the governor could only dance with 32 people. But Ji, as a great ruler, had to perform a 64-person dance. Confucius was outraged by this tremendous excess and said, “If this can be tolerated! What else is intolerable?” (The Analects—Ba Yi) Serving the sovereign should be done wholeheartedly, following the etiquette of a vassal to seek the sovereign’s political affairs (including teaching him). This is what Zi Xia meant when he said, “To serve a ruler is to be able to give one’s life” (The Analects—Xue Er). The moral codes of “loyalty” and “filial piety” have profoundly influenced the history of Chinese ethical thought and the social life of the people. According to Confucius, there is no significant difference between the meaning of “loyalty” and “filial piety,” as it has come to be known in later times. On the other hand, the meaning of “loyalty” changed markedly in the last times. “From the very beginning, filial piety was a unilateral and absolute obligation of the son to his father. Although Confucius also said, “Be filial to your parents, love the young, and they will do their best for you” (The Analects—Wei Zheng). But while the father can be unkind, the son cannot be unfilial. Although “loyalty” also entails a unilateral obligation to the sovereign, there is, after all, “the sovereign will make the son do his duty. However, there is still the element of “the ruler makes his subjects courteous.” This is not as absolute as the emphasis on filial piety. Both “loyalty” and “filial piety” later became absolute, unilateral obligations to the ruler and the son to the father to meet the needs of the feudal landlord class.

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4 Theory of Moral Cultivation of “Retain Yourself and Follow Social Norms” Confucius felt that “benevolence” was the virtue of “loving people,” a compassionate or “benevolence.” Only when one has this “benevolence” will one be able to do so. Only those with perfect virtue can love and hate people. Only those with ideal integrity can love and hate people.” and even “sacrifice one’s life to achieve humanity.” How can one cultivate this compassion to love people so that one has the virtue of “benevolence”? Confucius believed that the only way to do this was to “restrain oneself.” The expression “restraining oneself” existed before Confucius. Confucius, however, focused on it in a moral sense. To “restrain oneself” means to restrain oneself from improper thoughts, words, and deeds that do not conform to the principle of “benevolence” to achieve the state of “benevolence.” (The Chinese scholars of the Qing dynasty understood “restrain” only in a literal sense. Their translation is grammatically inaccurate and inconsistent with Confucius’ original meaning.) The process of self-restraint is also a process of moral cultivation. What should be the standard for restraining one’s improper thoughts and actions? Confucius believed that the standard should be the set of political institutions, rituals, and moral codes of the ruling class. These standards are what he called “rites.” “Rites” and “benevolence” have different meanings in Confucius’ thought system. Benevolence is not a social institution, a ritual, or a specific moral code. Instead, it is the core of social morality, a supreme moral principle, a moral feeling, and the highest moral state. Ritual is the general framework of the ethical principles of society. It is not some inner emotion or moral state but a normative code to be followed between people and the rituals by which people act. By practicing the requirements of rituals, the core of social morality, ren, is reflected in various ways, with wisdom, courage, respect, generosity, faith, sensitivity, charity, warmth, goodness, frugality, and concessions as the practical virtues between people. Benevolence must have the form and appearance of ritual and must be translated into the specific ritual requirements. Rites must have the core of benevolence and embody the spirit of benevolence. Benevolence is a hierarchical love. Rites are also strictly defined according to a hierarchy. Both served to consolidate and harmonize the patriarchal order of the enslaved people. “The ‘restoration of rites and rituals’ is the final means of attaining ren. Confucius emphasized that only when a person’s actions were by rites could his mind and state reach benevolence. Rites have a variety of provisions. In the Thirteen Confucian Classics, three scriptures are devoted to studying traditions: The Rites of Zhou is a treatise on the institutions of government and political systems. The Rites and Ceremonies are dedicated to the rituals of the different classes. The Classic of Rites explains various theoretical principles and philosophical ideas about practice. In Zuo Zhuan, there is a passage that says, “Keeping the rites and ceremonies will make the state long-lasting and the community stable, so that people will be distinguished and ordered, and it will be beneficial to future generations.” (Zuo Zhuan—The Eleventh Year of Yin Gong). The importance of rites can be seen in this statement. In the The Analects, Confucius also

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repeatedly stresses the importance of “using manners to discipline oneself strictly, so that one’s spirit and behavior are by the requirements of manners” (The Analects— Yong Ye). “If you do not learn manners and courtesy, it is difficult to be established” (The Analects—Ji Shi). But at the end of the Spring and Autumn period, politics was in flux. “As the world declined, evil speech and brutality rose again. Some ministers sinned against their superiors and killed their kings, and sons who killed their fathers for their unfamiliarity.” (Mencius—Teng Wen Gong Part II). The traditional hierarchy was destroyed, and the ritual system collapsed. Confucius took it upon himself to revive the heyday of the Western Zhou, highlighting rites and attempting to restore the social order demanded by the ruling class through people’s moral beliefs, moral feelings, and the power of public opinion. He, therefore, laid down strict requirements for the people to “restrain themselves.” “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” However, the ‘rituals’ here contain both political and moral codes. What Confucius is more concerned with is its moral significance. Confucius wants people to improve their inner moral character and gradually reach a state of benevolence by restraining themselves and strictly observing the moral code. “Sacrifice one’s life to achieve humanity” means to restrain oneself from improper thoughts, words, and deeds by the requirements of rites and to cultivate one’s “benevolent heart” and qualities by developing one’s “ benevolent heart” and qualities striving to conform to the needs of rituals. On the other hand, through the practice of the principles of benevolence, we are to cultivate our own “benevolent heart” and qualities. On the other hand, through a high degree of self-consciousness in practicing the principles of benevolence, one can bring back into play the discarded rites. In Confucius’ theory of moral cultivation, ren (the inner moral qualities) and rituals (the outer moral norms) are mutually reinforcing and complementary. Confucius’ theory of moral cultivation has two aspects: one is to restrain oneself from improper thought and behavior. The first is the cultivation of one’s noble moral sentiments and qualities. Denying nasty thoughts and behavior also cultivates one’s high moral character. Developing one’s noble attributes also controls one’s improper thoughts and behavior. They are two sides of the same coin. The Analects often uses words such as ‘introspection’ and ‘self-action’ to explain self-restraint. To restrain oneself from improper behavior, one must first be aware of it. To do this, one must engage in some self-reflection. Self-reflection is mainly done by comparing the virtuous with the unvirtuous through contact with others. Confucius said, “Learn from the strengths of the able and reflect on your mistakes.” (The Analects—Li Ren) Through introspection, one recognizes one’s bad behavior and then engages in self-criticism. Confucius said, “It is finished. I have never seen anyone who can see his own mistakes and yet reproach himself from within.” The meaning of this sentence is: there is no way that anyone can improve morally if he refuses to criticize himself for his faults. Confucius also believed that one must insist on constant and serious rigor, just as one does with bones, horns, ivory, and jade. Only through constant refinement could they be perfected. Ceng Shen, a disciple of Confucius, was a faithful practitioner of Confucius’ theories. Ceng Shen said, “Every day I reflect on myself again and again: Have I done my best for others? Have I kept my word with my friends? Have I put into practice what my teachers have taught

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me?” (The Analects—Xue Er) Even more important in achieving self-restraint is to constantly correct one’s faults. Confucius emphasized, “(Many people) do not cultivate their virtue, do not pursue their learning, do not hear righteousness and do not do it, and do not correct what is not good; these are the things I worry about.” (The Analects—Shu Er). He called on people to learn from the strengths of others and to correct their weaknesses at all times. He said, “There must be something I should learn from the words and actions of others. Choose what is good in others and learn from them, and when you see their faults, reflect on whether you have the same faults in yourself and correct them.” (ibid.) When one has reached the point where one has a clear conscience, one is considered a gentleman. What has been discussed above is moral cultivation restraining the negative. Moral cultivation can also be carried out positively learning and cultivating one’s good moral qualities. To motivate one’s high moral character, one must first study. Confucius attached great importance to education. By ‘learning,’ he meant learning to be a righteous person. The first sentence The Analects reads, “Is it not pleasant to learn and then often review what you have learned?” Confucius also makes a point of emphasizing that learning should have a moral purpose. He said, “The purpose of ancient scholars in learning was to cultivate their learning and morals, but the purpose of modern scholars is to adorn themselves and to show others.” (The Analects—Xian Wen) Confucius was in favor of the former and against the latter. Learning should be carried out in many ways. From the point of view of developing one’s moral qualities, Confucius believed that the main thing to remember was to learn the way of loving people and to learn rituals and music. In his view, learning rites would enable one to know how to enter and leave, respect the superior and the inferior, and be loyal, respectful, and righteous. The study of music will help one know harmony, beauty, and goodness and cultivate one’s temperament. Learning rituals and music directly enhances people’s benevolence. Confucius also advocated the study of the ancient classics, such as the Shi Jing, the Shu Jing, and the Yi Jing. He believed that one could directly learn the great principles of benevolence and righteousness from them. He said, “If you study the ancient cultural texts extensively and discipline yourself with rites, you will also be able to refrain from deviating from the scriptures.” (The Analects—Yong Yi) Zi Xia also said, “If one expands one’s knowledge and studies extensively, and if one can hold fast to one’s ambition, ask questions earnestly, and think more about current matters, benevolence and virtue will be found in it.” (The Analects—Zi Zhang) Confucius was not only concerned with learning but also with implementation. He said, “Disciples should be filial to their parents, respectful to their brothers and sisters, prudent and honest in word and deed, caring extensively for the people, and close to those who are benevolent, whether at home or abroad. After doing all these, if there is still time and energy left, it can be spent reading and learning about literature.” (The Analects—Xue Er) The process of practicing is a process of learning. Zi Xia said, “A person who values virtue over sex, who is devoted to his parents, who devotes himself to his country, and who makes friends who are true to their word, I consider him to have received a good education, even if he does not have a higher education.” (ibid) The cultivation and improvement of one’s human virtues are achieved through the study and practice of groveling.

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It is challenging to practice morality and cultivate one towards benevolence. In The Analects, it is written that Zi Gong said: “It is difficult to be poor and not to have resentment, but easy to be rich and not to be arrogant.” It is also written that Zigong said, “Though one is poor, one does not flatter; though one is rich, one is not arrogant. How is that?” Confucius said, “Not bad, but not as good as a poor man who enjoys moral self-improvement. Some are rich but who respect propriety.” It is still challenging to be poor and not resentful, rich and not arrogant. It is even more challenging to be poor but happy, rich but courteous. Confucius always praised those who could do this. He praised Yan Hui, saying, “What a great sage, Yan Hui! He served rice from a bamboo basket, drank water from a spoon, and lived in a humble alley. No one else could bear the sorrow of poverty, but Yan Hui could live happily. What a great sage, Yan Hui!” (The Analects—Yong Ye) Confucius did not easily promise people benevolence and said to himself, “If I am a saint or a benevolent person, how dare I am?” (The Analects—Shu Zi). Yan Hui had such a high level of moral cultivation that Confucius said he could never leave benevolence in his heart for a long time. To be benevolent is difficult, but benevolence lies in the fact that “to be benevolent is to give hard work first, and then to gain” (The Analects—Yong Ye). If one wants to be benevolent, benevolence can always be achieved. But this depends on subjective effort: “To practice, benevolence lies in oneself; does it lie in others?” What is the purpose of cultivating one’s moral character? Confucius has a clear answer to this question. In The Analects—Xian Wen, it is written that Zi Lu asked what makes a gentleman a gentleman. Confucius said, “Cultivate yourself to be respectful and serious.” Zi Lu said, “Is it enough to be like this?” Confucius said, “Cultivate yourself and make others happy.” Again Zi Lu asked, “Is it enough to be like this?” Confucius said, “Cultivate yourself and make the people happy. To cultivate oneself and make the people happy is something Yao and Shun probably feared would be difficult to achieve.” Later Confucianists gave great play to Confucius’ view and established a ladder theory of “cultivating oneself, preparing the family, ruling the country and pacifying the world.” For the first time in the history of Chinese ethical thought, Confucius explicitly raised the issue of the transformation of one’s moral qualities and established the prototype of a theory of moral cultivation. This is of great significance in the history of ethical thought. The Chinese tradition of attaching great importance to moral cultivation is closely linked to Confucius. Confucius told his disciples about his life of moral cultivation. In The Analects— Wei Zheng, Confucius said, at the age of fifteen, I set my mind to study, at the age of thirty, I was able to achieve something, at the age of forty, I no longer felt confused about things, at the age of fifty I knew what was beyond human control and was happy to see the will of God, at the age of sixty I was able to listen to all kinds of different opinions, at the age of seventy I could do as I pleased in the world without going beyond the rules. From this passage, we can see that Confucius believed that the highest state of moral cultivation should be “to think whatever is in one’s heart, without transgressing certain rules.” In this state, man is free morally. He has become one with the highest morality. Every thought is moral.

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5 Multi-level Ideal Personality of “Gentleman”, “Benevolent” and “Sage” The perfect character is closely related to moral cultivation and education. Confucius proposed a multi-level ideal of the human personality—the “gentleman,” the “benevolent,” and the “sage” to make moral education more effective and set real examples and goals for moral cultivation. The term “gentleman” existed in Western Zhou literature before the advent of Confucius. The Shang Shu and the Yi Jing contain numerous references to the “gentleman.” In the Book of Songs (Classic of Poetry), the word ‘gentleman’ is mentioned more than 150 times in Airs of the States, Major Court Hymns, and Lesser Court Hymns. On the one hand, Confucius inherited the tradition of treating the gentleman as a person in a high position. For example, “There is no such thing as a gentleman who is not benevolent, there is no such thing as a villain who is benevolent” (The Analects—Xian Wen), and “A gentleman who has courage but no righteousness is in chaos” (The Analects—Yang Huo). On the other hand, Confucius emphasizes the “gentleman” as a person of high moral character and a model of morality and believes that people should emulate such an ideal personality. The ‘gentleman’ as a perfect personality is meant here mainly in a moral sense. It does not necessarily refer to the person in power. According to Confucius, the “gentleman” always demands of himself the moral principle of benevolence. “A gentleman will always stay benevolent. Whether it is in haste and hurry, or when uprooted, he will remain benevolent.” (The Analects— Li Ren). Therefore, “Do not inflict on others what you do not like” and “let others cultivate their virtue and your own.” The moral qualities of humility, generosity, honesty, diligence, and charity are all qualities that a gentleman should possess. As filial piety and fraternal duty are the foundation of benevolence, the gentleman attaches particular importance. When a gentleman has good moral character, he can also have good moral sentiments. A gentleman’s mood is always open and broad. In The Analects, there are sayings go like, “A gentleman’s mind should be bright and straight.” (The Analects—Shu Er) “A gentleman can keep his mind free from sorrow and fear in the face of affairs.” (The Analects—Yan Yuan) “A man can remain peaceful and comfortable but not proud when he gets praised.” (The Analects—Yao Yue) “A gentleman is serious and not casual in what he does. He is respectful and courteous in his dealings with others.” (The Analects—Yan Yuan) “A gentleman must be well-mannered and polite with people.” (The Analects—Yong Ye) “If you don’t understand objective laws, you cannot be a gentleman.” (The Analects—Yong Ye) “A gentleman is supposed to behave honestly.” (The Analects—Xian Wen) A gentleman can get along well with himself and share cooperate with others. A gentleman is united with others rather than colluding with them. (The Analects— Wei Zheng) A gentleman will not be competitive with others or gang upon them. Instead, he will be humbled and approachable. (The Analects—Wei Ling Gong) A gentleman will not flatter nor follow blindly but will tolerate and respect different views despite disagreeing with them. (The Analects—Zi Lu) A gentleman is willing

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to fulfill the good deeds of others but does not promote the evil deeds of others. (The Analects—Yan Yuan) A gentleman can both agree with his words and keep his promises. (The Analects—Ji Shi) A gentleman can do what he says he will do. (The Analects—Zi Lu) A gentleman abhors talking big. He is willing to do more but is unwilling to promise what he cannot do. (The Analects—Xian Wen) The “gentleman” is also strict with himself and never hides his faults or mistakes. “Gentlemen’s faults are like solar eclipse and lunar eclipse. If they commit faults, people can see them; if they correct the faults, people will look up to them.” (The Analects—Zi Zhang). This means that a “gentleman” is not someone free from faults and mistakes, but someone open and honest, who can openly criticize himself and seriously correct his errors. A gentleman does not complain even when he is not reappointed but will demand strictly of himself to do better, for he is a man of high moral character. “Not being well understood, but I neither complain nor get angry.” (The Analects—Xue Er). “A gentleman is only afraid he isn’t capable, but don’t be afraid no one well knows him.” (The Analects—Wei Ling Gong). “Don’t be afraid that others don’t understand you.” You should be afraid that you don’t understand others. “(The Analects—Xue Er) Gentlemen are afraid that their names will not be praised after their death.” (The Analects—Wei Ling Gong). Gentlemen have their eyes on justice. (The Analects—Li Ren) When the country was well-governed, he came out as an official; when severely governed, he hid his talents and ceased to be an official. (The Analects—Wei Ling Gong) In life, “gentlemen seek neither sufficient food nor comfortable lives.” (The Analects—Xue Er) Even if they eat with a bamboo utensil for holding cooked rice, drink with a spoon, or sleep on their bent arms, they can still live in poverty, not complaining about God or others, and always keeping a happy mood. In short, Confucius described an ‘ideal personality’ with what he considered to be high moral qualities for the ruling class and for people of all types at the time. Since then, the concept of the ‘gentleman’ has come to refer less to the reigning aristocrat and more to an ‘ideal personality’ and a ‘moral state.’ Everyone was expected to be a “gentleman.” This no longer means that one should be a reigning aristocrat in terms of social status but that one should be a person of high quality. In addition to the ideal personality of the ‘gentleman,’ Confucius also emphasized the ‘benevolent’ or ‘benevolent human being.’ The latter seems to be nobler than the former. Confucius believed that there were very few people who could be considered benevolent, and in The Analects, it says: Wei Zi left King Zhou of Shang, Min Zi became his slave, and Bi Gan was killed for his strong advice. Confucius said, “There were three benevolent men in the Yin dynasty!” (The Analects—Wei Zi) Zi Lu said, “Huan Gong killed his brother Gongztu Jiu, Zhao Hu died a martyr, but Guan Zhong didn’t commit suicide. Guan Zhong should not be considered a man of humanity, should he?” Confucius said, “Huan Gong called dukes and princes under his regime to handle problems according to reaching unanimity through consultation instead of arms. It was well done only because Guan Zhong had secretly exerted his

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efforts. This is the humanity of Guan Zhong. This is the humanity of Guan Zhong.” (The Analects—Xian Wen) Zi Gong asked, “Guan Zhong should not be considered a man of humanity, should he? Huan Gong killed his brother Gongztu Jiu. He didn’t sacrifice his life for Gongztu Jiu, and worse of all, he became Huan Gong’s premier instead.” Confucius said, “Guan Zhong helped Huan Gong unify the whole country by lording it over dukes and princes under his regime. Only because of this, our people are still enjoying his favor. Without Guan Zhong, I’m afraid we would still be suffering from foreign invasion. So, how can we ask Guan Zhong to commit suicide secretly in the wild just like an ordinary people who rigidly adheres to trivial matters only?” (ibid) In this light, a benevolent person doesn’t need to be a man of little faith. It is a benevolent person who leaves a wicked and cruel king and then cleans himself up. A person willing to suffer humiliation to pass on benevolence and social civility to future generations are benevolent. A person who advises a wicked and cruel ruler to abandon evil and follow well at the risk of their life is benevolent. Instead of the usual loyalty, a person who supported two monarchs stopped wars, righted the world, and did well to the people is also a benevolent person. Anyone who is a man of power who does not compromise the principles of benevolence and does his utmost to implement them can be called a benevolent person. A benevolent person is a highly desirable personality who possesses a higher moral character: Confucius said: “A person without benevolence will not remain sober and binding for long, and likewise will not experience joy and happiness for long. A person with benevolence will be at peace at all times and in all places, and the wise and intelligent will use this benevolence well to do many things.” (The Analects—Li Ren) Confucius said, “Only those who are benevolent know how to love people and how to hate them.” (ibid) Confucius said, “A benevolent man will not worry, a wise man will not be confused, and a brave man will not be afraid.” Tzu Kung said, “The original intention is to speak of the good of others, but in fact, it is the right way to do it oneself.” (The Analects—Xian Wen) Confucius said, “He who is moral must be speechful, and he who is speechful is not necessarily moral. A benevolent man must be brave, but no brave man is necessarily benevolent.” (ibid) Confucius said: “… A man with a benevolent heart … must, first of all, be sufficiently puffed up himself and also willing to give generously to all…” (The Analects—Yong Ye) Confucius said, “A benevolent person can practice the five virtues everywhere.” Zi Zhang said, “Which five, may I ask?” Confucius said, “Dignity, generosity, honesty, diligence, and kindness.” (The Analects—Yang Cai) Confucius said, “If it comes to saintliness and benevolence, how dare I will be! But if one strives (in the direction of saintliness and benevolence) and does not feel tired of doing it, and never feels tired of teaching others, then one can say so.” Gong Xihua said, “This is exactly what we cannot learn.” (The Analects—Shu Er)

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Confucius said, “The aspirant and benevolent man will never do anything to compromise benevolence for the sake of his own life, but would rather sacrifice his own life to achieve benevolence.” (The Analects—Wei Ling Gong) We can see that a benevolent person has highly high moral qualities and sentiments from the above. It can be said that a benevolent person is the most perfect and noble gentleman. It is not only the aggregate and embodiment of all noble moral qualities but also the ideal personality that a gentleman strives to attain. The Analects record that Zi Chan himself had a solemn and respectful attitude to his appearance. He was responsible and conscientious towards his ruler. He taught his people kindness and served them with reason. When he was appointed to the post of magistrate several times, he did not look happy. When he was dismissed several times, he did not look resentful. He told his successor all his orders and was very loyal to the state. Chen Wenzi did not serve with those who killed the ruler or those who violated his superiors, and he was very clean. However, they were both only gentlemen. The difference between a benevolent man and a gentleman seems equivalent to the ideal personality’s highest and the lowest requirements. In addition to the gentleman and the benevolent man, Confucius also proposed the ideal personality of the sage. The sage is a more assertive perfect personality than the gentleman and the benevolent person. It is difficult for ordinary people to achieve this. Therefore, Confucius did not ask people to be saints. As written in The Analects—Yong Ye, Zi Gong said, “If a person can benefit the people extensively and help them live well, how is this person? Can he be said to have benevolence and virtue?” Confucius said, “Where is benevolence and virtue, it must be holy virtue! Yao and Shun probably could hardly do that!”

6 Thoughts of “Govern by Virtue” Confucius had grand ambitions. He saw himself not only as the inheritor and transmitter of the culture of the Zhou dynasty but also as a savior of the world who was not appreciated by the ruling class. Confucius sought to apply his ethical propositions to social politics. He thus established a system of ethical–political thought in which the state was governed by virtue. The famous ancient Greek thinker Aristotle also discussed many critical ethical issues in his Politics. But he had a separate work devoted to ethics. In the history of Chinese thought, Confucius pioneered a system of ethics and politics that united ethics and politics. He led his disciples in lobbying the lords and states to promote his ethical and political ideas. Although Confucius was not very successful as a political activist, his far-sightedness had many valid elements. The feudal rulers after the Qin dynasty adopted the concept of ‘rule by virtue’ to a large extent. The use of feudal morality to brainwash the people contributed to the continuation of feudal rule in China for two millennia. Here, “rule by morality” means strengthening moral probation and moral education to improve people’s ethical awareness and honest quality. The “rule by ritual” means to use the social and political system, moral code, and customs of the ruling

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class to restrain the people. Confucius aimed to teach the rulers not to be passive in security but active in policing. Confucius summed up the experience of ruling at the time and throughout history to defend the rule of the enslavers. He inherited his ideas from the Shang Shu, which states that “morality should be revered to defend the country and the society,” “the five blessings should be used to reward the subjects,” “the six unlucky things should be used to punish the subjects,” and “more favors should be given, and less punishment should be used.” And the so-called “more favors, fewer punishments.” based on the above, Confucius put forward his famous theory of ruling the country by virtue. Confucius said clearly: “If governing a country by education in morality, a lord will be like the Big Dipper which is located in its orientation with all-stars around it.” (The Analects—Wei Zheng) Confucius said, “If a lord guides his people with orders and restrains them. Yet, if a lord guides his people by education in morality and uses proprieties to make However if a lord guides his people by education in morality and uses proprieties to make his people’s words and deeds kept in line, then the people will not only have a sense of shame but also try to abide.” (ibid.) From these two passages, Confucius clearly states that in the long run, morality can play a more critical role than politics and law in consolidating the rule of the ruling class and safeguarding their vested interests. A king cannot rule the people well by relying only on the political and legal dictatorship to suppress them. However, the people were afraid to commit crimes for fear of punishment. But they do not realize that it is shameful to commit crimes. So the possibility of people committing further crimes still exists. Only if they were guided by morality and restrained by rituals would they be ashamed to commit crimes. The phrase ‘if a lord guides his people by education in morality” means to strengthen moral probation and moral education to raise people’s ethical awareness and honest quality. “… uses proprieties to make his people’s words. He uses proprieties to make his people’s words, and deeds kept inline” means to use the ruling class’s socio-political system, moral codes, and customs to discipline people. Confucius aimed to teach the rulers not to be passive in policing but active. Lenin stated that: All oppressive classes need two social functions to maintain their rule: one is the executioner, and the other is the herdsman. The executioner’s task is to suppress the revolt and riots of the oppressed. The pastor’s mission is to comfort the oppressed by giving them a prospect of less suffering and sacrifice under conditions of preserved class rule (which is particularly convenient, as long as there is no guarantee that this prospect will be “realized” ……) and thus to make them submit to that rule, to abandon revolutionary action, to dampen their extreme enthusiasm and to undermine their fierce resolve.3 In Zuo Zhuan—The Twentieth Year of Shao Gong, it is said that: Confucius was arguably the first person in the history of Chinese ethical thought to realize these two functions of the ruling class.

3

Lenin Collected Works, 2nd edition in Chinese, vol. 26, 248 p., Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1988.

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Zi Chan of Zheng became ill. He said to Zi Da Shu, “You must be in charge after my death. Only a man of high moral character can make the people obey a generous policy, and there is no more effective policy than rigidity. For example, fire is so strong that the people look upon it and fear it so that few are burnt to death. But water is soft, and many die in the water when the people are close to it and play with it so that a generous policy is difficult to carry out.” Zi Chan died after several months of illness. When Da Shu ruled, he could not bear to be harsh but administered a policy of leniency and softness. As a result, there were many thieves in Zheng. They recruited men from the swamps. Da Shu regretted this and said, “If I had listened to Zi Zhan, I would not have come to this.” Da Shu sent his infantry to attack the thieves in the swamp and killed them all, and the thieves were only slightly stopped. Confucius said, “Good! If the people are lenient in their policies, they will be lax; if they are flexible, they will be corrected by a firm policy. When people are hurt, they are updated by a policy of leniency. The politics are thus reconciled by tempering severity with leniency; and by supplementing leniency with severity. The so-called “leniency” is what Lenin called the function of a priest, while the so-called “fierceness” is what Lenin called the function of an executioner. Confucius’ idea of “government by virtue” was developed from this idea of “leniency and fierceness” and is also an application of the ethical notion of “benevolence,” i.e., “love of man,” in politics. “It is also the political application of the ethical ideal of ‘benevolence”. A ruling class cannot maintain its rule by force, politics, or law alone for long. Strict regulations can go some way to stop people from committing crimes. But the, people must realize that it is shameful to commit crimes. Otherwise, even if the law is extremely harsh, it will not have the desired effect. Based on the principles of “loving others” and “courtesy, magnanimity, sincerity, diligence, and kindness.” Confucius used morality to regulate relations between people and create a solid social opinion so that people would consciously uphold the hierarchy from the inside and thus achieve long-term peace. Although this idea of Confucius was in the service of the ruling class, it had its validity. In Chinese history, the legalists in the Confucian-French struggle were once representatives of the politically progressive forces and the landowning course, which was adapted to the requirements of social development. However, the one-sided emphasis on “strict law” and “rule by law” and the opposition to promoting benevolence and morality led to amoralism. As a result, after the unification of the Six Kingdoms, the state of Qin was unable to maintain a consolidated regime despite the complete application of legalism and was soon overthrown. Since then, successive generations of feudal rulers learned from the experience of the Qin Dynasty and drew the lesson that rulers should make full use of benevolence, justice, and morality, as well as ethics and punishment, to maintain their rule. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Jia Yi clarified: “The function of ritual is to stop an act before it happens. On the other hand, the law punishes an act that has already taken place. Therefore the role of law is evident while the part of the ritual is challenging to perceive.” (The Book of Han—Jia Yi). “The ruler who chooses to rule with propriety and righteousness accumulates propriety and righteousness. A ruler who chooses to rule by punishment will accumulate punishment. When the punishment has accumulated

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to a certain extent, the people will complain and betray the ruler. When manners and righteousness accumulate to a certain extent, the people will be harmonious and close to the court.” “Those who enlighten with morality and improvement, as morality and edification reach the people’s hearts, the people will be harmonious and happy. Those who punish by decree, as the decree is used to the extreme, the people will be sorrowful. The feelings of sorrow and happiness are the things that fulfill the blessings of woe.” (Ibid.) Thus, after centuries of indifference, Confucius’ idea of moral rule finally gained the attention of the feudal rulers. Confucius further derived the idea that the ruler himself had to be virtuous to govern the country well from the concept of “government by virtue.” Ji Kangzi asked how to manage government affairs. Confucius said, “By saying government affairs, it means that everything must be done correctly. Since you take the lead in taking a right way, who dare not to follow you?” (The Analects—Yan Yuan) Confucius also said, “What difficulties will crop up if you behave well? How can you ask others to behave well if you cannot correct your behavior?” “So long as the leaders behave well, the people will follow you even if no orders are issued. Otherwise, the people won’t follow you even if orders are given.” (The Analects—Zi Lu) Confucius made an analogy when he said, “If you want to do good works, people will follow you. A person in a high position is just like the wind. At the same time, a person in a low position is just like grass. When the wind blows on grass, grass will certainly topple and fall.” (The Analects—Yan Yuan) From another point of view, Confucius’ ideas have a positive meaning. If the social climate is terrible and the people are not behaving correctly, should the people be blamed, or should the ruler be condemned? Should the people be accused, or should the ruler be blamed? In Confucius’ view, it is not the ruled ‘little people, the common people, and those at the bottom of the hierarchy, but the ‘lords,’ the ‘gentlemen’ and the rulers at the top who should be blamed for this situation. Therefore, the behavior and ideology of the ruling class play an important role in the politics of the state. Based on this understanding, Confucius proposed the idea of “promoting the virtuous to the throne.” Confucius believed that it was necessary to choose people of talent and virtue without disturbing the patriarchal system of the enslaved people. These views reflect a certain degree of enlightenment in Confucius’ political thinking. Confucius’ theory of rule by virtue also contains a set of specific political measures. In The Analects, it is written: Confucius went to the country, Wei. Ran You drove the cart for him. Confucius said, “There are so many people!” Ran You said, “This country has enough people. What else has to be done?” Confucius said, “Make them rich.” You said, “What else has to be done after getting rich?” Confucius said, “Make them educated.” (The Analects—Zi Lu) Zi Gong asked how to manage government affairs. Confucius said, “You should have abundant grain, sufficient troops, and people’s trust.” Zi Gong said, “If I have to remove one of them, which one should be taken off first?” Confucius said, “Take off sufficient troops.” Zi Gong said, “If I have to remove another one, which one should be taken off?” Confucius said, “Take off abundant grain. There must have people to

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die ever since ancient times. If you lose people’s trust, the state will be unable to exist.” (The Analects—Yan Yuan) Zi Lu asked Confucius, “If the lord of the country Wei is waiting for you to help him manage political affairs, what will you set about?” Confucius said, “I’ll make everything fully justified first.” Zi Lu said, “Is it? I think you’re a bit too pedantic. What’s the use to make things fully justified first?” Confucius said, “But your idea is rather superficial. As for what they don’t understand, gentlemen usually reserve their views. If you don’t make things fully justified first, what you say will be unreasonable. If so, you’ll accomplish 272 nothing. If so, you’ll be unable to make laws take root in the people’s hearts. If so, the penalty will be unfair. And if so, the people won’t know what to do. So, whatever they do, gentlemen must make them reasonable. And whatever they say, they make them workable. When speaking, gentlemen mustn’t be careless.” (The Analects—Zi Lu) The lord of the country Qi, Jing Gong, asked Confucius how to manage government affairs. Confucius said: “A lord should be like a lord. A courtier should be like a courtier. A father should be as a father. A son should be like a son.” (The Analects—Yan Yuan) Confucius said, “Fan Chi is really as short-sighted as mice. So long as the leaders observe law and discipline, the people won’t dare to stand in awe of them. So long as the leaders stand for justice, the people won’t dare to follow them. So long as the leaders pay much attention to honesty, people won’t dare to treat you wholeheartedly. If so, the people will come to you from afar and near, supporting the old and 274 carrying the young.” (The Analects—Zi Lu) Confucius said, “If leaders worship moral standards, the masses are easy to lead.” (The Analects—Xian Wen) Confucius said, “When administering a country in possession of a thousand military chariots, you should strictly and cautiously handle the major national affairs, keep your promises, cut down expenses and value talented people, and remind farmers not to miss the farming season.” (The Analects—Xue Er) The above quotations show that Confucius’ theory of ruling the state by virtue is systematic. There are two aspects to the governance of a state: the relationship between the ruling class and the led class and the relationship within the ruling class. In the former case, Confucius advocated that the people should first be enriched and then educated with rites and morals to willingly accept their servitude. The ruler must not drive and oppress the people unscrupulously but must give due consideration to their interests and grant them the necessary favors. For the latter, Confucius advocated a strict hierarchy of names and divisions. People were to be assigned to their respective roles according to the rules of ritual and not to overstep them. Confucius was always on the side of the supreme ruler among the various classes within the ruling class. His ideas on rectifying names were also in the service of the supreme ruler’s maintenance of his dominant position. In The Analects—Ji Shi, it is said that the political clarity of the kingdom meant that the Emperor gave the orders for rituals, music, and conquests; the charges for traditions, music, and conquests were provided by the vassals, which were a sign of the chaos under which the kingdom was governed. If the vassals gave the orders,

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there were very few that did not lose them after ten generations; if the lords gave the orders, there were very few that did not fail them after five generations; if the vassals of the lords held the state power, there were very few that did not lose them after three generations. When the country’s government is transparent, the state’s control will not be in the hands of the great officials; when the world’s governments are fine, the ordinary people will not discuss the country’s government. Confucius’ moral rule aimed to restore the so-called “way of the world,” where the Son of Heaven was the sole ruler, maintaining the patriarchal system of “being close to one’s relatives and respecting those in positions of honor.” Respect for the virtuous and the capable, and the giving of benefits to the people, all serve this fundamental purpose. There is an element of truth in Confucius’ theory of “governing the state by moral principles” that emphasizes the importance of moral means in governing and the role of the moral qualities of the rulers themselves in politics. His ideas were developed by later Confucian scholars such as Mencius, making the doctrine of ethical governance even more complete in its theoretical form.

7 The Righteousness-Benefit View of Righteousness Comes Before Interest” The question of the relationship between righteousness and profit, or in other words, the relationship between the highest principles of morality and people’s interests, is an essential issue in ethics. In the history of Chinese ethical thought, Confucius was the first to realize the importance of this issue consciously and put forward the moral theory of righteousness before profit.

7.1 About “Righteousness Before Profit” In the history of Chinese ethical thought, the concept of “righteousness” existed before Confucius. Confucius attached particular importance to righteousness, saying, “A the superior men’s righteousness is the essence, his etiquette is the way to go, his modest is the way out, and his faith is the way to become. That is the superior men!” (The Analects of Confucius—Wei Ling Gong) Confucius advocated righteousness as the highest priority and the supreme rule for all actions. He said, “A the superior men’s righteousness is paramount.” (The Analects of Confucius—Yangcai). “Righteousness” generally has two meanings: firstly, it refers to the requirements of various forms of behavior in a particular society, i.e. the rules and requirements of society on people’s duties and responsibilities; secondly, it refers to the most fundamental guiding ideology and guiding principles that run through these norms of behavior. The word “righteousness” also means appropriate, that is to say, desirable.

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Of course, the so-called righteousness and desirability are presupposed in a class society. According to Confucius, “righteousness” is the highest moral principle. It was the same as “benevolence” at that time, and it could also refer to the moral system guided by this principle. What meets the requirements of this system is moral and righteous; otherwise, it is immoral and unrighteous. What is ‘profit’? The ancient Chinese thinkers were generally consistent in their understanding of righteousness, but they had much less in common in their understanding of profit. Generally speaking, there are at least three understandings of ‘profit’: First, it refers exclusively to the private interests of individuals; Second, it refers exclusively to the public interests of the state, the people and the world; Third, it refers to both private and public interests. What is more, personal self-interest can be further divided into legitimate personal interests and illegitimate personal interests. Thus, in the history of Chinese ethical thought, profit can be understood in five different ways: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

The legitimate, necessary and lawful personal interests; Selfish, greedy, illegitimate personal interests; the public interest of the state, the people and the world; Both public and legitimate personal interests; both the public interest and all legitimate and illegitimate private interests.

Chinese ethical thinkers have had many different or even opposite meanings of ‘profit’, which has led to many controversies. Sometimes a thinker’s understanding of ‘profit’ is different or even contradictory at different times, on different occasions or when faced with different issues. Confucius interpreted ‘profit’ in a narrow sense. Generally speaking, ‘profit’, as opposed to ‘righteousness’, does not refer to the interests of the state or society but one’s interests. Confucius realized that to live up to the moral principles of society and meet specific moral requirements, one must oppose private and unjustified greed. According to Confucius, the relationship between righteousness and profit, among the many possible choices of moral behavior, is an important, if not the only, criterion for moral evaluation. First of all, Confucius regarded the question of righteousness and profit as an essential criterion for moral evaluation. For Confucius, the fundamental difference between a moral man and an immoral man is his attitude between moral principles and unjustified greed. What Confucius meant is what he said, “The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness”, i.e. the superior man knows only the importance of righteousness and consciously seeks to conform to it in all his actions. On the other hand, a person without morality only knows how to satisfy his interests but does not know how to make his actions conform to the highest moral principles. That is what Confucius meant when he said that ‘the mind of the mean man is conversant with gain.’ This statement has been taken as an essential principle by later Confucianists and has had a significant impact on the history of ethical thought. Secondly, Confucius accepted the importance of “profit” and recognized that under certain conditions, as long as particular personal interests were in line with moral principles, i.e. legitimate personal interests, then it was desirable to receive

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them. “If I can get rich, even if I have to drive a cart, I will do it; if not, I will do what I like.” (The Analects of Confucius—Shu Zi) If wealth and money can be sought, that is in accordance with the principle of righteousness, I am willing to drive a cart with a whip; if it cannot be sought, then let me do what I like. On the other hand, “Glory and riches obtained by improper means are as meaningless to me as a cloud in the sky.” (Analects of Confucius—Shu-wei). Confucius therefore argues that when it comes to personal gain, one must first consider whether such personal gain is in accordance with moral principles, which is what Confucius calls ‘to see profit and think of righteousness’ (Analects—Xianwen) and ‘to see gain and think of righteousness’ (Analects—Ji Shi). In this context, both ‘profit’ and ‘gain’ refer to personal interests, while ‘righteousness’ refers to moral principles. Confucius said, “If one acts in the interest of profit, one will be resented by many people” (Analects of Confucius—Liren), which means that if one indulges oneself and only cares about one’s own personal interests, one will definitely attract the resentment of many people. Confucius also said, “Wealth and nobility are man’s desires, but if one does not obtain them in the right way, one will not be able to live with them.” (ibid.) It is also clear from these words that moral men will take wealth and status as long as they deserve it, while they will not be willing to gain those things in an immoral way. Confucius did not explicitly distinguish between public and private profits or tremendous and small profits. Nevertheless, he clearly showed his attitude to opposing the short-term and small profits and to advocating long-term interests in his words. In the Analects of Confucius, Zi Lu says: “When Zi Xia was the official of Jufu, he asked about how to govern the place. Confucius said: ‘No desire for speed, no desire for petty gain. If one wants speed, one cannot achieve it, and if one sees small gains, one cannot achieve great things.’” Confucius’ pupil, Zi Xia, an official in Jufu, asked Confucius for advice on conducting government affairs. Confucius’ reply shows that he was not opposed to every profit but only stressed the importance of not seeking temporary and immediate gains but instead considering the more significant and long-term profits. Because “if one sees small gains, one will not achieve great things”. The “great things” mentioned here are what Confucius called “tremendous profits”. In the Analects of Confucius, Tzu Chang said, ‘What is the meaning of beneficence without the expense?’ He said, ‘If we benefit the people for their good, is this not also a benefit without cost?’” Confucius’ pupil, Zi Zhang, wanted to know how he could govern the people so that they would receive favors and benefits without expending much money and material resources. It was a difficult question to answer. Confucius replied that the ruler should guide the people to develop their interests in the areas they could benefit from so that the people would be motivated and become rich themselves. Again, Confucius did not oppose profits and advocated that rulers should not be too strict with their citizens but should guide and support the people to seek their profits according to their actual situation. This idea of Confucius contains a progressive element and appropriate content in dealing with the people’s profits. The influence of Confucius’ views on the issues of righteousness and profit, though not as detailed as those of benevolence and propriety, was nevertheless significant.

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For more than two thousand years after Confucius and up to the modern era, the longstanding debate on righteousness and profit in the history of Chinese ethical thought could be said to have begun with Confucius. Although Confucius advocated that righteousness should come first, he did not deny the importance of profit. However, Confucius failed to distinguish between ‘private gain’ and ‘public gain’. Therefore, it seems that he is opposed to all profits in some places.

7.2 “The Mind of the Superior Man is Conversant with Righteousness; the Mind of the Mean Man is Conversant with Gain” The question of righteousness and profit is a crucial element of Confucius’ thought. From the chapters which are related to the relationship of righteousness and profit in the Analects of Confucius, Confucius advocates “seeing profit and thinking of righteousness”, “seeing gain and thinking of righteousness”, and “righteousness as the highest”. Therefore, we can say that Confucius’ thinking puts righteousness before profit, and when righteousness and profit are in conflict and cannot be reconciled, he emphasizes that if it is not in line with “righteousness”, he should give up profit and follow righteousness. Confucius opposed only seeing small profits and neglecting the “big things”. He pointed out that “if one sees only small profits, one will not be able to achieve big things”. He preferred far-sightedness rather than short-sightedness. Confucius once said, “If I can get rich, even if I have to drive a cart, I will do it; if not, I will do what I like.” This means that Confucius was not only not opposed to wealth and profit that were in line with “righteousness”, but also tried to obtain it (the present-day Tang Yue translates “a man with a whip” as the driver, which is instructive). As for the interests of the ordinary people, Confucius made it clear that he should try to satisfy them as far as possible, saying “benefit the people for their benefit”, that is to say, where they can benefit, they should benefit. Confucius believed that “if one acts just for profits, there will be much resentment”, which means that if one only chases for-profits, one will incur much resentment. In short, in the relationship between righteousness and profit, Confucius is not against ‘profit’, nor does he despise ‘profit’ or belittle ‘profit’, but his fundamental idea is not to be ‘profit-oriented’. In other words, one should not be “profit-oriented” or “forget righteousness in the face of profit”, and when “taking” or “gaining”, one should consider whether it is in line with “righteousness”. (One) In discussing Confucius’ idea of righteousness and profit, the interpretation of the phrase “the superior men are guided by righteousness and the mean men by profit” has become a key to understanding Confucius’ idea of righteousness and profit. For a long time, people’s misunderstanding of this passage has led to the erroneous

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conclusion that Confucius was “low on profit and high on righteousness”. Therefore, the original meaning of this passage should be carefully analyzed. In the Analects of Confucius, there are 19 comparisons and discussions between the “the superior men” and the “the mean men” as follows: “The superior man is catholic and not partisan. The mean man is partisan and not catholic.” (Analects, Wezheng); “The the superior men think of virtue; the small man thinks of comfort. The superior man thinks of the sanctions of law; the small man thinks of favors which he may receive.” (The Analects of Confucius—Liren); “The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is conversant with gain.” (ibid.); “The superior man is satisfied and composed; the mean man is always full of distress.” (The Analects of Confucius—Liren) “The superior man seeks to perfect the admirable qualities of men, and does not seek to perfect their bad qualities. The mean man does the opposite of this.” (Analects of Confucius—Yan Yuan); “The superior man has a dignified ease without pride. The mean man has pride without a dignified ease.” (Analects of Confucius—Zi Lu); “What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others.” (Analects—Wei Ling Gong); “The progress of the superior man is upwards; the progress of the mean man is downwards.” (Analects—Xian Wen); “The superior man is easy to serve and difficult to please……The mean man is difficult to serve, and easy to please.” (Analects of Confucius—Zilu); “Superior men, and yet not always virtuous, there have been, alas! But there never has been a mean man, and, at the same time, virtuous.” (Analects of Confucius—Xianqian); “The superior man may indeed have to endure want, but the mean man, when he is in want, gives way to unbridled license.” “The superior man cannot be known in minor matters, but he may be entrusted with significant concerns. The small man may not be entrusted with significant concerns, but he may be known in tiny matters.” (ibid.); “There are three things the superior man stands in awe. He stands in awe of the ordinances of Heaven. He stands in awe of great men. He stands in awe of the words of sages. The mean man does not know the ordinances of Heaven and consequently does not stand in awe of them. He is disrespectful to great men. He makes sport of the words of sages.” (Analects—Ji Shi); “When the man of high station is well instructed, he loves men; when the man of low station is well instructed, he is easily ruled.” (Analects—Yang Huo); “The relation between superiors and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend when the wind blows across it.” (Analects of Confucius—Yan Yuan); “The Master said to Zi Xia, “Do you be a scholar after the style of the superior man, and not after that of the mean man.” (Analects of Confucius—Yong Yi); “The faults of the superior man are like the eclipses of the sun and moon.” (Analects of Confucius—Zi Zhang); “The mean man is sure to gloss his faults.” (ibid.); “The superior man is affable, but not adulatory; the mean man is adulatory, but not affable.” (Analects—Zilu) From the above contrast between the superior men and the mean men, it can be seen that Confucius, when making this contrast, started from three different requirements and thus has three different meanings. Firstly, it is a generalisation of the ideology, virtue, capacity, style, likes and dislikes of both the superior men and the mean men; for example, “A the superior men are open and honest, but the mean men are long and kind” and “A the superior

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men are open and honest, but the mean men are long and kind”. “A the superior man is virtuous, but the mean man is earthy; the superior man is punitive, but the mean men are beneficent; the superior man is prideful, but not arrogant; the mean man is prideful, but not arrogant”. Generally speaking, “the superior man” was considered a member of the ruling class (i.e. a hereditary nobleman) and, at the same time, referred to as a moral person. However, in some exceptional cases, “the superior men” referred exclusively to people in power, as Confucius said: “There are those among the superior men who do not have benevolence, but there are none among the mean men who have benevolence.” The sentence means that among the “the superior men”, there are also “unkind” people. The “the mean men” refers to people who are not in power and are generally considered unethical. More often than not, the generalisation of ‘the superior men’ and ‘the mean men’ is made in moral terms. The two words are usually used to compare “moral” and “immoral” people. Secondly, it compares the morality, personality and political attitudes of “the superior men” and “the mean men” in the society of that time and their social roles, illustrating the role of “the superior men” and “the mean men” in the interpersonal relations of the time. For example, “A the superior man is poor, but the mean man is poor and abusive”, “A the superior men are proud but not arrogant, but the mean men are arrogant but not arrogant”, “A the superior men learn the way and loves people, but the mean men learns the way and is easy to make”, “A the superior men learn the way and loves people, but the mean men learn the way and is easy to make.” The superior man is a man of virtue, but not a vice. The mean men are the opposite. The little man does not know the Mandate of Heaven and does not fear it, but he is intimate with the adults and insults the words of the sages. Confucius particularly emphasized the moral qualities of “the superior men”, his thought and behavior, and his style of governance, which had an educative and edifying effect on society, and criticized the wrong behavior of those without morals in interpersonal relations. Confucius said: “The virtue of the superior men is the wind, but the virtue of the mean men is the grass. The wind blew, and the grass will be laid down”, which is what he meant. Thirdly, in judging the virtues of the “the superior men” and the “the mean men”, many essential criteria for moral evaluation are proposed, such as “the superior men is a metaphor for righteousness, while the mean men is a metaphor for profit” and “the superior men is a metaphor for profit”. In order to evaluate people morally, it is necessary to set out the criteria on which the evaluation is based. Fundamentally, Confucius takes ‘ren’ as the highest standard of moral evaluation. Anyone who fulfils the requirements of Ren is moral, while any thought or action that goes against Ren is, of course, immoral. Thus, “benevolence” and “unbenevolence” are the most fundamental criteria Confucius distinguishes between morality and immorality. In applying this criterion, Confucius also put forward various criteria according to different situations, and the most important one is that “the superior men metaphorically refer to righteousness, while the mean men metaphorically refer to profit”.

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(Two) The meaning of “The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness, and the mean men by profits.” has been debated throughout the history of Chinese ethical thought. Different interpretations of this sentence still influence our understanding of Confucius’ thoughts on righteousness and profits and our overall understanding of pre-Qin Confucianism. From the pre-Qin dynasty to the Song dynasty, most thinkers interpreted the sentence as a definition or generalisation of the personality of ‘the superior men’ and ‘the mean men’, arguing that the sentence means that the superior men know only righteousness while the mean men know only profit. Zhu Xi said in his commentary: “Yu (yu) means to know, and righteousness is what is appropriate to the principles of Heaven, while profit is what is desired by human feelings. Cheng Zi said: “A the superior men’s righteousness is like the mean men’s profit, but it is only because of his deep metaphor that he is good.” (Chapter and Verse of the Four Books—Chapter and Verse of the University) In other words, when the superior man encounters a matter, he must distinguish between right and wrong and put righteousness before profit, thinking of righteousness when he sees it, while the mean men only know how to consider profit and harm when he encounters a matter, doing what is profitable and not doing what is unprofitable. This is, of course, the meaning of the saying, “The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness, while the mean men are guided by profit”. However, on the other hand, the more general meaning of the phrase is that Confucius proposes a criterion for judging morality and immorality. As a criterion of moral evaluation, it requires people to set their minds to it, to make constant efforts, to follow this criterion, to examine and discipline themselves, to practice it diligently, to form habits so that they can be profoundly moral in their behavior and to act with integrity, thus becoming the superior men. On the other hand, if people only seek official status and use knowledge to show off (like today’s scholars). Furthermore, if they think and act only for their profits daily, they are bound to take self-profits as the motive for all their actions and fall deeply into the quagmire of pursuing self-profits. Even if he is “the superior man”, such a person is bound to degenerate into an immoral “the mean men”. Thus, defining the sentence as a criterion for moral evaluation is clear, but it is not the same as a generalisation of the character and personality of “the superior men” and “the mean men”. A “the superior man”, or a moral person, may become “the mean man” if he does not hold himself to the standard of “righteousness”. A “little man”, if he can hold himself to this standard, may also become “the superior man”. In this sense, we can understand more comprehensively and accurately what Confucius meant when he said the sentence. Lu Jiuyuan, a famous ethicist of the Song Dynasty, understood it. (Three) Lu Jiuyuan and Zhu Xi were two famous ethicists of the Song Dynasty. In 1175, when they met at Goose Lake Temple, one of the major issues they debated was how to make people change their temperaments in order to become saints and sages. Zhu Xi “wanted to make people look at the world in general and then return to the covenant”,

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while Lu Jiuyuan emphasized “to establish the greatness of the world” and “to invent the heart of man and then make him look at the world”. The result was that “Zhu was too simple for Lu’s teachings, and Lu was too detached for Zhu’s teachings”. While Zhu Xi insisted that in order to change one’s temperament one must first read the books of the sages, Lu Xiangshan suggested: “Before Yao and Shun, what books could be read?” In 1181, Lu Jiuyuan went to visit Zhu Xi in Nankang, who invited him to lecture at the White Deer Cave School. Lu specifically chose the chapter of Confucius’ “A the superior men is a metaphor for righteousness, a the mean men is a metaphor for profit”, emphasizing that this proposition presents a criterion for judging a “the superior men” and a “the mean men”, in terms of changing temperament and moral cultivation. It is of particular importance in changing the temperament and moral cultivation. Lu says: “This chapter judges the superior men and the mean men in terms of righteousness and profit, in clear terms, but I am afraid that it will not be beneficial to those who read it if they do not see for themselves. I have read this chapter on a regular basis, and I have felt a lot: I think that scholars should identify their own aspirations in this chapter. The metaphor of a person is determined by his or her practice, and the practice is determined by his or her will. If you are interested in righteousness, then what you study must be in righteousness; if what you study is in righteousness, then you are in righteousness. If one is interested in profit, then one’s practice must be in profit; if one’s practice is in profit, then one’s metaphor is in profit. Therefore, the scholar’s will must be discerned.” (ibid.) Then, Lu Jiuyuan further pointed out that the “imperial examinations” had led people to pursue fame and fortune, and although they said that they were “reading the books of the sages”, in fact they tended to “take into account the high and low rank of officials and the thickness of their granaries”. “This led to the pursuit of fame and fortune. Therefore, Lu Jiuyuan proposed to Zhu Xi’s students, to “think deeply about the body, not to make it a the mean men’s return, its in the lucrative habits, grievous for it, dedicated to the righteousness and the daily encouragement, knowledgeable examination, deliberate thinking and clear discernment and the practice of” (ibid.), only in this way, it is possible to become a “the superior men Only in this way can one become a “the superior men”. Lu Jiuyuan’s speech on “The the superior men is righteous, and the mean men are profitable” was highly praised by Zhu Xi. Zhu Xi thought that this speech was “well-invented”, “sincere to understand”, and “to the scholars of the hidden and deep disease, the listeners are not afraid to move the heart”. Zhu Xi also said: “Xi is still afraid of its long and or forget it, after asking Zi Jing pen of the simple and hidden. Where I comrades, in this body and deep investigation, it is common that it may not be lost in the side of into the German carry on.” According to “Lu Xiangshan chronicle” records, when Lu Jiuyuan finished speaking, “the superior men metaphor in righteousness, the small man metaphor in profit” after, Zhu Xi on the spot repeatedly said: “Xi here has not said here, negative shame what to say.” And said: “I should be with all students to keep, in order not to forget Mr Lu’s training.” Zhu Xi also said to Yang Daofu: “This is the son of Jing to Nankang, Xi asked to say, but said this righteousness is clear, is well said. Such as cloud: ‘today’s people only study profit, such as taking the solution, but also to get official, after getting

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official, and change official. Everything is for-profit from the young to the old, from the top to the heel.’ It was so painful to say that there were tears in my eyes.” Lu Jiuyuan himself also believes that “at that time, I was so happy to speak that I shed tears because I was deeply moved by the cold weather and sweated and waved my fan”. It was February in spring. The weather was undoubtedly cold. However, Zhu Xi was sweating and had to wave his fan, which shows the usefulness of this speech. Later on, Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan “in their later years, they were on the same page again”, and Lu Jiuyuan’s speech on “the superior men’s metaphor for righteousness and the mean men’s metaphor for-profit” did play a critical role. Many of Zhu Xi’s later statements also confirm this. The reason why this speech is so important in the history of thought is that, on the one hand, it is because Lu Jiuyuan has very clearly taken “the superior men is a metaphor for righteousness, and the mean men is a metaphor for-profit” as a criterion for judging the “the superior men” and the “the mean men”. “On the other hand, he analyzed the main ideological tendencies of the people in the light of the realities of the time and proposed that everyone should aspire to do righteousness, practice it constantly, form habits, and develop noble virtues so that he or she can become a “the superior men” by deeply understanding righteousness. It is also clearly pointed out that if the taxi class and rulers of the time were to seek only profit and gain, aspire to self-interest, and practice self-interest, they would inevitably be “metaphorical in profit”, and as a result, they would only degenerate into the mean many. As we can see from the above, Confucius’ saying that “the superior men are guided by righteousness, while the mean men are guided by profit” is mainly a moral evaluation criterion, and it is not well-founded to think that Confucius “values righteousness over profit” or “values righteousness over profit”. It is not in line with the original intention of Confucius.

8 Confucius and Confucianism Confucianism has been in existence for more than two thousand years and has had a profound impact on China. Since the founding of New China, many people have studied Confucius and Confucianism from a historical materialist perspective, and many of their achievements are worthy of our consideration. My research on this subject is not yet very mature and does not correspond very much to some popular views. In my view, I have both absorbed and developed the research results of those predecessors and also experienced and outlined these issues in the new era and situation.

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8.1 Reasons for the Long-Standing Importance of Confucianism in Ancient Times There were many schools of thought in ancient China, the most famous of which are Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism and Legalism. Confucianism and Mohism were both “prominent schools” during the Spring and Autumn Period, and both had a significant influence at the time, but Mohism almost disappeared in the end. Legalism also had an important influence during that period, especially in the state of Qin, where the Duke used thoughts and methods from Legalism to unify China in a little over a hundred years, starting with the change of law by Shang Yang during the reign of the Duke of Qin, and through six generations of rulers. After the unification, however, Legalism was no longer taken seriously by the rulers. After the Han dynasty, the rulers “dismissed a hundred schools of thought and revered only Confucianism”. The Taoists raised questions about the dialectic of nature, human society and life, and their views on the universe and life were profound and unique. Many outstanding intellectuals had an excellent impression of Taoism, such as Wen Yiduo and Guo Moruo. Wen Yiduo studied Taoism, especially Zhuangzi, in great depth. Mohism, Taoism and Legalism had all been at their peak in the pre-Qin period, but why did rulers from the Han dynasty until the end of the Qing dynasty advocate only Confucianism in their ideology for more than two thousand years without mentioning other schools of thought? I have studied this question for a long time and have come up with two observations: First, starting from Confucius, through Mencius, Xunzi, and even later Confucianism, Confucianism has emphasized in its formation and development that academic thought must be adapted to the reality of social life and must serve the reality of society, politics, and economy, striving to make its thoughts and theories applicable to the world and contribute to social stability, economic development, political clarity, and interpersonal harmony. Secondly, Confucius’s ideas and theories must be put to the service of society, politics and the economy. Secondly, as founded by Confucius, Confucianism has always stressed the critical role of morality in human society. Confucianism sees morality as a vital force in maintaining national stability, maintaining interpersonal harmony, improving the quality of human beings and perfecting human society. The difference between humans and animals lies in humans’ morality. What makes people human and what makes human society evolve is that they are aware that they have morality. No other school of thought in China, or any other school in the world, has yet to bring the role of morality to such a high level. Moist thought represented the interests of the small producers of the time and was highly progressive. It emphasized the interests of the working people and attached considerable importance to the interests of the masses, aiming at the world’s good. In this sense, Confucianism is more responsive to the needs of the ruling class than Moism. Mozi’s doctrine only considered how small producers, individual workers, and lower-class peasants could work for the benefit of society, but not how the ruling class and state administrators could benefit the working people. Therefore, Mozi’s

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theory was indeed a bit ahead of its time. The idea of “love for all” was undoubtedly great, but it is meaningless if it’s apart from “love for family”. Thus, Confucianism speaks of “loving people” but not “loving for all”. In Confucianism, “loving others” means loving one’s relatives more than others, but it also means “loving oneself and others”. Although Mohism also paid much attention to “advocating the virtuous”, its concept was mainly about admiring able people, but not enough about the importance of morality. Therefore, Mohism was dismissed after the Han Dynasty. It was not until the Qing dynasty that thinkers revisited Mohism. It should be said that the ideas of Mohism were profound, but they did not have the conditions to become the ruling ideology of Chinese feudal society. There was also much that was reasonable in Legalism, which stressed that the rule of law should govern the state, that the law should be made public, and that the law should not be used against the nobility. It also emphasized the importance of rewarding farming and warfare for social development and stability. With the help of Legalism, Qin Shi Huang unified China. However, after the unification of China, the state of Qin fell after only sixteen years. The Qin Dynasty was so powerful militarily and politically that it finally unified China after more than a hundred years of hard work, but after only sixteen years, it suddenly collapsed. “This is a question that has caused historians to ponder that the soil on the tomb of Qin Shi Huang had not yet dried up, and his temple was already in ruins. For nearly a century after the Han Dynasty, starting with Lu Jia and Jia Yi, people were happy to discuss and summarize the reasons for the fall of the Qin Dynasty and its lessons. This was indeed an issue that the Han rulers needed to consider. Many of the writings of the famous political thinkers Lu Jia and Jia Yi were devoted to summing up the lessons of the fall of the Qin. Jia Yi wrote his “Security Policy”, which he presented to Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, specifically about the lessons of the fall of the Qin Dynasty. Lu Xun admired this essay and called it “a great essay of the Western Han Dynasty”; Mao Zedong read Jia Yi’s “Security Policy” and said, “Jia Yi’s ‘Security Policy’ is the best political essay of the Western Han Dynasty.” So, what lessons did Jia Yi draw from his “Security Policy”? Firstly, the fall of Qin was that “benevolence and righteousness were not applied”, meaning that the people were not educated with benevolence and morality, and “the situation of attack and defense changed”, meaning that the situation of attack and defense changed. It was possible to seize power with the ideas of Legalism, but once in power, to protect the interests of a class, the role of morality had to be emphasized. According to Jia Yi’s analysis, the one-sided use of punishment would lead to cruelty in the hearts of the people, and the phenomenon of profit-seeking between people, at the expense of themselves and the public, would become more and more serious. The social atmosphere would become more and more corrupt, affecting social stability, causing social unrest and leading to the destruction of the regime. Jia Yi describes the deterioration of the social atmosphere during the Qin Dynasty, where not only did people have a desire for profit, but even parents and children, in-laws and daughtersin-law, were calculated with each other within the family. When a mother-in-law borrowed a dustpan from her daughter-in-law, she felt that this was a favor I had given her and that she should repay me. We need to analyze Lu Jia’s and Jia Yi’s

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words and thoughts in their entirety so that we can use the material they provide to understand the social climate and moral standards of the time and understand the social reasons why The Han rulers valued Confucianism. Confucianism emphasizes love between people, the importance of morality, and the spirit of harmony and concord served different purposes in different times and under different historical conditions. In times of national change, especially when an old regime no longer meets the economic and political needs of the time, it tends to play a conservative role. However, in times of social stability, when a class has gained the right to rule and is committed to consolidating its dominant position, developing the economy, developing production, harmonizing interpersonal relations, improving the quality of people and improving the overall social climate, Confucianism can play a very Confucianism played a very positive role. In the history of China, over the past two thousand years, there have been very few periods of turmoil, and each dynasty has been stable for a long time, which can be attributed to the role of Confucianism in stabilizing society, developing the economy, harmonizing human relations and improving the morale of society. This is not because the ruling class liked Confucianism but because of the need for social development, which did not depend on the people’s will.

8.2 The Primary Content of Confucianism Since the founding of New China, especially since China’s reform and opening up, many scholars have been “benevolent and wise” on this issue and have made many generalizations about it from different aspects. I am mainly engaged in teaching and researching ethics, so I am more inclined toward the ethical aspect. I want to summarize Confucianism into five areas. (1) Confucius’ idea of benevolence and love In the Analects of Confucius, “benevolence” appears 104 times. In the Analects of Confucius, “Ren” appears 104 times: “Now the man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he also seeks to enlarge others.”, “Not to do to others as you would not wish done to yourself”, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you; do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, “To be able to practice five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue.” These are the essential summaries of Confucius’ thoughts on “benevolence”. In the following, we will focus on several important ideas of Confucius related to benevolence. 1. “Loving people” from the perspective of class Confucius’ idea of “loving people” was progressive in the society of his time. In a slave society, Confucius spoke of “loving people”, and by “people”, he meant all people. Although in practice, it was impossible for a slave-owning ideologue to genuinely ‘love’ the enslaved person, Confucius’ claim was nonetheless progressive.

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Confucius recognized the importance of ‘benefitting the people’ and ‘benefiting the people in the long-term interests of the slave-owning class, and the importance of ‘loving the people’ in terms of social and political stability. Confucius was one of the earliest scholars to start with the concept of “class”. Confucius was the first to examine human beings from a “class” perspective. The so-called class perspective means that all humans are treated as one class. That is, we are all human beings, we all belong to the common humanity, and therefore we should love each other. By examining human beings from a class perspective, we can formulate the moral principles and norms that should govern human relationships. Now a central element of Western humanist thought is to examine the human being from the view of the class, to treat him as a class. Therefore, all the irrational things imposed on man by the holy church and the feudal system have to be abolished. Since we are all human beings, we all have the same emotional desires and should enjoy the same happiness, which is a significant theoretical contribution of Western humanism, which has been emphasized since the fourteenth century. On the other hand, Confucius proposed around 500 BC to look at human beings from the perspective of “class”, recognising that we are all one class and that we must therefore love our fellow human beings. In this sense, Confucius’ idea of “loving people” is an early form of humanistic thinking in ancient China, although it is not very mature. Although Confucius had not yet fully developed the idea that people should love each other as a class, his ‘loving people’ was indeed based on the idea of loving people from a class perspective. Another critical element of Confucius’ idea of ‘loving people’ is to benefit the people. Confucius not only emphasized the importance of loving one another from the view of human relationships but also from the view of the ruler, who had to love the people of the country, i.e. to ‘benefit the people’. Confucius emphasized that a ruler must ‘benefit the people’ and ‘benefit the people if he governs his country well. By ‘benefitting the people’ and ‘benefiting the people’, Confucius meant giving the people practical benefits, including developing production, reducing taxes and increasing their income. This is, of course, in the ruling class’s interests, but it is also a kind of “benevolent government” for the ordinary people. Confucius’ term ‘gentlemen’ has many meanings, sometimes referring to a ruler in power, sometimes to a person of high moral character, and sometimes to a person who is both in power and moral. Nevertheless, when Confucius uses the term ‘gentleman’, he mainly refers to a person in power and morals’. Confucius emphasized the importance of ‘benefiting the people’ concerning the ‘reigning and virtuous’ gentlemen. Why do we need to ‘benefit the people? “In other words, when a ruler favors the people, the people will readily listen to him. We used to say that Confucius only talked about righteousness but not profit, but this is incomplete and should be analyzed comprehensively. Although Confucius was very much opposed to personal gain, at the same time, he stressed the need to benefit the familiar people and to bring the benefits. This idea has not been well understood in our past studies of Confucius. Confucius had a student called Zi Xia, who asked him how to practice politics, that is, how to govern a country well, and Confucius replied: “Benefit the people according

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to their interests”, meaning that one should try to benefit the people according to the specific circumstances in which they might be benefited. In most cases, since Confucius was mainly concerned with the adaptation of one’s moral behavior to the moral norms of society, he placed more emphasis on the need for one to be a gentleman and not to overthink one’s interests. However, in terms of moral norms, Confucius and his disciples never denied the aspect of “profit” and never said that they “prefer righteousness than profit”. Instead, they said that “righteousness should come before profit”. When it comes to the governance of the state and the management of the people, he not only does not oppose the people getting benefits but also emphasizes the importance of “benefiting the people for their benefit”. On one occasion, when Confucius went to the state of Wei, his disciple Ran You drove for him and said, “The population of Wei is already huge”. Now that the country has many people, what should be done further? Confucius said, “Enrich”, to make them rich. “If you are rich, what more can you do?” “Teach them.” After becoming wealthy, they have to be educated. This is an excellent example of how Confucius’ idea of “loving people” has many aspects. A ruler should love his people and make sure that they receive practical favors to get what they deserve as much as possible. “If the population is already huge, what can be done next?” “To be rich.” Confucius’ idea of “loving people” was therefore closely linked to the social and political life of the time. Both aspects of Confucius’ idea of “loving people” should be taken seriously, both in terms of his idea of people loving each other and giving practical benefits to ordinary people. In terms of personal moral cultivation, one should “put righteousness before profit” and “think of righteousness when one sees it”, stressing the importance of “righteousness”; in dealing with the common people, one should stress the importance of profit, and make them as rich as possible. Confucius was against the pursuit of personal gain, but he strongly advocated that the people should be given as much benefit as possible. 2. On the saying “The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is conversant with gain.” In the thought of Confucius, there is a phrase that has been interpreted differently by later generations, namely, “The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is conversant with gain.” For a long time, some people have thought that this saying means that people are divided into two classes and that only those in power are moral and know “righteousness”. Thus, they are gentlemen. While working people only know how to seek profit and are immoral and small. Such an understanding is incorrect or even distorts Confucius’ original meaning. As early as the Song Dynasty, Lu Jiuyuan analyzed this statement comprehensively. Lu Jiuyuan and Zhu Xi had theoretical differences, but they both belonged to Confucianism in the final analysis and had great respect for Confucius. In the history of academic thought, a famous event called “meeting at Goose Lake” actually refers to a heated debate between these two Confucian scholars. According to Zhu Xi, to become a moral person, one must be “knowledgeable”, that is to say,

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one must have a wide range of knowledge. One should first familiarize oneself with the classical works such as the Poems, the Book, the Rites, the Book of Changes, the Spring and Autumn Annals, the Analects and the Mencius, and then cultivate one’s morality. Lu Jiuyuan, on the other hand, believed that it was not necessary to read so many books but rather to be sincerely convinced by the Confucian classics and Confucius’ thoughts. In other words, one should “first establish the greatness of Confucius’ thoughts” and establish the idea of benevolence. At the meeting, the two men debated face to face. Zhu Xi said, “If you only talk about morality but do not read the books, you will not have a complete idea of Confucianism”; Lu Jiuyuan said, “Now you are saying that the scriptures are essential. No scriptures, no scholars. However, what about the ancient sages Yao and Shun? They did not read a single scripture, but they were great people.” The result was that no one could refute anyone. Later, Zhu Xi invited Lu Jiuyuan to lecture at his White Deer Cave School. Then Lu Jiuyuan gave a lecture on “The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is conversant with gain.” Originally Zhu Xi had a deep prejudice against Lu Jiuyuan, but it is said that after Lu Jiuyuan’s lecture, Zhu Xi was convinced by Lu Jiuyuan. Zhu Xi was sweating and waving his fan quickly as he listened, though it was a pleasantly cool day in February or March. He praised Lu Jiuyuan’s lecture and said,” teaching for so long on the Analects of Confucius, I had never spoken this kind of thought.” Zhu Xi then asked Lu Jiuyuan to write down his lecture and carve it into a stone tablet to be erected in the White Deer Cave Academy so that all his disciples could come and study it. Later on, the text of Lu Jiuyuan’s chapter was engraved in the school. Lu Jiuyuan did not regard the “superior man” and the “mean man” as two fixed classes. This is a wrong understanding. In order to become a “superior man”, a person must understand benevolence, righteousness and morality, constantly follow these requirements, pursue them, strive for them, cultivate them, practice them, and be persistent in the process of seeking righteousness to become a moral person and a “superior man”. This is how one becomes a moral person, a “superior man”. On the contrary, even if a person is already a person of status today, if he fails to act according to righteousness and morality and instead “acts in accordance with profit” and pursues personal gain, he will become a “mean man” tomorrow. A person who is always thinking of self-interest and always looking for money is a “mean man”. However, if he stops pursuing profit and starts to pursue righteousness, then he may become a “superior man”. The “superior man” and the “mean man” are not two distinct classes of people, but two realms of moral cultivation, indicating to people that in order to become a morally superior man, they must be conversant with righteousness; if they do the opposite, they will become mean men. 3. About “Not to do to others as you would not wish done to yourself.” When Confucius put forward the idea of benevolence, he also put forward the idea of “Not to do to others as you would not wish done to yourself.”, which is not only a moral requirement and a guideline for the idea of “loving others”, but also a methodological principle for ethical behavior. It is a guiding principle for all people’s ethical behavior. In other words, if a person wants to be moral, then all his actions

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must follow such a principle; conversely, if he can follow such a principle, then his actions must be moral. In all moral actions, man is adjusting his or her relationship with others and society. The purposes of these actions are for themselves or others. If I want to be a moral person, I must always consider “Not to do to others as you would not wish done to yourself.” What I want to achieve and pursue for myself, I also want others to achieve. This is a moral requirement on the one hand and a methodological principle on the other. If I want to be a moral person, whatever I do, the fundamental method of all my actions is to think about others, experience them with my thoughts, and act in a way that benefits others and society. The fundamental way to adjust the relationship between people and me is to compare myself with others, compare others with myself, and think about everything differently. When I am a doctor, I should imagine that if I were a patient, how I want the doctor to behave and how I want the doctor to behave ethically; when I am a salesman, I should imagine that if I were a customer, how I want the salesman to behave and how I want the salesman to behave ethically. When you are in a relationship with anyone, you should put yourself in the shoes of others. (2) Confucius’ thoughts on “rites” Confucianism attaches great importance to “rites” in addition to “benevolence”. Whether “benevolence” or “rites” is the core of Confucianism has been debated for a long time, and there are still differences in opinion. I’d like to put benevolence first because Confucius’ idea of loving people is so profound that it has influenced all areas. Of course, ritual is also important, as it emphasizes a human value. Confucianism, starting with Confucius, emphasizes the importance of human relations principles. Each person is in a certain position in human relations and should take on responsibilities appropriate to his or her human status. To recognize one’s position in human relations and fulfil one’s responsibilities in human relations strictly is to conform to ritual. What are rites? Confucius and Confucianism refer to ‘rites’, which include political systems, legal provisions, moral codes, and requirements for interpersonal interaction and treatment of others. Of course, various rites and ceremonies were developed, such as the rites of a gentleman, the rites of a scholar, and even the various rituals in the Rites of Passage, such as the program for a festival, the music to be played, and so on. Rites were so vast, complex and all-encompassing that there is hardly an appropriate concept to correspond to them in our language today. The state’s political system was ritual, and human relations requirements were also ritual, so the ritual was the sum of all the political, legal, moral and interpersonal norms of society. It was the most critical requirement for maintaining social stability, and without raising rites to such a high level, we would fail to recognize the significance of rites and why Confucianism has been valued in society for so long. Confucius said that “to restrain oneself and restore propriety is to be benevolent”, and to this day, “restraining oneself and restoring propriety” is still very influential. What is “restoring rites to oneself”? It means restraining one’s thoughts that are not in line with the current national political system, legal thinking, moral norms, rituals, customs, etc. “Restoring rituals” means meeting these requirements, and only then is

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one considered moral. The “restoration of rites and rituals” serves to maintain social stability. In doing so, we must also fulfil our ethical responsibilities and realize our values. An important aspect of ritual is to fulfil one’s obligations in the context of human relationships. The Five Rites of Mencius are: “Father and son are related, ruler and ministers are righteous, husband and wife are distinct, elders and children are in order, and friends are trustworthy”. “Father and son have kinship” means that the father and son are in a support relationship, a harmonious relationship between the leader and the led. “The ruler and his ministers have righteousness, which means that “the ruler should be courteous to his ministers and the ministers should be loyal to the ruler”. The “husband and wife are distinct” means that there is a division of labor between the husband and the wife. Each person has his or her duties. This division of labor is linked to the hierarchy of slave and feudal societies. The “order of the elders and the young” is a regulation of the mutual obligations between the elders and the younger generations. “Friends have trust”, which sets out the mutual and reciprocal rights and obligations between friends. The Five Rites covered all kinds of human relationships in society at the time and set out the obligations that each person should fulfil, and the fulfilment of these obligations was the realization of one’s human values. The more thoroughly, comprehensively and conscientiously these obligations were fulfilled, the greater the person’s value. “A saint is a person who has fulfilled his or her duties and obligations in all aspects of human relationships most comprehensively and thoroughly. Confucius and Confucianism’s emphasis on the value of human decency was significant in maintaining the stability of Chinese society. If rulers and ministers, fathers and sons, elders and children, husbands and wives, and friends all adhered strictly to their duties and obligations, then society would be stable. At that time, the production was not very advanced, and the division of labor was not very detailed. The five rites were the five most important relationships in society. Society would be stable if everyone could fulfil their responsibilities in these five relationships. Are there any elements of the “Five Rites” of Confucianism still valid today? Can it be interpreted in a new way and be inherited critically? Confucianism’s initial definition of these five relationships should be analyzed in detail. For the relationship between father and son, we should reject the hierarchical concept in it and interpret it in today’s understanding, that is, parents should be kind to their children, and children should be filial to their parents. The “righteousness of rulers and ministers” is an ethical relationship unique to a particular society and should be fundamentally abandoned. Righteousness here means principle. The relationship between rulers and ministers does not exist. However, we do have relationships between leaders and the led. So the concept of “righteousness” could still be helpful today. The idea that “husband and wife are different” is a long-standing criticism of Confucianism because “husband and wife are different” means “inside and outside”, and the husband is in charge of outside affairs, while the woman can only take care of inside affairs. Up until the founding of New China, in some rural areas, husbands were still called “outsiders”, and wives were called “insiders”. It is certainly wrong. If

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we critique the feudal, hierarchical idea that ‘husband and wife are different, we can see some legitimate elements in it. In both slavery and feudal societies, although the dominant aspect of the ‘distinction between husband and wife’ was the suppression of women and their bondage, it is also important to see that there was an aspect that forbade wives from interfering in their husbands’ affairs. The Rites of Passage—Qu Li says that “outside words do not enter the sill”, i.e. men’s outside duties are not spoken to women at home, and this is what it means. In general, men had a higher status in ancient times and were in charge of state politics. A woman was only to be in charge of the family’s affairs, not the political affairs of her husband in the official world. Now it seems reasonable that neither spouse should interfere in the political life of the other. Historically and realistically, it is not good for a wife to interfere in her husband’s political life or for a husband to interfere in his wife’s political life. This is often a major cause of favoritism, political corruption, and ideological degradation for some senior government officials. In addition, some people have suggested that, in our present situation, it would be better to change the phrase “the husband and wife are different” to “the husband and wife have love” because love should be spoken between husband and wife, and there is some truth in this view. The principle of “orderliness between the young and the old” is still relevant today. The older one should take care of the younger ones, and the younger one should respect the older ones. The Book of Rites says: “If one is twice as old as you, serve him as your father; if one is ten years older than you, serve him as your elder brother; if one is five years older, your shoulders will follow him.” (Qu Li Shang). In order of seniority, the older ones should be in front of the younger ones. “Friends have trust” is a crucial principle universal in human interaction. Confucius attached particular importance to the principle of “having faith in one’s friends” and believed that “if a person does not have faith, he will not know what he can do”. If a person is not honest with others, he or she will not be able to survive in society. This principle of honesty is the essence of traditional Chinese morality and is still of great relevance today. China is now in the primary stage of socialism, and the relationship between people is an entirely new type of relationship. One of the most important purposes of our present talk about the principles of collectivism, social virtues, family virtues and professional ethics is to outline the requirements of various human relationships in our society today and to establish the rights and obligations of each individual in social relationships in accordance with the requirements of new economic and political relationships, to promote the harmony of interpersonal relationships and the development of productive forces in society. (3) The holistic spirit emphasized by Confucius The spirit of wholeness means the spirit to think for society, the nation, the state and the whole. It is a crucial thought in Confucianism, and it attaches importance to those big interests. Confucianism regards the interests of the state, society and the nation as “public”, and “public” is what Confucianism means by “righteousness”, the public interest of society and the people. Confucius and Confucianism emphasize “public”, which means that one should put the public before the private, that one should be

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impartial, that the world is public, that one should pursue righteousness, and that one should pursue the public interest. It requires a person to put the interests of society, the nation and the state ahead of personal interests, to be able to “sacrifice one’s life for righteousness” when necessary, and to “worry about the worries of the world first and rejoice in the happiness of the world second”. “The rise and fall of the nation is the responsibility of every man”, and “if we are to live and die for the nation’s sake, we should not avoid it because of disasters and blessings”. We pay great attention to the Confucian moral code and “public loyalty” tradition when we talk about traditional Chinese morality nowadays. The link between “loyalty” and “public” is also a significant contribution to the development of Confucianism. We can see that many people who were deeply influenced by Confucianism later stood up for their country and nation in times of danger and served their country with loyalty. There were many such people, and almost all of them were influenced by Confucianism’s idea of “public loyalty”. We can also see from the long history of the Chinese nation that people who truly believed in Confucianism in every era have done well in times of national and state crisis and have had a noble national moral characters, such as Su Wu, Yue Fei and Wen Tianxiang. Confucianism has played a vital role in maintaining national security and unity. The idea of the Chinese nation as a whole is deeply rooted. Many phrases in the Analects of Confucius show the thinking of opposing division, opposing all betrayal of the state and the nation, and advocating unity. One of Confucius’ ideas in the Analects is to oppose the usurpation of the Zhou Dynasty. In the Analects, Confucius said of the head of the Ji family, who had eight rows of pantomimes in his area, “If he can bear to do this, what may he not bear to do?” The Ji family was a minister of Lu, which was under the authority of the emperor of Zhou. The emperor of Zhou was the central government, and the state of Lu was a vassal, but the Ji family was just a minister of the ruler of Lu. The word “row” means a procession of dancers. At that time, only the emperor of Zhou could use “eight rows”. Confucius thought that if such things could be tolerable, what else could not be tolerable then? “Confucius was also furious at the fact that the three families were using Yong Che. The poem “Yong” is a poem sung by the emperor of Zhou on some special occasions. There is a description from the Book of Songs, which in today’s language means “The emperor was solemnly and quietly officiating there, and the rulers of the countries were accompanying him”. Again, the poem can only be used by the emperor of Zhou, but the three Ji families broke the rules. What on earth was their purpose? Confucius was strongly opposed to what he called an overstepping of authority. On the one hand, Confucius was conservative; on the other hand, his opposition to the fragmentation of the time was conducive to the maintenance of national unity. Confucius was not opposed to the working class but to the rulers of the vassal states who wanted to usurp the position of the Zhou Emperor. Confucius believed that a ruler of a state should never overstep his position and usurp the central government’s power. The idea had a positive effect on the maintenance of national unity and the interests of the national community as a whole. One thing to highlight is that Confucius lived in the declining period of slave society, and the social system he was trying to defend was in a declining stage, so his

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ideas were conservative for the history of his time. However, after the critique of the new era and the new theories, we can assimilate the favorable elements conducive to the unification of our nation, state and society. When we study Confucianism, we should take a dialectical and analytical approach. On the one hand, we should see its conservatism and then criticise and discard it, but on the other hand, we should see that it contains the overall idea of unity for the nation, for society and for the country, which is of great importance to our social and political stability. Of course, if a ruling class is in decline, then this stability can only play a conservative or reactionary role in maintaining a declining society; if the ruling class is progressive, representing the development of the productive forces of society, then this stability and the preservation of the interests of the nation will be conducive to social progress. (4) The pursuit of a high spiritual state and ideal personality Confucianism believes that the realization of a noble spiritual realm, regardless of the difficulties one may encounter in material life, can lead to a happy and enjoyable pursuit of such a life. Confucius said, “With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow; I have still joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honors acquired by unrighteousness, are to me as a floating cloud.” The phrase summarizes the spiritual state that Confucius sought for himself. He said that even though he ate only a little bit of coarse food every day, drank plain water when thirsty, and slept with his arms as a pillow, he was happy because he had lofty ideals and pursuits. He admired his disciple Yan Hui, “With a single bamboo dish of rice, a single gourd dish of drink, and living in his mean narrow lane, while others could not have endured the distress, he did not allow his joy to be affected by it. Admirable indeed was the virtue of Hui!” Although Yan Hui’s earthly life was miserable, his spiritual life was extremely fulfilling, so Yan Hui did not feel miserable, but he was happy because he had a noble ideal to pursue. Mencius put forward the idea of the so-called ‘heavenly title’ and the ‘human title’. He believed that only a person who pursued a noble spiritual state and an ideal personality was a moral person. The status that a person achieves in society is only a “human title”, which does not reflect the value of a person, but only a noble morality is a “heavenly title”, which is the most valuable. That is what Mencius called “good nobility”. “Noble” means value, and “good nobility” is the highest value. Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi had their students study why Confucius and Yan Hui were so happy under those conditions when they read the Analects of Confucius. Er Cheng saw that because Confucius and Yan Hui had lofty ideals and beliefs, they could strive for their cause with optimism and happiness despite the hardships of life. Zhang Zai, a thinker of the Song dynasty, further defined the lofty ideals of Confucianism as “To ordain conscience for Heaven and Earth. To secure life and fortune for the people. To continue lost teachings for past sages. To establish peace for all future generations.” He emphasized that one should strive for lofty ideals “even though one cannot reach them”.

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(5) Emphasis on moral cultivation Confucianism believes that learning is to cultivate one’s temperament and shape one’s moral character. To learn is to learn to be a human being and to be a saint. In our present school education, especially in primary and secondary schools, we have learned a lot about various subjects but not about being human due to examoriented education. In contrast, traditional Chinese education starts with learning to be human. The first sentence in the first chapter of the Analects of Confucius, Xue Er, reads, “The Master said, “Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application?” The ‘learn’ here is not what we mean today by learning from books. It means “learning to be a man” and “learning to be a sage”. Confucius said, “In ancient times, scholars learned for themselves, while today’s scholars learn for others”, which means that scholars in ancient times studied to improve their own ideological and moral qualities, while today’s scholars learn to show themselves to others. In ancient China, “learning” was about learning to be a human being, and “learning for the sake of learning” was not only about increasing knowledge, so Confucianism says that “learning for the sake of learning” is not seeking to increase knowledge day by day. Confucianism says that “learning” is “not about increasing but about decreasing”. To learn is not to increase knowledge in books every day but to remove wrong thoughts and behaviors that are not in line with moral requirements. Therefore, what is more important is to make a decrease every day, to decrease day by day, so that there is nothing left, which is the best. Confucianism, from Confucius onwards, has been about “introspection”, which means reflecting on oneself inwardly. Cultivating oneself, introspection, and internal litigation are vital Confucian traditions of moral cultivation. Zeng Zi said, “I daily examine myself on three points: whether, in transacting business for others, I may have been not faithful; whether, in intercourse with friends, I may have been not sincere; whether I may have not mastered and practiced the instructions of my teacher.” Confucius said that whenever he saw that someone had done something wrong, he had to reflect on himself. Confucianism believes that all moral codes, principles, and requirements are empty words without cultivation. Confucianism’s emphasis on moral cultivation is inseparable from the fact that Confucianism has become so popular and plays such an important role in the training of people. The emphasis on cultivation in Chinese Confucianism is a crucial feature of ethical thinking, even globally. Cultivation is not just an empty phrase; it is an internal action, a struggle, the cultivation of one’s righteousness, the result of motivating oneself. Confucianism stresses that to achieve practical results in cultivation, one must persevere in challenging exercises, which Confucianism calls “kung fu” in cultivation. After the Song and Ming dynasties, intellectual cultivation was emphasized at an extreme level. A contemporary of Wang Yangming in the Ming dynasty, called Huang Òi, undertook extremely rigorous exercises in order to cultivate himself. In the Analects of Confucius, there is a book entitled “The Book of the Squire”, and in the Song and Ming dynasties, there was a book entitled “The Gongs and the Faults”. In his book Ming Dao Zhuan, Huang describes his training process. He said: “I was so remorseful and

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energetic that I closed my home and study room, so much so that I did not sleep at night, I did not eat all day, I was punished by kneeling and striking myself, and I did everything. He also engraved the words ‘Divine Principle’ and ‘Human Desire’ in a booklet in two lines. If you think about the Divine Principle, dot it with a red pen; if you think about human desires, dot it with a black pen. On the tenth day, count them, depending on the number of red and black. He also tied a rope around his arm and made a wooden tablet with words of caution, which he kept in his sleeve to keep a constant watch on himself. After several years of doing this, he was only spared the blame, but he was not free from the desire to hunt. This made me realize that it is easy to change one’s habits but difficult to restrain oneself. The so-called “merit and demerit grid” is a grid of merit and demerit, with a red dot for every good thought, every moral thought, and a black dot for every thought of human desire, which we today call selfish and self-serving thoughts. When you reach ten days, you count the number of thoughts from the Divine Principle or human desire and keep improving. Some people even put two bowls on their table and use two pockets, one with red beans and one with black beans, the red beans representing right thoughts and the black beans representing wrong thoughts. If you have a thought from heaven, take a red bean and put it in one bowl; if you have a thought from human desire, take a black bean and put it in the other bowl. Count once a day whether there are more black beans or red beans. If the check result is that there are more black beans and fewer red beans, if there are more thoughts of human desire, then one should punish oneself by kneeling down or even hitting oneself with both hands on the mouth. Of course, this method of cultivation is not scientific, and we do not advocate it, but it also reflects the fact that traditional Chinese morality emphasizes cultivation. Without this cultivation effort, no matter how good the moral code and moral education are, they will not be implemented. That is to say, without the conscious and painstaking cultivation of the moral subject, everything will be empty. The above is a brief overview of the essential elements of Confucianism in five areas. In the past, it was a standard view in academic circles that the core of Confucianism was benevolence, but I believe that it is the five main aspects mentioned above. So which of these five aspects is more important? I tend to think that holistic thinking is more important than the five aspects of Confucianism. The holistic thinking of society, the state and the nation that runs through Confucianism are underpinned by the two pillars of benevolence and ritual, or the two ideas of benevolence and human values. These five aspects of Confucianism and Confucianism are interconnected.

8.3 How to Understand the Confucian School In terms of its aims, functions and structure, the Confucian school is a school with ethics and moral teaching as its core. “The Confucian school originated from the official in charge of education and inculcation, aims to assist the monarch, conform to

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the yin and yang, and promote education.” (Hanshu-Yiwenzhi). The profession of the Confucianist was to ‘teach the next generation about morality’ (Zhouli Zhonghua). Confucians transformed themselves from wizards, historians, fortune-tellers and diviners in the service of the aristocracy to intellectuals who made their living from the rites and then took up the teaching of ethics and morality as their profession. Following the changing times, Confucius educated his students in poetry, calligraphy, rituals and music, “listing the rites of rulers, ministers, fathers and sons, and ordering the distinctions between husbands, wives, the old and the young”, thus forming a school of thought whose aim was to teach ethics and morality, which is what later generations would call Confucianism. Over the past two thousand years, Confucianism has gone through emergence, development, flourishing and decline. Within Confucianism, there are differences between good and evil natures, differences between teleology and doctrine, arguments between righteousness and profits, and disputes between modern and ancient texts. In addition, there is the opposition between the so-called celestial connection and the separation of celestial and human beings and the dispute between reason preceding qi and no reason outside the mind. However, ethics and moral education have always been strung together like a thread in the various periods of Confucianism. Confucianism’s ‘learning’ mainly focuses on studying the Four Books and Five Classics, studying the knowledge, methods and paths to become a ‘sage’. Confucianism’s ‘practice’ and ‘action’ mainly cultivate one’s character and change one’s temperament to achieve the goal of ‘inner sage and outer king’. In short, the ultimate aim of Confucianism is to educate the people and harmonize human morality by “studying the six scriptures, the principles of benevolence and righteousness, and by describing the teachings of Yao and Shun and chartering literature and wisdom”. Confucianism is not just a school of ethics. Confucianism’s moral and ethical teaching of society was closely linked to politics, thus forming a special and unique feature of political and ethical integration. The political rule relies on the support of ethical edification, and all the principles and norms of ethical edification seek to be adapted to the needs of politics. In addition, while teaching ethics, Confucianism gradually built up an increasingly sophisticated philosophical system, with discursive arguments on such issues as the relationship between heaven and man, the good and evil of human nature, the importance of righteousness and profit, the existence and extinction of rational desires, the priority of reason and qi, and the superiority and inferiority of kings and hegemonies, demonstrating a high level of philosophical reflection. As a result, Confucianism has had a profound impact on Chinese history. (1) The unity of benevolence and propriety in the structure of Confucian ethical thought For any school of ethics, a system of moral structure always occupies an important place in its ethical thought. The first issue that must be resolved in a moral structure is the establishment of certain moral principles. Confucianism has developed a unique system of moral principles, with benevolence as the core and rites as the norm. Confucius took benevolence as the most basic and essential moral principle. Benevolence means “loving others”, that is, “Not to do to others as you would not

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wish done to yourself”. While the ancient Greek thinkers openly proclaimed that “slaves are only talking tools”, Confucius put forward “love for others” as the most basic and only moral principle. Confucius said, “My way is the same.” From his consistent statements, it is clear that the only principle that carries out his ethical thinking is the “way of loyalty and forgiveness”, or “benevolence”, or “love for others”. Although, in essence, Confucius would never have loved enslaved people in the same way as he loved the slave-owning aristocracy, in a general sense, he did not exclude slaves from his love and said that he would ‘love all’. Confucius was already aware that in order to reconcile interpersonal relations in social life (including ruler and ministers, father and son, husband and wife, brothers and friends, etc.), it was necessary to treat people with “generosity” and give them “favors” (for the ruling class, this is the only way to “win people’s support” and to use them). By treating its members with such “generosity” and “favor”, the ruling class is likely to reduce regicide, patricide, and trespasses and transgressions, and by treating the ordinary people with such “generosity” and “favors”, the people could be easily called upon to be grateful. For this reason, the ruling class finally appreciated Confucianism after the Han Dynasty. For two thousand years, Confucianism’s “benevolence” and “the way of loyalty and forgiveness” have had a significant impact on the moral thoughts of Chinese society. In Confucianism, ‘ritual’ is a broad category. From the perspective of the three Confucian classics, “rites” include social rituals, moral codes, political systems, legal codes and their theoretical elaboration. However, in its most primary, most basic and most common sense, “rites” refers to the rituals and rituals of society, which are underpinned by “benevolence”. Benevolence is the centre of ritual, the goal of value on which ritual is based. Without benevolence, rites would have no basis for existence; Without rites, benevolence would not be able to fulfil its role as a moral principle. If we start from the principle of “benevolence”, we can restrain our selfish desires and follow the requirements of “rites”; we can eliminate the non-rites of seeing, hearing, speaking and moving. By dong so, one can restore the requirements of rituals; that is to say, one has achieved benevolence. This seems to be a meaningless circular argument, but in ethics, it reflects the dialectical unity between moral principles and moral norms. Under the guidance of “benevolence”, Confucianism puts forward norms of loyalty, filial piety, moderation and righteousness and stipulates such virtues as respect, generosity, faith, sensitivity, beneficence and warmth, goodness, respect, frugality, and concession. (2) The value orientation of Confucian ethical thought The value orientation of Confucian ethical thought is to attach importance to the spiritual realm. Confucianism stresses that the essential difference between humans and animals is that humans have morality while animals do not. Confucianism believes that moral needs are the most pressing human needs. Confucius said, “Virtue is more to man than either water or fire. I have seen men die from treading on water and fire, but I have never seen a man die from treading the course of virtue.” (The Analects of Confucius—Wei Ling Gong) Humans must live by water and fire, but water and fire sometimes bring harm; morality, however, is a need that can only benefit humanity

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without bringing any harm. Confucius said, “The determined scholar and the man of virtue will not seek to live at the expense of injuring their virtue. They will even sacrifice their lives to preserve their virtue complete.” (Ibid.) Mencius said, “Life is what I love; morality and justice are what I need, and if I cannot have both, I would rather give up life for justice.” Both material and spiritual needs are essential to humans. When one cannot have both, one has to sacrifice one’s material needs to pursue more noble spiritual needs. It is for this reason that Confucianism considers righteousness to be more important than profit and stresses the importance of “thinking of righteousness in the light of profit”, and “righteousness before taking”. Mencius also emphasized the dynamic role of morality and that if one could cultivate one’s mind and learn about one’s nature, one could reach the highest state of “knowing heaven”. As long as a person realizes that the highest human need is a moral need and the greatest value is a moral value, then he can consciously and autonomously enter a state where “all things are ready for me, and there is no greater joy than to turn one’s body around and be sincere”. This idea of emphasizing spirituality and moral needs has positively affected Chinese history, especially in times of national crisis. It was also of some significance in cultivating the nation’s character and improving the moral character of the people. However, as the feudal society went from its heyday to its decline, this idea became more and more one-sided and absolute. Slogans like “preserve the Divine Principle, and extinct human desires” appeared. The ruling class used Confucianism to save the declining feudal dynasty by denying the people’s material needs, making this ideology, which initially contained a reasonable element, a shackle to imprison people. In using Confucian ethics to regulate the hierarchical order of the time, the ruling class made Confucianism’s ethical principles, norms, and values increasingly a tool for maintaining rule, which was different from Confucian ethics itself. (3) The conciliatory function of Confucian ethics The mediation function of Confucian ethics was to maintain the stability of the social hierarchy of the time. Confucianism believes that social stability depends mainly on morality and punishment but that morality is more fundamental than either. Confucius said, “If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good.” (The Analects of Confucius—For the Government) If a ruler only uses political means to restrain the people by imposing penalties, he can only make the people not dare to commit crimes, but it is impossible to make them feel shame. If the ruler educates and convinces people of morality, and if etiquette is just a restrainment, then the people will not commit crimes and feel ashamed of them. Here, Confucius clarifies that a one-sided emphasis on the rule of law will not lead to social stability. In Jia Yi’s famous treatise on the Qin Dynasty, he argued that the Qin dynasty fell because of neglecting the importance of morality and the imposition of punishment. He argued that decrees “can punish evil, not persuade good” and that “rites are forbidden before they will be, while laws are forbidden after they have been” (Han

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Shu—Jia Yi Zhuan). He particularly emphasizes that the value of morality also lies in its ability to “prevent evil from sprouting, and to teach in the smallest detail, so that the people will change their ways and distant their sins without knowing it”. In the view of Confucianism, if a ruler can rule the people with “virtue”, he will be like the Big Dipper in the sky, and all the stars will guard him; otherwise, if he only punishes the people with punishment, the people will “lose their propriety and righteousness” and “abandon benevolence”. Confucian ethical thought also pays special attention to the role of individual moral cultivation in moral reconciliation. In terms of the relationship between individual morality and group morality, Confucianism advocates harmonizing personal and social relations through the self-improvement path of individual cultivation. The cultivation of the individual is the most fundamental guarantee of the stability and harmony of society as a whole. “From the emperor to the common people, one is all to cultivate their own body for this”, only to achieve personal “sincere intention”, “correct mind”, and “cultivate their own body”, they can finally influence the family, the country and the world. In the relationship between the individual and the whole, and between the individual and society, the individual’s initiative for goodness is highlighted, “I want to be benevolent so that I can be benevolent”. It is believed that through hard and long-term cultivation, “all people can become Yao and Shun” and “those who are painted can become Yu”. The reason why a person cannot become a superior man or a sage is not because of a lack of strength but because of a lack of effort. In order to achieve the ideal state of “the superior man” and “sage”, one must perfect one’s personality through the exercise of one’s moral initiative. At the same time, Confucianism also stresses the importance of the moral cultivation of the ruler, especially the supreme ruler. According to Confucianism, the subordinate responds to the superior like a shadow, and the people obey the ruler like a sound. When politics is corrupt, and society is in turmoil, the only way for a ruler to behave is to look at himself. Therefore, when Ji Kangzi asked Confucius about the problem of thieves in Lu, Confucius said, “If you, sir, were not covetous, although you should reward them to do it, they would not steal.” (The Analects of Confucius—Yan Yuan) In other words, as long as the ruler of the state can right himself with virtue, the people will return to goodness. (4) Methodological principles of Confucian ethical thought In terms of methodology, Confucian ethical thinking calls for “putting oneself in the shoes of others”, “being able to draw analogies”, “putting oneself in the shoes of others”, and “putting oneself in the shoes of others”. The Confucian ethic requires that one should “put oneself in the shoes of others”, “be able to draw parallels”, “put oneself in the shoes of others”, and “put oneself in the shoes of others”. The methodological principle of “putting oneself in the shoes of others” is of great importance in ethical thought. In terms of scientific development, breakthroughs, innovations and refinements in methodology often contribute to the development of a discipline. The long and far-reaching development of Confucian ethical thought in China is, it should be said, significantly related to the formulation of this methodological principle.

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The so-called “self-to-self” approach means that one starts from one’s own needs, aspirations, and pursuits to think about the needs, aspirations, and pursuits so as to appreciate and understand them and consciously reconcile them with oneself. This approach is particularly important in the adjustment, analysis and study of what Confucianism calls human relations. Confucius was the first to put forward this methodological principle. He said: “Now the man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others. To be able to judge of others by what is nigh in ourselves—this may be called the art of virtue.” (The Analects of Confucius— Yongye) A moral person must help others to stand if he wants to stand up; he must help others to live well if he wants to live well. If one can do everything for oneself and others, one can say that one has mastered the way of practicing “benevolence”. “To draw analogies is to be able to compare oneself to others. Under the guidance of this methodology, Confucius said that I should not give to others what I do not want for myself and that what I want for myself should be thought of as what others want for themselves. This method of “being able to draw parallels” has two meanings: on the one hand, it is to deduce the wishes of others from one’s wishes, i.e. to deduce the needs, feelings, motives, aims, will and beliefs of others from one’s own needs, feelings, motives, aims, will and beliefs. This can also be described as a notion of ‘class’, the idea that one should have ‘class’ compassion for one’s fellow ‘class’. People should understand, sympathize and help each other to reconcile themselves in a common living environment. On the other hand, the negative side of the equation is to see the situation that one is unwilling to accept, endure, encounter, and understand the feelings of others who are in such a situation so as to “send help to the poor”, “help the needy”, “help the righteous”. Of course, in a class society and class struggle, this kind of self-serving compassion is very limited because the exploiting class is unlikely to apply the self-serving approach to the working people, and therefore, whatever the original meaning of Confucius and Confucianism, this approach is very limited in a society dominated by the exploiting class.

8.4 The Contemporary Significance of Confucian Ethics Confucianism emerged in the pre-Qin period and then occupied an important place in the ideological sphere of China for more than two thousand years. Since its gradual introduction to Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia in the second century, Confucianism has had a particular influence on the culture, thought, ethics and morals of these regions, as well as on social climate and national psychology. Till now, the Confucian cultural sphere is still used to describe the cultural characteristics of the region. Confucian ethic thought is the core of Confucian culture. It’s based on the Oriental Asian mode of production and is closely related to the clan system of patriarchal law, which is based on blood ties and the family. I believe that Confucian ethical thinking

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is characterized by the following aspects, which are still of positive relevance to today’s society: The first aspect is about the sense of the whole and the concept of the overall situation. It is the core of Confucian ethic thought. The idea of devoting to the nation, the state and society plays an important role in Confucian ethic thought. This sense of wholeness or community in Confucian ethical thought is a spiritual force that inspires all the peoples and nations of the East to strive for self-improvement. The saying “Heaven, in its motion, (gives the idea of) strength. The superior man, in accordance with this, nerves himself to ceaseless activity.” is a reflection of Confucianism’s idea of entering and governing the world. Confucianism emphasizes a spirit of struggle for the sake of the nation and the whole that is indomitable, unafraid of sacrifice, persevering, sacrificing life for righteousness and killing oneself for benevolence. Secondly, a benevolent person loves people and treats them with harmony. It is the ethical principle of Confucianism in dealing with people in the world. The ideas of “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” and “Wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others.” already show that we should start from the idea of treating the individual as a member of the human race and treating our fellow human beings with the principle of “love for others”. Mencius said, “Thus all things which are the same in kind are like to one another; why should we doubt in regard to man, as if he were a solitary exception to this? The sage and we are the same in kind.” The phrase shows that the Confucian ethic of “loving people with benevolence” was already an early germ of humanistic thinking. The idea of “being able to draw analogies” as a “way of being benevolent” can be said to present a moral and methodological principle of putting oneself in the shoes of others. From the perspective of “loving others”, Confucianism stresses the importance of “harmony”, the need to be strict with oneself and lenient with others, and repay grievances with honesty, without thinking of old evils. Thirdly, Confucianism attaches importance to human relations and emphasizes a sense of responsibility and dedication to respect and trust. It is the Confucian demand for responsibility in human relations. In the Confucian ethical tradition, “to do one’s duty to one’s parents” and “to respect and enjoy one’s work” express one’s sense of responsibility to one’s parents, one’s family, and society. The most important Confucian principles of human ethics are: “father and son have kinship, ruler and subject have righteousness, husband and wife have distinction, elders and youngsters have the order, and friends have trust”; and “respect for one’s duties” and “loyalty to others” are the responsibility for one’s social occupation. Fourthly, the pursuit of the ideal personality and spirituality. It is an important aspect of Confucian ethical thinking. The value of life lies in the pursuit of becoming a sage and the indomitable spirit of the personality. Mencius said, “I love life, and I love righteousness, and if I cannot have both, then I will have to sacrifice life for righteousness.” Man needs to be “above the power of riches and honors to make dissipated, of poverty and mean condition to make swerve from principle, and of power and force to make bend—these characteristics constitute the great man”.

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Fifthly, to change one’s temperament and practice what one preaches. It is the theory of cultivation in Confucian ethical thought and is an important way for a person to become a saint and a virtuous person. Confucianism attaches importance to the dynamic role of the individual in moral cultivation, emphasizing the spirit of the moral subject of “to be benevolent by oneself” and “if I want to be benevolent, then benevolence will be achieved”, and as long as one sets one’s mind on one’s ambition and “can use one’s strength in benevolence one day As long as a person has set his or her mind on it, and “can use his or her strength to be benevolent one day”, it is possible to reach the peak of morality. Confucians attached importance to cultivation and practice because they realized that only by practicing what they practiced could they become a moral member of society. Confucian ethics, which emerged from a feudal society, contains both the best and the worst, including preserving the hierarchical order of superiority and inferiority, discrimination against women and the suppression of individuality, which should be discarded. We should adopt an attitude of critical inheritance, discarding the worst and taking the best, integrating and innovating, and using the past for the present. At the same time, as human society is developing and progressing economically, morality is in crisis to varying degrees. Nowadays, both Eastern and Western socialist and capitalist countries are seriously studying Confucian ethics in the light of their different national conditions and ideologies. This is because there are many elements in Confucian ethical thought that, if adequately assimilated critically, will help to overcome the phenomenon of money-worship and the corrupt habits of life that have arisen as a result of the development of the market economy and will help to promote the moral progress of our nation and our country. Therefore, I believe that a correct understanding of the significance and role of Confucian ethics in contemporary society and the promotion of the fine traditions of Confucian ethical thought will not only help to raise the moral standards of people in all countries but will also play an important role in building the spiritual civilization of human society as a whole.

8.5 The Right Attitude Towards Confucius and Confucianism 28 September 1999 marks the 2550th anniversary of Confucius’ birth. In order to commemorate this famous philosopher, thinker, educator and ethicist of China and the world, it is necessary to give a comprehensive account of the status, significance and role of Confucius and Confucianism in the development of human civilization. Thus, we can better inherit and promote Confucianism and build a socialist spiritual civilization, which will contribute to the further development of human civilization. Confucius (551–479 BC) lived during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a period when significant social and historical changes happened in China. China underwent important political, economic, intellectual, and cultural changes during this period. From the ideological and cultural point of view, the impact of this change still cannot be ignored today.

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In the twentieth century, our society’s attitude towards Confucius and Confucian ethics went through a tortuous development process. The Chinese Communist Party, guided by Marxism, proposed that Confucianism should be evaluated realistically and that the Chinese cultural traditions (including ethics and morality) should be inherited critically. Comrade Mao Zedong said: “Today’s China is a development of historical China; we are Marxist historians, and we should not cut off history. From Confucius to Sun Yat-sen, we should sum up and inherit this valuable heritage.” He added: “Cleaning up the development of ancient culture, eliminating its feudal dross and absorbing its democratic essence, is a necessary condition for developing a new national culture and raising national self-confidence; but it must not be incorporated uncritically.” For historical heritage and all progressive culture, they should not be absorbed uncritically, but “as we do with food, we must go through our oral chewing and gastrointestinal movements, send it in saliva and gastric juice and intestinal juice, break it down into two parts: the essence and the dross, then excrete the dross and absorb the essence, in order to be beneficial to our bodies!”. These remarks of Comrade Mao Zedong correctly address the issue of attitude and approach to traditional culture, including traditional ethics and morality. In retrospect, for more than 100 years since modern times, there have been different attitudes, views, and opinions on evaluating Confucius and Confucianism. For a considerable period of history, people have failed to treat Confucius and Confucianism correctly, which has affected traditional Chinese morality in modernization. Firstly, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the second half of the 1920s, the “total westernization theory”, from the perspective of the modern Western bourgeoisie, attacked all cultures, including traditional Chinese ethics and morality, and argued that traditional culture, including Confucius and Confucian ethics, was not suitable for the development of modern China. That total westernization was the only way out. Hu Shih was a representative of this idea, and he summarized the three major cultural trends in China at that time, namely, “resisting Western culture”, “choosing eclecticism”, and “full Westernization”. HE argued that resisting westernization had become a thing of the past, choosing eclecticism was a conservative method in disguise, and that only complete westernization was the way out for Chinese culture. From an objective point of view, the “total westernization theory” was based on the consciousness of the modern Western bourgeoisie and was devoted to advocating bourgeois culture, which had a positive effect on criticizing and countering feudal culture, but this did not mean that it was a scientific choice. Comrade Mao Zedong said that “the imperialist invasion broke the Chinese dream of learning from the West”. Those people who had studied the new Western culture during the 4 May period “developed a confidence for a long time that these could very well save China, placing their hopes for China’s salvation in the West.” However, after the First World War, China became a trophy of the West, which declared that the wholesale acceptance of Western culture was destined to be reduced to wishful thinking. Secondly, the “construction of a native culture” that emerged in the 1930s and 1940s advocated the restoration of Confucian ceremonies throughout the country,

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respect for Confucius and the reading of scripture, and the renewal of life in accordance with the requirements of Confucian ethical norms. In a nutshell, the “construction of original culture” aimed to build Chinese culture based on Confucianism. In essence, it was a kind of feudalist retrogressive thinking, which echoed the ultranationalist cultural policy advocated by the Kuomintang to restore the old cultural construction. Therefore, the thinking of “original cultural construction” often became an apologist to defend and support the reactionary policies of the Kuomintang government. Thirdly, since the founding of New China, especially from the 1960s to the 1970s, due to the influence of “leftist” thinking, people adopted a wrong attitude towards Confucius and Confucianism, emphasizing only criticism rather than inheritance. From the anti-rightist struggle to the criticism of the “inheritance theory of the exploiting class” to the “breaking of the four olds” (old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits) during the “Cultural Revolution” Furthermore, the criticism of Liu Shaoqi’s “black cultivation” to the “criticism of Lin and Confucius” and “evaluation of the law and criticism of Confucianism” movements, a “leftist” trend of denying traditional Chinese culture and traditional morality was formed. The “leftist” trend of thought denied traditional Chinese culture and morality. This trend of thinking has almost wholly rejected Confucius and his thought, especially Confucian moral thought, which has been influential in Chinese history without any analysis and has dramatically affected the construction of China’s socialist spiritual civilization and moral construction, causing irreparable damage. Fourthly, since the 1980s, due to the influence and encroachment of Western values, the right trend of “total westernization” has emerged in the field of Chinese thought, which can be regarded as a continuation and resurgence of the “total westernization theory” formed in the early twentieth century under new conditions. In some people’s view, modernization means Westernization, and Westernization requires comprehensive, complementary and thorough transplantation of Western science, technology, political systems, and values into China. One of the key aims of this trend was to use Western individualist-centered values to oppose socialist collectivist values. It saw Confucius and Confucian ethics as an inseparable whole that could not be distinguished between the best and the worst and that had to be broken down in its entirety to achieve a total rejection of Chinese cultural traditions and ethics through a total rejection of Confucian ethics. In addition, Neo-Confucianism, which emerged in the 1920s and later became active in Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas, has become popular on the mainland since the 1980s. It is, relatively speaking, a more influential and vigorous cultural trend. Its essential ideological characteristics are to respect Confucianism, take Confucian culture as the orthodoxy, and take it as its mission to promote Confucian morality and the humanistic spirit of Confucianism, advocating the “reversal of the original and opening up of the new”, and trying to develop modern science and democracy in the fundamentals of Confucianism. Neo-Confucianism is generally uncritically subservient to Western culture, exalts Confucius and Confucianism, and lacks an analytical and critical vision of traditional Chinese ethics and morality.

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Looking at the attitudes and approaches to Confucius and Confucian ethics over the past 100 years, we can see that either a nihilistic dismissal or a wholesale affirmation without critical analysis is not conducive to the development of traditional Chinese ethics in modern times, nor is it conducive to the building of a robust, democratic and civilized socialist state today. The lessons of history deserve to be carefully learned. We should approach Confucius and Confucian ethics with an attitude of historical materialism based on the actual construction of China’s socialist spiritual civilization and morality. We believe that it is of great practical importance to treat Confucius and Confucianism, especially Confucian ethics, correctly in the context of modernization. This is because Confucius and Confucian thought, especially Confucian ethics, have a close relationship with the construction of socialist spiritual civilization and morality with Chinese characteristics today. A correct approach to Confucius and Confucianism, especially Confucian ethics, will be conducive to building socialist spiritual civilization and morality in the long run. Firstly, the building of socialist spiritual civilization and morality must be based on the fundamental theme of achieving modernization, which is the reality of our nation. Modernization urgently requires the spiritual support of ethics and morality and the formation of spiritual civilization and ideology of contemporary significance, which cannot be achieved without drawing on the best elements of different cultural and moral traditions and values. Every nation has a traditional culture (including ethics and morals) different from that of other nations. All people are directly or indirectly nurtured and influenced by their traditional culture, including traditional ethics and morals. A country or a nation that looks to the future and modernizes vigorously will not forget its history, let alone abandon its fine moral traditions, and all countries in the world that have modernized since the twentieth century have made great efforts to promote their national values and maintain and carry forward their own fine moral traditions. China’s spiritual and moral construction is an important part of China’s socialist modernization and aims to achieve the ultimate goal of communism. Therefore, promoting Confucius and the excellent ethical thinking of Confucianism, maintaining and carrying forward the excellent ethics and morals of the Chinese nation, is of particular significance to the construction of spiritual civilization and moral construction in modernization. Secondly, the socialist spiritual civilization and morality we want to build is an open, advanced global culture. The construction and development cannot be separated from the thoroughfare of human civilization. Chinese history has repeatedly proved that self-imposed and exclusive cultural construction can only bring about the destruction of culture. As Marx and Engels pointed out in 1840, with the development of the world economy, “the former state of self-sufficiency has been replaced by the intercourse and interdependence of all peoples in all respects”, “the one-sidedness and limitations of the nation are becoming increasingly impossible. Thus, world literature formed from many kinds of national and local pieces of literature”. Today, the attitude of cultural conservatism is even less desirable. We must avoid refusing to learn and absorb the positive elements and cultural tendencies of Western culture (including ethics and morality) on various narrow grounds

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and overcome the unhealthy mentality of shrinking from actively learning from the cultural achievements of other nations with the cultural fear of assimilation and loss of national essence. At present, we urgently need to cultivate and create an open cultural mentality in order to build socialist spiritual civilization and morality into an open, advanced and global culture. Only with an open and broad-minded understanding of other peoples’ cultures (including ethics and morality) can we talk about transforming other people’s cultures, criticizing their negative aspects and absorbing the positive aspects that are useful to us. In this regard, the influence of money-grubbing, hedonism and individualism must not be ignored. At the same time, we must also see that the selfishness and self-interest induced by the adverse effects of the market economy can easily be combined with the hedonism, money-worship and individualism of the Western bourgeoisie, creating a massive obstacle to the construction of our spiritual civilization and moral development. To establish a Marxist-Leninist attitude, to treat Confucius and Confucianism correctly, especially Confucian ethics, means drawing on all the best achievements of human civilization with an open mind, promoting socialist morality with the virtues of human civilization, and continuously following promoting socialist moral construction. Thirdly, the excellent ethical thinking of Confucianism is of great significance in strengthening the construction of our spiritual civilization, including the construction of ideology and morality and the construction of culture, in the current socialist market economy. The construction of socialist spiritual civilization includes the construction of ideology and morality and the construction of culture, both of which must reflect Chinese characteristics. Both ideological and moral construction and cultural construction require the inheritance and promotion of the excellent ethical thinking of Confucius and Confucianism, which has played and is playing a vital role in the formation of the refined moral ethos of Chinese society and the unity, harmony and development of the Chinese nation. The industrialization of China and some of its neighboring countries has shown. It shows that traditional Eastern culture, especially its excellent ethical thinking, has not hindered the modernization of these countries but has also become a spiritual force for maintaining social order, improving social morals, harmonizing interpersonal relations and strengthening national cohesion. Under the conditions of a socialist market economy, we should enable the fine ethical traditions of the nation to play their due role in the construction of socialist spiritual civilization and moral construction through transformation and development. As we commemorate the 2550th anniversary of Confucius’ birth and reflect on the great cause of the revitalisation of the Chinese nation, we are deeply convinced of the significance of promoting Confucius and the excellent ethical thinking of Confucianism, as well as our great responsibility.

Chapter 4

Ethical Thought in Mohism of Impartial Care and Equal Emphasis on Righteousness and Interest

1 The Life of Mozi and His Works Mozi was born in about 468 BC and died in 376 BC. He was a native of the state of Lu at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period.1 Records of the Grand Historian— Biography of Mengzi and Xunqing says: “Mo Di, as the minister of the State of Song, was good at guarding and defending, and was a man of moderation.” He is said to have been a native of Song, as he was an official there for a long time. Mozi regarded himself as “baser” in Mozi-Esteem for Righteousness, and said that he did not participate directly in production, and that “I don’t take the responsibilities assigned by the emperor, and I don’t have difficulties in farming and food.” He was therefore said to be neither a nobleman nor a slave, nor a direct producer in general, but an intellectual close to the “peasants and workers”, i.e. close to the working people of the lower classes. According to the Huainanzi-Qisuxun, Mo Zi and Gong Shuban, the most famous carpenter of the time, were both able to make an exquisite wooden bird that could fly in the air for three days without falling down. On one occasion, Mo Zi and Gong Shuban competed in front of the king of Chu, and Gong Shuban attacked with his nine types of siege-train while Mo Zi fought back with his nine types of defensive weapons and won the match. From these two stories it is clear that Mozi was probably a skilled carpenter who, through self-education, became an intellectual, or ‘scholar’. In promoting his ideas, Mozi often quoted the classics, demonstrating his high level of historical knowledge. In Huai Nan Zi-Yao Lve, it says: “Mo Zi learnt from Confucianism and was taught the thought of Confucius, but he was annoyed by the complicated rites of Confucianism. Burial in Confucianism was a waste of money and made people poor. For a long term, it would hurt lives and hamper politics, so he deviated from the way of Zhou and promote the political thought of Xia.” It is clear that Mozi was dissatisfied with Confucianism and started a new school of thought. He founded a school of Mohism in opposition to Confucianism. Mohism and Confucianism were 1

Sun Yirang’s “Facts of Mozi” says: “He was born in Lu and served in Song.”

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once mentioned in the same breath as “distinguished schools”, both of which were very influential at the time. However, the ideas of the Mohism were suppressed by Confucianism. From the Western Han Dynasty, the ideas and deeds of Mozi and Mohism gradually disappeared into obscurity.2 In the history of Chinese ethical thought, Mozi was the first thinker to represent the small producers. The small producers were directly involved in production, suffering from the hardships brought about by long-term wars and living under the exploitation and oppression of the ruling class of the time. Mozi stood on the side of working people, reflecting their call for justice, and thus his ethical thinking went beyond the limitations of other thinkers of his time and took on a broader affinity to people. He emphasized on the importance of labor, its moral significance and the inviolability of its fruits, which was also revolutionary in the history of ethical thought worldwide. The doctrine of love for all people, as a kind of abstract love, is an illusion. But it does reflect the urgent demands, good intentions and noble sentiments of the working people from the standpoint of them. In his expression of the idea of love, Mozi expressed his strong dissatisfaction with the phenomenon of “the strong ruling over the weak, the noble arrogating the lowly, and the rich insulting the poor”. Also, he expressed sincere desire for an ideal society in which people love each other. In his life, Mozi was both an ethical thinker and a moral practitioner. He advocated love among people, opposed warfare and stressed peace. He travelled around the world to promote his ideas, visiting the states of Qi, Wei, Song and Chu. One of Mozi’s friends once advised him, “Now that everyone in the world refuses to do what is right, why do you have to work so hard? Let’s forget it! “Mozi replied, “Suppose a man has ten sons. Only one of them does farming while the other nine stay at home. Then the farmer must work much more vigorously. What is the reason? There are many who eat but few who plough. Now, none in the world practices righteousness. Then you should encourage me to do the right things. Why do you stop me? “(Mozi—Esteem for Righteousness) Mozi and his disciples formed a tight-knit group to stop the wars in the world and to make all people “love each other”. Huai Nan Zi—Doctrine of Tai says: “Mozi has 180 disciples, and all of them could be made to go to heaven or earth, and die without regretting.” The leader of this group was called “Ju Zi”. After the death of Mozi, the “Ju Zi” was passed on for several generations. There is no other group in the history of Chinese ethical thought that is as well organised as this, with the aim of morality. Although later Confucianists had their own schools of thought 2

The survival and transmission of the ideas and deeds of Mozi and the Mohism after the Western Han Dynasty have been much discussed by historians. Sun Yirang’s Note on Mozi—A Brief Biography of Mozi says: “Tai Shi Gong described his father’s philosophy of the six schools of thought, respecting Confucianism but valuing Taoism, and Mohism was not his favorite. Therefore, although the “Records of the Grand Historian” recorded a wide range of events, and among the pre-Qin schools of thoughts, apart from Confucianism, Lao, Zhuang, Han, Lv, Su, Zhang, Sun, Wu were listed in the words and deeds for the biography, while Mozi was only attached at the end of the biography of Meng Xun. I am not yet able to determine its time, not to mention the deeds of Mozi. However, the 71 articles of Mozi were remained in the changes of time and the disappearance of other historical records. Shi Gong actually did not check the facticity of the records, which is an oversight! Nowadays, after 2000 years of history, none of the old books of Zhou and Qin dynasties have survived, and the 71 articles are still incomplete, so it is difficult to discuss them in detail.”

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and emphases on the practice of morality, none of them were as disciplined as the one established by Mozi. Historically, this tight organization did not exist for long, and after more than 100 years, it declined completely from the view of people of the time. It was because of this spirit of service to people and salvation that Mozi and his faction attached the utmost importance to working for the good of people. Therefore, we can say the main aspects of Mozi’s ethical thought are taking the interests of the people as the highest moral principle with ‘universal love and mutual benefits’ at its core and trying to put it into practice. Mozi’s ethical thought had an important influence on some of the later thinkers in the history of Chinese ethical thought who emphasized the practical and utilitarian aspects. There were, of course, significant limitations within the small producer class itself. The mode of production and their position in relation of social production at the time determined their weaknesses of diffidence, narrow-mindedness and conservatism. Mozi, in reflecting the demands and aspirations of the small producers, also showed their inherent weaknesses. He pinned his hopes on moral persuasion of the princes and lords, hoping that they would promote conciliation and love, and even eventually fell into the vice of believing that the demons and God could reward good and punish evil, taking God and demons and gods as the final spiritual pillar for the realisation of his ideal society. These are serious flaws in Mozi’s thinking. Of course, we should consider the issue in the light of the level of social development and the ability of understanding of the people at that time, and not be overly critical of the ancients. According to recent research, the extant book “Mozi” was compiled by Mozi’s disciples, and its main parts can be regarded as a more reliable account of Mozi’s activities and ideas. According to Hanshu-Yi Wen Zhi, there are 71 articles in “Mozi”, of which only 53 have been handed down. Six of these, namely Canon I, Canon II, Exposition of Canon I, Exposition of Canon II, Major Illustrations and Minor Illustrations, are main works on logic, epistemology and natural science. They are of high academic value, being written by Mohists during the late Warring States period. For the study of Mozi’s ethical thought, the more important ones are “Universal Love”, “Condemnation of Offensive War”, “Exaltation of the Virtuous”, “Identification with the Superior”, “Economy of Expenditures”, “Simplicity in Funerals”, “Condemnation of Music”, “Anti-Fatalism”, “Will of Heaven”, “On Ghosts”, “Esteem for Righteousness”, “Lu’s Question”, “Self-cultivation” and “On Dyeing”.

2 Ethical Thoughts with “Impartial Love” as the Core The ideas of Mozi and Confucianism have both similar and opposing aspects. On the one hand, they both emphasize on ‘love for others’, and they both advocate ‘not to do unto others what you would not have them do unto you’. On the other hand, Confucianism stresses the importance of “kinship”, i.e. loving close ones more, and that love should be differential, that love should be extended from near to far, that filial piety should be shown to parents, that brotherhood should be mutual loved, and that only then can the family be steady and one can rule the world. Confucius

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advocated “benevolence” and stressed that “the benevolent person loves others”. Although Confucius’ love was in essence a love of priority, in a general sense, his love for people included all people, which was a progressive aspect of his thinking. However, in order to maintain the hierarchy of kings, ministers, fathers and sons, which had been linked by blood ties since the Western Zhou Dynasty, Confucius placed special emphasis on “kinship” and “love with difference” in the issue of “love for others”. Confucius believed that there was a hierarchy of love for different people. Confucius believed that although all people should love others, the degree of love should be different, and that love for one’s parents, relatives and those who are related should exceed love for others. Confucius said, “If a gentleman treats his kinsmen with deep affection, a spirit of benevolence will arise among the people, and if a gentleman does not forget his old friends, then the people will not be indifferent to him.” (Analects—Taibo) He also said, “A gentleman must not alienate or neglect his kin.” (Analects—Weizi), which means that the love for relatives and old friends should exceed the love for all other people. Mozi started from his opposition to tradition, arguing that the ties of kinship, which had been bound by blood since the Western Zhou, should be broken. Therefore, he opposed the idea of differential love and advocated universal love for all people, regardless of intimacy or affinity. This kind of love, which does not distinguish between one another, is a kind of love in which “I love people and people love me”, and it is the core of Mozi’s ethical thought system. Why should people show equal and undifferentiated love to each other? Mozi offers a theoretical explanation. Confucius speaks only of loving people, and sees loving people as a moral principle for granted. Why should a benevolent person love others? Confucius did not see the social reason for this, other than the fact that we are all human beings. Mozi clearly states that his idea of loving people equally without distinction is necessary for the development of society and for the survival of humanity. What he called ‘universal love’ was an important force for overcoming social unrest, strengthening stability and unity, and promoting social progress. Mozi lived in a time when wars and beacons were raging, when “states were attacking each other, families were usurping each other, and men were being traitors to each other, when rulers and ministers were not being loyal, fathers and sons were not being kind and filial, and brothers were not being reconciled” (Mozi—Universal Love II). In Mozi’s view, the greatest scourge in the world was the annexation and contention between states, classes and families, which caused great suffering to the working people of the lower classes. This was due to the fact that people “did not love each other”. According to Mozi, it is not true that people do not know how to love each other, but they only know how to love their own relatives, families and country. They do not know how to love others, and their families and their country. In other words, they don’t know how to love each other, and that is why they annex and compete with each other. In a sense, it can also be said that the chaos in the world was caused by the Confucian idea of “kinship”. Mozi believed that if only people could “love each other”, all the disputes between them could be solved. He said: At present feudal lords have learned only to love their own states and not those of others. Therefore they do not scruple about attacking other states. The heads of

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houses have learned only to love their own houses and not those of others. Therefore they do not scruple about usurping other houses. And individuals have learned only to love themselves and not others. Therefore they do not scruple about injuring others. When feudal lords do not love one another there will be war on the fields. When heads of houses do not love one another they will usurp one another’s power. When individuals do not love one another they will injure one another. When ruler and the ruled do not love one another they will not be gracious and loyal. When father and son do not love each other they will not be affectionate and filial. When brothers do not love each other they will not be harmonious. When nobody in the world loves any other, naturally the strong will overpower the weak, the many will oppress the few, the wealthy will mock the poor, the honored will disdain the humble, the cunning will deceive the innocent. Therefore all the calamities, strives, complaints, and hatred in the world have arisen out of want of mutual love. This is not benevolence. (Ibid) When ruler and the ruled love one another they will be gracious and loyal. When father and son love each other they will be affectionate and filial. When brothers love each other they will be harmonious. When everyone in the world loves any other, the strong will not overpower the weak, the many will not oppress the few, the wealthy will not mock the poor, the honored will not disdain the humble, the cunning will not deceive the innocent. Therefore all the calamities, strives, complaints, and hatred in the world can be avoided by universal love. This is benevolence. (Ibid) To “love one another” means to regard other people’s countries as one’s own, other people’s homes as one’s own, and other people’s bodies as one’s own. In this way, warfare between nations, usurpation between families, and harm between people are finally eliminated. Mozi’s ‘universal love’ is a great step forward from Confucius’ ‘love for others’, and can indeed be described as a universal love for human beings, i.e. love for each other, regardless of the ruling and ruled classes, the strong and the weak, the noble and the lowly, the rich and the poor. Mozi, as a representative of the small producer’s ideology, although he felt deeply that the exploitation and oppression of the people by the strong, the rich and the noble at that time was the cause of their suffering, he was not yet able to recognise that this was an inter-class oppression and that the situation can only be changed by violence, rather than preaching of love. He tried to achieve this universal, non-differentiated love in order to achieve peace in the world. Mozi further logically refutes the Confucian idea that there is a difference in love, in order to establish his theory of ‘mutual love’ more firmly. In Mozi—Geng Zhu, it is stated that: Wumazi said to Mozi, “I am different from you. I cannot love others universally. I love the people of Zou better than the people of Yue, the people of Lu better than the people of Zou, the people of my homeland better than the people of Lu, the members of my family better than the people of my homeland, my parents better than the other members of my family, and myself better than my parents. The closer, the more I love. When I am beaten, I feel pain. When others are beaten the pain does not extend to me. Why should I resist what does not give me pain but not resist what gives me pain? Therefore, I would rather have them killed to benefit me than to have me killed to benefit them.“ Mozi said, “Is this righteousness of yours to be hidden? Or shall

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you tell others?” Wumazi said, “Why should I hide my righteousness? I will tell others.” Mozi said, “Then if one person is pleased with you, there will be one person who will desire to kill you in order to benefit himself. If ten persons are pleased with you, there will be ten persons who will desire to kill you to benefit themselves. If (the people of) the whole world are pleased with you, (the people of) the whole world will desire to kill you to benefit themselves. (On the other hand), if one person is not pleased with you there will be one person who will desire to kill you as the propagator of a wicked doctrine. If ten persons are not pleased with you there will be ten persons who will desire to kill you as the propagator of an evil doctrine. If (the people of) the whole world are not pleased with you the whole world will desire to kill you as the propagator of an evil doctrine. (So, then) those who are pleased with you desire to kill you and those who are not pleased with you also desire to kill you. This is to say, what passes out from your mouth is what kills your body. The idea above of Wumazi is derived from the Confucian idea that there is a difference in love. Confucianism stresses the importance of love with difference, and of loving all people by extension from loving one’s family members. Through the talk of Wumazi, Mozi, following his internal logic, pushes the Confucian idea of “love has differences” to “love my body over my relatives” and “kill them to benefit me, but not to kill me to benefit them”, i.e. from the idea of “love has differences” he concludes that one’s body is more important than one’s relatives and that one kills for one’s own benefit. Mozi further pointed out that if people liked this idea, they would kill for their own benefit, and the person who adhered to this idea would inevitably be killed; if people did not like this idea, they would think that the person who adhered to this idea was spreading falsehoods to harm others, and would therefore be in danger of being killed. Mozi reveals the selfish nature of Confucian love and its possible negative effects on society, and argues the opposite of the theoretical validity of the idea of “universal love”. However, Mozi did not understand that there are classes of people and that people of different classes are fundamentally opposed to each other, and that there can never be any universal love between them. The highest moral principle is “universal love”, but how can this be achieved? Mozi goes on to propose the principle of “mutual benefit”. According to Mozi, people should love each other; if I love others, they should love me too. But this mutual love should not just be a verbal love or emotional love, but a real mutual help, that is, love must be reflected in ‘benefit’. Specifically, what is “mutual benefit”? Mozi says: “Let him who has strength be alert to help others, let him who has wealth endeavour to share it with others, let him who possesses the Dao (the way of nature and life) teach others persuasively.” (Mozi—Exaltation of the Virtuous III) With this, “the hungry will be fed, the cold will be clothed, the disturbed will have order.” (ibid) “those have no partner or children will be well organized and have a decent life; the orphans will be arranged to learn skills to live on their own” (Mozi—Exaltation of the Virtuous III). This idea reflects the interests of the working class and has a certain progressive significance. Because Mozi’s “universal love” was a response to Confucius’ theory of “kinship” and “love with difference”, which upheld the patriarchal relationship between blood and family, it was strongly criticised by Mencius. From Mencius, we know that the

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theories of Mozi and another thinker, Yang Zhu, had a great influence at the time. As the saying goes, “The words of Yang Zhu and Mo Di prevail the world, and the words of the world, if not from Yang, are from Mo” (Mencius—Teng Wen Gong II). He defended the way of the sages, rejected the doctrines of Yang and Mo, and discarded the words that confused people’s minds, so that evil doctrines could not rise, thus giving Confucius’ ideas the upper hand again. Mencius criticised Yang Zhu and Mozi, saying “Yang advocates the benefit of one’s own self and does not care emperor; Mozi loves everyone universally and does not care his own father. To care no father and no ruler, one is to be an animal.” (Ibid.) He believed that Mozi’s greatest sin was that he was not filial to his parents. However, in Mozi’s view, if a filial son wants others to love and benefit his parents, he must first love and benefit others’ parents before they will “return the favor to me by loving and benefiting my parents”. If one does not know how to love and benefit other people’s parents, they will not love and benefit their own parents, so how can one be filial?

3 Principle of Equal Emphasis on Righteousness and Benefit and Utilitarianism in Ethics In response to Confucius’ principle of putting righteousness before benefit, Mozi explicitly put forward the idea of equal emphasis on righteousness and benefit, which was an improvement and development of Confucius’ view on righteousness and benefit. The question of righteousness and benefit has a special significance in the history of Chinese ethical thought. Although Confucius did not deny the importance of “benefit” in certain circumstances, his thinking is unclear in terms of the use of logical concepts. He did not give a clear explanation of either “righteousness” or “benefit”. Unlike Confucius, Mozi had many interpretations of both “righteousness” and “benefit”. What is “righteousness”? Mozi said, “Righteousness is justice. How can I know that righteousness is justice? If there is righteousness in the world, it will be ruled, but if there is no righteousness, it will be chaos.” (Mozi—Will of Heaven III) He also said, There is nothing more valuable than righteousness in all things. Now I say to a man, “If I were to give my son a crown and shoes, and cut off his hands and feet, would you do it? Of course, no. Why? The crown is not as valuable as the hands and feet.” He continued, “If I were to give my son the world, and kill his body, would I do it? Of course, no. Why? The world is not as valuable as the body. If you fight over words and kill each other, the words are more valuable than your body. Therefore it is said: ‘Nothing is more valuable than righteousness.’” (Mozi—Esteem for Righteousness) “Valuable” (“Gui” in Chinese) has the meanings of respectful, honorable and important. The so-called “nothing is more valuable than righteousness” means that among all things, only “righteousness” is the most noble,

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the most important and the most respectful. In Mozi’s view, of all things in the world, nothing is more valuable than righteousness. Righteousness is worth more than life, and people can sacrifice their own lives to achieve it. So what is “righteousness”? Righteousness is justice, integrity and fairness. According to Sun Yirang, “a righteous person is upright”, which means “ruling people with righteousness”, i.e. to govern the people, one must be just and upright. Righteousness is also known as fairness, which means that people must act in accordance with the rules of righteousness. In Mozi’s view, the greatest justice of the time was to promote the interests of the world and to eliminate the evils of the world. What is “benefit”? Mozi makes it clear that what he means by “benefit” is not the private interests of individuals, but the interests of the whole, which is the interests of the society, the state and the people. He said, “He who is benevolent must seek to promote the interests of the world and to remove the evils of the world, and will do so by the law of the world. To benefit others should be encouraged, while to harm others shou7ld be stopped.” (Mozi-Condemnation of Music I) He believed that anything should be done depends on whether or not it is “in the interest of the people”. If it is “in the interest of all the people”, then it should be done; if it is not, then it should not be done. Therefore, “promoting the interests of the world and eliminating the evils of the world” is the standard of morality for all actions emphasized by Mozi. It is because Mozi understood “benefit” as the benefit of the world, the state and the people that the later Mohists defined benevolence and righteousness as follows: “Benevolence is also love” (Mozi—Canon I). That is to say, benevolence is to experience oneself to love others; “Righteousness is also benefit” (ibid.), which means that righteousness is to benefit others, the state and the world. Since Mozi saw the goal of the “benevolent man” as “to promote the interests and eliminate the evils of the world”, he stressed the importance of developing production, promoting the interests of the people and making them rich. A moral sage rules and manages a country not only by making the people love each other, but also, and most importantly, by making them rich in life, so that production can increase exponentially. He said: “When a sage governs a country, the country’s wealth can be doubled. When a great man governs the world, the world’s wealth can be doubled. This kind of increase does not come from exploitation of other countries, but comes from saving unnecessary expenditures according to the reality of the country.” (Mozi—Economy of Expenditures I) By using “double” here, he meant doubling the production, which means doubling the wealth and the income of the people. He wanted to double not only the material wealth of a country, but also of the whole world. Mozi even thought that if he could do what he said, it would be possible to double it several times. From the standpoint of small producers, Mozi opposed the Confucian practice of honorable burial and long funeral, and the corrupt practices of the “present lord” who “violently took away people’s food and clothing”. He was also against the various rituals, pleasures and extravagances practiced by the slave-owners in accordance with the Zhou rites. Mozi applies this criterion of whether it is beneficial to others to all aspects. In the Mozi-Lu’s Question, it is said: “Gong Shuzi constructed a bird from bamboo and wood and when it was completed he flew it. It stayed up in the air for three days. Gong

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Shuzi was proud of his supreme skill. Mozi said to him: ‘Your work of bird is not as good as my work in making a vehicle. In a short while I could cut out a 20 cm piece of wood which can load over 300 kg. Therefore, any achievement that is beneficial to man is said to be good, and anything not beneficial is said to be clumsy.’” Here, Mozi explicitly states that “work that benefits other is called skillful”, which means that the right and wrong, skilfulness, wisdom and foolishness, good and evil, are all judged by the criterion of whether the act produces benefit for others. Mozi’s unification of righteousness and benefit, and his emphasis on whether or not to produce “benefit” for people (the “majority people”) as a criterion for judging right and wrong, skilfulness, wisdom and foolishness, good and evil, can be said to be the first to put forward a principle of benefit in the history of Chinese ethical thought. What he called “the benefit of all the people” and “the benefit of the state” is, in a certain sense, the same as “the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people”.3 The formulation of this idea is the earliest in the history of ethical thought in China and the world, and is of great significance. Mozi’s “mutual benefit” means that I help others sincerely so that they can gain “benefit”, and others help me sincerely so that I can also gain “benefit”. This also reflects the utilitarian character of Mozi’s ethical thinking. However, Mozi was not a narrow-minded utilitarian. He spoke of “mutual benefit” not as a condition or a purpose, but as a necessary or natural consequence of “mutual love”. In other words, it is not that I benefit others in order to benefit myself from their help, nor is it that I benefit others in order to gain their benefits, but that we all help each other and love each other, and then we will naturally gain benefits from each other. Mozi was an ethical thinker who emphasized the principle of benefit, and therefore he also valued the relationship between motive and effect. For the first time in the history of Chinese ethical thought, and even in the history of global ethical thought, Mozi linked motivation and effect as a pair of ethical categories and created the concepts of “will” and “work” to represent motivation and effect, which is another important contribution to ethics. The concepts of “will” and “work” existed before Mozi. In the Book of Document, there is a poem entitled “Poetry speaks of the will and song speaks of the words” (Shangshu—Canon of Shun), and in the Analects, there is a poem entitled “I have ten years and five years to learn” (Analects—Wei Zheng). However, the word “will” here mainly means to set one’s mind and will, and does not have the meaning of motivation. In ancient Chinese, the word “Zhi”(will) mostly means knowledge, marks, and ambition. In the pre-Qin canonical texts, “Gong”(work) has the meaning of merit and effectiveness, and by extension, it can mean efficacy. Before Mozi, however, the two concepts were not linked and did not become a pair of ethical categories. What should be the basis for evaluating the good and bad of a person’s actions, motive or effect?

3

British moralist, Hutcheson, first introduced in his book “Inquiry concerning Moral Good and Evil” (1725) the term “the greatest happiness of the greatest number”, which was later formally adopted as an ethical principle by Bianchin in the nineteenth century.

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First of all, according to Mozi, it is necessary to combine both motivation and effect, and not to emphasize only one aspect in a one-sided way. There is a passage in the Mozi-Lu’s Question that states: The ruler of Lu said to Mozi, “I have two sons, one likes learning and the other likes distributing money to people, which one should be the prince?” Mozi said, “We can’t tell (just from this). It may be that they behave so just for the praise and reward of it. The fisherman’s bait is not intended to feed the fish. Trapping a mouse with worms is not for the love of the mouse. I wish your Lordship would observe both their intention and consequences.” Here, Mozi put forward a theory of combining motive and effect, which was “to combine his will and work and see how it works”. Unfortunately, this idea of Mozi’s has not received the attention and further research it deserves for a long period of time. Secondly, if the act does not produce an effect, Mozi believes that a person should be evaluated primarily on the basis of his or her motives. In Mozi—Geng Zhu, it is stated that: Wumazi said to Mozi: “Though you love universally the world cannot be said to be benefited; though I do not love (universally) the world cannot be said to be injured. Since neither of us has accomplished anything, what makes you then praise yourself and blame me?” Mozi answered, “Suppose a conflagration is on. One person is fetching water to extinguish it, and another is holding some fuel to reinforce it. Neither of them has yet accomplished anything, but which one do you value?” Wumazi answered that he approved of the intention of the person who fetches water and disapproved of the intention of the person who holds fuel.” And Mozi said, “(In the same manner) Then I approve of my intention and disapprove of yours.” The main point here is the understanding of ‘intention’. It is clear that ‘intention’ in this context means motivation, although it does not produce effects, and it can be said that such motivation can be demonstrated or tested by human practice or behavior. In the course of the development of Western ethical thought, especially in the nineteenth century, under the advocacy of Bianchin and Muller, the famous utilitarian school of ethics was formed. This school of thought still occupies a very important place in the current political and moral life of the West, and even in theoretical research on politics and ethics. The essential characteristic of utilitarianism is that the main criterion for evaluating the goodness or badness of a person’s actions should be the effect or result produced by a person’s actions. In the history of modern Western ethical thought, scholars have tended to divide utilitarianism into two main types, one known as behavioral utilitarianism and the other known as rule-based utilitarianism. Behavioral utilitarianism is the idea that people should act in such a way as to bring about beneficial outcomes for themselves, others or society, but that it is not necessary or possible to set specific moral guidelines for people. Utilitarians believe that people’s moral behavior is subject to a variety of complex situations, and it is moral to act according to the general guidelines of utilitarianism and to adapt to the situation so that one’s behavior achieves a certain level of merit. Generally speaking, it is moral to tell the truth. But in the view of the behavioral utilitarians, it cannot be

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a universal rule. They think it must be judged by the person herself or himself in the light of the circumstances. In some situations, only telling lies can bring benefits to others. Rule-based utilitarianism means that, in addition to emphasizing that the outcome of an action must benefit oneself, others and society, one must also follow a set of rules that meet this requirement. Although in many cases there are exceptions to some of these rules, we cannot therefore deny the importance of a universal ethical code. While there are situations where telling lies (e.g. to an incurably ill patient, in the court of the enemy) is necessary and beneficial to others or to society, we should still generally recognise that honesty is a very important moral rule. We cannot rely solely on the promptness of the actor and we cannot have a system of ethical norms. Mozi not only emphasized the utilitarianism and effectiveness of behavior, but also actively advocated the establishment of a whole system of norms based on the general guiding principles of ‘universal love’ and ‘mutual benefit’. In this sense, it can also be said that his utilitarianism is a kind of rule-based utilitarianism.

4 Against Fatalism for Anti-aggression Mozi applied the ethical idea of “universal love” to his socio-political thinking, and put forward the idea of “anti-aggression”. At that time, large countries were invading small countries, strong countries were plundering weak countries, wars were raging and attacks were taking place. The small producer class always suffered the most under the circumstances and endured the disasters caused by war. In Mozi’s view, of all the things in society that were harmful to the people, there was no greater evil than aggressive warfare. Mozi, of course, did not and could not understand that the wars of the late period of Spring and Autumn and early Warring States were a prominent expression of the inevitability of historical development, reflecting the rise of new feudal forces and the progressive demands of the progressive classes to unify society as a whole, and had a certain progressive significance. Therefore, with the aim of promoting the interests of the world and eliminating the evils, he went around and tried to stop or eliminate wars between countries. The story of Mozi persuading Sate Chu to stop invading State Song has been told for two thousand years. In Mozi’s view, it is immoral to harm people for self-interest, and the more people are harmed, the more immoral they are. There is nothing more unethical than war, and people should distinguish between right and wrong, condemn war-mongers and put an end to war. He said: Suppose a man enters the orchard of another and steals the other’s peaches and plums. Hearing of it the public will condemn it; laying hold of him the authorities will punish him. Why? Because he injures others to profit himself. As to seizing dogs, pigs, chickens, and young pigs from another, it is even more unrighteous than to steal peaches and plums from his orchard. Why? Because it causes others to suffer more, and it is more inhumane and criminal. When it comes to entering another’s stable and appropriating the other’s horses and oxen, it is more inhumane than to

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seize the dogs, pigs, chickens, and young pigs of another. Why? Because others are caused to suffer more; when others are caused to suffer more, then the act is more inhumane and criminal. when others are caused to suffer more, then the act is more inhumane and criminal. Finally, as to murdering the innocent, stripping him of his clothing, dispossessing him of his spear and sword, it is even more unrighteous than to enter another’s stable and appropriate his horses and oxen. Why? Because others are caused to suffer more; when others are caused to suffer more, then the act is more inhumane and criminal. when others are caused to suffer more, then the act is more inhumane and criminal. All the gentlemen of the world know that they should condemn these things, calling them unrighteous. But when it comes to the great attack of states, they do not know that they should condemn it. On the contrary, they applaud it, calling it righteous. Can this be said to be knowing the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness? (Mozi—Condemnation of Offensive War I) Mozi also pointed out that aggressive wars not only resulted in the loss of property and lives of the people of the invaded country, but were also unprofitable for the country waging them. In order to wage a war of aggression, preparations must be made first, and it is inevitable to “deprive the people of their opportunities and benefits to such a great extent”, and that “when we consider the possessions obtained through it, it does not even make up for the loss.” (Mozi—Condemnation of Offensive War II). Some countries, when they wage war, are often self-destructive. Mozi’s painstaking efforts to persuade the rulers of those countries that had started wars were aimed at raising their awareness and stopping their own aggression. In fact, Mozi did not oppose all wars. He divided wars into two categories: aggressive wars, known as “attacks”, and just wars, known as “punishments”, in which the righteous fight against the unrighteous. In his view, all wars of the time were unjust wars and belonged to the former, and they should be opposed. Mozi not only wanted to stop wars, but also wanted to unify the world. He hoped that a benevolent ruler with the idea of universal love would come down from heaven to complete the task of unification. He said: If there were some one who would establish his righteous name for justice in the world and draw the feudal lords to him with his virtue, the submission of the whole world to him could be awaited while standing. For the world has long been in turmoil and war, and it is weary like the boy at playing horse. If only there were some one who would first benefit the other feudal lords in mutual good faith! If only there were some one who would first benefit the other feudal lords in mutual good faith! When some large state acts unrighteously, he would join in the sorrow; when some large state attacks some smaller one he would join in the rescue; when the outer and the inner walls of the city of the small state are in ruin he would demand their repair; when cloth and grains are exhausted he would supply them; when money and silk are insufficient he would share his own—to befriend the large state in this way, the large state will be pleased, to befriend the small state in this way, the small state will be pleased. (Mozi—Condemnation of Offensive War III) This shows that the unification that Mozi wanted was thus a unification based on the principle of ‘universal love’, which was achieved not by means of annexation wars but by the benevolent ruler’s implementation of ‘universal love’. Mozi’s noble

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moral sentiments in sympathy with the people and his desire for peace are highly commendable, but his proposal to avoid or eliminate war is highly unrealistic.

5 Labor Creation Theory of “Labor to Survive” For the first time in the history of Chinese ethical thought, Mozi, as the representative of the small producer class, gave a noble meaning to labor, especially productive labor. He considered it as an important sign of the distinction between man and animals. Thus it became the basis on which man established his status (in comparison with animals) and value. This issue is another important aspect of the antagonism between Mohism and Confucianism. Confucius especially despised productive work. He regarded productive work for crops and gardens as lowly and humble things and only a lowly person should do that. In Analects—Zi Lu, Fan Chi asked to learn about farming. Confucius said, “I am not as good as the old farmer.” He then asked to learn gardening. Confucius said, “I am not so good for that as an old gardener.” Fan Chi went out. He said, “He is really a small man. If a superior man love propriety, the people will not dare not to be reverent. If he loves righteousness, the people will not dare to submit to his example. If he loves good faith, the people will not dare to be sincere. Now, when these things obtain, the people from all quarters will come to him, bearing their children on their backs—what need has he of a knowledge of farming?” In the history of Western ethical thought, few ancient Greek thinkers, from Plato to Aristotle, attached any importance to labor, especially the labor of the lower classes in general. Mozi, on the other hand, attached great importance to labor and suggested that the fundamental difference between humans and animals lay in the ability to engage in productive labor that sustained their existence. The people of today are certainly different from the beasts of prey, elk, birds and insects. The animals of today, the elk, birds, and insects, are clothed with their feathers as clothes, fleas and hooves as trousers and shoes. They take grass and water as food and drink. If the male does not plough, and the female does not spin and weave, they still have basic food and tools. Human today are different. They can live only on their strengths. If they don’t utilize their strengths, they cannot survive. (Mozi—Condemnation of Music I) It is that human beings depend on their own productive work to survive that make them distinguished from animals. To survive, human must be strong and productive. Mozi said: “If you are strong, you will be rich; if you are not strong, you will be poor; if you are strong, you will be full; if you are not strong, you will be hungry”; “if you are strong, you will be warm; if you are not strong, you will be cold” (Mozi—AntiFatalism III). Thus, labor is a necessity for human beings, not a lowly thing. Of course, we must also point out that the force or labor that Mozi refers to as “people live by their force” is very broad in scope. “Force” is the opposite of “fate”, and “people around the world credit on their force, so they do not say that

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they foresaw their destiny” (Mozi—Anti-Fatalism II) is the expression of “force” and “fate” in opposition to each other. According to Mozi, whether it is personal wealth or the rise and fall of a country, it is the result of people’s “strong force”, not the decision of any “fate”. The term “strength” connotes the ability of people to work, and includes the “wisdom of thinking”, and “physical strength of farming”. He regarded the “hearing and ruling” of kings and princes, the “wisdom of thinking” of scholars and gentlemen, the “art of farming” of farmers, and the “spinning and weaving” of women as all “strength”. He believed that if rulers could not “got to the court early in the morning and take a rest not until the evening to deal with issues”, then “the state would be in chaos and the society would be in danger”; if the scholar could not “exert his strength and wisdom, and collect the profits from the markets, the mountains and the forests”, then “the granary and the treasury would not be real”; if farmers could not “get up early and work all day to do farming, gardening, and collect food”, “the food and crops would be in shortage”; if women did not “work at all day to do spinning and weaving to produce more linen and silk”, then “the knitting would not be enough” (Mozi—Condemnation of Music I). Only through the work of the whole society will the country be safe and stable, and the people will be well-fed and happy. Mozi’s emphasis on the important role of ‘force’ or labor was reasonable, but he could not understand that all exploiting classes did not depend on their own force but lived by exploiting the masses of working people. He could not distinguish between the oppressed and the oppressor, the exploited and the exploiter. He regarded all social activities, even the exploitive “hearing and ruling” of rulers and the “collecting the profits from the market, the mountains and the forests” of scholars and gentlemen as “reliance on their own force”. However, Mozi’s valuable point was that he saw the importance of the people’s productive work. He even dared to compare the productive activities of peasants with the government of the rulers, which could be considered a remarkable idea at that time. This idea was clearly the fundamental antithesis of Confucius’ contempt for productive labor. Based on the above view, Mozi called the act of taking the fruits of other people’s labor unjust or immoral. He said, supposing someone entered the orchard and garden of another and took the other’s peaches and prunes, melon and ginger, he will be punished by the superior when caught and condemned by the public when heard of. Why? Because he did not share the toil but takes the fruit and appropriates what does not belong to him. (Mozi—Will of Heaven III) It is an unkind and unrighteous for a person to steal the fruits of other’s labor and keep them for himself without taking part in the labor. In his view, it was such kind of self-interested behaviors, big and small, that caused social unrest. Mozi sought to protect the fruits of the working people through public moral opinion, but because he regarded the ruling class’s hearing and ruling and amassing wealth as legitimate “labor”, he unconsciously justified the exploitation of the fruits of the people’s labor by the exploiting class. Of course, his starting point and motives were good, and he was firmly opposed to the excessive exploitation of the people by the ruling class.

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In this regard, Mozi’s theoretical contribution was to see labor as the fundamental difference between human beings and animals, and to argue that labor and morality are closely related.

6 Religious Ethics of “Heaven Can Appreciate the Good and Punish the Evil” Mozi was an advocate of the existence of ghosts and gods, and he wrote a special chapter on the “On Ghosts”, arguing the reason for their existence. From his own epistemology, he emphasized the so-called empirical basis, arguing that the existence of ghosts and gods can be found in experiences. He said: “To ascertain with people the existence of ghosts and gods, we should use the facts that the public has heard and seen with their own eyes and ears.” This means that if people see or hear something, then it can be proved that there is something; if they do not see or hear it, then it can be confirmed that there is nothing. He goes on to cite many examples recorded in history to show that many people at the time saw ghosts and gods, and therefore believed that they existed. Why did such a great thinker as Mozi, with so much insight and wisdom, eventually move from a materialistic empiricism of nature to a materialistic belief in ghosts and gods? Is the foolish and ignorant belief in ghosts and gods not a contradiction to his talent, learning and knowledge? This contradiction in Mozi’s thought can be better explained if it is explored in terms of ethical thought, something that has escaped the attention of many historians of thought in the past. Let’s read carefully the first passage of the chapter “Mozi—On Ghosts III”: Mozi said: With the passing of the sage-kings of the three dynasties, the world lost its righteousness and the feudal lords took might as right. The superior and the subordinates are no longer gracious and loyal; father and son, elder and younger brother are no longer affectionate and filial, brotherly and respectful, virtuous and kind. The rulers do not attend diligently to government and the artisans do not attend earnestly to their work. The people practice immorality and wickedness and become rebellious. Thieves and bandits with weapons, poison, water, and fire hold up innocent travellers on the highways and the bypaths, robbing them of their carts and horses, coats and fur coats, to enrich themselves. This is how the world came to be in chaos. Now what is the reason for this confusion? It is all because of the doubt of the existence of the ghosts and spirits, and the ignorance of their being able to reward virtue and punish vice. If all the people in the world believed that the spirits are able to reward virtue and punish vice, how could the world be in chaos? Here, Mozi makes it very clear that the reason why many people only know how to harm others, do wrong things, be unfaithful, be ungrateful and unfilial, take away people’s properties, commit adultery and violence, invade and disrupt, steal, etc., is because they suspect the existence of ghosts and gods, i.e. they suspect that ghosts

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and gods “can reward the virtuous and punish the violent”. In Mozi’s view, as long as people are convinced that ghosts and gods do exist in the world, and that they are responsible for overseeing people’s behavior and are the supreme judges of people’s behavior, then people will not dare to do evil things, and will therefore be able to follow good virtues. Moreover, ghosts and gods are everywhere, even in “uninhabited places like in deep forests and beside streams”, people must be especially cautious in their actions, for even there, any act of anyone will be “viewed by ghosts and gods”. He said: “The gods and ghosts must not be seen in the deep valleys of the mountains and forests. And the punishments from ghosts and spirits cannot be evaded. Even wealth and great numbers, daring and strength, strong armour and sharp weapons, the punishment of ghosts and spirits will frustrate.” (Mozi—On Ghosts III) What is more, the ghosts and gods are able to see everything, and “in distribution of rewards by ghosts and gods no one is too insignificant to be rewarded for his or her virtue. And in the meting out of punishment by ghosts and gods no one is too great to be punished.” (ibid). Mozi’s conclusion is clear. The main reason why he used so much effort, made so many arguments and cited so many historical facts to refute those who insist that there are no ghosts is that recognizing the existence of ghosts and gods is important for the country and for the morality of the people. He said: If the rulers and the gentlemen of the world really desire to procure benefits for the empire and remove its calamities, they must understand whether ghosts and gods exist or not. (ibid.) Here it is clear that Mozi, as an ethical thinker representing the small producers, did believe from experience that as long as people believed in the existence of ghosts and gods, the relationship between people could be better adjusted. In addition to acknowledging the existence of ghosts and gods, Mozi also believed that the heaven had a will and there was a god dominating all things. Heaven was the supreme ruler of nature and human society, and even the title of “emperor” (Son of Heaven) was established by them. In this respect, Mozi’s thought of heaven is consistent with the traditional view of heaven since Western Zhou dynasty. However, it should be noted that Mozi emphasizes more prominently the significance of heaven as the moral sovereign of human society. According to Mozi, Heaven likes righteousness and abhors injustice; heaven likes people to love each other and to share benefits with each other, but opposes the struggle between people. To act in accordance with the will of heaven is good, while to act against it is evil. Heaven rewards those who do good, and punishes those who do evil. So, what is the will of Heaven? According to Mozi, the will of Heaven is identical to Mozi’s theories and requirements, and in particular to his ethical thinking. In Mozi-Will of Heaven I, it says: We must obey the will of Heaven. He who obeys the will of Heaven, loving universally and benefiting others, will obtain rewards. He who opposes the will of Heaven, by being partial and unfriendly and harming others, will incur punishment. Now, who were those that obeyed the will of Heaven and obtained rewards, and who were those that opposed the will of Heaven and incurred punishment? Mozi said: The ancient sage-kings of the Three Dynasties, Yu, Tang, Wen, and Wu, were those that obeyed the will of Heaven and obtained reward. And the wicked kings of the Three Dynasties, Jie, Zhou, You, and Li, were those that opposed the will of Heaven and

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incurred punishment. How did kings Yu, Tang, Wen, and Wu obtain their reward? Mozi said: In the highest sphere they revered Heaven, in the middle sphere they worshipped the spirits, and in the lower sphere they loved the people. Thereupon the will of Heaven proclaimed: “All those whom I love this love also, and all those whom I benefit these benefit also. Their love to men is all-embracing and their benefit to men is most substantial.” And so, they were raised to the honor of Sons of Heaven and enriched with the heritage of the empire. They were succeeded by descendants for ten thousand generations to continue the spread of their righteousness all over the world. And people praise them unto this day, calling them righteous sage-kings. How did Jie, Zhou, You, and Li incur their punishment? Mozi said: In the highest sphere they blasphemed against Heaven, in the middle sphere they blasphemed against the spirits, and in the sphere below they oppressed the people. Thereupon the will of Heaven proclaimed: “From those whom I love this turn away and hate, and those whom I want to benefit they oppress. Their hate of men is without limit and their oppression of men the most severe.” And, so, they were not permitted to finish out their lives, or to survive a single generation. And people condemn them unto this day, calling them wicked kings. From the above ideas, it is clear that the gods and spirits of heaven and earth, as Mozi calls them, are not exclusively for the benefit of the exploiting class, but that all people are equal before the gods and spirits of heaven and earth. In essence, the gods and spirits of heaven and earth that Mozi refers to are mainly for the benefit of small producers and working people. “What does the will of Heaven desire and what does it abominate? Mozi said: The large state which attacks small states, the large house which molests small houses, the strong who plunder the weak, the clever who deceive the stupid, and the honored who disdain the humble—these are what the will of Heaven abominates. (Mozi—Will of Heaven II) What Mozi calls “Tianzhi” (the will of heaven) is not a belief, but a tool for rewarding good and punishing evil, a means he sets up to achieve “universal love and mutual benefit”. Thus, his view of heaven, earth and ghosts are a means of implementing morality. Mozi says: “The will of Heaven to me is like the compasses to the wheelwright and the square to the carpenter. The wheelwright and the carpenter measure all the square and circular objects with their square and compasses and accept those that fit as correct and reject those that do not fit as incorrect. The writings of the gentlemen of the world of the present day cannot be all loaded (in a cart), and their doctrines cannot be exhaustively enumerated. They endeavour to convince the feudal lords on the one hand and the scholars on the other. But from magnanimity and righteousness they are far off. How do we know? Because I have the most competent standard in the world to measure them with.” (Mozi—Will of Heaven I) Thus, it seems that the so-called “will of Heaven” is actually the will of Mozi. Therefore, the gods, ghosts, heaven and earth are merely a deterrent force for the maintenance and implementation of the idea of “universal love”, a disguise for Mozi’s ethical thinking. In essence, Mozi’s view of gods, ghosts, heaven and earth are not mysterious lords, but moral ones that preside over justice and serve his idea of universal love. Mozi was very knowledgeable and thoughtful, but as a representative of the small producers, he had his own limitations that were characteristic of the small producers.

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The small producers were fragmented in their organisation and weak in politics. They had all sorts of wonderful ideals, but they could not find the right way to realize them. Mozi set out the grand task of building a peaceful, tranquil, happy and morally upright society free from “the strong ruling over the weak, the rich insulting the poor, the noble arrogant and the lowly, and the fraudulent deceiving the stupid”. This was to be achieved through the moral preaching of “universal love” and “mutual benefit”. Mozi and his school of thought took great pains to promote the moral proposition of “universal love and mutual benefit”, but in reality it did not meet with a world-wide response. Therefore, he had to turn to the kings and ministers in the hope that they would “persuade them to reward the good and punish the evil” (Mozi—Will of Heaven I), so that “universal love and mutual benefit” could be implemented. Of course, he did not win the support of the ruling class. He had no choice but to turn to the gods and ghosts, to the will of heaven, and thus to regard heaven as the final pillar for rewarding the good and punishing the evil, and for practicing universal love and mutual benefit. Mozi’s epistemology and ontology are both based on materialistic empiricism, and he should not believe in the existence of ghosts and gods. However, in order to achieve the ethical ideal of “universal love and mutual benefit”, he turned to Heaven to achieve his aims, thus moving from atheism to theism and from materialism to idealism. Although he saw heaven as a means, it was a misconception. The root of the error lies in the fact that Mozi sacrificed epistemological premises for his own ethical purpose and abandoned ontological conclusions in order to realize his moral ideals, which is a lesson in that deserves the attention of ethical thinkers.

7 Moral Cultivation Theory Based on Behaviour The two articles “Self-cultivation” and “On Dyeing” in Mozi’s book are the earliest works devoted to the study of cultivation in the history of Chinese ethical thought. Some people suspect that these two articles were not written by Mozi himself, nor even by the scholars of the Mohism, and believe that the concept of “selfcultivating” was a concept reserved for Confucius and later Confucianism. Therefore, they conclude that the articles on “Cultivating oneself” were mixed in from later Confucianism. In fact, Confucius did not introduce the concept of “self-cultivation”. What he spoke of is cultivating through self reflection, but in “Mozi”, it is said that “widely, to exercise a universal influence and, narrowly, to cultivate one’s person” (Mozi—Anti-Confucianism), and it is unlikely that this chapter was mixed in with Confucianism. This suggests that it was most likely the later Confucianism who absorbed the ideas of Mozi’s “Self Cultivating” and gradually developed a more and more complete theory of cultivation. Since there is much to be said for the idea that the two texts were not written by Mozi, we will continue to study them here as works of Mozi. By “cultivating oneself”, Mozi refers mainly to the cultivation of human behaviour. Mohism school attaches particular importance to human behaviour, emphasising

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consistency between words and deeds, and stressing that all behaviour must conform to the principle of “universal love and mutual benefit”. In Mozi—Self-cultivation, it is said that “though there should be tactics in war, courage is fundamental. Though there should be ceremonies for mourning, grief is essential. Though a scholar should be learned, he must first of all exhibit good conduct. “This means that “conduct” is the foundation of the “scholar” or “gentleman”. What is “conduct”? The later Mohists explained this further: “Conduct” means “things that a person does” (Mozi—Canon I). In other words, morals are what people do, or rather, a series of behaviour of people. In Mozi’s view, morals and behaviours are intertwined, and a person with good morals means that he or she has actually achieved “universal love and mutual benefit”, that is, he or she has the strength to help others, the wealth to share with others, and the way to teach others. For a scholar or a gentleman, the most important thing is not his knowledge or talent, but his morals. On the question of the relationship between “virtue” and “talent”, Mozi puts “virtue” in a more important position. He said, “When the seeds are not well sown, there is no use in labouring for a good harvest. When the people near-by are not befriended there is no use of endeavouring to attract those at a distance.” (Mozi—Sefl-cultivation) This means that conduct is fundamental. If it is not good, one cannot influence others well, and one cannot achieve much. In order to have a high level of morality, one must cultivate one’s moral character. To cultivate one’s moral character, one must honestly practise morality and must not go against it at any time or under any circumstances. If one does not have perseverance and persistence, and if one does not do one’s best, then one will not be able to achieve the goal of “cultivating one’s moral character”. Mozi said, “The way of the superior man makes the individual incorruptible in poverty and righteous when wealthy; it makes him love the living and mourn the dead. These four qualities of conduct cannot be hypocritically embodied in one’s personality. There is nothing in his mind that goes beyond love; there is nothing in his behaviour that goes beyond respectfulness, and there is nothing from his mouth that goes beyond gentility. When one pursues such a way until it pervades his four limbs and permeates his flesh and skin, and until he becomes white-haired and bald-headed without ceasing, one is truly a sage.” (ibid.) Mozi also compares “self-cultivating” to “the original” (the same as “source”), and other human activities to “the stream”. “And just as a dirty source will issue in an impure stream, so unfaithful conduct will unfavourably affect one’s fame.” (ibid.). Only by strengthening moral cultivation, by adhering to the moral principle of “universal love” in conduct, and by “unifying words and deeds”, can one become a moral person. He believed that in order to have good moral character, one must choose good friends or environment. He or she should be among virtuous people and pay attention to learning from them. In the book “Mozi—On Dyeing”, it is said: “Watching a dyer of silk at work, Mozi sighed, saying: What is dyed in blue becomes blue, what is dyed in yellow becomes yellow. When the silk is put in a different dye, its colour becomes also different. Having been dipped in five times, it has changed its colour five times. Therefore dyeing should be done with great care.” It is also said that, “not only states but also individuals are subject to influences. If one has for friends

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none but those who love magnanimity and righteousness and who are careful and respectful of course one’s family will become more prosperous, one’s person more at peace, and one’s name more honourable every day; and, as an official, one will be properly qualified.” Here, Mozi explains the relationship between a person’s living environment and his or her moral qualities in a materialistic way, using the principle of dyeing silk, and points out that one should choose one’s friends very carefully, because one’s safety, honour or disgrace, success or failure are directly related to the friends one makes. Mozi’s criterion for making friends is: “He who will not share his possessions with others is not worthy to be a friend.” (Mozi—Self-cultivation), which in fact means that people should be able to work together with those who can practise Mozi’s morality and inspire each other to make progress together. Mozi introduced the concept of “self-cultivation” and attached great importance to it. This is a materialist view of moral cultivation and the only correct and fundamental method of it.

8 Political Thoughts of Promoting the Worthy and Identifying Upward In terms of political thought, Mozi put forward the progressive ideas of “meritocracy” and “identifying with the superior”. The idea of “meritocracy” is to appoint only the virtuous, i.e. to appoint only the people with universal love; the idea of “identifying with the superior” is to unify the ideas of the whole world with the ideas of the virtuous or the people with universal love. Mozi believed that the promotion of virtue was an important guarantee for the realisation of the principle of “universal love”. In his view, in ancient times, the sage kings ruled the country on the basis of merit, even a farmer or an artisan would be employed, “commissioned with high rank, remunerated with liberal emoluments, trusted with important charges, and empowered to issue final orders”. (Mozi—Exaltation of the Virtuous I). He said, “Yao brought forward Shun from Fuze and entrusted him with the government”, “Tang brought forward Yi Yin from the kitchen and entrusted him with the government”, “King Wen brought forward Hung Yao and Tai Tian from their rabbit nets and entrusted them with the government and the Western land showed respect”. (ibid.) The ruler authorized virtuous people with power, which made the world peaceful and the people rich. Therefore, country became rich. “Therefore, during those days the officials of high rank and liberal emoluments all carefully and anxiously executed their duties; and the farmers and artisans all encouraged one another in exalting virtue. Therefore ranks should be standardized according to virtue, tasks assigned according to office, and rewards given according to labour spent.” (ibid.) Mozi advocated that the capable and wise should be given high titles and generous salaries, so that the people would respect them and trust them, and their work would be successful; while the unwise and incompetent should be dismissed from their official positions and have their salaries abolished, so that they would be

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“poor and cheap, and be used as servants” (Mozi—Exaltation of the Virtuous II). In this way, the people will persuade reward and fear punishment, and will look to the virtuous, and the world will be well governed. The essence of Mozi’s idea of “meritocracy” was to reform and abolish the hereditary system of hereditary titles, and this reform was very thorough. He wanted kings to “appreciate talents without special consideration for relatives, for the rich and honoured, or for the good-looking” (ibid.) and only prioritize the people with talents and virtue. This idea of Mozi is clearly different from the political ideas of Confucianism, represented by Confucius. Although Confucius also advocated the idea of “enlisting the virtuous”, his aim was to better maintain the hereditary system of slave society. Mozi’s idea was to fundamentally destroy the hereditary system of the nobility. His idea that ‘there is no permanent noble in government, and no permanent untouchable people’ (Mozi— Exaltation of the Virtuous I) reflected the strong demand of the lower class working people to fight against exploitation and oppression. What kind of person is considered a wise person? Mozi said, “What is the way to practise virtue? Let him who has strength be alert to help others, let him who has wealth endeavour to share it with others, let him who possesses the Dao (the way of nature and life) teach others persuasively.” (Mozi—Exaltation of the Virtuous III) Obviously, the so-called virtuous people are those who can faithfully practice the Mozi ethics. According to Mozi, there were many “virtuous and capable” people among the “farmers and workers”. They had both the virtue of love and the ability to do practical work, and Mozi himself was one of the most prominent. He demanded that the supreme rulers dismiss their cronies and appoint wise and capable people to govern the country. Although this was only an ideal in a society ruled by an exploiting class, Mozi’s idea of “exaltation of the virtuous” reflected the desire of small producers to participate in political life and the peasants’ demand for equality and democracy, and was therefore progressive. Mozi started from the idea of “exaltation of the virtuous” and further put forward the demand for “identifying with the supreme”. He believed that one of the major causes of social chaos was the lack of a unified view of right and wrong, a unified guiding ideology, and a leader who promoted the idea of love and harmony. He said, “In the beginning of human life, when there was yet no law and government, the custom was “everybody according to his own idea.” Accordingly each man had his own idea, two men had two different ideas and ten men had ten different ideas. The more people the more different notions. And everybody approved of his own view and disapproved the views of others, and so arose mutual disapproval among men. As a result, father and son and elder and younger brothers became enemies and were estranged from each other, since they were unable to reach any agreement. Everybody worked for the disadvantage of the others with water, fire, and poison. Surplus energy was not spent for mutual aid; surplus goods were allowed to rot without sharing; excellent teachings (Dao) were kept secret and not revealed. The disorder in the (human) world could be compared to that among birds and beasts. (Mozi—Identification with the Superior I) He also said, “Yet all this disorder was due to the want of a ruler. Therefore (Heaven) chose the virtuous in the world and crowned him emperor.” (ibid.) Once the king (the Son of Heaven) was elected, he

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chose the “three eunuchs”, who were “the people of the world who have been praised on the virtues, the knowledge and the wisdom”, to “unify the righteousness of the world”, so as to unify the ideology of the whole country to achieve the result of “what the superior thinks to be right all shall think to be right; what the superior thinks to be wrong all shall think to be wrong.” (Mozi—Identification with the Superior II) In Mozi’s view, the idea of unifying the whole country through wise officials at all levels, such as the Son of Heaven, the three eunuchs, generals, ministers, and village chiefs, was the idea he advocated of “universal love and mutual benefit”. The “Son of Heaven” as imagined by Mozi was determined by the will of Heaven, and what the Son of Heaven carried out was also the will of Heaven. Therefore, Mozi wanted the people to carry out the instructions of the Son of Heaven without compromise, “what the emperor thinks to be right all shall think to be right; what the emperor thinks to be wrong all shall think to be wrong”, and “all the people of the empire follow his example” (ibid.). Mozi’s own desire was benevolent, as he wanted everyone from the emperor to the chiefs of the countryside to be virtuous, but objectively, the idea of “identification with the superior” served to consolidate the position of the rulers of the time. The practical effect of this idea was to consolidate the ruling class in power. While Mozi’s idea of “exaltation of the virtuous” had democratic overtones, the idea of “identification with the superior” was more in the service of the supremacy of the ruling class at the time.

Chapter 5

Development of Confucius’s Ethical Thought by Mencius and the Debate with Gaozi

1 The Life of Mencius and His Works Mencius, named Ke, was born in about 372 BC and died in 289 BC. He was a native of the state of Zou at the middle of the Warring States Period. It is said that Mencius lost his father in childhood and was brought up by his mother, who moved home three times in order to better educate him. When Mencius grew up, he was “educated by Zi Si” (Shi Ji—Biography of Mencius and Xun Qing), and further developed and argued about Confucius and Confucianism, giving a more systematic exposition of Confucian doctrine. After the death of Mencius, his ideas drew more and more attention. After the Song Dynasty, he was revered as the “second Sage”. Mencius claimed that it was his lifelong desire to learn from Confucius. He said, “All I wish is to learn from Confucius.” (Mencius—Gong Sun Chou I) He inherited and developed Confucius’ ideas of righteousness over benefit, loving people with benevolence, ruling by virtue, and personal cultivation, and gave a unique interpretation to his theory of human nature. The main activity of his life was to lead his students to travel around the world, promoting his ideas of human nature, righteousness and benefit, cultivation and “benevolent politics”, which is a process of “promoting Confucianism to the vassals and lords by travelling”, often with “dozens of carriage and hundreds of people following”. He travelled to the state of Qi, Teng, Song and Wei, and for a period of time he was the minister of Qi. Although he had great political ambitions and hoped that the rulers of his time would adopt his ideas, his theories were not accepted by the rulers of his time who were trying to gain hegemony, so he was unable to achieve political success. Finally, he gave up his political advocacy. “He then returned to his home town to work with Wan Zhang and others to compile the Classic of Poetry and the Book of Documents, expounding on Confucius’ thought, and wrote the book Mencius, which consists of seven chapters.” (Mencius—Biography of Mencius and Xun Qing). In the time of Mencius, Confucius’ thought was criticised from all quarters, while the thought of Yang Zhu and Mozi occupied an important place: “The words of Yang Zhu and Mo Di fill the country. If you listen to people’s discourses throughout it, © China Renmin University Press 2023 G. Luo, Traditional Ethics and Contemporary Society of China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0256-9_5

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you will find that they have adopted the views either of Yang or of Mo.” (Mencius— Teng Wen Gong II). Mencius, as the orthodox successor and defender of Confucius, fought against all ideas that were not in line with Confucianism, especially the ideas of Yang and Mo. According to Mencius, his main task was to develop the ideas of Confucius to meet the political and social needs of the time and to adapt them to the interests of the new ruling class, given the prevalence of “obscene rhetoric” and “evil doctrines” at the time. Generally speaking, slave and feudal societies are two different economic forms, each with different relations of production, and their superstructures and ideologies have their own characteristics in relation to these two different economic relations. However, both the Chinese slave society and the feudal society of the late Warring States period emphasized the patriarchal hierarchy based on blood ties, and they had a great deal in common. Mencius was a convert from the old aristocracy and a thinker representing the interests of the feudal class. He recognised that it was not necessary to fundamentally change Confucius’s ethical thinking, but with some degree of refinement, supplementation and development, it could be made to serve the emerging ruling class. In a certain sense, Mencius has a special place among the Confucian schools that have had a profound influence on Chinese ethical thought. It was with him that the transition from Confucianism of the slave owner class to Confucianism of the feudal class took place. The Mencius is a book of seven chapters, each divided into two parts. It is a record of the activities and thoughts of Mencius throughout his life. It has been compiled by Mencius himself and is the most important and reliable source for the study of Mencius’ ethical thought.

2 Opposition Between Innate Goodness and “Man’s Nature is Indifferent to Good and Evil” The question of human nature is a matter of great concern to ethical thinkers both in China and abroad. Marx’s definition of man—that man is the sum of social relations— provides a scientific definition of human nature in theory, but there is no systematic and specific discussion of it. To this day, many questions about human nature are still being mulled over. In the West, ancient Greek thinkers had explored issues such as human rationality and the difference between humans and animals, which had already touched on the question of human nature, but had not led to a broad and deep discussion. The medieval theologians replaced humanity with divinity, so there could be no deeper discussion of humanity at all. It was only after the fourteenth century that Western thinkers, in opposition to feudal oppression and theological control, began to pay attention to the study of human nature from the view of the liberation of the individual and the satisfaction of personal desires. The discussion of human nature in China has reached a high level since the time of Mencius and Confucius. Both Mencius and Gaozi put forward a comprehensive theoretical system on human nature, reflecting

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their thoughts on the moral phenomena of society at the time, which already touched on some important and even fundamental issues of ethics. According to the book Mencius and relevant historical records, we know that in Mencius’ time, there was a great controversy about the goodness and evil of human nature. Mencius refuted the views of Gaozi and put forward the first system of thought on innate goodness in the history of Chinese ethical thought. Before Mencius, Confucius had said, “By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart” (The Analects—Yang Huo). He thought that all human beings are born with similar natures, but it is only through acquired habits that their natures have become more and more different. Confucius’s statement can be analyzed in three ways. Firstly, all human beings are generally the same when they are born. Secondly, human nature can change. Thirdly, the environment, education and cultivation have a very important role in the change of human nature. However, Confucius does not explicitly state whether the “nature” that all human beings are born with is good or evil, or whether there is no good or evil. Mencius fully developed the ideas of Confucius on human nature. He believed that the nature of all human beings is good from birth. He said: All men have a mind which cannot bear to see the sufferings of others. The ancient kings had this commiserating mind, and they, as a matter of course, had likewise a commiserating government. When with a commiserating mind was practiced a commiserating government, to rule the kingdom was as easy a matter as to make anything go round in the palm. When I say that all men have a mind which cannot bear to see the sufferings of others, my meaning may be illustrated thus: even now-adays, if men suddenly see a child about to fall into a well, they will without exception experience a feeling of alarm and distress. They will feel so, not as a ground on which they may gain the favor of the child’s parents, nor as a ground on which they may seek the praise of their neighbours and friends, nor from a dislike to the reputation of having been unmoved by such a thing. From this case we may perceive that the feeling of commiseration is essential to man, that the feeling of shame and dislike is essential to man, that the feeling of modesty and complaisance is essential to man, and that the feeling of approving and disapproving is essential to man. The feeling of commiseration is the principle of benevolence. The feeling of shame and dislike is the principle of righteousness. The feeling of modesty and complaisance is the principle of propriety. The feeling of approving and disapproving is the principle of knowledge. Men have these four principles just as they have their four limbs. (Mencius—Gong Sun Chou I). The feeling of commiseration belongs to all men; so does that of shame and dislike; and that of reverence and respect; and that of approving and disapproving. The feeling of commiseration implies the principle of benevolence; that of shame and dislike, the principle of righteousness; that of reverence and respect, the principle of propriety; and that of approving and disapproving, the principle of knowledge. Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and knowledge are not infused into us from without. We are certainly furnished with them (Mencius—Gaozi I).

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We can summarize Mencius’ vew as followed. First, all human beings share a common humanity, which mean that there is a common humanity. Second, this common humanity is innate, given by Heaven. Third, this common humanity is the innate goodness of human beings, that is, the so-called the heart of compassion, the heart of shame, the heart of resignation (respect) and the heart of right and wrong. Human beings have this goodness, just as they are born with the four limbs. Fourthly, these four kinds of goodness that man is born with are the germ of the four moral qualities of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom that people are born with. Fifthly, the essential difference between human and animals lies in the fact that human have this good nature, whereas animals do not. Sixthly, this innate common humanity can be changed later in life. However, how can one prove that he or she is born with goodness? Mencius said that when a person suddenly sees a child about to fall into a well, he or she is bound to feel a sense of fear, pity and help. The reason for the feeling is not that the one wants to make friends with the child’s parents, or to receive praise from friends, or that he or she is afraid of taking on a bad reputation, but that everyone has an innate good nature. In modern language, Mencius explains human nature in terms of the inevitable sympathy for one’s own kind. However, Mencius avoids a very important point here, in that the “man” he refers to when he “suddenly saw the child going into the well” is no longer a natural man, but a social man. The “people” he refers to are not natural people, but social people. The fear and compassion that these people felt when they first saw the children going into the well was not purely natural, but was influenced by the social environment and moral education that they had acquired. Mencius could have said that people would feel compassion for anyone who was about to fall into a well. However, he did not say so, probably because he was already aware that in the society of his time, the exploiting class would not feel compassion for the exploited, or the noble for the lowly, when the latter “were about to fall into a well”. Therefore, he does not say “see ‘someone’ is going into a well”, but “see a child is going into a well”. A contemporary of Mencius, Gaozi advocated the theory that there is no good or evil in nature. He said, “Nature is like turbulent water, which flows east when it is directed to the east and west when it is directed to the west. There is no distinction between good and bad in human nature, just as there is no distinction between east and west in water.” (ibid.) The metaphor of water is used to illustrate that there is no good or evil in nature. Mencius also uses water as an example to justify his statement on the goodness of nature. He says, “Water indeed will flow indifferently to the east or west, but will it flow indifferently up or down? The tendency of man’s nature to good is like the tendency of water to flow downwards. There are none but have this tendency to good, just as all water flows downwards. Now by striking water and causing it to leap up, you may make it go over your forehead, and, by damming and leading it you may force it up a hill—but are such movements according to the nature of water? It is the force applied which causes them. When men are made to do what is not good, their nature is dealt with in this way.” (Mengzi—Gaozi I) For Mencius, the goodness of human nature, like the downward flow of water, is inevitable, while the evil of human nature is the result of the violation or distortion of human nature.

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Benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom are feudal morals. People have the moral qualities of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom because they have been constantly nurtured by feudal morality. In comparing the heart of compassion, the heart of shame, the heart of resignation and the heart of right and wrong with the four limbs of human beings, Mencius was in fact describing the social nature of human beings as the innate nature of human beings, which was determined by his idealistic world view. Mencius’ view of the “four hearts” as the fundamental difference between human beings and animals has a certain degree of validity. In effect, this means that humans have a moral sense, whereas animals do not, and this is precisely one of the essential differences between humans and animals. How did Mencius argue that all people have an innate common goodness? In the society of his time, we could see everywhere that some people behaved in accordance with benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, while others did not. He said, “In good years the children of the people are most of them good, while in bad years the most of them abandon themselves to evil. It is not owing to any difference of their natural powers conferred by Heaven that they are thus different.” (ibid.) This means that the difference in moral qualities of people is the result of the influence of the environment. This difference, moreover, shows that they are the same by nature. Mencius gives the following example: The abandonment is owing to the circumstances through which they allow their minds to be ensnared and drowned in evil. There now is barley. Let it be sown and covered up; the ground being the same, and the time of sowing likewise the same, it grows rapidly up, and, when the full time is come, it is all found to be ripe. Although there may be inequalities of produce, that is owing to the difference of the soil, as rich or poor, to the unequal nourishment afforded by the rains and dews, and to the different ways in which man has performed his business in reference to it. Thus all things which are the same in kind are like to one another; why should we doubt in regard to man, as if he were a solitary exception to this? The sage and we are the same in kind. In accordance with this the scholar Long said, “If a man makes hempen sandals without knowing the size of people’s feet, yet I know that he will not make them like baskets.” Sandals are all like one another, because all men’s feet are like one another. So with the mouth and flavours—all mouths have the same relishes. Yi Ya only apprehended before me what my mouth relishes. Suppose that his mouth in its relish for flavours differed from that of other men, as is the case with dogs or horses which are not the same in kind with us, why should all men be found following Yi Ya in their relishes? In the matter of tastes all the people model themselves after Yi Ya; that is, the mouths of all men are like one another. And so also it is with the ear. In the matter of sounds, the whole people model themselves after the music-master Kuang; that is, the ears of all men are like one another. And so also it is with the eye. Shall their minds alone be without that which the similarly approve? What is it then of which they similarly approve? It is, I say, the principles of our nature, and the determinations of righteousness. (ibid.) This means that the human heart is the same and righteous, but the moral qualities of people change due to the influence of inevitable circumstances. In a good harvest year, most of the young people are lazy, and in a bad year, most of them are violent.

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This is not because they were born with different qualifications, but because the environment has made them bad. This is like the difference in wheat is due to the difference in fertility of the land, the difference in the amount of rain and dew, and the difference in the diligence of the man. In Mencius’ view, the influence of nature on human nature is, in its main aspect, a bad influence, i.e. the killing and maiming of the good nature of human beings. And most people, after being born, become devoid of good virtues and even behave like animals, not because they do not have a good nature, but as a result of the killing and maiming of their nature by their environment. The deepening of people’s understanding of human nature reflects the different stages of development of ethical thought and the deepening of moral reflection. In the development of theories of human nature, the Warring States period was an important starting point for the debate on human nature, and Mencius’ theory of the goodness of nature was a prominent part of this starting point. One of the most important elements of people’s moral thinking was how to improve their moral qualities and to explore the laws of self-improvement. Initially, people only recognised the importance of cultivating their moral character and emphasized the significance of such cultivation in developing good moral character. However, when people think further, they realize that there are moral and immoral (good and bad) behaviors and qualities, and that moral education has a great effect on some, and little effect on others. This reflection raises new questions: are people born with moral qualities that are good or bad? Why do people behave immorally? Can people be moral when they have developed immoral thoughts and behaviors? This leads to the important question of whether human beings are inherently good or evil. Compared to Western ethical thinkers, Chinese ethical thinkers have focused more on human nature in terms of morality and the relationship between good and evil. The 2000-year-long discussion of human nature, beginning with Mencius and Confucius, has always revolved around the good and evil aspects of human nature, despite the various debates that have arisen. Although the various views are full of contradictions and oppositions, the aim of their discussions on human nature is the same, namely, how to make people moral. The discussion of human nature in the history of Chinese ethical thought, which revolved around good and evil, clearly had a different impact than Western ethical thought, which, after the fourteenth century, drew attention to the question of human nature, mainly in terms of the “general improvement of personality” or “independence of human”. The emphasis was on bourgeois individual freedom, on the emancipation of the individual from feudalism and theocracy. This theory of human nature, for a certain period of time and under certain circumstances, had a progressive role to play. The basis of this emancipation of the individual was bourgeois individualism. It aspires to a free capitalist society. The ancient Chinese theories of human nature emerged during the ascendancy of feudal society. They pursued the self-perfection of human beings in the service of the development and consolidation of the new feudal system, and combined human nature with feudal benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, so that the study of human nature was confined to the scope of good and evil in human nature, and stressed that behavior should not go beyond the feudal morality, thus fettering people’s thinking and limiting the development of

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their personality. From another perspective, this discussion of human nature, with its emphasis on the moral self-improvement and the common good nature of human beings, has led to a deepening of the study of moral education and moral cultivation theory, and thus to an increasingly profound understanding of the ways and means of moral character improvement.

3 Intuitive Knowledge, Intuitive Ability and Conscience Are the Core of Morality While putting forward the theory of the innate goodness of human, Mencius also focuses on that the innate goodness is the awareness and ability of conscience. He repeatedly explained that this innate conscience plays an important role in moral consciousness and moral behavior. He put forward the ideas of exhausting the goodness, knowing human nature and knowing the will of Heaven. In fact, the entire moral thought of Mencius can be said to be based on his theory of conscience. According to Mencius, human conscience and conscientiousness are the moral consciousness of human beings that is different from that of animals. What is human conscience and conscientiousness? What is the role of them in human moral conduct and moral cultivation? According to Mencius, human conscience is a kind of moral awareness and moral ability, or a kind of moral cognition or moral potential. He said, “The ability possessed by men without having been acquired by learning is intuitive ability, and the knowledge possessed by them without the exercise of thought is their intuitive knowledge. Children carried in the arms all know to love their parents, and when they are grown a little, they all know to love their elder brothers. Filial affection for parents is the working of benevolence. Respect for elders is the working of righteousness. There is no other reason for those feelings—they belong to all under heaven.” (Mencius—Jin Xin I) This means that not only are people born with moral feelings and moral potentials such as benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, but they also know them without thinking and can practice them without learning. A child is born knowing how to love his parents, and grows up knowing how to respect his elder brother. For Mencius, the moral qualities of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom are feudal morality, as well as the conscience and ability that people have from their birth. They are not something that anyone can think up at will. It is deeply rooted in people’s nature and is in line with human nature. Since all people are born with this kind of conscience and ability, as long as we can cultivate and develop this kind of conscience and ability, we are able to achieve self-improvement of human beings and consolidate the rule of feudal society. According to Mencius, the qualities of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, or the conscience and ability of people, are all functions of the “heart”. This “heart”, with compassion, shame, respect and right and wrong, is the origin of human nature. Therefore, it can also be said that human nature emanates from heart, which is why he says, “Benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom are rooted in heart.”

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(ibid.) This means that all moral behavior and moral concepts arise from “heart”. “Heart” has the most important role in morality. By “heart” Mencius meant what he called “awareness of conscience” and “ability of conscience”, i.e. conscience. In the history of Chinese ethical thought, the concept of “conscience” was first introduced by Mencius. In social life, people often use the concept of “conscience” and feel that it does exist and that it plays an important role in our moral behavior. However, it is very difficult to define conscience. Mencius, in his own ethical thinking, saw conscience as the heart of compassion, shame, resignation, right and wrong, which is inherent in the human inner side. Although this definition is based on the theory of natural morality, it should be acknowledged that there are some reasonable elements that can be used as a reference or inspiration. Mencius says: “He who has exhausted all his mental constitution knows his nature. Knowing his nature, he knows the will of Heaven.” (Mencius—Jin Xin I) In Mencius’ view, “heart” is the root of all morality, and only by “fulfilling one’s heart” can one “knows his or her nature”. What does it mean to “fulfil one’s heart”? It is to bring into play one’s conscience and ability, one’s compassion, shame, resignation, and one’s knowledge of right and wrong. Only in this way can one utilize his or her nature. In Mencius’ view, as long as one can utilize good nature, then he or she knows the will of “heaven”. The “heaven” Mencius refers to is a kind of heaven of morality, a “heavenly mandate” which means moral necessity. It is in this sense that he says: “All things are ready for me. There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination.” (ibid.) This means that if I can be mindful, know my nature and know the will of heaven, then, for me, everything is present. In all things, in all relationships between people, I must be able to ask myself whether I have faithfully exercised my four hearts of compassion, shame, resignation and right and wrong. Since all moral concepts, moral will, moral beliefs and moral qualities are only a function of my heart, I need only my own heart to make myself moral. Moreover, if one is “sincere in one’s own self”, one will certainly experience the joy of it. To sum up, Mencius believed that “conscience”, “ability of conscience” or “awareness of conscience” is the master and authority of all moral actions of human beings. It is the root of human nature, and it is both the emanation of all moral emotions and the highest moral reason. It instinctively approves what is good, moral and righteous and rejects what is evil, immoral and ugly. It dominates moral behavior, moral evaluation and moral choice. “Conscience”, “ability of conscience” or “awareness of conscience” is not only a sense, a feeling, a will and a reason, but also a potential ability to make judgements instinctively in any situation, to be free from all kinds of evil, and to fulfil our moral responsibilities in society. The moral instructions given to us by conscience and the responsibilities imposed on us, are fully consistent with our nature. Mencius also emphasized that human beings are born with “conscience”, “ability of conscience” or “awareness of conscience”, and are endowed with it by heaven. The general capacity or potential of human “conscience” is divided into four main aspects, namely, compassion, shame, resignation and right and wrong. They are expressed in the following four moral principles of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom. They enable us to be mindful of our obligations to others, to

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society and to the state in both interpersonal relationship and moral choices. These four principles or moral qualities of human conscience and human heart can be tempted, driven and corrupted by the emotional desires of the ear, the eye, the mouth and the nose in the pursuit of sex and profit in life. This can lead to the blindness of one’s true heart. Therefore, the most fundamental aim of cultivation is to restrain one’s desires, to reduce one’s demands (to purify one’s mind and have few desires), that is, to “seek to be at ease” (Mencius—Gaozi I) and to seek the lost heart. In this way, Mencius’ theories of humanity, conscience and cultivation form an ethical system based on humanity and with conscience at its core. In the history of Western ethical thought, there was Butler (1692–1752) system of ethics. Butler was an American religious ethicist who, in his “Journal of Discourses” and “The Analogy of Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature”, he put forward a system of ethics centred on the “conscience”. According to him, “conscience” is a special moral given to us by God, which has the highest moral authority. Everything that this moral demand is in accordance with our nature and becomes our duty. The “conscience” does not remind a man to act morally, but indicates to him what is his duty. Butler criticised the view of rational egoism that all men are inherently selfish in their pursuit of material benefit. Butler argues that a close examination and analysis of our actions in response to need always shows that, unlike the actions of animals, they contain two motivations: a concern for one’s own interests, which Butler calls “self-love”; and a concern for the interests of others, which Butler calls “benevolence”. These two motives are two rational principles dominated by “conscience”. According to Butler, human nature as a whole can be seen as a unity consisting of three levels. Conscience is at the third, the highest level; self-love and benevolence are at the second level; and all passions, desires, impulses, feelings, sensations (such as hunger, thirst, food, sexual desire, jealousy, etc.) are at the lowest level. According to Butler, all passions and impulses are always preceded by the power to control them with blindness. However, in order for these impulses and passions to achieve their ends, they must take care of their own interests, the consequences and the interests of others related to the impulses. The control of one’s own impulses and passions is often developed in training. Why do people have the principle of “benevolence” in addition to the motive of “self-love”? In order to limit, control and regulate their impulses, people necessarily need to develop these principles, i.e. in addition to “self-love”, they must also have “benevolence”. Butler argues that although people are always more concerned with their own interests, more fully and more often than with those of others, we do have a compassionate concern for others, and we should consciously develop it more fully. He says, a wise selfinterested person is different from a narrow self-interested person. The latter only considers narrow self-interest, which often brings disappointment and resentment, whereas starting from “benevolence”, one can often achieve all kinds of personal satisfaction. Butler particularly emphasized the role of conscience, which is based on the principles of self-love and benevolence. Conscience, he argued, is a supreme authority, a supreme moral ability, and it plays an obvious and decisive role in almost all cases. By giving full play to the role of the human conscience, one could overcome all that was evil and unjust and obtain what was good and just. He complained

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that the role of conscience was too lightly regarded. Butler argued that if conscience could have as much power as it actually has in itself and have as much authority as it actually has, then the real world would be ruled by conscience and would be on its way to the paradise of goodness. Mencius and Butler, born in different regions at different times, both emphasized the important role of conscience in moral consciousness, moral behavior and moral cultivation. They both recognised the significant place of conscience in people’s moral relations and ethical thinking. Although Butler’s thought was some 2000 years later than that of Mencius, there is much in his exposition that is not as profound as Mencius’. Apart from the religious overtones characteristic of Butler, he starts from the fact that human behavior always involves altruistic and self-interested motives, and thus argues that only by exercising conscience can “self-love” and “benevolence”, “self-interest” and “altruism” be reconciled, and all passions, desires and impulses be controlled. Mencius differs from Butler in that he emphasizes the individual’s initiative for goodness, and that this individual initiative for goodness is innate and can be developed. Conscience is the nature of human beings, and they should “exhaust the goodness” and “know their nature”. If one reflects him or herself, one will be happy. Confucius once emphasized the idea that “I want to be benevolent, so I am benevolent” (Analects of Confucius—Shu Er), believing that one can become a moral person if one is determined to do good deeds and try one’s best to exercise one’s individual initiative for good. Mencius inherited and developed this idea from Confucius, and proposed to give full play to the role of human conscience and conscientiousness, and gave an extensive theoretical exposition of this individual initiative for goodness, which had an important influence on later Confucianism, especially on the development of Song and Ming theories.

4 Cultivation Theory Based on Innate Goodness and Conscience While preaching benevolence and morality, Mencius established a set of selfcontained cultivation methods based on the theories of innate good nature and conscience, and developed these methods into a more complete and systematic theory of moral cultivation. The book “Mencius” places great emphasis on the need to maintain a good nature, nurture good qualities, self-reflect and pursue good morals. The so-called “cultivation” of later Confucianism is derived from the cultivation of body and mind of Mozi and Mencius. Mencius systematically elaborated on the significance of cultivation in the formation of human qualities, the methods of cultivation, and the ideal personality in morality. The school of Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Shouren of the Song Ming Taoism, starting from “conscience” of human beings, regarded the strengthening of cultivation and the restoration of the good nature of human beings as the most important purpose of learning, and their theoretical origins are thought of Mencius.

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Mencius believed that the purpose of cultivation is to maintain and promote the role of human conscience and conscience. All human beings are born with the four innate virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, and the conscience of knowing without learning and the ability of conscience without thinking. But as people are often tempted by various material desires in social interactions, this conscience and ability will gradually be lost. In order to maintain one’s virtue, or to recover the goodness that has been lost, it is most important to recover the lost “conscience”. Mencius said, “The great end of learning is nothing else but to seek for the lost mind.” (Mencius—Gaozi I) He also said: “If it receives its proper nourishment, there is nothing which will not grow. If it loses its proper nourishment, there is nothing which will not decay away.” (ibid.) He also argued that among human beings, why do some people become moral “gentleman” and others become immoral “villains”? The main reason for this is the difference between the cultivated and the uncultivated. He said, “He who nourishes the little belonging to him is a little man, and he who nourishes the great is a great man.” (ibid.) This means that the difference between a “gentleman” and a “villain” is due to the difference in their cultivation. “Here is a plantation-keeper, who neglects his wu and jia, and cultivates his sour jujube-trees; he is a poor plantation-keeper. He who nourishes one of his fingers, neglecting his shoulders or his back, without knowing that he is doing so, is a man who resembles a hurried wolf. A man who only eats and drinks is counted mean by others; because he nourishes what is little to the neglect of what is great.” (ibid.) This means that if a gardener leaves the plane tree and catalpa bungei alone and only cultivates sour jujube and brambles, then he is a low level gardener. If someone only treats the disease of the fingers but neglects the disease of the shoulders and back, he or she is a person who does not know how to treat the disease. He who does not know how to cultivate his heart with benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, but only cares about his food and meal, is just as bad as the “poor plantation-keeper”, and just as ignorant as the man who only cares about fingers but not shoulders. The disciple Gong Du said, “All are equally men, but some are great men, and some are little men—how is this?” Mencius replied, “Those who follow that part of themselves which is great are great men; those who follow that part which is little are little men.” Gong Du pursued, “All are equally men, but some follow that part of themselves which is great, and some follow that part which is little—how is this?” Mencius answered, “The senses of hearing and seeing do not think, and are obscured by external things. When one thing comes into contact with another, as a matter of course it leads it away. The mind is subject to thinking. By thinking, it gets the right view of things; by neglecting to think, it fails to do this. These—the senses and the mind—are what Heaven has given to us. Let a man first stand fast in the supremacy of the nobler part of his constitution, and the inferior part will not be able to take it from him. It is simply this which makes the great man.” (Mencius—Gaozi I) This is to say that a gentleman is one who can satisfy the needs of the vital organs of the body (i.e. conscience), while a villain is one who only satisfies the desires of the secondary organs. Mencius emphasizes that the role of conscience should be promoted, and that people should use their conscience to

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resist the temptations of their ears, eyes, mouth and stomach, and to cultivate their good character first. For those who do not pay attention to moral cultivation, Mencius considers them to be “the unaware” who are unaware of the hierarchy and importance of things. Mencius said, “Benevolence is man’s mind, and righteousness is man’s path. How lamentable is it to neglect the path and not pursue it, to lose this mind and not know to seek it again! When men’s fowls and dogs are lost, they know to seek for them again, but they lose their mind, and do not know to seek for it.” (ibid.) He also says: “Here is a man whose fourth finger is bent and cannot be stretched out straight. It is not painful, nor does it incommode his business, and yet if there be any one who can make it straight, he will not think the way from Qin to Chu far to go to him; because his finger is not like the finger of other people. When a man’s finger is not like those of other people, he knows to feel dissatisfied, but if his mind be not like that of other people, he does not know to feel dissatisfaction. This is called “Ignorance of the relative importance of things.” (ibid.) Mencius criticizes those who rush to find their dogs and chickens when they are lost, but do not find their conscience when they have lost it. In his view, the fundamental difference between human beings and animals lies in the fact that human beings have goodness in their hearts. If we lose goodness, we are no better than animals. To cultivate morality is to seek the lost heart. It is for this reason that Mencius emphasized the principle and method of “seeking one’s own self” in cultivation. According to Mencius, things in the world can be divided into two categories: those to be pursued externally, and those to be pursued internally. Fame, fortune, wealth and sex are all external things, but “there is a way to seek them, and a destiny to gain them.” (Mencius—Jin Xin I) What is the reason for this? It is because it is “destiny” that determines whether or not one can obtain them. As for moral concepts, moral feelings, moral will, moral beliefs and moral qualities, they are all within one’s heart and can be obtained if one seeks them seriously. This is what is meant by “to seek is to gain, to give is to lose, so to seek is helpful to gain” (ibid.). The key to becoming what Mencius calls a “gentleman” is to be able to “maintain the goodness”, that is, to preserve, nurture and cultivate one’s own good heart. “That whereby man differs from the lower animals is but small. The mass of people cast it away, while superior men preserve it.” (Mencius—Li Lou II). It is also said that “That whereby the superior man is distinguished from other men is what he preserves in his heart.” (ibid.). Therefore, for the gentleman, it is always necessary to “seek the cause of oneself where there is a failure to act” (Mengzi—Li Lou I). As long as one can give full play to one’s own initiative, sincerely pursue virtues inwardly, and “seek one’s own self”, one will certainly be able to seek the goodness of his or her heart which has been lost. One can also attain or recover the status of “all things are ready for me” (Mencius—Jin Xin I). Then if one can “seek to the inner side of oneself”, he or she will certainly be “more happy than ever”. What is the best way to cultivate it? According to Mencius, the most important thing is to cultivate the so-called “Qi (passion nature)”. When Mencius’ student Gongsun Chou asked him what he was good at, Mencius replied, “I am skilful in nourishing my vast, flowing passion-nature”. What is “the passion-nature”? Mencius

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said, “It is hard to say. This is the passion-nature: It is exceedingly great, and exceedingly strong. Being nourished by rectitude, and sustaining no injury, it fills up all between heaven and earth.” This is the passion-nature: It is the mate and assistant of righteousness and reason. Without it, man is in a state of starvation. It is produced by the accumulation of righteous deeds; it is not to be obtained by incidental acts of righteousness. If the mind does not feel complacency in the conduct, the nature becomes starved.” (Mencius—Gongsun Chou I) Mencius’ “passion nature” is the result of “understanding the Way” and “collecting righteousness”. To be clear about the Way is to maintain faith in principles; to collect righteousness is to accumulate those things that should be done regularly. “Righteousness” is both a code of conduct for people, and the accumulation of practice and commitment, so that it becomes a fixed moral quality. The greatest and strongest of these qualities, if cultivated carefully and not harmed, will gradually become a spiritual force. The “passion nature” generated by the “collection of righteousness” can fill not only one’s own body and mind, but also any time and place. This enables people to go forward without flinching, no matter what they encounter. It can be seen that “passion nature” can also be called “nature of passion and justice”, which is a pure, resolute, shameless and uncompromising spiritual temperament, moral character, and strength formed by people through longterm moral practice and cultivation. Only when one understands the Way can one achieve the purpose of collecting righteousness, because the two are connected with each other. Only by conducting the right things can we form “passion nature”. In the process of “clarifying the way and collecting righteousness” in order to produce “passion nature”, Mencius believed that one should adopt an attitude of “don’t help and don’t forget”. By “don’t help and don’t forget”, it means that one should always think about “clarifying the Way and gathering righteousness”, and that one needs to cultivate one’s own “passion nature” for a long time, while not being too hasty. Mencius compares this process of cultivation to the process of nurturing crops to grow and produce food, which can only be achieved by applying fertilizer and cultivating the seedlings in a timely manner, using the method of “raining at the right time” and taking advantage of the situation. To cultivate one’s own “passion nature”, one must “not help and not forget”, so that it will come naturally. If one is too hasty, it is like “pulling up seedlings to help them grow”, which will have the opposite effect. Mencius cited an example of “pulling up seedlings to help them grow” to illustrate this truth. He said, “There was a man of Song, who was grieved that his growing corn was not longer, and so he pulled it up. Having done this, he returned home, looking very stupid, and said to his people, ‘I am tired to-day. I have been helping the corn to grow long.’ His son ran to look at it, and found the corn all withered. There are few in the world, who do not deal with their passion-nature, as if they were assisting the corn to grow long. Some indeed consider it of no benefit to them, and let it alone—they do not weed their corn. They who assist it to grow long, pull out their corn. What they do is not only of no benefit to the nature, but it also injures it.” (ibid.) In order to cultivate the “passion nature”, one must be “sincere” and must not give up or relax. One should know that they are not able to achieve it overnight, so they should not “work hard for one day and do nothing for ten”. In order to obtain “passion nature”, we must work hard persistently.

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When talking about the cultivation of the “passion nature”, Mencius also stresses the importance of preserving the so-called “restorative influence of the night”. The “restorative influence of the night” is the so-called “nature of peace”. According to Mencius, as people engage in various activities during the day, they are influenced by various external factors, both material and spiritual, and their greed and lust will arise, and their good nature will be deprived. However, at night, when people are quiet, when they are no longer in contact with external objects, when the surroundings are silent, and when their hearts are at peace, their good nature will develop feelings of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, then a “nature of peace” will emerge, which is the purest, clearest and free from materialistic and evil thoughts. This “nature”, which is constantly sprouting in the morning of the day, is constantly being deprived during the day. It is like the trees on the Mountain Niu outside Linzi in State Qi, which were originally very luxuriant, but they grew on the outskirts of a big city, people kept axing them down, so they were always bare. Despite the fact that they grow day and night and are often moistened by rain and dew, their branches and leaves, which are constantly sprouting, soon become bare again. The same as the “nature of peace” of human, which must be constantly cultivated. If we can cultivate it, it will flourish. He said: The trees of the Niu mountain were once beautiful. Being situated, however, in the borders of a large State, they were hewn down with axes and bills—and could they retain their beauty? Still through the activity of the vegetative life day and night, and the nourishing influence of the rain and dew, they were not without buds and sprouts springing forth, but then came the cattle and goats and browsed upon them. To these things is owing the bare and stripped appearance of the mountain, and when people now see it, they think it was never finely wooded. But is this the nature of the mountain? And so also of what properly belongs to man; shall it be said that the mind of any man was without benevolence and righteousness? The way in which a man loses his proper goodness of mind is like the way in which the trees are denuded by axes and bills. Hewn down day after day, can it—the mind—retain its beauty? But there is a development of its life day and night, and in the calm air of the morning, just between night and day, the mind feels in a degree those desires and aversions which are proper to humanity, but the feeling is not strong, and it is fettered and destroyed by what takes place during the day. This fettering taking place again and again, the restorative influence of the night is not sufficient to preserve the proper goodness of the mind; and when this proves insufficient for that purpose, the nature becomes not much different from that of the irrational animals, and when people now see it, they think that it never had those powers which I assert. But does this condition represent the feelings proper to humanity? Therefore, if it receives its proper nourishment, there is nothing which will not grow. If it lose its proper nourishment, there is nothing which will not decay away. (Mencius—Gaozi I). Although people’s conscience has a strong vitality and can be promoted, they are almost always trampled upon in people interactions and social interactions, so the cultivation of the “nature of peace” is an important way of acquiring a sense of dignity.

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If preserving the “nature of peace” and “nurturing” the nature of passion is a positive approach to moral cultivation, then reducing or curbing one’s desires is a negative one to moral cultivation. Mencius said, “To nourish the mind there is nothing better than to make the desires few. Here is a man whose desires are few—in some things he may not be able to keep his heart, but they will be few. Here is a man whose desires are many—in some things he may be able to keep his heart, but they will be few.” (Mencius—Jin Xin II) According to Mencius, a good way to preserve one’s good heart is to reduce one’s desires as much as possible. If a person is able to keep his desires to a minimum, he or she will be able to maintain his or her “four ends” of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom. Even if one loses a little of innate goodness, that is a very, very little part. If a man desires much, even if he can retain some of his innate goodness, it will be very little. For Mencius, desire and virtue are mutually independent, and to be a “gentleman” one must curb his or her desire. He seems to think that excessive desire is a characteristic of the “villain”. Mencius’ idea that “to nourish the mind there is nothing better than to make the desires few” sets the precedent for the Song and Ming Taoists’ idea of “preserving the Divine Principle and extinguishing human desires”. The moral ideal is a question that must be addressed in theories of moral cultivation and moral education. The book “Mencius” has much to say on this subject. Mencius himself took Confucius as his moral role model, and he considered him to be the most comprehensive of the sages. In speaking of the ideal moral personality, Mencius also often referred to the “gentleman” and the “great man”. Most importantly, Mencius elaborates on the moral ideal of the “great man”. Mencius said, “To dwell in the wide house of the world, to stand in the correct seat of the world, and to walk in the great path of the world; when he obtains his desire for office, to practice his principles for the good of the people; and when that desire is disappointed, to practice them alone; to be above the power of riches and honors to make dissipated, of poverty and mean condition to make swerve from principle, and of power and force to make bend—these characteristics constitute the great man.” (Mencius—Teng Wen Gong II) This means that a man is born between heaven and earth, he should be upright and follow the way of benevolence and righteousness. When a man is successful, he should practice benevolence and righteousness together with the people; when he is not, he should behave in a benevolent and righteous manner; when he is rich, he should not disrupt his heart; when he is poor, he should not change his behavior; when he is powerful, he should not frustrate his will; and when he is strong, he should be a true man. Ever since Mencius defined the term “great man”, it has been passed down as a moral ideal. Many national heroes and great men throughout history have used the noble and glorious name of “great man” to inspire themselves and have achieved astounding and lasting achievements. People also often use the term “great man” to evaluate the actions of others and refer to outstanding women as “great woman”. Mencius’ idea of the “great man” should be acknowledged as having played a positive role in history.

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5 Intentionalism of Righteousness Over Benefit The debate between righteousness and profit in the history of Chinese ethics takes on a clearer meaning in Mencius. Mencius inherited Confucius’ idea of putting righteousness before profit, and strongly opposed and refuted the Moist theory that both righteousness and profit were important. In Mencius’ view, the relationship between righteousness and profit has two meanings: from one side, is it moral principles or material interests that are important? Should the ruling class, in governing the state and educating the people, emphasize the magnitude of their private interests, or should they emphasize the moral principle of righteousness? From another side, in moral evaluation, should the emphasis be on motives or on effects? Mencius inherited and developed Confucius’ idea of putting righteousness before profit. He believed that, as a principle of conduct, one should only value righteousness, not profit. In educating the people and in dealing with the relationship between people and the state, he could only emphasize on righteousness, not profit. However, he did not oppose the idea that rulers should pay attention to the improvement of people’s lives. The seven essays of “Mencius” begin with this: Mencius went to see king Hui of Liang. The king said, “Venerable sir, since you have not counted it far to come here, a distance of a thousand miles, may I presume that you are provided with counsels to profit my kingdom?” Mencius replied, ‘Why must your Majesty use that word “profit?” What I am provided with, are counsels to benevolence and righteousness, and these are my only topics. If your Majesty say, “What is to be done to profit my kingdom?” the great officers will say, “What is to be done to profit our families?” and the inferior officers and the common people will say, “What is to be done to profit our persons?” Superiors and inferiors will try to snatch this profit the one from the other, and the kingdom will be endangered. In the kingdom of ten thousand chariots, the murderer of his sovereign shall be the chief of a family of a thousand chariots. In the kingdom of a thousand chariots, the murderer of his prince shall be the chief of a family of a hundred chariots. To have a thousand in ten thousand, and a hundred in a thousand, cannot be said not to be a large allotment, but if righteousness be put last, and profit be put first, they will not be satisfied without snatching all. There never has been a benevolent man who neglected his parents. There never has been a righteous man who made his sovereign an after consideration. Let your Majesty also say, “Benevolence and righteousness, and let these be your only themes.” Why must you use that word—“profit?”. (Mencius—Liang Hui Wang I). This means that in human relations, especially between ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elders and children and friends, righteousness should be the rule. What each person should do is according to his or her status in society. The hierarchy could only be maintained if righteousness and “should dos” were respected. If people act in their own personal interests, the whole society, the whole state, would be in chaos and the position of the king would be difficult to maintain. Of course, it is easy to see that although Mencius advised King Hui of Liang not to

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value profit, but only value righteousness, he was in fact working for the best interests of the king. Likewise, Mencius—Gaozi II says: Song Keng being about to go to Chu, Mencius met him in Shi Qiu. ‘Master, where are you going?’ asked Mencius. Keng replied, ‘I have heard that Qin and Chu are fighting together, and I am going to see the king of Chu and persuade him to cease hostilities. If he shall not be pleased with my advice, I shall go to see the king of Qin, and persuade him in the same way. Of the two kings I shall surely find that I can succeed with one of them.” Mencius said, ‘I will not venture to ask about the particulars, but I should like to hear the scope of your plan. What course will you take to try to persuade them?” Keng answered, ‘I will tell them how unprofitable their course is to them.” ‘Master,’ said Mencius, ‘your aim is great, but your argument is not good. If you, starting from the point of profit, offer your persuasive counsels to the kings of Qin and Chu, and if those kings are pleased with the consideration of profit so as to stop the movements of their armies, then all belonging to those armies will rejoice in the cessation of war, and find their pleasure in the pursuit of profit. Ministers will serve their sovereign for the profit of which they cherish the thought; sons will serve their fathers, and younger brothers will serve their elder brothers, from the same consideration—and the issue will be, that, abandoning benevolence and righteousness, sovereign and minister, father and son, younger brother and elder, will carry on all their intercourse with this thought of profit cherished in their breasts. But never has there been such a state of society, without ruin being the result of it. If you, starting from the ground of benevolence and righteousness, offer your counsels to the kings of Qin and Chu, and if those kings are pleased with the consideration of benevolence and righteousness so as to stop the operations of their armies, then all belonging to those armies will rejoice in the stopping from war, and find their pleasure in benevolence and righteousness. Ministers will serve their sovereign, cherishing the principles of benevolence and righteousness; sons will serve their fathers, and younger brothers will serve their elder brothers, in the same way—and so, sovereign and minister, father and son, elder brother and younger, abandoning the thought of profit, will cherish the principles of benevolence and righteousness, and carry on all their intercourse upon them. But never has there been such a state of society, without the State where it prevailed rising to the royal sway. Why must you use that word “profit.”’. In Mencius’ view, a ruler’s focus on profit rather than righteousness, and the loss of the human relationships between ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elders and children, and friends, would lead to social rivalry and people would be reckless for their own interests. If this were the case, not only would the state be politically unstable, but even the position of the king would eventually be taken away. Mencius advocated educating the people with benevolence, righteousness and morality, asking them not to think about material gain and to act in accordance with moral requirements. He believed that if the ruler did this, not only would the people be submissive, but the ruler would also govern the whole world. Although Mencius valued righteousness over profit, he advocated that the material interests of the common people should be properly satisfied so that they could have a minimum of material wealth. In his view, only the moral and educated “scholar”

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could observe certain moral concepts and codes of conduct in the absence of material wealth. For average people, if they did not have a certain amount of property to support themselves, they would commit a crime. That is why Mencius said: They are only men of education, who, without a certain livelihood, are able to maintain a fixed heart. As to the people, if they have not a certain livelihood, it follows that they will not have a fixed heart. And if they have not a fixed heart, there is nothing which they will not do, in the way of self-abandonment, of moral deflection, of depravity, and of wild license. When they thus have been involved in crime, to follow them up and punish them—this is to entrap the people. How can such a thing as entrapping the people be done under the rule of a benevolent man? (Mencius—Liang Hui Wang I) This means that one should understand the basic truth that only those who have a certain amount of property and a secure livelihood can have a certain moral sense. If they do not have a basic livelihood and cannot maintain a minimum one, they cannot have a certain moral sense or moral will. Therefore, he argued, in order for the people to be moral, they must have property that can sustain their standard of living. Mencius went on to say: Therefore an intelligent ruler will regulate the livelihood of the people, so as to make sure that, for those above them, they shall have sufficient wherewith to serve their parents, and, for those below them, sufficient wherewith to support their wives and children; that in good years they shall always be abundantly satisfied, and that in bad years they shall escape the danger of perishing. After this he may urge them, and they will proceed to what is good, for in this case the people will follow after it with ease. (ibid.) To this end, Mencius further proposed that the ruler of the state should treat his people by giving each family five acres of land for their dwelling and letting them plant mulberry trees around it, so that those who were over 50 years old could have silk to wear. In addition, each family was given the opportunity to raise and breed livestock such as chickens, dogs and pigs, so that those over the age of 70 could have meat to eat. Each family with eight members was given a hundred acres of land, and their production was not hindered, so that everyone could have enough food to eat. Then, on this basis, they were taught to be filial to their parents and to respect their brothers and sisters, and they were able to accept it. Apart from discussing this idea at length in the essay “Liang Hui Wang I”, Mencius also mentions in other places that rulers should care for the material interests of the people. Rulers should be happy with the people’s happiness, should give the people enough time and conditions to engage in productive work, and should make sure that every citizen is well fed and clothed. Mencius believed that only in this way could people behave in accordance with the moral code made by the ruling class, and only then could the ruling class consolidate its power. This idea of Mencius was an inheritance and development of Confucius’ ideas on one side, and a critique and inheritance of Mozi’s ideas on the other. There is a certain element of reasonableness in this thought, and it can be said that he already recognised, to a certain extent, the close relationship between morality and the standard of living of the people. In Mencius’ view, meeting the most basic needs of the people is to enable them to value “righteousness”, which is by no means the same as valuing “benefit”. In his moral evaluation, Mencius always clearly contrasts “righteousness” and “benefit”, praising those who are “righteous” and denigrating those who pursues “benefit”. He

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always clearly opposed “righteousness” and “benefit”. He said, if you want to know what separates Shun from Zhi, it is simply this: the interval between the thought of gain and the thought of virtue. “Benefit” refers to private gain that is not in accordance with the way of benevolence and righteousness. If it is material gain that is in accordance with benevolence and morality, it is not the “benefit” that Mencius refers to. Mencius’ pupil, Peng Chan, asked Mencius: “Is it not an extravagant procedure to go from one prince to another and live upon them, followed by several tens of carriages, and attended by several hundred men? Mencius replied: “If there be not a proper ground for taking it, a single bamboo-cup of rice may not be received from a man. If there be such a proper ground, then Shun’s receiving the kingdom from Yao is not to be considered excessive. Do you think it was excessive?” (Mencius—Teng Wen Gong II) “The world” can be a great benefit, but if it is obtained against benevolence and righteousness. Mencius does not regard the attainment of the world as a “benefit”.

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In the ancient Chinese moral tradition, “worth” has the meaning of “preciousness” and “importance”, but when it is associated with the meaning of life, it is comparable to what we call “value”. Moists regard righteousness as the most valuable thing. This is their “valuing of righteousness”. Taoism regards life as the highest value. Mencius, on the other hand, advocates “value of goodness”, regarding it as the most noble moral value. There is a passage in the Mencius—Gaozi I: To desire to be honored is the common mind of men. And all men have in themselves that which is truly honorable. Only they do not think of it. The honor which men confer is not good honor. Those whom Zhao the Great ennobles he can make mean again. Mencius here acknowledges that everyone has a desire to pursue a supreme value, but unfortunately, average people does not know what the supreme value is that they should pursue. According to Mencius, everyone has his or her own highest value, which is high morality, what he calls “value of goodness”. The word “good” means kind and noble; the word “noble” means valuable and worthy. Mencius believed that although this “goodness and nobility” could be attained by everyone through selfcultivation and not by external forces, people often did not think about the goodness and nobility they could possess. In the society of that time, some people regarded fame and fortune as the most valuable things to pursue. In other words, what people considered valuable was not what was really valuable, such as noble character. Zhao Meng was a senior minister of the state of Jin, holding strong power. He could use his power to give a person a high official position, but he could also deprive or depose a person of the high official position he had given him and put him in a low position. 1

This section was originally published in Dazhong Daily on 26 December 1998, under the title “On ‘Value of Goodness’ and ‘Nobility of Heaven’”.

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In this sense, what is the value of what people call high political status and plenty of wealth? Mencius also raised the issue of the relationship between the “heavenly title” and the “human title” when he proposed the “value of goodness”. He said: There is a nobility of Heaven, and there is a nobility of man. Benevolence, righteousness, self-consecration, and fidelity, with unwearied joy in these virtues; these constitute the nobility of Heaven. To be a gong, a qing, or a da fu; this constitutes the nobility of man. The men of antiquity cultivated their nobility of Heaven, and the nobility of man came to them in its train. The men of the present day cultivate their nobility of Heaven in order to seek for the nobility of man, and when they have obtained that, they throw away the other—their delusion is extreme. The issue is simply this, that they must lose that nobility of man as well. (Mencius—Gaozi I). This means that a person’s moral character is a natural title, and a social rank is a title conferred on them. In ancient times, when one cultivated one’s moral character, then he or she received a social title. Nowadays, some people ask people to give them titles under the pretext of cultivating their own moral character, and when they have received them, they do not want their moral qualities. Mencius’ ideas of “value of goodness” and “nobility of heaven” reflect the ancient Chinese thinker’s thorough and profound understanding of the value of life. He emphasized that the most important value of life lies in the cultivation and cultivation of a high moral quality, that is, a spirit of dedication to others, to society and to the country. Of course, the “value of goodness” that Mencius refers to has the limitations of class and the imprint of a materialistic view of history, but as long as we can give it a new meaning for the times, it is still relevant to raising people’s consciousness of moral cultivation.

7 Five Bonds and Its Guidelines In terms of moral norms between human beings, Mencius for the first time clearly put forward five moral rules to be followed between human beings, which are known as the “Five Rites” in the history of Chinese ethical thought. The “Five Rites” are also a more comprehensive and accurate overview of the moral relations between people in feudal society. The “Five Rites” means that “father and son have kinship, rulers and ministers have righteousness, husband and wife have distinction, elders and children have order, and friends have trust”. In terms of its origin, the idea of the Five Rites comes from the Five Doctrines in the “Book of Document”, which is later referred to as the Five Rites. In the Book of Document—Shun Dian, there is a passage in which Shun says to his minister Qi: “Qi! The people are now unable to live in harmony with each other, between father and son, between ruler and subject, between husband and wife, between elders and children, and between friends. You, as the minister of the State, should educate the people in the Five Rites, with emphasis on generosity.” This means, now the people are not united and the five relationships among people

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are not in harmony with each other. In your education, you must develop a generous spirit. What exactly are these five relationships? How are these five relationships to be taught? There is no record or explanation here. Zheng Xuan’s note says: “The five qualities are father, mother, brother, brother and son.” This statement of Zheng Xuan is based on the fact that some commentators on the Book of Document now refer to the “five qualities” as the five ethics mentioned by Mencius, i.e. “ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elder and younger, and friend”, and the five doctrines as “father and son have kinship, rulers and ministers have righteousness, husband and wife have distinction, elders and children have order, and friends have trust”. However, there is no basis for that. In the Book of Document—Yao Dian, when talking about Yao’s deeds, after Yao had examined Shun’s thoughts and behavior and married his two daughters to him, there is a sentence that reads, “Be careful of and follow the five rules.” In other words, Yao told Shun to implement virtuous governance and to promote the five moral codes. There is no specific description of either the Five Codes or the Five Doctrines. In the Tradition of Zuo—The Sixth Year of Duke Huan, it only mentions “cultivating his five doctrines”, but there is still no specific explanation of it. In Tradition of Zuo—The Eighteenth Year of Duke Wen, it is more specific, stating that “Shun subordinated Yao”, “raised the eight talents”, and “spread the five doctrines in all directions, so that the father would be righteous, the mother would be kind, the elder brother would be friendly, the younger brother would be co-operative, and the son would be filial, and internal peace would be achieved outside”. This means that Shun, as Yao’s vassal, nominated eight competent people to spread father’s righteousness, mother’s kindness, brother’s friendship, brother’s communion and son’s filial piety to everywhere. Although Mencius was well versed in the ancient texts and agreed with their views, he did not stick to the old rules, but enriched, transformed and developed them in accordance with the so-called “five qualities of inferiority” and “respect for the five doctrines”. He also gave a new content to the Five Doctrines by summarising the idea of the Five Rites in the light of the actual situation of the hierarchical relationship between people in feudal society. Mencius refuted Xu Xing’s view that “the wise man and the people plough together and eat, and rule with food”, and put forward the idea of the Five Rites. He said: ‘In the time of Yao, when the world had not yet been perfectly reduced to order, the vast waters, flowing out of their channels, made a universal inundation. Vegetation was luxuriant, and birds and beasts swarmed. The various kinds of grain could not be grown. The birds and beasts pressed upon men. The paths marked by the feet of beasts and prints of birds crossed one another throughout the Middle Kingdom. To Yao alone this caused anxious sorrow. He raised Shun to office, and measures to regulate the disorder were set forth. Shun committed to Yi the direction of the fire to be employed, and Yi set fire to, and consumed, the forests and vegetation on the mountains and in the marshes, so that the birds and beasts fled away to hide themselves. Yu separated the nine streams, cleared the courses of the Ji and Ta, and led them all to the sea. He opened a vent also for the Ru and Han, and regulated the course of the Huai and Si, so that they all flowed into the Jiang. When this was done, it became possible for the people of the Middle Kingdom to cultivate the ground and

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get food for themselves. During that time, Yu was eight years away from his home, and though he thrice passed the door of it, he did not enter. Although he had wished to cultivate the ground, could he have done so? The Minister of Agriculture taught the people to sow and reap, cultivating the five kinds of grain. When the five kinds of grain were brought to maturity, the people all obtained a subsistence. But men possess a moral nature; and if they are well fed, warmly clad, and comfortably lodged, without being taught at the same time, they become almost like the beasts. This was a subject of anxious solicitude to the sage Shun, and he appointed Xie to be the Minister of Instruction, to teach the relations of humanity: how, between father and son, there should be affection; between sovereign and minister, righteousness; between husband and wife, attention to their separate functions; between old and young, a proper order; and between friends, fidelity. When the sages were exercising their solicitude for the people in this way, had they leisure to cultivate the ground? The Five Rites, as proposed by Mencius, were a summary of the most important moral relationships in feudal society. If the five relationships between people—ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elders and children, and friends— were well regulated, feudal rule would be peaceful and uneventful. We can say that the entire “Mencius” is a discussion and argument on how to maintain the normal order of these five human relationships. Mencius sees kinship, loyalty, and respect for elders as ethical acts that come from the good heart of man. Mencius inherited Confucius’ idea of filial piety and loyalty to the ruler. In Mencius’ Li Lou Shang, it is said that “There are three things which are unfilial, and to have no posterity is the greatest of them.” The richest fruit of benevolence is this: the service of one’s parents. The richest fruit of righteousness is this: the obeying one’s elder brothers. The richest fruit of wisdom is this: the knowing those two things, and not departing from them. The richest fruit of propriety is this: the ordering and adorning those two things. The richest fruit of music is this: the rejoicing in those two things. When they are rejoiced in, they grow. Mencius—Li Lou II pointed out The Five Unfilialities. Mencius—Wan Zhang I discussed the “Great Filial Piety” as, “The greatest filial piety is to honor one’s parents for life”, “Of all which a filial son can attain to, there is nothing greater than his honoring his parents”. Mencius—Li Lou II says “When the prince regards his ministers as his hands and feet, his ministers regard their prince as their belly and heart; when he regards them as his dogs and horses, they regard him as another man; when he regards them as the ground or as grass, they regard him as a robber and an enemy”. In Mencius—Teng Wen Gong II, it says, to look upon compliance as their correct course is the rule for women. Above all are Mencius’ specific exposition of the Five Rites and their moral principles. Generally speaking, the Five Rites, as Mencius calls them, are subordinate to and serve the feudal hierarchy. However, in the midst of inequality, he also proposes that there should be corresponding obligations on both sides, which is still very different from the one-sided obligations of the Song and Ming philosophies. Mencius believed that the best way to deal with the relationship between human beings was to follow the example of the sages. He said, “The compass and square produce perfect circles and squares. By the sages, the human relations are perfectly exhibited.” (Mencius—Li

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Lou I) As long as people act in accordance with what the sages have done, the five relationships between people—father and son, ruler and subject, husband and wife, elders and children, and friends—will definitely be smooth and harmonious, and the world will be at peace. Since Mencius, the history of Chinese ethical thought has been marked by “the Doctrine of the Five Rites”. In the Song dynasty, the ethical thinker Zhu Xi’s “Education on Children” focused on these five aspects of education. Emperor Xuanzong of Ming also wrote the Book of the Five Rites himself. It is clear that the ruling class attached great importance to the teaching of the Five Rites. “The Five Rites”, as feudal morality, was entirely for the benefit of the ruling class. However, it was an important achievement in human moral thinking in that it outlined the five most basic aspects of human relations in feudal society in a relatively comprehensive manner and set out a basic code for each of them. The introduction of the Five Rites did play an important role in regulating human relations in feudal society.

8 Gaozi’s Theory on Human Nature of “Nature Comes with Birth” The date of his birth and death is not known. We know from historical documents that he was a native of the Warring States and that he met with Mozi and was a junior of him. He is mentioned twice in the book “Mozi”, and as he debated with Mencius, he would have been Mencius’ senior. On the subject of human nature, Gaozi held views that were diametrically opposed to those of Mencius. None of his writings have been handed down. All that we know of the ideas of Gaozi are from the book “Mencius”, and are excerpts from his theories in order to justify his own theories and to refute the “errors” of Gaozi. From the book of Mencius, Mencius tends to take a few words out of context from the statements of his opponents to refute them, often even using sophistry and strong words to argue for the correctness of his own theories. Although these words may have been quoted in a one-sided manner, they still show that the thinking of Gaozi on the issue of human nature is really worthy of a good study. We know from Mencius’ essay on “Gaozi” that there were at least four different opinions on the question of good and evil in human nature, namely, the theory that there is no good and evil in nature, the theory that nature is good, the theory that it can be good or bad, and the theory that there is good and bad. Gaozi said, “There is no goodness or badness in nature.” He also said: “Nature can be good or bad. Therefore, when culture is prosperous, the people will be good; and when the evil rises, the people will be violent.” He said: “There are good natures and bad natures. Therefore, when Yao was the king, there was Xiang; when Gusou was the father, there was Shun; when Zhou was the son, and he was the king, there was Weizi Qi and Prince Bigan. Now we are told that they are good in nature, but are they not?” (Mencius—Gaozi I) Except for the Gaozi’s theory of nature is no good or bad, there

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is no more record on the reasons for the other statements of it. However, the case is that the Confucian philosopher was opposed to Mencius’ theory of the goodness of nature. This is recorded in detail in the book “Mencius”. According to Gaozi, human nature, or the original, natural, and innate human nature, is indifferent to good or evil, and cannot be described as good or evil. Human nature, as it is born, is nothing but a blank sheet of paper. What is good and what is evil is the result of learning and education. Through learning and education, the nature can become either good or evil, but this is no longer part of man’s original natural nature. It is for this reason that Gaozi clearly defines “nature”, which is what he calls the “nature of birth”. By “nature of birth”, it means that human nature is whatever it is when one is born. It is also like the saying “white is white”, as long as the original colour is white, it can be white. So, what is the original, natural and innate nature of man when he is born? Gaozi also says, “Food and sex are also nature.” This means that eating and sexual desire, survival and reproduction are the nature of human beings. According to Gaozi, this innate nature of “hunger and sex”, which we are born with, is not good, nor bad. To prove the theory that there is no good or evil in human nature, and based on an overview in the book of Mencius, Suo Zi gives two examples: Gaozi said, “Nature is like turbulent water, which flows east when it is directed to the east and west when it is directed to the west. There is no distinction between good and bad in human nature, just as there is no distinction between east and west in water.” (Mencius—Gaozi I). Gaozi also said, human nature is the same as that of the willow, and righteousness is the same as that of the cup and plate. To make human nature righteous is the same as to make willow into cup and plate. (ibid.) This claim by Gaozi was in response to Mencius’ natural moral theory that human nature is good. What he meant by human nature was what we now call nature of birth. In his view, there is no good or evil in the nature of birth of human beings. However, when one is born, one has to live in society, to interact with others and to be influenced by them. Gaozi agreed with the point. Therefore, he said, human nature is like flowing water which has no fixed direction. There is no innate tendency for water to flow to the east or the west. The direction of the water flows all depends on geography, situation and height. This means that direction of water flow is not determined by the nature of water, but by the objective environment and the external situation. Likewise, the relationship between good and evil in human nature is similar to the relationship between wood (willow) and utensils. Wood can be turned into cup and plate by human hands; but there is no cup and plate in the nature of wood, let alone in the nature of wood as a cup and plate. The reason why wood can become cup and plate is due to external forces, which refers to the result of the craftsman’s work. In this way, the theory that there is no distinction between good and evil in nature is in fact the theory that nature can be good or bad. Here, it seems, Gaozi distinguishes between human nature and morality, or rather between the innate nature of man and his moral nature. Human nature, he argues, is a natural result, while the good and evil in morality is a social result. To some extent, it is reasonable, for he sees that

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moral good and evil are closely related to the different influences on man in society. Goodness or badness of human is not originated from birth. And we cannot say that human is endowed with goodness by God from birth, namely the four good ends of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, and therefore human is necessarily good. If this is the case, how can we understand that “under the ruling of the King Wen and Wu, the people loved what was good, while under the ruling of the King You and Li, they loved what was cruel.” And how can we understand that “when Yao is the king, there were people like Xiang, and when Gusou is the father, there was son like Shun.” With Zhou as son, and as the king, there were people like Weizi Qi and Prince Bigan”? Although Gaozi did not say that he himself advocated the theory that “nature can be good or bad”, in fact, the reasons for opposing Mencius’ theory of the goodness of nature were common to all. In short, for Mencius, innate human nature refers to the natural desires and physiological requirements of human beings, and there can be no good or evil in it. For the concepts of good and evil are actually about people’s moral qualities and moral evaluation. It is not innate, but is influenced by the objective environment in which one lives. From this point of view, although in his view of history, although Gaozi could not yet start from historical materialism, there is clearly an element of materialist thought here that emphasizes the environment and external influence. This idea was a powerful refutation of Mencius’s idealistic theory of human nature, which was progressive and had an important influence on the subsequent doctrine of human nature. In refuting Mencius’s view of benevolence and righteousness as the nature of man, Gaozi also proposed a theory of “internal benevolence and external righteousness”. According to Mencius, “benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom are rooted in the heart”, and they all emanate from the heart and are the innate nature of man. What is “benevolence” and what is “righteousness”? According to Mencius, “Benevolence is the heart; righteousness is the path of man.” He also said, “To be kind to one’s relatives is benevolence; to honor one’s elders is righteousness.” (Mencius—Jin Xin I) According to Mencius, it is the nature of human beings to eat, drink and behave like men and women. Since he believes that benevolence is the “human heart” and benevolence is “kinship” (i.e. love for one’s parents who are related by blood), it can be said that it emanates from the heart of man; as for the “path that man should take” (righteousness is the path of man) and respect for one’s elders, it can only be said to be caused by external conditions. (Gaozi said: “Food and sex are all nature. Benevolence is internal, not external, while righteousness is external, not internal.”) So when Mencius asked him, “What is the meaning of internal benevolence and external righteousness”, he said, “I respect him because he is older, but this respect is not inherent in me; just as it is because the thing is white, because its whiteness is its own outward manifestation, so I call it a white thing. So it is said to be external.” Mencius also asked him, And what is it which is called righteousness? The fact of a man’s being old? Or the fact of our giving honor to his age? That is to say, is the righteousness you speak of with the elders or with those who treat them as elders? Gaozi said, “There is my younger brother; I love him. But the younger brother of a man of Qin I do not love: that is, the feeling is determined by myself, and therefore I say that benevolence is internal. On the other

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hand, I give honor to an old man of Chu, and I also give honor to an old man of my own people: that is, the feeling is determined by the age, and therefore I say that righteousness is external.” (Mencius—Gaozi I) What does the conversation mean? It means that “benevolence” can be said to be something that arises within people, whereas “righteousness” is entirely caused by the objective outside world. Therefore, benevolence and righteousness are not the same kind of thing, and to describe both as human nature is, in the view of Gaozi, which is also wrong. Why does Gaozi emphasize “internal benevolence and external righteousness”? It is true that many people who have studied the thought of Mencius and Gaozi in the past have failed to understand this proposition of Gaozi. The “internal benevolence and external righteousness” that Gaozi refers to is a continuation of Mencius’ argument. Mencius believed that “to be close to one’s relatives is benevolence” and “to respect one’s elders is righteousness”, and that “benevolence” and “righteousness” are both good innate human natures. According to Gaozi, since “benevolence” is “kinship”, love for one’s parents, it should be said that this is a kind of love that comes from the heart, from blood relations, from the heart, and it cannot be judged as good or evil. Thus, he does not recognise the “benevolence” that arises from the heart as good, but only the “benevolence” of “kinship” as a human nature. How, then, is righteousness viewed? According to Gaozi, since righteousness is a respect for all older people in society, it arises from the outside, i.e. from the social relations between people. Since this respect for all elders is not “internal” in nature, which arises from blood relations, then “righteousness” is external, and although it is good or moral, it is not human nature. It is clear from this that Mencius regarded both benevolence and righteousness as the goodness of human nature and acknowledge that human beings are born with goodness. Gaozi believed that “benevolence” is an innate feeling that emanates from the heart of human beings and is formed by blood ties. Although “righteousness” is good and has moral significance, it is not innate, but is formed later in life, and therefore does not belong to human nature. Why do we say that benevolence is a moral concept that arises from inside, while righteousness arises from outside? For example, I respect an old man because he is old. The reason for the idea that I should respect the elderly is not inherent in me, so it is not natural, but external, because I see he is old. In this sense, just as all ideas are induced by external objects, so righteousness, as a moral concept, is induced externally, not internally. This is as true as the fact that the external object is white, which means that it has the colour white before I have the thought of white and call it white. The reason why I respect not only the old people of my own country but also the old people of Chu is that these people are, from the appearance, old people. Therefore, righteousness comes from the outside. This is a brilliant argument even it seems crude, but what it emphasizes is that the moral concept of righteousness, or moral obligation, or moral responsibility, does not arise from inside isolating from people’s relationships, but is precisely a product of the relationship between people. Although there is some metaphysical element to this statement, there is something reasonable. Meanwhile, Gaozi argues for what he calls internal benevolence. Why does he say that “benevolence” is only a natural nature that arises from inside and has no moral

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significance? He says, for example, I love my brother because he is my compatriot, born of the same parents. This is a kind of blood love, natural love and instinctive love. On the contrary, if it had been the brother of the Qin, who was not related by blood, I would not have had instinctive feelings, even love, towards him. My brother and the Qin people’s brother are both brothers, but why do I only love my own brother inwardly but not the Qin’s brother? This is because one is related to me by blood and the other is not. Therefore, “righteousness” is caused by the outside world, not by human nature. Only “benevolence” arises from people’s inner nature, but it has nothing to do with good and evil. Finally, it is also important to stress that the ideas we now know about Gsozi were relayed by Mencius and his disciples, who certainly distorted them in many ways. But even after all these distortions, it is clear that Gaozi was strongly opposed to the so-called natural morality of Mencius. According to Gaozi, a distinction should be made between human nature and social characters such as benevolence and morality. Human nature is inherent in life, but it is not a moral concept such as benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, but a human instinct for food and sex, an instinctive love for one’s parents and brothers that have blood ties. In this sense, we can see materialism in his theory. But by reducing human nature to natural nature alone, he ultimately embarked on an abstract, supra-class theory of human nature. It should be pointed out that if we look at the moral characters of human beings after birth, we can say that there is no good and no evil before the formation of social consciousness. However, strictly speaking, this cannot be regarded as human nature. Even food, drink and sex, as mentioned by Gaozi, is only a natural desire of human beings, and cannot be regarded as human nature. For human nature is not something else, but the special nature of human beings that distinguishes them from animals, and it is impossible to understand human nature properly without the social nature of human. Marx pointed out in his “Theses on Feuerbach”: “The essence of man is not an abstraction inherent in a single person, but in its reality it is the sum of all social relations.”2 In particular, Mao Zedong pointed out, “In a class society, everyone lives in a certain class position, and all kinds of thought are inevitably marked by class.”3 Human nature contains not only natural characters, but also social characters. Even the natural characters of human beings are never the same as those of animals, for example, in the case of sex desire, human beings are seeking survival, food and clothing, as well as reproduction, which is different from animals. In the social characters of human beings, there is also a human character. However, as Mao Zedong pointed out, “In a class society there is only human nature with class, and there is no such thing as supra-class humanity.”4 From this point, we can also say that only in a communist society, when human society has not only completely eliminated classes but has also forgotten the existence of such antagonisms, will there be a universal and good human nature.

2

Marx/Engels Collected Works, 2 editions, vol. 1, 56 pp. Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung, 2 edn, vol. 1, 283 p., Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1991. 4 Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung, 2 edn, vol. 3, 870 p., Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1991. 3

Chapter 6

Taoist Ethics of “Nonaction” and “Detached from Righteousness and Benefit”

1 The Ethical Thought of “Returning to Naturalness and Truth” in Tao Te Ching 1.1 The Life of Laozi and the Book of “Laozi” In the history of Chinese ethical thought, “Laozi” is a thinker who has been the subject of much debate while is still not received a universal consensus. There is no certainty as to what era “Laozi” was from, or whether “Laozi” was his work. The only reliable source for the study of Laozi’s life is Sima Qian’s “Shi Ji—Lao Zhuang Shen Han Lie Zhuan”. However, this article is only a record of different accounts of the time, which in itself is full of contradictions and poses many difficulties for our research. From the accounts of Laozi in the article, it can be concluded a general idea of Laozi’s life as follows. Laozi’s name is “Li Er”, who styled himself as “Boyang” and his posthumous name is “Dan”. He was an official of the Zhou dynasty, older than the Confucius. He was so learned that Confucius once asked him about his rites. He served the Zhou dynasty for a long time, but decided to leave the political struggles of the time and live in seclusion in the mountains when he saw the corruption of the Zhou dynasty. (“After living in Zhou for a long time, he saw the decline of Zhou and left.” (“Records of the Grand Historian”—Biographies of Lao Zhuang and Shen Han) When he was about to leave the border, the magistrate Yinxi said to him that since you were going to be a hermit, you should write your scholar work down. It was in this context that Laozi wrote his “Dao De Jing”. Only then was he allowed to pass the border. Later, it is not known where he went. (“To the border, Yinxi, the magistrate, said, ‘you will be hidden, and so you must write a book for me.’ Laozi wrote his book that was divided into two halves, with more than 5000 words on the morality, and left. (“Records of the Grand Historian”—Biographies of Lao Zhuang and Shen Han). In the “Records of the Grand Historian”, Sima Qian said that Laozi’s thought was characterized by “(The ruler) don’t do ineffective work, and you should follow the © China Renmin University Press 2023 G. Luo, Traditional Ethics and Contemporary Society of China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0256-9_6

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laws of nature and society (to govern the country). The people will educate themselves then” (ibid.), and it also said that “people who learn Laozi’s doctrine often depreciate Confucianism; those who learn Confucianism also depreciates Laozi. People with different moral values cannot work together. Is this the situation that it implies?” (ibid.) It seems to tell people that the doctrine of Taoism and Confucianism are opposed to each other, and the thought of Laozi is opposed to that of Confucius, and the intense relationship between Confucianism and Taoism has formed since the time of Laozi. For more than two thousand years, despite some opposed opinions, the majority of scholars agreed with Sima Qian’s assertion. Until the 1990s, the unearthing of the bamboo-slip version of “Laozi” in a tomb of the Chu Dynasty in Guodian provided powerful new evidence for the opponents’ view.1 In the present version of “Laozi”, there is a great deal of content that violently refutes Confucian ideas of benevolence and righteousness, such as “The phenomenon of ingenuity appears, and then hypocrisy will prevail for a while” in Chap. 18, “abandoning ingenuity will benefit the people 100-fold; abandoning benevolence and righteousness can restore the people’s nature of filial piety and kindness” in Chap. 19, and “when benevolence and righteousness are lost, and when one can only rely on propriety, the world will be in chaos” in Chap. 38. However, this type of direct backlash can seldom be seen in the bamboo-slip version of “Laozi”. For example, in the present text, the phrases “abandoning ingenuity” and “ abandoning benevolence and righteousness” are written as “abandoning hypocrisy and gossip” and “abandoning hypocrisy and fraud” respectively. Although similarity exits in the two expressions, the ideas expressed are quite different. In the slip version, the “benevolence and righteousness” is only mentioned once, i.e. “the pure and natural way of governing the world is abolished, and the supreme state of “great benevolence” will no longer be achieved.” in the C book. The sentence is written in the present version of “Laozi” as “after the pure and natural way of 1

The bamboo slips from the Chu tomb were unearthed in October 1993 in Guodian, Jingmen, Hubei, and were published in 1998. The unearthing of the bamboo slips has created great excitement in the academic world, especially the bamboo-slip version of “Laozi”, which have astonished scholars. It is not only because the Guodian bamboo-slip “Laozi” was written about 100 years earlier than the silk-book “Laozi” that was unearthed at Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan in 1973, making it the earliest version of “Laozi” that we have seen, but it also differs greatly in form and content from both the silk book “Laozi” and the current version of “Laozi” we have seen. According to the shape of the bamboo slips, the collator distinguished the “Laozi” into three books: A, B and C. The three groups have different texts. In contrast to the 5000-word text of the “Laozi” in the silk version and the current version, the bamboo-slip version has only 2000 words. There is no distinction between the “Dao Jing” and the “De Jing”, and the chapters are also quite different from the other two. Scholars have put forward different views after the unearthing of the bamboo-slip version of “Laozi”. The majority of scholars believe that bamboo-slip version of “Laozi” was the three different versions before the collation of the 5000-word “Laozi” that exists today. It was not until the late Warring States period that it was compiled into the complete “Laozi” that we see today. Another opinion is that the 5000-word “Laozi” has probably existed at the time, while the three books of the bamboo-slip version of “Laozi” were different segments of the complete book. In reference to the other tools in the tomb, the segments were used as teaching material for students. There is no definitive answer as to which view is correct, but we believe that the former view is more plausible and desirable.

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governing the world is abolished, there is benevolence and righteousness”. Although the former has only one more conjunction, “an” (thus), compared with the latter in context, the ideas expressed are completely opposite. In the present text, “after the pure and natural way of governing the world is abolished, there is benevolence and righteousness” is followed by “when cleverness and ingenuity appear, deception prevails; when family disputes arise, filial piety and kindness can be shown; when the country is in chaos, loyal ministers can be seen. The juxtaposition of “benevolence and righteousness” and “deception” undoubtedly gives “benevolence and righteousness” a derogatory connotation; in the simple Laozi, however, there is no negative connotation of “when cleverness and ingenuity appear, deception prevails” followed by “benevolence and righteousness”. In this way, “benevolence and righteousness” is not the opposite of “the pure and natural way of governing the world”, but that “the pure and natural way of governing the world (the Great Way)” and “benevolence and righteousness” are regarded as different concepts. “The Great Way” taking the highest and central position, while “benevolence and righteousness” is followed behind as the second important. This relationship is somewhat similar to that between ‘Great Harmony’ and ‘Moderate Prosperity’ in Confucius’ thought. In this sense, the bamboo-slip version of “Laozi” does not mean to belittle “benevolence and righteousness”. Since the bamboo-slip version of “Laozi” does not contain any confrontational statements with Confucianism, there is no reason to say that “Laozi” himself rejected Confucian ethical concepts such as benevolence and righteousness. The bamboo-slip version of “Laozi” is the version we can see closest to the time when Laozi lived, and is therefore more faithful to the original thinking of Laozi. Contrary to the judgement of later scholars, early Taoist thought and Confucianism were not directed at each other’s views, but were both confronted with the same object, namely the social reality and social problems of the time. It is only that they viewed the problem from different angles and positions, and proposed different solutions for society. It is most likely that the statements in the present version of “Laozi”, which strongly criticize Confucianism, were added by the following Taoists in later academic debates. Just as much debate exists about Laozi himself, there are difference opinions in current scholarship on whether the book “Laozi” was written by Laozi himself or by someone else. However, whether or not “Laozi wrote the two parts of his book, which contains more than 5000 words on the meaning of morality”, it is certain that Laozi’s book was already widely circulated during the Warring States period, and his ideas were mentioned or quoted in works such as “Zhuangzi”, “Xunzi”, “Lu Shi Chun Qiu” and “Han Fei Zi”. It can be concluded that the book of “Laozi” may have appeared at the end of the Spring and Autumn period, but as it was passed on over a long period of time, along with the influence of certain ideas from the Warring States period, and finally became available after the book of “Mozi”. But the 5000-word “Laozi”, which is roughly the same in content and structure as the present version, was at the latest already in existence before the establishment of the Han Dynasty.2 2

In the B part of Mawangdui silk book “Laozi”, “Bang (state)” are written as “Guo (country)” to avoid the taboo of Liu Bang (as “Bang” shares the same pronunciation as the first name of the

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The book of “Laozi” is different from the “Analects” and “Mo Zi” that are in the form of questions and answers and organized by the followers. It has its own complete ideology and concept system. In December 1973, the Mawangdui Han tomb in Changsha unearthed two written versions of “Laozi”, which are of great importance to our study of Laozi’s thought. The unearthing of the “Laozi” in the Chu tomb of Guo Dian in 1993 provided a direct basis for understanding the original thinking of Laozi. However, it is the present version of “Laozi”, based on Wang Bi’s commentary, that has influenced significantly the traditional culture and philosophical thought of the Chinese nation for two millennia. In this regard, we will continue to base our study of Laozi’s ethical thought on the present version of “Laozi”, with due reference to some of the latest findings of contemporary archaeological discoveries.

1.2 The Worldview of the Book of “Laozi” Whether the philosophical system of “Laozi” is materialistic or idealistic remains two opposing views in our academia. One view believes that the main concept of Laozi’s philosophy, “Tao”, is the naturalness of the eternal material world, a material existence, a material entity, and an objective law of the material world; the other view is that “Tao” is “void”, and the “absolute spirit” that precedes the material world. We believe that Laozi’s philosophical system is idealistic. What he calls the “Tao” is a spiritual thing, not the naturalness of the eternal material world. In the book of “Laozi”, “Tao” is at the highest category and the general source of all things in the universe. The general source is neither an atom, nor a vacuum, nor matter, nor the laws of the objective material world, but a mysterious and unfathomable absolute idea. It is both the law of things’ development and the origin of things’ emergence. But it is not an objective material reality, but a spiritual “void”. Therefore, it can also be said that everything emerges from the “void”. (“All things under heaven sprang from It as existing; that existence sprang from It as non-existent.” (Laozi—Chap. 40) “The Tao gives birth to one, one to two, two to three, and three to all things.” (Laozi—Chap. 42) “Tao” is a mysterious, indescribable, and indescribable essence of all things, which can only be experienced and perceived by intuition. Therefore, Laozi’s an idealistic philosophical system. In his epistemology, Laozi is more explicit in his idealistic understanding. He said that “if you don’t go out the door, you can infer the truth of the world; if you don’t look out the window, you can understand the natural laws of the movement of the sun, moon, and stars. The farther he ran out, the less truth he knew. Therefore, a sage who has “Tao” can deduce things without going out, can understand the “Tao of Heaven” without seeing, and can achieve something without acting rashly.” (Laozi—Chap. 47) It can be seen that Laozi denies the role of sense perception, denies that human rational perception comes from sense perception, and denies the emperor), while the A part is still written as “Bang”. It can be seen that the A part was produced before Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty.

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process of perception from things to senses. Laozi also said that “everything in the world has a beginning, and this beginning is the root of everything in the world. If you know the root cause, you can know all things. If you know all things and grasp the root of all things, then there will be no danger in your life. Plug the hole of desire, close the door of desire, and there will be no trouble in life. If the hole of desire is opened, complicated incidents will be added, and it will be irreversible for life.” (Laozi—Chap. 52) The phrase “plug the hole of desire and close the door of desire” means the same as “know the world without going out”.3 It means that by blocking all the sensory organs of the ears, eyes, nose and mouth, and by closing all the doors where the sensory organs can be stimulated by the outside world, one will never be sick4 and will be able to know everything in the world. In Laozi’s view, the most important thing for people to know about the outside world is to know the “Tao”, that is, to “grasp the root”. As long as you “grasp the root “, you can “know its consequence”. Therefore, if you know the “Tao”, you will know everything. If one opens the sensory organs of the ears, eyes, mouth and nose, and believes that only from the outside world can one gain knowledge of the outside world. Then one is bound to be tempted by external objects, and one’s mind will be damaged, and one will use one’s wisdom and talents in the face of all kinds of things (“the hole of desire is opened, complicated incidents will be added”), to the point that one will be incorrigible for life.

1.3 The Gist of the “Laozi” One major question to study the thought of “Laozi” is what the gist of “Laozi”? It is no doubt a philosophical work. But its main purpose, whether the epistemology and ontology of the book is materialist or idealist in its worldview, is still a matter of disagreement in the domestic academia. One view believes that the book of “Laozi” represents a strategy, political and philosophical basis of retreating for advance and escaping from reality that is formed by intellectuals of the declining slave-owning aristocracy in the new society. According to this view, the decadent slave-owning aristocrats and their intellectuals had an attitude of retreating for advance towards the new regime of the emerging landowning class and the accordingly formed new society. With this attitude came a corresponding strategy. The book “Laozi” is partly devoted to these strategies and the political and philosophical rationale associated with them, for Laozi’s idea is that “as long as one retreats, one does not compete with you”. He preaches escaping from reality and from society. Escape from reality is the spiritual victory sought by the

3

“Tui means the ear, the eye, the nose and the mouth”. Gao Heng, “Laozi (the interpretation of Laozi)”, 110 p., Shanghai, Shanghai Bookstore, 1996. 4 Ma Xulun said that the “qin (勤)” was borrowed from “qin (=)”, and it refers to a type of illness.” See above, p. 110.

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declining classes, presenting their pursuit of comfort in their subjective consciousness. The “retreating for advance” is a vain attempt to regain the power they have lost, showing that they are still mindful of the paradise they have lost. The other view is that the “Laozi” is a book of warfare. It is no coincidence that many thinkers since the Tang Dynasty have regarded “Laozi” as a book on warfare. Wang Zhen of the Tang Dynasty once said that there was “not a single chapter of 5000-word ‘Laozi’ that did not focus on the military” (“Commentary on the Dao De Jing on the Essentials of the Military”); Wang Fuzhi of the Ming and Qing Dynasties also said in his “Song Lun” that the book should be regarded as “a guidance book of the military”; Zhang Taiyan, in the modern era, also considered that “Laozi” was “about the purpose of the ‘Jin Ban’ and the ‘Liu Tao’”. They believe that “Laozi” has 81 chapters, a dozen of which are directly on the military, and nearly 20 chapters of which are on philosophical metaphors for the military. They believe that “Laozi” focuses on the study of strategic thinking and derives general laws of thought and things’ development from the way of using the military. Therefore, “Laozi” has more significant than “the Art of War” and “Sun Bin’s Art of War”. What is the main purpose of the book “Laozi”? In our opinion, it is a philosophy of life, especially a philosophy of how people should conduct themselves in society. The main idea of the 5000-word “Laozi” is to explore how people can better survive and develop and how they can achieve happiness in a society of war and power struggles. It is an in-depth observation of society and life at that time, and seeks to generate an analysis and to explore and guide life based on the rules found in the analysis. Because it is good at observing the interconnectedness and chain of cause and effect of the dialectical development of things in society, some often regard it as a kind of power, a conspiracy and a strategy. However, there is no root for this view. The main reason why the “Laozi” is considered a strategy and a power tactic is due to a paragraph: “If you want to restrain it, you must first expand it; if you want to weaken it, you must first strengthen it; if you want to abolish it, you must first lift it; if you want to take it, you must first give it. This is called, though subtle and obvious, the weak overcome the strong.” (“Laozi”—Chap. 36). The meaning of this passage, epistemologically speaking, is only an understanding of the regularity of the development of objective things, and an observation of various phenomena in society and life. It is not a call for people to use it as a power tactic to achieve despicable personal goals. The purpose of “Laozi” is to adopt the laws of social and human development, to warn people that they should not be proud of themselves for being strong, and should not be able to stay long by being open, but should always pay attention to the transformation of the opposites to achieve the goal of good self-control. The book of “Laozi” does contain a few references to the art of war, such as “Laozi”—Chap. 69, but it is mainly based on the dialectic of the use of war to explain the philosophy of life and the philosophy of living in the world. “Those who employ soldiers once said, ‘I dare not take the initiative to attack, but take the defensive; I dare not advance one step, but rather retreat a foot.’ It means that though having troops, it is as if there is no arm to lift; although facing the enemy, it is as if there is no enemy to fight; although there are weapons, it is as if there is no weapon

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to grasp. There is no greater disaster than underestimating the enemy, who almost lost my treasures. Therefore, when the strength of the two armies is equal, the one who grieves can win.” This tactic of “retreat for advance” in warfare is the objective source of Laozi’s idea of modesty for win and retreat for advance. It is used to discuss and elaborate his philosophy of life and worldly affairs. In the middle of the Warring States period, which was a time of constant warfare among nations, many instances of victory and defeat in warfare also inspired Laozi. He often spoke of war and the military, but his aim was to attack the ruling class of the time, hoping to eliminate the social strife of the time so that people could live a pure and peaceful life.

1.4 The Philosophy of “Doing Nothing but Doing Everything” The “Laozi” is opposed to the idea of “doing something” and advocates “doing nothing”. It is not only a political idea but also a philosophy of life. In fact, it is precisely this philosophy that Laozi has adopted as his own. Laozi drew lessons of success and failure from the social changes of his time. He said that “those who make a difference will fail, and those who are persistent will suffer damage. Therefore, the sage does not do anything so he will not suffer failure, and he does not suffer any damage if he has nothing to do with it. When people do things, they always fail when they are about to succeed, so when things are about to be completed, they should be as cautious as they were at the beginning, and there is nothing that cannot be done. Therefore, the wise sage pursues what other people do not pursue, does not sparse hard-to-obtain goods, learns what others do not learn, and corrects the mistakes that people often make. In this way, it follows the natural nature of all things without interfering.” (“Laozi”—Chap. 64) According to Laozi, many people put a lot of effort into something, but when they are about to succeed, they fail. Seeing this situation, the sage advocates “doing nothing”. According to Laozi, the desire of a sage is “not to desire”, the learning of a sage is “not to learn”, and the action of a sage is “to do nothing”. The sage follows the natural development of all things without doing anything, so the sage does not make the mistake of “doing something” that everyone else does. “Therefore, the sage treats the world from the point of view of inaction, and teaches without words: allowing all things to arise naturally without their creation, doing something, but not adding their own inclinations, succeeding and not claiming themselves. Just because you don’t take credit, you don’t have to lose.” (“Laozi”—Chap. 2) It means that the sage takes “doing nothing” as a guideline for his own actions, and teaches others by “not speaking”. The sage does not claim his own merits even when he has achieved them, while it makes his merits immortal instead. Not only did Laozi regard ‘doing nothing’ as a principle for dealing with the world, but sometimes he regarded it as a way to achieve success, which is why later generations have said that Laozi was a man of power. He said that “If he wants

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to govern the world, he has to use coercion. I don’t think he can achieve his goal. The people of the world are sacred and cannot govern the world by force against their will and nature. If you control the world with force, you will lose the world.” (“Laozi”—Chap. 29) He also said that “if you can do nothing, that is, don’t act rashly, anything can make a difference. Those who govern a country must always take the principle of not harassing the people as the foundation of governing the country. If they often harass the people with onerous politics, then they are not fit to govern the country.” (“Laozi”—Chap. 48) “Govern the country with inaction and tranquility, use ingenious and secretive methods to use troops, and govern the world by disturbing the people … Therefore, the sage said, if I do nothing, the people will cultivate themselves; if I am quiet, the people will naturally be rich; if I have no desires, the people will naturally be simple.” (“Laozi”—Chap. 57) This means that not only do we have to “do nothing” to take over the world, but we also have to “do nothing” to manage the world. It is not only necessary to do nothing for the people, but also to make them ignorant and desireless. Laozi said that “not honoring the virtuous will keep the common people from fighting with each other; not cherishing rare treasures will keep the people from stealing; not showing things that are enough to arouse covetousness will keep the people from being confused. Therefore, the governing principle of the sage is to empty the minds of the people, to fill the belly of the people, to weaken the people’s competitive intentions, to strengthen the people’s muscles and bones, and often to make the people without ingenuity and desire. As a result, those who are wise do not dare to do things rashly. The sage acts according to the principle of ‘doing nothing’ and acts in accordance with nature, then the genius will not be out of balance. (“Laozi”—Chap. 3) In Laozi’s view, “doing nothing” does not mean that he does not want to achieve merit, but on the contrary, “inaction” can be said to be a means to achieve merit. “inaction” is the greatest action of all. Of course, “Laozi” also understands that it is impossible for people in real life to achieve complete “inaction”. Therefore, in human relationships, “Laozi” believes that the priority is to be “soft”, “bent”, “non-contentious” and “selfless”. He should be able to “know well what is light, but settle for darkness” and “know what glory is, but keep a position of humiliation”, preferring to be constantly in a position of humility and tenderness in order to maintain what he calls “constant virtue”. Laozi likens this soft, non-contentious attitude to the sea and flowing water. In his view, if one has the qualities of water, one is considered to have the highest virtue. He said that “the best man is like water. Water is good at nourishing all things without competing with all things, staying in a place that everyone dislikes, so it is the closest to the ‘Tao’. The kindest person is the one who chooses the best place to live, who is good at keeping quiet and unfathomable in mind, who is good at treating people with sincerity, friendship and selflessness, who is good at speaking and keeping promises, who is good at streamlining and handling of government, who can manage the country well, who can play well in doing things, and who can take action at the proper timing. The best people take action with indisputable virtues, so there is no fault and no blame.” (“Laozi”—Chap. 8) “There is nothing in the world that is weaker than water, and nothing can beat the strength of water.” (“Laozi”—Chap. 78) “The reason why the river and the sea can become the place where the rivers flow is because it is good

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at being in the low place, so it can become the king of the hundreds of rivers.” (“Laozi”—Chap. 66) “Zhuangzi—Tian Xia” said that Laozi’s philosophy is to abide by “tenderness” and “humiliation”, and that what he takes is “emptiness” and “what happens after”. “The Lu Shi Chun Qiu-Bu Er” said that “Laozi valued softness”, and the “Xunzi-Tian Lun” said that “Laozi only knows the principles of being humble but does not take deeds.” It all shows that Laozi’s philosophy of dealing with the world is to be passive and yielding, emphasizing softness.

1.5 The Moral Ideal of Return to the Infant The moral ideal of “Laozi”, or the ideal personality to which he aspires, is closely linked to his socio-political ideal. Literally, the ideal person in “Laozi” is also a “sage”. In Laozi’s book, there are more than 30 references to the sage as an ideal personality, i.e. “all of them are regarded as the highest without any denigration”5 . However, the interpretation of the term ‘sage’ is quite different from, or even the opposite of, what Confucius meant by ‘sage’. Confucius’ “sage” is a person with a high degree of cultural knowledge, moral qualities of “benevolence”, and active interest in society and politics; whereas Laozi’s “sage” is a person who is “chaotic”, an “infant of the unborn” (“Laozi”—Chap. 20), a naive, pure and innocent child. The “Laozi” said that “a wise sage is in his seat, restraining his own desires and making the world’s minds pure and simple. The people focus on their ears and eyes, and the wise men bring them all back to the state of innocence.” (“Laozi”—Chap. 49) “A wise sage pursues what others do not pursue, does not sparse hard-to-get goods, learns what others do not learn, and remedy the mistakes that people often make. In this way, it follows the nature of all things without interfering.” (“Laozi”—Chap. 64) “The wise sage is above the people, but the people do not feel burdened; before the people, the people do not feel victimized. People all over the world are happy to admire him without getting tired of it. Because he does not compete with the people, no one in the world can compete with him.” (“Laozi”—Chap. 66) “Only the wise sages can do something without taking possession, and achieve something without taking credit. He is reluctant to show his talent.” (“Laozi”—Chap. 77) Therefore, he believed that in order to attain his moral ideal of the “sage”, he had to “return to the infant” (“Laozi”—Chap. 28). Why is it that the highest moral ideal is to bring people “back to infancy”? In Laozi’s view, only a newborn infant retains the purest and noblest morality, “virtue does not depart” (ibid). The infant is ignorant, selfless and free of desire, and thus contains the deepest moral character. According to Laozi, people’s “selfishness” and “lust” are the major causes of moral corruption. He said, “Colors make people dazzled; noisy tones make people lose their hearing; rich food makes people lose their taste; indulgent hunting makes people crazy; rare items make people misbehaving.” (“Laozi”—Chap. 12) The most important way to improve people’s moral quality is 5

Gao Heng, “Laozi Zheng Guos, p. 43.

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to make them “not see what they want”, therefore, “the people’s opinions are not disturbed”. Laozi said that “a person with strong morals is like a newborn baby. Poisonous insects did not sting him, fierce beasts did not harm him, and ferocious birds did not fight him. His muscles were weak, but his fists were firm. Although he did not know about the intercourse of men and women, but his small genitals were raised, because of the energy. He cried all day, but his voice was not hoarse, because of his harmony of ying and yang. Knowing the truth of “harmony of ying and yang” is called “Chang” (general rules), and knowing “Chang” is called “Ming”. Covetousness and indulgence will bring disaster, and lust will lead to stubbornness. (“Laozi”—Chap. 55). In his view, the morality of an infant is so pure and flawless that no poisonous insect will sting it, no fierce beast will pounce on it, and no evil bird will catch it. Although the baby’s little genitals are often stretched out, he does not know anything about sexual intercourse, but only that he has an abundance of vital energy. He cries all day long, but not hoarsely, because he is able to maintain the “peace” of ignorance and desirelessness. It is only when one has this “peace” of ignorance and desire that one has the most desirable “virtue”. It is only when one has this “virtue” that one can understand thoroughly and be one. To see from the perspective of epistemology, the moral ideal of reversion to infancy is an a priori idea, a manifestation of Laozi’s idealistic worldview in ethical thought. Mengzi, starting from idealism a priori, advocated the theory of the goodness of nature, suggesting that people are born with the four virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, and stressing that “an adult does not lose his or her infant’s heart” (“Mengzi”—Li Lou Xia). However, in Mengzi’ view, the “infant” is still only the “good start”, which needs to be developed and expanded to develop high moral qualities. Laozi, on the other hand, is more direct in his belief that only the “infant” possesses the purest and most noble virtues. This idea of Laozi is an innate theory of moral origin. He believes that people’s virtues are not and cannot be formed in social relations between people, but are innate. On the contrary, in society, as a result of human relationships, moral corruption is brought about and people lose their innate moral purity. However, we should see that the moral ideal of reverting to the infant is only the highest state that can be reached in the end. Until this state is reached, Laozi still has to live in the real world and has to relate to all kinds of people in society. So, what should the ideal personality be like? “Laozi—Chap. 15” said that, In ancient times, people who were good at practicing the “Tao” were subtle, penetrating, profound and profound, which were not comprehensible to ordinary people. Precisely because I didn’t know him, I could only describe him generally: He was cautious, like stepping on water across a river in winter; he was vigilant, as if he was guarding against the attack of a neighboring country; he was respectful and solemn, as if he was a guest at a banquet; he was free and easy, like ice slowly melting; he was simple and honest, like raw materials that had not been processed; he was broad and open, like a deep valley; he was generous and tolerant, like unclear turbid water. Who can quiet the turbidity and slowly clarify? Who can change the stillness,

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and slowly reveal its vitality? Those who keep this “Tao” will not be complacent. Precisely because he is never complacent, he is able to go and renew. That is to say, the ancient scholar of the “Tao” is subtle, profound and unknowable. It is because he is unknowable that his image is barely expressed: he moves with hesitation and apprehension, like undressing to cross a river in winter. He is fearful and wary, as if afraid of a fierce enemy. He treats people with dignity and respect, like treating guests. He follows the tide, like the melting of a river. He is pure, like untouched wood. He is humble in heart, like an empty valley (without prejudice). He is subtle and mellow, like a pool of turbid water (without any harshness to things). This pool of murky water slowly clears up after a moment of silence (the murkiness turns into clarity). When this empty valley is moved, something slowly emerges (emptiness is transformed into reality). A person who maintains this way of being in the world refuses to be complacent. It is because he is not complacent that he is able to achieve new successes after failures (failure becomes victory). If the qualities or moral ideals that Laozi demands of people are, in the static sense, a return to infancy, then this subtle and mysterious image of the unknowable is just the moral ideal in the dynamic sense.

2 Yang Zhu’s Ethical Thought of “Cherishing Oneself” and “Self-Favoritism” 2.1 The Life of Yang Zhu Yang Zhu was an essential ethical thinker in the pre-Qin period, and some of his ideas were very influential at the time. Mencius once said, ‘The words of Yang Zhu and Mo Zhai spread worldwide. The opinions of the world’s people were either attributed to Yang Zhu’s school or Mo Zhai’s school.’ This shows the influence he has had. But it is a pity that not a single word of Yang Zhu’s theories has been preserved. All his writings have been lost or possibly destroyed by later Confucianists. What we now know of Yang Zhu’s thought is mainly derived from the last accounts, including the criticisms of his opponents. In the history of Chinese ethical thought, Yang Zhu’s ideas have had a profound influence, and in a sense. They are one of the significant sources of Taoist thought. We know very little about Yang Zhu’s life. The book Mencius does not tell us anything about his life. Although ‘Han Feizi’ tells the story of Yang Zhu and Yang Bu, it does not specify Yang Zhu’s life. ‘Han Feizi’ records: Yang Zhu’s brother was called Yang Bu, and he went out wearing a white dress. When it rained heavily, Yang Bu took off his white clothes and changed into black clothes to go home. His dog didn’t recognize him as Yang Bu, so it came up to him and barked at him. Yang Bu was furious and was about to hit the dog. At this point, Yang Zhu said, ‘Don’t hit the dog, for if it were you, you would be like it. If your

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dog had left white and returned black just now, how could you not be surprised by that?’ (‘Han Fei Zi (Han Fei Tzu)—Shuo Linxia’). The book ‘Zhuangzi’ also states that Yang Ziju was a disciple of Laozi, probably referring to Yang Zhu. But it is questionable whether the outer chapters and various chapters are actual. Liu Xiang also mentions Yang Zhu in his book ‘Shuo Yuan.’ But since there is no pre-Qin text to support this, it cannot be used as a historical basis. It is impossible to make a definitive conclusion about Yang Zhu’s life date. In the ‘Huainanzi—Fan Xun Lun,’ it is said: ‘To be dear to one another, esteem the virtuous, honor the ghosts and gods and disbelieve in the mandate of heaven are all things advocated by Mozi. But Yangzi was against them. To preserve the true purity of one’s nature and not drag down one’s form with external objects are all things advocated by Yangzi. But Mencius was against it.’ It can be inferred from this that Yang Zhu was active after Mozi (c. 468–376 BC) and before Mencius (c. 372–289 BC), i.e., in the fourth century BC, which is slightly before Epicurus in ancient Greece and roughly at the same time as Aristotle. The history of philosophical and ethical thought development shows that if we understand these thinkers only in the ‘quotations’ refuted by their opponents, we should analyze them carefully because most of these “quotations” are distorted. The thesis opponents often criticize their opponents by directing them towards absurdities, taking one point and not the other, and making infinite generalizations. We should pay particular attention to this situation in Yang Zhu’s ethical thought study. There are no writings by Yang Zhu that have been handed down to us, nor are there any complete chapters on Yang Zhu’s thoughts in the reports of the pre-Qin dynasty. According to a rough count, the ancient texts of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties mention Yang Zhu, including ‘Mencius,’ ‘Zhuangzi,’ ‘Han Feizi,’ ‘Huainanzi,’ ‘Shuo Yuan,’ ‘Fayan,’ and ‘Lun-Heng.’ However, the material is quoted from the author’s arguments in fragments and probably out of context. However, Yang Zhu’s words are mentioned in so many works, showing that his ideas were influential during the Warring States period and between the Qin and Han dynasties. According to Lu Xun, Yang Zhu’s writings have not been handed down due to his ‘for-me’ ideology. In ‘The Wei and Jin Demeanor and the Relationship between Literature and Drug and Wine,’ Mr. Lu Xun says: Poetry is also a human being. With poetry, we can know that we have not forgotten our feelings in the world. For example, if Mozi is a man of love and Yangzi is a man of me, then Mozi must write a book, but Yangzi must not. This is ‘for me’ because if one makes a book for others to read, one becomes ‘for others.’ This passage can be interpreted as both an intelligent argument and a mockery of the metaphysical style of the Wei and Jin dynasties. He is merely trying to show that no poetry can be so sophisticated as to forget the world and human feelings, for man is a social animal and cannot be separated from society if he is to live in it. This is not to say that Yang Zhu refused to write his works because he was ‘for me.’ If, according to this logic, Yang Zhu should not even have said a single word to be ‘for me,’ because as soon as he propagated his ideas, he would have become ‘for man,’ then how could there be ‘Yang Zhu and Mo Zhai’s words filling the world’? How could there be ‘the words of Yang Zhu and Mo Zhai filling the world’?

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From the point of view of the whole system of thought, Yang Zhu’s main idea is to ‘maintain the original,’ that is, to ‘value oneself’ and ‘rebirth.’ This is what Mencius called ‘for me.’ This is in opposition to the Moist idea of ‘love and harmony and is in line with the idea of ‘cherishing life’ and ‘valuing oneself,’ which is discussed explicitly in the ‘Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals.’ Therefore, many scholars believe that ‘Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals,’ with its articles on ‘Valuing Life’ and ‘Valuing the Self,’ can represent the thought of Yang Zhu.

2.2 The Core of Yang Zhu’s Thoughts is ‘Valuing Oneself’ and ‘Rebirth’ The core of Yang Zhu’s thoughts is the so-called ‘valuing oneself’ and ‘rebirth.’ In modern terms, this means to cherish one’s own life and make the preservation of oneself the only thing that matters. Mencius once dismissed this idea of Yang Zhu as heresy and attacked it vigorously. According to Mencius, ‘Yangzi adopted the idea of ‘for oneself.’ He would not have done it even if pulling out a single hair would have benefited the world.’ (‘Mencius— Jin Xin Shang’). This means that Yang Zhu was an incredibly selfish and self-serving person. He was so greedy that he refused to pluck a single hair from his body, even if the whole world could benefit from it. Mencius’ words do not fully convince us that this is the view of Yang Zhu. For Mencius, in his debates with his opponents, as we said earlier, he always liked to misinterpret his opponent’s original meaning and then refute it from all sides. In addition, ‘Han Feizi,’ in his chapter on ‘Xian Xue’, says: Suppose that there was a man who was determined not to enter a dangerous region nor to fight in a war, not willing to exchange the great wealth of the world for a single hair on his calf. The ruler of the day would have treated him favorably, valued his insight, praised his behavior, and considered him a man who despised his finances and cherished his life. The sovereign would have rewarded the people with good land and luxurious homes and given them titles and salaries in return for their lives. Now, since the monarch respected those who despised finance and precious life, it was impossible to ask the people to die for the affairs of the state. Han Feizi wrote the ‘Xian Xue’ to refute the theories of Confucianism and Mohism, which were popular at the time, and those of Taoism. This passage means that if a man now advocates not entering a dangerous city, not going to war in the army, not even if he were to exchange the significant interests of the whole world for a single hair on his calf. He would not do so. The rulers of the time would undoubtedly respect him for this, considering him wise and noble, a man who values life over external things. The monarchs gave good lands and houses and set up titles and salaries because they gave them to the people in exchange for the lives of the monarchs. Now a ruler can’t respect people who value life over material things and

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ask them to give their lives for the cause of the ruler. According to Han Fei’s interpretation, Yang Zhu was a man who valued the preservation of his life so much that he would not have done so even if he could have received the most significant benefit in the world by plucking a single hair from his calf. It should be said that this interpretation is closer to the original nature of Yang Zhu’s thinking. Since Yang Zhu has not handed down any writings, many philosophical historians consider the ‘Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals’ (although it is one of the later the pre-Qin papers), with its essays on ‘Ben Sheng’, ‘Zhong Ji’, ‘Gui Sheng’, ‘Qing Yu’ and ‘Shen Wei’, to be the ideas of Yang Zhu’s school of thought. Although they contain developments that took place two or three centuries after Yang Zhu, they can still be used as a source for the study of Yang Zhu’s thought. First of all, it is clear from these materials that the core of Yang Zhu’s school of thought is ‘for me’, ‘valuing oneself’ and ‘valuing life over things’. In the chapter on “Gui Sheng” in the ‘Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals’, several examples of valuing life are given: Yao ceded the world to Zizhou Zhifu, who replied, ‘I can be the Emperor. I am now very ill from worry and labor, though I say this. I have no energy to take care of the world in the course of my treatment.’ The world is the most precious thing, but the sage does not endanger his own life for this reason. Still, less does he threaten anything else for this reason. Only he who does not risk his own life because of the world can be entrusted with the world. For three generations in a row, the Yue killed their king, and Prince So was worried about this. So he fled to a mountain ravine. The State of Yue was without a king. They kept looking for Prince So, and when they couldn’t find him, they chased him to the cave. Prince So refused to come out. The people of the State of Yue smoked him with burning mugwort to get him out. They let him ride in the chariot of the state army. As Wang Zi Sou pulled the rope for boarding the carriage, he looked up to the heavens and cried out, ‘O king of the country, O king of the country! Why did this position come to me?’ It was not that Prince Zisuo hated being the king of the country but that he hated the misfortune that would come with being its king. A man like Wang Zisuo refused to harm his own life for his country. This was why the people of Yue wanted him to be the king of the country. When the ruler of the state of Lu heard that Yan He was a man of virtue, he wanted to invite him to become an official. So he sent someone with gifts to ask Yan He. Yan He was dressed in rough clothes and lived in an ugly alley feeding cows. Then the messenger from the king of Lu came. Yan He received the man himself. The messenger asked, ‘Is this Yan He’s home?’ Yan He replied, ‘This is my home.‘ The messenger offered a gift. Yan He said, ‘I am afraid it will bring you punishment if you mishear the name. Why don’t you come back when you are clear?’ The ambassador went back to find out and came back for Yan He, but he could not find him. A man like Yan did not hate wealth and riches in the first place, but he hated them because he valued life. Most of the world’s monarchs despise the virtuous because they are rich. Isn’t it sad that they are so ignorant of people of virtue? It is clear from the above three examples that the Yang-Zhu school believes that human life is precious and that longevity is essential, which can be the only purpose

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of life. Anything that endangers life and health, or affects the spirit or mind, should not be done. ‘In every action of a great saint, one must find out the reason and purpose. Now, if there were such a man who used precious jewels to catapult a sparrow flying high in the sky, the world would surely laugh at him. What is the reason for this? The thing he uses is too valuable, and the thing he wants is too cheap.’ (‘Lu Shi Chun Qiu—Gui Sheng’) In their view, life is a rare treasure like the pearl of Su Hou, and all the riches of the world are nothing but a sparrow. This idea in the Guisheng can be entirely consistent with the concept of ‘not exchanging a single hair on one’s shin for the world’s greater good’. In the chapter on ‘Shen Wei’ in ‘Lu Shi Chun Qiu’, it is said that one should consider all aspects of what one is doing and that one should only act after weighing the importance of the matter. When a sage does something, he must know precisely what he wants to achieve and the means he should use to achieve it. If such a man were to shoot a bird a thousand feet high with the pearl of the Lord, the people of the world would surely laugh at him. Why is this? What he has spent is too costly, and what he seeks is too slight. As for life, is it not as valuable as the pearl of Suzhou? It is incomprehensible that one should risk losing one’s head or body to obtain an ornament when one’s hat is to adorn one’s head, and one’s clothes are to adorn one’s body. It is incomprehensible to risk one’s head and one’s life in the pursuit of profit, and it is also illogical to endanger one’s head and one’s life in the pursuit of profit. This means that one needs clothes and hats to wear on one’s head and body, but if one were to cut off one’s head for a hat or kill oneself for clothes, anyone would consider this absurd. What is the use of hats and dresses when the head and body have been killed? The world is like this in that it is a world of profit. To endanger one’s body and life, to cut one’s neck and lose one’s head to be subservient to gain, is also a sign of not knowing what to do. Why do you oppose the pursuit of fame and fortune? According to Yang Zhu, the purpose of worldly desires is not worth the effort because it hurts one’s health through worry. This is outlined in the ‘Huainanzi—Fan Xun Lun’: ‘To preserve one’s true nature and not be burdened by external things’. In the chapter of the ‘Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals’, it is said that Zi Huazi went to see the Marquis of Han Zhaozhi. He was worried because he was competing with Wei for land. The Wazir said, ‘Now let all the world’s people come before you to write and remember. Let it be written: ‘If the left-hand grasps something, then the right hand is cut off, and if the right-hand grasps something, the left hand is cut off. But he who grasps something will surely have the world.’ Will the ruling marquis grasp?’ The Marquis of Shao Xi said, ‘I am not going to grasp.’ Zi Huazi said, ‘Very well! This shows that the two arms are more important than the world. Man’s self is again more important than the two arms. Compared to the whole world, the Han dynasty is insignificant. The land the two nations are fighting over is even more insignificant than the Han country. Why should you worry about losing your body and your life and not getting that little piece of land on the border?’ Here, Zihuazi’s theory on worrying about the body and the wounding of life entirely agrees with Yang Zhu’s theory. It is clear from the above that Yang Zhu’s philosophy of life is in line with Laozi’s thinking and had an important influence on the later thought of Zhuangzi. It has a

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significant impact on the review of Zhuangzi. The story of ‘Yao giving the world to Xu Yu’ in Zhuangzi’s ‘A Happy Excursion’ illustrates that ‘to preserve the truth in its entirety, ‘to value oneself’, and ‘to rebirth’ are also part of Zhuangzi’s thought. The book ‘Lie Zi’ contains a special section on Yang Zhu, systematically describing his ideas. However, the scholarly community has considered the book a forgery since Liu Zongyuan in the Tang Dynasty. According to the present-day Ma Xuelun, the book belongs to the Wei and Jin dynasties, and the article “Yang Zhu” reflects, to a certain extent, a branch of the Yang Zhu school. The idea of ‘for me’ is further elaborated in the chapter ‘Yang Zhu’ in the ‘Lie Zi’: Yang Zhu said, ‘The hermit Bo Cheng Zi Gao did not benefit others with a single hair of his own, and gave up his throne to live in seclusion and farming; Da Yu did not benefit himself with his throne (instead, he spent his life benefiting the world and toiling all his life, and as a result), he became paralyzed. In ancient times, a man would not do anything that would benefit the world at the expense of his hair, nor would he do anything that would make the whole world serve him alone. If everyone does not do anything to benefit others at the expense of his hair, and if everyone does not do anything to benefit the world at the expense of his own life, then the world will be at peace.’ Yang Zhu said, ‘Bo Cheng Zi Gao refused to use a single hair for the benefit of others, abandoned the country, and went into seclusion to farm. Da Yu was unwilling to use his body for his benefit, and as a result, he became disabled. In ancient times, when a man was asked to use a single hair for the world’s benefit, he refused to give it to him, and when he used all the world’s possessions to feed his own body, he was unwilling to do so. When everyone does not harm a hair of his head, and no one enters the world for the world’s benefit, the world will be at peace.’ The avian son asked Yang Zhu, ‘Why do you take a single hair of your body for the world’s relief?’ Yangzi said, ‘The world could not have been relieved by a single hair sweat.’ The fowl said, ‘If it were possible to do so, why would you do it?’ Yangzi did not say anything. The fowl came out and told Yün Sunyang. Mengsun Yang said, ‘You do not understand the gentleman’s heart, so let me speak. Someone can get 10,000 gold for violating your muscular skin; why do you do it?’ Avian said, ‘Do it.’ Meng Sunyang said, ‘Someone who cuts off a section of your body gets a country. Do you do it?’ The bird was silent for a long time. Mengsun Yang said, ‘It is quite clear that a single sweat hair is much smaller than muscular skin, and muscular skin is much smaller than a section of the body. However, when a single sweat hair is accumulated, it becomes a muscular skin, and when a piece of muscular skin is accumulated, it becomes a body. A single sweat hair is one ten-thousandth of the whole body, so why should it be despised?’ Avian Zi said, ‘I cannot convince you with more reasoning. But ask Laozi and Guan Yin with your words, and then your comments will be correct; ask Dayu and Mo Zhai with my words, and then my words will be right.’ From the above two quotations, these ideas in ‘Lie Zi—Yang Zhu’ generally align with Yang Zhu’s thinking. In particular, the idea that ‘if everyone does not lose a single penny and everyone does not benefit the world, the world will be ruled’ may be a correct interpretation of Yang Zhu’s thought, reflecting his dissatisfaction with

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the ruling class at that time, who were competing for power and profit, and the social ideals of Yang Zhu’s school. In Yang Zhu’s view, those who emphasize ‘love for others’ and ‘love for others’, and those who stress the need to seek the good of the state and society are the root cause of the chaos in the world. The hypocrisy of the political and moral principles of the exploiting class has already been addressed here. If everyone were to become conscious of the fact that they are not willing to sacrifice a single cent of their own money for the so-called good of the state and society, those who want to gain fame, fortune, and power at the expense of others would not be able to use their tricks. This means that ‘if everyone does not lose a single penny, everyone will be disadvantaged’, which also means that others will not use everyone. Therefore, if everyone could do this, the world would be significantly governed.

2.3 Yang Zhu’s Theory on Happiness Yang Zhu’s emphasis on ‘valuing the self’, ‘rebirth’, and ‘for the sake of the self’ also emphasized the satisfaction of human desires. In a certain sense, therefore, he puts forward a theory of what constitutes happiness in life. According to Yang Zhu’s school of thought, man is a sensory creature. We must satisfy our senses. Only when one’s senses are properly pleased can one live a long life. However, they opposed indulgence, the endless pursuit of material desires and pleasure. The ‘Lü Shi Chun Qiu—Lust’ says: Heaven and earth gave birth to a man and endowed him with greed with desire. In man’s wishes, there are feelings, and in his emotions, there is moderation. The sage practices moderation to suppress appetite, so it is merely making his feelings go with the flow. It is, therefore, typical for the ear to wish to hear the five sounds, the eye to see the five colors, and the mouth to taste the five tastes. These three, rich and poor, foolish and wise, virtuous and unworthy, are the same thing from the point of view of man’s heart; they are all things within man, even Shen Nong and Huang Di, who is the same as Jie and Zhou. The reason why the sages are different from others is that they comprehend their hearts. If one does not create the intention of changing out of wealth, one loses one’s heart. These two are fundamental to the survival of life and death. This means that if one acts from a sense of ‘Gui Sheng’ and moderates one’s passions to be conducive to one’s life. This is the quality of a ‘saint’. Otherwise, if one ignores the ‘Gui Sheng’, one will die prematurely. Therefore, according to Yang and Zhu, human life requires the satisfaction of selfishness. And the three primary sense organs are the ear, the eye, and the mouth. However, the fulfillment of material desires should be subject to ‘for the self’ and ‘for the sake of life,’ i.e., it should only be conducive to the development of life and not to the killing of one’s own life. Therefore, all material desires must be met with moderation, called ‘moderation’ or ‘miserliness.’ A man should live in the world so that his ears can hear the best sounds, his eyes can see the best colors, and his mouth can enjoy the best tastes, Still, if nothing is satisfied, he is no different from a dead man. (“If the ears do not want the

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sound, the eyes do not want the color, and the mouth does not enjoy the taste. Life is the same as death.”) However, if it goes too far, it is detrimental to one’s health and affects one’s life. So it must be moderated. The sage thinks deeply about the world’s affairs and considers nothing more precious than life. The ears, the eyes, the nose, and the mouth, are governed by life. However, the ears want to hear musical sounds. However, the eye desires to see colors. However, the nose likes to smell the fragrance. However, the mouth desires to taste beauty. But as long as it is harmful to life, it is forbidden. Even though they do not want to do things themselves, these four organs do something as long as it is suitable for life. (‘Lu Shi Chun Qiu—Gui Sheng’). The attitude of the saints towards sounds, colors, and tastes is: take what is suitable for life and give up what is bad for life. This is the way to preserve life. (‘Lu Shi Chun Qiu—Ben Sheng’). According to Yang Zhu’s thoughts, the sages were all people who could ‘attain the Way’ and therefore live a long life. The so-called ‘attaining the Way’ means knowing how to ‘value life’ and restraining one’s desires not to harm one’s body with lust. ‘In ancient times, those who attained the Way were born to live long lives, and they were able to enjoy the sounds, colors, and tastes for a long time. Why? The conclusion was already set. If the decision was set long ago, they knew it early, and their energy would not be exhausted if they knew it early.’ (‘Lu Shi Chun Qiu—Lust’) It is precise because those who have attained the Way can restrain their desires to enjoy the pleasures of sound, color, and taste for the longest time. It is essential to abstain from lust as early as possible, preferably at a young age. It is only when one knows at an early age the importance of abstaining from a sexual desire that one knows how to be miserly and not to enjoy oneself too much that one can live a long and healthy life. In the ‘Lü Shi Chun Qiu’—Bu Er, it is said that ‘Yang Sheng valued himself’, which means that the core of Yang Zhu’s thinking is the word “valuing himself.” This is very accurate. The so-called ‘lightness of things and respect for life’ also has ‘valuing oneself’ as its core. On the one hand, Yang Zhu advocates the satisfaction of sensual desires without prejudice to the principles of ‘valuing oneself’ and ‘rejuvenation’; on the other hand, he constantly reminds people of the need for moderation in the satisfaction of sensual desires and repeatedly emphasizes the dangers of indulgence. In the chapter ‘Lü’s Spring and Autumn—Zhong Ji’, it is argued that desire is not conducive to the development of human life, and therefore the need for restraint in desire is emphasized. ‘Whoever lives a long life is obedient to it. What makes life disobedient is desire. That is why the sage must first moderate his desires. This is why the sage must first moderate his desires. This is why longevity is possible only when desires are moderated.’ The emphasis on the ‘moderation of desire’, that is, the abstinence from desire, is consistent with Yang Zhu’s thought. However, to describe ‘desire’ as something that ‘makes life disobedient’ deviates from Yang Zhu’s study, for desire is no longer a necessity but a detriment to life. He also says: ‘The desire to depend on a carriage to get in and out is a crippling tool. The pursuit of meat and fish all day long and endless drinking is called food for rotten intestines. The quest for beautiful women and the music of the kingdoms of Zheng and Wei is called the ax that cuts down

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life.’ (‘Lu Shi Chun Qiu—Ben Sheng’) Here, although the criticism is about indulgence. It is clear that desire is already regarded as an “ax that cuts down life.”, i.e., as something harmful to life, different from restrained enjoyment. It is also stated in the ‘Lü Shi Chun Qiu—Zhong Ji’: ‘If the body is too warm, the meridians will be blocked. If the meridians are blocked, the qi will not flow smoothly. If you eat a lot of food and drink, your stomach will become full and distended. If the stomach is complete, the chest and abdomen will become stuffy. If the stomach is entire, the chest and abdomen will become stuffy, and the qi will not flow through if the chest and abdomen become stuffy. Can we live a long life like this?’ It is clear that this is also a criticism of indulgence, a dichotomy between desire and energy, and a tendency towards asceticism. For a long time afterward, the ideas of Yang Zhu were almost extinct, while those of Laozi and Zhuangzi had a more significant influence. It was only in the Wei and Jin dynasties that the ideas of Yang Zhu were reflected in the Yang Zhu chapter of Liezi.

2.4 The Social Role of Yang Zhu’s Thought The thought of Yang Zhu represents the thought of a part of the nobility who were dissatisfied with the reality during the period of significant historical changes and fierce class struggles, especially some of the intellectual class who were sharp-minded and self-respecting. They were once aristocrats who were in a position to satisfy their various material desires without having to work. However, some of them, sober and sharp-minded, were uncomfortable with the darkness of society, or perhaps they had suffered injustice or defeat in their struggle and became cynical and resentful of those who, in their view, had gained power by ‘intrigue and trickery.’ They either did not want to go along with them or had lost confidence in regaining their former strength. So they were in opposition to the rulers of the time and lived passively in seclusion, high-minded and self-conceited, hoping to become a hermit with the sole aim of maintaining their longevity. They were deliberately pretentious, saying great things about being uncontested in the world, seeing through fame and fortune, and not seeking wealth and glory but only health. It is clear that if they were not aristocrats. If they were not once-influential people, what conditions would they have to satisfy their desire for food and drink? The ethical thinking of Yang Zhu’s school was a form of rebellion against the ruling class of the time, containing an open lack of cooperation with the rulers. No matter how much the rulers in power or other thinkers taught and advocated that people should be rulers, ministers, fathers, and sons, that they should love both, that they should be close to each other, that they should love people, and that they should love all people in general. They did the opposite, loving themselves and no one else, and only wanted to preserve themselves, not thinking about society and the state. They opposed the moral norms of Confucianism and Mohism and stressed the free development of the individual. They imagined that people would transcend

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all normative necessities and break down all ‘tired’ things to achieve ‘fullness of nature and truth.’ This kind of thinking was not conducive to the society of the time. Therefore, Mencius, who upheld the social order of the time and had a hierarchical outlook, opposed Yang Zhu’s ideas. He said: ‘Yang’s is me, and there is no ruler.’ (‘Mencius—under Teng Wen Gong’) This gets to the heart of the matter. If everyone only knows how to protect his own life and refuses to sacrifice his interests for the sake of others, who will be able to work for the king? Mencius regarded Yang Zhu’s idea of ‘no ruler’ as treacherous and cursed him as a beast for having such an idea. Indeed, how could society exist and develop if everyone only wanted to live for themselves? For this reason, Yang Zhu’s ideas themselves lack the necessary vitality. On the other hand, Confucianism had the preservation of society and the state as its primary aim. This was one of the main reasons why the ruling class supported it. Many later thinkers have criticized yang Zhu’s school of thought for its radical philosophy of life. The philosophies of the exploiting class of thinkers were all about ‘selfishness’ and ‘self-interest.’ Still, the difference was that Yang Zhu stated this view openly and unabashedly, particularly stressing the importance of preserving life. In addition, Yang Zhu’s school emphasized that one’s sensory desires should be fulfilled. Unlike the worldly thinking of Confucius and Mencius, who disparaged the desire for profit and contained elements of materialistic sensory theory. However, Yang and Zhu’s school of thought, with its one-sided emphasis on the ‘preciousness of life,’ believed that the only purpose of living was to live and that everything else should be ignored. This kind of thinking can only be a pessimistic philosophy of life.

3 Zhuangzi’s Ethical Thought of “Righteousness Over Benefit” 3.1 Zhuangzi’s Life and Works Zhuangzi, fully named Zhuang Zhou, was a native of Meng (present-day Cao County, Shandong Province, or Shangqiu, Henan Province) in the state of Song in the middle of the Warring States period. There is no firm evidence proving the birth and death of him. It is said in the “Records of the Grand Historian” (Shi Ji) that he was at the same time as king Hui of Liang and king Xuan of Qi. A relatively credible saying is that Zhuangzi was born in 369 BC and died in 286 BC according to Ma Xulun, a writer of later time. Zhuangzi once worked as a lacquer official in Meng, and later became a recluse. Zhuangzi seems to have lived a very poor life. “Zhuangzi—What Comes from Without” says: “The family of Zhuang Zhou being poor, he went to ask the loan of some rice from the Marquis Superintendent of the He. “Zhuangzi—The Tree on the Mountain” says that “Zhuangzi in a patched dress of coarse cloth, and having his shoes tied together with strings, was passing by the king of Wei”. These two incidents in

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“Zhuangzi” may be fables, but they may also reflect Zhuangzi’s actual living conditions. The main reason for his poverty was his reluctance to become an official. There may be some evidence for his refusal of being a high official position and his preference for a life of seclusion, as recorded in the “Records of the Grand Historian” (Shi Ji): When King Wei of Chu heard that Zhuang Zhou was a virtuous man, he sent an envoy to welcome him with a large sum of money and promised him the title of minister. Zhuang Zhou smiled and said to the Chu messenger, “A thousand pieces of gold is a heavy profit; a minister is a position of honor. Have you not seen the ox used for the suburban sacrifice alone? After a few years of raising it with delicious food, it was allowed to dress up in splendid clothes and enter the great temple (to become an offering). Can I be a lonely piglet at this time if I want to be? Go away and do not defile me. I would rather play happily in mind and body in a small gutter than be bound by the king of the country. I will not be an official for life, so that my mind may be pleasant.” (Shi Ji—Bibliography of Laozi, Zhuangzi and Legalists). This narrative can be corroborated with Zhuangzi’s account in “Zhuangzi—The Floods of Autumn” of his fishing in the River Pu, where the king of Chu sent two great officials to welcome him. Although this is an anecdote of Zhuangzi, it not only reflects his world view and outlook on life, but is also of great importance for understanding Zhuangzi’s ethical thinking. Although Zhuangzi lived a poor life of seclusion, sometimes even living on straw sandals and borrowing money, he was close to many of the great figures of his time. Huishi, who was once the prime minister of Wei, was a very good friend of his. Zhuangzi and Huishi often argued with each other and discussed their studies, but they had different views on everything, and their views on glory and wealth were particularly opposing. There is a dialogue between the fire bird and the scops in “Zhuangzi—The Flood of Autumn”: Huizi being a minister of state in Liang, Zhuangzi went to see him. Some one had told Huizi that Zhuangzi was come with a wish to supersede him in his office, on which he was afraid, and instituted a search for the stranger all over the kingdom for three days and three nights. (After this) Zhuangzi went and saw him, and said, “There is in the south a bird, called ‘the Young Phoenix’—do you know it? Starting from the South Sea, it flies to the Northern; never resting but on the bignonia, never eating but the fruit, and never drinking but from the purest springs. An owl, which had got a putrid rat, (once), when a phoenix went passing overhead, looked up to it and gave an angry scream. Do you wish now, in your possession of the kingdom of Liang, to frighten me with a similar scream?”. This can only be seen as a parable, where Zhuangzi compared himself to a noble, beautiful and far-sighted phoenix, a high official like the Chancellor of Wei to a stinking, rotting dead mouse, and his good friend Huishi to an owl that eats rotting mice, which is a bit of a personal attack to the point of insult. It seems even more unlikely that Huizi searched the country for three days and nights, but the story at least reflects Zhuangzi’s attitude towards fame and fortune, and his unique style of hermit thought. The “Huai Nan Zi—Qi Su Xun” also says: “Huizi came from a chariot with a hundred rides to pass Meng Zhu, Zhuangzi, who was fishing, saw him

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and abandoned the rest of the fish.” This means that Huishi passed by Meng Zhu with many guards of honor. Zhuangzi, who was fishing at the time, was so disgusted and angry at the sight of Huishi’s behavior that he even threw the fish he had caught into the water. Zhuangzi’s 33 essays show that he was a man of great wisdom and literary attainment. He uses poetic words, graphic, vivid and touching language, fascinating stories, strange plot changes and extremely vivid descriptions, as well as profoundly meaningful aphorisms to describe his philosophical and ethical thoughts. In contrast to the moral aphorisms and long logical arguments of the past, he uses real-life examples or fables to inspire and enlighten people. As Wen Yiduo said, Zhuangzi’s philosophy “is not like the usual reserved, harsh and craggy things that frown and twist the brain, but his thought itself is a wonderful poem”. “Other sages and philosophers we also worship, but how can we be as captivated, as enthralled, as mad as we are with Zhuangzi?”6 Therefore, with Zhuangzi’s intelligence, it would have been easy for him to obtain a better living environment, even if he did not want to be an official, or to engage in lecturing, given the situation of a hundred schools of thought at that time. Even though they were far less talented than Zhuangzi, the Qi scholars were “all ranked as top masters”. After Huizi’s death, Zhuangzi buried him and said at his tomb, “Since the death of you, I have no more to doubt no more to say.” (Zhuangzi— Xu Wu Gui) However, Zhuangzi never relied on Huishi in politics or in life, and he lived a life of seclusion and poverty throughout his life. Zhuangzi was disgusted by people’s rivalry and competition for power and profit, and sought a life of absolute freedom, free from outside interference and self-gratification. He therefore adopted a non-cooperative attitude towards the ruling class. This attitude of Zhuangzi reflects the psychology of the so-called hermit intellectuals who were dissatisfied with reality and pretended to be noble during the turbulent period of the Warring States. Zhuangzi lived a life of seclusion, with no great achievements to report, but his behavior was peculiar and unconventional. Although he had a limited number of disciples, there were many who appreciated his ideas at the time. The book Zhuangzi is a compilation of the writings of Zhuangzi, his disciples and later scholars, and is the main basis for our present study of Zhuangzi’s behavior and ethical thinking. The book Zhuangzi consists of thirty-three chapters, divided into internal, external and miscellaneous chapters, which are not entirely consistent in the ideas they express, and some of them even contain contradictions, which makes our study difficult. Among these contradictory chapters, which ones represent the basic ideas of Zhuangzi? There are different views in the academic community on this. Some people believe that Zhuangzi’s inner chapters, such as “Enjoyment in Untroubled Ease”, “The Adjustment of Controversies” and “The Great and Most Honored Mater”, can represent his basic ideas, and thus conclude that Zhuangzi was a philosophical idealist. Others believe that the outer chapters of “Zhuangzi”, such as “Heaven and Earth”, “The Way of Heaven” and “The Revolution of Heaven”, can represent Zhuangzi’s basic ideas, and conclude that he was a materialist on this basis. Both sides of the argument have put forward some convincing arguments. The debate over 6

The Works of Wen Yiduo, vol. 2, 280 p., Beijing, Joint Publishing, 1982.

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Zhuangzi’s writings involves an assessment of the philosophical nature of Zhuangzi’s thought, and also affects the assessment of Zhuangzi’s ethical thought, and should be treated with caution. In fact, in ancient times, the division between the inner and outer chapters of “Zhuangzi” was not fixed, and this can be found in many ancient books. Therefore, we believe that the study of Zhuangzi’s thought should not be overly confined to the inner or outer chapters. “Zhuangzi—Tian Xia”, which records the doctrines of the pre-Qin schools, has a certain bias in its assessment of the doctrines of the various schools, but the overview is objective and historically accurate. In fact, in ancient times, the division between the inner and outer chapters of Zhuangzi’s book was not fixed, and this can be found in many ancient books. As we believe that “Zhuangzi—Tian Xia” is credible in recording pre-Qin thoughts, we should attach more significance to it. Therefore, we believe that the study of Zhuangzi’s thought should not be overly confined to the inner or outer chapters.

3.2 From Epistemological Relativism to the Ethical Idea of Transcendental Good and Evil In terms of epistemology, Zhuangzi was a relativist. He believed that people could not know or fully know the truth of the universe, and he said, “My life has an end, but my knowledge has no end. If I follow the end with endless, I will be in danger” (Zhuangzi—Nourishing the Lord of Life). In his view, the boundaries between noble and humble, infancy and longevity, big and small, existence and non-existence, and right and wrong are not clear and cannot be clarified. From the point of view of Dao, all things are equal, and all things are equal between us. The reason why people argue is that they see things from different perspectives. He says: When we look at them in the light of the Dao, they are neither noble nor mean. Looking at them in themselves, each thinks itself noble, and despises others. Looking at them in the light of common opinion, their being noble or mean does not depend on themselves. Looking at them in their differences from one another, if we call those great which are greater than others, there is nothing that is not great, and in the same way there is nothing that is not small. We shall (thus) know that heaven and earth is but (as) a grain of the smallest rice, and that the point of a hair is (as) a mound or a mountain—such is the view given of them by their relative size. Looking at them from the services they render, allowing to everything the service which it does, there is not one which is not serviceable; and, extending the consideration to what it does not do, there is not one which is not unserviceable. We know (for instance) that East and West are opposed to each other, and yet that the one cannot be without (suggesting the idea of) the other—(thus) their share of mutual service is determined. Looking at them with respect to their tendencies, if we approve of what they approve, then there is no one who may not be approved of; and, if we condemn what they condemn, there is no one who may not be condemned. There are the cases of Yao

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and Jie, each of whom approved of his own course, and condemned the other—such is the view arising from the consideration of tendency and aim. (Zhuangzi—The Floods of Autumn). That is to say, while there are differences in terms of distinctions, efficacy, aspirations and inclinations, there are no differences between things when viewed from the perspective of the Dao. Therefore, it is futile to distinguish between things. From his relativism, Zhuangzi exhorts people not to know what is right and wrong, good and evil. From an ethical point of view, this is a supra good and evil relativistic view of morality. This moral view is philosophically based on his relativistic epistemology. According to Zhuangzi, all views and opinions in human society (including moral concepts) are subjective and biased, and people call their own views and opinions right and good, while calling others’ views and opinions wrong and evil. From their own point of view, Yao and Jie both think they are right and the other is wrong. Is there any way to justify such an idea of right and wrong from one’s own point of view? Zhuangzi does not think so. In “Zhuangzi—The Adjustments of Controversies”, it is said: Since you made me enter into this discussion with you, if you have got the better of me and not I of you, are you indeed right, and I indeed wrong? If I have got the better of you and not you of me, am I indeed right and you indeed wrong? Is the one of us right and the other wrong? Are we both right or both wrong? Since we cannot come to a mutual and common understanding, men will certainly continue in darkness on the subject. Whom shall I employ to adjudicate in the matter? If I employ one who agrees with you, how can he, agreeing with you, do so correctly? If I employ one who agrees with me, how can he, agreeing with me, do so correctly? If I employ one who disagrees with you and I, how can he, disagreeing with you and I, do so correctly? If I employ one who agrees with you and I, how can he, agreeing with you and I, do so correctly? In this way I and you and those others would all not be able to come to a mutual understanding; and shall we then wait for that (great sage)? In short, in Zhuangzi’s view, everyone has his or her own version of right and wrong, “that view involves both a right and a wrong; and this view involves also a right and a wrong”, but such opposing views are neither unified nor proven, so there can be no objective standard for right and wrong. Not only is it impossible to have objective criteria for right and wrong, but it is also impossible to have objective criteria for beauty and ugliness. It is said in “Zhuangzi—The Adjustments of Controversies” that Mao Qiang and Li Ji were accounted by men to be most beautiful, but when fishes saw them, they dived deep in the water from them; when birds, they flew from them aloft; and when deer saw them, they separated and fled away. But did any of these four know which in the world is the right female attraction? As I look at the matter, the first principles of benevolence and righteousness and the paths of approval and disapproval are inextricably mixed and confused together—how is it possible that I should know how to discriminate among them? It means that the courtesans Mao and Li Ji were celebrated for their beauty, but when the fish saw them, they hid in the water, when the birds saw them, they flew high into the air, and when the elk

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and deer saw them, they fled quickly. As for moral good and evil, there can be no objective criteria. Zhuangzi was cynical and unhappy with the social phenomenon that “here is one who steals a hook (for his girdle)—he is put to death for it: here is another who steals a state—he becomes its prince. But it is at the gates of the princes that we find benevolence and righteousness (most strongly) professed.” (Zhuangzi—Cutting Open Satchels), and he vigorously attacked and refuted the prevailing moral standards for evaluating good and evil. He said: Bo-yi died at the foot of Shou-yang to maintain his fame, and the robber Zhi died on the top of Dong-ling in his eagerness for gain. Their deaths were occasioned by different causes, but they equally shortened their lives and did violence to their nature; why must we approve of Bo-yi, and condemn the robber Zhi? In cases of such sacrifice all over the world, when one makes it for the sake of benevolence and righteousness, the common people style him ‘a superior man,’ but when another does it for the sake of goods and riches, they style him ‘a small man.’ The action of sacrificing is the same, and yet we have ‘the superior man’ and ‘the small man!’ In the matter of destroying his life, and doing injury to his nature, the robber Zhi simply did the same as Bo-yi—why must we make the distinction of ‘superior man’ and ‘small man’ between them? (Zhuangzi—Webbed Toes). In other words, Bo Yi died of hunger at the bottom of Shuyang Mountain in order to gain the name of “Zhong Qing”, and Liu Xia Tuo died on Dongling Mountain for the sake of profit. It is unnecessary to distinguish between the “gentleman” and the “villain” among people. It is even more inappropriate to affirm the “gentleman” and deny the “villain”. In the secular world, the moral criterion for distinguishing the “gentleman” from the “villain” is benevolence and righteousness, whereas in Zhuangzi’s view, benevolence and righteousness are a cruelty to the natural nature of man and a tool for rulers to glorify themselves and deceive the people. It is therefore unjust to distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil, according to the criteria of benevolence and righteousness, and believes that good cannot be praised and evil cannot be destroyed. In Zhuangzi’s view, to distinguish between right and wrong and to understand good and evil is something that people always want to do, but this is not the case with the sages. The sage knows that right and wrong, good and evil, need not and cannot be understood. Therefore, the sage does not follow this path of knowing right from wrong and good from evil, but rather lets nature take its course. He believed that happiness, anger, sadness, thought, repetition, terror, and even frivolity, flirtation, extravagance, and indulgence in lust were mostly natural and did not need to be evaluated as good or evil. One should give up one’s own little wisdom, not to know the truth, not to know and evaluate the moral phenomena of society, but to let everything be natural. It is clear that Zhuangzi, because of his epistemological relativism and agnosticism, arrived at the relativistic moral view of good and evil, and ultimately came to the conclusion of denying that there is a difference between good and evil. In fact, in Zhuangzi’s view, there is still good and evil, and only the good he advocates is good; the good of Confucianism, Mohism, and the law are all

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evil, therefore, his advocacy is not the absence of good and evil, but the presence of good and evil.

3.3 Zhuangzi’s View of Life Zhuangzi lived in the middle stage of the Warring States period when the states feudal systems were largely established but not yet consolidated. Various constituent states split from the Zhou, which was an autocratic and unified dynasty, were all trying to win over their neighboring states by force so that they could unify China and make China an autocratic and powerful kingdom again. The feudal landowners became a new class that had just entered the stage of the history. As an exploiting class, they cheated, fought with and took advantage of each other, to the great detriment of the laboring people. While some of the intellectuals were working for those who had a country to serve in order to get an official position, other intellectuals were waiting to be sold, ready to do their best to contribute to the ruling class. The intellectuals of exploitative origins were deeply dissatisfied with the reality and felt out of step with the rituals, institutions and morals of the society. They chose to escape after experiencing the hopeless world and observing social problems. They held a very negative attitude towards the reality which they considered to be sunken and did not want to go along with the rulers. It was most important for them to preserve their moral integrity in such a turmoil. Thus, they demanded the spiritual comfort of escaping from reality, of being alone, of being free from the shackles of the society. Zhuangzi is a representative of such a group of thinkers. What is the purpose of life? What kind of life is the most meaningful? In response to many selfish people’s pursuit of fame and fortune, Zhuangzi proposed that the most meaningful life is to look down on fame, fortune, and death, thus living a life free from any restrictions, selfishness, ignorance and desire. It is a life with absolute spiritual freedom. According to the Qiushui charpter of the Zhuang zi: Zhuangzi was fishing in the Pu water, when the king of Chu sent two officials to precede him, saying: “I would like to be tired of the territory!” Zhuangzi held his rod and said, “I have heard that there is a sacred tortoise in Chu which has been dead for three thousand years. The king hid it in a bag on the temple. This tortoise, rather than die and leave its bones behind, is a precious thing? Would it be better for him to die and leave his bones?” The two great men said, “I would rather live and drag my tail in the mud.” Zhuangzi said, “Go on! I will drag my tail in the mud.” It seems to say that high position is not a helper but a shackle that binds one’s freedom and endangers one’s longevity, and therefore, in order to live better, one should not pursue high office. Zhuangzi was extremely dissatisfied with the reality and defied against it by not cooperating with and cursing the rulers. He believed that those people who were acting in the name of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom were doing the work of scoundrels. He said, “He who steals the hook is punished, and he who

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steals the state is a vassal, and benevolence and righteousness exist at the gate of the vassals.” (Zhuangzi—Pilferer) He believed that the principles and norms of morality and law were originally the criteria for evaluating good and evil and for determining the severity of punishment, but they were in the hands of those in power, which means when they stole the power of the state, they also held the power of public opinion and presented everything they said and did as being in accordance with these principles and norms. This is what he meant when he said, “If they measure a dou and a dou, they steal it together with the dou and the dou; if they weigh it together with the weights and measures, they steal it together with the weights and measures; if they trust a charm and seal, they steal it together with the charm and seal; if they pretend to be benevolent and righteous, they steal it together with benevolence and righteousness” (ibid.), and “Once Tian Chengzi killed the ruler of Qi and stole his state “Once Tian Chengzi had killed the ruler of Qi and stolen his country, was it not only his country that he had stolen? He also stole it with his holy knowledge of the law” (ibid.). From this, we can see that Zhuangzi is very indignant at the actions of those in power. In addition, he was disgusted by the social rivalry and competition for power and profit. In his view, it is sad that people are so busy all day long that they have no peace of mind or body. Some of them spend their lives in servitude, unable to seak their own successes. They are so miserable and exhausted that they do not know where they belong. It was precisely because Zhuangzi had this kind of insight that he came up with the saying, “Huizi came from a chariot with a hundred rides to pass Meng Zhu, and when Zhuangzi saw him, he abandoned the rest of the fish”. As for the hundred schools of thought that emerged in the ideological field at that time, he considered these thoughts to be nothing more than a kind of deceitful thing of the time which change frequently and a kind of deception to the ignorant. Zhuangzi felt that many people in society at that time could only follow the baton of the rulers in order to achieve their own despicable goals of fame and fortune. Therefore, he believed that people living in the world are subject to the influence and constraints of others. They do not have freedom, cannot be independent or develop their individuality. There is a passage in Zhuangzi—A Treatise on Qiwu that says: He asked Jing, “In former times, the son of the gods walked, but now the son of the gods stops; in former times, the son of the gods sits, but now the son of the gods rises.” Jing said, “What do I have to do? What am I waiting for that is yet to be done? What do I expect from a snake or a worm? What is the reason for this? Is it not?”. The meaning of this passage is: the light part of a shadow (demons and monsters) questions the shadow as to why the shadow follows to walk and stop, sit and rise and is not independent in its conduct. The shadow realizes that it has something to “expect” because the one it follows has something to “expect”, but the ultimate reason is not clear to the shadow. In this way, Zhuangzi illustrates that everyone has something to “expect” and is not free, which is why there is so much sorrow and sadness in life. Zhuangzi believes that only by transcending reality, seeing through it, not being tempted by fame and fortune, not engaging in frivolous rivalries and unnecessary struggles, being at peace with oneself, and being uncontested by the world, can one preserve one’s nature and enjoy one’s life to the fullest.

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What is the meaning of life? According to Zhuangzi, life is unpredictable and people cannot control their own destiny in real life, as if they were dreaming. Therefore, he believed that one should not take life seriously, but above all, one should transcend it all and preserve oneself. In the Zhuangzi-Qiwu Lun, it is said that a person who dreams of drinking wine at night and is happy may wake up in the morning and weep with grief, while a person who dreams of weeping with grief at night may wake up and go hunting happily. When he is dreaming, he does not know that he is dreaming, and in his dream he has to tell the fortune of his dream, and only when he wakes up does he know that it is a dream. Only when he wakes up does he realizes that it is a dream. It is the same with everyone in reality. “In the old days, Zhuang Zhou dreamed of a butterfly, and it was a vivid butterfly. When he suddenly realized it, he was also a superstitious Zhou. I wonder if Zhou’s dream was that of a butterfly, or if the dream of a butterfly was that of Zhou? Zhou and the butterfly must have been separated. This is called materialization.” (Zhuangzi—On Qiwu) There are times in life when one is awake and times when one dreams, and what one does when awake may be absurd, while what one does in dreams may be free and meaningful. So, he argues, people may be dreaming when they think they are awake, and they may be truly awake when they dream. If life, desitiny and freedom are not in people’s control, it is better to look beyond everything, to follow the world, to not take anything to heart, and thus to achieve the goal of fullness and truthfulness. Zhuangzi also believed that people were often in great pain because of the fear of death, and so he devoted a great deal of time to discuss the subject of death in an attempt to free people from this pain. Therefore, in his view, one should not only see life through, but also birth and death, and put them out of one’s mind, as Chuang Tzu—The Ultimate Joy says: When Zhuangzi’s wife died, Huizi paid condolence to his wife, and Zhuangzi was singing in a basin. Huizi said, “If I live with someone and my eldest son is old, it is enough for me not to cry when I die, but to sing in a basin is not too much?” Zhuangzi said, “No, it is not. It is the beginning of death, how can I alone be free of it! However, if we look at its beginning, we can see that there is no life, not only is there no life, but there is no form; not only is there no form, but there is no air. It is not invisible, but invisible. And now it is changing and dying, and the four seasons of spring, autumn, winter and summer are moving together. I shouted and cried after the people who were lying down in their huge rooms. I thought I was not worthy of fate, so I stopped.” Zhuangzi’s fundamental idea is that death is inevitable when one lives in the world. Birth and death are both natural and normal, and there is no need to rejoice over birth and mourn over death. Moreover, for some people at that time who suffered from various kinds of pain and hardships, when they died, these sufferings and hardships would disappear, and this was not necessarily a bad thing. Death should not be regarded as a misfortune, but as getting rid of troubles that people suffer while alive. This argument is fascinatingly expressed by Zhuangzi in the parable “Calvary Sees a Dream”. This parable says: When Zhuangzi was in Chu, he saw an empty calvary, but with a shape, and the driver pounded it with a horse, he asked him, “What is the reason for my son’s greed

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for life? He said, “What is the reason for this?” He said, “What is the reason for the death of the kingdom and the execution of the battle-axe? What is the reason for his misdeeds and the shame of leaving behind his parents and wife? What is the reason for this? What is the reason for his spring and autumn? Then he said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. At midnight, Calvary saw his dream and said, “He who talks like an eloquent man. What you have said is a burden to the living, but not to the dead. Does he want to hear about death?” Zhuangzi said, “Yes.” Calvary said, “In death, there is no ruler above, no minister below; there are no events of the four seasons; heaven and earth are the spring and autumn, and even though the south is the king’s music, it cannot be passed.” Zhuangzi was not convinced, and said, “I will make Siming reborn in the form of a son, for the son’s flesh and bones, against the son’s parents, his wife, and the knowledge of the village, do you want it?” Calvary was deeply distressed and said, “How can I give up the pleasures of the king in the south and return to the labors of earth!”. Zhuangzi was on his way to Chu when he saw an empty calvary that had long since withered away. Zhuangzi looked at the empty calvary and asked, “Have you become like this because you have lost your reason for living? Or did you become like this because your country was destroyed and you were executed? Or did you die because you did something immoral and were ashamed to leave your parents and wife in shame? Or did they die of cold and hunger or of old age?” After saying these words, Zhuangzi pulled the empty Calvary over to him and put it under his head and fell asleep. In the middle of the night, the Empty Calvary said to Zhuangzi in his dream, “From the questions you have asked, you seem to be an eloquent scholar. But all that you have said is the trouble of those who live in the world and suffer all kinds of torment, pain, oppression, and misfortune; there is no such sorrow after death.” He also said, “When a man dies, there is no king above him, no minister below him, no year-round toil, and he lives as long as the heaven and the earth, even if he were an emperor on earth, he could not exceed such happiness!” Zhuangzi did not believe him and wanted to test the truth of Calvary’s words, so he said, “I ask the God of Destiny to restore your life and bring you back to your parents, wife, children and your neighbours, will you?” But when the empty Calvary heard this, he said sadly: “How can I leave behind such pleasures as are better than those of an emperor and go through the pains of earth once more?” The actual meaning of Zhuangzi’s parable is that it is not necessarily bad for people to die if they are not free from the pains, constraints and disturbances of the human world and suffer from endless worries every day. Of course, Zhuangzi is not advising people to seek death, but he believes that in the real world, people are unable to escape from many oppressions, exploitations, disasters and misfortunes, so they should look beyond birth and death, not to seek their own troubles, but to adopt a transcendent attitude towards the world and live an unrestrained, indulgent and free life. Lu Xun mocks and criticises this philosophy of Zhuangzi’s life in his New Tales of the Dead. In “Raising the Dead” it says: “When Zhuangzi revived this Calvary, the Calvary wished very much to be alive. When he came back to life, he was naked. He remembered that he had gone to visit his relatives and had his clothes, parcels and umbrella with him, and when he came to this place, it was as if his head went

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boom, his eyes went black and he fell down. So he asked Zhuangzi for the clothes he was wearing, the umbrella he had lost and the parcel (which contained 52 copper coins, half a catty of sugar and two catties of jujubes), and said, “If you don’t return my things, I’ll beat you to death!” The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to its customers. A policeman with a truncheon arrived and relieved Zhuangzi of the situation. This story reflects Lu Xun’s sharp criticism of some people who borrowed Zhuangzi’s ideas to promote a negative outlook on life under the new conditions of the times. In Zhuangzi’s overall thinking, he did not take life lightly, but wanted people to live out their days in a natural and uncontested way. Zhuangzi advocated nature and the maintenance of a natural lifespan, and opposed the idea of dying lightly for the sake of fame and fortune. In Zhuangzi—The Master of Health and Life, he put forward a set of theories on health and wellness. The parable of the ‘Butcher untangling the bull’ is rich in the truth of what he said about health. The Butcher told Wen Huijun that the main reason for his skill in slaughtering cattle was his ability to “use no thickness to get between”. In his view, every part of the cow had gaps, and he had to be attentive to these gaps so that his thin, “thick” knife could move freely through them without wear and tear. This is just like living in society. Only by being aware of the “gaps” in people and things, and by seeking a “paradise” where we can live in a contentious environment, can we “respond without harm The “gap” in the midst of the competition is the “paradise” where one can live in peace, so that one can “respond without harm” and live as long as possible. Obviously, what Butcher calls “to enter into the world with no thickness” is not just a method of cultivation, it is also a principle of cultivation. This principle is not to touch those “hard bones”, “thick tendons”, and to rest in the gap, not to be hurt. Zhuangzi believes that the best way to protect oneself is to make oneself of no use to anyone, so that one can be safe from misfortune. In Zhuangzi—The World on Earth, it is said: When the stone was made, it reached the qu Yuan and saw the oak tree, which was so large that it covered thousands of cattle and was measured in hundreds of circles, and its height was so high that it faced the mountain and had branches after ten feet. There were ten of them that could be used for boats. The crowd was like a market, but the craftsman did not care. He continued to work on it. His disciples were disgusted with the sight. When he came to the craftsman’s stone, he said, “I have never seen such a beautiful material since I followed the master with my axe and catty. What is wrong with the fact that you refuse to look at it and never stop walking?” He said, “I’m done, don’t talk about it! If you think of scattered wood, if you think of a boat, it will sink; if you think of a coffin, it will rot quickly; if you think of a vessel, it will be destroyed quickly; if you think of a portal, it will be liquid; if you think of a pillar, it will be wormed. It is not a wood of wood, there is nothing to use, so can be like this life.” When the craftsman returned, Lixia said in a dream: “Will the woman be evil than I? What if I were to be compared to the wood? When the fruit is ripe, it will be peeled, and when it is peeled, it will be humiliated, and the large branches will be broken, and the small branches will be drained. This is because they can suffer their lives, so they do not end their days and die in the middle of the road, from the world

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to break up. There is nothing like this. I have been looking for something to use for a long time, and I have almost died. But now I have found it, and it is of great use to me. If I were to be useful, how could I be so useful?”. That is to say, the oak tree can have such a long life because no one finds it useless. To preserve oneself, one has to behave like the oak tree, so that no one can use it for any purpose. Only the useless use is its own greatest use. If you are more or less able to be used by others, they will beat you to the punch. “The wood of the mountain is self-inflicted, and the fire is self-fried. The laurel is edible, so it is cut; the lacquer is usable, so it is cut. Everyone knows what is useful, but no one knows what is useless.” (Zhuangzi—The World on Earth) What Zhuangzi preaches here is a philosophy of “valuing oneself” and “rebirth”, where everything is about preserving oneself. In order to preserve oneself, complete uselessness sometimes does not achieve the goal, because complete uselessness is often abandoned, harmed and destroyed. Therefore, Zhuangzi suggests that in order to preserve oneself, it is best to put oneself between usefulness and uselessness. The Zhuangzi Shanmu has this to say: The son of the godfather came out of the mountain and stayed at the house of his ancestor. The old man was delighted and ordered his son to kill the geese and cook them. He said, “One of them is able to sing, but the other is not. What should he do?” The master said, “I will kill the one that cannot sing.” On the next day, the disciple asked Zhuangzi, “Yesterday, the wood in the mountain was able to end its life because of its lack of material, and now the master’s geese are dying because of their lack of material.” Zhuangzi laughed and said, “Zhou will live between material and untalented. Between the material and the untalented, it seems to be the same but not the same, so it is not free from exhaustion.” The passage can be understood in this way: in order to preserve oneself, one either has to be “untalented” in order to preserve one’s life, or one has to be “in between” in order to survive. According to Zhuangzi, there is no absolute boundary between birth and death: “Whenever one is born, one dies, and whenever one dies, one is born” (Zhuangzi—On Qiwu). In Zhuangzi (Zhuangzi—The Imperial Court), it is said: “When Zhuangzi was about to die, his disciples wanted to bury him. Zhuangzi said: ‘I have taken heaven and earth as my coffin, the sun and moon as my jade, the stars as my pearl, and all things as my gift. Wouldn’t I have all the necessary burial equipment? How can this be added?’ The disciple said, ‘I am afraid that the kite will eat my husband.’ Chuang Tzu said, ‘If I am to be eaten by the kite from above and by the ants from below, what is the difference between them and this? “Zhuangzi saw death as a return to nature, and therefore did not feel any sadness at all. He also hopes that people can see life and death clearly, and be the kind of people who “live in peace and obedience”, who do nothing in nature, and who live their lives to the fullest.

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3.4 Emphasis on the Nature of Man, the Transcendence of Righteousness and Profit, and the Rejection of the Bondage of Confucian and Mexican Morality An important element of Zhuangzi’s ethical thought was his opposition to the benevolence and morality preached by Confucianism, as well as to the use of any moral code formulated by the sages to regulate human relations. He believed that any norms imposed on people by the sages and those in power were a blight on their good nature. In opposing the benevolent morality advocated by Confucianism, Zhuangzi’s thinking had a reasonable element, for he saw many irrationalities in society at the time and exposed the hypocrisy of the exploiting classes, pointing out that benevolence and morality were merely tools for the few to fool the masses. In Zhuangzi’s view, the moral codes advocated by Confucianism and Mohism are a fetter on people’s individual freedom. If people want to be free and live in accordance with their nature, they must follow nature, free themselves from the fetters imposed by Confucianism and Mohism in the form of moral codes. This question is essentially a part, or rather an aspect, of the ethical question of the relationship between freedom and necessity. In Zhuangzi’s view, before the moral teachings of Confucianism and Mohism, people lived according to their own nature, free and unfettered, without the hypocrisy of false benevolence and righteousness. In that virtuous world where people had simple morals, people acted according to their own nature and did not need any moral and benevolent teachings. He believed that in that “world of supreme virtue”, “people had a common nature, they wove and clothed themselves, they ploughed and ate, and this was called the same virtue. If they are one but not party, they will be named Heavenly Release” (Zhuangzi—The Horseshoe). In those days, everyone ate by working, everyone wove and wore clothes, everyone was of one mind and one heart, no one had a party, and everyone lived according to nature. Everyone was simple, who was looking for luxury and enjoyment? Who exploited others when everyone works for himself? If everyone had a simple morality, there would be no need for the “sages” to preach benevolence, justice and love. Therefore, Zhuangzi believed that the moral codes, laws and institutions in society at that time were like the head of a horse and the nose of a bull, which were restrictions on people and could only restrict their freedom and suppress them. Therefore, he believed that the sages who formulated benevolence and righteousness had made a great mistake. He said: The world of virtue is one in which all animals live together and all things live together. The same as ignorance, its virtue does not leave; the same as no desire, it is called simple, simple and the people’s nature has been achieved. … At the time of Huxley, the people did not know where to live or where to go, but they were able to feed themselves and swim with their bellies. The saints, who bent the rituals and music to the shape of the world, and the counties to the righteousness of the world to comfort the hearts of the world, but the people began to tread on the good knowledge, striving for profit, and could not be stopped. This is also the fault of the sages. (ibid.)

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In Zhuangzi’s view, the emergence of benevolence and morality is the result of the mutilation of people’s simple nature: “What is a sacrifice if the pure and simple (i.e., the whole wood) is not mutilated! If white jade is not destroyed, who will become a jade ornament? If moral virtue is not destroyed, how can benevolence and righteousness be obtained? If one’s nature does not depart, one can use rites and music! If the five colours are not disordered, who is the literary talent? If the five tones are not disordered, what is the six rhythms? It is the sin of the craftsman to mutilate the simple for the instrument; it is the fault of the sage to destroy morality for benevolence and righteousness!” (ibid.) As the saints showed their talents and abilities, they corrupted the noble morals of the people, resulting in the degradation of social morals. The two schools of Confucianism and Mohism inherited the cause of the saints and preached morality, which is also an important reason for people’s moral degradation. Zhuangzi said: In the past, the Yellow Emperor began to oppose the hearts of people with benevolence and righteousness. Yao and Shun then had no bones in their bodies and no hair on their shins, in order to nourish the world’s form, worry about their five hides for benevolence and righteousness, and reserve their blood to regulate the law. Yao then released Dou in the sublime mountains, cast San Miao in the three temples, and flowed Gong Gong in the Youdu, which did not win the world. The world was horrified when the three kings were given a chance. The world was horrified when the three kings were taken into account. So the world declined as a result of mutual suspicion of joy and anger, deception of foolishness, wrongdoing of good and bad, and ridicule of absurdity and faith. The great virtues differed, and life became rotten. (Zhuangzi—Zai Yu). This means that all the ills in society are the result of the sages’ practice of benevolence and righteousness, and that the more benevolence and righteousness are practiced, the worse the social order and relations between people become. It was the teachings of Confucianism and Mohism on benevolence and morality that led to mutual deception between the wise and the foolish, to mutual reproach between the good and the wicked, and to ridicule and cynicism between the honest and the dishonest. It is for this reason that society is in disarray, the world is in decline, and the nature of people has been destroyed. It is clear that the benevolence of Confucianism and Mohammedanism is not conducive to the adjustment of relations between people. According to Zhuangzi, benevolence and righteousness are always used by the wicked to glorify themselves: “Once Tian Chengzi killed the ruler of Qi and stole his country, was he the only one who stole his country? He also stole it with the law of his holy knowledge. Therefore, Tian Chengzi had the name of a thief, but he was in the peace of Yao and Shun, so that the smaller states did not dare to be wronged and the larger states did not dare to be punished. He had the state of Qi for twelve generations. Is he not stealing the state of Qi and the law of his holy knowledge in order to keep his body as a thief?” Once Tian Chengzi had killed the ruler of Qi, seized his kingdom, and stole the laws and morals of his state, he had done everything in a benevolent and moral manner. On the contrary, if one had no power and was a commoner, he could be executed by the ruler even if he had only taken a hook from

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someone else. This is a profound exposé of the society of the time. We can also say that Zhuangzi, in his own way, saw the class essence of benevolence and morality. Zhuangzi also believed that not only could benevolence and morality not prevent evil, but they also served as a guide for people to commit wrongdoing. In Zhuangzi’s book, he puts forward the famous saying that “even thieves have a way”. He argued that the morality of the sages could also be a norm and a guideline among robbers, and could help small robbers to become big robbers. He said: Therefore, the disciples of Metatarsus asked him, “Is there a way to steal?” And he said, “Why is there no such thing as the right way? The man who is presumptuous about what is hidden in a room is also holy; the man who enters first is courageous; the man who leaves second is righteous; the man who knows whether he can do so is knowledgeable; and the man who shares equally is benevolent. There is no one in the world who can be a great thief without all five.” In this way, a good man cannot be established without the way of a saint, and a plantar man cannot be established without the way of a saint; there are few good men in the world, but many bad men, and the saints benefit the world less, but harm it more. Therefore, it is said: “When the lips are exhausted, the teeth are cold; when the wine of Lu is thin, Handan is surrounded; when the sage is born, the great thief rises. If we break up the sages, we can let go of the thieves, and the world will be ruled! (Zhuangzi—Pilferer). The meaning of Zhuangzi’s saying “Even the thief has a way” has been interpreted in various ways by later thinkers. Some say that it reflects that the working people also have their own morality, and is the earliest record of the morality of the working people in the history of Chinese thought; some say that it points out that different classes can have a common moral code, reflecting the rules of human public life, or reflecting the all-human character of morality; some also argue that any moral proposition has both abstract and concrete meanings, and that all abstract meanings are inheritable. Some argue that any moral proposition has both an abstract and a concrete meaning, and that all abstract meanings are inheritable. However, we must point out here that none of the above-mentioned views is the original meaning of Zhuangzi’s thought. They are derived from this passage, and they all have some elements of validity. Zhuangzi’s statement that “even the thief has a way” is mainly an allegory to show that the benevolence and morality laid down by the sages of Confucianism and Mohism is not a good thing, for it is on the basis of them that all robbers harm society. Only when the sages are defeated can the robbers be eliminated, and only when benevolence and righteousness are abandoned can evil be eliminated and the world be ruled. In Zhuangzi’s writings, we can often see that his observations and analyzes of human relations and many social phenomena in society are profoundly original and sometimes insightful; however, due to the limitations of his worldview and moral outlook, he often goes to extremes and draws extremely one-sided conclusions. Zhuangzi concludes from his opposition to the benevolent morality advocated by the ruling class that the best way to raise people’s moral standards is to abandon all moral preaching and the constraints of all moral codes. He saw all social laws, rituals and morals as killing and destroying human nature, and argued that the most

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desirable behavior of human beings was that developing in accordance with their nature without any external restraint. This amoralist view is absolutely wrong. Zhuangzi, like Laozi, believed that the development and advance of science and technology, as well as all kinds of industrial skills, would corrupt the simple morality of human beings, because of the over-emphasis on the nature of man. In Zhuangzi— Heaven and Earth, it is said: When Zi Gong was travelling in the south of Chu, he came back to Jin and passed through Han Yin, he saw a man who was about to make a garden bed, digging a tunnel and entering a well, holding an urn and filling it. He was digging a tunnel and entering a well, holding an urn and filling it. “He looked up at him and said, “What can I do?” He said: “Cut the wood for the machine, the back is heavy and the front is light. The water is taken up as if it were pumped, and the number is as great as that of a libidinous soup. It is called a pulley.” The bedkeeper smiled with indignation and said, “I have heard from my master that he who has machinery must have a mind for it, and he who has a mind for it must have a heart for it. If the mind is in the heart, then the pure white is not ready; if the pure white is not ready, then the spirit is not ready; if the spirit is not ready, then the spirit is not ready; if the spirit is not ready, then the Tao is not ready. I am not ignorant, but I am ashamed not to do it.” Zigong was ashamed of himself and bent down and did not say anything. According to Zhuangzi, the purest form of Taoism in the world is to do nothing and to let everything grow and develop naturally. He also believed that the most ideal and morally noble person was one who had no knowledge and no morals as they were revered in the world, like a muddle. In the Inner Chapter of Zhuangzi, “Ying Di Wang” says: “The emperor of the South Sea is abrupt, the emperor of the North Sea is Khu, and the emperor of the centre is chaos. The emperor of the central region is Hun Cha. When they met in the land of Chaos, they were treated very well. They tried to chisel it out, but after seven days, Chaos died. This fable says that the emperor of the South China Sea is called Abrupt, the emperor of the North Sea is called Khu, and the emperor of the centre is called Chaos. Suddenly and Khu often met in the place of Chaos, who treated them very well. When they got together, they discussed how to repay Chaos for his kindness and said, “Everyone has seven tricks to see, hear, eat and breathe, but Chaos doesn’t. Let’s try to cut out seven tricks for him.” Suddenly and Khu chiseled out a hole for Chaos one day, and on the seventh day, Chaos died. This fable told by Zhuangzi can be said to have two meanings: from the point of view of Swift and Khu, they have made a mistake and killed a person, which is the evil result of their “action”, which is against the natural nature of Chaos, and they have done a bad thing with good intentions; from the point of view of Chaos, he is naturally ignorant and free from any external influence, which is the best thing, he does not need any external influence on him. He does not need anything external to himself. If, contrary to his natural nature, he has to be given the seven orifices so that he can see, hear, eat and breathe, then the most perfect human being will not exist.

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3.5 Zhuangzi’s Theory of the Ideal of Life In the history of Chinese ethical thought, Zhuangzi is arguably the first thinker to systematically address the question of the ideal of life. The concepts of the sage, the virtuous, and the gentleman were already explicitly mentioned as moral ideals by Confucius, but were not specifically and systematically discussed. Chuang Tzu, however, has presented and systematically elaborated his own ideal of life and morality, which he calls “the true man”. In Zhuangzi’s book, there are also the socalled “supreme man”, “divine man” and “sage” (which are very different from the “sage” of Confucianism). This is a different term for Zhuangzi’s ideal of life and his ideal personality, which is consistent with his term ‘real man’. Zhuangzi’s ideal of life is closely linked to his outlook on life. From the perspective of “for me” and “to preserve oneself”, Zhuangzi believed that the ideal qualities of a “true man” or “sage” were to conform to nature and to live in peace. The ideal quality of a ‘true man’ or ‘sage’ is to follow nature, to be at peace with the times and to be obedient. This ideal of life is described in detail in The Great Master, an inner chapter of Zhuangzi: What is a true man? A true man of old is one who does not rebel against the few, who does not become ambitious, and who is not a mere scholar. If this is so, he does not repent when he has passed, and he does not feel self-conscious when he is right. If this is so, he will not tremble when he ascends to a high place, he will not get wet when he enters water, and he will not get hot when he enters fire. This means that the ideal ‘true man’ is one who ‘does not defy failure, does not seek success, and does not think about anything’. He misses the moment without regretting it and achieves success without being complacent. He did not tremble when he climbed high; he did not feel wet when he entered water; and he did not know heat when he entered fire. He has no emotions, worries or perceptions that ordinary people have. He cares nothing for safety or security, and sees no difference between life and death. In ancient times, the true man did not dream, his sleep was free from worry, his food was sweet, and his breath was deep. The breath of the true man is in his heel, the breath of all men is in their throat. (Zhuangzi—The Great Master). This means that an ideal real person does not dream when he sleeps, he wakes up carefree, he does not feel sweet when he eats and his breath is deep and long. The breath of an ordinary person is through the throat, but the breath of a real person starts from the heels. The true man of old did not know life, did not know death; he did not go out of, he did not go in; he went and came in hastiness. He does not forget his beginning, he does not seek his end; he receives and rejoices in it, he forgets and returns to it. This is called a true man. If so, his mind is forgotten, his face is silent, and his forehead is; he is as sad as autumn and as warm as spring, and his joy and anger are in tune with the four seasons, and he is in tune with things without knowing their extremes. (ibid).

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This means that the ideal ‘real man’ is not happy to live and not unhappy to die. When he is born, he is not happy. He does not forget his beginning, he does not seek his destination, and he accepts whatever comes to him with joy. He forgets what life and death are, and sees death as a return to nature, and this is called not having to think to the detriment of the Way, not having to come to the aid of Heaven. He has forgotten everything, and his face is still and serene, his forehead broad and radiant with simplicity. When he is serious he is like autumn, when he is warm he is like spring, and his joy and anger are as natural as the four seasons. He is responsive to the changes of things and is at peace with them, and there is nothing inappropriate in his dealings with all things. It is impossible to understand the boundaries of his generosity of heart. The true men of old were righteous, but not companionable, if inadequate but not committed; with their goblets but not firm, with their vapours but not flamboyant, and with their seeming joy! Cui is like a man who has no choice! The Brass is like the world! It is as if it is uncontrollable, it is as if it is closed, and it is as if it has forgotten its words. (ibid.) This means that an ideal real person is neutral without being partial, as if he is inadequate but does not seek to increase, as if he has angles but is not stubborn. He is open-minded, and his mood is modest but not overbearing. He seems to rejoice in his own way, and to behave as if he had no choice but to do so. His amiable countenance makes him approachable; his generosity seems to call people to him. He is serious as if he were not sloppy; he is lofty as if he could not control; he is silent as if he had shut up his senses; he is thoughtless as if he had forgotten what he had to say. This large account in Zhuangzi—The Great Master can be said to be a comprehensive and systematic expression of Zhuangzi’s ideal of life or ideal personality. According to Zhuangzi, all relationships between people and all things in society should be treated as if they were floating clouds. In The Grand Master, it is also said: “The one who gains is also the time; the one who loses is also the obedience. When the time is right and the situation is right, sorrow and happiness cannot enter.” In Zhuangzi—Ying Di Wang, it is said, “The mind of a supreme being is like a mirror; it is not to be welcomed, it is to be responded to and not to be hidden, so that it can overcome things without harm.” This is to say that one gets what one wants only because of good timing, and one loses what one wants only because one responds to the changes of things. The “true man” is able to gain at the right time and lose in accordance with the changes of things. Therefore, neither sorrow nor joy can enter the heart of the “true man”. In short, the mind of a “real person” is like a mirror that sees all things, sees everything, understands everything, but leaves no trace of itself. He does not send things away and does not welcome them, but lives in harmony with them and does not depend on them, leaving everything to nature. The true man has no feelings of joy, anger or sorrow, no idea of birth or death, and if he does, he never cares about it. He does not seek anything, but lives in a state of contentment and mirth. This person’s moral character is supreme with heaven and earth and the Tao. The spirit of such a person is absolutely free, unrestricted by any conditions. Zhuangzi created a “real man” with all these characteristics, who breathes on his heels and “does not

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moisten when he enters water and does not get hot when he enters fire”, for people to worship and emulate. Zhuangzi’s thinking reflects the negative philosophy of life of a minority of intellectuals who saw the darkness of reality but were powerless to change it. The Zhuangzi—The Great Master also proposes a method of practice called “sitting and forgetting”. The so-called “sitting and forgetting” is also known as “abandoning the limbs, depriving oneself of wisdom, leaving one’s form and knowledge, and becoming one with the Great Way”, i.e. without any personal preferences, without any constraint, and changing with the changes of nature. This method of “sitting and forgetting” is depicted in the Zhuangzi-Qi Mao, in which Nan Guo Zi Qi sits against a table, tilts his head towards the sky, exhales, and looks blank, as if his spirit has left his body, his form is like dead wood, and his heart is ashen. This is probably how the practice of “sitting and forgetting” is practiced. However, in order to reach the level of “sitting and forgetting”, one has to go through a series of stages such as “not condemning right and wrong in order to live with the world”, forgetting benevolence, righteousness, rituals, birth and death. In short, ‘sitting and forgetting’ can lead to a state of blending with all things and to absolute spiritual freedom. Once one has learnt to sit and forget, one is not far from being a “real person”. Zhuangzi’s ideal of life, and the way in which he describes how to achieve it, is negative. The egoism generated by the system of private ownership and exploitation intensifies the struggle between people. This ruthless struggle has caused physical pain and mental anguish to some people, who have lost hope and are deeply dissatisfied with reality, but are powerless to change it. Such a social situation and social psychology is the origin of Zhuangzi’s ideal theory of life.

3.6 The Duality of Zhuangzi’s Ethics and Its Historical Influence Zhuangzi’s ethics represents the thinking of the intellectuals who were dissatisfied with reality and lived in seclusion during the Warring States period when the lords were competing for power. On one hand, Zhuangzi and his disciples were hostile and uncooperative towards those in power, therefore he advocated that people should preserve themselves, live in the lower echelons of society, avoid contend with others and eliminate good and evil in order to seek the longevity of one’s own existence. This manifests an individualistic ideology of pessimistic attitudes and self-preservation. On the other hand, he was dissatisfied with reality and so he made criticizes the society of his time and the despicable lives of the rulers. This satire and criticism did hit the nail on the head of the ruling class from a negative standpoint. Some of the criticism was quite profound. As mentioned earlier, Zhuangzi exposes the social phenomenon that “those who steal hooks are punished, those who steal the state are vassals, and benevolence and righteousness exist at the gates of the vassals”, sharply pointing out the class nature of benevolent morality and the essence of its social role.

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In addition, Zhuangzi also portrays and ruthlessly exposes those who are despicable in their pursuit of wealth and profit. In Zhuangzi’s “Lie Yu Kou” it is said: A man from Song, Cao Shang, was sent to Qin by the king of Song. When he went there, he was given a few chariots, but the king said that he would give him a hundred more. When he returned to Song, he met with Zhuangzi, who said, “A poor man in a poor village, a poor man’s sandals, and a haggard man’s head is the shortcoming of Shang; a man who understands that he is the master of ten thousand carriages and takes a hundred carriages is the strength of Shang.” Zhuangzi said, “The king of Qin summoned a physician when he was ill, and the one who broke the carbuncle and routed the acne was given a chariot, while the one who licked the piles was given five chariots. He who cured his hemorrhoids received five chariots. You have done it!”. The story goes that Cao Shang went on a mission to Qin on behalf of King of Song. King of Qin was so pleased with him that he gave Cao Shang a hundred carriages. When he returned to Song, he boasted to Zhuangzi about his skill in flattery, saying, “You live in a rundown alley, so poor that you live by weaving straw shoes, so hungry that your neck is long and your face is thin, I am no match for you with this regard. As for the reward of a hundred carriages for meeting the ruler of a great country, this is my strength.” But Zhuangzi replied with great wit and contempt, “I heard that King of Qin had piles, and the one who broke them was rewarded with a carriage, and the one who could lick them was rewarded with five carriages, and the nastier the cure, the more carriages were rewarded. Did you treat King of Qin’s piles? How else could you have gotten so many carriages? Get out of here!”. Zhuangzi also profoundly exposes the relationship between people in society at the time, which was one of deceitfulness and mutual aggression, with people competing for fame and profit, backstabbing others and preserving themselves. The Zhuangzi Shanmu (Zhuangzi—Shanmu) gives a very graphic description of this relationship in society through an allegory. Zhuangzi was playing in a chestnut garden when he saw a magpie fly in and land in the chestnut grove, so he prepared to hit it with his slingshot. Suddenly, he saw a cicada hiding under the leaves of a tree, and he “forgot his body when he got the beautiful shade”; a praying mantis covered itself with leaves and was about to kill the cicada with its “sword”, but he “forgot his form when he saw it”. “At that moment, the magpie saw that the mantis was a good piece of meat and was about to peck the mantis to death.” He had lifted his clothes and was about to hit it with his slingshot. When Zhuangzi saw what was happening, he realized that he was in danger, so he threw away his slingshot and turned around to leave the place. Unfortunately, it was already too late, as the man in charge of the chestnut orchard had already noticed him, thought he was a thief and came to question him. This time Zhuangzi felt so deeply insulted that he did not meet with his students in the Great Court for three months. This is the only time in the entire Zhuangzi that Zhuangzi is insulted, and it is truly an emotional experience. Zhuangzi’s “absence from the court for three months” was probably due to the fact that he was deeply concerned for his own safety, as he was reminded of the relationship between human beings. Zhuangzi’s philosophy of life also has a positive side. It would be incorrect to describe his thought as nihilistic, Q-spirited, slick and pessimistic, and to deny that

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his system of thought has any positive effect. We must pay attention to the correct analysis and evaluation of the original meaning of Zhuangzi’s thought. It cannot be denied that Zhuangzi’s ethical thinking was essentially a self-appointed, nihilistic and negative philosophy of life, and even at the time, its influence was indeed negative, as it did not inspire people to be active and enter the world. Zhuangzi’s rejection of the ruling class’s behavior and the benevolent morality it advocates. Zhuangzi’s refusal to work for the rulers and his advocacy of seclusion was also a form of rebellion against the ruling class of his time, albeit a negative one. Zhuangzi’s negative and world-weary philosophy of life has its roots in class. History has shown that whenever a society becomes corrupt, when there is political darkness, when there is a bad social climate, when there is fighting between people, when there is competition between rulers, when there is intrigue and power, when there is frame-ups and seizures, when there is only power without justice, when there is only violence without humanity, intellectuals must first think more deeply about these phenomena. Some of these intellectuals, especially some of the most upright ones, felt that the reality was dark and they were powerless to change it, and they were unwilling to go along with it, so they often came up with the idea of the so-called hermits who pretended to be noble. Zhuangzi’s ethical thinking is derived from some of Laozi’s ideas, and is an inheritance of and a play on Laozi’s ideas. For this reason, their doctrine was later called the “Lao-Zhuang school”. However, Zhuangzi’s philosophy of life is not a simple repetition of Laozi’s thought, but rather a development of Laozi’s ethical thought to the highest level from the aspect of hermitism. Zhuangzi’s philosophy of life has had a great influence in history and has had a large market among intellectuals of all generations. During the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, the pursuit of individual freedom, the desire to let nature take its course, and the metaphysical ideology of idealism were inseparable from the negative influence of Zhuangzi’s philosophy of life. After the formation of Taoism, the book Zhuangzi was included as one of the classics of Taoism, known as Nanhua Zhenjing. Zhuangzi himself was also regarded as one of the ancestors of Taoism. Since then, Zhuangzi’s ideas have become a tool for the ruling class to fool the people and maintain their own rule. This was not something Zhuangzi himself could have imagined. Seeing the ugliness of society and his inability to change it, Zhuangzi realized that all the controversies between good and evil in the world were pointless, and he wished to free himself from this depressing, sorrowful and boring society. This philosophy of life is an attempt to guide people from the pains, worries, depressions and sorrows of this worldly life, so that they can “live in peace”, “live in harmony”, “protect their bodies” and “live fully”. Undoubtedly, this is one of Zhuangzi’s major contributions to the history of ethical thought. This philosophy of life is one of the links in the chain of people’s understanding of life. Its formulation deepened people’s understanding of life. Zhuangzi’s views on the alignment of good and evil, right and wrong, and amoralism are all wrong. The abandonment of morality would not bring mankind back to the pure “world of virtue”, but rather would lead it away from civilization and into a state of barbarism. His ideas such as “life is like a dream”, “not condemning

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right and wrong in order to live with the world”, “to live between material and unmaterial”, and “to enter into existence with no thickness” have relatively many negatives and should be considered in a critical way. Otherwise, it will only produce a decadent generation that does not care about society, the community or others, but only about individuals. However, his philosophy of life, which opposes people’s competition for fame and fortune, stresses the need to follow nature, opposes the moral hypocrisy of the exploiting class, and emphasizes the need to cleanse oneself in a muddy society, contains reasonable elements and is worthy of critical inheritance.

Chapter 7

The Ethical Thought of Legalism of “Benefit Over Righteousness”

1 The Ethical Thoughts of Legalism in Qi(State) in Guan Zi 1.1 The Life of Guanzi Guan Zhong, named Guan Yiwu, was born in 725 BC and died in 645 BC. He was born in Ying Shang (now Ying Shang County, Anhui Province), a poor family man, and later worked with Bao Shu Ya in business. Guan Zhong later became the minister of the Duke Huan of Qi, and for 40 years, he “united nine vassals and reigned over the whole world”, and was a famous politician and thinker in the Qin Dynasty. Some scholars have verified that some of the extant Guanzi’s books were written by Guanzhong himself, such as “Mu Min”, “Xing Shi”, “Quan Xiu”, “The Ride on the Horse”, “The Seven Laws”, “The Law of Editions”, “The Five Assistants”, “Zuhe”, “The Eight Views”, “The Law of Prohibition”, “The Order of Repetition”, “The Law of Law”, “The Question”, “The Map”, “The Trouble with the Sen”, “The Junchen Shang”, “The Junchen Xia”, “The Right Speech”, “The Law of Ren”, “The Law of Ming”, “The Law of the World”, and “The Nine Guards”. In addition, there is also a part of Guan Zhong’s thought compiled by his descendants based on historical sources. Many chapters of the extant Guanzi are the expression of Guanzhong’s ideas by scholars of the Guanzhong school. A vivid account of the friendship between Guan Zhong and Bao Shu Ya is given in “Shiji—Bibliography of Guanzi and Yanzi”: Guan Zhong Yi Wu was a native of Ying Shang. When he was young, he often travelled with Bao Shu Ya, who knew him to be wise. When he was poor, Guan Zhong used to bully Bao Shu, but Bao Shu was always kind to him and did not say anything. He was always in the service of the Duke of Qi, Xiao Bai, and Guan Zhong was in the service of the Duke Jiu. When Xiao Bai was entitled as the Duke Huan, the Duke Jiu died and Guan Zhong was imprisoned, so Bao Shu recommended Guan Zhong to get invloved in politics. Then Guan Zhong was assigned to serve for the Duke Huan of Qi and helped him to rule the world by uniting the nine states. © China Renmin University Press 2023 G. Luo, Traditional Ethics and Contemporary Society of China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0256-9_7

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“Shiji—Bibliography of Guanzi and Yanzi” also cites a confession made by Guan Zhong: When I was poor, I used to do business with Bao Shu and often took more than I needed to share my wealth, but Bao Shu didn’t think me greedy, knowing I was poor. I used to do things for Bao Shu, but I made him even poorer, but Bao Shu did not think me foolish, knowing that the time was favorable and unfavorable. I have been an official many times, and many times I have been removed from office by the sovereign, but Bao Shu does not think me untalented, knowing that I have not met with good timing. I have fought many times, and have been defeated and fled many times, but Bao Shu does not think me timid, knowing that I still have my old mother for my own sake. I have been humiliated in a deep prison, but Bao Shu does not think me shameless, knowing that I would not be ashamed of a trifle, but would be ashamed that my fame had not shone in the world. It was my parents who gave birth to me, but it was Uncle Bao who knew me! After Bao Shu recommended Guan Zhong, he willingly placed himself under him… Therefore, instead of praising Guan Zhong’s talent, the world praised Bao Shu for his ability to recognise talent. “Guanzi—Inner Words” recounts the history of Guanzhong’s support of Duke Huan, and also records the words and deeds of Bao Shu in recommending Guanzhong (“If we have Guanzhong …, the society will be settled”) and the historical events of Guanzhong’s relationship with Bao Shu. According to “Exoteric traditions of the Han version of the Songs”, “Bao Shu recommended Guan Zhong and said, ‘I am inferior to Guan Yiwu in five ways. I am not as generous and loving as Guan Yiwu; I am not as loyal and trustworthy as Guan Yiwu; I am not as ritualistic as Guan Yiwu; I am not as neutral as Guan Yiwu; I am not as brave as Guan Yiwu; I am not as brave as Guan Yiwu; I am not as brave as Guan Yiwu; I am not as brave as Guan Yiwu; I am not as brave as Guan Yiwu; I am not as brave as Guan Yiwu; I am not as brave as Guan Yiwu.’” In the history of Chinese ethical thought, there are many moral stories about friendship, and the friendship between Guan and Bao is one of the most famous ones, which shows that sincere trust and help are indeed the moral rules for friends. In the history of Chinese thought, Guan Zhong has long been regarded as a legalist. In his own writings, Han Fei has repeatedly quoted from Guan Zhong’s “Mu Min” and “Quanxiu”, and regarded both Guan Zhong and Shang Yang as legalists. In the Han dynasty, Liu Xin and Liu Xiang also included Guan Zhong in the legalist category of the “Book of Han—Treatise on Literature”. In fact, Guan Zhong’s ideas were very different from those of Shang Yang, Li Kui, Wu Qi, Shen Dao and Han Fei, the ThreeJin legalists. The school of Guan Zhong and his successors, or the school represented by the book “Guanzi”, is called the “Qi Legalists”, while the school represented by Li Yu (Wei), Wu Qi (Wei), Shen Buhai (who served Han Zhaohou), Shen Dao and Han Fei is called the “Jin Legalists”. “(Shang Yang, also known as Gongsun Yang, was a former minister of the Wei minister Gongsun Zuo, who later joined the Qin government as a minister). Although both schools emphasize the importance of the law, there are significant differences from the perspective of the history of ethical

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thought. Therefore, it is important to note the similarities and differences between them. These two schools of thought shared common features, such as the fact that they both represented an emerging and dynamic ideology that called for reform and the development of production, and stressed the importance of agrarian warfare in the context of the frequent contests between states at the time. At the same time, they emphasized the rule of law as a standard that would preserve the majesty of the king, maintain and consolidate the hierarchy of the time, and be an important guarantee of innovation. They both believed that human nature was long for benefit and sick of harm. Therefore, it is necessary to make use of this nature to make people better serve their political purposes. They were both statesmen who wanted their theories to be adopted by their kings of the time and thus implemented in practical political life. In their view of nature, they did not believe in divine providence, but in the use of man to change or transform the society of their time. In their view of history, they both held a more progressive view, emphasizing that the law is prior to kings rather than subject to kings. They also emphasized on reform rather than conservatism. Firstly, from the history of ethical thought, the Qi legalists, represented by Guan Zhong, emphasized the complementarity of the rule of law and the rule of morality, and the mutual cooperation between legal sanctions and moral education. The “Guanzi—Quan Xiu” said, “Being generous with love and benefits is sufficient to win the allegiance of the people. Manifesting wisdom and propriety is sufficient to instruct them. However, the sovereign must himself adhere to the law in order to serve as an example for them and see that there is proper measure in exactions and expenditures in order to guard against excesses. Place governors in the local districts to exhort and guide the people. Thereafter, keep them informed with laws and orders, encourage them with rewards, and overawe them with punishments. Then, since the hundred surnames will all be happy in doing good, violent and disorderly conduct will have no cause to arise.” Not only did they not neglect the role of morality, it can even be said that they attached great importance to moral edification for the consolidation of society and the rule of the country and the people. From the idea of “respecting the ruler”, they believed that “As for establishing the status of rulers and ministers, prescribing the hierarchy of superiors and subordinates, so that ritual and righteousness are taught between fathers and sons, and respect and subordination are observed among the six relatives, these are not prescribed by heaven, but established by man. The reason why people established these rules is that without establishing them, the normal order of society could not be established, and without establishing order, society would be in chaos, and without governing society, it would collapse.” (Book of Han—Tradition of Jia Yi). Therefore, moral education and indoctrination must be strengthened so that people can develop a moral concept centred on hierarchy, in order to facilitate what they call “respect for the ruler” and “peace in the country”. This was a progressive theory of morality and law, derived from a materialist view of nature. Secondly, the Guanzhong school believed that ritual was the hierarchical order of human society, and righteousness was the content or principle of this hierarchical order, and the purpose of ritual and righteousness was to make people’s behavior

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conform to certain rules (reason), while the purpose of law and ritual was the same, but the difference was only that law was compulsory. The purpose of law and ritual is the same, except that the law is compulsory. “Therefore, ritual is to have reason, and reason expresses righteousness by clarifying what is proper. Thus, ritual arises from reason, and reason from righteousness, and righteousness is determined according to what is appropriate to act. The law, which is used to standardize uneven social action, has to be applied to standardize it, so that killing and forbidding punishment are used to standardize it.” (Guanzi—Xin Shu I). This means that Guan Zhong’s school had realized that morality and law had the same end for the ruling class, but by different means. In short, the Guanzhong school, while emphasizing that laws could unify the people’s speech and actions and develop and maintain the state, also realized that without education and reform, it was not enough to convince the people. Hence the maintenance of a society’s ruling order must also rely on the education of benevolence, justice, ritual and music.

1.2 An Ethical View of the Complementarity of Ritual and Law Guan Zhong emphasized the importance of the rule of law and the need to reform and develop production in order to make the country strong and prosperous. He also emphasized the use of law to “honor the ruler”, to discipline the people with law and morality, and to regulate them so that they would be content with the hierarchy laid down by the ruling class. Of course, benevolence, justice, ritual and music are important, but they can only be effective if they are backed up by law. Guan Zhong said, “the Yellow Emperor’s method of governance is when the law is set, it does not change, so that the people get used to acting according to the law. The benevolence, righteousness, propriety and music all emerged from the law. This law was used by the first sages to unify the actions of the people.” (Guanzi—Ren Fa) This means that without law, benevolence, justice, ritual and music cannot unify the people. In this sense, the law is more important. In the Guanzi (Guanzi), it is said: “A nation is founded on the four baselines. If the first one is broken, the country will be tilted; if the second is broken, the country will be in danger; if the third is broken, the country will be overturned; if the fourth one is broken, the country will perish. If the tilt can be corrected, if the danger can be turned into safety, if the collapse can be revived, but if it is lost, there is nothing more to be done. What do we mean by the four baselines? The first is propriety, the second is righteousness, the third is integrity, and the fourth is shame. Thus, Guan Zhong believed that if “the four baselines are not promoted”, “the state will perish”. He argued that the most important thing for a ruler of a country to do in managing the people was to make them “cultivate propriety”, “practice

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righteousness”, “adorn integrity” and “the four baselines of the state were thus raised to an extremely important position. Why did Guan Zhong emphasize so much on the four baselines of ritual, righteousness, integrity and shame, and why did he propose the two dimensions of integrity and shame in addition to ritual and righteousness? The latter two were not only not taken seriously, but were also criticised by later generations. For example, Liu Zongyuan of the Tang Dynasty wrote “The Four Baselines”, arguing that “integrity” and “shame” both came out of “propriety” and “righteousness”. There should only be two baselines, not four. What should we make of this? What are “rites”? According to Guan Zhong, the important elements of ritual are “righteousness at the top and bottom, division between the noble and the inferior, equality between the young and the old, and moderation between the rich and the poor” (Guanzi—The Five Assistants). As long as this is achieved, “the inferior does not rebel against the superior, the vassal does not kill the king, the inferior does not overtake the superior, the young does not deceive the elder, the inferior does not interfere with the relative, the new does not interfere with the old, the small does not overtake the great, and debauchery does not destroy justice.” (ibid.), and the aim of maintaining social order will be achieved. What is “righteousness”? According to Guan Zhong, “righteousness” means “each in its own way”, which means the seven aspects of filial piety, brotherhood, loyalty, trust, charity, respect and rectitude. What is “integrity”? “Integrity means honesty, it means cleanliness, it means “not to be greedy”, it means to think of righteousness in the light of profit, it means to think of righteousness in the light of gain. If a person is not clean, but only greedy, the social order cannot be maintained. “Integrity” is not, as Liu Zongyuan says, a “trivial matter of righteousness” that cannot be mentioned alongside propriety and righteousness, but is in fact important in regulating relations between people. What is “shame”? “Shame is guilt, it is knowing shame, it is a sense of honor and shame. It is a function of conscience, a function of people’ moral consciousness and moral beliefs. It is through this knowledge of shame and a sense of honor and shame that people are able to observe righteousness and propriety and to be honest and fair. This is why Guan Zhong particularly emphasizes the role of shame. It is clear from the above that the rituals are formal norms, but they only require that there be righteousness (i.e. principles) at the top and bottom, a distinction between the noble and the inferior, equality between the young and the old, moderation between the rich and the poor, etc., and that “righteousness” is the principle by which these relationships are handled. One can be said to be the form and the other the content. The “rite” is to be “reasonable”, which means each person is to be in his or her own place with order. Therefore, “ritual arises from reason, and reason from righteousness, and righteousness is determined according to what is appropriate to act”. We can see that rites are derived from righteousness. Rites and righteousness are necessary to maintain order in a society in terms of human relations. Integrity is a personal virtue, and here there is a shift from interpersonal relations to an emphasis on the importance of individual morality. Whereas ritual and righteousness, of course, also require individual morality, but place more emphasis

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on the mutual obligations between people, integrity focuses on the moral requirements of each individual. In terms of personal morality, the most important thing is integrity. Guan Zhong was a politician who focused on the principles and methods of “shepherding the people”, and his ethical thinking was closely linked to his political thinking. Shame is a moral consciousness that goes deeper than the individual moral quality of integrity. In order for people to observe propriety and righteousness, and especially to keep the law, Guan Zhong believed that it was most important to cultivate a sense of honor and shame within people, so that they could know shame when they did something immoral or unlawful. Confucius, the founder of Confucianism, also stressed the importance of shame in the relationship between morality and law. He said, “When the people are governed by decrees and disciplined by criminal laws, they only seek to avoid punishment for their crimes, but have no shame; when they are guided by morals and assimilated by rituals, they will not only have a sense of shame, but also a sense of submission.” In Confucius’ view, if people do not have a sense of shame, even if they dare not break the law, they will still do bad things if they can. It was only when people knew shame that they would correct it in their hearts and not commit it again, as the far-sighted thinkers of the Legalists recognised. It was by emphasizing the importance of propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame that Guan Zhong believed that the key to a person’s moral character and morality lay in his or her “heart”. He said: The monarch is in the capital of the country as the heart is in the body. The moral code is set up above, and the people are taught below. Prudence is formed on the inside. The appearance is shown on the outside. The so-called “righteousness” is an indication of the ruler’s virtue. If he knows what is right for him, he knows what is right for his subjects, and this is the result of obedience to reason and consideration. If he finds something unsuitable for his subjects, he will go back and correct himself, which is the way to go back to the root. If you ask more of yourself, your virtue will be established; if you ask less of your people, they will be easily supplied. (Guanzi—Kings and Ministers II). It is only when the ruler himself knows in his heart what kind of morality he should have that the people will follow suit, and this is inevitable. If the people do not know that they have morals, they should look to the source and reflect on themselves. Therefore, it is only when the king is strict with himself that he can be moral; and it is because the king is generous to the people that the people are willing to contribute to the king.

1.3 The Humanism of “Seeking Benefit Avoiding Harm” In the history of Chinese ethical thought, Guan Zhong was the first to put forward the ideas of “seeking benefit and avoiding harm” and “loving joy and hating sorrow”,

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which had an important influence on Xunzi and Han Fei later on. In terms of theoretical origins, Xunzi’s theory of the nature of evil is an inheritance and development of this idea. Guan Zhong believed that all people are by nature inclined to benefit and avoid harm. He said, “Indeed, it is the nature of men that whenever they see profit, they cannot help chasing after it, and whenever they see harm, they cannot help running away. When the merchant engages in trade and travels twice the ordinary distance in a day, uses the night to extend the day, and covers a thousand li without considering it too far, it is because profit lies ahead. When the fisherman puts out to sea, the sea may be ten thousand –ren deep, and when he heads into its waves and struggles against its tides, raises his small mast and sails out a hundred li, never leaving the water from morning to night, it is because profit lies in the water. Thus, wherever profit lies, even though it be atop a thousand-ren peak, there is no place people will not climb. Even though it is at the bottom of the deepest depth, there is no place people will not enter.” (Guanzi—Jin Cang) This means that in the pursuit of benefit, one is willing to take any risk. As long as there is benefit to be made and money to be gained, then people will “come without pushing or attracting”, “like birds hatching their eggs, not moving but eventually seeing the results.” (ibid.) Therefore, as long as the ruler recognises the people’s tendency towards profit, he can “guide them in a smooth manner” and thus achieve the goal of a rich and powerful nation. Guan Zhong also believes that people’s happiness and sorrow (pain) are closely related to their gains and losses. When people gain the benefits they seek, they are happy; when they suffer, they are sad and miserable. He says: “It is always so in human nature that when people obtain what they desire, they are happy, but when they meet with something they dislike, they are distressed. This is the same whether their position be high or low.” (ibid.) However, people have different likes and dislikes, so they have different tendencies to seek or avoid. Why do people’s aspirations and desires differ when they all seek to avoid harm and happiness? This is due to the differences in people’s spiritual outlook, ideology and spirituality.

1.4 A Preliminary Exploration of the Relationship Between Ethics and the Material Basis One of the characteristics of the Legalist ideology was that it rewarded farming and warfare, and stressed the importance of having sufficient granaries. In emphasizing the importance of cultivation and warfare, Shang Yang believed that if the people were not able to cultivate and fight, the state would not have the strength to do so, and “it would be difficult for a filial son to serve his parents and for a loyal minister to serve his ruler” (Book of Lord Shang—Shen Fa). This is the first recognition of the relationship between material wealth, economic life and morality. Guan Zhong went further and put forward the idea that “(The people’s) food is plentiful so that they will know manners, and they will know honor and shame when they are well clothed

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and well fed.” (Guanzi—Mu Min). He said, “Wealth cannot be generated without attention to agricultural time, and the granary cannot be filled without attention to geographical location. If the fields are barren and abandoned, the people will be lazy; if the ruler is profligate, the people will be reckless.” (ibid.) This means that if the fields are barren, the granaries are empty, and the people have no food to eat, they will violate the rules of propriety and justice in society, transcend the rules of hierarchy between people, not knowing what is shame and what is honor and shame, and there can be no morality. In short, if society does not have a certain material foundation, if the state does not develop its economy, and if the monarch does not care about the lives of the people, the social and moral climate will deteriorate. The idea that morality is possible only when the basic material needs of life, such as food, clothing, shelter and transport, are met is a materialist one. Generally speaking, it contains an element of truth and reflects a deepening of the understanding of the relationship between morality and economic life. It is certainly a step forward from those ideas which deny that morality is related to people’s real interests and standard of living. However, we should also see that the words “a well-stocked granary” and “sufficient food and clothing” here do not mean that the material abundance of society and the affluence of the people will necessarily lead to good moral virtues. It emphasizes the influence of material living standards on people’s moral standards. For the ruler, if he could feed the workers, it would be easier for them to observe propriety and righteousness, to know honor and shame, and to refrain from committing acts of rebellion. This passage from Guan Zhong can only be used in a specific sense, but beyond a certain limit, it would lead to the erroneous conclusion that, regardless of the people or the society, as long as the material standard of living is raised, as long as there is food and water, clothing and shelter, the moral level will naturally rise; it would even lead to the erroneous inference that the higher the material standard of living, the higher the moral level of the people. In a private-system society, the landlords and bourgeoisie are “well-off” and “well-fed”, so how do their morals compare with those of the working people? Even in a socialist society, we should see that a rich life and sufficient material wealth are indeed a necessary condition for the improvement of socialist morality, but they are not a sufficient condition for the improvement of socialist morality. A high level of material civilization does not mean that it will naturally lead to the development of spiritual civilization. There are many other important factors that influence socialist spiritual civilization and the improvement of people’s morality. In short, from the standpoint of the “herdsmen”, Guan Zhong believed that the “enlightened king” should pay attention to making sure that the people had “solid granaries” and “sufficient food and clothing”. This was a progressive approach. Later, Han Fei and Wang Chong further developed this idea of Guan Zhong, forming a school of thought in the history of Chinese ethical thought that attached importance to material interests, especially to the relationship between the standard of consumption and moral progress. In the time of Mencius, Confucianism still placed more emphasis on the theory that “those who do not have a constant product do not have a constant mind” (Mencius—Teng Wen Gong I), but after the Song and Ming dynasties, the

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importance of a material standard of living was seldom stressed, starting from the idealistic theory of the goodness of nature.

2 Han Fei’s Ethical Thought 2.1 The Life of Han Fei Han Fei (c. 280-c. 233 BC) was a native of State Han during the Warring States period, from a declining noble family. Han Fei and Li Si were both students of Xusnzi and wrote “Han Feizi” which includes 55 chapters. He was a descendant of a Han nobleman who stuttered, but was a good writer, according to the “Shi Ji—Bibliography of Laozi, Zhuangzi and Legalists”. He was “fond of penal and law-related learning. The theoretical basis of his doctrine was derived from the Yellow Emperor and Laozi”. Although Qin Shi Huang (the first emperor of Qin) had read his books and admired his knowledge, he did not know who had written them. “Han Fei’s books, “Gu Fen” and “Wu Du”, were introduced to state Qin. The king of Qin admired Han Fei’s talent so much that he hated to meet him. He exclaimed, “If only I could have met this man and associated with him, I would have died without regret.” Soon afterwards, when Qin attacked Han, At first the king did not put Han Fei in an important position, but when the situation became critical, he sent him on a mission to Qin.” Although Han Fei was acquired by Qin Shi Huang, two of his ministers, Li Si and Yao Jia, feared that Han Fei would be detrimental to them if he gained power, so they framed Han Fei in front of Shi Huang, saying, “Han Fei, a son of a Han nobleman. Now that the king was going to annex the countries, Han Fei in the end had to help. It was only human to help Korea and not Qin. Now that the king does not appoint him, he will stay in Qin for a long time and then let him go back. If you let him go back after he has stayed in Qin for a longer period of time, you are leaving yourself open to disaster. We might as well add a charge to him and have him executed according to the law.” “The king of Qin thought he was right and ordered the magistrates to convict Han Fei convicted. Li Si sent someone to send Han Fei poison and told him to kill himself. Han Fei wanted to tell the King of Tai in person what was right and wrong, but he could not do so. Later the king of Qin regretted and sent someone to pardon him, but unfortunately Han Fei was dead.” Han Fei was a representative of the radical wing of the landowning class at the end of the Warring States period. He inherited and developed the ideas of the legalists of the Qin Dynasty, and was a master of Legalism. In his socio-political thought, Han Fei put forward a progressive view of history, emphasizing the rule of law, opposing the benevolence and righteousness of Confucianism, and stressing unity, which reflected the demands of history and had a certain progressive significance. In

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his ethical thought, he boldly and directly preached the egoism and political power of the exploiting class, denying the role of morality and going to the other extreme.

2.2 His Progressive View of History In the field of history, Han Fei’s theory that history is in a constant state of evolution has some progressive significance. Among the pre-Qin scholars, there was a general understanding that the ancient world was progressive and moral, but that later on, relations between people deteriorated and people fought each other constantly. This was not the case with Han Fei, who was the first to develop a more systematic theory of social development. He divided history into four periods, namely the ancient, the middle, the modern and the present. He said: “In ancient times, when the population was small and the birds and animals were numerous, the people could not bear to be attacked by birds, animals, insects and snakes. At that time, there was a sage who invented a way to build a nest in a tree to avoid all kinds of harm. People loved him and elected him to rule the world, calling him the Nestor. At that time the people ate wild fruits and mussels and clams, which were so foul and putrid that they hurt their stomachs and many people became ill. Then there was a sage drilled wood to make fire to remove the smell. People loved him and elected him to rule the world, and called him the Tunneller. Obviously, this ancient era refers to the primitive society. According to Han Fei, after the “Ancient Age”, people entered the “Middle Age”. “In the Middle Ages, when the world was flooded, Jiu and his son Yu were responsible for draining the rivers and treating the floods one after another.” (ibid.) This was a period of struggle between man and nature. “When Yao ruled the world, he lived in an unkempt thatched house, without even ploughing up the rafters; he ate coarse food and drank from the wild vegetable fields; he wore bad deerskins in winter and sackcloth in summer. The life of a janitor’s slave is no worse than this now. When Yu ruled over the world, he personally led the people with a spade and hoe, and was so tired that his thighs wore thin and the sweat on his calves wore out.” (ibid.) Although Yao was the ruler of the world, he built house with thatch and did not trim it, he did not cut wood for the rafters, he used coarse rice and common grains for food, he made soup out of wild vegetables and bean leaves, and he made clothes out of animal skins and hemp. At that time, the emperor also had to work every day. It was for this reason that Yao and Shun gave away the world to others. This does not make their behavior praiseworthy, nor does it make them moral. “In this way, the ancient practice of giving up the position of the Son of Heaven to someone else was merely a way of escaping from the slave-like drudgery of a caretaker’s servant; so it is not praiseworthy to pass on the world to someone else.” (ibid.) This would refer to the end of primitive society. After that, mankind entered the slave society. After the “Middle Ages” came what Han Fei called the “Modern Ages”. According to him, in this “Modern Age”, “Jie and Zhou were in turmoil, while Tang and Wu conquered”. This was a time of struggle and war, equivalent to what we call the age

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of slavery. Later on, he enters what he calls the “Present Age”, which is the newly established feudal society. According to Han Fei, the times are constantly evolving and progressing, and therefore a progressive view of history must be maintained. He said, “If someone still built nests in trees and drilled wood for fire in the Xia Dynasty, he would have been laughed at by Father Jiu and Yu; if someone still did his best to channel rivers in the Shang Dynasty, he would have been laughed at by Shang Tang and King Wu of Zhou. In this way, if someone were to praise the political measures of Yao Shun, Tang, Wu and Yu today, he would be laughed at by the new sages. Therefore the sages do not ask to follow the example of the ancient times, nor do they take the so-called permanently applicable systems, but rather they should study the current social situation and devise practical measures in accordance with it.” (ibid.) This view of history by Han Fei is based on historical knowledge and a profound analysis of historical phenomena, and has some reasonable elements. While insisting on historical evolution, Han Fei also suggests that the relationship between people is related to the level of economic development and the amount of material wealth. He says that in the “Ancient Age”, when material wealth was abundant and people were relatively few, there was no shortage of people and therefore no struggle. Later, the reason why there was contention between people was because of the lack of material wealth. He inherited Guan Zhong’s idea that “when the granary is well-stocked, one knows how to be courteous and respectful, and when one has enough food and clothing, one knows how to be honorable and disgraceful”, and more systematically put forward the idea that the relationship between people is determined by their living conditions. Those who live in the hills but go down to the valley to fetch water give it to each other as gifts at festivals; those who live in the swampy lowlands and suffer from flooding hire laborers to dig channels for drainage. So in the spring of a barren year, one’s little brother is not fed when he comes; in the autumn harvest of a rich year, an estranged guest is treated to a meal. This was not a case of alienating one’s flesh and blood brothers in favor of a passing guest, but rather because the reality of how much food was available was not the same. Thus the ancient people despised possessions, not because of any benevolence, but simply because they were plentiful; and the contention of people nowadays is not petty, but simply because they are too little. The ancient people who easily resigned the Son of Heaven were not of high moral character, but because power was meagre; the present people who value and strive to be officials and cling to power are not of lowly character, but because power is too heavy. (Han Feizi—Wu Du). This means that the amount of material wealth on which people live has a decisive influence on human relations. Han Fei does not acknowledge the Confucian principle of benevolence and morality, let alone any dynamic role for morality. He starts from the correct premise that the level of economic life has an impact on people’s moral standards, but errs in concluding that there is no moral value in human behavior. He argues that in ancient times people were more generous, not because they had good hearts, but because they had more possessions. Today, people compete with each other, not because they are mean, but because they are short of possessions. In

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ancient times, people could give away the world to others, not because they were morally superior, but because the power of the emperor was small and there was no personal gain to be made. Today, people compete to become officials and to turn to their patrons, not because they have low moral character, but because they can have great power and benefit from being an official. Therefore, this relationship between people can only be understood in terms of the amount of wealth and the needs of the people, not in terms of moral superiority or inferiority. Those who live on the hills go to the bottom of the valley to fetch water and give it to each other as a precious gift on festivals, while those who live in the hollows and suffer from flooding have to pay people to dig drains. In the spring of a barren year, when there was a shortage of food, even his own little brother could not feed him; the following year, at the autumn harvest, even an estranged visitor would treat him to a meal. Han Fei thus concluded that the most important thing for a sage to do in governing the world was to consider the amount of material wealth in society in order to formulate his own policies. His ideas on the importance of agriculture and rewarding farming and warfare were also based on this progressive view of history. In his view of social history, Han Fei was the first to suggest that the development of the population would cause social unrest and affect the development of society if it was not commensurate with the development of material wealth. He said: In ancient times, men did not plough the land because there was enough fruit of grass and trees to eat; women did not weave because there was enough fur from animals to clothe themselves. The people did not have to work hard but had enough to live on, and there was a surplus of goods for a small number of people, so the people did not fight for them. Therefore, there was no need to reward or punish heavily, and the people were naturally stable. Now a man who has five children is not many, but each child has five children, and before his grandfather dies he has twenty-five grandchildren. Therefore, the people are increased in number but short of goods, and their labor is laborious but their support is meagre. (Han Feizi—Wu Du). Of course, Han Fei was wrong to attribute the contention between people to the increase in population; but he saw that there was a relationship between population growth and socio-economic development, and that there were legitimate factors. In conclusion, Han Fei’s view of history, especially his theory that the conditions of social life affect the relations between people, is progressive. However, he was wrong to treat the sage as the final determining force in historical development and to deny the dynamic role of morality.

2.3 All Men Are Self-conscious On the issue of human nature, Han Fei inherited Xunzi’s theory of the evil of human nature and further developed it in the light of the realities of society at the time. In Xunzi’s view, human nature was evil and should be “transformed into falsity” through the use of teaching, ritual and righteousness. Han Fei believed that human nature was not only a desire for survival, an innate instinct, but also a selfishness,

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or what he called “self-centeredness”, which could never be changed. From birth to death, everything a person does is inevitably governed by this selfishness. In human relations, one must never try to eliminate or change this selfishness, but only to make use of it. What Han Fei calls the selfishness or “self-centeredness” of human beings is not only an innate, inborn nature, but also a nature that is inevitably developed through human activity and becomes the “human feelings” of people when dealing with various matters. What are human feelings? Human feelings are what Han Fei calls the selfish and self-interested habits of profit and harm. From one aspect, people have a “desire for benefit”. Form the other aspect, “he who wants to gain must abhor mischief, and mischief is the opposite of gain. How can one not be averse to something that is contrary to one’s desires?” (Han Fei Zi—Liu Fan). In short, human feelings can be summed up in one phrase: “those who desire benefit will avoid harm” or “those who desire benefit will hate harm”. Can this human nature, or this human sentiment, which “desires benefit and hates harm”, be changed through education? Xunzi believed that it could be changed through education, but Han Fei believed that it could not. Han Fei cited the following example: “Now suppose you have a son who is unworthy, whose parents are angry with him and he does not repent, whose neighbours rebuke him and he is indifferent, and whose teachers lecture him and he does not change.” (Han Fei Zi—Wu Du) Thus, although Han Fei was a student of Xunzi, he completely denied the important role of moral education and moral cultivation, which his teacher had particularly emphasized, “to transform nature into falsehood”. It was from this point of view that Han Fei argued that the best way was to “take advantage of the feelings of people”, that is, to make use of the good and bad feelings that all people have. Since people like to seek personal gain and hate to do harm to themselves, they can be rewarded by making them work hard at some things and punished by deterring them from doing others. He said: “Whenever the world is governed, it is because of human feelings. Human feelings are good and bad, so rewards and punishments are available. When rewards and punishments are available, prohibitions can be established, and the rule can be carried out.” (Han Fei Zi—Eight Classics) For those untalented sons, although the reprimand of parents, the criticism of villagers and the education of teachers were ineffective, once “the local officials took their weapons and carried out their duties in accordance with the law, while searching for the bad guys, that he got scared and changed his old habits and vices.” (Han Fei Zi—Wu Du). It is clear that education is ineffective, and that the rule of law and rewards and punishments are important. Han Fei’s particular emphasis on the rule of law and his rejection of the preaching of benevolence and morality was based on his theory of human nature. In other words, his theory of human nature was the basis of his idea of the rule of law. The fundamental aim of Han’s thesis was to advise the emerging ruling class, especially its supreme ruler. He argued that the ruling class must grasp the selfishness of the people in seeking profit and avoiding harm, and use reward and punishment as two important political techniques in order to develop production, strengthen armaments and rule the people. In other words, the only way to deter the people from breaking

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the law was to “hold the law and deal with the situation” and to use the “two handles” of reward and punishment. He said: This is why the love of parents is not enough to educate their children, but they must rely on the government to enforce harsh penalties; this is because people are always pampered when they are loved and yield to authority when they see it. … Therefore, it is better that rewards should be generous and exact, so that men may desire them; that punishments should be severe and certain, so that men may fear them; and that decrees should be consistent and fixed, so that men may understand them. So the sovereign does not change his rewards at will, and does not pardon his punishments lightly. It is better to give honor to those who are rewarded, and to condemn those who are punished. In this way, both the virtuous and the unvirtuous will do their best. (ibid.)

2.4 Interaction Between People Is a “Counting” (or Calculating) Relationship From the standpoint of the exploiting class, Han Fei saw all relationships between people (including the most sacred relationships between ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, brother and friend, as described by Confucianism) as relationships of mutual exploitation for the sake of each other. Inheriting the thought of his forerunner, Shen to the effect that “no one can be selfish” (Shenzi—Yin Xun), he put forward the theory that “all people are selfish”. Since everyone is selfish and self-interested, all relations between people can only be a relationship of mutual use, i.e. a relationship of interest. From this point, Han Fei believes that all interactions and relationships between people are based on whether or not they are beneficial to oneself. If it is advantageous, they will do it; if it is not, they will not. Not only should we consider the short-term benefits, but we should also think about the long term. The relationship between father and son, and between husband and wife, is also pure relationship of benefit. The parents congratulate each other on the birth of a boy and kill the girl. But when a boy is congratulated and a girl is killed, it is because they are concerned about their further convenience and the longevity of their plans. Therefore, even parents treat their sons with calculation. (Han Fei Zi—Liu Fan). Confucianism, represented by Confucius, has always regarded the relationship between ruler and subject, father and son, as the most important human relationship, and Han Fei did not avoid the fact that he believed that the relationship between ruler and subject was also a relationship of interest, a relationship of mutual use and calculation. This kind of calculation is like the sale of goods between merchants, where both the buyer and the seller are considering their own interests. “The master contributes his capability, and the minister contributes his intellect.” In other words, the subject trade his intellect for the sovereign’s title, and the sovereign trade the title for the subject’s intellect. “When a subject does his best to sell his intelligence to

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the ruler, and the ruler buys his intelligence with title and wealth, the relationship between the ruler and his subjects was not like father and son, but like trades.” (Han Fei Zi—Nan Yi) Since the ruler and his ministers are all calculating in order to gain their own benefits, there would be no benevolence and morality. Throughout Han Fei’s writings there is the thought of coming up with ideas and solutions for kings so that they can subdue their subjects and rule their people. However, Han Fei was executed by the king, which was a tragedy. Apart from the fact that someone was jealous and set him up, another reason could be that he revealed a secret that the king did not want people to know. In Han Fei’s view, since the relationship between ruler and subject was only a trading relationship, the ruler had to guard against his important ministers (i.e. powerful ministers), lest they usurp his power. He said, “A minister is not bound to his ruler by flesh and blood, but by power.” (Han Fei Zi—Bei Nei) He also said, “The only reason why a minister does not kill his ruler is because he has no party or no other means.” (Han Fei Zi—Yang Quan) Therefore, “the party and the equipment are the treasure of the minister” (ibid.). Thus, he argues, “The reason why a ruler’s body is in danger and his state is in ruin is that his ministers are too valuable and his left and right are too powerful.” (Han Fei Zi—The Lord of Men) He warns the “Lord of Men” to be careful in such calculations between rulers and ministers, so as not to be undermined by important ministers. Not only were relations between rulers and subjects, fathers and sons are trading relationship, but also relations between landlords and peasants, and among ordinary people were for the sake of profit and loss. He said: If one receives no good care in his childhood from his parents, when he grows up, as a son he shows resentment at them. Though the son grows to be a big and strong man, his provisions for his parents are rather scanty. Then the parents become angry and reprimand him. Now, father and son are the closest relatives. Yet they either reprimand or show resentment at each other simply because they are driven together by force of circumstances and neither can accomplish his self-seeking purpose. Indeed, in the case of workmen selling their services in sowing seeds and tilling farms, the master would at the expense of his housekeeping give them delicious food and by appropriating cash and cloth make payments for their services. Not that they love the hired workmen, but that, they say, by so doing they can make the workmen till the land deeper and pick the weed more carefully. The hired workmen, by exerting their physical strength, speedily pick the weed and till the land, and, by using their skill, rectify the boundaries between different tracts of ground and the dykes separating different fields. Not that they love their master, but that, they say, by their so doing the soup will be delicious and both cash and cloth will be paid to them. Thus, the master’s provisions and the workmen’s services supplement each other as if between them there were the compassion of father and son. However, their minds are well disposed to act for each other because they cherish self-seeking motives respectively. Therefore, when men deal with each other in managing affairs and rendering services, if their motive is hope for gain, then even with a native from Yüeh, it will be easy to remain harmonious. If the motive is fear of harm, then even father and son will become

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estranged and show resentment toward each other. (Outer Congeries of Sayings, The Upper Left Series). In short, Han Fei believes that all people are selfish, self-serving, and governed by selfishness. Therefore, it is impossible to say whether a person is moral or not, and it is impossible to say what is good or evil. Those who make palanquins always want people to be rich, and those who make coffins always want people to die early. But it can in no way be said that those who make palanquins have good intentions and those who make coffins have bad intentions. They are only interested in personal gain. As for the doctors who sucked out the pus and blood of the sick, it was only because of the profit they could make.

2.5 A Refutation of Confucian Benevolence and Morality From the perspective of upholding the principles of feudal absolutism, Han Fei fundamentally rejected the benevolence and morality preached by Confucius and Mencius. He denounced those who talked about benevolence and righteousness as one of the “five vermin” of the state, and Confucianism as “the study of disorder”, showing the critical attitude of the pre-Qin legalists towards the benevolent morality of Confucianism. In his view, if such benevolent morality was followed, it would not only fail to consolidate the new feudal system, but also risk the fall of the state. Firstly, Han Fei argued that the benevolence and morality preached by Confucianism, especially the filial piety, was directly harmful to the interests of the state. In response to Confucius’s idea that filial piety and fraternal duty were fundamental to “benevolence”, Han Fei stressed that “filial piety” and “loyalty to the emperor” were contradictory. If we emphasized filial piety to our own parents too much, we would forget the state, harm the state, and even betray the state. Therefore, in his view, Confucianism’s theory of filial piety was a path to the fall of the state. In Han Feizi—Five Vermin, it says: Of old, there was in the Chu State a man named Chi-kung. Once his father stole a sheep, wherefore he reported to the authorities. Thereupon the prefect said, “Put him to death”, as he thought the man was loyal to the ruler but undutiful to his father. So that man was tried and executed. From this it can be seen that the honest subject of the ruler was an outrageous son of his father. Again, there was a man of Lu, who followed the ruler to war, fought three battles, and ran away thrice. When Chung-ni asked him his reason, he replied: “I have an old father. Should I die, nobody would take care of him.” So Chung-ni regarded him as a man of filial piety, praised him, and exalted him. From this it can be seen that the dutiful son of the father was a rebellious subject of the ruler. Naturally, following the punishment of the honest man by the prefect, no other culprit in Chu was ever reported to the authorities and after the reward of the runaway by Chung-ni, the people of Lu were apt to surrender and run away. This means that if the father committed a crime and the son reported him, which, according to Confucianism, was treacherous. A man from the state of Lu fled three

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times in the midst of a battle with other state. When Confucius asked him why, he said that he had an elder father at home who depended on him for living. Confucius considered him a filial son and recommended him for an official. So, a filial son of his father was bound to be a traitor to the king, which shows the danger of Confucianism’s “filial piety”. Secondly, the Confucian way of filial piety and fraternal loyalty not only failed to maintain the ruling order of feudal society, but also led to regicide and patricide. Emperor Yao, Shun, Yu and Tang, as well as King Wen and King Wu of Zhou, were all said to be examples of the way of benevolence and righteousness. However, Yao gave up his throne to Shun, who was originally a subject of Yao, but eventually became the ruler, treating the previous ruler as his own subject. Both Tang and Wu, who were originally the subjects of others, ended up killing their own rulers in the name of benevolence and righteousness and made themselves kings. “All-underHeaven approve the Tao of filial piety, fraternal respect, loyalty, and obedience, but never carefully investigate the Tao of filial piety, fraternal respect, loyalty, and obedience; nor do they act intelligently upon these; wherefor All-under-Heaven is in disorder. As everybody approves the Tao of Yao and Shun and conforms to it, there are murderers of rulers and rebels against fathers. Yao, Shun, Tàng, and Wu, each in his turn, acted contrary to the right relationship of ruler and minister, and the moral of the subsequent generations has consequently been upset. (Hanfeizi—Loyalty and Filial Piety: A Memorial) Han Fei believed that the Confucian way of filial piety, brotherhood and loyalty was the root cause of the chaotic world. Finally, in Han Fei’s view, since the Confucian doctrine of benevolence and righteousness would not only lead to rebellion, but also to regicide and patricide, and theft of the state and the family, “Thus, fathers give way to sons and rulers give way to ministers.” (ibid.). He argued that the doctrine of ‘the father giving way to the son and the king giving way to the subject’ was not a right way to unify the feudal morality and must be abandoned. From the absolute authority of the feudal autocracy, Han Fei argued that the relationship between ruler and subject, father and son, and husband and wife should not be one of benevolence and morality, but one of absolute rule and domination. One should have absolute rights and the other should only have the duty to obey. He said: “Thy servant has heard, ‘Minister serving ruler, son serving father, and wife serving husband, if these three relationships run in harmony, All-under-Heaven will have order; if these three relationships run in discord, All-under-Heaven will have disorder.’ If this is an immutable principle of the world, which neither the intelligent king nor the worthy minister dares to depart from, then even though the lord of men might be unworthy, no minister would dare to infringe his prerogative.” (ibid.) Han Fei saw the establishment of the absolute ruling relationship between ruler and subject, father and son, and husband and wife as the normal way of the world. He believed that if this norm could be established, the ruler can achieve the political aim of “even though the lord of men might be unworthy, no minister would dare to infringe his prerogative”. Han Fei’s thought was originally opposed to the benevolent morality of Confucianism, but this idea, which absolutized the relationship between ruler and subject, father and son, and husband and wife, was transformed by the Confucian masters of

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the Han dynasty and further developed into the “three principles” of the “Way of the King”. It can be seen that although Confucianism and Legalism, as the ideologists of the landowning class, were opposed to each other in many respects, and even held diametrically opposed views, their theories were often similar because the ultimate aim of their theories was to maintain the hierarchical system of feudal society.

2.6 Ruling Scheme that Combines Law, Tactics and Power How can a ruler who has wielded power consolidate his power, control his subjects, and maintain his absolute dominance forever? Han Fei denied the role of moral education, and proposed the so-called combination of law, tactics and power as a ruling technique. Han Fei summarized and developed the various political doctrines of the previous Legalists. Before Han Fei, the famous thinkers of Legalism, Shang Yang, focused most on ‘law’, Shen Buhai on ‘tactics’, and Shen Dao on ‘power’, while Han Fei emphasized the combination of these three. Han Fei was very concerned with the ‘power’ of the ruler in maintaining his authority. By ‘power’, he meant the power to rule. He said, “the power is the means of overcoming the masses.” (Han Feizi—Eight Canons) “Power” is also called “might”, and is the power generated by the right to rule. Han Fei said in Han Fei Zi—The Lord of Men: “The horse can carry a heavy load, pull the wagon, and make a distant trip, because of its muscular strength; the sovereign of ten thousand chariots and the ruler of one thousand chariots can rule over the world and subdue the feudal lords, because of their prestige and position. Thus, prestige and position are the muscular strength of the lord of men.” This means that, just as a horse has the strength to lead a chariot to a long way, so a ruler can only maintain his rule by his authority. Therefore, he believed that the situation where chief vassals gain the sovereign’s prestige and attendants abuse the august position, was the greatest threat to the king and had to be prevented. Now suppose chief vassals gain the sovereign’s prestige and attendants abuse the august position. Then the lord of men will lose his strength. The lord of men who has lost his strength and is still able to keep the state, is none out of a thousand. The tiger and the leopard can overcome men and catch the hundred beasts by virtue of their claws and fangs. Supposing the tiger and the leopard lost their claws and fangs, they would fall under the control of men. Now that the august position is the claws and fangs of the lord of men, if any ruler of men loses his claws and fangs, he will be like the tiger and the leopard that have lost theirs. For instance, the Ruler of Sung lost his claws and fangs to Tz˘u-han, and Duke Chien lost his claws and fangs to Tìen Chàng. Because they failed to recover them early enough, they were themselves killed and their states were ruined. Today, the tactless sovereigns all know very well the errors of the Ruler of Sung and Duke Chien, but never comprehend their own mistakes. For they never observe closely the similarities between things. (Han Feizi—The Lord of Men).

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He also cited the example of Jie Zhou and Confucius, who had no virtue or talent, but were able to rule a country because they had “power”, while Confucius, despite his virtue, could only accept the rule of others. Just as a fish cannot live without water, a ruler has to ensure that he has “power” at all times. Han Fei’s ideas on ‘power’ are historically derived from those of Shen Dao. According to Shen Dao, “If worthies are subjected by unworthy men, it is because their power is weak and their status is low; whereas if the unworthy men can be subjected by the worthies, it is because the power of the latter is strong and their status is high. Yao, while a commoner, could not govern three people, whereas Chieh, being the Son of Heaven, could throw All-under Heaven into chaos. From this I know that position and status are sufficient to rely on, and that virtue and wisdom are not worth yearning after.” (Han Fei Zi—A Critique of the Doctrine of Position) In Shen Dao’s view, for a ruler, morality and wisdom were not important, but power was the only thing worthy of attention. Han Fei’s emphasis on ‘power’ was an inheritance of this idea from Shen Dao. In addition to the importance of ‘power’, Han Fei also placed great emphasis on ‘law’, which he called ‘holding the law and dealing with power’ (ibid.), not only to hold power in his hands but also to enforce the rule of law. This is what he meant by ‘holding the law and dealing with the power’. Han Fei said, “Law includes mandates and ordinances that are manifest in the official bureaux, penalties that are definite in the mind of the people, rewards that are due to the careful observers of laws, and punishments that are inflicted on the offenders against orders. It is what the subjects and ministers take as model. If the ruler is tactless, delusion will come to the superior; if the subjects and ministers are lawless, disorder will appear among the inferiors. Thus, neither can be dispensed with: both are implements of emperors and kings. (Han Feizi—Deciding Between Two Legalistic Doctrines) By law, orders and regulations are made by the ruler, all of which had to be published by the government so that the people could understand them. Anyone who obeyed the law was rewarded, while anyone who broke it was punished. From the standpoint of the emerging landowners and their political needs, Han Fei emphasized that “the law must be cleared” (Han Fei Zi—Criticism of the Ancients, Series Three), and that the laws should be “written and set up in the government, and published among the people.” (Han Fei Zi—Criticism of the Ancients, Series Three). In terms of the content of the law, Han Fei emphasized that “the law does not fawn on the noble; the string does not yield to the crooked. Whatever the law applies to, the wise cannot reject nor can the brave defy. Punishment for fault never skips ministers, reward for good never misses commoners.” (Han Fei Zi—Having Regulations: A Memorial). He also stressed that the law should be changed according to the times, i.e. “the law should be complemented by the times”. He was opposed to the restoration of the past, to old-fashionedness, and to adherence to rules. He said, There was in Sung a man, who tilled a field in which there stood the trunk of a tree. Once a hare, while running fast, rushed against the trunk, broke its neck, and died. Thereupon the man cast his plough aside and watched that tree, hoping that he would get another hare. Yet he never caught another hare and was himself ridiculed by the people of Sung. Now supposing somebody wanted to govern the people of the present age with the

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policies of the early kings, he would be doing exactly the same thing as that man who watched the tree. (Han Feizi—Five Vermin: A Pathological Analysis of Politics) He also said, “Hence there is no constant method for the government of men. The law alone leads to political order. 7 If laws are adjusted to the time, there is good government. If government fits the age, there will be great accomplishment.” (Han Fei Zi—Surmising the Mentality of the People: A Psychological Analysis of Politics) With these three rules (the law should be “spread among the people”, “the law should not be a noble one”, and “the law should be in harmony with the times”), the state could be ruled and the power of the ruler could be preserved. Moreover, Han Fei believed that ‘tactics’ was important to the ruler, especially the technique of the ruler in managing his subjects. He said, “Tact is the means whereby to create posts according to responsibilities, hold actual services accountable according to official titles, exercise the power over life and death, and examine the officials’ abilities.” (Han Fei Zi—Deciding Between Two Legalistic Doctrines) In other words, the so-called “tactics” is the ruler’s power to appoint, dismiss, evaluate, punish and even execute his subjects. This kind of tactics is a secret strategy to control the officials (“to subtlety control the ministers”), which can only be hidden in one’s mind, and to keep the ministers from guessing one’s thoughts, that is to say, “when he applies his tact, none of his favorites and courtiers will notice it at all.” (Han Fei Zi—Criticism of the Ancients, Series Three). This so-called “tactics” actually became a kind of intrigue used by the monarch to consolidate his power. In short, Han Fei’s emphasis on the rule of law is very progressive among the three, namely ‘law’, ‘tactics’ and ‘power’. ‘Power’ emphasizes the importance of political power, and ‘tactics’ has become a kind of ruling power, which has played a very negative role in the history of Chinese political thought.

2.7 Comments on Han Fei’s Thought He represented the interests of the new feudal landowners who had just entered the political arena. He put forward a set of progressive views on history from a materialist view of nature and epistemology, expounding the importance of the rule of law and emphasizing the need for “worldly differences”. The idea of “preparing for change” contributed to the establishment and consolidation of a centralised system of power for the landowning class. This should be acknowledged. In terms of ethical thought, Han Fei was progressive in his rejection of the benevolent moral teachings of the slave-owning class, represented by Confucianism, and the hypocritical morality promoted by the ruling class. However, he openly and directly treated selfishness and “self-centeredness” as unchangeable nature, and attempted to exploit this nature and even develop it for the purpose of consolidating the dictatorship of the landowning class, reflecting the historical limitations of the exploiting class thinkers. He was right to oppose hypocritical moral preaching, but he went to the other extreme, to a greater one-sidedness. He saw reward and punishment, or punishment, as the only means of solving all problems, and thus denied the importance of

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moral rule and the role of morality in regulating human relations. The long-standing emphasis of the slave-owning class on both the rule of law and the rule of morality was completely abandoned by Han Fei. While this view, which set morality and law in absolute opposition to each other, or which saw law but not morality, had some elements of validity in exposing the nature of the exploiting classes in a private society and the hypocrisy of the moral principles they actually practiced. On the whole, the implementation of this theory brought about great harm. Although it has a social basis, it is essentially wrong. It does not correspond to the objective realities of social life and does not help to maintain and consolidate the rule of the ruling class. The one-sided emphasis on harshness of the law may even lead to stronger resistance from the working people and is not conducive to the rule of the ruling class. In a class society, both the law and morality of the ruling class act as norms and guidelines for the people, and serve the interests of the ruling class. The law is primarily an external constraint on people’s behavior through the coercive role of state power; morality, although it also depends on the role of public opinion, is more important in forming people’s inner convictions through education and selfcultivation, and therefore often has a role that the law does not. Law and morality were either used interchangeably, simultaneously, or with different emphases, but in any case, it was as detrimental to the ruling class to have law without morality as it was to have morality without law. It is not without reason that after the Qin and Han dynasties, Han Fei’s idea was soon replaced by the Confucian idea of equal emphasis on morality and law.

Chapter 8

The Ethical Thoughts of Xun Kuang, the Representative Ethicist of Pre-qin Dynasty

1 The Life of Xunzi Xunzi (c. 313–238 BC), original name Xun Kuang, honorary name Xun Qing, or Sun Qingzi, was a native of the Zhao Kingdom in the late Warring States period. He was one of the Jixia scholars (Ji, the capital city of Qi, Linzi, now part of Zibo, Shandong Province) in the Qi Kingdom and was repeatedly elected as the “Ji Jiu” (leader) of the school. As one of the most outstanding materialist thinkers of the pre-Qin dynasty, Xunzi was revered by scholars of the time. He used his materialist view of nature to criticise some views of the Moists, Mingists, Daoists, and early Legalists since the Warring States, especially some of the opinions of the Simeng school. Also, Xunzi used his view to express his belief in “To rule the world and govern all things” (Xunzi—Fei Shi Erzi), to achieve feudal unification, and to realize his political ideals of “Where it can be reached, no one disobeys” (ibid.). He also criticised the long-popular idea of the “Mandate of Heaven” and put forward the concept of “Master the Mandate of Heaven use them” (Xunzi—Treatise on Heaven), which required people to understand the laws of nature and to make use of all things for human use. In his ethical thinking, he opposed the idea of natural morality and established a new moral theory based on human evil. To promote his political and ethical beliefs, he went to the Qin Kingdom, where he met King Zhao and studied the political customs of Qin, and then to the Chu Kingdom, where he was appointed by Lord Chunshen to be the magistrate of Lanling. In his later years, Xunzi was discharged from his official home and wrote a book in Lanling, where he eventually died. Xunzi lived at the end of the Warring States period when the new landowning class gradually seized power in various countries and carried out feudal reforms. After a long period of annexation wars and economic development, there was a demand to establish a unified national landlord regime. Xunzi’s ideas found this unified, centralised state as a landlord thinker. The whole of Xunzi’s ethical thought is based on his theory of evil human nature. His thinking can be broadly summarized as follows: based on the idea that all human © China Renmin University Press 2023 G. Luo, Traditional Ethics and Contemporary Society of China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0256-9_8

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beings love the benefits and hate the harms, with the normative system of “ritual”, which distinguishes between names and ranks, as the core, and with the education and sanction of teachers and laws as the means to “transform the nature into falsehood” and make people conformed to the requirements of feudal morality. The formation of moral principles and codes, the necessity of moral education and moral cultivation, and the emergence, construction and development of moral relations between human beings are closely linked to the theory of evil human nature. Without the idea, Xunzi’s ethical thought would not have been possible, nor would his political thought have been possible. In short, the entire edifice of Xunzi’s social, political, economic and moral theories are based on the principle of evil human nature. Therefore, an analysis of Xunzi’s views on human nature is a key to understanding his entire theory. Before discussing Xunzi’s ethical thought, it is necessary to talk about the origin and evolution of the term “morality”. According to ancient Chinese literature, the earliest use of “morality” is found in the book Guanzi. “Guanzi—the ruler and the minister, second half.” said: “The monarch is in the country’s capital as the heart is in the body. The moral code is set up above, and the people are taught below.” This means that if the ruling class can set an example and educate the people on morality, the people will undoubtedly be educated. However, since this is the only place in Guanzi where the concept of “morality” is used, and there is no precise explanation, it cannot be said that Guan Zhong has a clear definition of the concept of “morality”. Later on, in Zhuangzi, the term “morality” also appears several times (e.g., in the chapters “Ekuanju”, “Tiandao”, “Horseshoe”, “Tian Yun”, etc.), but more often, the terms “morality” and “benevolence and righteousness” are mentioned together. For instance, “It is a sin of the carpenter to break down logs to make all kinds of vessels; it is a sin of the Saint to destroy the nature of man to promote so-called benevolence and righteousness.” (Zhuangzi—The Horseshoe). Similarly, in this book Zhuangzi seems not to have formed an independent concept of morality. Generally speaking, before Xunzi, “Tao” and “De” had their own meaning. The “Tao” was a universal, supreme principle. Of course, in different philosophers, this supreme principle had different meanings. “De” means to gain something. “De is the attainment of matters.” (Liu Xi, “The Interpretation of the Name”), and in Guanzi (Guanzi—Art of the Mind, first half): “Therefore, “De” is “attainment”, which means that what is to be attained has been achieved.” Before Xunzi, many thinkers used only the word “De” to express people’s code of conduct, norms, character, and virtue. The term “Tao De”, although it appears in Guanzi, has not yet become a definitive concept. From the available literature, it appears that Xunzi, for the first time, used the term “Tao De” as a new concept and gave it roughly the same meaning as the one we now use. In Xunzi’s book, the word “Tao” is used twelve times in conjunction with “De” to form the word “Tao De” (Morality) and is given a precise definition. Thus, we can even say that the word “morality” is a new concept introduced by Xunzi. In Xunzi— Persuading Learning, it is said: “So learning the Rites fully and completely, which can be called reaching the pinnacle of morality.” Xunzi—Strengthening the State proposes that there are three kinds of “Wei”, namely “those who have the Wei of

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morality, those who have the Wei of tyranny, and those who have the Wei of arrogance”, and that “The rites and music are perfect, the name and morality are clear, the measures are appropriate to the times, and the love and benefit of the people can be concretely manifested. In this way, the people will respect and fear the ruler as they do God, admire him as they do heaven, and be as close to him as they are to their parents. So the people will be able to work without rewards, and the power will be extended without punishments. This is called the Wei (majesty) of morality.”. In the Xunzi-Zhenglun, it is stated that ‘morality is pure and wisdom is clear’, indicating that Xunzi had already consciously given the concept of ‘morality’ a definite meaning. Since then, although the terms “De” and “Tao De” have been used simultaneously, “De” refers more to the morality of an individual, while “Tao De” refers more to the code of human conduct.

2 The Human Nature Theory of “Love Benefits” and “Hate Harms” In the era of Xunzi, Mencius’ theory of good human nature was absolutely dominant. This theory described human nature as having the four advantages of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, and that all human beings had four “hearts” of compassion, the shame of evil, resignation and right and wrong. These things distinguished human beings from animals, showed the nobility and dignity of human beings and were therefore accepted by many people. However, when people think about morality further, they ask: if everyone is inherently good, why is it that when these inherently good people interact with each other and have relations with each other, they produce evil instead of good? Mencius once explained that it was because the interaction between people and the material needs and desires of the eyes and ears led people to immorality. But the problem is not yet solved. All human actions are governed by the “heart” (i.e. the mind), so why is the “conscience” of people good, while the needs of the ears, eyes, mouth and nose lead to evil? Why is it that the conditions of the ears, eyes, mouth and nose lead to corruption? It is essential to note that the description of human nature as good has led to the belief that the most important means of moral education and moral cultivation is to promote goodness and to “seek the peace of mind”. While these methods failed to effectively overcome the evils of sound, sex, lust and disorder. For this reason, Xunzi put forward his theory of evil human nature. What is human nature? Xunzi inherited and developed the ideas of Gaozi, who believed that human nature is “what we are born with”, in other words, the nature that is innate and present at birth. “The nature, which is naturally created, cannot be learned, cannot be artificially created.” (Xunzi—Evil Nature) As for the acquired things, whether it is due to customary influence, education, or “ritual” or “law”, it cannot be called human nature. What is the nature of people? How does it manifest? Xunzi said, “It is in our nature to eat when we are hungry, to warm ourselves when

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we are cold, to rest when we are tired, to gain and to hate to lose.” (Xunzi—Feixiang) “As for those whose eyes love beauty, whose ears love music, whose mouth loves delicacies, whose heart loves wealth and profit, and whose body loves comfort and ease.” (Xunzi—Evil Nature) This is the nature of man. Xunzi says: “It is in the nature of man to be born with a love of wealth and profit, and in obedience to this human nature, contention and plundering arise, and resignation and humility disappear; it is in the nature of man to be jealous and hateful, and in obedience to this human nature, murder and slaughter arise, and loyalty and trust disappear; it is in the nature of man to be greedy with his ears and eyes and to have an instinct for music and beauty, and in obedience to this human nature, debauchery and confusion arise, and propriety and law disappear.” (ibid.) Here, Xunzi places particular emphasis on the word “obedience”, which means following the development of human nature will lead to evil. As everyone is “love benefits and hate harms”, following this nature will lead to competition and mutual harm in human relationships. “In this way, it seems that if one indulges one’s nature and follows one’s passions, there is bound to be a scramble for plunder.” (ibid.). He cites the example that since it is human nature to “desire profit and gain”, if brothers want to divide their families, under this human nature, the contention is bound to occur. As Xunzi called it, this human nature has been with us since birth. According to his theory, a person’s nature is governed from birth by “love benefit” and “hate harms”, and they are like an absolute authority that regulates people’s intentions. No one can go beyond their limits. Human nature is therefore evil, as there must be competition between people. When Xunzi discusses his theory of human nature, he particularly emphasizes the difference between ‘nature’ and ‘falsity’, i.e., innate human nature and acquired artificiality. He only said that human nature is inherently evil, not that one cannot be good; on the contrary, one can be good if one can reform oneself carefully in later life. Xunzi systematically articulated this theory in his Xunzi—Evil Nature. He says: “From this, it is clear then that men are evil by nature and their good deeds are artificial.” What is “artificial”? In this context, “artificial” is not interpreted as “fraud” or “falsehood”. The words “Wei” (for) and “Wei” (artificial) can be exchanged in ancient texts. The term “Wei” (for) means “to do”, that is, to do something. Any moral quality formed after birth by a person’s efforts to change their original evil nature is “artificial”. Xunzi inherited Gaozi’s ideas of “Human nature is like the willow tree” and “righteousness is like wood cups”. He argued that the compassion, shame of evil, resignation, and right and wrong that Mencius referred to are not inherent in human nature but are moral qualities formed in social life. It is a moral quality developed in social life by people’s acquired efforts. Xunzi is particularly clear about the difference between ‘nature’ and ‘artificial’. He said: “The nature is impossible to learn, impossible to make artificially. Rites and righteousness are what the Sages have created, what people can learn and work at to achieve. That which cannot be learned or artificially created in man is called nature, but that which can be learned and done through hard work is called artificial.” (Xunzi—Evil Nature) He also says: “So it is said: innate nature is like raw,

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unworked wood; artificial processing is manifested in the grandness of rituals and ceremonies. Without the former, there is no place for artificial processing to be imposed; without the latter, then nature cannot be perfected on its own.” (Xunzi— A Treatise on Rites). Therefore, in Xunzi’s view, only a sage can make “nature and artificial processing unite”, thus achieving the goal of “the peace of the world” (ibid.). Like raw, unprocessed material, human nature is innate; ritual and morality are processed later. According to Xunzi, human nature can only be innate, inherent, capable without learning, and accomplished without doing anything. Things attained through study or training can only result from artificiality. In his view, this is the difference between “nature” and “artificial”. For example, he says: “It is in the nature of that human being that the eyes can be used to see and the ears can be used to hear. Obviously, it is impossible to learn the sight of eyes, and the hearing of ears.” (Xunzi—Evil Nature) Therefore, he believed that the reason why people can have good behavior is the result of acquired man-made. “If the potter stirs and kneads clay to make pottery, then the pottery arises from the human effort of the potter, not from human nature. If a woodworker cuts wood to make woodwork, then the woodwork arises from the human effort of the worker, not from the original human nature.” (ibid.) Human nature is the original material, and artificiality is the processing. No processing, no vessels. Xunzi’s theory of the evil nature also holds that not only is the nature of ordinary people “love benefits and like gains”, but also the nature of princes and lords is evil. This is a radical development of his theory of evil nature. He openly declared that all people, even the most virtuous saints like Yao and Shun, were evil in nature, the same as all inferior people. Confucianism, Mohism and Taoism all regarded Yao and Shun as great saints, Jie and Zhi as the most vicious thieves. Xunzi said, “All human beings are by nature the same, the holy Yao and Shun and the brutal Jie and Zhi; the moral gentleman and the impecunious villain.” (ibid.) This bold statement describes the Sages, who were traditionally considered to be born saints, as being evil by nature. Later, Xunzi was criticised by later Confucians for not being an excellent Confucian because many of his statements directly undermined the image of the Sage. Of course, Xunzi did agree that Yao and Shun became saints through their acquired efforts. Xunzi’s theory of evil nature is a sharp critique of Mencius’ theory of good nature. Xunzi said, “Mencius said, ‘Man can learn because of their good nature.’ I said: ‘No! This statement has not been able to understand the human nature, which does not understand the difference between man’s innate nature and his acquired artificiality.” (ibid.) Mencius believed that the reason why people can learn is that they are good by nature. Xunzi, on the other hand, clearly points out that Mencius’ most fundamental mistake in his theory of human nature is that he does not clarify the difference between “nature” and “artificial”. Mencius confused the good nature, the evil nature, the contentious nature, and the brutal nature inherent in life with the moral qualities formed through education, cultivation, and self-examination. According to Xunzi, “In this way, if one indulges one’s nature and follows one’s passions, there is bound to be fighting and plundering, and one is bound to merge with acts that violate the

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hierarchy and the law and disturb the rituals and the law, which will eventually lead to riots. So it is only with the guidance of teachers and the law, and the guidance of ritual and righteousness, that people will start to be resigned and humble, and abide by the rituals and laws, and eventually tend towards stability and peace. From this, it is clear that men are evil by nature and their good deeds are artificial.” (Xunzi— Evil Nature) Without teaching people about ritual and righteousness and following nature’s development, we would only see people competing with each other, not the four advantages of benevolence, righteousness, ritual and wisdom. The cornerstone of Mencius’ natural moralism is that people are born with the four virtues of benevolence, righteousness, ritual and wisdom. Xunzi argues that the four virtues Mencius refers to are not innate but rather acquired due to necessity. Xunzi said: “When a man is hungry, he dares not eat first when he sees his father and brother, because he has to be humble; when he is tired, he dares not ask for rest when he sees his father and brother, because he has to take his place. A son is humble to his father and his elder brother; a son works in place of his father and elder brother; both virtues are contrary to nature and deviate from lust, but they are the principle of filial piety institution of propriety. Therefore, if one follows the nature of one’s passions, one does not resist humility, and if one resists humility, one violates the nature of one’s passions.” (ibid.) Xunzi denies that man has an innate moral sense. In terms of worldview and epistemology, Mencius starts from a priori idealism and preaches the innate benevolence, righteousness, ritual and wisdom, believing that one can become a moral person by expanding and enriching the four virtues. On the contrary, Xunzi, from his materialistic view of nature and empiricism, believed that we are born only with the instinct of survival, i.e. what he called the physiological instinct of “hunger and desire to eat, cold and desire to warm, labor and desire to rest”, while morality and propriety are all formed later. In his view of nature, Xunzi advocated “separate the heaven and man” and “make use of the mandate of heaven”. On the issue of morality, he stresses the importance of “transforming nature into falsehood”. This means that one must educate human nature, i.e. process the raw material and turn it from evil to good through human intervention. This shows that Xunzi’s moral theory, which emphasizes the artificial and the empirical, is consistent with his materialist view of nature. Although he was not yet able to consciously implement his materialist view of nature into the realm of history and his understanding of morality, he was able to recognise that the moral qualities of human beings are a product of society and are formed later in life, which has more than a reasonable element. On the whole, the views of Xunzi and Mencius are fundamentally opposed to each other on the question of human nature. Xunzi, who started from a materialistic view of nature, opposed natural morality and stressed the innate nature of man, which was “hungry for food and cold for warmth”, and thus advocated the strengthening of moral education to change man’s nature, which was “love benefits and hate harms”. This is indeed more reasonable than the thinking of Mencius. It is something we should acknowledge. However, we should also see that, from the point of view of historical materialism, Xunzi described

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man’s nature of “hunger and desire for food, cold and desire for warmth” and the social attribute of “love benefit and hate harms” formed in private society, as the innate nature of man. It is, of course, wrong to say that this nature is evil without any analysis. Obviously, it is reasonable to say that human beings are “hungry for food and cold for warmth”, but it is wrong to regard human nature as “love benefit and hate harms”. Xunzi could not have understood that there was a pure morality in human society during the long period of primitive communal ownership. Even in private society, it would be unjustifiable to describe the relationship between fathers and sons and friends as one of rivalry and brutality. Both Xunzi and Mencius, unable to distinguish between human beings’ natural and social nature, exaggerate the attributes that people have acquired in society and describe them as innate nature. The difference is that Mencius believed that human nature is endowed by heaven and is good, while Xunzi believed that human nature is innate and is evil. Mencius’s theory of good nature and Xunzi’s theory of evil nature both claim that all human nature is the same; either all are evil or good. Both believe that what they call human nature is the nature that is inherent in them. They both shared the common goal of cultivating gentlemen and saints with the moral qualities of benevolence, righteousness, ritual and wisdom to maintain the feudal hierarchy.

3 Interpretation of “Courtesy” as a Normative System According to Xunzi, rites are the most essential principle of human society. The only way to distinguish people’s hierarchy and obligations in the community is to sustain human society, regulate the relationship between people, and consolidate and maintain the social system of the time. On the one hand, Xunzi inherited the idea of ritual from Chinese history, but at the same time, he elaborated it systematically and comprehensively. This was of great significance in developing ethical thought in later times. In Xunzi’s view, rites were an all-encompassing system of norms, containing the political and legal measures of the feudal hierarchy, moral principles and standards, and various ways for people to carry out moral activities and also theoretical arguments for these principles and norms. “Rites” not only ruled the society but sometimes became the unchanging, eternal, supreme law governing the entire natural world. Xunzi said, “So no man can live without rites, no matter what he does, no country can be at peace without rites.” (Xunzi—Xiu Shen). “Ritual is the supreme rule of society, the fundamental measure to make the state strong, the effective way to extend its majesty, and the key to achieving fame and fortune. If the emperor and his lords follow it, they will gain the world; if they do not, they will lose their state power.” (Xunzi—Yi Bing). So Xunzi said that “the life of the state lies in rites” (Xunzi—Qiang Guo), which shows that rites are extremely important for the states. How did “rites” come about? Xunzi said: “Under what circumstances do rites arise? The answer is that man is born with desire; if he wants something and cannot get it, he cannot do without pursuit; if he pursues it without a standard limit, he

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cannot do without strife; and when there is strife, there will be trouble, and when there is trouble, he will be in trouble.” (Xunzi—A Treatise on Rites) Here it is clear that, according to Xunzi’s theory of the nature of evil, human beings will inevitably have the pursuit satisfying their personal desires for profit, and in the process of this pursuit, each person will always want everything he needs without limit. Therefore, there is bound to be competition between people. This will lead to social disorder and, as a result, people will be at their wits’ end. How can this situation be avoided? This is the reason why the “rituals” are so important. “The purpose and function of rituals are twofold: one is to “divide” (also known as “separate”), and the other is to “nurture”. The purpose and function of rites are twofold: one is to “divide” (also known as “distinguish”), and the other is to “nourish”. By ‘division’ or ‘differentiation’, Xunzi meant two things: on the one hand, it referred to the hierarchy, i.e. the hierarchy from the highest to the lowest; on the other hand, it referred to the division of labor between the different occupations in society. The two were intertwined and served to maintain the feudal system of the time. What Xunzi meant by “nurturing” was to enable everyone in social life to fulfil their duties and responsibilities based on “division” and “differentiation”. This is what Xunzi meant by “the right to life”. Xunzi called this “nourishing the people’s desires and giving them what they want so that the desires will not exhaust the things and the things will not yield to the desires, and the two will grow together” (ibid.). According to Xunzi, in “nourishing people’s desires and giving them what they want”, it is necessary to make sure that the wealth of society is satisfied to a certain extent according to the hierarchy of people, but also to make sure that people’s desires do not exhaust the material wealth produced by society. In this way, people’s desires and wealth can be mutually reinforcing, thus enabling society to move forward. Xunzi’s idea of “nurturing” is, in fact, closely linked to his concept of righteousness and profit. His idea of “division” or “differentiation” is analyzed further here. First of all, Xunzi’s “rites” are used to distinguish between the noble and inferior classes of society and differentiate between people’s different positions in a class society. It requires people to behave in strict compliance with the ruling order of the time, thus safeguarding the rule of the exploiting class. Xunzi said, “The rites have different ranks for the noble and the lowly, a certain difference between the older and the younger, and appropriate rules for the poor and the rich, the less powerful and the more powerful.” (Xunzi—Enriching the State). He advocated that “the ruler, the minister, the father, the son, the brother are all the same, and the farmer, the scholar, the worker and the merchant are all the same.” (Xunzi—Wang Zhi), i.e. everyone should act according to his own rank and status rules and should not go beyond the boundaries of his own class. Moreover, the world will only be ruled if it is done according to “rites”; otherwise, it will be chaotic; it will only be safe if it is done according to “rites”; otherwise, it will be dangerous; it will only survive if it is done according to “rites”, otherwise it will perish. (see Xunzi—Rites). This idea was inherited from Tso Chuan, but Xunzi further developed it in the light of the circumstances of the time, emphasizing its essential role in maintaining the hierarchy. Secondly, according to Xunzi, ritual is a code of moral conduct, a standard of moral evaluation, and a standard by which people evaluate things, especially human

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behavior. According to Xunzi, just as a scale can be used as a standard to measure the weight of an object, so too is ritual, a standard that can be used to determine the relationship between people, i.e. to evaluate human behavior morally. He said: “Weights were the standards by which objects were measured; rituals were the standards by which laws such as etiquette and protocol were determined. Weights were used to determine the quantity of goods, and rituals were used to determine the hierarchical relationship between people.” (Xunzi—Zhi Shi) “Rites”, as a code of conduct between people, are the only proper guidelines. “So when the woodworker’s ink line is truly drawn, it is no longer possible to deceive with curves and straightness; when the scales are truly hung, it is no longer possible to deceive with lightness and weight; when the circle gauge is truly set, it is no longer possible to deceive with squares and circles; and when the gentleman understands rites clearly, it is no longer possible to deceive him with guile. So something like the ink line is the pole of straightness; something like the scales is the pole of equality; something like the round rule is the pole of the square and the circle; something like the rites is the pole of social and moral norms.” (Xunzi—A Treatise on Rites). Here, Xunzi unites the ruling class’s political principles, legal measures, and moral codes, all of which are regarded as criteria for people to evaluate things and human behavior. In addition, Xunzi believed that ritual was an essential guarantee for human society to maintain its existence. In his view, to fight for their own survival and against nature, people must unite. They must be able to “group”. But to be able to collaborate, to be able to “group”, there must be “ritual” (or sometimes, as it is often said, “righteousness”). This means that ritual is a need of man as a social animal, and without it, people cannot unite and overcome the natural world. Xunzi compares human beings with animals to illustrate the importance of rituals to human beings. He said, “Man is not as strong as an ox or as fast as a horse, yet oxen and horses are enslaved by man. People can combine into social groups, but they cannot combine into social groups. Why can people be united into social groups? It is because there is a hierarchy of names. Why can the hierarchy be practiced? It is because there is morality. Therefore, when a name is established according to morality, people can be united and harmonious; when they are united and harmonious, they can be united; when they are united and united, they will be powerful; when they are powerful, they will be strong; when they are strong, they will be able to overcome external objects.“ (Xunzi—Wang Zhi) This means that to survive in the natural world and overcome nature, man must have ritual and righteousness. Thus, ritual is an important marker that distinguishes human beings from animals. Here, Xunzi introduces the concepts of ‘group’, ‘division’ and ‘righteousness’. Of these, ‘righteousness’, the principle of morality, is the most important. It is because of the formation of certain moral principles and norms among people (i.e. “righteousness”) that people can be divided into different classes and engage in different occupations (i.e. what Xunzi called ruler, minister, father, son, farmer, scholar, worker and merchant). Because people can be divided into different classes and occupations, each of them only doing what they are supposed to do without overstepping the boundaries, they can form a community. This is what Xunzi called the “able group”. Why can’t animals swarm? They do not have a moral code and cannot be divided into different classes. According to

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Xunzi, “righteousness” is the most important thing. With “righteousness”, we can “divide”; with “division”, we can “harmonize” i.e. we can form a social group and be united. Only when there is “division” can there be “harmony”, that is to say, only when there is a social group can there be unity, and only when there is mutual cooperation can there be a powerful force. It is precise because of this powerful force that people can overcome nature and make cattle and horses available to mankind that they can achieve what he calls “living in a group and being one”. Mencius also believed that the difference between human beings and animals lay in the fact that human beings had “good sense” and “good energy”: the four minds of compassion, shame of evil, resignation and right and wrong. However, Mencius failed to make a theoretical argument, nor did he positively suggest what essential attributes humans should have to adapt to human society’s development. Xunzi was a step ahead of Mencius in that he made a more in-depth analysis of what made man overcome animals and eventually break away from the animal kingdom to become a human being and put forward the definition of what makes a human being. In the history of Chinese ethical thought, before Xunzi, there was the saying, “Only man is the cleverest of all creatures.” (Shang Shu - Tai Xue, first half), which is the earliest definition of the concept of man that we can find. However, this definition is too general: by “the cleverest of all creatures”, it may mean that man is rational, but it is not specifically argued. From Xunzi’s book, we see an opinion around that time that the difference between man and beast was that man was “two-footed and hairless”, whereas beasts were not, either four-footed or four-footed or two-footed and hairy. According to Xunzi, man is human because “he has discernment”. The desire to eat when one is hungry, to warm when one is cold, to rest when one is laboring, and to benefit when one hates harm, are all things that human beings are born with, and they are all the same as Yu and Jie. A man is a man not only because he has two feet and no fur but also because he has discernment. The vervet is also twofooted and hairy, yet the human drinks with his spoon and eats the diced meat. The beast has a father and a son but not a close relationship. They have different sex, like females and males, but they do not notice it. And as the moral code of human society, discernment makes a distinction between the boundaries of all things. There is no more important distinction between the boundaries of things than the determination of names, no more critical determination of names than the observance of rites and laws, and no more important observance of rites and laws than the imitation of a wise emperor. (Xunzi—Feixiang). We can see that Xunzi’s “rites” and “righteousness” are the same, i.e. moral principles. Why does he also say that “the greatest rites are those of the sage”? Because according to Xunzi, all ethical principles and codes of ethics are laid down by the Sage King, who therefore has the most essential role in separating man from the animals and making him human. What Xunzi calls ‘rites’ include both political systems and legal codes and moral norms. Because Xunzi could not distinguish between political and legal codes and moral codes, and because of the limitations of his understanding and the constraints of his class, he believed that all these codes were formulated by the Sages. The sages established rites and righteousness because they wanted people to keep to their own

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parts so that production and consumption could grow in tandem and social stability could be maintained and consolidated. “Rites can regulate the relationship between people and humans, but at the same time, they are powerful enough to enable humans to overcome animals and make them work for them.

4 The Complementary Thoughts in Politics and Ethics of “Govern by Virtue” and “Govern by Law” In the history of Chinese ethical thought, Xunzi is a great master of pre-Qin thoughts. This is because Xunzi discarded the one-sided and backward ideas of various schools of thought and incorporated the reasonable and progressive elements of view that are conducive to the governance of the state and the people. Then he made a comprehensive innovation, combined and integrated the theories and practices of various thoughts in the history and finally formed a new theory. The “great achievement” and outstanding contribution of Xunzi’s political and ethical thought is his concept of “promoting ritual and valuing law”. For the first time, he comprehensively and thoroughly articulated the idea that “promote rituals” and “value laws” and that “rule by morality” and “rule by law” must be closely integrated. He brought the concept of governance since the Western Zhou to a new level. This concept of “ritual and law” overcame the one-sided opposition between Confucianism and Legalism regarding political and ethical thinking and the “strategy of governance” and created a precedent for “equal emphasis on rites and law” in Chinese political and moral thought. Both Confucianism and Legalism after Xunzi, to varying degrees, drew on his reasonable idea of “emphasizing ritual and law” and used it to build their own theories of governance. Before Xunzi, Confucianism and Legalism were the two most influential schools of thought representing different philosophies of governance. The main difference lies in the different attitudes towards ritual and law and moral and legal governance. While Shang Yang and Shen Buhai emphasized the importance of “law” and “rule by law and punishment”. Confucius and Mencius, on the other hand, stressed the importance of “rule by ritual” and “moral education”. The two were so opposed to each other that they were almost incompatible, just like the water and fire. Xunzi claimed to belong to Confucianism and respected Confucius and Mencius. However, in his political and ethical thinking, he made bold changes to Confucianism and drew on the correct parts of Legalism to put forward the concept of governing the state by “emphasizing both rites and laws”. This philosophy of governance not only reflects his great theoretical courage, broad-mindedness and his ability to integrate the best achievements of various thinkings, but also represents a comprehensive and profound summary of the ideas of governance in Chinese history and has had a significant influence on the governance strategies of later generations. Xunzi called himself a Confucian and was known as so at that time. While his two students, Han Fei and Li Si were famous Legalism representatives. The later

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orthodox Confucianists were critical of Xunzi, saying that he was “not a Confucian” but a Confucian mixed with legalist ideas, a “hybridity”. Zhu Xi even thought that “Xun Qing was all about Shen Han” (Zhu Zi Yushu Shi). In the 1970s, when people tried to criticise Confucianism, Xunzi was known as a “legalist” because of his focus on the “rule by law”. Unlike Confucius, who did not even bother to look at Qin, where Legalism was dominant at the time, and Mencius, who did not visit Qin, Xunzi not only went to Qin himself but also examined the political, economic and cultural conditions of the state in some detail, and evaluated the state with a bold and clear affirmative attitude. The political achievements of the Qin state under the guidance of Legalism were considered with boldness and certainty. It is not only of great theoretical significance, but also of great practical significance to conduct an in-depth study of Xunzi’s political and ethical thought, especially the idea of “ritual and law” and the concurrent application of morality and law.

4.1 Xunzi’s Definition of “Rites” and “Law” Xunzi is attached to the role of “ritual”. He said: “Rites, is the extreme point of a society’s moral code.” (Xunzi—Li Lun), “Rites are used to rectify the body and mind… without rites, what will be used to rectify the body and mind?” (Xunzi—Xiu Shen) “Therefore, the rites are to serve heaven above and earth below, to respect the ancestors and to honor the ruler. These are the three fundamentals of ritual.” (Xunzi—Li Lun), “Rites means that there are different ranks for the noble and the lowly, a certain difference between the older and the younger, and appropriate rules for the poor and the rich, the less powerful and the more powerful.” (Xunzi—Fu Guo). In general terms, Xunzi gives two different meanings to rites. One includes a very broad connotation of ideology, politics, culture, education, morality, and so on. In this sense, Xunzi includes political institutions, moral codes, customs and even legal norms in the content of rites. For this reason, he often regarded rituals and laws as being of equal significance. The other meaning of rites refers exclusively to the rules of thought, culture, ethics and morality, especially moral norms, moral education and moral inculcation for the ordinary people. In this sense, Xunzi often clearly distinguishes between rites and laws. He believed that rites and laws represented different philosophies of governance and advocated that rites and laws should be pursued together and given equal importance. Xunzi also gave two different meanings to the term ‘law’. One of the meanings of “law” is “law”, “norm”, and “standard”, which can also be said to be a broad definition of “law”. In this sense, the content of “law” is comprehensive, and “rites” are included in “law”. Xunzi said, “Rites, a general outline of behavior essentials, specific guidelines.” (Xunzi—Persuading Learning). In this sentence, he considered rites to be part of the law.

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Another meaning of “law” is to refer specifically to “law”, “rule of law”, “punishment”, etc. Here, “law” and “ritual” are often used in opposition to each other, as two aspects that influence each other, complement each other, and oppose each other.

4.2 “Rites” and “Law” Should Be Given Equal Importance Xunzi believed that human nature was evil, which was the starting point of all his political, legal and ethical thinking. Because of the evil nature, if we follow human nature and obey human feelings, it will be out of contention and lead to violence and disorder. “It is human nature to want to eat when hungry, to be warm when cold, and to rest when tired, and these are human passions and natures. When a man is hungry, he does not dare to eat first when he sees his father and brother, because he wants to be humble; when he is tired, he does not dare to ask for rest when he sees his father and brother because he wants to work on his father’s behalf. A son is humble to his father and his brother; a son works in place of his father and brother; both virtues are contrary to nature and deviate from lust, but they are the principles of filial piety and the institutions of propriety. So by following the nature of the passions, one does not resist humility, and by resisting humility, one violates the nature of the passions. From this, it seems clear then that men are evil by nature and that their acts of kindness are artificial.” (Xunzi—Evil Nature). This is to say, since human nature is selfish and self-interested, if it is allowed to develop, it will inevitably compete with each other. Therefore, “by following the nature of the passions, one does not resist humility, and by resisting humility, one violates the nature of the passions.” to cultivate the concept of law-abiding and moral consciousness and achieve the purpose of governance and stability of the whole society. According to Xunzi, neither morality nor law alone is sufficient to achieve the goal. It is simply inconceivable that the “disorderly and violent” situation that inevitably arises from the evil of human nature could not be punished without punishment, and therefore sentence is essential to the governance of a state. However, although discipline could punish those who broke the law and deter them from committing crimes, it could not yet convince them to understand the “ways of propriety and righteousness”, and it could not fundamentally change their “love for profit”, “competition” and “striving”. Thus, it’s necessary to strengthen moral education and probation. This is the inevitable conclusion of Xunzi’s theory. This statement of Xunzi is very different from the previous statements of Confucianism and Legalism. Confucius, the founder of Confucianism, believed that, although “government” and “punishment” also had a role to play, only “rites” and “virtue” were the most critical elements in the governance of a state. This is the basic idea of Confucius’ strategy: “If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame.

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Suppose they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety. In that case, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good.” (The Analects of Confucius—Wei Zheng). Instead of placing equal importance on “virtue” and “punishment”, he emphasizes “virtue over punishment”. This idea of “virtue over punishment” is also reflected in his view of “leniency and fierceness”. In governing a state, both “leniency” (moral education) and “fierceness” (punishment) are indispensable. Still, Confucius believed that “leniency” should be applied frequently. In contrast “fierceness” should be applied only when necessary. Mencius, who followed Confucius, deviated even more from the direction of “valuing virtue over punishment” and largely ignored the role of “law” and “punishment” in governing the state. The famous representative of Legalism, Shen Dao, believed that the most essential thing in governance was to rely on “power” and “law”. His strategy for governing the state was based on four words: ‘hold the law and deal with the situation. In his view, as long as a ruler had “power” and used this “power” to enforce the “law”, a country would be safe and sound. Another famous figure of Legalism, Shang Yang, went to the extreme of emphasizing “punishment”. His strategy for ruling the country was to “reward those who have merit and punish those who have demerits”. He believed that “the only way to stop a vice is to impose heavy punishment” (Shang Jun Shu—Reward and Punishment) and that only severe punishment could deter the people from breaking the law and achieve the goal of “removing punishment with punishment”. This means that severe punishment should be used to punish all crimes so that people would not dare commit them. Shang Yang regarded Confucian rites, music, poetry, calligraphy, benevolence and righteousness, filial piety and fraternal duty, honesty and chastity as pests that had to be eliminated and ultimately denied the inevitable role of morality and moral education in the governance of the state. Xunzi went beyond the heights reached by his predecessors and, with a broad vision and profound observation, realized from the practical experience of governing the state at that time that it was necessary to combine “law” and “ritual”, “punishment” and “moral education”. The idea of opposing “law” and “ritual”, “punishment” and “moral education”, “rule by law” and “rule by morality” was one-sided and not conducive to governance. This is why he put forward his philosophy of “morality and law with equal emphasis” in the governance of a state. In the book History of Chinese Ethical Thought, Mr. Cai Yuanpei gave an insightful summary of Xunzi’s theory, saying that Xunzi believed that “rituals are to be used with music to teach those people, but there are still stubborn ones who do not like to obey, so they need to be punished. Punishment, however, is not only to punish evil that has already been done but also to deter the courage of potential offenders and curb the evil before happening.” That is to say, moral education alone could not completely maintain the social stability, and without punishment, the aim of “forbidding evil before it is done” could not be achieved. “Rites” and “punishment” are two essential elements in the governance of the state, and they complement each other and serve each other. Xunzi’s idea of “placing equal emphasis on virtue and law” can be summed up in one of the most concise

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and incisive words: “The outline of governance is ritual and punishment” (Xunzi— Chengxiang). From this, the importance of “rule by law” and “rule by morality” has been raised to the level of classics.

4.3 The Role of “Law” in Governing a State Xunzi believed that, in addition to rites and education, a society must be stable by imposing strict penalties on lawbreakers, especially on those who were “traitorous” and those who did not change their ways. If they were not severely punished, there would be no guarantee of peace in the country. However, his idea of “rule by law” was significantly different from that of the previous legalists, and it can be said that he defined and interpreted “rule by law” in a new way based on the criticism of the original Legalism. He rejected the idea of “harsh punishment” and believed that the law should be enforced and that “no crime should go unpunished”. The sentence should be appropriate for law enforcement, and the severity should be fair. He said, “Society is well governed when the penalty fits the crime; society is in disarray when it doesn’t.” (Xunzi—Zhenglun), stressing that the punishment must be fair and just. He believed that the fairness of sentencing was a key to the governance of the state. He said, “Justice is the rule in dealing with politics; leniency is the criterion for dealing with politics.” (Xunzi—Wang Zhi), stressing that both “hearing” and “trial” should be fair and just, and considering fairness and impartiality as essential criteria for law enforcement. For these reasons, Xunzi neither agrees with the Confucian ideas of ignoring punishment nor opposes the Legalist ideas of “light crime, heavy punishment”. He emphasized “light crime with light punishment, and heavy with heavy.” This overcomes the one-sidedness of both Confucianism and Buddhism on this issue. Xunzi realized that no law, no matter how complete, could cover all aspects of criminal things. Xunzi said, “If a law is made and no longer relies on discussion and studied by the ministers, then what is not covered by the law must be abandoned.” (ibid.). He believed that if one confined oneself to the law, one would be at a loss what to do in many cases. Therefore, he emphasized the need to grasp the fundamental spirit of the legislation and understand the “meaning of the law”, which is the only way to correctly solve the various legal problems encountered according to the spirit of the legislation. In other words, if there are legal provisions to be relied upon, they should be dealt with according to the legal provisions; if there are no legal provisions to be relied upon, then similar laws should be used as the basis.

4.4 The Role of “Rites” in Governing a State Xunzi has given a very full account of the importance of rites. The chapter Li Lun in Xunzi is a particular chapter that explains the role of rituals in governance.

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“Under what circumstances do rites arise? If one wants something and cannot obtain it, one cannot be without pursuit; if one pursues it without a standard limit, one cannot be without strife; when there is strife, there will be chaos, and when there is chaos, one will be in trouble. The ancient kings of the world were disgusted by that chaos, so they established rites and rituals to determine the names of people, so that they could regulate their desires and satisfy their demands, so that their desires would never be unsatisfied because of material things, and that material things would never be depleted because of their desires, and so that material things and desires would grow in mutual restraint. This is the origin of ritual.” (Xunzi—A Treatise on Rites). Here, Xunzi presents his thinking about the origin of morality and further elaborates on the social function of morality. “Rites” were proposed to regulate the relationship between people and their interests. On the one hand, in the hierarchical society, it was necessary to hold the relationship between superiority and inferiority; on the other hand, it was essential to regulate the relationship of interests between the members of each class. According to Xunzi, rituals arose from the struggle between people because their “desires” were not satisfied. According to Xunzi, this ritual function can be divided into two aspects: one is ‘nurturing’ and the other is ‘differentiation’. By ‘nurturing’, we mean that the material wealth that society can produce should meet the needs of its members; by ‘differentiating’, we mean that the material wealth of society should be distributed differently according to the different levels of respect. Xunzi said: “What is meant by distinction? There is a difference in rank between the noble and the lowly, a difference between the old and the young, between the poor and the rich, between the less powerful and the more powerful.” (ibid.). The social function of rituals is to “nourish people’s desires” and “give them what they want”, so that everyone’s desires can be adequately satisfied, while at the same time maintaining social harmony and avoiding competition. The emphasis on “rule by rites” is also an emphasis on “rule by morality”, which emphasizes the importance of rites. Xunzi focused on the important roles of the “king” and the “gentleman”. He repeatedly states that the “king” and “gentleman” are the “source” and the ordinary people are the “stream”. He emphasizes that “if the original is clear, the flow is clear, while if the original is turbid, the flow is turbid”. Therefore, “if the monarch is fond of favoritism, then the ministers and officials will take the opportunity to follow suit.”, “if a ruler loves propriety, respects virtuous people, uses talented people, and has no desire for wealth and profit, then his subjects will be extremely humble, loyal and honest, and prudent in being a subject.” (Xunzi— Jun Dao). In Xunzi’s view, as long as there are moral “kings” and “ministers” in a state, there will be a peaceful world that “the people can be diligent without rewards, obedient without punishment, and the officials can handle things well without effort, and the customs can be changed for the better without many policies and decrees.” (ibid.). According to Xunzi, the fundamental difference between human beings and animals is that human beings have morality. He said: “Man is not as strong as an ox or as fast as a horse, yet oxen and horses are enslaved by man. People can combine into

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social groups, but they cannot combine into social groups. Why can people be united into social groups? It is because there is a hierarchy of names. Why can the hierarchy be practiced? It is because there is morality. Therefore, when a name is established according to moral righteousness, people can be harmonious and coordinated; when they are harmonious and coordinated, they can be united; when they are united, they are powerful; when they are powerful, they are strong; when they are strong, they can overcome external things.”, “Therefore, one cannot live without a group. But when one is united in a social group without the restriction of hierarchical names, there will be strife, and when there is strife, there will be turmoil, and when there is turmoil, there will be separation from virtue, and when there is separation from virtue, there will be weakening of power, and when there is weakening of power, there will be no victory over external objects, and so one cannot dwell in a house—this is to say that one cannot forsake ritual and righteousness for a moment.” (Xunzi—Wang Zhi). He also said: “So men are men, not merely because they have two feet and no hair on their bodies, but because they distinguish between the boundaries of all kinds of things. That beasts have a father and a son, but there is no kinship between father and son; there is a female and a male, but there is no boundary between male and female. And as the moral code of human society, it makes a distinction between the boundaries of all things. There is no more important distinction between the boundaries of things than the determination of names, and no more important determination of names than the observance of rites and laws, and no more important observance of rites and laws than the imitation of a wise emperor.” (Xunzi—Feixiang). Xun Kuang attributed the morality of man to the “Sage king”, a limitation of historical idealism, but for the first time he clearly stated that the difference between man and animals was not the image of “man” (two-legged and hairless), but that ritual and morality. This was a major innovation in the history of human thought.

4.5 “Rites” and “Law” Can be Complementary Both Mencius and Xunzi believed that anyone can become a person of high moral character if they work hard enough. This is what Mencius meant when he said, “All men can become Yao and Shun” (Mencius—Gaozi, second half), and Xunzi when he said, “A man of Tu can become Yu” (Xunzi—Evil Nature). However, Mencius starts from the theory of “good nature” and emphasizes the inner cultivation of human beings, believing that with personal efforts, one can become a “sage” and that the reason why one does not become a “sage” is not because of the “sage”. The reason why people did not become “saints” was not that “saints” could not be achieved at all, but because individuals did not work hard enough; Xunzi, starting from the theory of evil nature, emphasized the vital role of morality and punishment, and the effectiveness of “benevolence, righteousness, law and justice”. He argues that “if a man of Tu can become Yu, then yes; if a man of Tu will definitely become Yu, it is not certain” (ibid.). This means that although the average person can become a “saint”, in reality, not everyone can become a “saint”; however, we should not give

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up on this lofty moral ideal because of this self-loathing. He said, “Failing to become Yu does not mean that one can’t become Yu. Everyone has the feet to walk through the whole world, but not everyone will do so… The difference between willing and not willing, can and cannot, then, is huge.” (Ibid). Xunzi denied that the four virtues of “benevolence, righteousness, ritual and wisdom” said by Mencius. Therefore, man’s nature of “love benefits and hate harms” must be restrained and modified by “righteousness and law”. About the four virtues, Xunzi said, “Generally speaking, Yu became Yu because he was able to practice benevolence and righteousness. The ordinary people were all qualified to understand the law of benevolence, and all could do it; and since this was the case, it was obvious that they could become Yu.” (ibid.). Confucianism’s “rule by morality” emphasizes the “virtuous and capable”. In contrast, Legalism’s “rule by law” emphasizes “rewarding merit and punishing demerits”. Xunzi, on the other hand, emphasized both, arguing that to govern the country well and make the people morally virtuous, it was necessary both to “promote virtue and enable” and to “reward merit and punish demerit”.

4.6 “Ritual” Is More Fundamental Than “Law” In Xunzi’s strategy for governing the state, he often used both “rites” and “laws”, believing that they complement each other. The terms he often used were ‘the pivotal point of ritual and law’ and ‘the great division of ritual and law’ (Xunzi—Wangba). So, which of these two is more fundamental than the other? From the perspective of Xunzi’s overall thinking, he believed that while the law was important for maintaining political stability in feudal society and the state’s long-term stability, the more fundamental issue was the Rites. He retained some of the basic ideas of Confucianism while “incorporating Legalism into Confucianism” and boldly correcting the one-sidedness of Confucian ideas on moral governance. He believed that the origin of rites was earlier than that of the law. The role of rites is broader and deeper, and is something fundamental. What is even more noteworthy is that however important the rule of law may be, it is the people who have to carry it out in the final analysis. Xunzi said: “There are monarchs who mess up states, but no states that mess up on their own; there are talents who govern states, but no legal systems that govern on their own.”, “So the legal system cannot be built up alone, the laws cannot be automatically enforced; if you get the kind of talent that is good at governing, then the legal system exists; if you lose that talent, then the legal system perishes. The rule of law is the beginning of politics; the gentleman is the essence of the rule of law. Therefore, with a gentleman, the law, even if it is brief, is sufficient for all purposes; without a gentleman, the law, even if it is complete, will lose its order of precedence and will not be able to cope with the various changes of things, and will be sufficient to create confusion.” (Xunzi—Jun Dao). This passage means that there is no such thing as a disordered state without a disordered ruler; a state can be governed by talents but not by laws alone. Laws cannot be enforced alone, nor can institutions be automatically enforced. If you get

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talent, the state will survive and develop; if you lose talent, the state will perish. The rule of law is the beginning of the state’s rule, but a moral gentleman is the foundation of the rule of the state. Therefore, as long as there is a gentleman, even though the laws are simple, they are still sufficient to rule the country; if there is no gentleman, even if the laws are complete, they will not be able to cope with the changes in the order of things because the order of governance is reversed, and the result will be chaos in the country. Here, Xunzi presents the relationship between the “duan” and the “yuan” of the governing strategy, a new overview of the ancient Chinese governing strategy. The term “duan” here means “beginning”, “top” and “end”; the term “yuan” has the meaning of The word “original” which means “source”, “origin”, and “root”. In ancient Chinese thought, “origin” and “end” were the basic categories used to distinguish between two aspects of things, i.e. the first and the second, the primary and the secondary. Confucianism considers filial piety and fraternal duty the root of benevolence, while other moral codes are the end of benevolence. According to Xunzi, the relationship between the ‘Duan’ and the ‘Yuan’ in the governance strategy is like the relationship between the ‘original’ and the ‘end’. It can not be mistakenly inverted. Otherwise, it would inevitably lead to social unrest and national chaos. In short, Xunzi believed that both the law and the rites were important in governance, but since the law was made by men and was to be implemented by men, it could not be adapted no matter how complete it was the complex changes of the situation. Therefore, it is more important to have a righteous and moral “sage”, a “wise minister”, and a moral person.

4.7 Governing the State and Cultivating Personal Moral Character Xunzi thought that state governing strategy has an inseparable relationship with individuals’ moral cultivation. The fundamental purpose of moral cultivation is to raise people’s morality and change their selfish and self-serving habits. Based on the theories of his predecessors on the principles, methods and practices of cultivation, Xunzi put forward his own systematic and complete theory of cultivation. Human nature is evil, but human nature can be changed. Xunzi’s emphasis on the “transformation of nature into falsity” means that the original evil nature of human beings has to be changed through “human effort”, that is, through study, education and cultivation. Therefore, we can say that Xunzi’s theory of human nature focuses not on “evil” but on “transformation”. First of all, Xunzi stresses the importance of education and cultivation. “The ancient sages believed that people were evil by nature, that they were wicked and unrighteous, rebellious and disorderly, so they established the power of the sovereign to rule over them, manifested rites and righteousness to teach them, established the rule of law to govern them, and increased penalties to restrain them, so that all the

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people of the world would start from observing order and conforming to the standard of goodness. This is the rule of a wise emperor and the teaching of propriety and righteousness.” (Xunzi—Evil Nature). Xunzi pinned the governance of society on the emergence of a “saintly king”, which is the limitation of historical idealism. Still, he believed that, through the guidance of political thought, the sanction of law and punishment, and the teaching of ritual and morality, people could be induced to change their evil into good through their own hard cultivation so that the state could be governed. This enables the state to be governed and society to develop harmoniously and stably. Therefore, he attached particular importance to moral cultivation and not only devoted a special chapter to the theory of “cultivating one’s own moral character”, but also, in almost all of his writings, he demanded the cultivation of one’s own moral character throughout. Xunzi’s idea of “cultivating one’s moral character” consists of four aspects, or four steps, in general. The first is to learn about one’s own shortcomings from one’s teachers and friends and from the people one comes into contact with; the second is to conduct frequent examinations and reflections; the third is to put into practice what one has learned from the examinations and reflections, to overcome one’s wrong thoughts and words, and to learn from people of high moral character; the fourth is to be persistent and to start with small things in order to achieve the goal of “accumulating goodness into a virtue”. Fourthly, we should be persistent and start with small things in order to achieve the goal of “accumulating goodness and becoming virtuous”. This is the most complete and systematic theory of cultivation in the history of Chinese ethical thought, and has had an important influence on later cultivation theories. In the process of “transforming one’s nature into falsehood”, Xunzi especially advocates the correction of one’s own shortcomings and mistakes through “the teacher and friends”. He said, “So he who rebukes me and rebukes me properly is my teacher; he who approves of me and approves properly is my friend; he who flatters me is a thief who harms me. A gentleman honors his teacher and friends, but hates those who are thieves.” (Xunzi—Cultivating oneself). According to Xunzi, one should recognise one’s own shortcomings and mistakes from the criticism and be wary of the flattery to understand oneself correctly and become a moral person. Xunzi stressed the importance of learning from one’s teachers and friends, and of “gaining wise teachers” and “gaining good friends” in order to better learn from their good moral qualities. He said, “When one has received a wise teacher to serve, one hears the righteousness of Yao, Shun, Yu and Tang; when one has received friends of good moral character and associates with them, one sees faithfulness and respectfulness and humility. In this way, one enters the realm of benevolence and righteousness day by day without feeling it, and this is the result of influence.” (Xunzi—Evil Nature). Xunzi attached great importance to moral and intellectual examination and reflection and the reformation of good and evil. He said, “If a gentleman learns extensively and examines himself daily, then he will be well-informed and will act without fault.” (Xunzi—Persuading Learning), and also said, “This is why a gentleman must choose his village when he lives there, and be close to wise men of true talent when he goes out to socialise, as a way of preventing himself from going astray and approaching

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the right path.” (ibid.), and “When they see a good act, they must meticulously hold it up to themselves; when they see a bad act, they must hold it up to themselves with fear.” (Xunzi—Cultivating Oneself). In terms of cultivation, Xunzi proposed the practice-oriented cultivation method of “accumulating goodness into a virtue”, saying, “The accumulation of good deeds into a moral man will clarify his mind, and the state of mind of a saint will be there.” (Xunzi—Persuading Learning) Although he advocated the evil nature, he believed that as long as one could persist in cultivating and exercising, anyone could reach the supreme state of a moral “sage”. He said, “A person who has accumulated goodness and has completed it is called a sage” and “A sage is a person who has accumulated goodness” (Xunzi—Ru Xiao). Xunzi’s ideas on ‘cultivation’ are linked to his governance strategy and serve his philosophy of governance. In Xunzi’s thought, we can clearly see that the cultivation of “moral people” is like a red thread running through his political thought, ethical thought and philosophy of governance.

4.8 Inspiration from Xunzi’s Political Ethics The core of Xunzi’s political and ethical thought—“to give equal importance to rites and laws”—has played an essential role not only in history but also in the present time. It has a certain value and enlightening effect. Reviewing the past enables us to learn about the law governing the evolution of history. In a certain sense, Xunzi’s ideas can be said to be one of the critical theoretical sources for today’s strategy of governing the country by combining “rule by law” and “rule by morality”.

5 The Concept of Righteousness and Benefit of “Man Can Pursue Both Righteousness and Benefit” On the relationship between righteousness and benefit, Xunzi disagreed with Confucius and Mencius, who valued righteousness over benefit, and proposed the theory that ‘righteousness and benefit are the two things that people have’ (Xunzi—Strategies). In a sense, this can also be said to be a concession or compromise to Xunzi’s theory of the goodness of nature, or a modification or supplement to his own theory of the evil of nature. He believed that righteousness and benefit should be analyzed and compared according to the situation, and that neither righteousness nor benefit should be given priority over righteousness. People have both the instinct of “preferring benefit” and “preferring righteousness”. Xunzi inherited the view of righteousness and benefit from Mozi and Mencius, further developing the discussion on the relationship between righteousness and benefit in the history of Chinese thought. According to Xunzi, ‘benefit’, or ‘desire for benefit’, is a natural desire for survival that cannot be eliminated from human beings. In order to eliminate the desire for

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benefit, one would have to eliminate man himself. Moreover, one’s moral principles do not contradict one’s desire for benefit, but in the relationship between the two, one should subordinate the desire for benefit to the moral principles, but not the moral principles to one’s desire for benefit. Xunzi said: Morality and self-interest are things that people have in common. Even wise rulers like Yao and Shun could not remove the people’s desire for self-interest, but they could make their pursuit of self-interest no match for their love of morality. Even tyrants like Xia Jie and Shang Zhou could not remove the people’s love of moral righteousness, but they could make their love of moral righteousness no match for their pursuit of private gain. Therefore, a well-governed society is one in which moral righteousness prevails over self-interest, and a chaotic society is one in which self-interest prevails over moral righteousness. (Xunzi—Strategies). Here, Xunzi acknowledges that the material interests of the people should not be denied, and believes that the ruler of the state should properly satisfy the material interests of the people, and strengthen the moral education of the people. In short, the most important thing is not to abolish the desire for benefit, but not to allow the desire for benefit to overtake the desire for righteousness, so that the state can be ruled without chaos. What attitude should people adopt in the face of desires, since it is common to all and should not be denied? How can good righteousness overcome the desire for benefit? Xunzi proposes a theory of weighing and comparing. What is weighing and comparing? It means that, in deciding between a desire for gain and a desire for benefit, one must consider its impact and what consequences it will have. This can be divided into two aspects: whether it will be beneficial or harmful to society, and whether it will bring honor or humiliation to oneself. He said, “When one sees something that one wants to pursue, one must consider whether there is anything to dislike about it. When one sees something that is beneficial, one must consider whether it is harmful. Weigh both and consider them carefully before deciding whether to pursue or to dislike, to strive for or to give up. In this way you will not always be caught up in material desires.” (Xunzi—Thoroughness) Why does Xunzi particularly emphasize the need for deep consideration and careful planning in the face of desires? This is also closely related to his theory of the nature of evil. “Human nature is evil” means to seek benefit and avoid harm, always preferring to gain benefit at the expense of propriety and righteousness. “The woe of the ordinary people is that they are partial and do harm. They see what they want to pursue, but do not consider what they hate about it. They see what is good, but do not consider what is bad. Therefore, if one is active, one is bound to fall into disgrace, and if one acts, one is bound to be humiliated.” (ibid.) It is for this reason that weighing, calculating, considering and comparing are all the more necessary. The reason why Xunzi asks people to weigh is not that they can do whatever is good for them and can satisfy their desires, but that they should follow a moral principle. This principle is sometimes called ‘righteousness’, ‘propriety’, and sometimes ‘Dao (The Way)’. Xunzi believed that there was a definite criterion for what he meant by right and balance. “The Way is the rightful power of the past and the present. If one departs from the Way and chooses one’s own choice, then one does not know where one’s

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woes and blessings lie.” (Xunzi—The Righteous Name) He also said, “What is the standard by which things are weighed?” The answer is: It is the Way. So one must not be ignorant of the Way in one’s heart. If one does not know the Way in one’s heart, one will deny the Way and endorse what is contrary to it. (Xunzi—Unmask) In Xunzi’s view, the Tao was the highest standard for evaluating everything in feudal society, and therefore, when people had a desire for something, they had to measure it by this standard. If one abandoned this sole standard of feudal society and judged only according to one’s inner desires, one was bound to invite disaster. Likewise, if one does not know the Way in one’s heart, one will naturally leave the Way and move towards the wrong way. Xunzi was an up-and-coming landowning thinker, and he also put forward a more progressive idea on the issue of lust. “(Xunzi—The Righteous Name). Since one of the important functions of ritual is to “meet the desires of the people and give them what they want” according to the hierarchy and the division of labor, not only do the monarchs and the sons of heaven have desires, but also the common people who guard the gate have their own desires. For these two kinds of people, because of their different positions in feudal society, some desires could be satisfied to a greater extent, while others could only be satisfied to a lesser extent. However, the Son of Heaven should not be able to do whatever he wants without limit, and the gatekeeper should not be unable to satisfy even the minimum of his desires. According to Xunzi, it is in the nature of human beings to be long for benefit and bad at harm. The nature of human beings is the essence of their emotions, and in response to these emotions, they have all kinds of desires. Therefore, from human nature to human feelings and from feelings to desires, it is inevitable that they can be pursued and should be satisfied to a certain extent. He said: Human nature is a natural creation; emotion is the actual content of nature; desire is the response of emotion to external things. To think that what is desired can be obtained and thus to pursue it is a phenomenon which the emotions must not avoid; to think that it is feasible and thus to carry it out is an intention which the intellect is bound to make. So even a lowly janitor cannot have his desire removed, for it is in his nature to do so. Even a noble son of God cannot have all his desires satisfied. Though it is impossible to satisfy all desires, it is possible to come close to satisfying them all; and though it is impossible to get rid of them, the pursuit of satisfying them is possible in moderation. (ibid.) The desires of the Son of Heaven, though almost completely satisfied, could not be satisfied in all cases; the desires of the gatekeepers, though not completely satisfied, were always being considered in terms of how to moderate their own desires in order to obtain a certain degree of satisfaction. In short, Xunzi’s ‘rites’ can also be said to regulate relations between people by means of ‘nurturing’ and ‘differentiation’, and to include the idea of taking care, to a certain extent, of some of the most necessary requirements of working people. The idea that the most necessary requirements of working people’s lives must be taken care of to a certain extent has a certain degree of validity.

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6 Moral Education Theory Emphasizing “Law” and “Rite” Starting from the theory that “the nature of man is evil, but people’s goodness is also hypocrisy”, Xunzi attached great importance to moral education and moral cultivation. In his view, since human beings are by nature evil, they have to compete with each other; in order to reconcile the contradictions between people, they have to “transform their nature into hypocrisy”, so that they can develop goodness and moral values. In order to reconcile the contradictions between people, it is necessary to “transform innate natures to acquired social behavior”, so that people can develop goodness and moral values. According to Xunzi, we must start from two aspects. On the one hand, it is necessary to educate people in the “education of the law” and “etiquette and righteousness”, that is, to exert moral influence on them from the outside. Thus, in Xunzi’s view, the purpose of learning is to improve people’s moral character in both ways, for no other reason than to improve their moral character. In the history of Chinese ethical thought, from Confucius to Mencius, the emphasis on moral education and cultivation has been on ‘introspection’, ‘introversion’ and ‘self-reflection’. This method can also be called the ‘method of introspection’. This method of personal cultivation, advocated by Confucius and developed and systematised by Mencius, in search of lost goodness, was further developed in the longer period after the Spring and Autumn period, and had a profound influence on the cultivation theory and practice of cultivation in later times. Xunzi had different view from Confucius and Mencius. In his view, since all human beings are by nature fond of benefit and evil, and all are evil, it is impossible to attain the highest goodness through mere “self-reflection” or “introspection”. Goodness does not come from inside, but is an imposed, artificial, external thing that must be inculcated from the outside, which can also be called “indoctrination”, i.e. people must be taught ritual and righteousness to have good moral qualities. In moral education and moral cultivation, Mencius emphasized ‘introspection’, whereas Xunzi emphasized ‘inculcation’, indicating a major difference between them. In terms of moral education, Xunzi believed that the two most important aspects were the education of teachers and the restraint of the law. Since human beings are by nature fond of benefit and evil, without the education of teachers and the sanction of the law, people would follow the direction of benefit and desire and go down the path of evil. He said, “If a person does not have a teacher and does not know the law, he will promote the development of his nature; if he has a teacher and knows the law, he will focus on increasing the accumulation of learning.” (Xunzi—Role of Confucianism) He also said, “When a man is born, he is already a villain, and if he is not taught by a teacher or bound by the law, he will only see wealth and benefit.” (Xunzi—Honor and Disgrace) Therefore, education must be carried out by means of the education, that is, by means of the so-called “learning to behave well” to change the nature of man. He believed that a person’s nature is like a bent piece of wood that must be straightened by various tools, or like a blunt metal instrument that must be sharpened by scraping it on a whetstone. “So bent wood must depend on shapers for fumigation and correction before it can be straightened, and unsharpened metal

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implements must depend on sharpening before they can be sharp. People are evil by nature, and must rely on teachers and law to correct them, and must be guided by ritual and righteousness to be governed well. If people do not have teachers and law, they will be wicked and unrighteous; if they do not have manners and righteousness, they will be rebellious and disorderly.” (Xunzi—Nature of Evil) Here, Xunzi takes the doctrine of nature evil as the premise of moral education and moral cultivation, the “education” as an important means, and “ritual and righteousness” as the content of teacher’s education, so as to achieve what he calls “transforming human nature to acquired social behaviors”. This is why Xunzi regarded the education of morality so important. It was for this reason that Xunzi stressed the importance of learning. He believed that “if a gentleman learns extensively, and often uses what he has learned to check his words and actions, he will not be confused when things go wrong, and his actions will be free of faults.” (Xunzi—Encouragement of Learning). He said, “I used to meditate all day and all night, (but) I couldn’t learn more (than I did in a moment)” (ibid.) At the same time, he also particularly emphasizes that the learning of a gentleman, i.e. a moral person, must be consistent with the use of learning. “A gentleman learns by letting the truth enter his ears, exist in his heart, and spread out in his hands and feet and body, manifesting itself as a moving act. A gentleman’s slightest word or movement can become a rule to be followed.” (ibid.) He hates those who “learned by listening but boast themselves with the knowledge”. He said, “In ancient times, people studied to cultivate themselves; nowadays, people study to do for others.” (ibid.) One is for the sake of goodness and the other is to boast of one’s knowledge. Xunzi also acknowledges that learning should include “Poetry”, “Classics”, “Ritual” and “Music”, but he considers “Ritual” to be the most important, as it not only enables one to reach the highest moral state, but also to change customs and traditions. Xunzi said, “So study goes up to the Book of Rites, which is the ultimate in moral cultivation.” It is in this sense that Xunzi emphasizes that ‘rites are about nurturing’ (Xunzi—On Rites). He argues that just as food nourishes the mouth and music nourishes the ear, rites are used to nourish one’s morality. Although Xunzi’s view of rituals as being ordained by the sages is unscientific, his emphasis on the educational role of rituals is still justified. While stressing the importance of education, Xunzi also paid special attention to the important role played by the environment in the formation of moral qualities, and in a certain sense he even considered it to be decisive. He said, “The children of the Gan, Yue, Yi and He are born with the same cry, but they grow up with different customs and habits.” (Xunzi—Encouragement of Learning) and also: “The root of the orchid is called aromatic mugwort, but once it is immersed in stinking water, the gentleman will avoid it, not because the mugwort itself is not fragrant, but because it has been soaked and stinks. This is why a gentleman must choose a good environment to live in and a moral person to make friends with, so that he can prevent the slightest change and keep his integrity intact.” (ibid.) The orchid is originally a herb, but if its roots are soaked in foul water, they will deteriorate as a result of the foul water. In order to develop one’s moral character in society, one must be aware of the influence of one’s surroundings and the people one comes into contact with.

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Obviously, these statements of Xunzi contain an obvious contradiction. On the one hand, he argues that the moral quality of human beings is the product of their environment and the result of education. The kind of environment and the kind of education one receives will lead to the formation of morality. This is a theory of moral education that is based on materialist epistemology and contains a rational element based on experience. On the other hand, he argues that human nature is inherently evil. What, then, creates a good environment? Who would be the educator who would educate people to be moral? Where does a good environment, good teachers, and good laws come from in a society where human nature is evil? If they could not be produced, would it not be impossible to do the so-called “transforming human nature to acquired behaviors”? Xunzi recognised this contradiction, but could not overcome it. Thus, this theory, which starts from experience, has to fall partly into the misconception of a priorism again. According to Xunzi, above the environment and the “education of the law”, there is a “sage of king”, a natural saint who can only organise the state, formulate rites and rituals, and “transform nature into acquired behavior”. Since human nature is evil, people must compete with each other, so it is only the natural saint-king who can solve the problem of people’s evil nature. “In ancient times, the wise kings believed that people were evil by nature, that they were wicked and unrighteous, that they were rebellious and disorderly, and therefore established rites and laws for them to enforce and correct their disposition, and to tame and guide their disposition. So that they may all act in accordance with the right moral principles from the point of view of order.” (Xunzi—Nature of Evil) In this way, the sage king, who was able to establish rituals and laws, must have been a “superman” who was not part of the ordinary human race. However, Xunzi refuses to acknowledge that the sage was born a sage, but only that he was the result of an acquired effort, the result of “accumulating goodness and virtue”. However, in the absence of an environment and education by teachers, how could a saint or a sage “accumulate goodness and become virtuous”? Xunzi is unable to deal with this paradox. In order to cultivate people’s moral qualities, Xunzi also paid great attention to moral self-exercise, while emphasizing ‘education of the law’ and ‘ritual and righteousness’. Xunzi’s “Cultivating the Self” is a theory on moral cultivation that follows Mozi’s “Cultivating the Self”. Although Mozi’s chapter on cultivating one’s moral character stresses the importance of cultivating one’s moral character and the influence of habits on one’s moral character, it does not develop it theoretically. Therefore, it can be said that Xunzi’s book on cultivating one’s moral character is the first time in the history of Chinese ethical thought that a theory of moral cultivation has been established in a more systematic way, bringing the study of cultivating one’s moral character one step further. What is cultivating one’s moral character? Xunzi gives a very comprehensive explanation of this. He said: When I see a good deed and feel good about it, I will want to keep it in myself; when I see a bad deed and feel fearful about it, I will use it to reflect on myself; when a good deed is in me, I will love myself steadfastly; when a bad deed is in me, I will hate myself as if there were a plague. Therefore he who points out my faults and criticizes

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them properly is my teacher; he who affirms me and appreciates me properly is my friend; he who flatters me is the one who harms me. Therefore a gentleman respects his teacher and is close to his friends, while he hates in the extreme those who flatter his thieves. He is never satisfied with the pursuit of good virtues, and is able to be alert when advised, so that even if he does not want to progress, is it possible? The villain, on the other hand, is the opposite: he hates others who point out his faults even though he is extremely confused; he wants others to say that he is wise and capable even though he is extremely incompetent; he has a heart like a tiger or a wolf, and acts like a beast, yet he hates others who point out his sins; he is close to those who flatter him, but distant from those who advise him to correct his mistakes; he treats kind and upright words as a mockery of himself, and acts with extreme loyalty as if they were killing him. Is it possible for such a man not to perish, even if he wants to? (Xunzi—Cultivating the Self). According to Xunzi’s explanation, it can be said that cultivating one’s moral character is a kind of moral rigour, which includes introspection, review and practicing morality and correcting faults in practice. Confucius said, “see the virtuous and think of the virtuous, see the unvirtuous and reflect on yourself”. Xunzi further argues that when one sees a moral person, one should seriously examine whether one has such a good morality; when one sees an immoral person, one should vigilantly reflect on whether one has similar behavior. If one has good morals, one should maintain them; if one has bad conduct, one should hate oneself as if one had been defiled. Whoever can correctly point out my faults is my teacher; whoever can correctly affirm my virtues is my friend; but whoever speaks well of me and flatters me is a thief to me. In Xunzi’s view, in order to be a moral gentleman, one must respect his teacher and be close to his friends, and disliked those who would harm him. In moral cultivation, Xunzi places special emphasis on the word “accumulation” and on a spirit of perseverance. In Xunzi’s “The Nature of Evil”, he repeatedly states that “the nature of man is evil, but his goodness is hypocrisy”. His explanation of the word “hypocrisy” is: “it is called hypocrisy when the mind thinks and can move for it, and it is called hypocrisy when it is accumulated and can be practiced.” He did not believe that a sage could be achieved by “seeking peace of mind”, “introspection” and “self-reflection”, but that only through artificial accumulation could one become a sage. In Xunzi’s view, as long as one is persistent and determined to do good, one can gradually improve one’s moral character with time and effort. A sage is born, but an ordinary person, a commoner, can also become a sage if he or she can accumulate goodness over time. He said that, just as “earth becomes a mountain and water becomes an ocean” (Xunzi—Role of Confucianism), “The ordinary people who accumulate good deeds and achieve perfection are called saints. All these are attained only after striving for them, succeeding only after working hard, becoming superior only after accumulating them, and attaining sainthood only after perfecting them. Therefore, a saint is a person who has accumulated the virtues of ordinary people.” (ibid.). He also uses examples from people’s personal experience as a comparison: “A man becomes a farmer when he has accumulated the skill of hoeing and ploughing, a craftsman when he has accumulated the skill of chopping, a merchant when he has accumulated the experience of selling goods, and a gentleman when he has

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accumulated the virtue of propriety and righteousness.” (ibid.) In other words, if one accumulates experience in agriculture to become a farmer, in handicraft to become an artisan, in business to become a merchant, and in moral cultivation to accumulate good deeds, one will definitely become a moral gentleman. Xunzi was strongly opposed to self-abandonment in moral cultivation, stressing that through the accumulation of quantity, fundamental changes were bound to occur in the end. So without accumulating one and a half steps, there is no way to reach a distance of a thousand miles; without accumulating small streams of water, there is no way to merge them into a river or an ocean. A stallion leaps once, and it is less than ten steps away; an inferior horse pulling a cart for ten days (can also go very far,) and its success lies in its incessant walking. (If) one stops after a few carvings, (then) even rotten wood will not stop being carved. (If) one keeps on carving, (then) even gold and stone can be carved successfully. The earthworm has no sharp claws, no teeth, no strong bones, but it can eat upwards to the soil and drink downwards to the spring, because it is dedicated. The crab has six legs and two pincers, (but) without the cave of a snake or eel it would have nowhere to live, because it has a restless mind. Therefore, without a hard-working mind, one will not achieve remarkable results in study; without a hard-working practice, one will not achieve great success in one’s career. (Xunzi—Encouragement of Learning). This means that you cannot achieve anything without hard work and dedication, and that you cannot achieve something outstanding without a long and silent effort. Xunzi emphasizes that the aim of cultivation is to attain the state of the sage, which is what we call the moral ideal. For Xunzi, the sage is not only a person of high morality, but also a person of the highest wisdom. “A saint, a morally perfect and perfect person, is like a scale hanging in the world.” (Xunzi—Orthodoxy) This means that the words and deeds of the sage are the standard for people’s behavior, and even the standard by which people judge everything. What the sages do is “based on benevolence and righteousness, when right is wrong, and when words and deeds are in harmony” (Xunzi—Role of Confucianism). The sages were not only able to establish rituals and laws (“the sage accumulates thoughts and practices good behaviors to create rituals and laws”), but only the sages could rule the world and administer the people. In Xunzi’s view, Yao, Shun, Yu and Tang were his ideal sages. Despite the sacredness of the saints, Xunzi believed that it was not impossible to attain the status of ‘a man of Tu can be a Yu’ (Xunzi—Nature of Evil). According to Xunzi, the sage is the highest moral ideal and the goal of learning for all. He said, “So heaven, the pole of height; earth, the pole of low; no end, the pole of expanse; and the saint, the pole of morality. So he who studies is supposed to learn to be a saint, not just a man without principles.” (Xunzi—On Rites) This means that to learn is to learn to be a moral model, to learn to become a person of virtue, not just to learn knowledge. It is because human nature is evil, and because what one learns is to learn from the sages, whose moral qualities are so noble, that hard cultivation, serious exercise, constant accumulation and perseverance become important for learning.

Chapter 9

Systematization of Confucian Ethics—Ethical Thoughts in Book of Rites and Book of Filial Piety

1 Ethical Thoughts in the Great Learning The Book of Rites is an important classic in the history of Chinese ethical thought, especially the two chapters of the Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean, which have had a great influence on future generations. The ideas of the ideal society contained in the Book of Rites, as well as the provisions of the Book of Rites on the relationship between men and women and between husband and wife, are also worthy of in-depth study.

1.1 Ethical Thoughts in the Great Learning In terms of the history of the development of ethical thought in China, the Great Learning is not like the Analects or the Mencius, in which ethical thought is scattered in questions and answers between the sages and their disciples; nor is it like the Mozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi or Han Feizi, in which ethical thought is divided into different chapters and sections. The Great Learning is an unprecedented and complete system of ethics, in which Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi and others have combined their main ideas on ethics, clarified the logic, and defined the sequential relationship between the various parts. The basic outline of this system, as set out in the Great Learning, can be seen in its main lines in the opening paragraph: The Fundamental Way of the Great Learning is to enlighten one’s inherent splendid virtue, to revitalize (4) the people, and to continuously pursue these endeavours until one rests and resides in the highest level of excellence. With knowing what to pursue and where to ultimately rest in, one then has steadfast determination. With steadfast determination, one then can be in a state of unmoved tranquillity. With unmoved tranquillity, one then can be at ease under any circumstance. With being

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at ease under any circumstance, one then can deliberate with great care. With deliberating with great care, one then can attain the highest excellence. All things have their respective foundations and ramifications; all affairs have their own conclusions and beginnings. If one knows which comes before and which comes after, then one shall not be far from The Fundamental Way of the Great Learning. Those in the past who wished to enlighten the inherent splendid virtues throughout all under Heaven first governed their states well. Those who wished to govern their states well first brought good order to their families. Those who wished to bring good order to their own families first cultivated their own selves. Those who wished to cultivate their own selves first brought about propriety in their minds. Those who wished to bring about propriety in their minds first developed honesty and sincerity in their thoughts. Those who wished to develop honesty and sincerity in their thoughts first pursued their knowledge to the utmost degree. To pursue knowledge to the utmost degree lies in examining all matters and principles to the greatest extent. When all matters and principles have been examined to the greatest extent, then one’s knowledge can be pursued to the utmost degree. When one’s knowledge has been pursued to the utmost degree, then one’s thoughts can develop honesty and sincerity. When one’s thoughts have developed honesty and sincerity, then one can bring about propriety in one’s mind. When one has brought about propriety in one’s mind, then one can cultivate one’s own self. When one has cultivated one’s own self, then one can bring good order to one’s own family. When one has brought good order to one’s own family, then one can govern the state well. When one has governed the state well, one can then rule and settle all under Heaven. From the Son of Heaven to the ordinary layman, everyone takes the cultivation of oneself as one’s foundation. For one to have a disorderly foundation yet end up to govern well is not possible indeed. What one considers very important, yet one takes it lightly; what one considers trivial, yet one takes it with great importance; such instances never existed. This is called knowing one’s foundation; this is called pursuing knowledge to the utmost degree. Later generations summarized this passage from the Great Learning as the ‘three guidelines’ and ‘eight targets’. Zhu Xi said that this passage is the “doctrine” of the Great Learning, and that it is “the words of Confucius, which Zengzi described”. The so-called ‘Three Guidelines’ are “to illustrate illustrious virtue”, “to renovate the people”, and “to rest in the highest excellence”. The “eight targets” are “to be material”, “to be knowledgeable”, “to be sincere”, “to correct the mind”, “to cultivate the behavior”, “to regulate the family”, and “to rule the country”. The first principle is “to illustrate illustrious virtue”, the moral principles and codes of the feudal landowners, namely benevolence, righteousness, filial piety, fraternity, loyalty and forgiveness. This is the most important of all. To “promote virtues” is to carry forward the glory of these moral principles and norms. The second guideline is “to renovate the people”, also known as “to make people become a new person”. Cheng Yi explained, “‘Renovation’ is a designation for an improvement of old matters. This means that if someone has by himself illustrated his illustrious virtue, he should push it on that it reaches others, and to give them something at hand to dispose of the impurities of their old defects.” (Commentaries on the Four Books—Commentary on Great Learning) This means that the purpose of

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“illustrating illustrious virtue” is to use these moral principles and norms to convince and educate the common people, so that they will accept the rule in a tame manner, which is to “renovate the people”. Xunzi said in his essay “To the Scholar”: “Now if any one of the rulers can make himself virtuous and wise, then the people of the world will turn to him like cicadas to a bright flame.” This means that as long as a ruler can promote the Confucian ethics of benevolence, filial piety, brotherhood and loyalty, the people will submit to him and accept his rule. This is what is known in Chinese history as the “ruling guideline”. The third guideline is “to rest in the highest excellence”. By “resting in the highest excellence”, it means that the ultimate goal of moral education and moral cultivation is to enable people to reach the highest moral ideal. Xunzi said in his book “Clear the Mind of Enigmas”: “Generally speaking, it is man’s nature to be able to know things, and it is the law of things that things can be known. If there is no certain limit to the nature of man, who can know things, to seek the laws of things that can be known, then one cannot live one’s whole life and enjoy all one’s days without spreading out the things that can be known.” “Learning is about having a scope for learning. Where do you limit your learning? The answer is: limit it to the most perfect realm. What is meant by the most perfect realm? The answer is: to know the way of the saints and kings.” This passage can be said to be the best commentary on the “to rest in the highest excellence” of the Great Learning. “The limit of learning” is “the way of the saints and kings”, which means “resting in the highest excellence”. The Great Learning not only proposed the eight targets of “studying more”, “acquiring knowledge”, “being sincere”, “rectifying one’s mind”, “self-cultivation”, “regulating family”, “governing the state properly”, and “bringing peace to all under heaven”, but also attached great significance on “self-cultivation”, which is the root of regulating the family and ruling the country. Since Confucius, and even before Confucius, China has emphasized the place of individual morality, or personal morality, in the overall ethical thinking. The “Three Guidelines” and the other seven targets of the Great Learning are all centered on the cultivation of the individual, starting from self-cultivation. This extreme emphasis on individual morality, especially on personal cultivation, is a very important feature of Chinese ethical thought, and it is one that we must pay attention to. In its discussion of the relationship between the Three Guidelines and the Eight Targets, the Great Learning not only stresses the importance of cultivating one’s moral character, but also gives theoretical justification for this importance. In the history of Chinese ethics, although Mozi was the first to write a book on the cultivation of one’s moral character, it was rather fragmentary. Xunzi wrote “self-cultivation”, proposing many theories without generalization from a higher level. The Great Learning inherited the theories of self-cultivation by Confucius, Mencius, Mozi, and Xunzi, and developed it to a higher level. According to the Great Learning, everything has its origin and its end. The origin is the root and start, the end is over and terminate. Therefore, no matter what you do, you must know what you should do first and what you should do then, otherwise you will not do more with less result, but you may even fail completely. This is the theory that “all things have their respective foundations and ramifications; all things

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have their own starting and ending. If one knows which comes before and which comes after, then one shall not be far from success.” So, what is the root and start in morality? The Great Learning says that the education, cultivation, even ethics of morality should be centered on “sefl-cultivation”. In terms of the sequence of cultivating one’s own moral character, cultivating one’s family, and governing one’s country, The Great Learning argues that only by first cultivating one’s own moral character can one make one’s “family” harmonious and consistent (“regulating the family”, which can also be used to mean to make one’s family whole) and only then can one govern one’s country. Since the early Qin Dynasty, Chinese thinkers have considered morality to be closely linked to politics, emphasizing the pacification of the world and the governance of the state, and always linking moral “resting in the highest excellence” to the stability of the state and society. This is an important difference between Confucian moral thought and Taoist moral thought. Confucianism, on the other hand, reflects the social and political observations and reflections of the intellectuals in the field. Therefore Confucianism is strongly political, or their thinking is based on the society, while Taoist thought is distinctly supra-political and independent from the society. This feature of Confucianism is one of the reasons why Confucian morality was accepted by the ruling class. It is from this point, The Great Learning summarized the eight targets as “Those in the past who wished to enlighten the inherent splendid virtues throughout all under Heaven first governed their states well. Those who wished to govern their states well first brought good order to their families. Those who wished to bring good order to their own families first cultivated their own selves. Those who wished to cultivate their own selves first brought about propriety in their minds. Those who wished to bring about propriety in their minds first developed honesty and sincerity in their thoughts. Those who wished to develop honesty and sincerity in their thoughts first pursued their knowledge to the utmost degree. To pursue knowledge to the utmost degree lies in examining all matters and principles to the greatest extent.” Here, it is important and practical to take “cultivating oneself” as the beginning and the root. As early as in the Analects, Confucius had already placed great emphasis on cultivating one’s moral character, especially on the fact that only by behaving properly oneself can one make others behave properly as well. Ji Kang asked Confucius about government. Confucius replied, “To govern means to rectify. If you lead on the people with correctness, who will dare not to be correct?” (The Analects—Yan Yuan) Ji Kang, distressed about the number of thieves in the state, inquired of Confucius how to do away with them. Confucius said, “If you, sir, were not covetous, although you should reward them to do it, they would not steal.” (ibid.) Ji Kang asked Confucius about government, saying, “What do you say to killing the unprincipled for the good of the principled?” Confucius replied, “Sir, in carrying on your government, why should you use killing at all? Let your evinced desires be for what is good, and the people will be good. The relation between superiors and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend, when the wind blows across it.” (ibid.) based on the above ideas of Confucius, The Great Learning especially stressed that “from the Son of Heaven to the ordinary layman, everyone takes the cultivation of oneself as one’s foundation. For one to have a disorderly foundation yet end up

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to govern well is not possible indeed. What one considers very important, yet one takes it lightly; what one considers trivial, yet one takes it with great importance; such instances never existed. This is called knowing one’s foundation; this is called pursuing knowledge to the utmost degree.” That is, to emphasize the son of heaven, the king must cultivate the theory of body. “When the kings Yao and Shun led the world with benevolence, the people followed their benevolence; when the kings Xia Jie and Shang Zhou ruled the world with violence, the people followed their evil deeds. If a ruler issues a decree that is the opposite of his usual good or bad, then the people will not listen to him. So a ruler always does his own work before he teaches others; he overcomes his own faults before he helps others to correct them. It is unprecedented for a gentleman to ask others to practice forgiveness when he himself lacks it. This is why it is said that the first step to a good state is to make a good home.” (The Great Learning) In Xunzi—The Way of the King, Xunzi says: “How do you rule a country?” He replied, “I have only heard that a ruler should cultivate his own virtue, but I have never heard how to rule a country. The ruler is like a standard for measuring the moment; the people are like the shadow of this standard; if the standard is straight, then the shadow is also straight. The ruler is like a dish; the people are like the water in the dish; and if the dish is round, then the water in the dish is also round. The ruler is like a pellet; the people are like the water in the pellet; and if the pellet is square, then the water in the pellet also becomes square. The monarch shoots arrows, then the subjects put on board fingers. The king of Chu Ling liked people with thin waists, so there were hungry, yellow-skinned courtiers at court. So it is said: I have only heard that a monarch should cultivate his body and mind, but I have never heard how to govern a country.” Why is the ruler required to self-cultivate? Because he is the representative of the state, the model and the example to be followed by all, and so the ruler must cultivate himself. The Great Learning’s emphasis on the need to cultivate one’s moral character before one can rule the country and regulate the world is very clear. Confucian, who advocates ruling the world by morality and benevolence, naturally believes that if one does not have good moral qualities, how can one manage the family and the state? In regard to “cultivating oneself”, The Great Learning further puts forward the theory that “wishing to cultivate their behaviors, they first rectified their mind. Wishing to rectify their mind, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge”. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things: The cultivation of the person lies in the correction of the mind. When you are angry, you cannot be correct. When you are frightened, you cannot be correct; when there is something you desire, you cannot be correct; when there is something you are anxious about, you cannot be correct. (The Great Learning). According to our understanding today, the most important thing in cultivating the body is to remove all kinds of distracting thoughts from the mind, not to have anger, not to have fear, not to have pleasure or worry, i.e. not to have personal gains and losses. This is what Zhu Xi meant by not being bound by external things. If we put aside our personal gains and losses and personal pursuits, even if we have

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happiness, worries, anger and fear, they will not remain in our hearts and affect our moral cultivation. Xunzi says in Xunzi—Clear the Mind of Enigmas: The human mind is like water in a dish, which is placed uprightly and not stirred, so that the dregs of the sediment are underneath, and the clear, transparent water is above, and then it can be used to see the beard and the eyebrows and the texture of the skin clearly. But if the breeze blows over it, the foul dross of sediment rises up below, and the clear, transparent water is disturbed above, so that it cannot be used to get a correct reflection of the human body. So it is with the human mind. If it is guided by right reasoning and nurtured by high moral character, external objects will not be able to tilt it, and then it will be able to be used to determine right and wrong and to decide suspicions. It is clear from this that the idea of rectifying the mind, as stated in The Great Learning, was developed from this idea of Xunzi. Mencius also emphasized the role of the mind and the need to cultivate it, although he did not make it as clear as Xunzi. Although Xunzi criticised Mencius, the two were in agreement on the role of the mind. It is not enough to be “right-minded”; in order to be “right-minded”, one must also be “sincere”. In other words, not only should one’s mind not be bound by external matters, but one must also have a devout faith in the feudal morality of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom. By making one’s intention honest, one does not deceive oneself. Just as one is averse to an unpleasant smell, so one is fond of a beautiful face. In this way one can say that one is at peace with oneself. So the morally virtuous must be careful when they are alone, and those who are not morally virtuous will do anything bad when they are alone. They see those who are morally virtuous, but then they cover up the bad things they do. And put up their own virtues. The eyes of others are discerning, as if they were seeing their internal organs, and what good would this do? This means that a man’s integrity is in his heart, and it naturally flows out on the outside. That is why the morally cultivated person must be discreet when alone. (The Great Learning). The most important aspect of moral cultivation as taught in ancient China is the word “sincerity” in “making the thoughts sincere”. “Making the thoughts sincere” means that one must practice it in one’s mind, in one’s consciousness and in one’s heart. One should never say that one knows what goodness is, but in reality one does not act on it, otherwise it is called insincerity or self-deception. Zhu Xi’s commentary on this passage is reasonable. He says: “He who is sincere in his intention put self-cultivation in the first place.” “He who confesses to deceiving himself knows how to do good to cleanse himself of sin, but what he thinks in his heart does not show itself in actual deeds.” (Commentaries on the Four Books— Commentary on Great Learning) It is reasonable for him to regard “sincerity” as the first step in self-cultivation. In order to be “sincere in one’s mind”, the Great Learning puts forward the requirement of “prudence and independence”. Since “sincerity of mind” means not deceiving oneself, one should be as one in appearance and in substance. “To hate unkindness

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is to be like hating a foul smell. To be good should be like a lover of beauty, which makes one’s heart self-sufficient and pleasant”. By “to hate unkindness is to be like hating a foul smell”, we mean that we should avoid it and remove it from our bodies, which is the real evil. To be good should be like a lover of beauty, to be pleased with what you see and to seek it. If one only speaks of evil, but does not avoid it, or even loves it or appreciates it in one’s heart, or if one already has evil in one’s body and knows it, but only speaks of it but does not abandon it, then one is not sincere. According to the Great Learning, if one does not behave sincerely, or if one cannot “sincerely express one’s will”, then one cannot “correct one’s mind”. What is “self-effacement”? The Chinese character of “efface” means “happiness” and “satisfactory”, which means one is happy and satisfied in heart. It is only when one “hates unkindness like hating a foul smell and like beauty” that one’s heart is satisfied with what is good or bad. However, some unethical “villains” are not sincere in their intentions, and what they say is not the same as what they do. This is self-deception. To “live in idleness” is to be alone, to live in solitude, that is, when no one can see or can be seen or known. Here, the “villain” will often be unethical and do many bad things. However, when he meets the “gentleman”, he is ashamed and frightened, and shows his uneasiness, covering up all his immoral words and actions and pretending to do good deeds, thus thinking that he can hide his dirty soul. In fact, this is impossible. Whether or not a person is sincere in his or her intentions is evident. No matter how much you try to hide it, others can see your thoughts and actions clearly, just like seeing the lungs and liver in one’s stomach. Even in a situation that seems to be known only to you, there are traces of it, and it is useless to try to cover it up. It is in this sense that the Great Learning stresses the importance of “self-control”, emphasizing that one should be sincere even when one is alone and no one knows about it. This is something that a moral person must pay close attention to. The Great Learning quotes Zengzi as saying, “Isn’t it grim that when you’re alone you actually have countless (ten) eyes watching you and countless (ten) fingers pointing at you?” The word “ten” means many. Even if one is in a solitary and secluded place, one should be as careful in one’s words and actions as one would be in a public place where people can see. Here, the meaning can be twofold. For the villain, it is a case of “one who wishes to conceal his evil, but fails and one who wishes to deceive as good, but fails” (Commentaries on the Four Books—Commentary on Great Learning), for it is useless to conceal, for what they think they are clever at doing is in fact no way to conceal their inner filth. For the gentleman and the moral person, this is the reason why the gentleman does not dare to deceive himself. The Great Learning also believes that if one is truly righteous and sincere, and has high morals, then one’s body will be relaxed, heart will be broad. Then one’s mind and body will be integrated. The Great Learning says, “Wealth adorns a house and makes it magnificent; morality cultivates one’s body and mind and makes one’s thoughts noble. A broad and cheerful heart makes the body naturally at ease and comfortable, so a morally cultivated person must keep his intentions honest.” This means that if a person is rich and wealthy, he will be financially well-off, so he will make his house magnificent and make the furniture in his room appear more than

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generous; and a moral person will make his mind pure, not ashamed, not subtle, not reserved, not reckless, broad and flat, so that he can be comfortable and have a broad and fat heart, which is also called “sincerity in the middle, form in the outside” This is the morality of “sincerity in the middle, and the form in the outside”. In short, the reason why the mind is not right and the body is not cultivated is because the mind is not sincere. Thus, “sincerity of mind”, “not deceiving yourself”, “prudence”, “self-effacement” and the Great Learning’s teaching on the cultivation of one’s moral character is based on the following principles: “To hate unkindness like hating a foul smell and love kindness like loving beauty”. Therefore, it can also be said that “sincerity” is the most fundamental concept in the whole ethical thought of The Great Learning. According to Zhu Xi’s principle that “order must be maintained and work must not be absent”, as long as one has “sincerity”, one can achieve “righteousness of mind”, and one can also achieve The “cultivation of the body” is then possible. However, “sincerity of intention” is not the final destination; there must also be a sense of knowledge. How can we achieve “sincerity of mind”? The Great Learning says, “After knowledge has been attained, one must be sincere”. What is “attained”? It means to master the knowledge utmost. Zhu Xi said, “The one who knows to the utmost is the one whose knowledge of my heart is inexhaustible.” He also said, “To attain is to push to the extreme, and to know is to master the knowledge. To push to the limit of my knowledge, so that all that I know will be inexhaustible.” (Commentaries on the Four Books—Commentary on Great Learning) Only by “knowing to the utmost” can we understand the truth. In fact, the word “knowing to the utmost” should not be interpreted to limitless knowledge, but to knowledge of the highest goodness. Only when one knows the highest goodness, that is, when one has attained the highest goodness, can one be sincere. The supreme goodness referred the Confucian principle of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, which is the highest principle and norm of feudal morality. If one interprets “knowledge of the highest goodness” as knowledge without limit, then one is indeed prone to go into extreme studying, which is inconsistent with the original meaning of “knowledge of the highest goodness” as stated in The Great Learning. Zhang Juzheng’s explanation of “acquire knowledge” in his “Explanation on Comments on the Four Books” has some reasonable elements that can serve as a reference for our understanding of “acquire knowledge”. Zhang Juzheng says: If we want to be sincere, we must first seek the knowledge and see that the truth is always clear, and then our intentions will be clear, not be confused. This is why it is said that those who wish to be sincere in their intentions must first attain knowledge. That is to say, to “acquire knowledge” means to understand the truth of things thoroughly, that is, to understand the truth of feudal moral principles and norms, which means from benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom to the “three principles and five rules”. On the question of “acquire knowledge”, all heresies must be excluded, and all non-Confucian moral theories must be criticized, that is, “unclouded”. It is in this sense that the Taoist philosophy holds that to “acquire knowledge” is also to “know the highest goodness”. In other words, only when knowledge has been attained can one truly understand the difference between good

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and evil, and only then can one’s “will” emanate from one’s heart and meet the standard of goodness; otherwise, even if one wishes not to deceive oneself or to be free of delusion, one will not be able to achieve this goal because one has not attained knowledge. Lastly but not least, it is important to study things. The Great Learning places special emphasis on the fact that “study things to acquire knowledge”. “Acquire knowledge” has two meanings, namely to acquire knowledge and to be good, but generally speaking, “acquire knowledge” means that in order to cultivate oneself, one must first acquire knowledge. How can one attain knowledge, or in other words, “attain knowledge”? According to the Great Learning, “Knowledge is attained only after things are fully explored.” Therefore, the question of what is “study things” has been the concern of thinkers throughout the ages. The lack of a clear explanation of the “study things” in the Great Learning cannot but be an oversight. This is because, according to the entire theory of “cultivating one’s moral character” in the Great Learning, the “study things” is one of the most important aspects. Later thinkers interpreted it in accordance with their own understanding of the basic issues of philosophy and in accordance with their own system of ethical thought, of which three interpretations are the most representative. First of all, Zhu Xi explained the term “study things” in the Commentaries on the Four Books. Zhu Xi interpreted the word “study” as “fully explore” and the word “things” as “general things”. The word “study things” means that “the thing is fully explored”, that is, the underlying laws of things are found out. But he also believes that the law of things is the law of heart, so when the former one is found out, the latter can also be unveiled. According to Zhu Xi, there was originally a chapter in the Great Learning—“to explain studying things, it means learn and explore the law of things”, but “now there is nothing.” He added: “the key to acquire knowledge lies in” fully exploring the things. That is to say, to attain knowledge, I have to discover the law and reason of the things. The spirit of the human heart has knowledge, and all the things in the world have reason. This is why, at the beginning of the Great Learning, it says the scholar must be taught that all things under the sun, in order to reach the ultimate. When the student has exerted himself for a long time, and once he has clearly penetrated, he will be able to reach the essence of all things, and the whole of our mind will be clear. This is called exploration of things, and ultimate in knowledge. “Of course, whether it is the law and reason of things or heart, in Zhu Xi’s view, its main content is the theory of human relations, that is, the moral relationship between people and people and the reflection of this moral relationship in the concept. In fact, it is also the moral principles and norms of the feudal class. Secondly, Wang Yangming of the Ming dynasty offered another interpretation of the phrase “study things and acquire knowledge”. He believed that “study” means to correct, and “things” means the place where one’s thoughts come to, that is, “where one’s thoughts are”. To “study things” means to correct one’s thoughts and ideas, that is, to get rid of one’s selfish desires and distractions. Only in this way can people regain their conscience. Lu Cheng asked how to understand the gram. Wang Yangming said, “Ge means to be right! To correct what is not right so that it all comes back to the right track.” (Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian

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Writings—Vol. 1) Wang Yangming believed that “The use of the mind must have a corresponding thing. If the mind works on serving one’s parents, then serving one’s parents is a thing; if the mind works on governing the people, then governing the people is a thing; if the mind works on reading, then reading is a thing; if the mind works on hearing lawsuits, then hearing lawsuits is a thing. As long as the idea is working, there is something there. If there is this intention, there is this thing, and if there is not this intention, there is no such thing.” (Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings—Vol. 2). He said: The meaning of “Ge” is explained by the word “to”, as in “Ge in Wenzu” and “Youmiao Lai Ge”. The word “Ge” is used to explain the meaning of “to”. However, the word “Ge” in “Ge in Wenzu” must be a sincere and pure form of filial piety, with no knowledge of the truths of both the earthly and the nether worlds, before it can be called “Ge”. The Hmong could only be “g” after they had been educated through ritual and music, so this “g” also means “right”, and cannot be fully explained by the word “to” alone. It is not possible to use the word “to” to fully explain its meaning. For example, the word “Ge” in the phrase “Ge its wrong heart” and “Minister Ge the wrong heart of the ruler” means “to correct the wrong to achieve right”. It is not possible to use the word “to” to explain it. Then how can we know that the interpretation of the word “Ge” in the University is not to be explained by the word “正” but by the word “至”? If the word “to” is used to explain it, then the word “to” must be used in order to make sense. The essence of exerting oneself lies in the word “poor”, and the object of exerting oneself lies in the word “reason”. If the word “poor” is removed from the front and the word “reason” is removed from the back, and the word “knowledge is to the utmost” is said directly, does this make sense? This is a well-established teaching of the sages, and it is already recorded in the I Ching. If the meaning of “to be knowledgeable” is really to be exhaustive, then why did the sages not just say “to be knowledgeable is to be exhaustive”, but why did they have to make the meaning of the phrase inflected and incomplete, thus causing the ills of later generations? There are only minor differences in the meaning of the phrase “to grasp things” in the University and the phrase “to develop theories” in the I Ching, but the meaning is basically the same. The meaning is essentially the same. Therefore, when we talk about the poor sense of reason, we are already including the efforts of materialism, knowledge, sincerity, and righteousness of mind. When we talk about the grimoire, we must also have the kung fu of knowledge, sincerity and righteousness of mind, so that the kung fu of the grimoire can be complete. Nowadays, when we talk about the Gnosis, we say that it is a kind of knowledge, and we do not think that the Gnosis also includes practice. In this way, not only have we failed to grasp the purpose of the Gnosis, but we have also lost the original meaning of the Exhaustive Reasoning. This is the reason why later scholars have divided knowledge and practice into two, and have left them increasingly fragmented, and the holy doctrine has become increasingly fragmented and obscure. The “Ge-material” of the University is the same as the “poor reasoning” of the Tractatus, but with a slight distinction. The “poor reasoning” is a combination of the principles of the “gram”, “zhi”, “sincerity” and “righteousness”. Therefore, when one speaks of the perfection of reason, one

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must be able to do both. If we talk about the material, then we must also mention the knowledge, sincerity and righteousness of mind, and then the work will be complete and intensive. This is the reason why it is said that the study of the material has not always been done, not only because the purpose of the material has not been fulfilled, but also because the meaning of the material has been lost. This is the reason why the later school has been divided into two successive parts of knowledge and conduct, and has become increasingly fragmented, while the holy school has become more and more obscure. (Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings—Vol. 2). Wang Yangming also believed that “the master of the body is the mind, and the mind’s spiritual awareness is the original conscience of man. The conscience of the mind is the consciousness of the mind. To have consciousness is to be intentional; to have no consciousness is to be unintentional.” This means that mind, will and things are, in Wang Yangming’s view, the same thing, and this is his idealistic interpretation. His statement on the “study things” has been influential in the history of ethical thought. Finally, Yan Yuan of the Qing dynasty put forward his own materialist interpretation of the term “study things”. He argued that “study” should be interpreted as “fight” in “fighting he fierce beast”, and that to “take actions to do things”. The word “study things” means “attaining knowledge after experiencing”, which means that knowledge can only be obtained through practical activities. Those who speak of “attaining knowledge” today are merely reading, lecturing, and thinking, but they do not know that the key of attaining knowledge is not those above. If you want to know rites, you can read hundreds of books, learn and think dozens of times, but you do not master them. If you want to know the rites, you have to kneel down, hold a jade knight, hold coins and silk, and do some hands-on work, then you will know the rites, and you will know the rites. If you want to know music, you can read music scores hundreds of times, and you have to ask questions and think about it dozens of times, but you will not know it. It is only when you have done some of the music, you will know what music is, and you will know what music is. It is said that “things are known only when they are known”. Therefore, I concluded that “things” is the three things of things, “attain” is to fight the beasts, and “practicing”. These two words are found in ancient history and in the Han dynasty. (Collection of Yan Yuan—Rights and Wrongs about the Four Books—The Great Learning). Here, Yan Yuan interprets the word ‘attain’ as to do what one needs to do, which, in moral terms, emphasizes the importance of moral practice. What is “attain”? In the Records of the Grand Historian (Yin Ben), it is said that Zhou “was a man of superior strength and could kill fierce beasts with his hands”, and in the Book of the Later Han (Liu Penzi), it is said that he “could kill all beasts with his hands”. Both of these words mean “to strike” and “to fight”, and can also be interpreted as “to hold”. What are “things”? According to Yan Yuan, “things are the three things of things”. What are the “three things”? They are the three things referred to in the Book of Rites: the Six Virtues, the Six Acts and the Six Arts. The Six Virtues are knowledge, benevolence, sanctity, righteousness, loyalty and harmony; the Six Virtues are filial piety, friendship, harmony, marriage, appointment and compassion;

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and the Six Arts are ritual, music, archery The Six Arts are ritual, music, archery, imperial, calligraphy, and mathematics. If we interpret Yan Yuan’s meaning in this way, it means that it is only through moral conduct and moral practice that one can acquire the true knowledge of morality, that one can be sincere and righteous, that one can cultivate one’s body and family, and that one can rule the country and level the world. This may be Yan Yuan’s own understanding. In the history of Chinese philosophy, the concept of “to bring things to knowledge” has long been discussed as a very important epistemological proposition, but has not been analyzed as an ethical proposition. Wang Yangming interpreted “things” as “where the intention lies” and emphasized the so-called “grasp of the non-mind” and “only the adults can grasp the non-mind of the king”. “He believed that moral cultivation was about “correcting what is wrong in order to return to what is right”, and that only in this way could one “attain knowledge” and “know the truth”. Only in this way can we “achieve knowledge” and “know the truth”. Obviously, in Wang Yangming’s case, “to bring things to knowledge” is not simply an epistemological proposition, but is seen as a question of moral cultivation. From the perspective of the whole theory of moral cultivation, the ability to consciously correct and rectify one’s incorrect consciousness has an extremely important influence on whether one can acquire knowledge of morality, and whether one can be sincere and right-minded. Therefore, Wang Yangming’s interpretation may be more in line with the original meaning of the Great Learning.

1.2 The Ethical Thought of Doctrine of the Mean Doctrine of the Mean is a chapter from the Book of Rites, which is said to have been written by Zisi, the grandson of Confucius. It is said in the Historical Records of Confucius that “Zi Si wrote Doctrine of the Mean.” It is believed that some of the ideas in Doctrine of the Mean clearly refer to the situation after the unification of the Qin emperor, such as “now over the kingdom, carriages have all wheels, of the-same size; all writing is with the same characters; and for conduct there are the same rules.” Therefore the book must have been written by Confucians during the Qin and Han dynasties. However, if we look at the whole book, we can see that it is close to the thought of Zi Si and Mencius, and that it may be the work of the school of Zi Si and Mencius, but after the unification of the Qin dynasty, it was mixed with some of the ideas of the people of the time. The concept of “the mean”, as described in the book, cannot be understood as “reconciliation” or “middle”, but is a supreme moral principle, somewhat similar to Aristotle’s It is a supreme moral principle, somewhat similar to Aristotle’s “Middle Way”, but with a much richer content. The principles and norms of ethics are something from which people must not depart.

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According to Doctrine of The Mean, the Way, which is known to the sages and from which no ordinary man can depart for a moment, is in essence what we call the highest moral principle. In Doctrine of The Mean, it says: The duties of universal obligation are five and the virtues wherewith they are practiced are three. The duties are those between sovereign and minister, between father and son, between husband and wife, between elder brother and younger, and those belonging to the intercourse of friends. Those five are the duties of universal obligation. Knowledge, magnanimity, and energy, these three, are the virtues universally binding. And the means by which they carry the duties into practice is singleness. The five basic and most important relationships between human beings in feudal society are what Mencius called the Five Rites: ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, disciple and friend. The ‘virtues universally binding’ referred to the three moral qualities considered most important in feudal society, namely, benevolence, wisdom and courage, as Confucius called them. It is for this reason that Doctrine of the Mean, as it is called, cannot be separated from these five relationships, and if people’s social life and daily activities could be separated from these five relationships, they would not be called “the Way”. “The Way is not to be separated for a moment, what to be separated is not the Way.” The common people, although they are all in a certain interpersonal relationship, between ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, brother and sister, and friend, do not know that they are acting according to the rules of these five relationships. But they do not know that they are acting according to these five rules. Every day they have to act according to the moral rules, but they do not know what the moral rules are, so they say that they “use them every day but do not know them”, and that they “have a lifetime to do that but do not know their ways”, just as “no one can eat without knowing the taste”. Of course, although the people are practicing the Way every day, it is very difficult to fully comply with it and achieve the highest degree of perfection. “The way which the superior man pursues, reaches wide and far, and yet is secret. Common men and women, however ignorant, may inter meddle with the knowledge of it; yet in its utmost reaches, there is that which even the sage does not know. Common men and women, however much below the ordinary standard of character, can carry it into practice; yet in its utmost reaches, there is that which even the sage is not able to carry into practice.” What is the best way to deal with the five relationships between human beings? The Doctrine of the Mean sets out the idea of what is known as “Mean”. From the development of Chinese ethical thought, Confucius already attached great importance to the idea of “mean” and “the way of mean”. Confucius said, “Perfect is the virtue which is according to the Constant Mean! Rare for a long time has been its practice among the people.” (The Analects—Yong Ye) “Mean” is the highest morality, which is rarely attained by people. He also emphasized: “Since I cannot get men pursuing the due medium, to whom I might communicate my instructions, I must find the ardent and the cautiously-decided.” Confucius emphasized the need to “accept the mean”, believing that both excess and deficiency are bad. Therefore, he advocated that in dealing with anything, one should not be “too much” or “not enough”. Instead, one should be just right, not left, not right, not biased.

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By “mean”, we mean that one’s thoughts, actions or feelings should be appropriate, and in accordance with the moral code. We know that some people fail to meet the moral standards of the ruling class. Some people try to surpass the moral standards of the feudal class; some people try to gain fame and reputation by deliberately acting in a seemingly noble manner, such as the legendary act of Wei Sheng Gao in the Spring and Autumn period. In the Analects of Confucius, Confucius says: “Who says of Wei Sheng Gao that he is upright? One begged some vinegar of him, and he begged it of a neighbour and gave it to the man.” Confucius did not consider the behavior of Wei Sheng Gao to be upright, but rather excessive. In “Strategies of the Warring States—The Strategy of Yan—People who hate Su Qin to the King of Yan”, Su Qin said, “A man of faith is like Wei Sheng who, when the person he waits for is not coming on time, he holds a beam and dies.” “People who speak of faith and morality are used for self-improvement, not for helping others. So it is all a way to satisfy the status quo, not a way to seek advancement.” In Zhuangzi—Robber Zhi, it is said, “Wei Sheng was supposed to date with a woman. When the woman did not come, and the flood did not go away, he hugged the beam and died.” The story is also recorded in the chapters of “Allocution of Fan Lun” and “Allocution of Lin” in “Huainanzi”. In the “Allocution of Lin”: “The faith of Wei Sheng is not better than the birth of the cow.” “Allocution of Fan Lun”: “Zhi Gong denounced his father’s theft of sheep, and Wei Sheng drown died due to the date. Although there is straight faith, who can be valued?” In addition, the The Spring and Autumn Annals of Lv tells of two warriors who went on a trip together, and when they were drinking wine, they each cut off their own flesh to make a meal for the others, and they both died as a result. Although these acts embody some aspects of morality such as faithfulness and loyalty, they tend to be extreme and not in line with the “mean” and “moderate” virtues advocated by Confucius and the “Way of the Mean”. In Doctrine of The Mean, it says: I know how it is that the path of the Mean is not walked in: The knowing go beyond it, and the stupid do not come up to it. I know how it is that the path of the Mean is not understood: The men of talents and virtue go beyond it, and the worthless do not come up to it. The Middle Way considers that neither “excess” nor “deficiency” is consistent with the principle of “supreme goodness”. If a person is able to adhere to the virtue of “the middle”, then he can be said to be a person of the highest virtue. Confucius is quoted in The Middle Way as saying, “As a human being, Hui chooses the middle ground. When he has attained the one goodness, he will be fervently obedient and will not lose it.” This means that only a person of great wisdom is able to conform to the “middle ground” in all matters. “Therefore, the superior man honors his virtuous nature, and maintains constant inquiry and study, seeking to carry it out to its breadth and greatness, so as to omit none of the more exquisite and minute points which it embraces, and to raise it to its greatest height and brilliancy, so as to pursue the course of the Mean. He cherishes his old knowledge, and is continually acquiring new. He exerts an honest, generous earnestness, in the esteem and practice of all propriety. Thus, when occupying a high situation he is not proud, and in a low situation he is not insubordinate. When the kingdom is well governed, he is sure by his words to

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rise; and when it is ill governed, he is sure by his silence to command forbearance to himself. Is not this what we find in the Book of Poetry,—“Intelligent is he and prudent, and so preserves his person?” On the one hand, this illustrates the rule of “the Mean”, and on the other hand, it means that only when one has mastered the rule of “the Mean” can one behave appropriately. As it is said in the Doctrine of the Mean: “While there are no stirrings of pleasure, anger, sorrow, or joy, the mind may be said to be in the state of Equilibrium. When those feelings have been stirred, and they act in their due degree, there ensues what may be called the state of Harmony. This Equilibrium is the great root from which grow all the human acting in the world, and this Harmony is the universal path which they all should pursue. Let the states of equilibrium and harmony exist in perfection, and a happy order will prevail throughout heaven and earth, and all things will be nourished and flourish.” The Doctrine of the Mean starts from the theory of the goodness of nature, from the so-called “nature of the mandate of Heaven, the Way of the nature, and the cultivation in accordance with the Way”, and considers human nature as a good end endowed by Heaven, and believes that human joy, anger, sorrow and happiness are impartial, free from faults, and maintain the goodness of benevolence, righteousness and morality when they are not emitted, that is, when they are not influenced by external objects. But when it comes out, there are two possibilities, namely, to be moderate and not to be moderate. If one’s happiness, anger, sadness and joy can be expressed in a moderate manner, one has achieved “harmony”. In this context, the word “harmony” is used in relation to the effect of expression, and ‘harmony’ is the same as “mean”. There is, of course, a limit to the expression, and different people have different characteristics of “moderate”. In the Doctrine of the Mean, the role of “neutral” is considered so important that it achieves the function of “the status of heaven is absent, and all things are nurtured”. Joy, anger, sorrow and happiness are people’s feelings, which are not endowed by the heavens, but are generated, formed and developed by people in their social life, in their interactions with each other. The development of happiness, anger, sadness and joy is generated in the relationship with things and people, and is formed in the relationship between personal interests, desires and social interests. Mencius said, “Great men have their proper business, and little men have their proper business.” (Mencius—Teng Wen Gong I) “Some labor with their minds, and some labor with their strength. Those who labor with their minds govern others; those who labor with their strength are governed by others. Those who are governed by others support them; those who govern others are supported by them. This is a principle universally recognised.” (ibid.) According to this theory, if a commoner was not satisfied with his position and did not want to be oppressed, then his happiness, anger and sorrow would not conform to the moral code of feudal society, that is to say, he would not be able to be moderate, and naturally, he would not be able to achieve the purpose of “the status of heaven is intact, and all things are nurtured”. In a certain sense, the Doctrine of the Mean contains the idea of reconciling class conflicts. The word “harmony” in the Doctrine of the Mean not only means “right” in common sense, but also means “moderate” in the relationship between people. “Harmony” can also be understood as “concord” and “unity”. In a feudal hierarchical

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society, there were different ranks, and people in each rank had different duties and obligations. If everyone could do their duty, and if their happiness, anger, sadness and joy were all in line with the “mean”, then “harmony” could be achieved. In order to make people acquire the virtue of the “mean” and make them be able to act in accordance with the moral code of the “mean”, the Doctrine of the Mean also places great emphasis on the importance of “self-cultivation” and “prudence”. This is complementary to the ideas in the University. The book says: “Knowing how to cultivate his own character, he knows how to govern other men. Knowing how to govern other men, he knows how to govern the kingdom with all its states and families.” It also says: “On this account, the superior man does not wait till he sees things, to be cautious, nor till he hears things, to be apprehensive. There is nothing more visible than what is secret, and nothing more manifest than what is minute. Therefore the superior man is watchful over himself, when he is alone.” The emphasis on “self-cultivation” and “prudent solitude” as the basis for governing the world and the state is a characteristic of Chinese ethical thought. The Doctrine of the Mean deepens this thought to some extent, that is to say, in addition to emphasizing the cultivation of one’s own self as the basis for the cultivation of the family, the governance of the state and the pacification of the world, it also highlights the word “sincerity”, which goes hand in hand with the “Great Learning” but expands the meaning of “sincerity”. Whereas the Great Learning speaks only of “sincerity of will”, the Doctrine of the Mean expands it into a law of nature and human society. In the history of Chinese ethical thought, the term “sincerity” in the Doctrine of the Mean is a successor to that of Mencius and Zisi. Mencius first introduced the category of “sincerity”. He said, “There is a way to make one’s parents pleased: if one, on turning his thoughts inwards, finds a want of sincerity, he will not give pleasure to his parents. There is a way to the attainment of sincerity in one’s self: if a man do not understand what is good, he will not attain sincerity in himself. Therefore, sincerity is the way of Heaven. To think how to be sincere is the way of man. Never has there been one possessed of complete sincerity, who did not move others. Never has there been one who had not sincerity who was able to move others.’” (Mengzi—Li Lou I) This means that in order to fulfil filial piety and to make one’s parents happy, the most important thing is to have a “sincere” heart. If you ask yourself what you are doing is just an act of filial piety for the sake of filial piety, and your heart is not sincere, then you will not make your parents happy. To be sincere, one must understand what goodness is, and if one does not understand what goodness is, one cannot be sincere. Therefore, “sincerity” is the law of heaven, and the pursuit of “sincerity” is the law of being human. It is not possible to be extremely sincere and not be moved; and if you are not sincere, you will not move others. After Mencius, Xunzi also attached great importance to “sincerity”. He said: There is no better practice for a gentleman to cultivate a benevolent heart than to be sincere, and there is nothing else to do if he achieves sincerity. As long as one keeps a benevolent heart, as long as one practices propriety and righteousness. By keeping the heart of benevolence with sincerity one will manifest the heart of benevolence, and the manifestation of the heart of benevolence is divine subtlety, and divine subtlety will be able to transform all things. By practicing ritual and

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righteousness with a sincere heart one will have order, and with order one will have light, and with light one will be able to change all things. The changing of all things in turn rises up and is called heavenly virtue. Heaven does not speak, but people will esteem it as high; the earth does not speak, but people will esteem it as thick; the seasons do not speak, but the people know the seasons and seasons. All these manifestations have the common way, for man has a sincere heart. (Xunzi—Nothing Indecorous). Heaven and earth are so large that they cannot nurture all things without sincerity. The sages are so wise, but without sincerity they cannot nurture all peoples. A father and a son are so close, but without sincerity they will become estranged. The sovereign is so honorable, but without sincerity he will become inferior. Therefore, sincerity is what a ruler holds, and it is the root of governance, and it is only by dwelling in sincerity that the like will come. (ibid.) This shows that Xunzi also sees “sincerity” as a sincere, solid psychological and behavioral aspect of moral activity. The Doctrine of the Mean inherited the ideas of Mencius and Xunzi, who also considered “sincerity” to be the way of heaven, although it gave many new interpretations of “sincerity”: Sincerity is the way of Heaven. The attainment of sincerity is the way of men. He who possesses sincerity is he who, without an effort, hits what is right, and apprehends, without the exercise of thought;-he is the sage who naturally and easily embodies the right way. He who attains to sincerity is he who chooses what is good, and firmly holds it fast. To this attainment there are requisite the extensive study of what is good, accurate inquiry about it, careful reflection on it, the clear discrimination of it, and the earnest practice of it. The superior man, while there is anything he has not studied, or while in what he has studied there is anything he cannot understand, will not intermit his labor. While there is anything he has not inquired about, or anything in what he has inquired about which he does not know, he will not intermit his labor. While there is anything which he has not reflected on, or anything in what he has reflected on which he does not apprehend, he will not intermit his labor. While there is anything which he has not discriminated or his discrimination is not clear, he will not intermit his labor. If there be anything which he has not practiced, or his practice fails in earnestness, he will not intermit his labor. If another man succeed by one effort, he will use a hundred efforts. If another man succeed by ten efforts, he will use a thousand. Let a man proceed in this way, and, though dull, he will surely become intelligent; though weak, he will surely become strong. The possessor of sincerity does not merely accomplish the self-completion of himself. With this quality he completes other men and things also. The completing himself shows his perfect virtue. The completing other men and things shows his knowledge. But these are virtues belonging to the nature, and this is the way by which a union is effected of the external and internal. This means that “sincerity” is a natural principle that has existed since heaven, and that if one acts according to one’s heavenly nature, one will be able to “win without effort and gain without thinking”. But this can only be achieved by a saint, who is not only endowed with a good nature, but is also able to maintain it. For ordinary people,

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although they have an innate good nature, they cannot maintain it, so they must seek it with their hearts, or “those who are sincere”. In order to attain “sincerity”, one must “choose the good and persist in it”. How can one “choose the good and persist in it”? This depends on the five aspects of erudition, inquiry, prudent thinking, discernment and practice. This kind of work was appreciated by some Taoists of the Song and Ming dynasties, and Zhu Xi even wrote it down as a rule in his school in the White Deer Grotto Academy. According to the Doctrine the Mean, this is the only way to achieve the goal of “clear understanding despite ignorance”, which is also known as “to be sincere and clear is called nature, and to be clear and sincere is called teaching. This is the relationship between “sincerity” and “clarity”, which is also referred to as “sincerity is clarity, and clarity is sincerity”. The Doctrine of the Mean further expands the content of “sincerity”, not only by arguing that one needs to be “sincere” in all matters, but also by putting forward the view that without “sincerity” there can be nothing. Without sincerity, there can be no such thing as a feudal moral code. It argues that the reason why a gentleman should emphasize “sincerity”, i.e., “sincerity” as the most important thing, is definitely not only for the sake of his own success, but also for the sake of the success of others. A person who is able to be sincere must not only make himself of high moral character, but also make others of high moral character, i.e. to concentrate the efforts of “becoming oneself” and “becoming a man”. It is for this reason that, in all cases, the work of “becoming one’s own self” and “becoming a man” is concentrated on oneself. It is for this reason that it is appropriate to use “sincerity” in dealing with problems at all times. This is why it is said, “Sincerity has no rest, but if it does not rest, it will last for a long time. If it is long and far, it will be generous, and if it is generous, it will be brilliant”. Sincerity can be said to be long lasting, never ending, broad and profound, and high and bright. When one has attained “supreme sincerity”, one can “praise the nurturing of heaven and earth”. In Doctrine of The Mean, it says: It is only he who is possessed of the most complete sincerity that can exist under heaven, who can give its full development to his nature. Able to give its full development to his own nature, he can do the same to the nature of other men. Able to give its full development to the nature of other men, he can give their full development to the natures of animals and things. Able to give their full development to the natures of creatures and things, he can assist the transforming and nourishing powers of Heaven and Earth. Able to assist the transforming and nourishing powers of Heaven and Earth, he may with Heaven and Earth form a ternion. This means that when a person has attained the highest level of sincerity, that is, when he has fully complied with the benevolent moral code of the ruling class, he will be able to participate in the transformation of heaven and earth, that is, he will be able to nurture all things in the same way as heaven and earth, and he will be able to stand side by side with heaven and earth and be at one with them. After the Song and Ming dynasties, “sincerity” became a matter of great concern to thinkers and cultivators. Sima Guang said that the only thing he believed in all his life was the word “sincerity”. Liu An-shi (an admonisher of the Song Dynasty) said in the “Records of the City of Yuan”: “An Shi studied from Wen Gong for five

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years and got the word “sincerity”. When An Shi asked him about the purpose of his study, he was pleased and said: ‘This is a very good question. You should start by not speaking nonsense.’ I was very easy at first, and retired to the hidden wood and the day of the action, and where the words, since the contradiction is more. After seven years of hard work, I have since been consistent with my words and actions, and I have been able to meet things frankly and always have a surplus.” He also said, “At the beginning of my studies, I did not say much, but I learned from the old masters, and I only learned from sincerity. What I have used in my life is not to deceive.” The old master mentioned here refers to Sima Guang. In addition to “not deceiving”, the Taoists of the Song and Ming dynasties also emphasized “no delusion”, which means no falsehoods. Only when there is no delusion and no deception can we achieve the so-called “consistency between words and deeds” and “correspondence between appearance and reality”.

1.3 The Ethical Thought of the Conveyance of Rites The Conveyance of Rites in the Book of Rites presents an ideal society and an ideal relationship between people. In a certain sense, it can also be said to be one of the earliest ideal social systems and social relations in China. This ideal social system and social relations, although only a utopia, had an important influence in the history of Chinese political and ethical thought. Many progressive thinkers of later generations, dissatisfied with the social system of the time and unable to find their own ideal society, pinned their hopes on this utopia. This ideal contained not only political organisation and the distribution of production, but also the best kind of moral solidarity between human beings and a high level of morality for each individual. The Conveyance of Rites, which is based on a question and answer between Confucius and Zi You, is certainly not credible. It is generally believed to be the work of the “Confucian school of Ziyou” of the Warring States period. The Conveyance of Rites, which appeared in the third century BC, is the earliest document in the history of world ethical thought to describe the ideal cosmopolitan world. In the “Conveyance of Rites”, it says: Formerly Zhong-ni was present as one of the guests at the Ji sacrifice; and when it was over, he went out and walked backwards and forwards on the terrace over the gate of Proclamations, looking sad and sighing. What made him sigh was the state of Lu. Yan Yan was by his side, and said to him, ‘Master, what are you sighing about?’ Confucius replied, ‘I never saw the practice of the Grand course, and the eminent men of the three dynasties; but I have my object (in harmony with theirs). When the Grand course was pursued, a public and common spirit ruled all under the sky; they chose men of talents, virtue, and ability; their words were sincere, and what they cultivated was harmony. Thus men did not love their parents only, nor treat as children only their own sons. A competent provision was secured for the aged till their death, employment for the able-bodied, and the means of growing up to the young. They showed kindness and compassion to widows, orphans, childless men, and those who

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were disabled by disease, so that they were all sufficiently maintained. Males had their proper work, and females had their homes. (They accumulated) articles (of value), disliking that they should be thrown away upon the ground, but not wishing to keep them for their own gratification. (They labored) with their strength, disliking that it should not be exerted, but not exerting it (only) with a view to their own advantage. In this way (selfish) schemings were repressed and found no development. Robbers, filchers, and rebellious traitors did not show themselves, and hence the outer doors remained open, and were not shut. This was (the period of) what we call the Grand Union. Now that the Grand course has fallen into disuse and obscurity, the kingdom is a family inheritance. Every one loves (above all others) his own parents and cherishes (as) children (only) his own sons. People accumulate articles and exert their strength for their own advantage. Great men imagine it is the rule that their states should descend in their own families. Their object is to make the walls of their cities and suburbs strong and their ditches and moats secure. The rules of propriety and of what is right are regarded as the threads by which they seek to maintain in its correctness the relation between ruler and minister; in its generous regard that between father and son; in its harmony that between elder brother and younger; and in a community of sentiment that between husband and wife; and in accordance with them they frame buildings and measures; lay out the fields and hamlets (for the dwellings of the husbandmen); adjudge the superiority to men of valour and knowledge; and regulate their achievements with a view to their own advantage. Thus it is that (selfish) schemes and enterprises are constantly taking their rise, and recourse is had to arms; and thus it was (also) that Yu, Tang, Wen and Wu, king Cheng, and the duke of Zhou obtained their distinction. Of these six great men every one was very attentive to the rules of propriety, thus to secure the display of righteousness, the realisation of sincerity, the exhibition of errors, the exemplification of benevolence, and the discussion of courtesy, showing the people all the normal virtues. Any rulers who did not follow this course were driven away by those who possessed power and position, and all regarded them as pests. This is the period of what we call Small Tranquillity. From the description of the Conveyance of Rites, this ideal society is characterised by the following features: The first is that the wealth of the whole society is common to all. There is no private property, no exploitation or oppression of people by people, no exploitation of other people’s labor, no state apparatus in which people rule over people, all people work together and share in the distribution, and everyone lives happily. Secondly, it is a society where relations between people are very harmonious and where everyone has a high moral standard. First of all, everyone works to the best of his or her ability and works hard, but not for personal gain and without regard to the amount of remuneration. “If you do not do something for yourself, you do not have to do it for yourself.” This means that it is shameful to eat without working, that only labor is honorable, that labor is a duty of man to society, and that labor is not for oneself. It is also clear from this that the Rites of Passage reflects the thinking of the small producers of the Warring States period. The small producers at that time felt the unreasonableness of the exploiting class to get something for nothing, and stressed the need to “work out of one’s own strength”, and disliked those who “did

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not work out of one’s own strength” and got something for nothing. Then, “goods are not to be hidden in one’s own possession, even if one abandons them to the ground”. Despite the abundance of material possessions, people took great care of them, and they did so not for the sake of their own homes, but for the sake of all people. Finally, people care for each other and helped each other. People not only care for their own parents, but also for the parents of others as if they were their own; they not only care for and raise their own children, but also for and raise the children of others. The community is responsible for all those who have lost the ability to work. Thirdly, it is a society in which everyone enjoys full political democracy. All governance is carried out by wise men elected by the people. There is no conspiracy, no struggle for power. In short, the society described in the Rites of Passage is an ideal one in which everyone works and is morally upright. In a class society, it is only a fantasy. The author also acknowledges that such a society is no longer possible. Of course, the author of the Rites of Passage does not call on people to pursue and realize such an ideal society, but he believes that although such a society is good, and Confucius would like to have such a society, it has passed away. It is a different time now, a time of private ownership, where people are looking out for themselves and competing with each other, and therefore must be restrained by rituals, i.e., it is a time of “respect for rituals”. The author argues that it was in accordance with the ways of heaven and the feelings of the people that the first kings formulated the rites. Therefore, rituals are extremely important to the people, and if they have them, they can live, but if they lose them, they will die. “Rites are the way of the first kings to inherit heaven and to govern the feelings of the people, so those who lose them die and those who gain them live.” During the long period of feudalism, the idea of commonwealth in the Conveyance of Rites had not been noticed by the ruling class because it did not meet the interests of the landowning class, but was only the ideal of some of the scholars.

1.4 Ideas on the Ethical Relationship Between Husband and Wife in the Book of Rites The Book of Rites (including the Records of ritual matters by Dai the Elder) contains systematic provisions on the ethical relationship between men and women and between husband and wife, which further summarized and developed the theory of the distinction between husband and wife in the pre-Qin texts, thus laying the theoretical foundation for the establishment of the ethical system of male superiority and female inferiority throughout feudal society. The so-called distinction between men and women meant that men were outside and women were inside, and that men were superior to women. There is a theoretical account of this ethic of male superiority over female in the Records of ritual matters by Dai the Elder—Fortune:

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The word “man” means to take charge of, and the word “son” means to bring forth; the word “man” means to take charge of the natural principles of heaven and earth, so that all things may grow according to the law. This is why it is called “husband”. The word “woman” means to grow and to help. This means to help all things to grow. We know what we can do and what we cannot do, what we can say and what we cannot say, and what we can do and what we cannot do. Therefore, to distinguish between the duties of husband and wife by examining human nature is to know. This is the virtue that a husband should have. The word for woman means to be like, and the word for son means to bring forth; and women, like men, need to be educated in order to improve their righteousness. Hence it is also called woman. The word woman means to be submissive to a man by way of ritual. So there is no reason for the woman to be arbitrary, but only the principle of the three obediences. The so-called “three obediences” are: to be submissive to their father at home, to their husband when they marry, and to their eldest son when he dies. A woman’s instructions were not to leave the inner room, and she was only to do things such as prepare meals. Therefore, a woman is always in the inner room, and does not run away to a place a hundred miles away, and does not take matters into her own hands. She does not act until she knows what she is doing, she does not speak until she has established the evidence, she lights candles when she walks at night, she makes arrangements for the weaving of silkworms, and she keeps the six animals in the house in good health. This is called the virtue of a woman. This is the earliest textual exegesis to elaborate and justify feudal morality. The two characters “Nan” and “Ren” (which mean “man”), are exegeted by their phonetic proximity, thus promoting the ethical concepts of the ruling class. The fact that there are often many similar or homophonic characters in a single word, and that ancient texts often use sounds to convey meanings, gave the ruling class thinkers the opportunity to exploit them. Here, for the first time, the ‘three obediences’ of women were introduced, namely, “obey your father at home, obey your husband when he is suitable for you, and obey your son when he dies”. The first two of these subordinations can be deduced from the traditional ethics of Confucianism. This is because, according to Confucius’ hierarchy of “ruler, minister, father, father, son” and Mencius’ “father and son have kinship, ruler and minister have righteousness, husband and wife have distinction, elders and children have order, and friends have trust”, it seems logical that a woman should follow her father before she marries and her husband after she marries. This seems to be a matter of course. However, it was the first time that the idea that a woman should obey her son after the husband’s death appear in Chinese ethical thoughts. Although later feudal thinkers continued to reinforce this principle, it never became a true moral code because it contradicted the theory of filial piety. Record of Rites by Dai the Elder set out a series of constraints for women: not only could they not do things on their own, but they were confined to the pot, and their sphere of competence was confined to the boudoir. Whatever they did, they had to consult with their husbands; all actions had to be decided by men; all statements had to be made by men and verifiable.

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In addition to the ‘three obediences’, it is also believed that ‘women have five refusals’ and ‘women have seven abandons’: A woman is not to be taken when she is: the eldest daughter of a family whose mother died young; a woman with someone in the family with a malignant disease; a woman with a family member who has committed a crime; a woman with parents who have had a bad life style; a woman who does not listen to her elders. A woman who is against her elders is not moral; a woman who has parents with a bad life is also non-moral; a woman who has a criminal family member is abandoned by the society; a woman who has a ill elder is abandoned by the Heaven; a woman who lost her mother is not worth of marriage. (Record of Rites by Dai the Elder—Fortune). The so-called “five kinds of women not to be taken” here is entirely a one-sided request from the man to the woman. The so-called “rebellious family” is a family of disloyalty, unfiliality, unkindness and unrighteousness. The so-called “disorderly family” is a family of incest. It is even more absurd to say that “the eldest son of a widow is not to be taken”. The reason is that according to Mencius, “At the marrying away of a young woman, her mother admonishes her, accompanying her to the door on her leaving, and cautioning her with these words, ‘You are going to your home. You must be respectful; you must be careful. Do not disobey your husband.’ Thus, to look upon compliance as their correct course is the rule for women.” (Mencius— Teng Wen Gong II) When the mother dies, the woman has nothing to be commanded, so she is not taken. This was a heavy feudal yoke placed on women. There are “seven kinds of women should be abandoned”: woman who is disobedient parents, having no child, adultery, jealousy, in ill-health, talking too much, and doing theft. …There are also “three kinds of women should not be abandoned”: if she has something to take but nothing to return to; if she is in mourning for three years for relatives; if she is poor, but then rich. (Record of Rites by Dai the Elder—Fortune). Not only is jealousy a reason, not having a son a reason, having a serious illness a reason, but even talking more is a reason to be abandoned, which shows the extent of this inequality between men and women.

2 The Ethical Thought of the Book of Filial Piety There is still debate as to when and by whom the Classic of Filial Piety was written. Since the Han dynasty, there has been the name “Seven Classics”, and to the “Five Classics”, the Analects of Confucius and the Classic of Filial Piety have been added. According to Liang Qichao, the Classic of Filial Piety was “the same as the Book of Rites in terms of its text, but it is very much a part of the Book of Rites.” Although those who respected the Classic of Filial Piety in the Han Dynasty said that it was written by Confucius. Based on their understanding, in fact, what is written in it are the words of questions and answers between Confucius and Zengzi. This means that the Classic of Filial Piety was neither written by Confucius nor written by Zengzi. Even at the earliest stage, it might be written by the followers of Zengzi. In terms of style, the Classic of Filial Piety would be very similar to the Book of Rites. The

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times it was written was not very ancient, but at least from the end of the Warring States period to the beginning of the Han Dynasty. This book may not be written in the Warring States period, but created in the Han Dynasty and it was not created earlier than the Warring States period. They also said that this book was not written by Confucius, but can be included in the Book of Rites as part of the derivation of Confucius followers to stress the concept of Filial Piety. In his book “A Modern Examination of The Classic of Filial Piety Wang Zijie argues that The Classic of Filial Piety was written after Zhuangzi and before Lu Shi Chun Qiu” with the following reason, “The beginning of the scriptures emerged since Zhuangzi, and the chapter on “the Revolution of Heaven” says that ‘I have occupied myself with the Shi, the Shu, the Li, the Yue, the Yi, and the Chun Qiu. In the period of Zhuangzi, the name of the above-mentioned Six books existed, but they had not been appeared before.’ However, The Classic of Filial Piety was not mentioned in this period.” The fact that the Classic of Filial Piety was not mentioned here shows that the Classic of Filial Piety came after Zhuangzi. In addition, Lv Shi Chunqiu “quotes from the Classic of Filial Piety”. In the chapter “Cha Wei”, “The Classic of Filial Piety” says, “to dwell on high without peril is the way long to preserve nobility; to be full without overflowing is the way long to preserve riches. When their riches and nobility do not leave their persons, then they are able to preserve the altars of their land and grain, and to secure the harmony of their people and men in office.” This passage is no different from the present text of The Classic of Filial Piety. There is also a passage in the chapter on Acts of Filial Piety that is largely identical to the chapter on the Son of Heaven of The Classic of Filial Piety. The fact that Lv quotes from the Classic of Filial Piety suggests that Lv must have read the Classic of Filial Piety. Lv Shi Chun Qiu is the first book to cite The Classic of Filial Piety, so it is thought that The Classic of Filial Piety must have been written no later than Lv Shi Chun Qiu. It is possible that The Classic of Filial Piety existed in the Qin dynasty, but it is possible that the book was developed and expanded by people from the early Han dynasty. The Classic of Filial Piety, which officially appeared in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, is a systematic classic of Confucianism on the theory of filial piety. The Classic of Filial Piety describes filial piety as the root of all morality, the “most important path of virtue” for social stability, national consolidation, harmony between the upper and lower classes, and obedience to the world by giving this concept a more systematic theoretical explanation. Since then, through the promotion of the feudal ruling class, this theory propagated by the Classic of Filial Piety has had a special influence in China’s long-standing feudal society. “Filial piety” is one of the most fundamental and important elements of clan morality. One of the characteristics of Chinese slave society was the clan-based patriarchal system. Therefore, the emphasis on filial piety has been a characteristic of Chinese ethical thinking since the slave society. A disciple of Confucius, You Ruo, once stressed the importance of filial piety. He said, “they are few who, being filial and fraternal, are fond of offending against their superiors. There have been none, who, not liking to offend against their superiors, have been fond of stirring up confusion. The superior man bends his attention to what is radical. That being established, all practical courses naturally grow up. Filial

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piety and fraternal submission!—are they not the root of all benevolent actions?” (The Analects, Xue Er). In addition, Confucius also repeatedly stated the importance of filial piety in his questions and answers with his disciples, and later Mencius and Xunzi both focused on filial piety. The Classic of Filial Piety, as a Confucian book, further gives filial piety its moral supremacy. Firstly, the Classic of Filial Piety stresses that filial piety is the root of all morality, or that all morality is derived from filial piety. With filial piety, there can be other morals, and without filial piety, there can be no other morals. Obviously, this is an important feature of Chinese ethical thought, which is not found in Western ethical thought. The first chapter of the Classic of Filial Piety begins with the following statement: “The ancient kings had a perfect virtue and all-embracing rule of conduct, through which they were in accord with all under heaven. By the practice of it the people were brought to live in peace and harmony, and there was no ill-will between superiors and inferiors. The so-called “perfect virtue and all-embracing rule of conduct” is what Confucianism calls “filial piety”. It is also said that now filial piety is the root of (all) virtue, and (the stem) out of which grows (all moral) teaching. Our bodies—to every hair and bit of skin—are received by us from our parents, and we must not presume to injure or wound them. This is the beginning of filial piety. When we have established our character by the practice of the (filial) course, so as to make our name famous in future ages and thereby glorify our parents, this is the end of filial piety. It commences with the service of parents; it proceeds to the service of the ruler; it is completed by the establishment of character. From this we can see that all moral principles, moral codes, and people’s moral qualities are derived from filial piety; all moral education and moral cultivation are derived from filial piety. Since one’s skin and hair are given by one’s parents, one must take care of one’s body and use it to make a name for oneself and one’s parents. Why should children be filial to their parents? The Classic of Filial Piety clearly argues that it is mainly because parents give birth to children, that is to say, “the body and the skin of the body are given to the parents”, and without parents, there would be no children. Therefore, children should be filial to their parents. In terms of the content of filial piety, the most important thing is to inherit and carry forward the wishes of their parents, i.e. the principle that “If for three years he does not alter from the way of his father, he may be called filial.” (ibid.). This means that it is best to follow one’s father’s ways throughout one’s life, but the minimum requirement is that nothing should be changed within three years. The second is to provide for one’s parents, or to support them. Confucianism, since Confucius, has stressed that the difficulty is with the countenance”, i.e. the need to be pleasant and obedient to the will of the parents when their elders have any troublesome affairs, the young take the toil of them (The Analects of Confucius—Wei Zheng). In addition, it is also essential to make our name famous in future ages and thereby glorify our parents. This is what was known in feudal society as ‘glorifying the ancestors’ and striving for a good name for the ancestors. Another very important element of this was the need to inherit the ancestral lineage. This means to maintain the ancestral lineage by having children, especially by having heirs. This is what Mencius meant when he said there

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are three things which are unfilial, and to have no posterity is the greatest of them.” (Mencius—Li Lou I). Of course, this is also linked to the minimum requirement of “not daring to destroy” one’s own body. The content of filial piety is defined as the preservation of oneself. As the detailed explanation given in the Classic of Rites, it is said that of all that Heaven produces and Earth nourishes, there is none so great as man. His parents give birth to his person all complete, and to return it, to them all complete may be called filial duty. When no member has been mutilated and no disgrace done to any part of the person, it may be called complete; and hence a superior man does not dare to take the slightest step in forgetfulness of his filial duty. (A son) should not forget his parents in a single lifting up of his feet, nor in the utterance of a single word. He should not forget his parents in a single lifting up of his feet, and therefore he will walk in the highway and not take a by-path, he will use a boat and not attempt to wade through a stream—not daring, with the body left him by his parents, to go in the way of peril. He should not forget his parents in the utterance of a single word, and therefore an evil word will not issue from his mouth, and an angry word will not come back to his person. Not to disgrace his person and not to cause shame to his parents may be called filial duty. It is on the basis of this theory that Confucianism believes that the most important thing for filial piety is to protect oneself, so that everything illegal and disordered will be avoided, and all risky actions will not be dared to do, which will naturally be very beneficial to the maintenance and consolidation of orders given by the ruling class. This is one of the key elements of Confucianism’s concept of filial piety. Secondly, the Classic of Filial Piety also holds that filial piety is a supreme principle for all things in heaven and earth and for the actions of people. The Classic of Filial Piety—San Cai says: “filial piety is the constant (method) of Heaven, the righteousness of Earth, and the practical duty of Man. Heaven and earth invariably pursue the course (that may be thus described), and the people take it as their pattern. (The ancient kings) imitated the brilliant luminaries of heaven and acted in accordance with the (varying) advantages afforded by earth, so that they were in accord with all under heaven, and in consequence their teachings, without being severe, were successful, and their government, without being rigorous, secured perfect order. The ancient kings, seeing how their teachings could transform the people, set before them therefore an example of the most extended love, and none of the people neglected their parents. They set forth to them (the nature of) virtue and righteousness, and the people roused themselves to the practice of them. They went before them with reverence and yielding courtesy, and the people had no contentions. They led them on by the rules of propriety and by music, and the people were harmonious and benignant. They showed them what they loved and what they disliked, and the people understood their prohibitions.” Why is filial piety the constant of heaven and the righteousness of earth? Some commentators in the past could not explain it clearly, but could only say that it was a “general statement”, in a general sense. This means that filial piety is the highest principle of human behavior, like the rule of heaven and earth, and that the reason why the ancient kings were able to keep the people from abandoning their fathers and elders, to keep the people in harmony with each other and prevent them from violating the law and discipline, was because of the education of filial piety.

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Thirdly, the Classic of Filial Piety consciously links ‘filial piety’ with ‘loyalty’, making ‘filial piety’ an important part of the superstructure and ideology of feudal society from clan morality. The most important reason for the emphasis on filial piety in the Classic of Filial Piety was not to nurture and honor parents and relatives, but to maintain the social hierarchy and to safeguard the inviolable relationship between ruler, subject, father and son. In both slave and feudal societies, all ethical thinking were served to maintain this hierarchy. Superficially, what was to be maintained was the filial piety of the son towards the father, but what was more important was the loyalty of the subject towards the ruler. In the Classic of Filial Piety Shi, it is said, “The service due to a father is employed in serving a mother, and the love is the same for both. (But) in the sky there are not two sun, nor in a land two kings, nor in a state two rulers, nor in a family two equally honorable—one (principle) regulates (all) these conditions. Hence, while the father is alive, the sackcloth with even edges is worn (for a mother), (and only) for a year—showing that there are not (in the family) two equally honorable.” It is also said, “he who (thus) serves his parents, in a high situation will be free from pride, in a low situation will be free from insubordination, and among his equals will not be quarrelsome. In a high situation pride leads to ruin; in a low situation insubordination leads to punishment; among equals quarrelsomeness leads to the wielding of weapons. If those three things be not put away, though a son every day contribute beef, mutton, and pork to nourish his parents, he is not filial.” (An Orderly Description of the Acts of Filial Piety). This clearly shows that the most important role of filial piety is to serve the ruler faithfully. There is a saying that the filial piety with which the superior man serves his parents may be transferred as loyalty to the ruler”. The purpose of the saying is to keep the subordinates in good order and maintain the dignity of the hierarchy. In this way, the relationship between father and ruler were closely linked, so was the relationship between son and subject. In addition, the most important relationship in the feudal society, which is the relationship between the kings and their subjects were seen as the relationship between fathers and sons. Similarly, the relationship between nobles and plebeians, between officials and husbandmen, and between superiors and subordinates were all seen as the relationship between fathers and sons. Since sons were expected to obey their fathers absolutely, the relationships in feudal society could only be those of absolute obedience. Only those who were filial to their parents were able to serve their sovereign well, and only those who were filial to their parents and loyal to their sovereign were able to establish the character, do right things and keep morality at a high level. This was what the fundamental interests of the patriarchal system required. Recognising this, the rulers of the Han dynasty went on to explain the importance of filial piety in terms of politics, law and the system of election of officials. During the Han Dynasty, those who were elected as “filial to their parents and work hard on the farmland” were rewarded by the government, and later on there was an event named electing those who are filial, honest and upright. Those who were selected as filial, honest and upright could gradually be promoted. Even the posthumous name of the emperor after his death was given the word “filial piety”. This shows that after the Qin and Han dynasties, the role of filial piety became even more important in Chinese society, as the rulers of feudal society placed more emphasis on filial piety.

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The Song scholars argued that the word “teach” in the The Classic of Filial Piety, which reads “The ancient kings, seeing how their teachings could transform the people”, should be a mistake for the word “filial piety”. They believed that only by educating the people with filial piety could people not only respect their parents, but also “treat with the reverence due to age the elders in your own family, so that the elders in the families of others shall be similarly treated”. This means that the people would “love” and not abandon their elders. In the view of the scholars, the teaching of filial piety can also tell the people what they should do, so that they can behave in accordance with the rules. By making them aware of the importance of respect, they could avoid disputes. In addition, reconciling their conflicts with rites and music, they could stop breaking the law. This is what is meant by the saying, “the ancient kings had a perfect virtue and all-embracing rule of conduct, through which they were in accord with all under heaven. By the practice of it the people were brought to live in peace and harmony, and there was no ill-will between superiors and inferiors.” (The Classic of Filial Piety—The Scope and Meaning of the Treatise).

Chapter 10

Dong Zhongshu’s Theological Arguments for Confucian Ethics

1 Life of Dong Zhongshu and His Works Dong Zhongshu was born in the first year of Emperor Wen’s reign (179 BC) in Guangchuan (the Jing County in Hebei Province at present) and died in the first year of Emperor Wu’s reign (104 BC). During the reign of Emperor Jing, he was a “doctor” who taught the classics of Confucianism. He is said to have studied hard on his own, “specialising in the exposition of the past” (Taiping Yulan) and “not looking into the garden for three years due to focusing on the exposition” (Han Shu—Dong Zhongshu’s bibliology). Huan Tan, in his New Treatise on the Creation, says: “Dong Zhongshu was so dedicated to the exposition of the past that he did not peep into the garden until he was over sixty years old.” In the Book Taiping Yulan, he is said to have been “an avid student of books and classics, but not aware of the males and females of horses.” In the Han Dynasty, the people who ride female horses would be repelled by others. He took the examinations under Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and was valued by the highest rulers, becoming the spokesman for official philosophy. In his later years, although he was “at home”, “when there was a major discussion at court, the messenger, and the court lieutenant Zhang Tang (the highest judiciary at the court) would be sent to his house to ask him about the issues that were discussed at the court”. He often “taught students behind the curtain” and his other disciples often taught by one of his best disciples such as Lv Bushu. “In addition, “He taught disciples according to their academic level and some of his disciples had not met him in person.”. This means that some of his disciples had studied with him for many years, but had not yet heard him lecture directly, nor had they met him in person. His writings have been handed down to us, including his reply to Emperor Wu’s questioning, “Measures to Raise the Virtuous” (also known as “The Three Strategies of the Heavenly Man”), and a collection of essays entitled “Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn”. Dong Zhongshu was the representative figure who theorized and systematized the ethical doctrine of Confucianism. He established a system of ethical thought based

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on the “induction of man and heaven”, with the “Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues” as the core, and with the aim of maintaining feudal unity. According to Dong Zhongshu, heaven is the supreme master with a purpose and a will, and “the benevolence, righteousness and the existence of institutions is taken from and decided by the heaven”, and “the cardinal guidance from the kings can be sought from heaven” (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn—The Principles of Sacrificial Rites). In his view, morality is the code of conduct set by the sages inspired by heaven, and the “Three Cardinal Guides” and the “Five Constant Virtues” are all issued by the will of heaven. The Three Cardinal Guidance and Five Constant Virtues are all “taken from the Way of Yin and Yang” (ibid.). The way of Haven is that “Yang is superior and Yin is inferior” (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn-The Heavenly Distinctions Lie in Humans). This means that the relationship between ruler and subject, father and son, and husband and wife, master, and subordinate, is as unchanging as the way of heaven, i.e., “as heaven remains unchanged, so does the way” (Hanshu—a Biography of Dong Zhongshu).

2 The Reason for “Venerate Confucianism Only” After Liu Bang seized power, the Han dynasty was able to achieve a certain degree of socio-political and economic stability and development after decades of rest and recuperation, and for the first time in history a prosperous, strong and unified feudal empire emerged. At the same time, there was a pressing need to establish a philosophical, political, and moral ideology that matches to the situation at that time. On the one hand, the books named Yi Li, Zhou Li and Li Ji appeared as ‘Classics’. At the same time, Han dynasty began to create rites and music; on the other hand, there was a demand for a fundamental theological justification for such rites and music. “Three Strategies of Heaven and Man “and “Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn” are philosophical, political, and ethical systems established to meet this requirement. In his advice to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu put forward the idea of ‘dismissing the hundred schools of thought’, which had an important influence in the history of Chinese thought. In the Qin and Han dynasties, a recommendatory system was introduced, whereby the lower levels of the hierarchy would nominate people who would then be appointed by the central government as officials at the lower levels. After Liu Bang became emperor, he proposed that people of virtue should be elected from the local level. Later on, the counties followed the rules. Firstly, they were asked to nominate “filial and hardworking people” (who only served as a role model and did not work for the government), then they were asked to nominate people who are “filial, honest and upright” (i.e., filial sons will be honest officials), and later they were asked to nominate those who were virtuous, honest and could speak straightforwardly to the central government. Those who were defined as virtuous, honest and could speak straightforwardly to the central government were asked by the emperor himself. This was mainly to promote democracy and to listen to the opinions of all parties. Later,

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the emperor also ordered that people who have advanced knowledge in classics and can speak directly would be selected. All the selection systems have their original names. After the reign of Emperor Wu, he often issued edicts requesting all the counties to selected people who have advanced knowledge in classics and dare to speak directly to the central government (“When Emperor Wu reigned, he appointed hundreds of scholars”). When these scholars were selected, they were sent to Jing Du, where they were asked questions by the emperor himself and needed to provide answers and some of them need to submit the written-form material. Emperor Wu was an accomplished emperor, and what he wanted to know at that time was how to make the Han dynasty strong and prosperous and how to consolidate his rule, which was what he called “The essence of the way is the basic theory”. The basic theory is the relationship between heaven and man. These questions are as follow: Firstly, how does the “heaven” rule, manage, influence, and regulate the development of human society? How did the monarchs and emperors who achieved great things and established great careers in ancient times rule the world in accordance with the will of Heaven? What were the causes of natural disasters, the abundance and shortage of crops, the longevity of the population, and the good and bad social customs? In his three responses, Dong Zhongshu first proposed the theory of the Great Unification: The unity of the world, which the Chun Qiu promote, is a permanent principle between heaven and earth, a unanimous doctrine throughout the ages. Now, each classic teaches a different way of Dao, each has different arguments, and the doctrines of the hundred schools of thought have different aims. Therefore, there is no way for the monarch to achieve unity, the decree system changes many times, and the subjects do not know what they should abide by. I believe that the direction should be different, and that all schools of thought that do not fall within the scope of the ‘six arts’ of Confucianism and do not conform to the doctrine of Confucius should be banned from their theories and not allowed to progress alongside Confucianism, so that the evil and unjust doctrines will be brought to extinction. (Hanshu—a Biography of Dong Zhongshu). Although the Han dynasty had achieved political, economic, and military unity and established a feudal empire, there were still many differences in terms of ideology and ethics. A similar situation had arisen during the Qin dynasty, when legalism was used as the standard for unification of thought. However, with the fall of the Qin dynasty, this unity was broken again. With this break in unity, the whole set of political and ethical ideas of Legalism lost its rightful place. Tough laws which use human selfishness to develop production, boost farming and warfare were all rejected. The role of moral rule, benevolence and morality, and the role of moral norms in human relations, were given renewed importance. Now, Dong Zhongshu, in the light of the new situation and the lessons learned from the fall of the Qin, boldly put forward his own view that Confucius’ thought was the only correct thought and the reason of its correctness was profound. What was the lesson of the fall of Qin Dynasty after getting the ruling position for two generations after it unified China? During the first period when the landowning class was in the political arena, the landowning revolutionaries emphasized change and the rule of law, using the legalist thought as their spokesmen.

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However, with the consolidation and development of the landowning regime, the contradictions between the peasant class and the landowning class became increasingly acute, and the lessons of the rapid destruction of the Qin dynasty in particular forced the landowning class to find new ideological weapons. As the spokesman of the landowning class, Dong Zhongshu realized that it was in the best interests of the ruling class to adapt the ideas of Confucius and Mencius. Firstly, Confucius’ and Mencius’ ideas of upholding the hierarchy of ruler and subject, father and son, and husband and wife, were also beneficial to the feudal system. Their moral philosophy, which emphasized the principle of “exercises government by means of his virtue”. In addition, the “benevolence” and “propriety” preached by Confucius and Mencius, would have served the unified feudal empire better in regulating relations between people. Confucius’s and Mencius’s ideas of “the will of heaven” and “the divine right of kings” would have provided the rulers with the theoretical basis for lasting rule. Secondly, the theory of Confucius and Mencius, in terms of ethics, emphasized the role of morality in social life and regarded ethics and morality as a weapon for the ruling class. The role of morality was as important as repression by force. The importance of this idea for the ruling class was seen by Dong Zhongshu. Dong Zhongshu regarded Confucius as the sage of feudal society and stressed the need to “revere only Confucianism”, treating all ideas that did not conform to Confucianism as heretical and “exterminating all its ways”, thus making Confucianism the orthodoxy of feudal society for more than two thousand years.

3 Interactions Between Heaven and Mankind and Gifted Morality In order to meet the needs of feudal and autocratic unification, the rulers of the Han dynasty needed to theoretically justify the political system and moral principles of the time in order to show that they were all determined by heaven. It was in this context that Dong Zhongshu put forward the theories of ‘the unity of heaven and man’, ‘the divine right of kings’ and ‘the gift of morality’. In ancient China, the word ‘heaven’ had many meanings. During the Yin and Zhou dynasties, the heaven was often seen as a willful god who could dominate everything. At the end of the Warring States period, Xunzi put forward the idea of “the separation of heaven and man”, giving it a materialistic interpretation. However, more than a hundred years later, Dong Zhongshu interpreted the heavens in terms of theological teleology, for profound economic and political reasons. According to Dong Zhongshu, heaven is a god with a will, a purpose, and a personality. He said, “Heaven is the great ruler of all the gods.” (“Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn, Sayings Pertaining to the Suburban Sacrifice) This means that heaven is the supreme god who governs all gods and is the creator of all things in the universe. In addition, he emphasizes that “I have heard that the heavens are the origin of all things, so that they cover a great variety of worlds without any exception.

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The sun, the moon, the rain, and the wind make all the things harmonious, and the sun, the cold and the sun make them grow naturally” (Han Shu—a Biography of Dong Zhongshu). He believed: “The father is the son’s Heaven; Heaven is the father’s Heaven. It has never been the case that something comes into existence without Heaven. Heaven is the ancestor of the myriad things. The myriad things cannot come into existence without Heaven…” (“Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn, Following Orders”). In short, Dong Zhongshu took heaven as the supreme master of nature and human society, and expressed it in a clear theory. This led to the further development of the idealist worldview of “heavenly will” and “heavenly way” in Chinese intellectual history since the Western Zhou. Dong Zhongshu describes the heavens as a “great ruler of all gods” with a will. Politically speaking, his aim was to establish a solid theoretical basis for the ‘divine right of kings’. In terms of ethics, the most important thing was to establish the idealistic theory of moral origin of the “innate moral theory”. The two theories worked together to achieve his aim of using heaven to serve the feudal landowning class. He said: “A king is a man that conducting heaven’s will.” (Han Shu—a Biography of Dong Zhongshu) “He who is called king is also a son of Heaven, who passes the throne to Yao and Shun, who receive the mandate from Heaven and rule the world.” (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn—Yao and Shun Did Not Presumptuously Transfer [the Throne]; Tang and Wu Did Not Rebelliously Murder [Their Rulers]). Similarly, for Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, since he was “the king who is mandated from the heaven” (Hanshu—a Biography of Dong Zhongshu), “he must have powers beyond the reach of ordinary men, and he is able to do so because of what Heaven has given him. All men under heaven are willing to follow him as they would follow their own parents, and the heavens will descend upon him for his virtues.” (ibid.). This means that the ruler’s ability to rule the world is the expression of the will of heaven. In order to reinforce the idea of ‘divine right of kings’ and the sanctity of the will of heaven, and to establish the absolute authority of the feudal monarch, Dong Zhongshu further developed his so-called “harmony between heaven and man” and “induction of heaven and man” theories. What is “the harmony of heaven and man” and “the induction of heaven and man”? Dong Zhongshu refers to heaven as a supreme political ruler: I have cautiously examined the relationship between heaven and man in the light of what is written in the Chun Qiu and what has been done in previous generations, and the situation is terrible! If a nation is about to be corrupted against its morals, then Heaven sends down disasters to condemn and remind it; if it does not know how to wake up, then Heaven produces strange things to warn and frighten it; and if it does not know how to repent, then harm and defeat will come. (ibid.) When an emperor is about to rise, his beauty and good fortune will be seen first; when he is about to die, his demonic fruits will be seen first. (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn-Things of the Same Kind Activate One Another).1 1

In 135 BC, there was a fire in Gao Yuan Hall of Changling, the place where the emperor worshiped his ancestors, which was very unlucky. Then there was another fire in the High Temple in Liaodong.

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In order to show that the heavens and human beings can sense each other, Dong Zhongshu proposed the theory that ‘Heaven, the Maker of Humankind’ (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn—Heaven, the Maker of Humankind), describing human beings as created by God in His own image, and that man is a ‘copy’ of the heavens. What heaven has, man has. He said, “Man’s origin is in heaven, and heaven is also man’s great-grandfather.” (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn-Heaven, the Maker of Humankind). How are heaven and man similar? Dong Zhongshu says in his Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn, “The number of the full year is used by Heaven to make the body of man, so that the small joints, three hundred and sixty-six, correspond to the number of days in the year; the large joints, twelve, correspond to the number of months in the year; the five hides within the body correspond to the number of the five elements in Heaven; the four limbs outside the body correspond to the number of the four seasons; man’s eyes are suddenly open to see and suddenly closed to correspond to the day and night; his eyes are suddenly strong and suddenly soft to correspond to the winter and summer; he is suddenly sad and suddenly happy to correspond to the two qi of yin and yang; there is consideration and calculation within the mind to correspond to the order of thought in Heaven; there is ethics in behavior to correspond to the relationship between Heaven and earth.” (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn-Human Correlates of Heaven’s Regularities). In Dong Zhongshu’s view, not only was the image of man the same as the image of heaven, but even people’s behavior and moral qualities corresponded to heaven and were predetermined by it. Because of this, people must act in accordance with the will of heaven. If the will of heaven is met, heaven will be pleased and rewarded; if the will of heaven is disobeyed, heaven will be angry and man will be punished by heaven. So, what is the will of Heaven expressed by? According to Dong Zhongshu, what the emperor did was the manifestation of the will of heaven, and the people had to act according to the will of the emperor. If the emperor’s actions violated the will of heaven, he would be educated by heaven. For example, heaven would send down calamities to warn him and make him aware. If he continued to violate the will of heaven, heaven would punish him. The main aim of Dong Zhongshu’s theory of “Heavenly Induction” was to consolidate the rule of the landowning class over the people, but he also tried to use it to advise the rulers to implement benevolent policies and not to violate the “will of Heaven”. Dong Zhongshu was almost executed for this theory he had created. According to the book (“Hanshu—a Biography of Dong Zhongshu”), When Dong Zhongshu ruled the country, he used the calamitous changes recorded in Chun Qiu to inquire into the causes of the misbehaviors of yin and yang, so that when he asked for rain, he closed yang and opened yin, and when he stopped the rain, he closed yin and opened yang. This method of praying for rain and stopping flooding was implemented to the whole country of Jiang Du. and all his wishes were reached. Later, Dong Zhongshu was deposed as a middle minister. Before that, a fire Dong Zhongshu thought that this was the result of heaven’s displeasure with Emperor Wu’s behavior and asked him to take his advice.

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broke out at the Gaozu’s Temple in Liaodong County, where the emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty were worshipped, and at the Gao Yuan Hall in Changling, where the emperor of the Han Dynasty was worshipped, and Dong Zhongshu was at home, deducing the relationship between the fire and the human world. With the draft written, Dong Zhongshu had not submitted the article to the emperor. A colleague Dong Zhongshu named Zhu Yan Fu came to visit him and he was jealous of Dong Zhongshu. He stole the draft and submitted it to Emperor Wu of Han. Emperor Wu summoned many Confucian scholars and showed them Dong Zhongshu’s draft. The student of Dong Zhongshu, Lv Bushu, did not know that his teacher had written the draft and thought it was very foolish. The emperor then sentenced Dong Zhongshu to death, but he pardoned him by decree and Dong Zhongshu never dared to talk about calamities and changes again. One of the main purposes of Dong Zhongshu’s ideas of ‘induction of heaven and man’, ‘divine right of kings’ and ‘innated morality’ was to propagate what he called “If Heaven remains unchanged, so does the Tao” (Hanshu—a Biography of Dong Zhongshu). What is “the Way”? It is the rituals and guidance of feudal society. Dong Zhongshu said, “The Way is the way to be governed by benevolence, righteousness, propriety and music.” (ibid.) The reason why a society can be “peaceful and longlasting for hundreds of years is the result of ritual and music” (ibid.).

4 About “Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues” In terms of moral norms, Dong Zhongshu proposed the so-called “Three Cardinal Guidance” and “Five Constant Virtues” of feudal society based on the Confucian hierarchy of “ruler and minister, father and son” and clan relations. This is the most fundamental moral code of feudal society. The concept of the Three Cardinal Guidance and Five Constant Virtues had been systematized by Dong Zhongshu and became the most important spiritual pillars of the feudal system, and played an important role in the ideological sphere, as they were constantly supplemented, developed, and propagated by the ethical thinkers of the landed classes. In the history of ethical thought, as mentioned above, the idea of the “Three Cardinal Guidance” was already in existence. In the Zuo Zhuan (Zuo Zhuan the 26th Zhao Gong), there is a passage in which Yan Zi discusses rituals, saying: “it is again a good thing in propriety that a minister is respectful and has no second thoughts, that a father is loving and educates his son, that a son is dutiful and admonishes his father, that an older brother is kind and friendly, that a younger brother is respectful and obedient, that a husband is kind and knows righteousness, that a wife is gentle and upright, that a mother-in-law is loving and willing to listen to advice, that a daughter-in-law is obedient and able to make polite statements. Confucius’s phrase ‘ruler, minister, father, son’ already contains some of the ideological content of ‘minister should obey rulers’ and ‘the son should obey the father’. Mencius put

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forward the idea of the ‘Five Rites’, which means that ‘father and son have kinship, ruler and minister have righteousness, husband and wife have distinction, elders and children have an older in terms of age groups, and friends have trust’. Later on, Han Fei also said, “If a minister serves his ruler, a son serves his father and a wife serves her husband, if the three are obedient, the world will be ruled, but if the three are not, the world will be in chaos. This is the normal way of the world.” (Han Fei Zi— Loyalty and Filial Piety) But it was Dong Zhongshu who was the first to explicitly put forward the “Three Cardinal Guidance principles” and theoretically justify them. Firstly, Dong Zhongshu theoretically explained that the relationship between ruler and subject, father and son, and husband and wife was a relationship between yin and yang. The relationship between yin and yang is always one in which ‘yang is superior and yin is inferior’, and from this he deduced his theory of the ‘The Three Cardinal Guidance’. There must be a match for everything, and there must be a top and a bottom, a left and a right, a front and a back, an outside and an inside. There must be beauty and there must be ugliness, there must be smoothness and there must be disobedience, there must be like and there must be anger, there must be cold and there must be heat, there must be day and there must be night, and these are all fits. Yin is the match of Yang, the wife is the match of the husband, the son is the match of the father, and the minister is the match of the king. There is nothing in all things that does not have an object of cooperation, and cooperation requires both yin and yang. (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn- Laying the Foundation of Righteousness). The relationship between king and subject, father and son, husband, and wife, is all taken from the principle of yin and yang. The king is yang, the vassal is yin; the father is yang, the son is yin; the husband is yang, the wife is yin. There is no rule of Yin that runs alone into existence. Nor can it appear alone when it has just appeared, nor can it share in the merit at the end. Yin and Yang will be balanced. (ibid). This passage, which seems to contain the idea of dialectics, is in fact the theoretical basis for the argument for feudal morality in Dong Zhongshu’s case. Obviously, there is no dialectical unity of opposites here, but only metaphysical opposites, and the relationship between yin and yang can never be transformed into each other, and there can be no identity between them. According to Dong Zhongshu, Yang, the opposite of Yin, is always superior and noble; Yin, the opposite of Yang, is always inferior and lowly. “Even though men are low, they are all yang, and even though women are noble, they are all yin. The yin energy still gives rise to each other, and the yang energy also gives rise to each other. Each one in the upper position gives birth to their lower position, which is also yang, and each one in the lower position gives birth to its upper position, which is also yin.” (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn- Yang Is Lofty, Yin Is Lowly). We know that the so-called “way of yin and yang” and “yang is superior than yin” are originally ideas from the Book of Changes, which indeed contains elements of simple dialectics. However, Dong Zhongshu’s one-sided emphasis on the dominant role of yang in the relationship between yin and yang reduces the subordinate role of yin to one of unconditional obedience. He did not derive this theory from the changes in the universe, but rather made the way of yin and yang conform to his feudal ethical and moral conceptions.

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Thus, it can also be said that the feudal ethical and moral code was a model set by Dong Zhongshu, and that Yin and Yang were merely two rigid concepts that he filled into this model. Secondly, Dong Zhongshu described the Three Cardinal Guidance as the most fundamental moral code between man and man, which was determined by the will of heaven. From the lesson of the Qin Dynasty, which was destroyed by the concept of using punishment instead of using virtue. He argued that virtue should be favored and punishment should be simplified. He advised the rulers of the Han Dynasty to strengthen moral education such as the Three Cardinal Guidance. in order to consolidate their rule instead of using only punitive measures. He said, “The three main principles of the king’s righteousness can be found in the heavens. The heavens give birth to the yang energy in order to warm the world and grow all things, and the earth gives birth to the yin energy in order to refresh the world and ripen all things. But when we calculate the difference between the yin and the yang, the warmth and the heat have a hundred parts, but the refreshment and the coldness have only one of them. This is the case with the teaching of grace and punishment. So, the sages are more caring and more severe, and less gracious and more virtuous and less punitive. This is the way that people keep in harmony with heaven.” (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn- Ji Yi) Dong Zhongshu gave a theological veneer to “more virtue and simple punishment”, thus finding a “divine” basis for Confucius’ and Mencius’ ideas of virtue and governance, so that they could better deceive the people and achieve the purpose of fooling them. In his Response to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu said, “benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith are the five constant paths that a king should cultivate and reorganize. If these five paths can be cultivated and perfected, the king will be blessed by heaven, and the demons and gods will patronize him to receive sacrifices, and the beneficence will spread abroad and extend to all beings.” (Hanshu—a Biography of Dong Zhongshu) Here, he describes the “five paths” as the five moral codes, as well as the virtues that a ruler should cultivate. He believes that if a king possesses these five virtues, he will be blessed by heaven and enjoy his title forever. He will make his people receive favors as well. In Chun Qiu, he also described benevolence, righteousness, and wisdom as virtues that everyone should possess. In his view, The Three Cardinal Guidance and Five Constant Virtues were the main elements of the Way. As the saying goes, “The great principle of the Way comes from Heaven, and if Heaven remains unchanged, so does the Way”, meaning that the moral principles of feudal society were like Heaven, and that no matter how much history changed or how many dynasties changed, the Way would never change. In the history of ethical thought, Dong Zhongshu, for the first time, brought together benevolence, yi (friendship), ritual, wisdom (knowledge) and faith. Confucius paid special attention to “benevolence” and “ritual”, and emphasized “faith” and “righteousness”. He had proposed wisdom, benevolence courage. “Mencius combined the four elements of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, which he considered to be the innate goodness of man. Dong Zhongshu, on the other hand, put these five together and called them the “five constant virtues”. Among

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the Five Constant virtues, he paid special attention to “benevolence” and “friendship”, and interpreted “benevolence” and “righteousness” as the relationship between ourselves and others. What is studied in the “Chun Qiu” is the other people and the self. What is used to regulate man and self is based on benevolence and righteousness. The use of benevolence is to settle man and righteousness is to regulate the self, thus benevolence as a word in language means man. Righteousness as a word in language means self (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn-Standards of Humaneness and Righteousness). That is why the Chun Qiu set out the principles of benevolence and righteousness. The principle of benevolence is to love people, not to love oneself, and the principle of righteousness is to correct oneself, not to correct others. Even if one does not correct oneself, even if one can make correction of others, it cannot be considered righteousness. Even if others do not accept your love, even if they love themselves, it does not count as benevolence. (Ibid). The gentleman seeks the difference between benevolence and righteousness in order to regulate the relationship between others and the self, and then discerns the difference between the internal and the external, which manifests itself in smoothness and disobedience. (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn- Standards of Humaneness and Righteousness). In short, for Dong Zhongshu, the moral code of benevolence is mainly about the relationship with others, i.e., to love others, not oneself; while the moral code of righteous is about “self-righteousness”. The moral code of “righteousness” is about “self-righteousness”, i.e., to act in accordance with moral principles, but not to regulate others. In addition, Dong Zhongshu also emphasized the relationship between “wisdom” and “benevolence”, saying that “the best thing to do is to be close to benevolence and the best thing to do is to be wise”. “If one is benevolent but not wise, one will love but not distinguish; if one is wise but not benevolent, one will know but not do. Therefore, a benevolent person loves human beings, and a wise person eliminates their harm” (ibid.). He believes that in order to achieve benevolence, one must “be wise before pursuing benevolence”, and that only a wise person can “see misfortune far ahead” and “be wise before it is too late”. Only a wise man can “see misfortune far ahead” and “be wise in the early stages of gain and loss”, and only then can “his action be in the right place and his words in the right place as well”. If one is “benevolent” but not “wise”, the result of one’s actions will not only be of no benefit to others, but will even bring disaster to oneself.

5 Human Nature Theory of “Fail to Do Good Things Even with Goodness in Nature” On the issue of human nature, Dong Zhongshu proposed the theory that human nature could be divided into three classes. In the pre-Qin period, there was a great debate on

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the question of good and evil in human nature. Mencius argued for the goodness of human nature. Gaozi argued for the absence of good and evil. Xunzi argued for the evilness of human nature, and Shishuo argued that there is good and evil in human nature, and so on. Dong Zhongshu critically inherited the theories of the pre-Qin thinkers on human nature, and believed that human nature could be divided into three classes. In this way, a new theory of human nature emerged. This theory was later developed by Wang Chong, Han Yu, Wang Anshi and others, and became an important theory of human nature for a long period of time. Why do we say that human nature can be divided into three classes? According to Dong Zhongshu, after birth, people can be divided into upper class, lower class and middle class according to their moral qualities. These three types of people each have different human qualities, and so human nature can be divided into three classes. Dong Zhongshu said, “The nature of a sage cannot be called nature, and the nature of a foolish and lowly man cannot be called nature, but the human nature of the common people is called nature.” (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and AutumnSubstantiating Human Nature) He also said, “The nature of the name, not named by the situation on the top, not by the situation on the bottom, but based on its middle condition.” (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn-Deeply Examine Names and Designations). This means that the nature of the sage is the best and the nature of the villain is the evilest, neither of which can be described as human nature. According to Dong Zhongshu, human nature can be changed through edification. Only the middle class need to be taught and can be taught, so only the nature of people in the middle can be described as human nature. In this way, Dong Zhongshu’s three qualities of humanity only contain one quality. The human nature of the sage and the villain is the most good and the most evil, and there is no need to discuss it. Therefore, Dong Zhongshu’s theory of human nature is in fact only a theory that describing the nature of the middle people. According to Dong Zhongshu, when discussing human nature, it is important to distinguish between ‘nature’ and ‘emotion’. Otherwise, it would be confusing. This distinction between ‘nature’ and ‘emotion’ had a great influence on Song and Ming theories of human nature. Dong Zhongshu used the doctrine of yin and yang to explain human nature, arguing that just as there is yin and yang in the sky, human has different natures and emotions. “Human beings have nature and emotions, just as the heaven has yin and yang. To say that man has nature but no emotion is like saying that the heaven has yang but no yin.” (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn- Deeply Examine Names and Designations). He also says: “The substance of man is with greed and benevolence. The substance of benevolence and greed are both in one person. The name of the body is taken from heaven. Heaven has both yin and yang energy, and the body also has both greed and love. There is yin and yang energy in the heaven that is not interfere with each other. The body must make the desire of the nature diminish, which is consistent with the law of the heaven.” (ibid.) In his view, there are two aspects of life: nature is the yang, which is the dominant aspect. Nature has the quality of goodness and can develop into goodness; Emotions means greediness,

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desire, and evilness. This means that there is goodness in human nature, while human emotions are evil. Nature and emotions are two concepts that should not be confused. According to Dong Zhongshu, although there is goodness in middle people, it cannot be said that human nature is good. He rejected the theory of goodness: Goodness is like rice, and its nature is like that of a grain. Although the saplings can produce rice, the saplings cannot be called rice. Although nature can produce goodness, nature cannot be called goodness. Rice and goodness are formed outside of the Divine by human inheritance, and are not accomplished by the Divine itself. The doings of the Divine can stop when they reach their goal. What stops within the action is called the nature of the Divine, and what stops outside the Divine action is called the result of the education by the Son of Heaven. The teaching of the Son of Heaven is outside the nature, and the human nature has to follow the teaching. Therefore, the nature has the foundation of goodness, but it has not reached the goodness itself. (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn-Substantiating Human Nature). The acts of heaven are limited to cocoons, mulberry, and saplings. Weaving mulberry and linen into cloth and silk, gaining silk from cocoons, producing rice from seedlings, and turning the nature into goodness are all actions further educated by the sages who inherited the order from heaven. These processes are not realized by human nature and emotion itself, so they cannot be called nature. (ibid.) This means that although rice is born from the saplings, the saplings can only produce ears of rice when it has reached a certain level of growth and development and relies on sunlight, water, and fertilizer, and then it is processed to become rice. Although human beings are born with goodness in their nature, it cannot be assumed that there is already goodness in human nature. It is only through the teaching of the sages that the goodness in human nature can be developed into goodness. He said, “the nature of the common people is like the cocoon and the bird’s egg. A bird’s egg must be incubated for twenty days before it becomes a chick, and a silkworm’s cocoon must be reeled and put in hot water before it can become silk. Goodness emerges only after education. It is not formed by the original nature alone, and therefore cannot be called nature.” (ibid.) Or did he say, “How can one not be good when there is the beginning of goodness in one’s nature and the essence in one’s heart? Dong replied,” No, there is not. There is silk in the cocoon but the cocoon is not silk, and there is a bird’s egg but the bird’s egg has not matured before incubated. These words are easy to understand and what is there to doubt? (ibid.) On the issue of human nature, Dong Zhongshu made it clear that he respected Confucius’ view of human nature, which states that “By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart” and that “only the superior wise and the inferior fools do not stop halfway”. Dong Zhongshu opposed Mencius’ theory of the so-called goodness of human nature. He said, “The nature of the people can be in accordance with what is good for the beasts, but not with what the sages say is good. I believe that nature is different from the definition given by Mencius. Mencius lowered his standard and based human nature on the goodness he practiced on animals, so he said that nature is already good; I raised my standard and based human nature on the goodness advocated by the sages, so I said that nature is not yet good.” (Luxuriant

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Gems of the Spring and Autumn-Deeply Examine Names and Designations) This is an open accusation of Mencius’ theory of human nature, which only compares human beings with animals, and is inconsistent with Confucius’ theory. In order to justify the feudal hierarchy and to prove that working people have good nature but cannot be considered good, Dong Zhongshu compares nature and goodness to the relationship between “eyes” and “what is actually seen”, saying: “The nature is also like the eye. The eyes are closed when people are asleep. The eyes can only see the world when it wakes up from sleep. When eyes are not awake and opened, it can be said that the eyes have the instinct to see things, but it cannot be said that eyes are able to see the world at present. The nature of the common people today has their goodness, but the goodness is not awakened yet, just like the sleeping ones waiting to be woken up. After they wake up, they can be taught to be good. When they do not wake up from sleep, we can say that they have the Essentials of Covenants and Meetings of goodness, but we cannot say that they already become good. Goodness is the same analogy as the eyes sleeping and awakening. This view can be understood when one examines it slowly with a quiet mind. The human nature is dull when people are not waking up from sleep, which is the arrangement of heaven. The people are called people because they believe in the arrangement of heaven and their name people is given by the heaven. The word “people” means “dormant” in such a context. (ibid.)”. The name of the people is taken from the darkness of the unknown. If the nature is already good, why is it called by the name of darkness? The name “darkness” means that if we don’t help them, they will fall and become unrestrained, so how can common people be good? (ibid.) This means that the people are called the people because their nature is still dark and unaware, and if they are not taught by the sages, they will be “dark and stubborn”. Dong Zhongshu said, “If the nature of the people is already good, what is the task of the king to be ordained?” “If, as some people say, people’s nature is good, then what is the point of having emperors and sages?”

6 Motivation Theory of “Correct Moral” and “Declare Behavior” On the question of motive and effect, Dong Zhongshu clearly put forward his theory of motive, that is, moral judgement and moral evaluation of all human actions, as well as legal judgement, should be based on motive as the only criterion: as long as the motive is good, the consequences do not need to be taken into account. In the Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn, there is a chapter entitled ‘No benevolence for the king of Jiaoxi, the king of Yue’, which is a dialogue between Dong Zhongshu and the king of Jiaoxi after he became the king of Jiaoxi. In this chapter, Gou Jian, the king of Yue and his officials, Xie Yong, Li and Zhong, conspired to conquer Wu to clear the shame of being defeated by the king of Wu at the place of

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Hui Ji. As a result, the King of Jiaoxi mentioned that “Yue had three good people” and asked Dong Zhongshu for his opinion. The King of Jiaoxi said to Dong Zhongshu, “The King of Yue (Goujian) conspired with these five great officials (Yong, Zhong, Li, Gao and Jucheng) to invade Wu, and they destroyed it.” Confucius said that “Yin had three good people” and “I also thought that Yue had three good people” and that “Duke Huan of Qi had Guan Zhong decide his doubts, and I have you to decide mine”. But Dong Zhongshu was not convinced. In this dialogue, Dong Zhongshu gives play to his theory of motivation. He says: Once upon a time the ruler of the state of Lu asked Liu Xiahui, ‘What if I want to attack the state of Qi?’ Liu Xiahui replied, ‘No.’ When he entered the house and had a worried look, he said, ‘I have heard that when one considers attacking another country, one does not inquire of a benevolent person. Why does this matter involve me?’ I am ashamed of merely to be asked this question, let alone to be together with him discussing a fraudulent plan to attack the state of Wu? These people should not be praised. From this it seems that how could there be three benevolent men in the state of Yue when there was not one benevolent man? A benevolent man should make others do what is right without thinking of material benefit, and when he practices governance, he should not eager to pursue merit.2 People who have achieved a great change in social customs without doing anything can be called sages and benevolent people. The three kings of Xia Yu, Shang Tang and Zhou Wen were such people. The principle of the Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn is that honesty is valued while fraud is regarded as cheap. A gentleman does not deceive others and achieve victory, though it is meritorious. Therefore, in the court of Confucius, even a five-foot-tall child would be humiliated by talking about the Five Hegemons. It is not enough for a great ruler to say that he has succeeded by cheating for others, because it is an improper act. The Five Hegemons were men of talent compared to other lords, but what virtue did they have compared to the benevolent and wise? It is like comparing an ordinary stone with a beautiful jade. (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn-An Official Response to the King of Jiangdu: The Great Officers of Yue). According to Dong Zhongshu’s opinion, it was not only unkind but also treacherous for Goujian, the King of Yue to ‘conquer Wu by deception’. This kind of pretended surrender and covert trickery was not morally acceptable, even though it yielded significant benefits. Dong Zhongshu not only used motive as a criterion for evaluating behavior in his ethical thinking, but also applied it directly to law and conviction. At that time, Dong Zhongshu was involved in the discussion of many important legal cases at the imperial court. Zhang Tang wrote a book entitled “The Chun Qiu Decisions of Jail” based on Dong Zhongshu’s views on many important issues. In the “HanshuYiwenzhi”, there are sixteen volumes of Gong Yang Dong Zhongshu’s Jail Rules, but

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The Han Shu—a biography of Dongzhongshu reads: “to be righteous in his friendship and not to seek his profit, and to be clear in his way and not to count his merits”. It seems that the meaning of the phrase ‘not to count on its merits’ is closer to that of Dong Zhongshu.

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unfortunately, they have not been handed down. In the Book named Tai Ping Yulan, Dong Zhongshu’s treatment of prisons was on the page 140 of the sixth volume. Dong Zhongshu said: When A’s father named B, had a fight with C, and C stabbed B with the knife he had on him, and when A saw it, he hit C with a stick, but hurt his father by mistake. How to deal with such a case? While Others said, “A should be beheaded for hitting his father.” My analysis is: Although I am stupid, I know that the father and son are close to each other, but I also know that the father and son fight. Therefore, did A have fear and sadness for his father, so he hit him with a stick? He didn’t mean to insult his father! According to Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn-The Essentials of Covenants and Meetings—knowing the original thoughts of a righteous man, he should be pardoned and not should be killed. A was not unable to restrain himself and beat his father, so he should not be convicted. It is just like when a man named Xu Zhi wanted to save his father by giving him some medicine, but making his father dead because of the inappropriate medicine. The man did not mean to kill his father, so this man should not be convicted. This means that the law should only consider the good or bad motive. Xu Zhi’s motive was not to kill his father, but to cure his father’s illness. However, he gave his father the wrong medicine deliberately. That was the reason why he could not be executed because he was convicted according to his “original intention”. The book named Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn-The Essentials of Covenants and Meetings states that a prisoner should be sentenced “on the basis of what happened and the original intention”. i.e., the motive for the act should be examined in the light of what happened and the motive should be “convicted on the basis of the original intention”. If the “will” is for good, the act should be praised; if the “will” is not entirely for good, but only for necessity, the act should only be praised to a lesser extent; If the “will” is not for good at all, it should not be praised, even if it has good consequences. On the contrary, if the “will” is to do something evil, the person should be punished whether the action has produced evil results; if doing something evil is necessary, the person may be punished slightly; if the evil is not intended at all but has produced evil results, the person should not be punished at all. The above is Dong Zhongshu’s theory of motivation, which states that “those who have evil intentions are of serious crimes even before he become evil” and “those who are right in their intentions should be slightly punished” (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn-The Essentials of Covenants and Meetings). This is the theory of Motive from Dong Zhongshu. Dong Zhongshu’s theory of motivation saying that a benevolent man should make others do what is right without thinking of material benefit, and when he practices governance, he should not eager to pursue merit is one-sided. How can motives be tested precisely without the effects of actions? Moreover, one’s actions always have certain consequences. The society and class always require people’s actions to achieve certain effects, so how can one assess one’s actions by asking only about the motives and not the effects? However, we should also see that Dong Zhongshu’s emphasis on the motive of an act, on the “original intention” and “original will”, is a reasonable factor in terms of comprehensively evaluating a legal and moral act.

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The correct evaluation and judgement of moral behavior should emphasize both motives and effects. In addition, insisting on principles and merits are important. In China’s long-standing feudal society, some thinkers often quoted the words of Dong Zhongshu “a benevolent man should make others do what is right without thinking of material benefit, and when he practices governance, he should not eager to pursue merit”. This is a one-sided attempt to emphasize the place of motives in moral evaluation. The Daoists of the Song and Ming dynasties even held these two phrases as classical quotations for respecting the Way and preached them. Cheng Yi even said, “Dong Zhongshu said, “a benevolent man should make others do what is right without thinking of material benefit, and when he practices governance, he should not eager to pursue merit. This was why Dong is better than any other philosophers in ancient China.” (Cheng’s Legacy, vol. 25) This illustrates the extent to which he was convinced by Dong’s saying. The one-sided theory of motivation propagated by some Song and Ming Taoists is related to Dong Zhongshu’s theory.

7 The Concept of “Benefit Does Good to Body” and “Righteousness Nourishes Mind” Dong Zhongshu followed in the footsteps of Confucius and Mencius, who valued righteousness over material benefit, and further developed his own view of righteousness and material benefit. Dong Zhongshu acknowledges that the pursuit of righteousness and material benefits are inherent in life and he distinguishes the role of righteousness and material benefit, by arguing that “material benefit” is for the nurturing of the body, while righteousness” is for the cultivation of the mind. He said: “In giving birth to people, Heaven sustains them by giving birth to righteous principles and material benefits: Material benefits to nourish their bodies; righteous principles to nourish their hearts. If the heart does not obtain righteous principles, it cannot be joyful; if the body does not obtain material benefits, it cannot be secure.” (Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn-The nourishing of the Body has Priority over Righteous) Here, “material benefit” means material gain and the needs of life, without which one cannot live, and this is correct. By ‘righteousness’, Dong Zhongshu focuses on moral principles and norms. He believed that this was important for the nurturing of human qualities. According to Dong, if one compares righteousness with material benefit, righteousness should be the most “valuable”. The most important of all. “Righteous principles are the heart’s nourishment; material benefits are the body’s nourishment. With regard to the body, nothing is more exalted than the heart. With regard to nurture, nothing is more important than righteous principles. (ibid.) Dong Zhongshu stated that, Now those who possess righteous principles, although poor, are able to find joy in themselves, but those who utterly lack righteous principles, although wealthy, are not able to preserve themselves. I rely on such examples to substantiate the claim that for nourishing and sustaining the people, righteous principles are more important

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than material benefits and more beneficial than wealth. But [ordinary] people are incapable of knowing this, so they constantly get it backward; they all forget righteous principles and lust after material benefits, disregard inherent principles and follow evil ways, thereby harming themselves and endangering their families. It is not that they personally intend to be disloyal [to their families] but that this is a matter their knowledge is incapable of understanding. (ibid.) This means that as long as one has “righteousness” and is able to abide by the moral code and cultivate the qualities required by feudal morality, one can still be content with poverty even if one is in a poor situation. Otherwise, if one is only concerned with pursuing one’s own material benefits and abandons principles to do things that are disloyal. In this case, that person is bound to violate the law and bring misfortune to oneself and one’s family. The role of the sage, according to Dong Zhongshu, is to shine the light of righteousness on the people’s insufficiency, so that the working people can be “great” and not break the law. He said: “The sage is one who moves with Heaven and Earth and transforms with the four seasons. It amounts to nothing other than that. His manifestation of righteous principles is profound; therefore, he can move others. Having moved others, he can transform them. Having transformed them, he can glorify their conduct. Having transformed and glorified their conduct, laws are not disobeyed. When laws are not disobeyed, punishments are not employed. When punishments are not employed, the virtue of Yao and Shun is achieved. This is the Way of Great Governance. (ibid.) Thus, Dong Zhongshu’s emphasis on the principle of righteousness was entirely in the service of consolidating the social system of his time.

Chapter 11

The Improvement of Confucian Ethics Norm System and the Establishment of Its Orthodox Status—The Baihuguan Conference

1 Reasons for the Baihuguan Conference During the Han dynasty, the emperor himself convened two conferences to discuss the similarities and differences between the Five Classics, one in Shiquege and the other in White Tiger Temple. Although these two meetings were mainly concerned with the problems of science, the latter one dealt with the very important issue of ethics. The first meeting was convened by Emperor Xuan of Han in 51 BC. According to the Records of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, in the third year of Emperor Xuan’s reign (51 BC), “the scholars were ordered to discuss the similarities and differences of the Five Classics, and the prince’s tutor, Xiao Wangzhi, and other scholars presented their proposals in a peaceful manner.” This meeting was called a discussion on the similarities and differences of the Five Classics, but in fact it was mainly a discussion on the similarities and differences of the Spring and Autumn Annals. At that time, the modern scriptures on the Spring and Autumn Annals were divided into two schools, the Gongyang and the Guliang, whose interpretations of the Spring and Autumn Annals differed from each other. The Spring and Autumn Annals were often interpreted as both a legal text and a moral code, as the people of the time regarded its treatment of events and personalities as supreme authority.1 In order to better and uniformly interpret the Spring and Autumn Annals and uphold its authority, and to give full play to the role of the Spring and Autumn Annals, Emperor Xuan himself convened this meeting. It was called the Stone Canal Pavilion Conference because it was held there. The participants in this meeting were all famous scholars of the Five Classics, who not only commented on the similarities 1

According to Pi Xirui’s “History of Scripture—The era of the Heyday of Scripture”: “Emperor Wu dismissed the hundred schools, the table chapter six scriptures, Confucianism has been set in a respectful carry on. …… After Yuan and Cheng, the name of punishment was gradually abolished. The emperor’s edict, the ruler and the minister’s discussion, all invoke the scriptures, as the basis. When the state had great doubts, the Spring and Autumn Annals were invariably cited as the basis for judgement.”.

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and differences between the Gongyang and Guliang, but also “discussed more than thirty topics”, each analysing and solving these problems according to their own understanding. It is said that after the discussion, most of the Confucians finally agreed with the interpretation of Guliang: “After discussing more than thirty issues, eleven people, including Wangzhi, responded with scripture and friendship, mostly from Guliang. From then on, the study of Guliang was greatly flourished.” (Book of Han—Bibliography of Jiang Gong from Xia Qiu) It is also said that because Emperor Xuan’s grandfather, Prince Xuan, liked Guliang, Emperor Xuan also favored Guliang. What is the difference between modern and ancient scripture? The present-day scriptures are the Confucian classics transmitted by scholars during the Han dynasty, most of which are available in the old texts from before the Qin dynasty and were taught by scholars from the Warring States onwards. They were taught by scholars from the Warring States onwards. After the Qin Emperor’s “burning of books and burying of Confucian scholars”, they were interrupted for a while, but after the Han Dynasty they were taught again and recorded in the script of the time, the so-called modern scriptures, such as “Classics of Books” from Fu Sheng, “Book of Rites” from Gao Tang Sheng, “Spring and Autumn Annal by Gong Yang” from Gong Yang and Hu Musheng, etc. In the Western Han Dynasty, the modern scriptures were adapted to the political needs of the time, and the emphasis was on the “great meaning” of the scriptures in order to serve the political needs of the time. This is why it is believed that modern scripture emphasized the “fit with the times”, i.e. theoretically and theologically justified in the light of the social reality of the time, and was effective for the Han dynasty’s rule. What is ancient scripture? It refers to the Confucian classics written in ancient Chinese before the Qin Dynasty and interpreted by scholars of the Han Dynasty. According to the Book of Han—Treatise on Literature, during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Yu, King of Lu, destroyed the house of Confucius and obtained dozens of scriptures, including the Ancient Text of the Shang Shu, the Book of Rites, the Analects and the Classic of Filial Piety, which were written in the pre-Han script (script before the clerical script). Later, many more scriptures were collected from the people in ancient languages. Since many of these sutras were written by later writers in pre-Qin scripts, and since there were alterations and textual differences, a process of identification was required. In order to identify these classics, a work of textual exegesis was gradually established, which led to the emergence of the Erya and the Shuowen Jiezi. The ancient school of scripture emphasized the importance of “conformity to the ancient”, i.e. to the ancient situation, and the interpretation of the scriptures was based on multiple textual examinations (the Spring and Autumn Annals for modern scriptures, and the Rites of Zhou for ancient scriptures). In the Eastern Han dynasty, Zheng Xuan absorbed modern scripture on the basis of ancient scripture and formed himself into a single body, fusing the two texts into a single furnace, thus unifying modern and ancient scripture. However, the two approaches to scripture, namely, the “conformity to the ancient” and the “conformity to the contemporary”, have been handed down to us and have had a significant impact on the history of Chinese thought.

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The Stone Canal Pavilion Conference produced a number of documents, which were collated by Liu Xiang and called the “Miscellaneous Discussions”, or “Miscellaneous Discussions on the Five Classics”, but these documents have all been lost. The second meeting was the Discussion at White Tiger Temple held in the fourth year of the first century (79 AD) in the palace of the Emperor Zhang of the Eastern Han dynasty at the Palace of Weiyang. This meeting, which followed the example of the Stone Canal Pavilion Conference and continued to discuss the similarities and differences between the Five Classics, had several distinctive features compared with the previous meeting: (1) At the time of the Stone Canal Pavilion Conference, the differences were mainly within modern scripture, i.e. mainly the struggle between Gongyang and Guliang; whereas the Discussion at White Tiger Temple was mainly a struggle between ancient and modern scripture. In essence, the conference was convened because the emergence of the ancient scriptures had led to sharp contradictions with the modern scriptures in terms of texts, ideas, teachers and doctrines, so that the two schools of thought within the modern scriptures found it necessary to unite in order to overcome the ancient scriptures and to establish their superiority through the authority of the emperor in order to maintain and consolidate their intellectual dominance. The basic idea of the White Tiger Temple Conference was a further development of the idealistic and mystical philosophies of Dong Zhongshu and others in Modern Chinese scripture. (2) The Stone Canal Pavilion Conference discussed the similarities and differences between the Spring and Autumn Annals, with many central points of discussion; the White Tiger Temple Conference, while also covering a wide range of issues, paid more attention to ethical and moral issues, and thus has an important place in the history of Chinese ethical thought. (3) The meeting at Stone Canal Pavilion was smaller in number, smaller in scale and shorter in duration, whereas the meeting at white Tiger Temple lasted for several months and was attended by many people, “Ding Hong, Lou Wang, Cheng Feng, Huan Yu, Ban Gu, Jia Kui and Guangping Wang Xian were all present” (Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 46). This means that there were not only famous scholars, but also scholars and dignitaries. (4) The documents of the Stone Canal Pavilion Conference no longer exist, but the documents of the White Tiger Temple Conference have been preserved in the Baihu Tong, compiled by Ban Gu and other attendants. According to later testimonies, such as Sun Yirang’s Research on Baihu Tong and Zhouqing Shulin, Volume 4, the documents that had been compiled at that time included Conclusion of Baihu Tong, Collection of Bai Hu Tong (Conclusion of Bai Hu Tong was probably dedicated to one scripture, while Collcetion of Bai Hu Tong was a general discussion of the five scriptures), and Bai Hu Tong Yi, which was compiled by Ban Gu. The Conclusion of Baihu Tong and Collection of Baihu Tong were lost in long time. Only Baihu Tongyi was maintained. Since the Jin Dynasty, what we have seen is the present Bai Hu Tong Yi. In the Qing dynasty,

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Lu Wenchao had a copy of the text, which he claimed to be the best of all the forgeries that had been made since civilization. In the Qing dynasty, Chen Li wrote the “Note on Bai Hu Tong”, a more detailed commentary on this book, which is a useful reference material. The content of the Baihu Tong Yi is very complex, covering Ranks, Titles, Posthumous titles, The Five offerings, Ritual and offerings to the Lord of Millet, Ritual and music, Enfeeblement, The Capital, The Five Phases, The three hosts, Execution and punitive expeditions, Admonishing and remonstrating the ruler, The district archery contest, Retiring from office, The Central Academy, Natural disasters, Tilling and weaving, The fengshan offerings to Heaven and Earth, Imperial inspection tours, Examination and degradation, Whom the king does not consider his subjects, Divining by tortoise bones, Sages, The eight winds, Merchants and vendors, Ritual resents, The three rectifications, The three instructions, The three major and six minor principles, Temperament and character, Life and Heavenly Mandate, Ancestors and kinship, Names and surnames, Heaven and Earth, Sun and moon, The four seasons, Clothes and bobes, The five punishments, The Five Classical Writings, Wedding and nuptial customs, Cords and caps, Mourning garments, Dead and burial of the emperor and the feud. The sections on the Three Principles and Six Disciplines, the nature, the sages, rites and music, and admonition are all of great importance to our study of moral relations and ethical thought in the Han dynasty.

2 Baihuguan Conference and Prophecy Theology In the Han dynasty, after Dong Zhongshu’s theory of “Interaction between Heaven and Man” in “Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn”, the so-called prophecies emerged (folk prophecies had existed for a long time, for example, at the end of the Qin dynasty, there was the saying “Hu Hai is the one who made Qin fall.”). The prophecies were purely theological and superstitious. It is often starting with textual interpretations, attached with notes, sometimes with a certain ideology. This kind of prophecy was most popular in the late Western Han and early East Han dynasties, especially when the “Wei” books were mainly used to interpret the scriptures. According to the Book of Sui—Records on Classics and Books, there are eight volumes of Yi Wei, three volumes of Shang Shu Wei, five volumes of Shang Shu Zhong Hou, eighteen volumes of Shi Wei, three volumes of Rei Wei, six volumes of Xiao Jing Xiang Wei, seven volumes of Xiao Jing Yuan Shen Qi, and one volume of Xiao Jing Nei Shi. Why did the study of prophecy and wisdom develop particularly in the Eastern Han Dynasty? According to the Book of Sui—Jingji Zhi, the seven scriptures and the wisdom of the scriptures became popular in the Western Han Dynasty, and were falsely attributed to Confucius. Later on, “Wang Mang was good at charm and fortune, and Guangwu flourished with prophecies, so they became popular”. These books were not only bizarre, but also absurd, containing “very strange and bizarre theories”. These books were originally tools for the rulers to use, but in later

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years they often posed a threat to them. In the midst of the Song Dynasty, prophecy was banned, and the Sui Emperor “banned it more than once”, and “Emperor Yang reigned and sent out ambassadors to search the world for books related to prophecy and wisdom, and burned them all. Since then, there has been no more learning, and many of them have been scattered within the secret government. It is now recorded and listed under the Six Classics for the purpose of preparing for dissenting opinions” (Book of Sui—Jingji Zhi). It can be seen that although Wei books were very popular at that time, most of them were lost after the Sui Dynasty, and the only ones that have been preserved now are a few of the “Yi Wei”: “Qian Zao Du”, “Ji Lan Tu”, and “Shi Lei Mou”. The fragmentary words and sentences of the Shang Shu Wei and the Xiao Jing Wei are also scattered in other books, among which the Bai Hu Tong has preserved many passages and sentences of the Wei, from which we can see the general content of the Wei at that time. According to Book of Later Han-Fangshu Liezhuan, the seven Wei books are listed like “Wei of Book of Chnges: Ji Lan Tu, Qian Zao Tu, Kun Ling Tu, Tong Gua Yan, Shi Lei Mou, Bian Zhong Bei; Book Wei: Xuan Ji Jin, Kao Ling Yao, Xing De Fang, Di Ming Yan, Yun Qi Shou; Wei of Classic of Poetry: Tui Du Zai, Ji Li Shu, Han Shen Wu; Wei of Book of Rites: Han Wen Jia, Ji Ming Zhi, Dou Wei Yi; Wei of Classic of Music: Dong Sheng Yi, Ji Yao Jia, Zhi Tu Zhi; Wei of Classic of Filial Piety: Yuan Shen Qi, Gou Ming Jue; Wei of Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn: Yan Kong Tu, Yuan Bao Ming, Wen Yao Gou, Yun Dou Shu, Gan Jing Fu, He Cheng Tu, Kao Yi You, Bao Qian Tu, Han Han Nie, You Zhu Qi, Wo Cheng Tu, Qian Tan Ba, Shuo Ti Ci.” As we know, the so-called “Three Principles and Six Disciplines” are derived from Dong Zhongshu’s “Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn” and, for the first time, expressed in explicit terms, from the “Han Wen Jia” in the Wei of Book of Rites. It is said in Han Wen Jia: “Ritual is also about the performance of duties. The three principles are that the ruler should be the ruler of his subjects, the father should be the ruler of his sons, and the husband should be the ruler of his wife.” “The Three Principles and Six Disciplines” were ratified by the supreme ruler as a result of the White Tiger Temple Conference, and thus had a significant impact on Chinese history.

3 Establishment of the Orthodox Status of “Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues” From the perspective of the history of ethical thought, an important element of the White Tiger Temple Conference was the establishment of the moral principles and norms of the Three Principles and Five Constants of Chinese feudal society. Although Dong Zhongshu had already proposed the “Three Principles” and the “Five Constants” from the ideas of “man is equal to the number of heaven” and “the unity of heaven and man”, he did not have a clear idea of the “Three Principles” and “Five Constants”. “He did not give a precise explanation of the Three Principles or the

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Five Constants, nor did he even specify their content. Before the meeting at White Tiger Temple, the Three Principles and the Five Constants were only a doctrine and a proposition, but this meeting, convened by the emperor himself, was transmitted to the whole country in the form of an official document. It was only after this meeting that the Three Principles and the Five Constants became the moral code that everyone had to follow in feudal China. As the Three Principles and the Five Constants were able to maintain the hierarchy of feudal society and consolidate the rule of the landowning class, their specific requirements, although changing with the development of feudal society, did not leave the content of the White Tiger Temple meeting. In Baihu Tong, it says: What are the three principles? They are the ruler and his subjects, father and son, and husband and wife. The six rules are the father, the brother, the clan member, the uncle, the teacher and the friend. Therefore, the Han Wen Jia says: “The ruler is the outline of his subjects, the father is the outline of his sons, and the husband is the outline of his wife.” It is also said: “Respect for all fathers and brothers, the six disciplines of the Tao, the righteousness of all uncles, the orderliness of the clansmen, the kinship of brothers, the respect of teachers, and the oldness of friends.” (Bai Hu Tong-The Three Principles and Six Disciplines). Here, in addition to the Three Principles, the Six Disciplines were introduced, which were mainly an expansion of the clan’s family relationships (fathers, brothers, clansmen and uncles), together with The ‘six gi’ are an extension of the clan’s family relationships (fathers, brothers, clansmen, uncles), plus the relationships of teachers and friends. In the Bai Hu Tong Yi, the relationship between teachers and elders was given a new status, which may have been the source of the later theory of the ruler and teacher of heaven and earth. Although the theory of the Six Disciplines was not further developed later, it still occupies a very important place in moral thought after the Han. What are the three principles of discipline? The Bai Hu Tong—Three Principles and Six Disciplines explains: The outline is also called the “zhang” and the “ji” is also called the reason. The greater is the outline, the lesser is the discipline. This is the reason why the upper and lower levels of the hierarchy are opened up and the humanities are harmonized. All people have the nature of the five constants and the heart of love. As the Classic of Poetry says, “The king is a man of the world, a discipline for all directions.” While Dong Zhongshu discusses the Three Principles and Five Constants only in terms of yin and yang, the Bai Hu Tong gives theoretical justification for them, and explains them in terms of textual interpretation: What is the reason for calling them the three principles? The yin and the yang are called the Way, the yang is made by the yin, the yin by the yang, and the yin is ordered by the yang, the rigid and the soft are matched. What is the meaning of a ruler and a minister? The king is also the group, to which the subordinates belong. A minister, is also a person of strong will. The Spring and Autumn Annals says, “When the ruler is here, the minister invites him to return”.

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What is a father and son? The father is the rule, and he teaches his son by the law. The son is also a father, who teaches his son by the law. Therefore, the Book of Filial Piety says: “If the father has contention for the son, the body will not fall into injustice.” What is the meaning of the word “husband and wife”? The husband is the one who supports the couple. The woman is also the one who submits in a courteous manner. The Rite of Passage says: “The husband takes off the tassel of the woman.” In the Book of the Faint, it is said: “The couple is also judged to be united.” (Bai Hu Tong Yi—The Three Principles and Six Disciplines). These explanations, although with many additions, are basically the ancient understanding of the meaning of the word before the Eastern Han Dynasty, e.g.: “Father is also a moment”, which is the explanation in Shuowen Jiezi; “Fu means support”, which is the original phrase in Book of Rites—Fortune; “Jun means group” is the interpretation of Guangya—Shiyan. It is clear that here an attempt is made to combine the interpretation of ancient texts with the feudal morality of Dong Zhongshu, to justify feudal morality not only in terms of yin and yang, theoretically, but also in terms of the interpretation of word meanings, and to present this feudal morality as natural and righteous. It is worth pointing out that Dong Zhongshu only said that the body has its nature and emotions, just as the sky has its yin and yang. The Bai Hu Tong Yi further establishes the theory that “nature is born of yang” and “emotions are born of yin”. According to the interpretation of Bai Hu Tong Yi, Yang is the dominant side and Yin is the subordinate side; Yang is the positive side and Yin is the negative side. From the perspective of heaven and earth, heaven is yang and earth is yin, and the two qi are in sympathy with each other to create life; from the perspective of human beings, man is yang and woman is yin; from the perspective of a person, nature is yang and emotion is yin. This theory that nature is born from yang and love is born from yin had an important influence on later Chinese theories of human nature. In the Tang dynasty, the theory of nature as good and love as evil was formalised and fully developed. The Bai Hu Tong Yi refers to the “five constants” as the “five natures”. After the Three Principles and Six Disciplines, nature is considered to be the most important. What is the meaning of emotion and nature? Nature is the expression of yang, and emotion is the transformation of yin. Man is endowed with yin and yang qi and is born with five natures and six emotions. Emotion is also quietness, and nature is also birth. This is also the six qi that a person is endowed with in order to be born. This is why the “Gou Ming Jue” says: “Emotions are born in the yin, and the desire is to think in time. Nature is born in the Yang, in order to be able to reason. Yang Qi is benevolent, while Yin Qi is greedy. (Bai Hu Tong Yi—Sexuality). For the first time in the history of Chinese ethical thought, the doctrine of the goodness of nature and the badness of emotion, which began with Dong Zhongshu, has a complete and precise formulation. Nature is born of the righteousness of heaven and earth, and is therefore good; emotion belongs to yin, and yin is greedy, so emotion is profit oriented.

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It is because nature is good and is endowed with moral qualities that, as Mencius said, we are born with the four virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom. What are the five natures? They are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith. Benevolence is not to be tolerated, but to give life and love people. Righteousness is also appropriate, the right decision. Ritual is also the fulfilment of the word. Wisdom is also knowledge. It is the ability to see and understand things without confusion. Faith is also called sincerity. Therefore, we are born with the body of the eight trigrams, and the five qi are the constants: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith. What are the six emotions? They are the six emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, love and evil. (ibid.) The so-called “body of the eight trigrams”, Wei notes: “Qian is the head, Kun is the belly, Zhen is the foot, Xun is the stock, Li is the eyes, Tui is the mouth, Kan is the ears, and Zhen is the hand, which is the body of the eight trigrams. (Bai Hu Tong Yi Shu Zheng—The Nature of the Person, Wei Note) This is an explanation of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith, not only in terms of the meaning of the words, but also theoretically and from a theological point of view. The “five natures” did not have a long life, and later thinkers no longer referred to the “three principles and five natures”, but continued to quote Dong Zhongshu’s “three principles and five constants”. Friendship, although it has always been one of the Five Rites that the Chinese refer to, has never been thoroughly debated. Zixia said, “When you make friends, you must keep your word.” (Analects of Confucius—Xue Er) Zeng Zi said, “I have been thinking about myself three times a day: How can I be loyal when I plan for others? Do you not trust your friends? Is it not a good practice to teach?” (ibid.) Mencius said, “A friend has faith.” (Mencius—Teng Wen Gong Shang) The Bai Hu Tong Yi provides further explanations of friends: What is a friend? A friend is a fellow, and a friend is a companion. The Book of Rites says: “A friend is a fellow disciple and a comrade is a friend.” (Bai Hu Tong Yi—The Three Principles and Six Disciplines). Friendship is close to his or her words, but far away from each other, one’s heart is good, one’s heart is sore. He also said, “A friend who has no place to go can live in my house and die in my funeral.” (Bai Hu Tong Yi—The Three Principles and Six Disciplines). There are two ways of being a friend that one must not practice. A friend must not allow himself or herself to be taken care of, and he or she must not be given the gift of money. If a friend is hungry, he should tell his father and brother, and if they agree, he should say that they will give him the money, but if they do not, they should stop. Therefore, it is said that if a friend is hungry, he should cut down on his meal, and if a friend is cold, he should not put on more fur. This is why the Analects of Confucius says: “If one’s father and brother are there, then he will hear and act.”2 (ibid.)

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In the Book of Rites—Qu Li I, it is said, “Parents who survive do not allow their friends to die.”.

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There are four ways to be a friend, and Tongcai is not one of them: if you are near, you are right, if you are far, you are happy, you are thoughtful, and if you are in trouble, you are dead. (Bai Hu Tong Yi—Jian Zheng). This is a definition of a friend as a comrade, which means that a friend is a person who is like-minded. This is especially true of friends who, when they are together, openly criticise or accuse each other of wrongdoing (slander is not used here as slander, but as accusation or criticism); when they are not together, they do not denigrate each other. When a friend has a good point, you like it; when a friend has a bad point, you feel bad. We use each other’s money and goods, but we do not count each other out; we help each other in times of trouble and misfortune. When a friend dies, they are responsible for him, and do not refuse to do what they should do. These statements sum up the ancient understanding of the relationship between friends, and contain elements of reasonableness. In order to adapt to the hierarchy and maintain the “three principles and six disciplines”, the Baihu Tong Yi—Marriage also incorporates the “Five Nos” (no incestuous family, no rebellious family, no criminal family, no ill family, and no widowed woman). The “three obediences” (obedience to the father before marriage, obedience to the husband after marriage, and obedience to the son after the husband’s death) were reintroduced to emphasize the importance of the “husband as the woman’s rule”, and it was also stipulated that: What is a wife and concubine? A wife is the same as her husband. It means the same thing from the emperor down to the common people. A concubine is also a concubine, a concubine who is received in time. (Bai Hu Tong Yi—Marriage). What is the meaning of the word “husband and wife”? The husband is the one who supports the family. The woman is also a servant, a servant of the family, a servant of others. (ibid.) On the one hand, the Bai Hu Tong Yi emphasizes the “Five Nos” and the “righteousness of the woman who leaves the house must be sent and received with the courtesy of a guest”. On the other hand, for women, it is emphasized that they should not remarry for life. On the other hand, for women, there was an emphasis on never remarrying for life: “If a husband has committed an evil act, his wife must not go away. Although the husband is evil, he must not go. Therefore, the Book of Rites says: “Once you are with your husband, you will not change your mind for life.” (Bai Hu Tong Yi—Marriage) This is what is known in later times as marrying a dog means following it forever. There was only one case in which a wife was allowed to remarry, and that was when she had “rebelled against human decency, killed her husband and parents, and abolished the rules of discipline, the greatest of all disorders.” While emphasizing feudal morality, the Bai Hu Tong Yi also focuses on the naturalness of the feudal hierarchy as an unchangeable and eternal truth. At the top of the feudal hierarchy was the Son of Heaven. “The Son of Heaven is also known as a title. What is the name of the Son of Heaven? The king is the son of heaven, the father of heaven and the mother of earth.” (Bai Hu Tong Yi—Jue) This is the first sentence of the Bai Hu Tong Yi. “Why are all emperors called sons of heaven when their virtues are superior and inferior? Because they are both ordained by heaven, and the king rules within five thousand miles.” (ibid.) In order to provide a theoretical

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justification for the hierarchy, the Bai Hu Tong Yi goes on to explain various aspects of it: The Spring and Autumn Annals says: The three princes of the Son of Heaven are called dukes, and after the king, dukes. The King’s System says: “The field of the male and the marquis is 100 square miles square, the Bo takes 70, and the ZI and Nan take 50. What is the reason for the title? The name “gong” means “righteousness” and “selflessness”. The name “hou” means to wait for the right and the wrong. The word “bo” means “white”. The word “Zi” means “to multiply”. It is the same as the word for “sons”. The “nan” means male, and everyone takes 50. (ibid.) What is an emperor? The title. The title is a manifestation of merit. This is why he is to show his merits and virtues and to give orders to his subordinates. Those whose virtue is in harmony with heaven and earth are called emperors, and those whose benevolence and righteousness are in harmony are called kings, to distinguish between superior and inferior. In the posthumous rites, it is said that those whose virtue is like heaven and earth are called emperors, and those whose benevolence and righteousness are called kings. (Bai Hu Tong Yi—No.) The king is the one to whom the world goes. (ibid.) The entire content of Bai Hu Tong Yi can be said to run through a very obvious main line, which is to uphold the feudal hierarchy and to promote the “three principles”, “six disciplines” and “five constants”. From the beginning to the end of the text, it can be said that every thought in each section is intended to uphold the feudal hierarchy by using feudal moral and political ideas, and every word is interpreted by first quoting ancient meanings and then by interpolating them to achieve its purpose of upholding the feudal hierarchy. With regard to the relationship between law and morality, the Bai Hu Tong Yi emphasizes that punishment is used to support morality and thus maintain and consolidate the ruling order. “When a sage rules the world, why must he have punishment? This is to support morality and help rule, and to comply with the laws of heaven. Therefore, those who offer rewards and titles show that they have something to offer. He who sets up penalties shows that he has something to fear.” (Bai Hu Tong Yi—The Five Punishments) Here, the function of punishment is summarized in the words “to support virtue and help rule”, which is a more accurate summary after summing up the experience of the ruling class. Bai Hu Tong Yi explains many concepts of morality and law in some detail, reflecting the origins of these concepts in China. For example, the explanation of penalties: The five punishments are also the five regular spurs. The law of the five elements. …… Fire can turn gold, so ink changes its flesh; gold can overcome wood, so you must remove its bones; wood can overcome earth, so you must remove its nose; earth can block water, so the palace cuts off its lust; water can extinguish fire, so the Great Priests extinguish its life. (Bai Hu Tong Yi—Five Punishments). Of course, apart from explaining what the Five Punishments were, it was more important to serve the purpose of consolidating the feudal hierarchy. The Baihu Tongyi (White Tiger’s Commentary) is devoted to the reasons why “punishment is not to be applied to the great ruler” and “rites are not to be applied to the common people”.

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“What is the reason for not punishing the great man? It is to respect the great officials. The rites are not to be confined to the common people, but to encourage the people to behave like a scholar. Therefore, the rituals were made for the knowledgeable, while the punishment was made for the ignorant. Although the common people had a thousand gold coins, they were not allowed to serve them (the word “not allowed to serve” is a mistake for “not allowed to serve the punishment”). The court did not punish the court, but the court did not punish the court. The so-called commoners were also workers, merchants and farmers. If you are a commoner, no matter how much wealth you have, you still cannot enjoy the rituals because you do not have a certain rank and status, and others will not treat you with rituals, nor can you treat others with rituals. This is why it is said that “courtesy is not to be confined to the common people”. Baihu Tong Yi contains many records of the political and moral life of the time, some of which may be the actual systems and norms in force at the time, while others may be what the White Tiger Temple Conference, after a meeting, thought should be done in accordance with the “Book of Rites” and “Rites”, but not necessarily all of which were already done. Let us take the so-called “hanging chariot” as an example: I am seventy years old, and I am hanging a car to serve. I am a deacon, and I am not wise in my ears and eyes, and I am a crawler. (Bai Hu Tong Yi—Zhi Shi). A person who has been appointed to a post is one who has been appointed to a post by the ruler, and who has not withdrawn from it. Therefore, the “Qu Li”says: “A great official should be seventy years old when he is appointed to his post”, and the “Wang Zhi” says: “Seventy years old should be appointed to the government.” (ibid.) When a minister is old and has great virtue, he is given a few sticks and is not given the gift of strength. Those who were in the family were given three portions of their salary, and one was given to them, so as to be generous to the virtuous. (ibid.) The Book of Qu says: “If a minister is not to be thanked for his service, he is to be given a few sticks.” In the Wang Du Ji, it is said that “when a minister is appointed to a position of authority, he is given half of his salary.” (ibid.) When a minister retires at ninety years old, if the ruler wishes to ask, he will attend to his chamber to be taken care of, showing his respect for the virtuous. Therefore, in the Rites of Passage, it is said, “When a ruler asks a question, he will attend to him.” When a ruler died of old age, he was buried with the rituals of a ruler, and his carriage and clothes were treated as such. He said: “As much as possible, as before.” (Bai Hu Tong Yi—Zhi Shi). The above passages generally reflect the method and treatment of senior government officials at the time. The reason for the emphasis on the “suspension of the chariot” at the age of seventy was mainly due to health and respect for the virtuous. The reason why exceptions were allowed was that the old man had great virtue and the other was that his health condition allowed it and he should be given special care (“given a few hits”). In Bai Hu Tong Yi, the relationship between ruler and subject is not only emphasized by the fact that the minister is subject to the ruler, but also by the fact that the ruler can criticise the king, which is called ‘admonition’. The term “admonition”,

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which has been used since the Yin and Zhou dynasties, mainly refers to the criticism of the ruler by his subjects, but has since evolved, reflecting on the one hand the importance of “admonition” for the maintenance of rule and on the other hand the virtue required of those in politics. While the Classic of Filial Piety only mentions the importance of “admonition” without further elaboration, the Baihu Tongyi has further elaborated it: What is the reason why a minister has the right to advise his ruler? To be loyal and sincere. The Analects says: “How can love without providing? How can loyalty not be taught?” (Bai Hu Tong Yi—Jian Zheng). The Bai Hu Tong Yi cites the Li Ji—Qu Li, which states that if a minister’s advice to a ruler is not heeded on three occasions, he may leave, in order to “condescend to the superior and to the inferior, and to be alone with the evil ruler”. However, it also states: “If a minister is stubborn and dull, and his words are too stupid to be used, please withdraw and avoid the wise. If the ruler treats him with courtesy, the minister will be released; if he is not treated with courtesy, he should go.” “The reason for the release is that the minister is a taboo for the king, so if he says he is guilty, he is released.” (ibid.) It is also clearly stated: “If a son advises his father, and the father does not comply, he must not go away, for the father and son are one and separate, and there is no law of separation, just as fire is extinguished by the removal of wood. The Analects: ‘Serve your parents with a few suggestions’, and the next words ‘and respect not to disobey’.” The Book of Rites—Qu Li says: “When a son serves his parents, he is advised three times and does not listen, then he will cry and follow.” The Book of the Nei Zhi also says: “When a parent has committed a transgression, one should admonish him in a soft voice, and if the admonition is not accepted, one should be respectful and filial. If he is pleased, he should repeat the advice, but if he is not, it is better for him to be advised than to be offended by his countrymen and the state. If the parents were angry, they would not dare to complain if they were not pleased and were tormented by bloodshed. All this was still in the service of maintaining the hierarchy.” Bai Hu Tong Yi classifies admonitions into five categories, which is a generalization of admonitions in feudal society: What is admonition? The word “admonish” is also used in the sense of “to change”. To change one’s conduct from right to wrong. There are five types of advice. One of them is sarcasm, the other is obedience, the third is spying, the fourth is pointing, and the fifth is trapping. The sarcastic remonstrator is also wise. The wisdom of the nature of knowing the emergence of the disaster, see the matter in depth, not manifest and sarcastic advice, this wisdom is also. This is the nature of wisdom. It is the nature of benevolence to be submissive and not to go against the heart of the ruler. To admonish is also a matter of propriety. If he is not pleased with the ruler’s colour, he will be pleased with him, and if he is pleased, he will return to his former position, and will advance and retreat with courtesy. He who refers to advice is also a man of faith. He who refers is also a person of quality. This is the nature of faith. The person who is admonished is also righteous. He is compassionate and speaks out against the harm of the state, and is motivated to forget his life, not avoiding losing his life for the king. This is also the nature of righteousness. Confucius said, “There

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are five kinds of advice, and I will follow the advice of irony.” To serve a ruler, one should think about doing one’s duty; to retreat, one should think about making up for one’s faults; to go without being sarcastic; to advise without revealing oneself. (Bai Hu Tong Yi—Jian Zheng).

4 Significance of Baihuguan Conference From a philosophical point of view, the White Tiger Council was of little importance; however, from an ethical point of view, it was a very important council. The compilation of official documents that emerged from this meeting, Bai Hu Tong Yi, was a dictionary-like encyclopaedia of politics, culture, education, ethics, law and the rules of everyday life, edited by the emperor himself, giving a standard answer to almost all the problems of society at the time. In terms of content, it was based on Dong Zhongshu’s “Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn” and the Wei books of the time, and synthesised ideas from the “Book of Rites”, “On Rites”, the “Rites of Zhou”,and the Classic of Filial Piety from the Qin and Han dynasties. The text was written as an all-encompassing official document. This is the first time in history that an official document has been written in such a way as to systematically expound various ethical and educational ideas, especially the “Three Principles”, “Six Disciplines” and “Five Constants” of feudal society, This is the first time in history that such a document has been written.

Chapter 12

Criticism of Theological Ethics

1 Yang Xiong’s Ethical Thought 1.1 Life and Writings Yang Xiong (53 BC–18 AD), known as Zi Yun, was a native of Chengdu in the county of Shu, and a famous historian, philosopher and ethical thinker in the late Western Han Dynasty. His main works are Tai Xuan and Fa Yan. Tai Xuan is a book of divination written on the model of the Zhou Yi. In Tai Xuan, Yang Xiong compiled his world schema into a song. This song, Tai Xuan Tu, was later diagrammed as what Liu Mu of the Song Dynasty later called Luoshu, or what Zhu Xi called He Tu, but the River Map has five additional white circles added to the centre.

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in the chart. The song is: One and six together, two and seven together, Three is friend of eight, four with nine, Five and five together guard. (Tai Xuan Tu). Yang Xiong’s Taixuan inherited much of the dialectical thinking of Laozi and the I Ching, and used it to observe the changes in human society and nature, and to make a dialectical examination of issues related to life and morality, such as life and death, nobility and misfortune. In terms of ethical thought as a whole, he was mainly devoted to Confucius, whom he regarded as a great sage who inherited the traditions of King Wen and Duke Zhou. He advocated that there should be both “cause” and “reform” of ancient thought, that one should inherit what is good and at the same time make changes. It was because later scholars did not know the way of the sages, and even deviated from the scriptures, that he made the Fa Yan, which was modelled on the Analects of Confucius. The Book of Han-Yang Xiong’s biography says: “Xiong saw that all the sages were denigrating the sages with their knowledge, that is to say, they were being weird and pedantic, analysing arguments and sophistry in order to scratch the surface of world affairs. Even though the arguments were small, they broke the great way and there were many of them, so that they drowned in what they heard and did not know that they were wrong. The Six Kingdoms were recorded by the Duke, the Duke also witnessed the Chu and Han dynasties, but not in the same way as the sages. Therefore, when people asked Xiong about it, they often responded to it by using the Law, which was written in thirteen volumes, like the Analects of Confucius, and was called “Fa Yan”. Yang Xiong’s ethical thinking is mainly reflected in his book Fa Yan. Starting from the theory of human nature, in which good and evil are mixed, he built up a set of theories on moral cultivation, the purpose of learning, moral education and moral ideals.

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1.2 The Human Nature Theory of “Human Nature is also a Mixture of Good and Evil” On the question of human nature, Yang Xiong put forward his own views. He said: “Human nature is a mixture of good and evil”, “If you cultivate your goodness, you will be a good person; if you cultivate your evil, you will be an evil person”, and “Qi is also the horse that fits the good and evil” (Fa Yan-Cultivation). On the issue of human nature, Mencius thought that human nature was good, Xunzi thought that it was evil, and Gaozi thought that there was no good and no evil. Wang Chong, in his essay “On the Nature of the Balance”, suggested that the Zhou people believed that there was both good and evil in human nature, and that if one’s good nature was nurtured and developed, good would grow, while if one’s bad nature was nurtured and developed, evil would grow. This means that the Zhou people believed that human nature contains both good and evil, and that the key is how people cultivate their own nature. Therefore, “Shizi wrote a book on the cultivation of nature, and the disciples of Mizi Jian, Qidiao Kai and Gongsun Nizi also discussed emotions and nature. They all say that there is both good and evil in nature” (Analects of Heng—The Nature). This means that the idea of mixing good and evil was already put forward by Shishu in the Spring and Autumn period. But it is not clear when Shi Shuo was born, and the details of his theory are not known. This theory is mentioned in the Mencius: “The nature of some is good, and the nature of others is bad. Hence it was that under such a sovereign as Yao there yet appeared Xiang; that with such a father as Gu Sou there yet appeared Shun” (Mencius—Gao Zi I) Later people thought that this idea stated in Mencius might be the idea of Shi Shuo. Dong Zhongshu also stressed that there is good and evil in human nature, but he mainly believed that human nature is also the nature of the middle man. Yang Xiong’s theory of human nature is basically the same as Shi Shuo’s, but he clearly puts forward the proposition that “good and evil are mixed”, and argues for it. He not only pointed out that there are both good and evil elements in human nature, and that by cultivating the good elements, one can develop into a good person, but by following the evil elements, one will become an evil person; he also put forward the idea that “qi is also the horse that suits good and evil”. In the history of ethical thought, Yang Xiong’s “qi” is of great significance. What is ‘qi’? As we understand it, qi is the ability to make moral choices, as opposed to good and evil. There are many times, places and situations in which people live in society and are often confronted with a variety of different, even opposing, behavioral choices. If one makes the right choice, one will move in a moral, good direction; if one makes an incorrect choice, one will fall into a moral, immoral, evil mire. Why are there two opposite outcomes to this choice? Because human nature is inherently a mixture of good and evil, with elements of both good and evil. Yang Xiong’s key idea of how to promote such choices in the direction of goodness is “qi”.

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Since human nature is a mixture of good and evil, one can think of human moral behavior as a “horse of good and evil”, which can travel a thousand miles a day and lead you to the right path, or it can lose control and lead you into the abyss. In order to better manage this horse of good and evil, it is necessary to develop a moral righteousness. This righteousness can also be described as an awareness, a motivation, a capacity for moral choice. In the history of Chinese ethical thought, Mencius once stressed the importance of the “spirit of righteousness”, mainly from the aspect of moral cultivation, and believed that as long as a person could cultivate a “qi of the powerful”, he could achieve the noble state of “not being able to lust after the rich and powerful, However, Mencius failed to elaborate on this in terms of the ability to choose one’s moral behavior. From his theory that human nature is a mixture of good and evil, Yang Xiong also places special emphasis on the role of qi. In the Fa Yan—Learning, Yang Xiong says: To learn is to cultivate one’s nature. Seeing, hearing, speaking, looking and thinking are all part of nature. If you learn, you will be right, otherwise you will be wrong. …… is a study! If one learns what is not right, how much more does one learn what is right, how much more does one learn what is not right? The only thing you need to do is to learn what is right. The learner has only to examine what he is. According to Yang Xiong, the purpose of learning is to cultivate one’s nature. Since nature is a mixture of good and evil, to cultivate nature is to promote good and remove evil, that is, to achieve the goal of cultivating one’s goodness as a good person. According to Yang Xiong, the five senses—sight, hearing, speech, appearance and thought—are all inherent in human nature. But how can they be brought back to the right? It is to learn. The five senses—sight, hearing, speech, appearance and thought—cannot all be said to be evil or good, they are both good and evil. If we can cultivate goodness, then we can be good, and this shows how important learning is. According to Yang Xiong, to learn is to cultivate one’s nature, that is, to ‘overcome one’s own selfishness’, which is what Confucius advocated. Prior to Yang Xiong, the term ‘grasping oneself’ in the Analects of Confucius was only interpreted as ‘to be about one’s body’, ‘to be frugal’, and ‘to restrain’. Yang Xiong, on the other hand, explicitly states that ‘to overcome one’s own selfishness is called grasping’ (Fa Yan—Asking God). This interpretation was taken seriously by later thinkers. For example, Confucius quoted Liu Xun as saying: “Self-restraining is also, and self is the body.” Zhu Xi says in “Commentary on The Four Books—The Analects of Confucius—Yan Yuan”: “Sefl-restraining is also the word for victory; self is also the word for the selfish desires of the body.” “The whole virtue of the heart is not only the principle of heaven, but also the desire of man. Therefore, those who are benevolent must have to overcome their selfish desires and return to rituals, then everything will be the Divine Principle, and the virtue of the heart will be restored to me.” This interpretation by Zhu Xi is based on Yang Xiong’s interpretation and derived from his own view of the universe. From his own theory of human nature and cultivation, Yang Xiong believed that the ability to cultivate one’s own righteousness was an important aspect that distinguished man from beasts:

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A bird or beast touches its feelings, but the multitude is different! A sage is different from all men. The sage is different from the sage. There is a reason for the work of ritual and righteousness! If a man does not learn, though he has no worries, he is no better than a bird! The learner seeks to become a gentleman. There are those who seek but fail, and there are none who do not seek but gain. (Fa Yan—Learning and Conduct). What is “touch”? It is the act of moving. This means that birds and animals only act according to their lusts, whereas human beings act according to rituals, i.e. according to certain moral principles and moral codes, and are therefore different from animals. If man only acted in accordance with his passions, he would be similar to animals. A sage is different from an ordinary human being, and a saint is different from a sage. A sage is able to practice what he preaches and teaches with rituals, but the common people are not. The sage is different from the wise man in that he is able to teach rituals. The difference between man and beast lies in the fact that man can learn and know what is right and proper. If one does not know propriety and morality, even if one is able to satisfy one’s desires and live a carefree life of pleasure, what is the difference between this and a beast? It is clear from this that “learning” means learning to be a gentleman, learning to be a moral person. If one can learn to be a gentleman and become a moral person, then one will certainly achieve the goal of “cultivating one’s goodness to become a good person”. If one does not make any effort at all, if one does not pursue it, if one does not develop one’s own goodness, then of course one cannot become a moral person. At the end of the Qing dynasty, Wang Rongbao wrote “The Diversification of the Law on the Meaning of the Word”, in which he added to Jin Li Qui’s commentary, arguing that the word “have carried on” in the phrase “those who seek but cannot find” should be “fresh carry on”, and that this was the only way to conform to the development of Yang Xiong’s thought. It is only in this way that Yang Xiong’s thought can be brought into line with the development of his ideas, and this view is justified. Yang Xiong also said: “There are three gates in the world: from lust, one enters the gate of birds. By reason of propriety and righteousness, one enters the gate of man. By virtue of wisdom alone, one enters the gate of sainthood.” (This means that if a person indulges in lust and allows the evil in his nature to develop, he is “an evil person if he cultivates his evil”; only a person who acts in accordance with propriety and righteousness can be distinguished from beasts and can be called a human being. Only those who act in accordance with ritual and righteousness can be distinguished from beasts and can be called human beings. However, only those who act in accordance with ritual and righteousness can attain the status of saints if they have deep attainment and unique wisdom. Yang Xiong’s insight is profound when he regards the sage, who is both ritualistic and wise, as the highest value of humanity. Yang Xiong attached great importance to the important role of moral education, and also to the role of learning. Some may say that learning is not beneficial, such as the quality of what? I say that I have not thought about it. If you have a knife, you have a jade, you are wrong.

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If you do not do this, you will not be able to use it. If you do this, you will be able to use it. The son of a lacewing is exterminated and meets the Eumenes, and wishes him: “Like me, like me, for a long time he will be like me. The seventy sons of the gods were also like Zhongni.” (Fa Yan—Learning and Conduct). It can also be said here that cultivation is important, for although there is beautiful jade, it cannot become jade unless it is cut and polished, and although there is good gold, it cannot be sharpened unless it is sharpened. It is a biological misconception that the Eumenes (a kind of slender-waisted wasp) often takes the borer lacewing (the larva of the stem borer moth) as a foster child and educates it to be like the Eumenes. Yang Xiong illustrates very graphically that with careful education one can develop good qualities. Didn’t the seventy disciples of Confucius quickly change their nature and become virtuous like Confucius?

2 Wang Chong’s Ethical Thought 2.1 Life and Writings Wang Chong (27–97) was known as Zhongren. His ancestors were originally from Yuancheng in Wei County (present-day Daming in Hebei), but they were given the title of Yangting in Huiji County for their military service. However, after a year he lost his title and settled in Yangting, where he lived on the land and farmed mulberry. As a result, his grandfather, father and uncle were forced to move several times, first from Yangting to Qiantang and then to Shangyu (now Shangyu County, Zhejiang Province). At the age of twenty, he was sent to the Capital College to receive education, and studied under the famous scholar Ban Biao. But in Wang Chong’s view, this was not a compromise, but a way of fighting. As Wang Chong came from a ‘small and isolated family’ and was despised by society, he was extremely disgusted by the ‘powerful clans’ and their philosophical and ethical ideas. He was “a lover of ancient texts and a hearer of dissenting opinions”, and was “much disturbed by the world’s books and common sayings”. In his own opinion, “the three hundred poems in the Poetic Edda are, in a nutshell, ‘Thinking without evil. The Analects of Heng, with its ten chapters, is also in one word: ‘Sickness is vain.’” (Analects of Hengyang—Unknown Text) Thus it is clear that his Analects of Hengyang is an entirely combative treatise that explores the truth and criticizes falsehoods. Wang Chong wrote many books, including The Six Confucians’ Treatise, The Commandment of Ji Jie Yi, The Government, and The Analects of Hengyang. The Analects of Hengyang is also known as “The Book of Discourses on the Government of the People”. In his later years, he also wrote The Book of the Cultivation of Virtue (which was probably a book on the cultivation of moral qualities), but unfortunately only the eighty-five essays of the Analects of Hengyang remain.

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2.2 The Materialist View of Nature and Epistemology As the official philosopher of the Western Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu, strongly promoted the mystical philosophy and ethical concepts of “Heaven and Man”, for a long period of time, materialistic “good and evil retribution” and the theology of calamity, which was a concoction of theories, were prevalent. The rulers of the Han dynasty, in order to paralyse the people and deceive them by using idealistic philosophies and moral and ethical concepts to weaken their will to struggle, held the Shiquege Conference and the Baihuguan Conference to consolidate the status of official modern scriptures and strengthen the role of feudal morality. The White Tiger Temple Conference formally established the absolute dominance of the Three Principles and the Five Constants of morality in feudal society, and further applied theological theory to moral theory. Wang Chong was the main representative of the ancient scriptures of his time. His philosophy emerged as the antithesis of idealistic theology, targeting mainly Dong Zhongshu’s “interaction between man and heaven” and the so-called prophetic theology, and putting forward new arguments on many ethical and moral issues that had not been developed by his predecessors. What is “heaven”? To this question, which has been pondered since the emergence of human society, Wang Chong, following Xunzi’s theory, argued that heaven is made up of “qi” in response to the idealistic idea that heaven has a will, as preached by Dong Zhongshu. He said, “The action of the heavens is also the natural application of qi, and when qi is applied, things are born.” (He also said, “When the sky is above, and the earth is below, the lower qi vaporizes above, and the upper qi descends below, all things are born in the middle of it.” (Analects of Hengyang—Nature) He openly refuted the theological purpose theory that heaven and earth were purposefully created to bring forth human beings and all things, stating that this theory that “heaven and earth are therefore born” (heaven is purposefully created to bring forth human beings) was completely false. He said, “Confucians say, ‘Heaven and earth are the reason for the birth of man.’ This is also a delusion. When heaven and earth are united, a man is born, just as when a couple is united, a son is born. When a couple is united, it is not the desire to have a child at that time, but the desire to move and unite, unite and have a child. The couple does not give birth to a son because they know that heaven and earth do not give birth to a child. Then man is born in heaven and earth, just as fish are born in the abyss, and nymphs and lice are born in man. All things are born between heaven and earth, and all are one reality.” (Analects of Hengyang- The Potential of Things). In Wang Chong’s view, man was not born intentionally by the heavens, but by the combination of the qi of heaven and earth, just as fish are born in the abyss and nymphs and lice are born in man, as a natural phenomenon. He said: “The way of heaven is also natural and inactive. If we condemn people, we are doing something, not nature. The school of Yellow Emperor and Laozi, when it comes to the Way of Heaven, has got it right.” (Analects of Hengyang—Condemnation). What is heaven and earth made of? According to Wang Chong, it is all made up of material things, either qi, jade or stone, but in short, it is all material. In “Discourses

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on Heaven”, he says: “And what is heaven made of? What about the body? If it is like air, it is no different from clouds and smoke, so how can it be broken by a pillar? Nüwa mended it with a stone, and that is the body. If this is true, then heaven is jade and stone.” Furthermore, in his “Talking about Heaven” and “Saying about the Sun”, Wang Chong puts forward a systematic theory of the heavenly bodies, which is his “Gai Tian” theory. He argued that the heavens were not just made of qi, but were a large lid made of jade and stone, which covered the earth. The sun and the moon run in the opposite direction to that of the sky, with the sky moving from east to west (leftward) and the sun and moon moving from west to east. The sun and moon move in the sky like ants crawling on a grindstone, crawling on their own, but also moving with the grindstone, only in opposite directions. In his materialistic interpretation of the heavens, Wang Chong also believed that man was made of qi. “Man is also a thing. Among all things, there is also the one who knows wisdom. He is ordained by heaven and endowed with qi and is no different from other things.” (Analects of Hengyang—Identifying Signs) “The birth of man is like that of water; water condenses and becomes ice, qi accumulates and becomes man; ice is released in one winter, man dies after a hundred years.” (Analects of Hengyang—Dao Xu) Wang Chong’s insistence on the incompatibility of heaven and man was a powerful rebuttal to Dong Zhongshu’s theology of purpose. On the relationship between spirit and matter, Wang Chong adheres to a materialist view of nature. While arguing that heaven is a natural substance, he also argues that human consciousness is only a product of matter, and that without matter there can be no human consciousness. In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Huan Tan, in his struggle against prophetic superstition and idealism, famously proposed the metaphor of the candle and the flame. He compared the body to a candle, and the spirit to the burning of a candle. The human spirit cannot exist apart from the physical body, just as the light of the fire cannot leave the candle. He says: “The spirit resides in the body, just as the fire does in the candle. …… If the candle is not there, the fire cannot travel alone in the void.” (New Theory—Dispelling Obscurity) Wang Chong put forward his own view of God and form, believing that both the human spirit and the human body are made up of qi. The spirit is yang qi and the body is yin qi, and only when the two are combined with each other can man maintain his life, otherwise he will perish. He said: The reason for the birth of a woman is also yin and yang energy. Yin Qi is the flesh and bones, Yang Qi is the spirit. When a human being is born, Yin and Yang are present, so the flesh and bones are strong and the spirit is abundant. The essence is the knowledge, and the flesh and bones are strong. Therefore, the spirit speaks, and the body is firm. The spirit of flesh and bones are in harmony with each other, so that they can be common and not perish. (Analects of Hengyang—Discourses on the Ghosts). It is the essence that gives birth to man, and it is the essence that perishes when he dies. Those who can be the essence are the blood. When a man dies, his blood is exhausted and his essence is extinguished; when it is extinguished, his form decays and he becomes ashes. (Analects of Hengyang—On Death).

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This means that the human mind and spirit must be attached to the physical body, and when the physical body perishes, the spirit must also perish. Wang Chong further argued that the reason why people are intelligent and wise is because they have the five permanent energies, and the reason why they have the five permanent energies is because they have organs like the five organs. If the five organs are not injured, a person will have wisdom; if the five organs are diseased, a person will feel in a trance and even foolishness. If a person dies, the five viscera must decay, and there is no way to be aware of them. Therefore, he argued, “There is no fire that burns alone in the world; how can there be a spirit that knows alone without a body in the world?” (ibid.) In order to gain knowledge, people must have their sensory organs in contact with the outside world, otherwise it is impossible to gain correct knowledge. Wang Chong said, “Confucians say that the sages think that they know a thousand years before and a million years after, that they have the clarity of seeing alone, that they have the intelligence of hearing alone, that they are famous when things come to them, that they know themselves without learning, and that they know themselves without asking.” (The Analects of Hengyang—Real Knowledge) According to Wang Chong, this is all a fabrication and a delusion. “If you make a man stand on the east side of the wall and make him make a sound, and if the sage listens to him on the west side of the wall, can you know his black and white, his length, his town, his name, and where he comes from? When the ditch has a rift valley, when the river has dry bones, when the head of the hair is badly dead, when the muscles are rotten, when the man is asked about it, can he know the farmers, the merchants, the old and the young, if they have committed a crime and are sitting dead? This shows that it is impossible to gain a correct understanding without sensory experience. He also cites Confucius, who was most celebrated at the time, as an example, and gives many convincing examples to prove that Confucius could not be a “prophet”. He said: “The son was afraid of Kuang, then is Yan Yuan. Confucius said, “I think you are dead. If Confucius had been a prophet, he would have known that Yan Yuan would not have touched him, and that the Kuang people would not have acted against him. When he saw the coming of Yan Yuan, he knew that he would not die, but in the future, he thought he would die.” (Analects of Heng—Knowing the Truth) He also said: “Yangcai wanted to see Confucius, but Confucius did not see him, so he gave him a dolphin. Confucius did not want to see him, but he was waiting for his death, so he did not want to see him, but he met Lu. Confucius’s encounter with Yang Hu is an indication that the sage could not have foreseen it.” (ibid.) In short, for Wang Chong, the senses are the source of knowledge, and it is only through contact between the human senses and external objects that one can come to know something objective. This is true even of the sages, let alone the general public.

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2.3 Theories on Human Nature As a materialist philosopher, Wang Chong tried to establish his theory of human nature from a materialist perspective. He believed that human beings were made up of qi, and that the goodness or badness of human nature was determined by the thickness of the qi possessed. For the first time in the history of Chinese ethical thought, he gave a precise explanation to the theory of the ‘three qualities of nature’ and gave it a new meaning from a materialist perspective. Wang Chong’s contribution to the question of human nature was fourfold: (1) he sought to explain human nature in terms of its natural nature and opposed the idea that human nature was endowed by heaven and God. Although he eventually moved towards the doctrine of predestination, it was still an important progressive step. (2) He further summarized the historical theories of human nature and put forward a more complete and comprehensive theory of the “three qualities of nature” than Dong Zhongshu. (3) He clearly pointed out that the innate nature of human beings could be changed later in life, and that good could become evil and evil could become good. (4) He stressed the importance of moral education in changing human nature. He argued that those who are evil in nature should be taught, told, encouraged and encouraged to “deteriorate into goodness and become good in nature” (Analects of Hengyang—Spontaneity). As we mentioned in our discussion of Dong Zhongshu’s ethical thought, although Dong proposed three levels of human nature based on Confucius’ thought, namely, the nature of the sage, the nature of the doushu and the nature of the middle man, in his view, “the name nature is the nature of the middle people” (Luxuriant Gems of Spring and Autumn- Real Nature), and “the name nature is not above or below, but is named after it” (Spring and Autumn Period—Examining the Name). This means that only the nature of the middle man is the standard of sex. His three qualities of nature are in fact only the first qualities of nature. Wang Chong, in his treatise on nature, analyzes and critiques Mencius’ theory of the goodness of nature, Xunzi’s theory of the badness of nature, the theory that there is no goodness or badness in nature, and Yang Xiong’s mixed theory of the goodness and badness of nature. He argues that Mencius’ theory of the goodness of nature refers to what Confucius called the “superior wisdom”, i.e. Dong Zhongshu’s nature of the sage; Xunzi’s theory refers to the lower foolishness below the middle man, i.e. the so-called nature of the bucket; and that both Suozi and Yangxiong speak of the “nature of the middle man” and believe that the nature of the middle man can be changed. The middle man’s nature can be changed, but the wise and the foolish are unchangeable. Wang Chong’s emphasis on the fact that human nature is determined by one’s endowment of qi has a more progressive significance. According to Wang Chong, the goodness and badness of human nature differed according to the amount of qi people were endowed with. “There are less and more qi, so there are virtuous and foolish natures.” (Analects of Hengyang—Spontaneity) He was convinced by Confucius’ theory of human nature and believed that:

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Therefore, Confucius said, “Above the middleman, one can speak of the superior; below the middleman, one cannot speak of the superior.” The Confucius’ metaphor of the drowning of water refers only to the middle man, not to the extreme good and the extreme evil. Confucius said, “Nature is similar, and habit is distant.” The nature of the middle man lies in what he learns. We are good when we learn to be good, and evil when we learn to be evil. As for the extreme good and the extreme evil, it is not in the learning. Therefore Confucius said, “Only the wise at the top and the foolish at the bottom do not change.” There are good and bad natures, but they cannot be changed by the teachings of the sages. (The Analects of Hengyang—The Nature). In Wang Chong’s view, from Confucius onwards until the early Eastern Han Dynasty, all those who had discussed sexuality had failed to explain clearly what human nature was, except for “the Confucians of Shishuo and the disciples of Gongsun Nizi, who got it right”. “The Zhou people, Shi Shuo, believed that there was good and evil in human nature, and that if one’s good nature was nurtured and developed, good would grow; if one’s evil nature was nurtured and developed, evil would grow. In this way, there is a yin and yang to each nature, and good and evil are nurtured. The disciples of Mizi Jian, Qidiao Kai, and Gongsun Nizi also discuss emotion and nature. They differ from Shi Zi in that they all say that there is good and evil in nature.” (ibid.) In fact, what Shi Shuo calls good and evil in human nature is very different from what Wang Chong calls good and evil in human nature. By saying that there is good and evil in human nature, Shi Shuo means that there are both good and evil elements in the human nature of each person, in effect saying that the human nature of all people is the same, containing both good and evil elements; whereas Wang Chong’s saying that there is good and evil in human nature is more based on the ideas of Dong Zhongshu, who believed that the human nature of different classes of people is different from each other, but he is more complete and clearer. Wang Chong’s view that there is good and evil in human nature is also a kind of innate humanism. He said: The truth is that there is good and evil in human nature, just as there is high and low in human talent. There are no highs, and no lows. If there is no good or evil in nature, it means that there is no high or low in talent. …… The nature of the land in Kyushu is uneven, so there is a difference between yellow, red and black, between upper, middle and lower; the water is different, so there is a clear and turbid flow, between east and west, north and south. People are endowed with the nature of heaven and earth, and they are endowed with the energy of the five constants, and they may be benevolent or righteous. The movements of a man may be heavy or light. The face may be white or black, the body may be long or short. It is in the nature of man that he cannot change until he is old or dead. I am sure that Mencius said that those who are good in human nature are those above the middle class; Sun Qing said that those who are evil in human nature are those below the middle class; Yang Xiong said that those who are mixed with good and evil in human nature are also the middle class. (ibid.) The goodness and badness of human nature, although innate, can be changed to a certain extent and to a certain degree through education, study and cultivation. For the middle-aged in particular, education and cultivation are of great importance.

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Wang Chong said, “The nature of the middle-aged man lies in what he learns; he learns good and becomes good, and learns evil and becomes evil.” (ibid.) He quotes Xunzi as saying, “A puffball born among hemp is straight without support, and a white veil in black without practice. The nature of the pouf is not straight, and the quality of the yarn is not black, but the pouf is dyed in black to make it straight and black. The nature of a lady is like the yarn of the poncho, in that it is gradually dyed and the good and evil change.” (Analects on Hengyang—Spontaneity) Therefore, Wang Chong emphasized that those who had already contracted evil habits could be changed to good if they were educated. He used the example of iron ore that could be made into a famous sword to illustrate that if iron ore could change its nature, what could human nature not change? He concludes that good can become evil and evil can become good, and that good and evil are like silk: “If you dye it blue, it will be green; if you dye it dan, it will be red”. (Analects on Hengyang—Spontaneity) The kind of habits a person is exposed to from childhood will give him the kind of human nature he has.

2.4 On the Relationship Between Material Life and Morality In his view of nature, Wang Chong was a thoroughgoing materialist; in his view of society, he sought to explain and interpret social phenomena in terms of natural causes; in his view of ethics, he placed great emphasis on the influence of material living standards on the moral outlook of people and social customs. For a long time, some thinkers have believed that the key to the rule of the whole society lies in the presence of a wise ruler and the so-called sages. If there is a wise ruler or a sage who practices benevolence and morality towards the people, society will be peaceful and the people will be happy; on the contrary, if the ruler is a bad ruler who is tyrannical and unethical and does not practice benevolence and morality, society will be in chaos and the people will suffer. According to Wang Chong, this kind of understanding only sees the external phenomenon of things but not the substance of the problem, which is “to understand the appearance of good and evil but not to see the reality of misfortune” (Analects on Hengyang—The Period of Governance). According to Wang Chong, the governance and chaos of society, as well as the moral and ideological quality of people, were not determined by wise rulers and sages, but by the material living standards of people. He said: The world is in turmoil because there are so many thieves and bandits, soldiers and revolutionaries, and the people have abandoned ritual and righteousness, and are on the edge of it. The reason for this is that there is a shortage of food, and the people are unable to endure hunger and cold. There are few people who can do nothing wrong when they are hungry and cold, but there are few who can do nothing good when they are well fed and warm. The Book of Judges says: “When the granary is well-stocked, the people know propriety and propriety; when the food and clothing are sufficient, the people know honor and shame.” The people know how to behave. When there is enough grain and food, the heart of propriety and righteousness is

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born; when there is plenty of propriety and righteousness, the foundation of peace is established. Therefore, in the spring of the famine year, one does not eat one’s relatives; in the autumn of the sowing year, one calls upon one’s neighbours. To refrain from eating one’s relatives is an evil act; to call upon one’s neighbours is a good and righteous act. It is not the nature of the hostage but the hunger of the year that is the cause of good and evil deeds. In this sense, the practice of propriety and righteousness lies in the abundance of grain. (ibid.) The most fundamental cause of social disorder, as Wang Chong put it, was not economic relations, but the material standard of living, or the amount of food production. He argued that if the people had no food to eat, they would inevitably do evil; if they were well-fed and well-clothed, they would be morally virtuous. So, how can we have enough food and clothing to eat? He also stresses the importance of good weather and ripening of the grains, arguing that “if there is a drought every year, the grains will not be able to grow”, which will lead to “war and revolution, and the people will abandon ritual and justice”. At the same time, he argued that the governance of society and the moral standards of the people were “not the result of government, but of the times”, but were ultimately determined by natural phenomena such as good weather conditions. This view, although it has some elements of validity, is very one-sided. The people’s “war and revolution, the people’s abandonment of ritual and justice” were not only caused by the “annual drought and failure of grain”, but also by the fact that they could not bear exploitation and oppression. Moreover, it cannot be said in general that people’s moral standards can be improved as long as they are well-fed, well-fed and well-clothed. The morality of a society is certainly related to the material standard of living and the production of food, but more importantly, it is determined by economic relations, political rule and many other factors, not only by the level of consumption. It should be noted, however, that Wang Chong drew a conclusion from this theory that the minimum needs of the people for food and clothing must be met. This was a progressive idea for the time. He used this view to oppose Confucius’ idealistic view of morality. He said in the Analects of Hengyang—Asking Confucius: When Zigong asked him about government, he said, “If you have enough food and troops, the people will trust you.” He said, “Which one can be abandoned if must? “He said, “The army.” He said, which one of the two can be abandoned if must? “He said: “The food. Since ancient times there has been death, and the people cannot stand without faith.” Faith is the most important. He asked, “If the state is left without food and the people are hungry, they will abandon their rites and righteousness. If they abandon ritual and righteousness, how can faith be established?”. In the Spring and Autumn period, the warring states were so hungry that they ate from their sons, and cooked from their bones. The father and son’s kindness was faithful, but when they were hungry, they abandoned their faith and took the son as food. Confucius taught Zigong to leave food and keep faith. If you do not want to believe, you will have faith; if you do not want to eat and keep faith, you will not have faith, although you want to have faith.

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It can be seen that by ‘food’, Wang Chong was referring mainly to the food of the working people. In his view, if the working people had no food or clothing, how could they be expected to keep the “faith” of the ruler?

2.5 The Good and Evil Nature and the Fate At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, prophetic theology was prevalent, always linking the issue of human misfortune with good and evil, and putting forward the so-called good and evil retribution theory of blessing, goodness and misfortune. This doctrine preached that those who did good must be blessed and those who did evil must be cursed; furthermore, it was believed that those who were blessed must be those who did good and those who were cursed must be those who did evil. Wang Chong was strongly opposed to the theory that good was rewarded with good and evil with evil. He said, “It is said that those who do good will be blessed, while those who do evil will be wrecked. The answer to blessings and misfortunes is also from heaven, and when people do it, heaven answers them. The king of men rewards his deeds for the grace of the Yang; the heaven and earth reward his virtue for the favor of the Yin. There is no such thing as a noble, a lowly, a virtuous, or a foolish person.” (Analects on Hengyang—Fu Xu) He also said: “Those who are blessed are thought to be the result of good deeds, while those who are wrecked are said to be the result of evil. It is thought that those who are blessed are the result of good deeds, and those who are plagued are the result of evil deeds. The punishment of heaven and earth is as small as it is large; the retribution of the ghosts and gods is as far as it is near.” (Analects on Hengyang—Huo Xu) This theory, according to Wang Chong, was not in line with the actual situation of human society and was a kind of delusion. In his view, human good and evil come from nature, and human misfortune and fortune are determined by fate. A man’s good and bad in human nature are often inconsistent with his good and bad in fate. He said: “Nature and fate are different, either good by nature and bad by fate, or bad by nature and good by fate. Those who act good or evil are also by nature; those who are lucky or unlucky are also by fate. To be good and to be wretched is to be good and to be wicked; to be wicked and to be blessed is to be wicked and to be lucky. There are good and bad natures, and there are good and bad fortunes. A man of good fortune may not be without blessing, though he does not do good; a man of evil fortune may not be without misfortune, though he does not perform good deeds.” (Analects on Hengyang—Meaning of Life) This means that those who do evil may not always be blessed, and those who do good may not always be blessed; if one has a good fate, one may still be blessed even though one has done many bad deeds; if one has a bad fate, one may still be blessed even though one has good virtues. From this, Wang Chong drew a progressive conclusion that was significant for the time, namely that moral virtue and moral corruption were not necessarily linked to wealth and poverty. A dignitary, though blessed, was not necessarily virtuous. “There is a constant virtue in conduct and behavior, but there is no such thing as

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a constant reward in government. Whether one is virtuous or not depends on one’s talent; whether one meets or not depends on one’s time. A man of high talent and clean conduct is not guaranteed to be noble; a man of poor ability and poor conduct is not guaranteed to be lowly.” (Analects of Hengyang—Encounters) “To be in a position of honor and prominence is not necessarily to be virtuous, but also to be met; to be in a position of inferiority is not necessarily to be foolish, but also not to be met. Therefore, if one meets a man, he may be honored in the court of Jie by holding stagnant water; if one does not meet him, he may be humbled in the court of Yao by holding a clean hand.” (ibid.) This means that those who occupy high positions in the ruling class are not necessarily good people with moral character, and that those who are “weak in virtue and untalented”, i.e. lacking both virtue and talent, often climb on top of others and act as a blessing. This was the result of the fact that “the world had its own way of getting scholars and the scholars had their own way of getting ahead”. This theory directly exposes the dark side of the feudal society, and should be said to be bold and profound. Wang Chong did not believe in the “interaction between heaven and man”, let alone the “retribution of good and evil”, and therefore put forward the theory that human good and bad fortune are determined by fate, which is known in the history of ethical thought as the “doctrine of destiny In the history of ethical thought, it is known as the “doctrine of destiny”, that is, it is believed that the fate of man is the determinant of his good and bad fortune, his life and death. What is the ‘fate’ that Wang Chong refers to? According to him, this destiny is not the destiny of heaven, but the destiny of nature. He said, “When a man is born rich, he has been endowed with natural energy and brought up, and his life of wealth and prosperity has been fulfilled.” (Analects of Hengyang—Chu Bing) He also said, “Life is given to us at the beginning. If a man is endowed with nature, he will be endowed with life; nature and life are both endowed at the same time, not first endowed with nature and later endowed with life.” (ibid.) Here Wang Chong’s historical idealism becomes even more evident. He intended to deny the role of the supposedly volitional heaven in man’s fate, but instead came to the mystical and absurd conclusion that one’s fate is determined at birth, although it is not determined by heaven, but by fate. In this way, there is not much difference between Wang Chong’s fate and Dong Zhongshu’s heaven. However, Wang Chong still sought to give his own natural interpretation of fate, arguing that it was not the will of God, but the bones of man. He said: “People say that fate is difficult to know, but fate is very easy to know. What is the use of knowing it? It is in the bones. When a person’s life is endowed with heaven, there is a watch and wait in the body. To examine the watch and wait in order to know the life is like examining the dou and dra to know the capacity. The “table of the wait” is also the name of the bone method. (Analects of Hengyang—Gu Xiang) It is also said, “The rich and noble bones do not meet with the suffering of the poor, and the poor and noble faces do not meet with the happiness of the rich and noble.” (ibid.) This means that a person’s life’s misfortune and fortune are revealed in his bones at the time of his birth, and that if one knows this technique of bone reading, one can also detect one’s life’s misfortune and fortune. In addition, he also said: “The sky gives the qi and the stars spread the essence. When a

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man is endowed with qi, he is born and grows up with qi.” (Analects of Hengyang— Meaning of Life) In this way, one’s wealth and longevity are granted by the celestial signs of the stars, which also return to idealistic astrology. Whether it was the “bone phase” or the “astrology”, Wang Chong was trying to use his materialistic theory of nature to oppose the mystical idealism of “celestial induction” that was popular at the time. He drove idealism out through the door, but welcomed it in through the window. It is clear from this that materialism in its natural sense alone does not lead to the conclusion of historical materialism. History often plays tricks on people: Wang Chong, who wanted to be materialistic, started out by opposing idealism in his view of history, but eventually fell into it. Engels, in his book Dialectics of Nature, had pointed out that: In opposition to this is determinism, which has been transferred from French materialism to the natural sciences and seeks to deal with chance by denying it at all. According to this view, what reigns in nature is simply direct necessity. There are five peas in this one pod, not four or six; this dog’s tail is five inches long, not a hair longer or shorter …… All this is a fact caused by an irrevocable chain of cause and effect, by an unwavering necessity… …acknowledging this necessity, we have still not emerged from a theological view of nature either.1 Again, Wang Chong’s doctrine of predestination did not lead him to move away from the doctrine of divine destiny. If everything is predetermined, what is the need for human initiative? There is no need for people to do anything in social life, they just have to sit back and wait for fate to take its course. “Those who believe in fate can live in seclusion and wait for the time, and do not need to work hard to seek it out.” (The Analects of Hengyang—Fate and Fortune) “Therefore, if one’s fate is noble, one can attain it from a lowly place; if one’s fate is low, one can be in danger from a rich position. Therefore, if a rich man is assisted by God, a poor man is plagued by ghosts.” (ibid.) Everything is “fate in life and death, wealth and prosperity in heaven”, everything is mysterious and unpredictable, and there is nothing one can do about one’s own fate except to “live in seclusion and wait for the time”.

2.6 Nurturing Virtue and Strength In the history of Chinese ethical thought, there have been sharp debates about which is more important: the cultivation of morality or the cultivation of power, i.e. moral education or repression by force. Wang Chong, despite being largely consistent with Han Fei in his view of nature and epistemology, strongly refuted Han Fei’s onesided denial of the role of morality, and this was the main reason for his writing of the chapter on “Fei Han” in the Analects of Hengyang. There are two ways of governing a state: one is to cultivate virtue and the other is to cultivate strength. The one who cultivates virtue is to cultivate a person of high 1

The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, 1st edition in Chinese, vol. 20, 561 p., Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1971.

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reputation to show that he can respect the virtues; the one who cultivates strength is to cultivate a powerful man to show that he can use the army. This is the so-called military strategy, virtue and strength and sufficient. The matter may be carried by virtue or destroyed by force, the external is self-sustaining by virtue and the internal is self-sufficient by force. Those who admire virtue will be convinced without fighting, while those who violate virtue will be deterred by fear of the army. King Xu Yan practiced benevolence and justice, and was visited by 32 states. When the powerful Chu heard of this, he raised an army and destroyed them. This is the case of those who have the virtue to defend, but not the strength to prepare. Virtue cannot rule a country alone, nor can strength be used to defend against an enemy. Han Zi’s technique did not foster virtue, and King Yan’s practice did not allow for strength. (Analects of Hengyang—Fei Han). Wang Chong emphasized “nurturing virtue” and believed that nurturing virtue meant nurturing Confucian scholars who had a high moral reputation because they could teach people morality and make them good. In particular, he opposed Han Fei’s view of Confucian scholars who knew ritual and morality as moths (“compared to a moth”), and his emphasis on “clear law and honorable merit”, which he considered as “putting the root before the end” and was not conducive to the consolidation of power. This was not conducive to the consolidation of political power. He said: “The reason for the existence of the state is also ritual and righteousness. If the people do not have ritual and righteousness, the state will be in danger.” (ibid.) He believed that morality was the key to the survival of the state and the sovereign’s well-being, and that “the state cannot be ruled without morality”. Wang Chong draws an analogy between the individual and the state, arguing that the most important thing for a person to do is to cultivate his own moral character, and that if he lacks virtue in his dealings in the world, his relatives and friends will be estranged and cut off from him. In the same way, to govern a country, one must use morality to convince the people and give them kindness and favor, so that the people will know how to be grateful and the country will not be in riot. Of course, Wang Chong also realized that ‘virtue cannot rule a state alone’, and that strength was needed to suppress the rebellion of the exploited classes and to resist external aggression. Wang Chong emphasizes both virtue and force in ruling, i.e. he stresses both moral education and forceful suppression in ruling the state, and believes that virtue should be the mainstay, which is a play on Confucius’ idea of ‘virtuous rule’.

3 T Wang Fu’s Ethical Thoughts 3.1 Life and Writings Wang Fu (c. 85-162) was a famous political and ethical thinker of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He, together with Yang Xiong and Wang Chong, did not follow the trend of the prophetic theology during the period when it was popular, but tried to save

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the tide by opposing the ethical thinking of Dong Zhongshu and others who were theologically purposive. He believed that “the goodness of man” lies in the actual sentiments and virtues of each individual, and not in his birth. In his political and ethical thinking, he inherited the Confucian tradition, exposing the various social evils of the time and ridiculing the moral decadence and degeneration of the time, advocating the rule of the body by the art of the Yellow Emperor and the world by the scriptures of Confucius. Wang Fu came from a “vulgar and commonplace background” and was therefore “despised by the villagers” at an early age, but relied on his hard work to become a famous thinker. As he was not accustomed to the darkness of society at the time, he refused to follow the trend of the world and was disillusioned with his official career. He wrote a book entitled Qianfu Lun (The Treatise on Qianfu), which has been handed down to us. Why did he name his book Qianfu Lun? The main reason was that he did not want to make his name known. In his view of nature, Wang Fu insisted on simple materialism, claiming that “qi” is the origin of everything in the world, and that all phenomena in nature are not the product of the will of “heaven”, but are born of qi. All genius and sage are the result of acquired learning and training. This idea of Wang Fu was not only important for the intellectual circles of the time to get rid of the theological purposefulness, but also a sharp and profound criticism of the political darkness of the time.

3.2 Against “Virtue by Position” In the Eastern Han Dynasty, since Wang Chong, there has been a striking social problem: those officials who held high positions and managed the administration of the state were originally recommended by the state’s probation (election) system and were well versed in the Five Classics or were known for their filial integrity, but in reality, they were often corrupt, unscrupulous, unfaithful, ungrateful, lascivious and immoral. They were in high positions, using their power to shield each other and claiming to be virtuous and gentlemanly. How should this issue be understood? Wang Fu, like Wang Chong, did not shy away from suspicion and was not afraid of taboos, and boldly put forward his views on this issue. Wang Fu’s argument is based on the social reality of the time, and it also reveals the social morality of the Eastern Han and its problems. According to Wang Fu, a person in a “high position, being rich and prosperous” is not necessarily a virtuous gentleman, nor is a person in a poor, desperate, humiliated and destitute position necessarily a villain without morals. This means that a person’s morality is not necessarily linked to power and wealth. He said, “The so-called virtuous gentleman is not necessarily a man of high position or wealth and prosperity. This is what a gentleman should have, but it is not what makes him a gentleman. The so-called “villain” is not necessarily a person who is poor and discouraged, who is humiliated and destitute, but a person who is a villain. (Qian Fu Lun—On Glory) Thus, he concluded that “the good and evil of a person need not be a family” and

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that “a favored position is not enough to honor me, while a lowly position is not enough to humble oneself” (ibid.). He said that emperors like Xia Jie and Shang Zhou, despite their high status and power, were only immoral villains because “their hearts were evil”; “Bo Yi and Shu Qi were also hungry men, Fu Yue was a slave, and Jing Bo Yu was also a captive”, But they were still moral gentlemen, because of their “virtuousness”. Wang Fu’s idea had another meaning, namely, that only the moral and virtuous should be given “high positions and wealth”, while the unethical villain, despite enjoying “high positions and wealth” at the time, should be in a lowly position. He was a great critic of the idea of the “lowly”. He strongly opposed the use of “prestigious families” as the main basis for recommending candidates for filial integrity, and denounced the error of judging people’s moral qualities by their feudal birth and status. He pointed out that the traditional notion of ‘virtue by clan and virtue by position’ (ibid.) should be broken down completely, otherwise the vicious circle would intensify and the corruption of society would become unmanageable. For the prominent clansmen, whether virtuous or not, could be elected to the post of filial integrity and appointed as high officials, and these high officials would in turn recommend other people from the prominent clansmen to the court. In terms of human relations, especially friendship, Wang Fu believed that people were willing to meet rich and powerful people and were proud of it, while they were reluctant to associate with moral but powerless people for fear of being harmed by it. In his view, this was also a serious social problem in the way people interacted with each other. He pointed out that “those who befriend the rich and powerful have the benefit of being praised and lifted from above, while those who befriend the poor have the expense of relief and loans, while those who befriend the poor have the damage of false borrowing.” (Qianfu Lun—Intercourse) However, even if “Yan Min’s virtuous man was browned and made a door, people would still think that he was humiliated and fear that he would come back, let alone those who actually have losses?” (Qianfu Lun—Intercourse). Accordingly, he was deeply dissatisfied with the relationship between people at that time, in which “the rich and the wealthy were vying with each other” and “the poor and the poor were vying with each other” (ibid.), and said that he would rather be alienated than associate with the He also expressed his preference for being alienated rather than associating with the powerful. He also wrote the book Qianfu Lun (The Treatise on Qianfu), which shows his noble character of not being attached to the rich and powerful.

3.3 Ritual and Righteousness Born of Abundance On the question of the relationship between morality and people’s material standard of living, Wang Fu inherited Wang Chong’s idea that people’s morality was determined by whether they were rich or poor. He said, “Ritual and righteousness are born of affluence, theft is born of poverty, affluence is born of leisure, and poverty is born of lack of time. The sage knew that strength is the essence of the people and the

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foundation of the state, so he made it a point to save labor and to love the day for the people.” (Qian Fu Lun—Love the Day). Wang Fu’s ethical thinking was closely linked to his progressive political thinking. He was deeply concerned about the heavy labor and bureaucratic corruption of the early Eastern Han Dynasty, and the way in which the rulers used the people’s power in order to enjoy themselves, which led to a lack of livelihood, theft and moral degradation. He believed that only when the people’s standard of living was improved would they be able to understand rituals and observe justice, and only then would society be at peace. Wang Fu’s idea that ritual and righteousness are born out of affluence is the result of a reflection on the social life of the time. At that time, feudal exploitation and natural disasters were constantly triggering peasant uprisings. Why did these peasants abandon the so-called benevolence and morality of feudal society and take the risk? He argues that this was mainly due to the fact that the people were too poor to maintain a minimal livelihood. “When the people are poor, they turn their backs on goodness”, and “when they are hungry and cold, how can they not do wrong?” (Qian Fu Lun—Fu Chi) Therefore, in order to make the people moral, it is necessary to make them live in abundance. How can we be rich? The most important thing is to make the people have enough time to work in agriculture and to give full play to their labor, which is wasted by heavy labor, excessive expropriation of the people’s power and the construction of buildings.

3.4 “Righteousness is Worth Praising, but Profit Deserves Critique” In the relationship between righteousness and profit, Wang Fu developed the Confucian idea of emphasizing righteousness over profit in response to the fact that people in society at that time were inclined to profit rather than righteousness. He believed that the distinction between righteousness and profit was the most important principle in one’s position in the world. He proved through the examination of a large number of historical events and figures that those who only cared about profit and forgot righteousness did not end up well: “From ancient times to the present, there are people from the emperor down to the common people who are good at profit but do not die, and those who are good at righteousness but do not manifest it.” (Qian Fu Lun—Curbing Profit) For example, “King Li of Zhou was good at patenting, but Rui Liangfu advised him but did not enter”, “Duke Yu repeatedly sought to lose his kingdom”, “Gong Shu Xu took bribes as a crime”, “The king of Huan did not eat and drink in order to see the murderer” (Qianfu Lun—Curbing Profits), and so on. On the other hand, those who valued righteousness over profit, such as Zi Wen, the magistrate of Chu, who was magistrate for three times but had hunger and his wife was freezing. He was a minister of four rulers, but his horses did not have any rations and his concubines did not have any clothes. Zihan returned to his jade and Yanzi

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to his house. All these men were able to forsake profit and to behave themselves, so they did not complain to others. The influence of Kaishi Tui, Bo Yi and Shu Qi on future generations was incomparable to that of those who had high rank and wealth because of their noble morals, strong moral character and noble sentiments, even though they did not have high rank and wealth, i.e. “even though the lords of the four seas could not share their names and the rulers of the countries could not share their weight” (ibid.), because they were “overflowing with righteousness beyond the nine states, established in faith over a thousand years, and spread in fame over a hundred generations” (ibid.). On the issue of righteousness and profit, Wang Fu did not deny the importance of profit as Mencius did, nor did he advocate “preserving heavenly principles and extinguishing human desires” as the later Song and Ming Taoists did, but rather advocated “curbing profit”, believing that profit should not be pursued excessively, and that one should not disregard righteousness in favor of profit. He said, “If you know that the wax can be used to make stirrups, but you do not know how much it is, then you should not use it; if you know that profit can amuse you, but you do not know how much it is, then you must have it.” “An elephant burns its body with its teeth, and a clam cuts its body with its pearls.” “If the descendants are virtuous, they do not need to be rich; if they are not virtuous, then they will be more than enough to bring grievances.” (ibid.) These thoughts of Wang Fu reflect the way of life of many upright people in the society of the time, and are also a criticism of the trend of pursuing wealth and profit in the society of the time.

Chapter 13

Ethical Thought in the Song and Ming Periods

1 Lu Jiuyuan’s Ethical Thoughts 1.1 Life and Writings Lu Jiuyuan (1139–1193) was a native of Jinxi, Fuzhou, with the character Zijing. After his middle age, Lu Jiuyuan lectured at Xiangshan in Guixi, and was known as Mr. Xiangshan. He served as a magistrate for several terms, and in his later years he became a member of the Jingmen army. The writings of Lu Jiuyuan were edited by his son, Lu Chizhi, into the “Complete Works of Mr. Xiangshan”, which has been rewritten into “Lu Jiuyuan’s Collection” in 36 volumes. Lu Jiuyuan was the pioneer of the Song and Ming schools of mind. He put forward the ethical thought system of “mind is reason” and “the universe is my mind, and my mind is the universe”. He also emphasized the cultivation method of “inventing the original mind” and “first establishing the greatness of it”, and established the moral ideal of “the unity of heaven and man”, which is unique in the history of Chinese ethical thought. For a long time, scholars have discussed Lu Jiuyuan’s teleology more in terms of philosophical ontology and epistemology, and have elaborated on various aspects of his philosophical thought in terms of subjective idealism, but less in terms of moral theory; many of his ethical concepts, categories and propositions have been understood more in terms of philosophy, without paying attention to their ethical significance. Generally speaking, the concepts, categories and propositions of philosophy and those of ethics are both related and distinct, and it is clear that thinkers have used them in different contexts. However, because of Chinese philosophy’s own characteristics, namely that ethics and philosophy have long been integrated and that ethics has not been a separate discipline, confusion between the two has often arisen, sometimes leading to great misunderstanding. Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming are two of the philosophers who have been subjected to such misunderstandings. Therefore, it is necessary to explore Lu Jiuyuan’s ethical thought in a new way, mainly by analysing teleology from the perspective of ethics. © China Renmin University Press 2023 G. Luo, Traditional Ethics and Contemporary Society of China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0256-9_13

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In terms of the entire philosophical system, the teleology proposed by Lu Jiuyuan, in which “mind is reason” and “the universe is my mind, and my mind is the universe”, is a doctrine of subjective idealism, which reverses the relationship between matter and consciousness, objectivity and subjectivity. While it is important to point out this ontological inversion, it is still not enough. It is more important for us to analyze in depth the concepts, categories and propositions of what is fundamentally an ethical system, to find out how Lu Jiuyuan justified them, in what sense he used them, and why his doctrine was so widely accepted at the time (it is said that during his five years of lecturing at Xiangshan, scholars from all directions gathered in his hut to ask for advice, and thousands of people came), It is said that his doctrines were so widely accepted at the time (it is said that during his five years of lecturing at Xiangshan, thousands of scholars came from many places), and that they had such a great influence later on.

1.2 “Mind” as a Rational Entity Generally speaking, Lu Jiuyuan is known as a thinker who invented the heart and stressed the importance of the heart, which is why his doctrine is known as “theology of the heart”. In the history of Chinese ethical thought, he made “the original mind”, “the existing mind” and “the heart” the centre of moral thinking, and with this as the basis, he established an unprecedented and far-reaching system of ethics. This is the basis for the establishment of an unprecedented and far-reaching system of ethics. Therefore, it is important to clarify what Lu Jiuyuan’s “heart” or “original heart” means, and how his “heart” differs from the “heart” of ordinary philosophers. “This is the first thing we must pay attention to when studying Lu Jiuyuan’s ethical thought. Only by clarifying exactly what he meant by “heart” can we have a correct understanding of his entire doctrine”. In the history of Chinese thought, ‘mind’ generally has four meanings: a physiological function, the role of perception, the ability to will, and moral character. With the exception of physiological functions, which were used only in special circumstances, the Taoists of the Song dynasty used the concept of mind mainly in the latter three senses. They sometimes emphasized the role of the perception of the heart, as when Zhu Xi said that ‘the heart is the perception of man, the master of the body and the one who responds to things’ (Zhuzi Yulei, vol. 78). Here, Zhu Xi believes that the function of the mind is to know all kinds of things. They sometimes emphasize that the mind has a capacity for will and is the master of all things, and Zhu Xi often emphasizes this role of the mind when he says: “The mind, the master of all things, is also called.” (Zhu Zi Yu Lei, vol. 5) “In the whole body, there is a master, the heart.” (Zhu Zi Yu Lei, vol. 20) “The heart is the master of the mind, and this is why the heart is great” (Zhu Zi Yu Lei, vol. 5). Zhu Xi also believes that the mind is a kind of master that gives orders to everything else and does not accept orders from anything else. “The mind is the reason why man is the master of his body, the one and not the other, the one who is the master and not the guest, the one who orders things and

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not orders them.” (Guanxin Shuo) The Taoists of the Song Dynasty also generally considered the heart to be the embodiment of people’s moral character, emphasizing the so-called moral heart. For Zhu Xi, however, he referred to the physical function of the heart as the “heart” and the moral heart as the “heart of the Tao”. He says: “This mind is only the heart, and when perception goes up from the desire of the ears and eyes, it is the heart of the mind; when perception goes up from righteousness, it is the heart of the Tao.” (Zhu Zi Yu Lei, vol. 78) He also said, “Even though a sage cannot have a human heart, such as hunger, food, thirst, and drink, and even though a lesser man cannot have a Taoist heart, such as compassion.” (ibid.) “The heart of the Way is originally the heart endowed with benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom.” Lu Jiuyuan’s understanding of the heart is not only the same as that of Zhu Xi and others, but also has his own unique understanding. In terms of philosophical and ethical thought, the most important point in the final analysis is that Lu Jiuyuan sees the mind as primarily an ethical entity. Of course, in Lu Jiuyuan’s view, the mind also has physiological functions, perceptual functions, and the ability to will, but its primary, essential, central, and constant meaning is an ethical entity, and all other meanings are derived from and subordinated to this meaning. For Lu Jiuyuan, the heart as an ethical entity has three main meanings. First of all, Lu Jiuyuan inherited the theory of Mencius that the heart is an innate moral character of human beings, which is inherent in us and is given to us by heaven. He clearly pointed out that this innate moral character, which all human beings possess, is what Confucius called “ren” and Mencius called the “four ends of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom”. He said, “Therefore, benevolence and righteousness are the heart of man.” (With Zhao Jian) “The four ends are this heart.” (Letter to Li Zai) He also said, “Righteousness is in the heart of man, but they are inseparable from heaven.” (Si Ze De Zhi) Lu Jiuyuan believed that this innate moral character of human beings is also the heart of compassion, shame and evil, resignation, and right and wrong. In addition, Lu Jiuyuan even believes that this innate human heart is the essential characteristic that distinguishes human beings from animals. He said, “Benevolence is also the heart of man, and the heart of man is what makes him human, and different from animals and grass.” (Learn to Rest Assured) In Lu Jiuyuan’s view, the difference between human beings and animals lies not in perception, not in knowledge, but in morality. Only human beings are moral, while all animals have no morality to speak of, so the moral heart is an important difference between human beings and animals. Secondly, according to Lu Jiuyuan, the heart is not only an innate moral quality that people possess, but also a moral evaluation ability that can know good and evil, a moral understanding ability and moral judgment ability that can distinguish good from evil and right from wrong. He said, “If this mind exists, then this reason will be clear to us; we will be compassionate when we should be compassionate, and we will be able to distinguish between right and wrong when we should be ashamed of evil, and when we should resign ourselves.” (Quotes I) In Lu Jiuyuan’s view, the mind does have a function of perception and awareness, but this awareness refers mainly to moral awareness, and its function is also mainly this moral ability to adapt and judge. In Lu Jiuyuan’s view, this ability of the heart, which “never wears out”,

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is also the conscience of the people. This conscience enables people to know filial piety and fraternity, to know how to “love their relatives”, to know how to “respect their brothers”, to be fearful and compassionate when they see a child going into a well, to be ashamed when they see something shameful, to be evil when they see something evil, to know what is right and what is wrong, and to be able to resign when they need to. The ability to resign when one resigns, to be humble when one should be humble …… all this is because the heart has this ability to judge and adapt. As long as one does not lose one’s conscience, one is a moral person. Lu Jiuyuan’s emphasis on the mind’s ability to judge itself, others and all things in terms of moral awareness and moral evaluation, and its function as conscience, is significant. In the history of Chinese ethical thought, Mencius was the first to introduce the concept of conscience, but did not explain it further. Zhu Xi, by emphasizing only that conscience is a sense of shame, was too narrow in his understanding of conscience. In Lu Jiuyuan’s view, conscience not only contains the innate goodness of nature, which is a fundamental characteristic that distinguishes man from beasts, but is also a special ability to distinguish right from wrong, judge good from evil, identify right from wrong, and recognize public from private. It is also a special ability to distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil, good and evil, and public and private, which has a rational element. On the question of what is the ‘original heart’, Lu Jiuyuan has a passage in his Annals which records a question and answer between Yang Jingzhong (Yang Jian), then the master of Fuyang, and him: He asked, “What is the heart?” He said, “Compassion is the end of benevolence; shame and evil are the end of righteousness; resignation and concession are the end of propriety; right and wrong are the end of wisdom. This is the true heart.” He said, “I already knew this when I was a child, but what is my true heart?” He asked him several times, but he did not find it easy to say, and Jing Zhong did not realize it. Occasionally, a fan seller came to the court, and Jingzhong concluded his case, and asked the same question as before. The gentleman said, “I have heard that when I come to adjudicate fan lawsuits, those who are right know that they are right and those who are wrong know that they are wrong. Jingzhong suddenly became very aware of this, and began to accept disciples’ rituals from the north. Therefore, Jingzhong always said, “When Jane asked the question of his original mind, Mr. Jingzhong cited the answer of right and wrong in the fan litigation. Mr. Jing said, “Jing Zhong can be said to be a thousand miles a day.” (Annals). Finally, in Lu Jiuyuan’s view, the mind is also an absolute entity capable of recognizing all eternal and unchanging moral principles and norms, as well as all principles of things. According to Lu Jiuyuan, the moral principles and norms between people, such as the three principles and five rules, loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, are eternal and unchanging, both a thousand years ago and a thousand years later. He believed that the human heart can recognise these principles and norms, maintain them, practice them, and carry them forward. As his student Yang Jian put it: ‘The heart is good, the heart is spiritual, and the heart is clear’ (The Records of Mr. Erlu, in The Legacy of Cihu, vol. 2), he exaggerated the role of the heart to an infinite extent, thus making it the decisive thing in everything.

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In Lu Jiuyuan’s view, since the heart is an entity that recognizes eternal and unchanging moral principles and norms, it follows that the hearts of all people must be common. Therefore, he particularly emphasizes that this “original mind” and “heart” of people are all the same. He says: “The heart is just a heart. The heart of a certain person, the heart of my friend, the heart of a sage for a thousand years above, and the heart of another sage for a thousand years below, is just the same.” (Quotes II) He also said, “There are sages in the Eastern Sea, and this heart is the same, and this reason is the same. There are sages in the Western Sea, and this is the same heart and the same reasoning. There are sages from a thousand generations above to a thousand generations below, and there is no difference in this mind and this reason.” (Annals) Therefore, according to him, all people are “of the same mind”. In Lu Jiuyuan’s view, in feudal society at that time, there was a common standard for right and wrong, good and evil, good and evil, and public and private, and this standard was the three principles and five rules of feudal society, the way of rulers and ministers, fathers and sons, and spouses.

1.3 Mind as Reason Lu Jiuyuan put forward an important proposition in his philosophy of the mind, namely, “the mind is reason”. He said, “All men have a mind, and all minds have a reason, and the mind is the reason.” (Letter to Li Zai) He also said, “The mind is the same mind; the reason is the same reason. This mind and this reason cannot be two.” (Letter to Zeng Zhaizhi) This means that “mind” and “reason” are in fact one and the same thing, and they are inseparable. Lu Jiuyuan even extends this proposition to the seemingly absurd conclusion that “the universe is my mind and my mind is the universe”. It is true that epistemologically it is a subjective idealism that cannot be understood, but it has an important lesson in ethical thinking. To better clarify this issue, we should also look at what Lu Jiuyuan means by ‘reason’. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi established what is known as the science of reason, and Zhu Xi inherited and developed the doctrine of Cheng brothers, giving a new twist to reason. Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi gave a detailed explanation of reason and a definite definition of it. Generally speaking, the use of the category of reason by Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi has three levels of meaning: at the first level, they consider reason to be the origin of all things in the world, and so it is also called “Tai Ji”. From the point of view of being the origin of everything, Reason is a real and non-existent thing that transcends all time and space and is never lost, “In case all the mountains, rivers and earth fall, after all, ‘Reason’ is only here” (Zhu Zi Yu Lei, vol. 1). The second level, derived from the origin of all things, is that reason is the essential property of a thing, and thus extends to the laws that make a thing exist. “This chair, for example, has four feet and can be sat on; this is the reason for the chair. If one foot is removed and one cannot sit on it, then the reason for the chair is lost.” (Zhu Zi Yu Lei, vol. 62) Therefore, the chair

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has the reason of the chair, the fan has the reason of the fan, and everything has the reason of everything. At the third level, from reason being the origin of all things to the essential properties of things and then to their development, they see reason as a necessary and eternal ethical principle and moral code between human beings. In this sense, reason is also “the Way”, or “the Principle of Heaven”. According to Zhu Xi, “The Tao is a common principle in the ancient and modern worlds, such as the kindness of the father, the filial piety of the son, the benevolence of the ruler, and the loyalty of the minister, and is a public truth.” (Zhu Zi Yu Lei, vol. 7) According to Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi, “heart” and “reason” are certainly not to be confused. Lu Jiuyuan also recognizes that reason is the origin of all things, including heaven, earth and man, and that all three are derived from this ultimate origin. He believed that “the universe is a single Reality” (The Fourth Letter to Zhao Yongdao). At the same time, he believed that the Reason was the master of all things in heaven and earth, and that even heaven and earth, ghosts and gods could not contradict the rules of this supreme Reason, saying: “This Reason fills the universe, and even heaven and earth, ghosts and gods cannot contradict it, let alone man.” (Letter to Wu Zisi) Lu Jiuyuan, like Zhu Xi, extrapolated this principle of the origin of things to the law of what makes everything what it is, but the difference is that the principle Lu Jiuyuan referred to in many cases was mainly the principle of the eternal and unchanging human relationship between man and man, the so-called “ancient and saintly” principle of benevolence and morality. “The reason of benevolence, righteousness and morality. Those who are kings have the reasoning of kings, those who are subjects have the reasoning of subjects, those who are imperial poles have the reasoning of imperial poles, and those who are Yi Lun have the reasoning of Yi Lun. …… This is the way of rulers and subjects, fathers and sons, and couples, which is also known as “reason”. It is in this sense that Lu Jiuyuan believes that heart and reason share a common essential attribute: they are both eternal and unchanging moral norms, they are both supreme principles of human relationships, and in the final analysis, they can both be said to be ethical entities. The difference is only that the heart speaks in terms of the subject, while the reason speaks in terms of the object (which of course is not the same as what we mean by object today), i.e. in terms of the regularities embodied in these human relations. The mind, as a moral subject, can perceive and grasp these principles and use them to evaluate and judge all things. Reason, as an objective law of human relations, is identical with the human “heart”, the “original heart”, the “conscience”. The meaning of “heart is reason” is that the two are completely unified and identical. In Lu Jiuyuan’s view, the laws of heaven and conscience are inseparable.

1.4 The Cultivation Theory of “Establishing the Greatness” From the emphasis on the ‘heart’ and the ‘original heart’, Lu Jiuyuan’s theory of moral cultivation particularly emphasizes the importance of ‘establishing the greatness’. In his teachings to his students, he repeatedly stated that the fundamental principle of

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moral cultivation must be taken into account. His opponents said that Lu Jiuyuan had no skills except for the phrase ‘first stand on its greatness’, but after hearing this, Lu Jiuyuan readily agreed, saying: “Recently, some people have said about me: ‘Except for the phrase ‘first stand on its greatness’, there are no tricks.’, I heard that and said, “True.” It can be seen that clarifying the content of the phrase ‘first to stand for its greatness’ and the reason why he emphasized it is the key to our understanding of Lu Jiuyuan’s ethical thinking. The “greatness” Lu Jiuyuan refers to is what he calls “the original”, “the original mind”, “the heart”, “the Taoist mind” and “the conscience”. “The “first thing to do is to establish the greatness of the mind”, which means that one must first invent one’s own mind and stress the important role of conscience. Lu Jiuyuan said, “Everything has its origin and its end, and if we look at trees, their origin must be very different. I teach people so that the root is always heavy and not burdened by the end.” (Quotes I) This means that the reason why some trees flourish while others wither and fade is that their fundamentals must be very different from each other. In the same way, the most important reason why some people are morally noble and others are of poor character is that some are able to preserve, nourish and invent their hearts, while others allow their hearts to be hidden by material desires, harmed by lucre and trapped by evil thoughts. Therefore, in order to cultivate one’s temperament, change one’s temperament and cultivate one’s moral character, one must heal the obscurity, damage and entrapment of the mind. Lu Jiuyuan says: “What is the harm to my heart? Desire. If you want more, your mind will be less; if you want less, your mind will be more. …… If you want to go, your mind will exist.” (Desire for Less Is Better Than Cultivation) The best way to nourish the mind is to have few desires.) He also said: “If you are blinded, if you are taken away, if you are trapped, then this mind is not spiritual and this reason is not clear. ……” Therefore, in order to “protect the goodness of my mind Therefore, in order to “preserve the goodness of our heart” and “remove the harm of our heart”, we must strip away these evil thoughts, material desires and obscurations. “When the heart is sick, it must be stripped away, and when it is stripped away for a time, it must be clear, and when it is stripped away again, it must be stripped away again and clear, and only when it is clear.“ (Quotes II) In Lu Jiuyuan’s view, “inventing the original mind”, “keeping the mind”, “nurturing the mind” and “seeking peace of mind” are the same as “stripping the mind”. In Lu Jiuyuan’s view, “inventing the original mind”, “storing the mind”, “nurturing the mind” and “seeking peace of mind” are different aspects of the same process as “stripping away” kung fu, and they are complementary and mutually reinforcing. The main method is to “cut oneself back on one’s mistakes and change them for the better” (Quotes I), to sincerely “think about them instead”, to strip away all external temptations on the one hand, and to “maintain and irrigate them day and night to make them flourish” (Quotes I). On the one hand, we must strip away all external temptations, and on the other hand, we must “maintain and irrigate it every day and every evening so that it will be smoothly and prosperously developed”. (Letter to Shu Xi Mei) It is in this sense that Lu Jiuyuan believes that the purpose of learning is not to gain a lot of knowledge and to show off oneself in this way, but to learn how to behave, how to cultivate one’s character, and especially

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importantly, to practice the moral principles and moral codes that one understands, so that one becomes a moral person. He said, “What is it that I am learning now? To be a human being is to be humane. To be a scholar is to be a human being, not a human being.” (Quotes II) The only test of academic achievement is therefore progress in moral character. In the history of ethical thought in China and abroad, the relationship between the growth of knowledge and the cultivation of morality has been a long-standing issue of debate. The essence of this question is whether there is a relationship between the improvement of one’s morality and the growth of knowledge. If so, what is the relationship? On this question, Lu Jiuyuan and Zhu Xi had a heated debate. Although both men’s ideas were one-sided to a certain extent, in view of the social situation of the time, it should be said that Lu Jiuyuan’s ideas contained more reasonable elements. Zhu Xi also believed that the purpose of learning was to cultivate one’s moral character and refine one’s temperament. However, Zhu Xi’s emphasis on cultivation was on the methods of “being respectful”, “reasoning”, and “studying things” and “attaining knowledge”. In his view, in order for people to improve their moral qualities, they must first study the teachings of the ancient sages and the moral examples of the dynasties, especially the Four Books, the Five Classics and the Hundred Schools of Thought. In order to achieve this, he not only spent his life writing the Commentary on Four Books, but also compiled the Common Learning, the Book of Thought, and the Book of Words and Acts of Famous Ministers of the Five Dynasties for people to study. In Zhu Xi’s view, the “studying” and “rational” approach would help to improve moral character, so he made the “study of the Way” a prerequisite for “respecting moral character”. “The prerequisite for this was the study of the Tao. Lu Jiuyuan, on the other hand, was not so, as he addressed the ills of the time, the pernicious culture of using learning to gain high office and personal fame and fortune, and those who paid lip service to the “books of the sages” while actually acting “contrary to the sages”, He boldly put forward his own ideas. He was outspoken in his sarcasm of those who “wearied their spirits, labored in thought, and spent years of their lives” in order to “learn from the scriptures, but did not benefit themselves internally or others externally”. He believed that the main way of learning was to change one’s temperament and opposed to being buried in the scriptures all day long. He said, “If a person reads only the ancient commentaries, he will understand the words of the sages, and if he reads ‘A disciple should be filial and a brother’, it is clearly stated that he should be filial and a brother, so there is no need for the commentaries. The more tired the scholar is of this, the heavier the burden. I am here to relieve him of his burden.” (ibid.) Lu Jiuyuan also said, “If I do not know a single word, I must still be a man in a dignified manner.” (ibid.) In his view, the more one worked on books and words, the more likely one was to fall into fragmentation, and the more some people, though they read a million books, did not help their moral conduct. For the ancient sages, their nobility and purity, and their admiration for others, lie mainly in their outgoing spirit and not in their words. Their words are merely the expression of their spirit. He wisely ridiculed Zhu Xi, saying that if one could only acquire a high moral character by memorising the last words of

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the ancient sages, what books did Yao and Shun, two sages of high moral character, actually read? For Zhu Xi, this was a difficult question to answer. Yao and Shun were considered by Zhu Xi to be great saints, yet the scriptures Zhu Xi referred to were written after Yao and Shun. For this question, Zhu Xi had to resort to his view of the history of the saints, in which he believed that saints were born and did not need to study to become saints, while others had to read the books of the saints first. Lu Jiuyuan’s view on the relationship between the growth of knowledge and the cultivation of morality was undoubtedly the best remedy for the social pathology of the time. Zhu Xi himself admitted that because “the previous lectures were only oral, but not physical, they were not effective in themselves or others”. He himself originally thought, “only so lecture gradual connotation, since can enter the virtue, not to say the last stream of the evil, only into the speech to the human moral daily use of the closest, also are not a hair strength, this can not not not deep punishment and painful warning also”, thus admitting his own moral cultivation on the failure. On Lu Jiuyuan, he said: “most of Zi Si since, the method of teaching people only to respect virtue, the road to learn two things for the force of the important, now Zi Jing said, is exclusively respect for virtue things, and Xi Ping day is to learn more on the discussion. So for his scholars, more hold can observe, and see the righteousness of all not subtle, and do not say a kind of fabricated truth, cover up refused to put down. And Hsi is aware that although he does not dare to talk nonsense about righteousness, he is not able to do much for himself and others. Now we should turn around and make an effort to go to the short set of long, so as not to fall on one side of the ear.” (A Reply to Xiang Pingfu, no. 2, in Zhu Wen Gong Wen Ji, vol. 54) This affirms the importance of Lu Jiuyuan’s emphasis on “respect for virtue”. On the question of how to “first establish the greatness”, Lu Jiuyuan attached great importance to the distinction between “righteousness and profit” and “public and private”. He believed that the only criterion for distinguishing whether a person’s morality was noble or inferior, whether he was virtuous or immoral, whether he was a gentleman or a villain, was how he treated the issue of righteousness and profit. He believed that “a gentleman and a villain should be judged on the basis of righteousness and profit” and that “anyone who wishes to learn should first know the difference between righteousness and profit and between public and private”. He had his own interpretation of righteousness and profit, and by ‘righteousness’ he meant public righteousness; by ‘profit’ he meant private profit. In his view, ‘righteousness’ refers not only to moral principles and the necessity of doing what one should do according to one’s heart, but also to the public interests of the state and the people. In the eighth year of Emperor Xiaozong’s reign (1181), when Lu Jiuyuan was 43 years old, he visited Zhu Xi in Nankang in order to ask him to write an epitaph for his dead brother. (Six years earlier, he and Zhu Xi had had a great academic debate, and their differences had deepened since then.) Zhu Xi invited him to give a lecture to his students at the White Deer Grotto Academy, and Lu Jiuyuan devoted his lecture to Confucius’s section “A gentleman’s metaphor is righteousness, a villain’s metaphor is profit”, elaborating on the importance of “knowing the difference between righteousness and profit” and arguing that “the metaphor of man is determined by his practice, and the metaphor of man is determined by his practice. The section “A gentleman

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is guided by righteousness and a small man by profit” elaborates on the importance of knowing the difference between righteousness and profit. If one is interested in righteousness, then one’s practice must be in righteousness, and if one’s practice is in righteousness, then one’s metaphor is in righteousness. If one is interested in profit, then one’s practice must be in profit, and if one’s practice is in profit, then one’s metaphor is in profit. Therefore, the scholar’s aspiration must be discerned” (Textbook of White Deer Grotto Academy). This means that in order for people to have a high morality, they must pay attention to their actions and their motives, and emphasize the importance of understanding and appreciating righteousness by moving from “will” to “practice”; The idea that “metaphor” is formed by “practice” and “practice” is determined by “will” emphasizes the role of one’s There is a reasonable element in this. Lu Jiuyuan denounces the shameless behavior of those “villains” of the time who only sought personal gain and disregarded national justice, pointing out that they studied for the sake of gaining office, and after gaining office, they kept asking for promotion, a shameful behavior that “from youth to old age, from the top to the heel, is only for profit”. This was a shameful act. Lu Jiuyuan argued from the perspective of the public interest of the feudal state and the people at that time that a scholar must abandon his private interests and “devote himself to the affairs of the state and the people” and should have the spirit of “being respectful of his duties and diligent in his work, with a heart for the state and for the people, but not for his own sake”. This is a speech on the discernment of righteousness and profit. This speech on righteousness and profit was considered by even Zhu Xi to be “well-invented” and “sincere and clear”, and “hits the deep and chronic illness of scholars”. Even he himself in the lecture, also failed to achieve such a degree, deeply ashamed, that is, “Xi here has not said here, negative shame what to say”, but also specifically let Lu Jiuyuan write into the lecture notes, and later carved on the stone, “Xi when and all students together with all the students, in order not to forget Mr. Lu’s training”. Lu Jiuyuan himself also think write the lecture notes is too simple, “at that time to say to the pain, to have shed tears, Yuan Hei deep moved, the weather is slightly cold, and sweat out waving fan” (Annals). Even Zhu Xi was moved to “sweat and wave his fan” in early spring and February, so it is clear that this lecture on the “Discourse of Righteousness and Profit” was a great success.

1.5 The Saintly State of “All Things Are in Me” and “the Universe is My Mind, and My Mind is the Universe” Among Lu Jiuyuan’s ethical thoughts, the two propositions that have been criticized more often by later generations are his “all things are in me” and “the universe is my mind and my mind is the universe”. The criticisms have focused more on his worldview and epistemology, and less on his ethical thinking.

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The idea that “all things are in me” and “the universe is my mind and my mind is the universe” is, for Lu Jiuyuan, not primarily a worldview and methodological proposition, but an ethical one, or more precisely, it refers to the moral cultivation of It refers to a moral state of supremacy. Lu Jiuyuan inherited this idea directly from Mencius. Mencius was the first to propose the realm of “the unity of heaven and man”, which he considered to be supreme. Mencius believed that “heart” was the innate ethical origin of man, and that the moral instincts of compassion, right and wrong, shame and evil, and resignation were all functions of the heart. It is for this reason that Mencius emphasized the importance of “preserving one’s heart and nurturing one’s nature”, i.e. preserving one’s good heart, and expanding on the four ends of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom. According to Mencius, if one can “preserve one’s heart and nurture one’s nature”, one is “aware of one’s nature”. “If one knows one’s nature, one can also know heaven. This is because the goodness of the human heart does not come from outside, but is given by Heaven. Therefore, if a person can attain the state of “knowing the nature” and “knowing heaven”, he can start from the good nature given to him by heaven and fill his thoughts, feelings, aspirations and pursuits with righteousness, thus forming a kind of “spirit of righteousness”, which is the greatest and most rigorous, and “to dwell in the wide house of the world, to stand in the correct seat of the world, and to walk in the great path of the world; when he obtains his desire for office, to practice his principles for the good of the people; and when that desire is disappointed, to practice them alone; to be above the power of riches and honors to make dissipated, of poverty and mean condition to make swerve from principle, and of power and force to make bend”, as Mencius said, “Those who pass by are transformed, those who exist are gods, and those who go up and down flow with heaven and earth”. In this sense, Mengzi’s philosophy of “the spirit of the mind” is a good one. It is in this sense that Mencius says: “He who knows without thinking is also a man of good knowledge, and he who is able without learning is also a man of good ability. This is what Heaven has given me, and I have it in me, not from outside.” He also says: “All things are ready for me, so if I am sincere, I will be more happy.” (ibid.) This means that since the human heart is endowed by heaven with conscience and energy, all the principles, attitudes and methods for standing and acting, for dealing with others and for doing things, are also in my heart, and as long as people can “look to themselves”, develop their original heart, expand it, and practice it faithfully and sincerely, they will develop this original heart to a supreme state. The person who is in this state When one is in this state, one feels that “all things are available to me”. The “all things” are the principles, attitudes and methods of all actions, of all people and of all things; everything can be done with ease, all according to the mind, that is, the Divine Principle, which is “all in me”. Therefore, it is possible to be “happy”. After Mencius, the idea of the perfection of nature and the knowledge of heaven was further developed in the Doctrine of the Mean, which was written by Confucians in the Qin and Han dynasties. The book says, “Only the most sincere person in the world can fulfill his nature; if he can fulfill his nature, he can fulfill his human nature; if he can fulfill his human nature, he can fulfill the nature of things; if he can fulfill

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the nature of things, he can praise the nurturing of heaven and earth; if he can praise the nurturing of heaven and earth, he can participate with heaven and earth.” This means that as long as one can invent one’s own heart and know the nature of heaven, one can give full play to the nature of all things and help heaven and earth to nurture all things. Such a person can then become one with heaven and earth and achieve the state of “all things are ready for me” and “heaven and earth are one”. Many Taoists of the Song dynasty, such as Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Zhang Zai and Zhu Xi, also emphasized the highest state in which a sage could “participate with heaven and earth”, but they did not elaborate further. Lu Jiuyuan, starting from his own “invention of the original mind”, gave further play to this realm. How does Lu Jiuyuan argue that “the universe is my mind and my mind is the universe”? He said: The four directions are called the universe, the past and the present are called the universe. The universe is our mind, and our mind is the universe. Ten million generations ago, a sage emerged with the same mind and the same reasoning. There will be saints who emerge from the same heart and the same reasoning after ten million generations. There are saints in the southeast and northwest seas, with the same mind and the same reasoning. …… The things in the universe are within oneself, and the things within oneself are within the universe. The human mind is the most spiritual, and this reason is the most clear, and all human beings have this mind, and all minds have this reason. (Miscellaneous). It is clear from this passage that, since the “original mind” of man is the most spiritual and heaven-given, everyone can attain the state of a saint if he or she goes through the work of “inventing the original mind”. No matter whether they are from the past or the present, or from the four directions, or from millions of lifetimes ago or after, or from the East Sea to the South Sea, or from the West Sea to the North Sea, as long as they become saints, their understanding and enlightenment, their moral realm, must be the same. Their moral state must be the same. Therefore, he said, “The body of the mind is very big. If I can fulfill my mind, I will be the same as heaven.” (Quotes II) In other words, if a person can “fulfil my nature, he will be the same as heaven” (ibid.). In Lu Jiuyuan’s view, if one can “invent one’s own heart” and “strip away” the desire for profit, one can “master oneself and have all things ready for me” (ibid.), and then one can “The only thing that is within one’s own purview is the affairs of the state, that is, one can put aside one’s personal interests and “devote oneself to the affairs of the state and the people”. In this way, a person can achieve the highest state of “being one with heaven”, where “the universe is my heart and my heart is the universe”.

1.6 A Re-conceptualization of Lu Jiuyuan’s Ethical Thought Lu Jiuyuan’s important contribution to the history of Chinese ethical thought was that he emphasized for the first time the importance of the “heart” and the “original mind”, which led to a further understanding of the role of the original mind in people’s

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moral behavior and moral evaluation in Chinese ethical thought. This led to a more sophisticated and rigorous theory of “conscience” in Chinese ethical thought, and laid the foundation for Wang Yangming’s ethical system with “conscience” as its core. In its primary sense, what Lu Jiuyuan called “the heart” is roughly equivalent to what we today call “conscience” (Lu Jiuyuan also sometimes used “conscience” and gave “conscience” roughly the same meaning as “original mind”, but he more often used “heart” and “original mind”), and the elaboration of the role of the “heart” is largely equivalent to the understanding of the role of the “conscience”. In terms of the theoretical development of ethics, the progressive development of the understanding of the heart or conscience reflects a significant progress in people’s moral thinking. Conscience, or the heart, plays an extremely important role in people’s moral qualities, moral sentiments, moral evaluations and moral behavior. Conscience is one’s moral self-evaluation, a unity of moral self-awareness and self-perception. Conscience is always integrated with one’s obligations in a certain society, always combined with one’s honor and self-respect in society, and thus self-regulation, self-monitoring and self-control of one’s behavior. It is both a praiser of the individual’s virtues and a resister of his immoral behavior. Before people act, conscience always leads them to choose between evil and good in their moral choices. If it does so, it can feel self-satisfied. In the process of acting, conscience tends to make people self-evaluate their actions, encouraging them to do good or discouraging them from going into evil. It allows people to monitor themselves and demand that they do not do bad things when no one else is likely to know about them or when there is no public opinion to monitor them. Conscience is often an invisible force, even an instinctive subconscious intuition, that keeps a person’s behavior on a certain track. Conscience is the unity of emotional and rational perceptions, of people’s moral feelings, moral ideals, moral will, moral convictions and moral understanding. Conscience also has a hidden and subtle role in that it often forms a “thematic argument” of its own, justifying its own behavior from all sides and providing the basis for its own behavioral choices. Sometimes it can also set up a “court” within people and represent both the “plaintiff” and the “defendant”, arguing against their actions and having the “judge” make the final decision. The “judge” makes the final decision. The way in which conscience works is often invisible, but it is very powerful. Sometimes the condemnation of conscience and the judgement of conscience are more powerful than politics or the law, as is often the case. In a certain sense, Lu Jiuyuan saw the important role of the heart or conscience in people’s moral quality and moral behavior, and sought to bring this hidden and subtle role of the heart into play. Of course, he did not understand that this role was formed in the social relations of human beings and in the interests of classes. On the contrary, from an idealistic worldview, he believed that people’s original mind and conscience, which “those who are right know that they are right and those who are wrong know that they are wrong”, were innate and inborn. Of course, this capacity of the conscience, needs to be cultivated. If it is cultivated and expanded, it can be greatly strengthened. Mencius has long said that if this heart is not cultivated, even one’s own wife and children will be violated; if it is cultivated

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well, it can even be beneficial to all people in the four seas. Lu Jiuyuan saw the importance of cultivating one’s own heart, and therefore put forward the theories of ‘establishing one’s own heart first’ and ‘inventing one’s own heart’. The so-called “first establish the greatness” means to cultivate oneself through the method of “selfreflection, reforming one’s faults and changing one’s good deeds”, so as to remove one’s selfishness and desires, and to invent one’s own heart, that is, to bring into play the role of one’s conscience. In terms of the development of human ethical thought and the progress of moral reflection, there are lessons to be learnt from thinking about the “heart” and the “original heart” that are worthy of our attention. The nature, functions, functions, etc. of the heart, or conscience, as we now call it in ethics, are indeed so hidden and subtle that they can sometimes be incomprehensible, mysterious or impossible to study. If we adopt a simplistic attitude and do not examine this nature, function and function in depth and in detail, but stop where we should go forward and confine ourselves to superficial, general, phenomenal and mechanical arguments, or if we simply reject such an examination and call it idealism, we will not be able to develop our ethical thought and moral reflection. However, if the nature, functions and functions of the heart, the mind and the conscience are to be investigated, they are bound to undergo various difficulties and twists, and may even go astray. It should be noted that, although such an inquiry may sometimes seem idealistic, it can be useful and contribute to the development of human ethical thought, provided that one ploughs the untrodden ground, spends a great deal of effort on unexplored questions, and enlightens future generations. In the history of the development of ethical thought, from ancient Greece to the modern West, and from the pre-Qin dynasty to the May Fourth Movement in China, although a few materialist thinkers have made in-depth studies of the “heart”, in general, the study of the heart, the original heart, the conscience, its dynamic, hidden and subtle role, has been developed by materialist ethical thinkers in a one-sided and distorted way. The theories of its dynamic, hidden and subtle role have often been developed in a one-sided and distorted way by idealistic ethical thinkers. Lu Jiuyuan was a subjective idealist in his epistemology, reversing the relationship between the material world and human awareness, between moral consciousness and moral activity, and between moral mind and people’s moral life, so that his ethical thought, too, always feels historically idealistic. As Lenin said of Hegel: “In Hegel’s most idealistic work, there is the least idealism and the most materialism. ‘Contradiction’, however, is a fact!”1 A similar situation is found in the ethical thought of Lu Jiuyuan. If only we could turn his reversal on the question of the heart and the mind upside down again, and change his original head-and-foot upside-down ethical system into a system with both feet standing straight, we would see that his arguments about the heart and the mind, what we call “conscience”, and even his statement that “the universe is my heart and my mind is the universe” and “my mind is the universe” and “my mind is the universe”, are similar. And the propositions that 1

The Complete Works of Lenin, 2nd edition in Chinese, vol. 55, 203 p., Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1990.

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“all things are in me” and “mind is reason” have their practical, affirmative meaning and are therefore understandable to us.

2 Wang Shouren’s Ethical Thought 2.1 Life and Writings Wang Shouren (1472–1529) was a native of Yuyao, Zhejiang province. He was known as Wang Yangming because he lived in the Yangming Cave in Shaoxing, called himself Yangmingzi, and founded the Yangming Academy. In 1499, Wang Yangming was admitted to the imperial examinations and served as the head of the Ministry of Justice. Wang Yangming was educated in Confucianism since his childhood, and was a loyal and filial son of the feudal society. When the Ming dynasty’s King Chen Hao rose in rebellion, Wang Yangming “sent all his generals to lead an army to meet him”, capturing Chen Hao and turning the Ming dynasty into a safe one, and then suppressing the rebellions of the peasants and ethnic minorities that were rising at the time, consolidating the Ming dynasty’s rule. Despite being repeatedly slandered by eunuchs and powerful officials, he was promoted to the post of Minister of War in Nanjing for his contribution to the feudal rule of the Ming dynasty. In terms of philosophical and ethical thought, Wang Yangming, in his early years, was an admirer of Cheng&Zhu’s philosophy and “sought out the legacy of Kao Ting (Zhu Xi) and read it”. Later on, he felt that it was too “fragmented” and could not achieve the goal of eliminating the “thief in the heart”, so he turned to Lu Jiuyuan’s philosophy of the mind. Wang Yangming was politically committed to the Ming dynasty. His philosophy is subjective and idealistic in its ontology and epistemology, but his ethical thinking contains a number of reasonable elements. By “heart” and “conscience” he meant, in most cases, the “conscience” of all men. If we remove the cloak of mystery that he gave to conscience, we can clearly see that the depth of his ethical thinking was indeed unprecedented. In today’s terms, his research on the question of moral consciousness far surpasses that of previous thinkers, and offers many new reflections that bring the understanding of this question to a new level. His writings were edited by later generations as The Complete Works of Wang Wencheng Gong, and by present-day editors as The Complete Works of Wang Yangming (complete two volumes), published by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House in 1992.

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2.2 The First Thing in the World is to “Study and Learn from the Sages” At the age of 11, he asked his teacher, “What is the most important thing?” The teacher replied, “Only to study and attain the highest rank.” But Wang Yangming replied, “I am afraid that the first thing is not the first thing, but to study and learn from the sages.” From this conversation, we can see that the young Wang Yangming’s understanding of the value and meaning of life went far beyond the vulgarity of studying to become a government official in the feudal society of his time, to become a sage with high morals. Later in his life, Wang Yangming had many opportunities to move up the ladder and become a great official, but he was able to fight against the forces of evil for his beliefs and risked being dismissed from office. The value of his life’s work can be seen in this story from his childhood. At the age of 17, Wang Yangming was married in the official residence of his maternal uncle, Duke Chu. According to the chronicle, on the evening of his wedding day, Wang Yangming went into the local Palace to discuss the study of health with a Taoist priest sitting on a couch, “sitting with each other”, and he “forgot to return”. His maternal uncle, Duke Chu, sent people everywhere to look for him, and it was not until the following morning that Wang Yangming was found at home. It is not often that one forgets to return home on the night of one’s wedding when one is discussing one’s studies with others. At the age of 21, he failed in the entrance examination for the Imperial College. When he was 21 years old, he failed in the examination for the imperial examinations, and a man who took the examination with him was ashamed of not getting the first place. This shows that Wang Yangming’s state of mind was far higher than the world’s opinion at the time. In his 57 years of life, Wang Yangming always pursued a lofty ideal personality, that of a sage in a feudal society. He was strict with himself and did not seek to be promoted to a wealthy position, but only to benefit the country and society. He dared to fight against the vicious environment of his time, regardless of his personal fame and fortune. After his accession to the throne, Zhu Houzhao favored eunuchs such as Liu Jin and Ma Yongcheng and relied on them to rule as secret agents. When Liu Jin and the other eunuchs were involved in the government, they were arrested and imprisoned for their misdeeds. In this critical situation, no one dared to speak out, but Wang Yangming stood up and protested, saying: “The ruler is benevolent and his subjects are straightforward. …… Mao and others are in the Department of Admonition, and their words are valuable, so if they are good, they should be accepted and implemented; if they are not good, they should be tolerated and hidden in order to open the way for loyalty and honesty. It is not the intention of His Majesty to destroy them in anger, but to punish them a little, so that they will not be rashly discussed in future. The people below are ignorant and have become suspicious, which I regret. …… Since then, although there have been matters of grave concern to the clan and the community that have not been controlled, who has heard of them from Your Majesty? …… I hope that Your Majesty will take back the previous decree, so that Mou and others can continue to serve, and expand the benevolence of the public without me,

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and the courage of the clear reformation, so that the holy virtue will be spread far and wide, and the people will be pleased, will it not be restful?” (Memorial to the Throne) For his direct request to the emperor to have the courage to openly admit his mistakes, he was slapped with a court cane for forty times and was said to have been beaten unconscious and regained his senses. On his way to Longchang, Guizhou, he was followed by Liu Jin, who tried to kill him, but he escaped by pretending to throw himself into the river. The merchant ship in which he was travelling almost died in the moonlight when it encountered rough seas. “The danger is not in my heart, but in space. The night is quiet and the sea is 30,000 miles away, the moon is flying and the wind is in the sky.” This poem, written by Wang Yangming at the time, reflects the rare sentiment he displayed in such a life-and-death situation, reflecting his calm and composed attitude towards the dangers. From 1516 to his death in 1529, he twice suppressed peasant and minority uprisings. Wang Yangming put himself in the position of the ruling class and used a combination of forceful suppression and moral education, military siege and generosity to quell the ‘riots’. In both cases, Wang Yangming’s troops killed a large number of peasants. Although this was necessary for Wang Yangming to defend the fundamental interests of the landowning class, it was, in any case, a very serious crime against the working people. In 1519, Chenhao, a royal member of the Ming dynasty, rose up against the rule of Emperor Wu. Wang Yangming, out of feudal orthodoxy, rose up to put down Chenhao’s rebellion. The rebellion was not only beneficial to the feudal rulers of the time, but was also objectively beneficial to the working people, as Chenhao’s secession and betrayal were also detrimental to the working people of the time. During the three years he was relegated to Longchang, Wang Yangming not only suffered political persecution, but also extreme hardship in his life. According to his own words, “there were no months without adversity” (“To Xiyuan”), and “during the three years in Guizhou, I suffered a hundred hardships” (“A Letter to Wang Chunfu”). While fighting against the evil forces of his time and his illness, he continued to think hard every day, pursuing the path of the sages. He strove to become a great man, and even ‘lived in silence day and night in order to be still’ (The Chronicle of Mr Yang Ming). In this way, in this persistent pursuit, he finally reached a state of so-called transcendence from life, death, fame and fortune, as well as from happiness, fortune and disgrace, and thus entered a state of enlightenment, “suddenly at midnight he came to a great understanding of the meaning of the grimoire and knowledge”, and “came to know that the way of the sages is self-sufficient in my nature, and that those who have sought to reason with things have been mistaken” (ibid.). I was wrong in seeking to understand things” (ibid.). He was influenced by the teachings of Cheng and Zhu in his early years, and at the age of 25, he had “sought out and read all the remaining books of Kaoting” (ibid.), believing that in order to learn to be a “sage”, one must first seek knowledge of things and exert oneself externally. After much deliberation, he finally realized that in order to become a sage, one did not need to pursue the “studying things” or seek reason from things, but rather to be able to fight against one’s own incorrect thoughts, cultivate one’s own righteousness, and bring into play one’s active role of doing good and eliminating evil. As long as one

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respects one’s own nature and stays true to one’s ideals, one can certainly become a saint. Didn’t Confucius say, “To be benevolent is up to you”? Didn’t Mencius say, “All men can become Yao and Shun”? Is this not the teaching of the Confucian school? When Wang Yangming figured it out, he was so happy that in the middle of the night, he “jumped out of his skin”, causing a situation where “all the followers were frightened”. It is true that Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi thought that they had acquired the true teachings of Confucius and Mencius, but they were too bound up in the tedious exploration of books and chapters, rather than capturing the purpose of Confucius and Mencius’ words. The ideas of Confucius and Mencius have been misinterpreted by Han and Song Confucians, making it difficult to understand their true meaning. Wang Yangming believed that he had dispelled the clouds that had clouded Confucian and Mencian thought, and what a joy it was that he had done so! On the 9th of January 1529, Wang Yangming died of illness on a boat returning from Nan’an to the north. Before he died, he opened his eyes and looked at his disciple Zhou Jie and said, “I am going to die!” When Zhou Jie asked him what his last words were, he said eight words: “This heart is bright, what else can I say?” This means that, as a loyal and filial son in a feudal society, his life was bright and open, and there was nothing that he could do to his conscience. Wang Yangming’s ultimate goal in life was to be a saint, and he not only fought against the treacherous people of his time and his illness, but also against the “thief in his heart”. He sought not only to cultivate his body and mind through meditation, but also to develop and perfect himself through practical trials and tribulations. He was determined to realize his values by fulfilling the requirements of Confucius and Mencius to ‘be benevolent for oneself’ and to invent the ‘original heart’ of man. His ethical thought is of great significance in the history of Chinese ethical thought and should not be rejected in its entirety, but deserves to be carefully analyzed and critically absorbed.

2.3 Conscience Can Know Good and Evil, and It is the Master of the Heart In the history of Chinese ethical thought, Wang Yangming inherited Lu Jiuyuan’s idea of “inventing the original mind” and established for the first time a system of ethical thought with “conscience” as its core. He further highlighted the role of “mind”, “original mind” and “conscience”, i.e. conscience’s role in human moral consciousness and moral behavior, and gave a deeper understanding of conscience, which has hidden and subtle characteristics in human moral life. It also explores in greater depth the hidden and subtle characteristics of conscience in human moral life, and gives a better understanding of the nature of conscience and its function and role in the moral life of human beings as a whole. In order to clarify Wang Yangming’s system of ethical thought with “conscience” at its core, it is most important to find out what Wang Yangming meant by “conscience”, what aspects it contained, and how important “conscience” was in his

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system of ethical thought. The most important thing is to find out what Wang Yangming meant by “conscience”, what aspects it contains, and what important position it occupies in his system of ethical thought. In terms of intellectual origins, Wang Yangming’s ‘conscience’ is derived from that of Mencius and Lu Jiuyuan. However, Wang Yangming’s understanding of “conscience”, i.e. the “heart”, “original mind” or “conscience” of man, is much richer, It is much richer. Generally speaking, there are five aspects of what Wang Yangming means by ‘conscience’, and these five aspects are interrelated. Firstly, Wang Yangming inherited Mencius’ idea that conscience is a moral instinct that is inherent in all human beings, that they are able to know without learning and without thinking. Mencius said, “Those who are capable without learning are also capable of conscience; those who know without thinking are also conscientious. When a child is a child, he does not know how to love his relatives; when he grows up, he does not know how to respect his brothers. To love one’s relatives is benevolence; to respect one’s elder brother is righteousness; nothing else is more important than to reach the world.” (Mencius—Jin Xin I) Wang Yangming said, “The mind of right and wrong, which knows without thinking and is able without learning, is also called ‘conscience’. The conscience of the heart is the same as that of the ancient and modern worlds.” (Record on Learning) and also: “Is there no root in man? Conscience is the root of the spirit planted by heaven, and it is a gift from heaven” (Record of Leaning), emphasizing that what he calls “conscience” is a gift from heaven. In the history of Chinese ethical thought, from Mencius onwards, the moral concepts of benevolence and righteousness, which people acquired in the course of their social relationships, were said to be endowed by heaven, and the moral consciousness educated, inculcated and cultivated by feudal society was said to be an innate instinct of people. Secondly, conscience was often seen as the moral code of feudal society, the Divine Principle that everyone should abide by. Inheriting Lu Jiuyuan’s theory of “mind as reason”, Wang Yangming believed that conscience was also the Divine Principle, that is, the principle of “filial piety” and “loyalty to the ruler” in feudal society. He said, “The conscience of my heart is the so-called heavenly principle.” (Record of Learning) He also said: “The law of things is not outside my mind. If we seek physics outside of our mind, there is no physics. The body of the mind is also nature, and nature is also reason. Therefore, if one has the heart of filial piety, one has the reason of filial piety; if one does not have the heart of filial piety, one has no reason of filial piety. If one has the heart of a loyal ruler, one has the reason of loyalty; if one does not have the heart of a loyal ruler, one has no reason of loyalty. Is it not true that there is no other reason than my heart?” (ibid.) This means that the principles of benevolence, righteousness and morality are all in my heart, so my “heart” or “conscience” is also these moral principles. Wang Yangming emphasizes that conscience is “the code of your own house”, a code that one should and must follow morally. Thirdly, Wang Yangming emphasizes that what he calls “conscience” is the ability to judge good and evil morally. Wang Yangming said, “When conscience develops and uses thought, it is naturally clear and simple, and conscience is able to know. But if the thought is arranged by private intention, it will be confused and disturbed,

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and the conscience will be able to distinguish itself. There is no thought that the conscience does not know right from wrong.” (ibid.) This ability to judge good and evil can be divided into two aspects: one is the ability to judge the good and evil of the words and deeds of others, to make moral evaluations of objective people and events, and to make one’s own evaluations part of social opinion, so that the social climate can develop in the right direction. Another is the ability to be self-aware and self-evaluate what one says, what one does and what one does. He said: “The little conscience that you have is your own code. Whenever you think, you will know that he is right and that he is wrong, and you will not be able to hide anything from him. Do not deceive him, but follow him in truth, and good will remain, and evil will go.” (Record of Learning) In Wang Yangming’s view, there are two possibilities for human thoughts and ideas as soon as they are initiated. One possibility is to act according to one’s conscience, which is the use of conscience, and the resulting action is inevitably good and righteous. The other is to be tempted by profit or desire, to be obscured by evil thoughts, and to be orchestrated by “selfish intentions”, so that the resulting action is inevitably “selfish use of wisdom” and “confused and disturbed”. In other words, the conscience of man is able to perceive all the “opportunities of good and evil” and “the distinction between truth and delusion” in the smallest detail. Wang Yangming said, “There is nothing that conscience does not know about right and wrong.” (Record of Learning) and also: “The mind of right and wrong is in all men, without external seeking.” (Record of Learning) Thus, one can make a correct judgement of good and evil without the need for others to evaluate one’s actions, and this is a very important role of conscience. This is a very important role of conscience. In his famous Four Phrases, Wang Yangming states that “Knowing good and knowing evil is conscience”, which highlights this role of conscience. Wang Yangming also believed that since the ability to judge good and evil is common to all human beings, to both sages and fools, it cannot be completely extinguished under any circumstances. It is like a mirror, which, though darkened by dust and dirt, will still reflect something. Wang Yangming said, “If one’s conscience is in a person, it cannot be extinguished, no matter what you do. Even a thief knows that he is not a thief, but even if he is called a thief, he will still be coy.” (In human interactions and under the temptation of lucrative desires, even though a person has lost his morality and done many bad things, his conscience, which is capable of knowing good and evil, has not been completely extinguished, so he can still be educated and cultivated to change from evil to good. Fourth, conscience has a special role in behavioral choice. According to Wang Yangming, since conscience can evaluate human behavior as good or bad, when people choose between several possible behaviors, conscience has the role of prompting people to choose between good and bad. Wang Yangming said, “The sage only follows the development of his conscience, and all things in heaven and earth are in the development of my conscience.” In Wang Yangming’s view, when people are faced with a moral choice, they are bound to have a problem of where to go, just like people who have come to a crossroads. Wang Yangming opposes fatalism and emphasizes the role of conscience as the moral will, arguing that as long as

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people’s conscience is able to “develop and use the popular” and play its subjective and active role, nothing can prevent us from abandoning evil and following good. Fifth, according to Wang Yangming, after a person’s actions, conscience can not only evaluate the good and bad of a person’s actions, but can also motivate people to change from bad to good. Zhu Xi once said, “A man’s conscience is not at ease when he has done something bad. But here we are only talking about “uneasiness”, and we have not yet seen the positive effects of conscience. Before the act, conscience has the function of knowing what is good and what is evil, which enables people to know what is good and what is evil, thus helping them to choose a specific value goal; during the act, conscience has the function of choosing good over evil, which enables people to choose good over evil and to choose good as the goal of their act in the midst of various moral choices, especially in the midst of a moral dilemma; after the act, conscience has the function of repenting of faults After the act, the conscience is able to repent of the wrongdoing, thus enabling people to “change from evil to good”. These three roles of conscience are of great importance in correcting the values of people’s behavior. In short, Wang Yangming inherited Lu Jiuyuan’s thought and, starting from the idealistic theory of natural morality, explored in depth and detail the various roles of human conscience or conscience. He saw a hidden and subtle role for the human conscience, and analyzed it in some depth. As a phenomenon of individual moral consciousness, conscience is very complex in its own formation, development, change and mechanism of action. It is not only linked to one’s emotions, will, beliefs and moral character, but also often intertwined with one’s physiological and psychological mechanisms, thus manifesting itself as a seemingly mysterious, hidden and unknowable psychological and consciousness phenomenon. On the one hand, Wang Yangming explored these phenomena of conscience in some depth and gave them many correct explanations; on the other hand, he often fell into idealistic speculation and even thought that conscience was the master of all things in heaven and earth, and that “conscience is the spirit of creation. These spirits, born on earth, become ghosts and emperors, all come out of it, and are really not in conflict with anything” (Record on Learning, below). However, if one strips away the idealistic and mystical trappings that Wang Yangming attached to conscience, one can see that his understanding of conscience, or conscience, was indeed a step forward in comparison with that of his predecessors.

2.4 “To Be Conscientious” Means Self-Improvement in Moral Cultivation In emphasizing the nature, role and function of conscience, Wang Yangming put forward an important idea, namely, “to conscience”. According to Wang Yangming, conscience is something that everyone is born with, and it is an instinct bestowed by heaven. It enables a person to “know good

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and know evil”, to make a correct evaluation of one’s own behavior, to guide one’s behavioral choices, to motivate people to change from evil to good, and so on. However, in the real society of that time, why were many people unable to know good and evil, unable to make a correct evaluation of their own behavior, and unable to change evil and follow good? Wang Yangming’s idea of “to conscience” was proposed to solve this most difficult question. In Wang Yangming’s view, people living in society are bound to be tempted by various material desires and self-interest, thus clouding their innate conscience of “the great justice”. He said, “There is no good in nature, so there is no bad in knowledge. Conscience is the essence of the unspoken, the unmoving, and the immovable, which is common to all. But we cannot help but be obscured by material desires, so we must learn to remove the obscurity.” (Record on Learning II) Thus, to “bring forth conscience” means to get rid of selfish desires, which is the most important way to restore one’s original heart and conscience. What, then, is this kung fu that Wang Yangming refers to? Firstly, according to Wang Yangming, “to be conscientious” means that through self-knowledge of one’s conscience, one can constantly be aware that material desires and self-interest are the main causes of one’s conscience being clouded, and thus cultivate a moral self-consciousness, so as to maintain or restore “the conscience of my heart” at all times. The aim is to maintain or restore the “conscience of our heart”, the nature of “the great justice, the silence and the immobility”. How can we know our own conscience? The most fundamental thing is to know oneself, that is, to exert oneself inwardly, as Wang Yangming said. In other words, “to know one’s conscience” is to know oneself, to know one’s innate conscience, to know good and evil, and to “examine” the conscience that has been tempted by external objects and lucre. Wang Yangming believed that through this kind of knowledge, one could regain one’s innate conscience, so that the conscience that had been “hidden from oneself” would reappear in its original form. It was from this self-knowledge that Wang Yangming gave a new interpretation to ‘learning’. In his view, “learning” is not about gaining much knowledge, but about gaining knowledge of oneself, i.e. gaining one’s conscience, that is, knowing one’s “heart”. He said: “‘To be good at ancient learning and to be sensitive in seeking’ means to be good at the learning of the ancients and to be sensitive in seeking the reasoning of the heart. The heart is also the reason. He who learns, learns this mind; he who seeks, seeks this mind.” (He also said, “To learn is to seek in order to fulfill my heart.” (The Book of Meditation, IV) To learn knowledge is to examine and know one’s own conscience. In short, in Wang Yangming’s view, “to bring about conscience” was the most important aim of his ethical thought, for only by restoring, attaining or maintaining people’s conscience of knowing good and evil could they become loyal to the king, filial to their parents, caring for the people, and loving the country’s property, that is, people who were loyal to the king, filial to their parents, benevolent to the people, and loving things. Secondly, according to Wang Yangming, in order to achieve the goal of “to conscience”, special emphasis must be placed on the work of “zhi”, and only through the correct application of the work of “zhi” can the consciousness of conscience Only

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when the work of “zhi” is properly applied can the consciousness of conscience be truly brought into play. From Cheng and Zhu onwards, the scholars of the Song and Ming dynasties were particularly fond of citing the proposition in the Great Learning that ‘to attain knowledge by studying things’, arguing that in order to attain knowledge, one must begin with the grimoire. According to Zhu Xi and others, the study of things is to study objective things. Unlike Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming transformed this epistemological proposition into a proposition of ethical thought, creating a new idea that from the point of view of self-knowledge of conscience, “things” should not be regarded as objective external things, but rather as some kind of moral behavior of human beings or “ideas” about some kind of moral behavior. “Ideas”. He said: The master of the body is the mind; the mind’s origin is the will; the essence of the will is knowledge; and the place of the will is things. For example, if the mind is in serving one’s relatives, then serving one’s relatives is one thing; if the mind is in serving the king, then serving the king is one thing; if the mind is in loving the people and things, then loving the people and things is one thing; if the mind is in seeing, hearing, speaking and moving, then seeing, hearing, speaking and moving is one thing. This is why I say that there is no reason outside the mind, and no thing outside the mind. (Record on Learning I). Here, we can see that the so-called “knowledge” is conscience, which is the essence of human thoughts and motives, and all thoughts and motives are emanated from conscience. Ideas and motives are directly related to people’s moral judgments, moral perceptions, moral concepts and moral choices in different human relationships, and these are the “things” or “things” that arise in people’s minds. It is in this sense that Wang Yangming believes that the “serving relatives” and “serving the ruler” in the ideology of the mind are also the things in the “germain to knowledge”. He said, “To attain knowledge, we must have things. The matter is also a matter, and where the intention is, there must be a matter, and the matter where the intention is the matter.” Here it is clear that by “things” he means the moral acts of people who serve their relatives, the ruler, the people and things; by “things” he means the reflection of these moral acts in their conceptions, or rather, the reflection of one’s own moral acts by one’s conscience. What is the meaning of the word ‘studying things’? According to Wang Yangming, “Studying is also the word for righteousness. He who rectifies his wrongdoings is also called to remove evil; he who returns to right is also called to be good.” (The Great Knowledge) Therefore, the purpose of the studying things is to remove all evil desires and thoughts in the reflection of people’s moral behavior, so that the conscience that has been clouded can be restored and the “heart” that has been released can be found again. Wang Yangming said, “If I call it “Zhi Zhi Ge Mao”, I mean to bring the conscience of my heart to things and things; the conscience of my heart is also called “Heavenly Reason”; if I bring the Heavenly Reason of my heart to things and things, then everything will have its reason. The one who has given his conscience to the conscience of his heart is the one who has attained knowledge; the one who has attained the reasoning of everything is the one who has united the heart and the reasoning into one.“ (Record on Learning) This is very clear: to “grasp things” means

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to bring one’s thoughts into conformity with the Divine Principle through reflection on one’s moral conduct; to “attain knowledge” means to restore one’s heart to its natural conscience, which is itself the moral code of feudal society of loyalty to the king and filial piety. This is also known as the “Divine Principle”. Therefore, according to Wang Yangming, the “grimoire” and “Zhi Zhi” are a combination of “mind” and “reason”, which is why he emphasizes “Zhi Liang Zhi”. This is the most important purpose of his emphasis on “to bring about conscience”. Once again, while emphasizing the importance of ‘to conscience’, Wang Yangming also emphasizes the power of self-knowledge in the form of ‘examination and examination’. According to Wang Yangming, “examination and control” is a special form of self-knowledge and one of the most important methods of moral cultivation. This process of self-knowledge or self-cultivation is like a life-and-death struggle between a cat and a mouse. He says: There is no time to lose in the work of the government, as in the case of thieves, there must be an intention to clean up the situation. When there is nothing to be done, we must search out the good sex, the good goods, the good name, and so on, one by one, and make sure that the root of the disease is removed so that it will never come back. It is always like a cat catching a mouse, seeing it with one glance and hearing it with one ear, and only when there is a thought of it, it will be grasped and removed. (Record on Learning I). In other words, in the “examination and control”, one’s innate conscience, which is capable of knowing good and evil, is in the active position, and must play its active role to the fullest extent to clear out all the selfish thoughts that have sprung up, such as “good lust, good goods and good name”. It is a situation in which, as in the case of the guards’ raids, the police have no choice but to take action. This situation, like a guard searching for a thief or a cat catching a mouse, must not and should not be condoned. This self-knowledge, as Wang Yangming calls it, in its practical sense encompasses the fierce struggle between good and evil in the realm of thought, and is therefore not merely an awareness, but a very important cultivation effort. It was from this emphasis on the virtue of “examination and control” that Wang Yangming believed that cultivation was like cleaning a mirror full of dust and dirt, which had to be painfully scraped and polished; just as one must remove impurities such as copper and lead when smelting gold. He said: A sage is a saint only because his heart is pure in heavenly reason and free from the distractions of desire, just as fine gold is fine because it is of sufficient colour and free from the distractions of copper and lead. A man is holy only when his heart is pure in heavenly reason, and gold is fine only when it is sufficiently coloured. (ibid.) The reason why it is fine gold is in the colour of the foot but not in the division of the two, and the reason why it is holy is that it is purely heavenly but not in financial power. (ibid). In Wang Yangming’s view, everyone could be a saint, no matter what they were or how much knowledge they had, as long as they were able to overcome their selfish desires. He said, “We should only seek to reduce, not to increase, in our daily work. If we can reduce our human desires, we can regain the heavenly truth. How easy it is!” (ibid.)

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In short, Wang Yangming believed that “Zhi Liang Zhi” is a kind of selfknowledge, a kind of cultivation, a self-struggle characterized by the subject’s dynamism. He said: “The heart is the abyss of heaven. The essence of the heart is a heaven, but when it is obstructed by selfish desires, the essence of the heaven is lost; the reason of the heart is endless, but when it is choked by selfish desires, the essence of the abyss is lost. Now, if we are mindful of our conscience and remove all these obstacles, we will have recovered our original body and become the abyss of heaven.” (Record on Learning III).

2.5 “Knowing and Doing” is the Unity of Moral Understanding and Moral Behavior In the history of Chinese ethical thought, Wang Yangming’s most prominent contribution is his theory of “the unity of knowledge and action”. The main feature of this theory is that it emphasizes the unity of moral knowledge and moral action in practice, and seeks to establish a dialectical relationship between moral knowledge and moral action from an ethical perspective, i.e. to establish the unity of knowledge and action in moral practice. The question of the relationship between knowledge and action is different in epistemology and in ethics. Before and after Wang Yangming, most philosophers explored the relationship between knowledge and action mainly from an epistemological perspective, while only Wang Yangming analyzed it more explicitly from an ethical perspective. Many of the criticisms of Wang Yangming’s theory of the unity of knowledge and action were mainly due to misunderstandings of his view of the unity of knowledge and action. From the epistemological point of view, there have been debates on the relationship between knowledge and action, which comes first, which is difficult and which is easy. In Zuo Zhuan—Ten Years of Zhaogong, there is a statement that “it is not the knowledge that is difficult, but the action that will be taken”, which means that it is not a matter of not knowing, but of knowing but not doing. Later, in the pseudo Guwen Shangshu, there are also the words, “It is not the difficulty of knowing, but the difficulty of doing”, which suggest that it is not the knowing that is difficult, but the doing that is more difficult. The Song and Ming scholars, from Cheng brothers to Zhu Xi, started from the epistemology of idealism and believed that “knowledge comes before action”, emphasizing the importance of knowledge. Cheng Yi said, “But how can one practice without knowing? How can those who can barely do it last?” (Note of Mrs. Cheng in Henan) He also came to the conclusion that “knowledge is more important than action”. Zhu Xi also believes that knowledge comes before action, he said: “If we generalize the theory of knowledge and action, and in the matter to view it, then the knowledge of the first, action is the second, there is no doubt” (“Reply to Wu Hi Shu”, see “Zhu Wen Gong Wen Ji” Volume 42), emphasizing the knowledge of the first after. However, Zhu Xi also argues: “In terms of priority,

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knowledge comes first, and in terms of importance, conduct comes first.” (Zhu Zi Yu Lei, vol. 9) The emphasis on the importance of action indicates that Zhu Xi went one step further than Cheng Yi in the relationship between knowledge and action, recognizing the importance of moral action. Before analysing Wang Yangming’s doctrine of the unity of knowledge and action, it is necessary to clarify Wang Yangming’s understanding of the concepts of ‘knowledge’ and ‘action’. What is “knowledge”? In short, it is what Wang Yangming called “conscience”. This conscience is an innate moral instinct, an intuition to judge good and evil, the ability to make moral choices, the moral code of feudal society, the will that governs human behavior, the moral understanding of people. In general, when “knowledge” is contrasted with “action”, “knowledge” refers mainly to people’s moral awareness. Wang Yangming often used the term “learning” to include both “knowledge” and “action”, saying: “If we say we learn filial piety, then we must serve and feed ourselves, and perform filial piety, and then we are said to learn, Is it possible to learn filial piety by merely paying lip service? To learn to shoot, one must open one’s bow and hold one’s spear, and to learn to write, one must stretch out one’s paper and pen, and then one must use one’s goblet to dye the brush. If there is nothing that one cannot do in all the studies in the world and one can say that one is a scholar, then the beginning of learning is already the practice.“ Here, Wang Yangming believes that ‘learning’ means both learning knowledge and taking practical action, a unification of knowledge and action. What we need to seriously examine is what Wang Yangming meant by ‘practice’. Some people think that what he meant by ‘practice’ is equivalent to what we mean by practice, which is of course not true. Others think that what he meant by ‘practice’ is still ‘knowledge’, which is not necessarily objective either. Generally speaking, Wang Yangming’s ‘practice’ means to act, to act, to act, to practice, and so on. Of course, what he meant by “action” was not the social practice of human beings as a whole, let alone the practice of production struggle and class struggle, but mainly the moral activities of people, especially their moral behavior. He says: “Whoever calls it action is only doing it in practice.” He believed that ‘action’ is what people do. Of course, in Wang Yangming’s view, the conduct he refers to is mainly the conduct of people in human relationships, such as the practice of filial piety and fraternal brotherhood, such as father’s kindness, son’s filial piety, brother’s friend and brother’s respect. In the history of Chinese ethical thought, Zhang Zai has divided human knowledge into “knowledge of seeing and hearing” and “knowledge of virtue”, recognizing that “knowledge of virtue” has its own characteristics, which “It is connected with what Mencius called “the perfection of mind”, “knowledge of nature”, and “knowledge of heaven”. It is a knowledge of the Divine Principle achieved through subjective self-realization. Wang Yangming inherited and developed this idea from Zhang Zai, and in addition to his view that “the virtuous knowledge is not due to what one sees and hears” (Record on Learning), he also emphasized the moral “knowledge” (the knowledge of virtue) and “action” (moral behavior). “(moral conduct). Although he does not formally give the term “knowledge” a name such as “knowledge of

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virtue”, the “knowledge” in what he calls the “unity of knowledge and action” is actually But by “knowledge” he meant in fact “moral knowledge” or moral reason (or practical reason as it is called in the West). It is noteworthy that he does not particularly emphasize the mystical and intuitive aspects of this ‘knowledge’, i.e. moral knowledge, but focuses on the characteristics of this moral knowledge and its relation to moral action. What are the characteristics of moral “knowledge”? First of all, Wang Yangming believed that moral “knowledge” should be “capable of knowing and capable of doing”, and if it cannot be done, then it cannot be considered “knowledge”, so he said: “To know but not to do is to be unknown.” (Record on Learning) One can be recognized as having knowledge of general knowledge if one has indeed understood the reasoning and principles involved. Ethical and moral knowledge has its own characteristics compared to that which must be experienced by the human senses. He says: “Just as someone who knows filial piety and someone who knows brotherhood can be called a person who knows filial piety and brotherhood only if he has done so, but not if he knows how to say something about filial piety and brotherhood.” (ibid.) This means that even if a person has read the books of the sages and understands the principles of filial piety and fraternal brotherhood, and can even recite them to others as if he has mastered the knowledge of filial piety and fraternal brotherhood, how can he be considered to have learned the knowledge of filial piety and fraternal brotherhood if he does not act accordingly? How can one be considered to have knowledge of morality if one does not follow them? How can one be considered to have knowledge of morality if one is hypocritical, morally corrupt, and “the more knowledge one has, the more human desire grows, and the more talent one has, the more heavenly justice is obscured”? How can a person be considered to have the knowledge of filial piety if he has only memorized what the sages have taught him about filial piety, but in reality he abuses and scolds his parents? Therefore, in human relationships and in the moral conduct of people, such as filial piety in serving one’s father, loyalty in serving one’s ruler, faith in making friends, and benevolence in ruling the people, if one only knows but does not do, then one is “only unknown”, for the sage teaches people not only to know but also to do, that is, “the sage teaches people, That is to say, “A sage teaches not only to know but also to do, that is to say, “A sage teaches only to know by doing, otherwise he does not know”. Therefore, “knowledge” that cannot be practiced is not “knowledge”. Secondly, another feature of ethical knowledge is that the learning of such knowledge should itself be combined with practice, otherwise it cannot be learned. According to Wang Yangming, just as the learning of some practical skills requires practice, so the learning of ethics can only be achieved through practical practice. He said, “There is no such thing as learning without doing, for all questions, discernment, and action are for learning. If we talk about learning filial piety, then we must serve and support our parents and perform the filial piety, and then we can call it learning, can’t we just talk and talk and call it learning filial piety?” In addition, the benevolence of ruling the people, the loyalty of serving the ruler, and the faithfulness of making friends must all be learned through practical actions in the actual relationship between people. Therefore, according to Wang Yangming, the purpose of learning

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is not to learn the knowledge of many sages, but to learn the virtues of the sages in actual practice. He criticised the poor style of learning that did not practice the legacy of the sages, but rather “made every effort to study from pamphlets, to search for names and objects, and to compare shapes and forms”, which was reasonable at the time. Again, for Wang Yangming, moral knowledge is the will to act, and this is what he means by ‘knowledge is the idea of action’. Moral knowledge is not only for the purpose of doing something, but also a determination to do it. Here, Wang Yangming includes ‘idea’, i.e. ‘will’, in the content of ‘knowledge’. Any moral act must be a conscious, voluntary, self-chosen act, and must be preceded by a will before it can be acted upon. Knowledge here is no longer just an awareness, but a subjective belief, a determined choice, or what Wang Yangming calls “an idea”. The reason why a person is able to serve his parents is that he forms his emotions from his knowledge, his will from his emotions, and finally his will from his will into action. Wang Yangming’s statement that ‘knowledge is the idea of action’ indicates that what he meant by ‘knowledge’ was already a will to act, not knowledge as it is commonly known. What is the relationship between “knowledge” and “action”? According to Wang Yangming, “knowledge is the idea of action, action is the effort of knowledge; knowledge is the beginning of action, action is the accomplishment of knowledge”. This means that ‘knowledge’ and ‘action’ are two stages, two levels or two aspects of the same thing. Here, too, he acknowledges that ‘knowledge’ is an ‘idea’, i.e. a will, thought, awareness or motivation, while ‘action’ is a behavior, practice, fulfilment or action. At the same time, he believes that once one has “known”, one has begun to “act”, and that only when the truth of “knowing” has become a reality can one truly “act”. Only when the truth of “knowledge” has become a reality can it be considered a true “practice”. In Wang Yangming’s view, “knowledge” and “action” are inseparable. He said: “The true and sincere knowledge is action, and the clear and precise action is knowledge, It is only because later scholars have divided their work into two parts that the essence of knowledge and action has been lost, hence the saying of unity and progress. True knowledge is therefore action, and action is not enough to be called knowledge.” (Of course, if we look at the general meaning of human knowledge and transformation of the world, Wang Yangming’s statement does, to a certain extent, confuse the relationship between knowledge and practice, ignoring and even denying the clear boundary between knowledge and practical activity. However, if we look at Wang Yangming’s actual thought, what he means by ‘knowledge’ and ‘practice’ is primarily people’s moral knowledge and moral behavior. It is for this reason that, when speaking of ‘knowledge’ and ‘action’, Wang Yangming always repeatedly emphasized the need for people to understand his ‘purpose of establishing words’. What are the “tenets” of Wang Yangming’s “unity of knowledge and action” theory? He said: This is the purpose of my statement. Today, people learn only because knowledge and action are divided into two parts, so there is a thought that starts, but although it is not good, it has not been done, so it is not forbidden. I am talking about the unity of knowledge and action, which means that if one knows where a thought has been initiated, then it is an action. If there is a bad thought at the beginning, then the bad

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thought should be overturned, and the root must be complete, so that the bad thought does not lurk in the chest. This is the purpose of my statement. (Record on Learning, III). If one can truly understand this passage of Wang Yangming’s, one will be able to grasp the essence of his doctrine of “unity of knowledge and action”. From the historical background, Wang Yangming’s proposal of “the unity of knowledge and action” and “to conscience” was mainly aimed at the shortcomings of the separation of knowledge and action in ethics advocated by Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, and sought to overcome the pretense of preaching benevolence and righteousness in society without putting it into practice. Wang Yangming inherited the ideas of Lu Jiuyuan and explored the conscience and conscience of human beings, emphasizing the unity of moral knowledge and moral action and the importance of “knowledge” and “action”, which was an important development in the history of ethical thought. The thinkers of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties were critical of Wang’s teachings, saying that his doctrines only called for meditation and contemplation, and that they did not enable people to build their careers. We should comment on Wang Yangming’s ethical thinking from a historical point of view, and we should not be too critical.

3 Establishment of the Orthodox Status of “Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues” 3.1 The Development of Chinese Ethical Thought by Song Thinkers in the Light of the History of Chinese Ethical Thought The ethical and moral tradition of the Chinese nation is an important part of the ideological and cultural tradition of the Chinese nation, and in a certain sense it can be said that the ethical and moral tradition of the Chinese nation is the core of the ideological and cultural tradition of the Chinese nation. In terms of philosophical thought, it should be seen as one of the strengths of traditional Chinese philosophy to say that “traditional Chinese philosophy is ethical”. There is a view that in traditional Chinese thought and culture, ethics and morality are all about maintaining feudal autocratic rule and are therefore closed, conservative and rigid, and can only be unheritable dross. History has shown that the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation have played or are playing a very important role in the formation of Chinese socialist morality and in the unity, harmony and development of the Chinese nation. The economic development of China and some of its neighbouring countries has proved or is proving that the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation, after being absorbed and transformed, have not only not affected or hindered the modern development of these countries, but have also become a spiritual pillar for maintaining social

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order, improving social morals, harmonizing interpersonal relations and strengthening national cohesion, and have played a strong role in the modernization of these countries. It has also played a strong role in promoting the modernization of these countries. It is certainly inappropriate to exalt and praise traditional Chinese ethical thinking without distinguishing between the best and the worst, and without distinguishing the historical relationship between different eras; however, it is even more harmful to reject traditional Chinese ethical thinking as national nihilism without making specific analysis. The ethical and moral traditions of the Chinese nation are not only a valuable heritage of the Chinese nation, but also a spiritual treasure of the East and of humanity as a whole. Why is the proposition that ‘traditional Chinese philosophy is ethical’ not a shortcoming of traditional Chinese philosophy, but an advantage of it? The most fundamental reason is that “ethical” means that Chinese philosophy is a philosophy that attaches importance to value orientation. Many philosophers have placed special emphasis on the promotion of the spirit of the moral subject, believing that this conscious pursuit of the spiritual realm of life can contribute to the development of human society through the moral perfection of the individual. The noble value that Chinese philosophy pursues is to achieve moral self-perfection through the awakening of the individual’s consciousness of “I want to be benevolent, and I am benevolent enough”. Although Chinese philosophy has had complex expressions at different times and by different philosophers, this pursuit of values has always been the main thread running through it. By grasping this thread, we have fundamentally grasped the development of Chinese philosophy and its core content. This is indeed one of the strengths of Chinese philosophy compared to other philosophies around the world. Traditional Chinese ethical thought generally refers to the moral thinking of the Confucian ethical tradition as its main content. Confucius established the basic principles of Confucian ethical thought in the pre-Qin dynasty, forming a system of ethical thought with benevolence and propriety as its main elements. In the Han dynasty, the Confucian scholar Dong Zhongshu used the so-called “Three Doctrines”, which he emphasized as “the induction of man and heaven”, “the five elements of yin and yang” and “the three principles and five constants”, to transform, deepen and deepen the system of ethical thinking. The so-called “Three Doctrines”, with their emphasis on “the induction of heaven and man”, “yin and yang and the five elements” and “the three principles and the five rules”, transformed, deepened and distorted Confucian ethical thought. The philosophers of the Song and Ming dynasties, represented by Cheng brothers, Zhu Xi, Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming, also adopted the new “Three Doctrines” of “Theory of Reason and Desire”, “Theory of Mind and Nature” and “Theory of Righteousness and Profit”, which they emphasized, They absorbed some of the ideas of Buddhism, further deepened Confucian ethical thought, and gave it new content, so that Confucian ethical thought, while reaching its historical peak, also fell into the quagmire of absolutism. In view of the shortcomings of the Song and Ming scholars’ empty talk about the nature of the mind and the desires of heaven and man, as well as righteousness and profit, the realists of the Ming and Qing dynasties, with their ideas of “chanting the real and dismissing the imaginary”, “the kingdom and the world” and “the unity of righteousness and profit”, have made

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a major change to the traditional Confucian ethical thought. The Confucian tradition of ethics was interpreted in a new way. With the emergence of Enlightenment thought and the development of the old democratic revolution, the May Fourth Movement, with its slogan “Down with Confucianism”, became an important symbol of opposition to the old ethics and the promotion of new ones. From the 1930s onwards, Liang Shuming, Feng Youlan, He Lin and Mou Zongsan once again made a new overview of Confucian ethical thought that was supposedly adapted to the development of the times, and some Neo-Confucian scholars in Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas also sought to understand and construct a new Confucian ethical system in terms of ethics proper. The deepening and development of Chinese ethical thought by scholars of the Song dynasty has been a landmark in the history of Chinese ethical thought. It is useful to examine the contributions of Song scholars to Chinese ethical thought in order to study and learn about the history of Chinese ethical thought. The 2 Song dynasty is an important stage in the development of Chinese ethical thought. For a long time in the past, the study of ethical thought in the Song dynasty has, on the whole, had a tendency to be “too negative”, i.e. it has not been possible to fully affirm the essence of its ethics and morality. This is partly due to the fact that many of the ethical and moral ideas of Song thinkers were often combined with their idealistic ontology and their doctrine of maintaining the feudal system, i.e. the essence and the dross were combined into one, which was not easy to distinguish. On the other hand, this is also inseparable from some metaphysical concepts in our thinking and the influence of “left” thinking. On the other hand, this is also inseparable from the influence of some metaphysical concepts and “leftist” thinking in our thinking. The theories of the Song thinkers on “mind” and “reason” are often regarded as subjective or objective idealism, which reverses the relationship between matter and consciousness, and are thus regarded as mysticism and metaphysical thinking behind closed doors. This has denied his outstanding contribution to ethical and moral theory. In terms of the philosophical worldview, it is a materialist philosophy to take consciousness as the fundamental determinant of matter in the relationship between matter and consciousness; but in terms of ethics and morality, the study of the ‘mind’ as the most important moral phenomenon cannot simply be dismissed as idealism. But in the case of ethics and morality, the study of the mind as the most important moral phenomenon cannot simply be dismissed as idealism. One of the most important aspects of the study of ethics is the study of the moral will, moral emotions, moral beliefs and the mechanism of human conscience, that is, the study of the “heart”. The study of the mind can be either idealistic or materialistic, because the activity of the mind is itself an objective phenomenon. The study of the mind by Song thinkers has both an innate idealistic content and an objective, in-depth analysis of the mind’s activities, which is something that should be particularly noted in the study of Song ethical thought. 2

This section is a paper presented to the International Symposium on Song Philosophy and Chinese Culture held in Kaifeng, Henan Province, in May 1995, originally published in Zhongzhou Journal of Chinese Studies, No. 4, 1993.

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3.2 The Main Contributions of Song Thinkers to Chinese Ethical Thought Chinese philosophical thought can be said to be, in a certain sense, a philosophy with Chinese characteristics, with ethical thought as its core. It is in this sense that we can say that the philosophy of the Song dynasty has indeed reached the peak of ancient Chinese ethical thought. Firstly, the philosophy of the Song Dynasty was based on the theory of mindfulness, which provided a systematic and discursive theoretical system for Chinese ethical thought and morality. Before the Song dynasty, Chinese ethical thought was more concerned with the moral principles that should be practiced, focusing on how people should behave and how they should take on their moral obligations in different social classes. Although Mencius, Xunzi and later thinkers began to pay attention to issues such as human nature, they were unable to establish a theoretical basis for the principles and norms of traditional ethics that could be justified and justified. It should be said that the theories of the Song ethical thinkers on the nature of the mind solved this problem. Song ethicists focused on the fact that these ethical principles and norms were not only desirable but also necessary, and even considered them to be a kind of Divine Principle in themselves. One must not only know what is right, but also why it is right, not only what one should do in a certain position and in a certain situation, but also why it is right. In this way, moral norms were not only principles laid down for people by the sages, but also became inevitable laws in people’s minds, “the natural order of the human heart” and “the common reason of the past and the present”. Song Confucianism gave these principles an aura of sanctity that had never before been seen. After the Song, among the scholars and intellectuals, Confucian ethical and moral principles gained a rational theoretical force and were thus able to play a better role in regulating relations between people. Secondly, under the principle of ethics and morality, the philosophers of the Song dynasty, through their research on the issues of righteousness and righteousness, further deepened their discussion of the issues of public righteousness and private profit, and the question of which should be the primary focus of the individual and society. Although many of the discourses of the Song scholars were metaphysical and one-sided in terms of the distinction between righteousness and desire, from the perspective of ethical and moral thought, their propositions such as “the great public good” and “the question of righteousness and profit is a question of public and private affairs” contain important and reasonable ideas for dealing with the relationship between the individual and others and between the individual and society. The concept of “righteousness” and “righteousness is a matter of public and private interests” contain important and reasonable views on the relationship between individuals and others and between individuals and society. The saying that “A gentleman understands righteousness and a villain understands profit” not only means that a gentleman understands only righteousness and a villain understands only profit, but also emphasizes that righteousness and profit, or public righteousness and private profit, are the criteria for judging whether a person is a gentleman or a villain.

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It is true that some Song thinkers, to varying degrees, had a tendency to emphasize righteousness over profit on the issue of righteousness and profit, but in their main line of thought, the aim was to maintain, improve, complement and develop the spirit of holism and the pursuit of high spirituality and ideal personality in traditional Chinese ethical thought. There is a narrow view that the fall of the Southern Song was caused by the empty talk of righteousness among the scholars. Most of the Song scholars were patriotic. Once again, the philosophers of the Song Dynasty, starting from the theory of mindfulness and the idea of human goodness, and taking conscience, good energy, the original mind, and the original heart as the premise, formed the cultivation theory of “master respect”, “poor reasoning”, and “first standing on its greatness”. “The theory of cultivation, which deepens the requirement that the purpose of learning is to change one’s temperament, is based on the promotion of human moral subjectivity, and finds a practical path for people in feudal society to become saints and sages. The proposition that “the universe is my heart and my heart is the universe” is primarily an ethical proposition, which asserts that all moral concepts of human beings are inherent in their conscience. Song Confucianism inherited from Mencius the idea of “keeping the heart”, “nurturing the heart” and “seeking peace of mind”, also for the fundamental purpose of making people saintly and virtuous. Whether it be cultivating one’s body and nurturing one’s nature, or cultivating one’s night energy; whether it be meditating and reflecting, or exercising self-restraint, or living in a state of reverence and perfection; whether it be meditating and cultivating, or practicing goodness, the aim is to enable people to climb up the ladder of morality. The theory of cultivation developed by Song philosophers from the theory of mindfulness was a further development of people’s moral subjectivity, and was of great importance in ethical thought. According to the Song thinkers, moral subjectivity is a kind of subject’s active role in perfecting the individual by aiming at a noble moral ideal and moral personality. “Their promotion of moral subjectivity was the most prominent among the various stages of the development of Chinese ethical thought”. In the study of philosophical thought, we always have to consider whether a thought is subjective materialism, objective materialism or has a tendency towards simple materialism, in order to understand its basic tendency on fundamental philosophical issues. If we also examine the thought of the Song philosophers in terms of ethical thought, we find that these idealist thinkers were often closest to materialism when they studied the phenomenon of mindfulness. Conscience, good energy, the first mind, the original mind, in the case of the Song philosophers, are both innate human nature and a priori theory, as well as an objective and detailed analysis of human mental activity and moral emotions. If we can analyze them in the light of ethical and scientific theories of moral will, moral emotion, inner conviction and conscience mechanism, and generalise mental activity in the light of scientific psychology, we can see that some of the analyzes of the Song philosophers on the extremely complex and rich moral phenomenon of the heart, the original heart, the primordial mind and conscience still have important implications for us today, and are the basis for our They are an important repository of ideas that we should critically inherit in order to develop a scientific theory of morality.

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The post-Song and post-Ming realists went to the other extreme by criticizing the Song’s empty talk about the righteousness of the mind. They corrected the onesidedness and absolutism of Song Confucianism with regard to the application of the Scriptures to the world and the relationship between righteousness and profit, but the more in-depth study of theories of mindfulness, rational desire, righteousness and profit and cultivation came to an abrupt halt, and the subjectivity of morality was not further developed. In a sense, moral subjectivity was not taken seriously and the study of the ‘conscience mechanism’ of morality became weaker and weaker.

3.3 The Importance of Carrying Forward the Excellent Moral Traditions of the Chinese Nation in the Light of the Current Modernization of Developing Countries China is engaged in the construction of the four modernizations of socialism. In recent decades, we have developed a new understanding in the process of modernising the country, that modernization is not the same as Westernization. For Eastern countries, modernization, while absorbing advanced Western technology and management experience, must reject the corrupt Western values of individual-centredness, the pursuit of money and pleasure, and take as our value orientation the unique holistic thinking of the East. Among the many problems facing developing countries in terms of ideology and value choices, the most noteworthy and worrying is the corruption and poisoning of people’s minds, especially those of young people, by money-worship, individualism and hedonism. The ideology of money, selfishness and pleasure is distorting the minds of some people, affecting the harmony of interpersonal relationships and constraining economic development and social progress. Under the guidance of Marxism, and with the principles of socialist collectivism as our guide, we should summarize, criticise and inherit the outstanding contribution of traditional morality made by the thinkers of the Song dynasty, and further develop the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation and the East, so as to counteract the corrupting and poisoning influence of Western corrupt ideas and eliminate the influence of money-worship, individualism and hedonism.

4 A New Exploration of Li Zhi’s Ethical Thought3 Li Zhi (1527–1602), known as Zhuo Wu, was a native of Jinjiang County, Quanzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province, and was a famous progressive thinker in the late Ming Dynasty. He has a special place in the history of Chinese ethical thought and deserves to be well studied. 3

This section was originally published in Social Science Front, No. 1, 1988.

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Li Zhi was born during the Jiajing and Wanli periods of the Ming Dynasty. At this time, due to the budding of capitalism, the commodity economy had developed considerably in many areas, and there was a fierce struggle between the feudal selfsufficient natural economy and the growing commodity economy. Li Zhi’s hometown of Quanzhou (located north of Xiamen and south of Fuzhou) was an important port for foreign trade at the time. Li Zhi’s family had been engaged in overseas trade for generations, and his second great-grandfather, Li Xiaoshi, was a major merchant in Quanzhou at the time. The feudal landowners’ policy of “valuing the root and suppressing the end”, i.e. emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, the Confucianism’s moral dogma of the three principles and five rules, which restricted personal freedom, and the Song and Ming doctrines of natural justice and human desires, which restricted the desires of the general public, all posed extremely strong resistance to the budding capitalism at that time. To develop the budding capitalism, it was necessary to break through these political, ethical and philosophical barriers. In view of the characteristics of Chinese society at the time, it was particularly important to break through the shackles of the three rules, the superiority of men over women, and the teachings of natural justice and human desire. Li Zhi was influenced by his family on the one hand, and the corruption of the Ming dynasty and the hypocrisy of the Taoists on the other, which eventually led to his rebellious character. In 1602, Li Zhi was arrested by the rulers and killed himself in prison.

4.1 Selfishness is in the Nature of Man In terms of ethical thought, Li Zhi clearly put forward the theory that all human beings are selfish, which gave a more comprehensive and profound exposition of the views on human nature and selfishness since the pre-Qin Dynasty, expressing a strong desire of the emerging bourgeoisie to fight for their own survival and reflecting the ethical demands of the bourgeoisie against feudal bondage, thus providing an important theoretical basis for breaking the moral dogma of the Three Principles and Five Rules, clearing the moral obstacle of asceticism and advocating that everyone should have his own personality and freedom. This provided an important theoretical basis for breaking down the moral dogma of the Three Orders, for removing the moral barriers of asceticism and for advocating the idea that everyone should have his or her own personality and freedom. The idea that human beings are selfish by nature can be traced back to the pre-Qin dynasty in China. During the Warring States period, Shen Zai was the first to put forward the idea that ‘no one can be selfish’ (Shen Zi—In the Way), arguing that all people are in pursuit of their own interests and that, therefore, those who are rulers should be good at ‘using the selfishness of people’ (ibid.) in order to consolidate their rule. This is the aim of the king. Later on, Xunzi put forward the idea that human nature is evil, believing that all people are by nature good for profit and evil for harm. He said, “If the eye likes colour, the ear likes sound, the mouth likes taste, the heart likes profit, and the bones, body and skin like pleasure, they are all born of human

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nature.” “To follow the nature of man and to obey his passions is to be born out of contention, and to be brought back to tyranny by violating the law.” (Xunzi—Evil Nature) These words of Xunzi also mean “human nature is selfish”, but he does not openly associate human nature with “selfishness”. Han Fei, a student of Xunzi’s, inherited the ideas of Shenzhi and Xunzi and further developed the theory that “all men are selfish”, arguing that self-interest and selfishness are common to all men, that is, all men “are selfish”. From this, Han Fei argues that all people, even fathers and sons, rulers and subjects, calculate each other for their own benefit. However, neither Shen Zai, nor Xunzi, nor Han Fei, have made a systematic theoretical argument for the idea that selfishness is in the nature of man, nor have they even been able to link man with “selfishness” in writing. They simply took the premise of “selfishness” and “good profit” to serve the purpose of their argument. After the Qin and Han dynasties, the orthodox Confucian theory of human nature prevailed, and the idea that human beings are by nature ‘self-interested’ and ‘self-directed’ was not developed accordingly. As a representative of the budding capitalist ideology, Li Zhi broke the shackles of nearly two thousand years of Confucian ethics and morality, inheriting the ideas of Shen Zai, Xunzi and Han Fei, and theoretically arguing against the selfish view of human nature. Why is it that human beings are selfish by nature? Li Zhi said: Selfishness is the heart of man. A man must have selfishness before his heart can be seen; if he has no selfishness, then he has no heart. For example, if a man who serves in a field has his own harvest of autumn, he will be able to rule the field with vigour; if a man who lives at home has his own harvest of the storehouse, he will be able to rule his home with vigour; if a scholar has his own harvest of enterprise, he will be able to rule his profession with vigour. Therefore, if an official is not privy to his pay, he will not come even if he is called; if he does not have a high title, he will not come even if he is persuaded; even if he has the sage Confucius, he will not be able to settle down in Lu even if he does not have the office of the Secretary of State or the Regent. This is a natural principle and a sure sign of arrival. However, those who say it for the sake of selflessness are all talking about the cake, watching the field of vision, but make the next door good to hear, regardless of the reality of the heel, which does not help the matter, only confuse the ears, not enough to take. (Zang Shu—De Ye Confucian Minister Postscript). It is clear here that selfishness is the essence of all human beings, and that anyone who has a heart must be selfish. The theory that “selfishness is the nature of man” is a natural law that can be verified by all the actions of men in real life, and the theory that does not admit that “selfishness is the nature of man” is nothing but a nonsense that does not help. In Li Zhi’s view, selfishness, self-interest, is the driving force behind all activities. Why do farmers work hard in agriculture? Because they can benefit from the harvest to satisfy their own desires and achieve selfish ends. Why do educated people work hard at their studies? It is because they can be enterprising and become officials. Who would want to be an official if he could not get a good salary? In short, all human actions are governed by selfishness. Selfishness is the only motivation for all

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human actions. That is why he said, “To seek profit and avoid harm, and to have all people work together, is called heaven, and it is called the skill of all.” This is the self-interest of all people (regardless of their rank), or what he calls the “true heart” of all people, or the “child’s heart”. To say that people do not have selfishness is, in his view, like drawing a cake to feed people, which is completely self-deceptive; or, as we hear in the theatre, it is just a story made up. These claims may sound grand, but in reality they do not exist in real life. Li Zhi’s idea of “selfishness is the heart of man” reflected the demands of the emerging bourgeoisie and had a progressive effect at the time. Since human beings are selfish by nature, the relationship between human beings is a kind of exchange relationship. Here, Li Zhi inherits Han Fei’s view that all people have a calculating mind and develops it further. Li Zhi put forward a proposition, that is, “the world is exhausted by the marketplace of friendship”. He also pointed out: Therefore, if a person deals in profit, the profit will be exhausted; if a person deals in potential, the potential will be reversed. (Continuation of the Book of Burning) “I also see it in this way, that those who are the market should have the goods of the market, but they should not be saints and be sick in the marketplace; those who are saints should have the goods of the saints, and they should not be saints and be in the marketplace. I blame only the scholars of today for taking the goods of the marketplace for the saints.” (ibid.) Why was Confucius able to befriend the Seventy Sons? This is also a kind of transaction, but it is different from the friendship of profit and power. “What the seventy sons desire, only Confucius has, but no one else has; what Confucius may desire, only the seventy sons desire, but no one else does.” (ibid.) Here he argues that not only is the relationship between people a transactional one, but also the relationship between the sage and his disciples. Confucius was the ‘most holy teacher’ in feudal society and his disciples were regarded as morally superior people, but Li Zhi sees their relationship as one of mutual trade. All people are selfish, and so are the saints; all relationships between people are transactional, so the relationship between the saints and the Seventy Sons is also transactional; all people want to be rich and famous, so the saints are no exception. According to Li Zhi, “There is no such thing as a sage who does not want to be rich and powerful.” (Li Zhi Wen Ji—Ming Deng Dao Gu Lu) He said, “Wealth and power are the necessary assets of a hero, and the necessary assets of a great sage. How can one say that there is nothing? I therefore say that even a great sage cannot be without the heart of profit and influence. Then it is natural for us to know that the heart of the snobbish and the profitable is also a natural part of our nature.” (ibid.) Li Zhi clearly affirmed that saints are also wealthy and fame loving, and like power and position. Before Li Zhi, although the thinkers of the Tang and Song dynasties also acknowledged that the sages were rich and profitable, they said that the sages were looking out for the country and were trying to enrich the country and benefit the people, whereas what Li Zhi says here is selfishness and self-interest.

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4.2 Dressing and Eating is Human Physics What is the relationship between the moral relationship between human beings and the necessity of all things, and what is the relationship between the satisfaction of people’s material desires, i.e. clothing and food? This is another question that has long been debated in the history of Chinese ethical thought. As early as the Qin Dynasty, Guan Zi had the idea that “when the granary is wellstocked, one knows how to be courteous and respectful, and when one has enough food and clothing, one knows how to be honorable and humiliating”, pointing out that the amount of material means of living has a very important influence on the moral relationship between people. Han Fei inherited Guanzi’s ideas and said, “In the spring of famine, the youngest brother will not be paid; in the autumn of the year of plenty, the most neglectful guest will be fed. It is not that the flesh and bones are neglected and the guests are loved, but that the amount is different” (Han Feizi—The Five Dangers). Wang Chong of the Eastern Han Dynasty further pointed out: “The reason why the world is in chaos is not that there are many thieves and thieves, soldiers and revolutionaries, and the people have abandoned ritual and righteousness, and are on the edge of it? The reason for this is the lack of grain and food and the inability to endure hunger and cold. There are few people who can do nothing wrong when they are hungry and cold, but there are few who can do nothing good when they are well fed and warm.” (Analects of Hengyang—The Period of Governance) He believed that “‘…… is born from surplus, and contention arises from deficiency’. When there is enough grain and plenty of food, the heart of propriety and righteousness is born; when propriety is abundant and righteous, the foundation of peace is established.” (ibid) and concludes that “the practice of propriety and righteousness lies in sufficient grain” (ibid), stressing that only when the people have enough to eat can they be made to know propriety and act in accordance with the moral norms of feudal society. However, in general, since Emperor Wu’s dismissal of the hundred schools of thought and his sole reverence for Confucianism, and especially after the meetings of Dong Zhongshu and Baihuguan, the feudal dogma of the three principles and the five rules increasingly became a shackle that bound people to each other. The ethical thinkers of the landed classes increasingly emphasized the hierarchical relationship between ruler and subject, father and son, and husband and wife in feudal society, denying the importance of people’s material life and their sensory desires. After the Song dynasty, this situation developed to the point where it was absurd to put heavenly principles and human desires in complete opposition to each other. In order to defend the rule of the feudal landlord class, the Taoists of the Song and Ming dynasties put forward the concept of the so-called “Reason”. Firstly, they described reason as the origin of all things, believing that all things in the world are born from reason; secondly, they described reason as the universal law of all things, “And as this chair, which has four feet, can be sat on, so is the reason of the chair. If one foot is removed and one cannot sit on it, then the reason of the chair is lost” (Zhu Zi Yu Lei, vol. 57); finally, they describe reason as the principle and norm of the relationship between man and man, that is, the so-called “heavenly reason”. What,

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then, are these “heavenly truths” between human beings (the whole of human nature and physics in this world)? They believe that the “Divine Principle” is the three principles and five rules, that is, benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith, that is, father’s kindness, son’s filial piety, ruler’s benevolence and subject’s loyalty, and so on, which are the “rules of course” among people, the “public truth” among people. These are the “rules of course” between people, the “public truths” between people. The Taoists of the Song and Ming dynasties reduced all human ethics and physics in the world to the Divine Principle, that is, to feudal moral dogma, with the main aim of using the Divine Principle to curb human desires and to “preserve the Divine Principle and extinguish human desires”. The main aim was to curb human desires with the “Divine Principle”, to “preserve the Divine Principle and extinguish human desires”, and to bring people to a state of “clear and great justice”, where “human desires are purified and the Divine Principle prevails”. This asceticism was a heavy constraint on the masses, on the small producers and on the fledgling merchants of the time. In particular, this “Divine Principle” of feudal morality, promoted and advocated by the ruling class, became a moral law of supremacy: not only did “a subject have to die when the ruler told him to, but also a son had to die when the father told him to”, but “Starvation is a very small thing, but disobedience is a very big thing”. They put the loyalty and filial piety of feudal human decency in complete opposition to the desires of the people, to an astonishing extent. Li Zhi aimed his spear at what the Song and Ming Taoists called the Divine Principle and Human Desire. He said: To dress and eat is human physics. Apart from dressing and eating, there is no human physics. All kinds of things in the world are clothes and food. Therefore, if we cite clothing and food, then all kinds of things in the world are naturally included in them. There are other things besides clothing and food that are different from the people. (The Burning of the Book). According to Li Zhi, the relationship between human beings is the relationship between clothing and food, and the only real thing is people’s material life. This proposition can be said to have a deafening significance. In Li Zhi’s view, the most basic and important relationship that makes people human and their survival and development in society is the relationship between eating and dressing. If people do not eat and wear clothes, how can they have relationships with each other? And what relationship between people is not linked to their eating and dressing? He argues that there is no human physics outside of food and clothing, and asserts that without food and clothing, there is no human physics. In other words, only when one understands and comprehends the reasoning of things and the reasoning of eating and dressing can one truly understand the human relations between people, and only when this is done can one truly understand the human relations between people. It is only when the rules of conduct for human relationships are established in this way that they can be truly derived from the heart, and this is what is called “acting from benevolence and righteousness”. This is what is meant by “acting with benevolence and righteousness” (The Book of Burning). Li Zhi gave a new interpretation to these two statements of Mencius, thus further justifying his theory.

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While the Taoists of the Song Dynasty drew the moral relationship between people in feudal society to the “heavenly truth”, Li Zhi brought this relationship back to people’s daily life. He believes: “such as good goods, such as good sex, such as diligent study, such as enterprising, such as more gold and treasure, such as buying more land and houses for their children and grandchildren, and seeking feng shui for their children’s welfare, all the things in the world such as governance, industry, etc., all of them are good and common practice, common knowledge and common speech, is the real ‘near speech’ also. …… I have been able to observe the people’s daily use of the ‘recent words’” (ibid). What is ‘nearness’? It is a simple and simple truth that people generally follow and understand. Li Zhi believes that in order to understand the ethical relationship between people, one must understand these superficial truths, “The reason why Shun is so good at understanding and is so wise in ancient and modern times” (Li’s Writings—A Reply to Deng Mingfu) is because he can deeply understand these “street talk, slang and wild talk, the most vulgar and commonplace, very shallow and very close The reason for this is that he was able to understand the truth of these “street talk, slang, vulgarity, and superficiality. Li Zhi further believed that the criterion for evaluating the goodness of human relations between people is whether they are in line with the most superficial truths of how people dress and eat, and how they tend to avoid harm. If it is good, it is good, and if it is not, it is evil. He said that because Shun had been able to “understand the people’s secrecy and their falsehoods, and to understand the good of the people and the evil of the people, he was among the people, the so-called good”, and he also said, “If you take the words of the people as good, then anyone who is not good will be bad. What is the reason for this? It is because it is not among the people, it is not what the people want, so it is considered not good, so it is considered evil.” (Li Shi Wen Ji—Ming Deng Dao Gu Lu) Thus, it is clear that the material interests of every person, that is, the material interests of every ordinary person, are the basis of people’s morality; people’s conception of good and evil and their moral evaluation should also be shifted by whether or not they are in line with such interests. Neither farming nor business can be said to be immoral, that is to say, they are all moral. In discussing the relationship between human relationships, Li Zhi profoundly pointed out that, in the view of the scholars of philosophy, “those who descend from heaven are called rites, and those who obtain them from men are called non-rituals; Those who come from not learning and not thinking, from not thinking and not exerting themselves, from not knowing and not knowing are called rites; those who come from hearing and seeing, from measuring and measuring with the mind, from previous words and deeds, from imitating and comparing are called non-rituals” (The Book of Burning), exposing that what Confucianism calls “rites and teachings” and what Song Confucianism calls “heavenly principles” are all from heaven. The “rituals” of Confucianism and the “heavenly principles” of Song Confucianism have nothing to do with the daily life of the people, but what they denounced as “rituals” and “human desires” are exactly what people hear and see and must not be abandoned. Here, Li Zhi further elaborates on the root of morality, pointing out that it cannot come from the sky or from imagination, but only from the people’s food and clothing, only from the closest material needs of the people.

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4.3 Emphasizing the Autonomy of Moral Conduct and Opposing the Bondage of Feudal Conventions In the history of ethical thought, the relationship between moral norms and people’s moral choices is an important theoretical issue. The essence of this question is: should people choose their own behavior by unconditionally abiding by certain moral norms and not crossing the threshold, or should they raise their moral awareness and make moral choices among various possibilities, consciously, autonomously and voluntarily, by each individual’s independent judgment? This question is also the question of necessity and freedom in ethics. It is not only related to the philosophical principle of necessity and freedom, but also has a special ethical meaning and is therefore different from the question of necessity and freedom in philosophy. In the relationship between necessity and freedom, freedom is generally used in two senses. One is freedom from necessity, in which one asserts that one’s actions should be free from all constraints of necessity and that one should be free to act unconditionally, which is often the claim of voluntarists; the other is freedom from fear, coercion, bondage and threats and confinement of all kinds, in which one asserts that one’s actions should not be subject to bondage or coercion and that one should have the freedom to choose for oneself. Freedom. In discussing this question of necessity and freedom, ethicists sometimes refer to both, and sometimes only to the second aspect of ‘freedom’. In China, Laozi and Zhuangzi in the pre-Qin period were the first to take note of this problem. They pointed out that the moral codes of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith, which were preached by Confucianism, were merely confinements and fetters for the people and should be broken. Since the feudal moral code was mainly a tool used by the ruling class to consolidate its rule, it was necessarily a heavy yoke imposed on the masses. Therefore, some thinkers advocated the breaking of these shackles and the liberation of people from such fetters, which objectively had a certain progressive significance. However, Zhuangzi, guided by his voluntarist ideology, ended up moving towards an unconditional freedom that transcended all necessity, which led him to a very absurd point in theory and practice. After the Qin and Han dynasties, Confucianism’s Three Principles and Five Rules became increasingly restrictive, and the emphasis on moral freedom died out. Towards the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, as the Confucian Three Principles and Five Rules were in crisis, the Wei and Jin metaphysicians attempted to “transgress the teachings of the name and let nature take its course”, emphasizing the need to oppose the fetters of the name and religion from the natural nature of man. However, the debate between nominalism and nature eventually led to the unification of nominalism and nature, and the merging of Taoism and Confucianism. Confucianism found its basis in the nature of man. Thus, although the debate between nominalism and nature also touched on the question of the relationship between necessity and freedom in ethics, it ended in a reconciliation between Confucianism and Taoism, and thus did not move much further on this issue.

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Li Zhi was extremely dissatisfied with the three principles and five rules that had been formed in the feudal society for a long time, and felt that it was a kind of shackle imposed on people. He said, “The people of the world have been deprived of a place for a long time, and the reason why they are deprived of a place is that they are disturbed by the greedy and tyrannical and harmed by the ‘benevolent’. The ‘benevolent ones’ are worried by the fact that the world has lost its place, and they are anxious to bring it to the domain where it is found, so there are virtues and rites to regulate their hearts, and governments and punishments to tie up their four bodies, and people have lost their place.” (The Book of Burning) Therefore, he opposed the use of rituals, music and punishment to bind the people in feudal absolutism, and believed that this was the main cause of the people’s suffering and disasters. He believed that the use of rituals, music and punishment to bind the people was the Confucian way of ruling the people, and that this was a “rule of the gentleman”. This “rule of a gentleman” is against human nature, restricts people’s freedom and limits the development of their personality. Therefore, Li Zhi advocates a “rule of the supreme man”, the most fundamental characteristic of which is that “it is not easy to follow the customs of the people because of their government, and to follow their nature without disregarding their abilities” (ibid.). Li Zhi believes that all human beings should be responsible for their own actions, independent and autonomous, without the constraints imposed by the sages and their rules. Each person has his or her own “true heart” or “child’s heart” that can distinguish between right and wrong, and can make the right moral judgments and moral choices. “The Confucians do not know that rites are the same as the human heart, and that they are a lively and ever-changing principle, but they insist on them as something that cannot be moved. This is why even a virtuous master is not immune to the use of government and punishment” (Li Shi Wen Ji—Ming Deng Gu Lu). Li Zhi opposed this kind of regulation that binds people with punishment and all the so-called “regulations and prohibitions” (ibid.), stressing the need to pay attention to everyone’s ability to self-govern and the importance of freedom in moral choices. He said: “If a man can be self-governing, he does not have to wait for a ban to stop him. If one wants to have it stopped but cannot listen to it, one is cutting it down.” (ibid.) He argues that if rites and laws are emphasized without emphasis on selfgovernment, it would be “a shackle”, and although “there are rules and regulations and penalties”, the result would only be that “the people will have more problems every day. “Instead of decreasing, the number of violations of law and morality would increase. All the moral codes and laws of feudal society were imposed, artificial and coercive, rather than a conscious and voluntary choice of the people. Therefore, it is only right to remove all barriers, to abolish all norms, and to allow people to choose for themselves in their moral behavior. Li Zhi emphasized the autonomy of moral behavior, opposed all “rules and prohibitions”, preached “autonomy for all”, and opposed the “strong and unified”. Li Zhi’s ideas represented a call to break through the rituals of feudalism, a heavy blow to the moral teachings of asceticism, under the compulsion and bondage of “heavenly principles” and “conscience” preached by the Taoists of Song and Ming.

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Li Zhi’s views on women are particularly noteworthy in the context of his opposition to the constraints of feudalism. From Confucius onwards, Confucians believed that ‘only women and villains are difficult to raise’; the Five Rites of Confucianism had the meaning of male superiority and female inferiority; later on, the Three Principles of Confucianism, in addition to the ruler, minister, father and son, emphasized the superiority and inferiority of husband and wife; and then, through the subordination of the Han Confucian Dong Zhongshu and others, Cheng Yi put forward the feudal dogma that ‘starvation is a very small thing, but losing one’s virtue is a very big thing’. The feudal dogma of ‘starving to death is a very small thing, but losing one’s virtue is a very big thing’. In contrast to the views of the Taoists, Li Zhi believed that there were also many women who were “extremely wise and knowledgeable, and who could be trusted with the heart of the city”, and even believed that “men were inferior”. Li Zhi also explicitly advocated widow remarriage, and thought that Zhuo Wenjun’s elopement with Sima Xiangyu after her husband’s death was praiseworthy. He also said, “It is not enough for a villain to be a small man, but it is better to choose early, to endure a small shame, and to take up a big plan.” (Zang Shu—Sima Xiangru Biographies) In his book Chu Tan Ji, Li Zhi strongly praised those who advocated widow remarriage and considered it “good”, saying that those who wanted unmarried women to remain widows were “not human” and “great It is not human”. In addition, Li Zhi also disagreed with the vulgar and humble opinion that attributed the defeat of the state to women. (Chu Tan Ji) On the one hand, he acknowledged that sex could charm and easily lead to the destruction of a country and its family; but on the other hand, he also believed that there was a deeper reason for the destruction of a country, and that it could not be attributed to women’s sex, which was still very profound. While stressing the autonomy of moral conduct and opposing the prescriptive teachings, Li Zhi also paid special attention to attacking those Taoists who preached the feudal prescripts. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Taoism initiated by Cheng Zhu was in decline and some of the so-called Taoists of the time not only failed to practice the moral principles they preached, but most of them used Taoism to deceive the world and steal fame and fortune. They wore long robes, square scarves, and walked in a dignified manner, but inwardly they were despicable and nasty. Li Zhi sarcastically pointed out: “The world’s good name must speak of Taoism, to the Taoism can also be named. Those who are useless must talk about Taoism, because Taoism is sufficient to help the useful. Those who deceive the heavens and disregard men must teach Taoism, because it is sufficient to sell their deceitful schemes.” (ibid.) Because Taoism could be used to pursue fame and fortune, those who were “talentless, uneducated, inactive, and ignorant, but who wished to attain great wealth and fortune, could not afford not to speak of Taoism” (ibid.). In response to the serious disconnect between the words and deeds of Taoists at that time, Li Zhi pointed out: “Taoists only want me to speak well, regardless of whether I can do it or not. If I cannot do it, then it can be called tricky talk.” (ibid.) In his view, these Taoists could be said to be “dressed like Confucians and behaving like dogs and swine” (ibid.), not only “male thieves and female prostitutes”, but also like pigs and dogs. He pointed out profoundly that

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since the emergence of Confucianism, after “the attachment of Han Confucians and the penetration of Song Confucians”, “people have become more despicable and the wind has become more despicable”. These insights are profound. Although he considered Confucianism to have begun with Confucius and criticized him in many ways, he nevertheless distinguished between Confucius and later Confucianism, an attitude that is also in line with historical facts. While opposing feudal morality and criticizing Taoists, Li Zhi also criticised the Taoists for their worship of Confucius and their blind adherence to the so-called Four Books and Five Classics. According to Li Zhi, Confucius was nothing extraordinary, just an ordinary man who wanted to drink and eat. Confucius’ thought and doctrine was originally just one of the hundred schools of thought, the same as Mozi and Laozi. Confucius’ status has been elevated by later generations in order to achieve certain goals. I have been reading “The Sacred Teachings” since I was young and I do not know what “The Sacred Teachings” are. I respect Confucius but I do not know what Confucius can respect. If you ask me the reason for the barking, I will be dumbfounded and laugh. (The Continuation of the Book of Burning—A Short Introduction to the Sacred Teachings). In Li Zhi’s view, his praise of Confucius 50 years ago was like a dwarf watching a play, standing in the middle of the crowd, not seeing anything, but just following the crowd and echoing the voices of others. He was even like a dog in the darkness, because the dog in front of him saw a shadow and barked so loudly that the dog behind him barked too. Li Zhi also believed that the Four Books and the Five Classics, which were revered by Taoists, were the result of the exaltation of later generations. In fact, the words of these so-called scriptures were the targeted answers given by the teachers at that time according to the questions raised by the students. Moreover, these words were the notes of confused students who did not understand the meaning of the teacher’s lectures. Under the conditions of the time, such notes were also incomplete, either with or without a head, or with or without a head, or in fragments, or taken out of context. How can such a thing be called a classic? Even if these words were spoken by a sage, even if they are accurately remembered, they are at most a targeted remedy for those confused students, how can they be the eternal truth? On the issue of the standard of truth and the standard of good and evil, Li Zhi also opposed the use of the sage’s words as the standard, and clearly stated that he opposed the use of Confucius’ right and wrong as right and wrong. “If one is born with one person, he has his own use, and he does not have to wait for Confucius to give him enough. If we must wait for Confucius to give us enough, then there was no Confucius in the past, and we would not be able to be human.” Before Confucius was born, people could not be human beings? In the article ‘Praise for Liu Harmony’ in The Book of Burning, Li Zhi expresses his approval of Liu Harmony’s criticism of Confucianism and respect for Confucius. It is said that Liu Harmony said sarcastically and mockingly, “No wonder the sages above the Emperor Xixi burned paper and candles all day long” in response to Zhu Xi’s and others’ suggestion that “Heaven did not give birth to Zhongni, and all the

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ages are like a long night”. According to Li Zhi, Liu Shun’s words were concise and hit the nail on the head of respecting Confucius. He said, “These words are simple but appropriate, simple but useful, and can break the net of suspicion and reveal the middle heaven. If his words are like this, his person can be known. Although the words were spoken out of a moment of jest, they are so good that they cannot be changed for a hundred generations.” According to Li Zhi, this kind of satirical ridicule is very thought-provoking.

4.4 Limitations of Li Zhi’s Thought and Lessons in Thinking As a fighter against feudal moral traditions, Li Zhi made a great contribution to ethical thought. Li Zhi openly declared that human nature is selfish, emphasizing that “selfishness is the heart of man. If there is no selfishness, then there is no heart”, which shows his great theoretical courage under the cruel feudal rule. This idea represented the new productive forces of the time and reflected the demands of the emerging capitalist commodity economy. It should be noted that Li Zhi’s claim that selfishness is human nature is merely a statement of a truth he realized, not a justification for his own thoughts and actions. On the one hand, he repeatedly says that all people act with selfish motives, but on the other hand, he speaks out for his friends and for his own class. In front of the powerful feudal bureaucracy, he had no regard for his own safety, cursing the Taoists by name, ridiculing Confucius, denouncing the three rules and the five rules, and preaching the remarriage of widows. In the end, the Ming government sentenced him to prison for “daring to advocate chaos and confuse the world and falsely convict the people” and ordered “all books published and unpublished to be burned by the officials where they are located and not allowed to remain”. Li Zhi explicitly declared that eating and dressing were the physics of human decency, and that no one could act without eating and dressing, and for the sake of eating and dressing. However, he never bent the knee over the issue of food and clothing. As a Ming official, he was always in opposition to the ruling class and considered himself to be “stubborn and difficult since childhood”, and did not plan for his own “food and clothing”. When he was in his forties, his two young daughters fell ill and died one after another during a famine due to the family’s difficulties. This man, who firmly believed that selfishness was in the nature of man, ultimately gave his life for others, for his class, and for the development of the new commodity economy. He was very different from those who, in the late capitalist period, were driven by the desire for personal enrichment and thus preached that selfishness was the nature of human beings; he was also very different from those who preached the supremacy of money, and who were opportunistic and duplicitous for personal gain. Engels once pointed out that the ugly passions of man—greed and power—have been the levers of historical development since the onset of class antagonism in society. The history of the feudal system and the bourgeoisie, for example, provides constant evidence of this. Li Zhi was certainly wrong to see the private mentality of the peasants

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and craftsmen, as well as the exploitative nature of the landlords and merchants, developed under private ownership, as selfishness, and to regard this selfishness as the universal nature of human beings, in the light of the social conditions of the time. Human nature is the sum of social relations, and it is only on the basis of private ownership that the concept of private ownership is formed. Moreover, with the establishment of communal relations of production, people will eventually become unselfish. As a pioneer of bourgeois enlightenment thought, Li Zhi’s ideas can only represent the budding bourgeoisie, which is something we cannot expect from him. Moreover, moral norms and the conscious moral choices of human beings are both opposed and united. In the long dominant exploitative societies of the past, the exploiting classes always used moral norms as a kind of rope to bind the masses of people to serve them in a disciplined and honest manner. In this sense, Li Zhi’s attack on feudal ethics, his ridicule of Taoists, and his satire of Confucius all have important progressive significance. However, Li Zhi completely denied the need for moral norms, emphasizing that one could act according to one’s own feelings and that one could have “virtuous words” and “virtuous deeds” as long as one had a “child’s heart”. This is also very restrictive. Li Zhi’s so-called “child’s heart”, socalled “autonomy” and so-called “capriciousness” are only in accordance with his so-called “private heart” This open selfishness, despite the fact that the This open selfishness, although he thought he could transcend all moral constraints, was still ultimately based on the moral principle of selfishness and self-interest. Moreover, as a social being, in order to live in society, one can never transcend such and such moral norms. The most important thing is not to choose one’s own moral code without any moral code, but to base one’s choice of moral behavior on the moral code that benefits the people at large, which, of course, Li Zhi could not have realized. In terms of the relationship between moral principles and norms and the material life of the masses, Li Zhi advocated that “dressing and eating is the physics of human morality”, believing that without dressing and eating, there is no moral relationship between human beings, which is reasonable. In particular, Li Zhi’s ideas reflected the desire of peasants, small producers and merchants to survive, which was progressive, especially when Taoists at that time described the minimum material requirements of the working people as human desires, evil thoughts and evils. However, his view that the physical human relationships between people, including their moral principles and codes of ethics, seemed to be simply a relationship for food and clothing, and that there was no relationship between people other than that of food and clothing, was also one-sided. Food and clothing, i.e. production and consumption, are of course the most basic relationships between people, but there must also be moral relationships in order to produce and consume better, and to maintain the normal order between people. Since primitive society, human society could not exist without the regulation of morality. This means that people, as a society, as a whole or as a collective, must not only care for their own clothing and food, but must also take care of the interests of the whole and sacrifice their own interests, if necessary, in order to clothe and feed the whole, and must not live selfishly for the clothing and food of one person. Of course, in a society ruled by the feudal exploiting class, Li Zhi could not have realized that different classes had different human ethics and physics, he only saw

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the extravagance of the exploiting class and the poverty of the working people, so it is understandable that he emphasized that “dressing and eating is human ethics and physics”. However, in any case, this theory of his, in terms of ethical thinking, tends to lead to a focus on food and clothing at the expense of the importance of high moral character, and this should be noted.

5 Liu Zongzhou’s Idea of “Prudence and Independence” and Its Role Liu Zongzhou was a famous thinker, historian of philosophy and ethicist of the Ming Dynasty. His important contribution to ethics was his emphasis on the unique role of “prudence” in moral cultivation and moral education, which had an important influence on the later development of ethical thought, especially on the ways of moral cultivation and the improvement of moral qualities. “Since the concept of “prudence and independence” was introduced in The Great Learning and The Doctrine of the Mean, later Confucian scholars and thinkers have been discussing “prudence and independence” as an important principle of cultivating one’s own body and as a basic requirement for the development of the family, the state and the world. Since the concept of “prudence” was introduced in The Great Learning and The Mean, later Confucian scholars and thinkers have explored “prudence” as an important principle for cultivating one’s moral character and as a basic requirement for the development of one’s family, one’s state and the world. Of all the Confucian thinkers who have discussed and brought into play the concept of “prudence and independence”, Liu Zongzhou is arguably the wisest and most understanding scholar of the true meaning of "prudence and independence”. Liu Zongzhou was a native of Shanyin County, Shaoxing Prefecture, Zhejiang Province (now Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province), and was also known as Mr Houttuynia. He was born in the sixth year of the Wanli reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty (1578) and died in the second year of the Shunzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1645) at the age of 68. In 1608, when he was the head of the Ministry of Rites, he was a man of great courage and courage to impeach Wei Zhongxian, who was a very powerful and powerful minister with many disciples, listing his crimes and repeatedly writing to the emperor to make suggestions on all the major issues of the imperial government, showing his high personal qualities. However, Zhu Yijun, Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, did not know how to rule the country and did not consider his advice to be practical. Later, due to political changes, he was promoted to the post of the left imperial official, but was dismissed from his post and returned to his family because he had offended the emperor by speaking out. After the Qing army entered the country, the Ming court restored him to his official position in order to save the country from ruin. When the Qing army overran Nanjing, King Fu fled to Zhejiang, which was then occupied by the Qing army, and the Ming dynasty was already dead in name only. In this situation, Liu Zongzhou

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was determined to serve his country with his death. He said, “If I am not in power, I should not die with the city, but not with the soldiers! This is why Jiang Wanli died. There is no prime minister who escapes death, nor is there an imperial official who escapes death! “He told his family and students that he should not become “a greedy and death-averse person” under such circumstances, and he did not eat or drink, and “died after 20 days of hunger strike”. His writings include Liu Zi Quanshu (The Complete Works of Liu Zi) in 40 volumes and Liu Zi Quanshu Shu (The Remains of the Complete Works of Liu Zi) in 24 volumes, which were published in the fourth year of the Daoguang era (1824) and the thirtieth year of the Daoguang era (1850). Liu Zongzhou’s thoughts and actions fully demonstrate that he was not only a thinker and historian, but also a faithful practitioner of his own theories. His ideas and theories, together with his noble spirit of loyalty to his country, can be said to be a model for ancient Chinese intellectuals. In the corrupt socio-political environment of the late Ming Dynasty, theory and practice were at odds with each other, and it had become a social pathology to talk about benevolence and morality while acting like a man and a woman. Liu Zongzhou’s actions are a pillar of the society and will be remembered forever.

5.1 Prudence is an Important Way to Become a Saint and a Sage Huang Zongxi (1610–1695), a student of Liu Zongzhou, was a famous thinker, historian of philosophy and outstanding patriotic fighter in the late Ming Dynasty. He faithfully inherited Liu Zongzhou’s philosophy and ethical thinking and gave a comprehensive and profound overview of Liu’s ethical thinking. He said, “Mr. Liu’s study is based on prudence and independence. Everyone in Confucianism speaks of prudence and independence, but Mr. Liu is the only one who has got it right.” (ibid.) He also said, “The work of prudence lies only in the mastery of the mind. Therefore, the more one converges, the more one pushes, but there is not a pause in the mastery, that is, in this prevalence. Therefore, it is said that those who pass away are like the Buddha, who does not give up day and night.” (ibid) According to Huang Zongxi, the central point of Liu Zongzhou’s thought is that “prudence and independence are the core”, and he especially emphasizes that “everyone in Confucianism speaks of prudence and independence, but only Mr. Liu has attained its truth”. The word “beginning” is particularly profound. For more than two thousand years, from the time Confucius put forward the idea of prudence until the Ming Dynasty, so many scholars had failed to understand the true meaning of prudence. This is an extremely profound and accurate summary that deserves our careful study. Liu Zongzhou stresses that “to learn to be a person, one must prove that he is a person and that he is a mind. In the past, the Confucian school passed down the method of the mind, one of which was to be prudent, and the other was to be prudent”. This means that the purpose of learning is to learn to be a sage, and according to the

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experience of many thinkers after Confucius, the most important way to become a sage is to be prudent and independent.

5.2 Prudence is the Most Important Test of one’s Moral Character According to Liu Zongzhou, in social life and human interaction, many people are able to observe the moral norms of society where others can see them; but where no one can see them, people’s practices are very different. In today’s terms, the most important aim and requirement of moral cultivation is to move from “other discipline” to “self-discipline”. According to Liu Zongzhou, for a person without morality, when he is alone and no one can see what he says or does, he will act according to his own selfish desires and violate the moral norms of society, doing many immoral things. These people are capable of doing anything immoral for their own personal gain. Of course, they sometimes feel uncomfortable about cheating others, but as long as no one sees them, they will continue to behave immorally. The key to people’s moral cultivation and moral elevation is the word “solitude”. Liu Zongzhou said: “The lady’s heart has a solitary body, that is, the nature of the heavenly order, and the way from which the commanding nature comes out. If you are careful to be alone and have a neutral position, the world will be able to do everything. The only time when one is alone is when one can behave in a subordinate way, but in the case of the villain, he still regards idleness as bad, and does not do anything, and when he thinks of the futility of covering up, he does not feel that he has lost it.” (It is for this reason that Liu Zongzhou stresses that one should be especially vigilant when one is alone. A moral person should pay special attention to strengthening his moral cultivation when he is alone. At the same time, Liu Zongzhou makes it clear that solitude is the best time for a moral person to perform noble moral acts. He said, “The gentleman said: “The place of idleness can be feared, but it can also be explored. At this time, when a thought has not yet arisen, there is only one truth and no delusion in the land of the unseen and unheard, and there is nothing to allow me to deceive myself. I will not deceive myself.” (ibid.) This means that a moral person will not only not do immoral things when he is alone without supervision or knowledge, but he will also be able to consciously hold himself to the standards of a gentleman and a saint. “It is only by constantly exercising and cultivating one’s moral character that one can manifest the more important meaning of prudence.” The ancient Chinese thinkers, starting from the Book of Rites to the end of the Ming Dynasty, did speak a lot about the idea of prudence and independence. The first thought in the Book of Rites was that “a gentleman must be prudent in his solitude”, stating that “a small man who lives in idleness is not good at all, but is disgusted when he sees a gentleman, covering up his misdeeds and emphasizing his goodness. If one sees oneself as one sees one’s lungs and liver, then what is the benefit? This

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is sincerity in the middle and form in the outside, so the gentleman must be careful of his solitude. The “solitude” mentioned here is a place where people do not know but you know alone. It is believed that when a villain is alone, he will do all kinds of bad things as long as no one sees him. This kind of disguise is a waste of effort, which is why the gentleman stresses “prudence and independence”. This is why the gentleman stresses “prudence and independence”. In the same way, the Book of Rites also stresses the importance of the middle ground in this sense, believing that the supreme Way must never be left behind. The meaning here is also that a moral gentleman should always have a sense of reverence and be able to consciously cultivate himself in areas that are not visible to the eyes and ears of others. The gentleman should always be aware of all the smallest things, all the dark and unknown places, and ultimately cannot hide them from others. Later on, although thinkers made many interpretations of “prudence and independence”, none of them went beyond the interpretation given in the “University” and the “Doctrine of the Mean”. Therefore, Huang Zongxi was accurate when he said, “Everyone in Confucianism speaks of prudence and independence, but only Mr. Huang has got it right”.

5.3 Prudence is to Promote the “Original Heart” In Liu Zongzhou’s The Genealogy of the Human Being, he argues that to be ‘alone’ means to be ‘true to one’s own heart’, and that to be prudent is to be ‘conscientious of one’s own heart’, that is, to develop one’s moral subjectivity. As we know, Wang Yangming, the great master of the Ming mind, inherited the ideas of the Song mind scholar Lu Jiuyuan, who particularly stressed the importance of developing one’s original mind. Liu Zongzhou also emphasized the role of the mind. Liu Zongzhou said, “If one learns to be human, one must prove that he is so human, that he is so human, and that he is so mind.” This shows the importance he attached to the role of the mind. He believed that if one wanted to make moral progress, one had to work hard in solitude. The ability to seize the crucial moment of solitude is an important test of one’s ability to become a moral person. To develop one’s own heart is to overcome all the “seven emotions” and “things that weary the heart”, so that one can reach the highest moral state of “human extremes”. Liu Zongzhou risked his life to expose Wei Zhongxian, a powerful minister of the time, and dared to advise the emperor until he was dismissed from office and died in the service of his country. Thinkers before Liu Zongzhou interpreted ‘prudence’ to mean that one should not do immoral things when one is alone, that is, in a place where no one can see. Liu Zongzhou goes even further, arguing that one should also be cautious in one’s innermost being, even in public. This means that before one does something, one must have some idea, or desire, in one’s heart (what today is called a quest or motivation), and since it is only an inner activity, it is not visible to outsiders until it is transformed into action, but one knows it very well. In this case, we should also

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emphasize “prudent solitude” and try to overcome and eliminate these evil thoughts that are unknown to others but known only to oneself. Wang Yangming also pointed out: “We must want to have a mind that is purely based on the Divine Principle and free from the slightest selfishness of human desire, and this is the work of the sage. But to do so, one cannot do so unless one prevents it before it sprouts and restrains it before it sprouts.” (Record on Learning II—A Reply to Lu Yuan Jing) Liu Zong Zhou believed that under such circumstances, it was all the more important to bring into play the role of conscience, to be “cautious and fearful” of all kinds of incorrect thoughts in one’s mind, and to pay attention to “cautious independence”. Liu Zongzhou, while emphasizing “prudence and independence”, also pays special attention to the importance of “knowing a few”. He said that the word “few” means “micro”, “small”, “slender”, “fine”, which means that it is an extremely delicate and slender thing, and it is not easy for people to perceive. The human mind is at rest, but once a person has “thoughts”, all kinds of desires and evil thoughts will follow. Therefore, Liu Zongzhou suggests that one should “be aware of the few thoughts that move one’s mind”, that is, one should try to be aware of one’s subtle incorrect thoughts and remind oneself to overcome them, which is another very important aspect of prudence.

5.4 The Four Stages of Prudent Cultivation Traditional Chinese morality attaches great importance to the practice of cultivation, and this can be said to be an important feature of traditional Chinese moral thought. Mencius pointed out the importance of cultivating qi in the formation of moral character, and Xunzi also placed great emphasis on the role of cultivation in the formation of moral thought. After the Song and Ming dynasties, scholars placed greater emphasis on the cultivation of qi while at the same time emphasizing the work of cultivation. Song and Ming thinkers believed that in order to transform the moral norms of society into the quality of people’s minds, one must make painstaking, meticulous and long-term efforts, and such unremitting efforts are called kung fu. From Liu Zongzhou’s exposition, the work of cultivation can be broadly divided into four steps, namely, knowing the fault, remembering the fault, litigating the fault and reforming the fault. (1) Knowing the faults According to Liu Zongzhou, in the whole exercise of prudence, the first thing is to know one’s faults, that is, to be able to know that one has done something wrong and to be able to recognise one’s mistakes. Liu Zongzhou divides human knowledge into two categories, one is called common knowledge and the other is called true knowledge. What is common knowledge? According to him, “ordinary knowledge” means “the knowledge of ordinary people, the knowledge of the learned mind”. What is “true knowledge”? “True knowledge is the “knowledge of the heart”. It is not only the knowledge of being able to know and to act, but also the knowledge of knowing

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one’s own faults. Most of the ancient Chinese thinkers stressed the importance of self-knowledge. Lao Tzu said, “He who knows others is wise, but he who knows himself is wise”, believing that he who knows himself is wiser than he who knows others. Therefore, the thinkers always reminded people that “people suffer from not knowing themselves” and asked them to analyze themselves and know themselves regularly. Liu Zongzhou puts even more emphasis on the awareness of one’s own mistakes. He believed that the purpose of prudence was to correct one’s faults, and that in order to do so, one must first be able to know them. (2) Demerits According to Liu Zongzhou, after knowing one’s faults, one must further ‘remember them’, that is, consciously and meticulously write down one’s faults. Liu Zongzhou inherited the method of “merit and demerit” advocated by ancient thinkers, and further developed it. The so-called “merit and demerit grid” was originally a means for ancient Chinese believers in feudal rituals and religions to register their deeds, distinguishing good from bad, day by day, in order to examine the changes in their thoughts and behavior. In the Song Dynasty, Fan Zhongyan and Su Xun had a “merit and demerit grid”. Later on, Yuan Dafan of the Ming Dynasty advocated it, and it became popular. In ancient times, Taoists in China also used the good and bad of their daily behavior as a criterion for weighing the blessings and misfortunes of ghosts and gods.4 Despite its feudalistic and idealistic content, the “merit and demerit grid” played an important role in improving people’s cultivation, encouraging and urging them to turn away from good and evil. He said that he had “repented of his anger and closed his house and study, so much so that he did not sleep at night, did not eat all day, and was punished by kneeling and striking himself. As if this were not enough, he “engraved the words ‘Divine Principle’ and ‘Human Desire’ in a booklet, in two lines. When a thought comes from the Divine Principle, it is dotted with a red pen; when a thought comes from human desire, it is dotted with a black pen. On the tenth day, count them, depending on the number of red and black. He also tied a rope around his arm and made a wooden tablet with words of caution, which he hid in his sleeve and always checked to warn himself” (Mingdao zhuan). This method is also known as the “merit and demerit” method, i.e. to record both the right and wrong thoughts in one’s mind and compare them with each other for one’s own cultivation. It can be seen that the thinkers of the Ming dynasty, in the work of cultivation, have made great efforts to form a more complete set of methods.

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Book 78 of the Dao Zang (The Taoist Collection), the “Taewei Xianjun’s Grid of Merit and Demerit” contains 36 articles of “merit and demerit” and 39 articles of “demerit law”. The rules stipulate that treating people’s diseases, saving their lives, teaching scriptures, praying for them, and persuading them to do good deeds are all recorded as merits, while committing unkind, unkind, unrighteous, and misdeeds are all recorded as faults. It was recorded on a daily basis, with a small comparison in a month and a large one in a year, so that those who did more good would be blessed and those who did more wrong would be blamed, thus encouraging Taoists to do good and avoid evil.

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Liu Zongzhou, on the basis of the original “merit and demerit grid”, put forward his own different view, arguing that it was not necessary to remember what one had done that was “meritorious”, but only to remember one’s “demerits”. It is enough to remember one’s “faults”. He believed that “no fault is good” and that a moral person should “speak of faults but not of merits” in his moral training. Therefore, he changed the former “merit and demerit” to “demerit and demerit”. He also divided the faults that people might have into six categories: firstly, micro-faults, which occur before one’s desires arise and when they are about to occur, and which cannot be known by others, but which must be taken seriously by a person who is careful to keep to himself. The second is a hidden transgression, which means that an evil thought has been formed, but it has not yet manifested itself in the form and appearance, and is not yet visible to outsiders. A person who is able to be discreet must not ignore such hidden faults. Thirdly, it is a manifest fault, i.e. the evil thought has been revealed through one’s voice and appearance, and has been expressed in one’s words and actions. In other words, this kind of transgression is a manifest transgression, which is developed from the minor and hidden transgressions, and should be guarded against. According to Liu Zongzhou’s explanation, on the one hand, these are faults that concern the relationship between ruler and subject, father and son, elders and children, husband and wife, friends, etc. On the other hand, these are faults that have been developed through subtlety, concealment and manifestation, so they are said to be great faults. Sixth is to become a fault, this kind of fault has gone to “evil”. Liu Zongzhou says that “becoming a fault is the door to all evils”, which means that this kind of fault is about to enter “evil”. According to Liu Zongzhou, if one is to cultivate a true moral mind, one must record all one’s faults and be strict with oneself, rather than recording one’s merits. (3) Litigation The purpose of remembering faults is to rectify them, and to do so we must “litigate” them. What is a lawsuit? To sue for wrongdoing means to take the initiative in selfanalysis and self-criticism of one’s own faults, with the aim of correcting them. It is for this reason that Liu Zongzhou, after stressing the importance of remembering one’s faults, then raises the issue of suing for faults. How was this to be done? Liu Zongzhou inherited the method of meditation and introspection from the Song and Ming scholars and developed it considerably. As early as the Analects of Confucius, we have already seen references to introspection, self-reflection and self-suit. Confucius says, “When you see a virtuous man, think of him, and when you see an unworthy man, think of yourself”, and “I have already done so! I have never seen anyone who can see his faults and litigate within himself”. Zeng Zi said, “I have been thinking about myself three times a day: How can I be unfaithful in my plans for others? Do you not trust your friends? Is it not a good idea to teach? “The Book of Rites—The Book of Learning also says: “Knowing inadequacies, one can then reflect on oneself.” Liu Zongzhou stresses that in order to carry out a lawsuit, one must sit in meditation very religiously, close the pavilion for the whole day, constantly litigating oneself, and constantly improving oneself. Is this method of meditation a bit like sitting in meditation? It is not. Liu Zongzhou said, “Whenever

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Cheng brothers saw a man meditating, he would sigh at his good learning. Later people also said that he was not teaching people to sit in meditation and enter into meditation, but to supplement a section of the primary school to seek reassurance.” He says that meditation is not “nothing”, but rather “careful work”, a serious effort of introspection and restraint. (4) Reformation Liu Zongzhou stresses that the purpose of remembering and prosecuting faults is to correct them, so correcting faults is the most important purpose of prudence, and it is also the most important form of prudence. As we live in society, we will always make mistakes of one kind or another. Confucius once said, “If you do not change your faults, you are a fault”, emphasizing the importance of correcting your faults. Liu Zongzhou inherited this idea and believed that as long as one can correct one’s mistakes from the smallest of faults, it is very good and not a fault; only those who have faults and refuse to correct them are really at fault. In the area of reform, Liu Zongzhou particularly emphasizes the need for “action” and the need to “unite knowledge and action”. He inherited and developed Wang Yangming’s idea that “knowledge and action are but one thing, the beginning of knowledge and the end of action; knowledge is the examination of action, and action is the reality of knowledge. If one speaks of knowledge, one need not speak of action, and if one speaks of action, one need not speak of knowledge”. He believes that true knowledge also includes action; he emphasizes the need to know the faults because, in knowing the faults, there is already the meaning of action that can change them. It is in this sense that Liu Zongzhou gives a new interpretation of the “Great Learning” of the Ge-material and Zhi-know. He said, “The way of the university is, in a nutshell, to be prudent and independent.” He also says, “The principles of the Great Learning and the requirements of the Great Learning and the requirements of the Great Learning are all designed for the purpose of prudence and solitude, for the purpose of correcting one’s mistakes.” From the above analysis, we can see that the core of Liu Zongzhou’s ethical thinking is prudence, which means that people should follow the efforts of knowing, remembering, litigating and reforming their moral cultivation to reform their minds, improve their quality and sublimate their souls, so that through hard work they can eventually achieve the goal of becoming a saint. On the one hand, he stresses that human beings are good by nature and that they are born with such a good heart; on the other hand, he emphasizes that the ability to be prudent is the difference between human beings and animals, and that it is necessary for people to make conscious efforts to maintain and develop this good heart so that it will not be tempted by external objects. In a socialist society, it is of great importance to cultivate the morality of young people, to raise the moral standards of the people and to improve the moral morality of society as a whole. In order to strengthen socialist moral education, only when moral principles and moral codes are internalised in people’s hearts can practical results be achieved. Therefore, while attaching importance to moral cultivation, the question of how to bring into play the role of moral internalisation is a particularly

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prominent one. Liu Zongzhou’s idea of prudence is still of some inspiration and relevance today. Liu Zongzhou lived more than 500 years ago when the Ming dynasty was about to collapse. In his thoughts, virtues, deeds and behavior, Liu Zongzhou’s life was rich in the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation that we can inherit and carry forward, but also in the dregs of the hierarchy of ruler and subject. The Ming dynasty to which he was loyal was a decadent dynasty on the verge of extinction, and his method of death by starvation is not one that we can emulate. However, these were the historical limitations of his time, and we should understand them properly, rather than be too critical. We should follow the principles of critical inheritance and the application of the past to the present, as well as the Marxist attitude of seeking truth from facts and dialectical analysis, which is also a general methodological principle for the inheritance of ancient Chinese ethical thought. Although this is a difficult task, we must learn and master this method and attitude. Only in this way can we accurately understand and examine the social significance of the thoughts and actions of ancient thinkers, and recognise and appreciate the creative contributions they made.

Chapter 14

Traditional Ethics and Moral Development

1 Confucianism and Political Rule In ancient China,1 Confucianism began with Confucius in the late Spring and Autumn period, Confucianism began with Confucius in the late Spring and Autumn period and was developed by Mencius, forming a school of thought with Confucianism and Mencius as its mainstay. After Mencius, Xunzi, a great master of the pre-Qin sages, criticised all schools of thought and further developed Confucianism, giving it a richer content. Since the Han Dynasty, Confucianism has been an important part of the ideology promoted by the ruling class. During the Song and Ming dynasties, Confucianism was developed by Hazel Cheng, Cheng Yi, Zhang Zai, Zhu Xi, Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming, and became a more profound theoretical, systematic and methodological school of thought. Confucianism has played a very important role in Chinese history. There are many schools of thought in ancient China, of which Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism and Buddhism are the four most famous, and Confucianism has a unique status. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, both Confucianism and Mohism were known as prominent schools of thought, i.e. schools of thought that had a significant impact on society, but later on, Mohism simply disappeared; the doctrines of Legalism were highly valued in the Jin and Qin states at the time, and the Qin state was finally unified after six generations of kings, starting with Duke Xiaoyu. As for Taoism, it had a special influence throughout its two thousand years of history. Why were the other three schools of thought not as influential as Confucianism? There are of course many reasons for this, and we could cite a number of them, but I believe that there are four most important ones: First, in the process of its emergence, formation and development, Confucianism inherited and developed the political philosophy, world view and moral thought of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and in a sense it can be said that the main elements of 1

This section was originally published in the book Eight Talks on Chinese and Foreign Historical Issues, Party School Publishing House of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, March 1998 edition. © China Renmin University Press 2023 405 G. Luo, Traditional Ethics and Contemporary Society of China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0256-9_14

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Confucianism already existed in the society of that time before Confucius. Thirdly, Confucian scholars have always stressed the need to combine academic thought with politics, and have sought to make their ideas and theories relevant to the world and to serve the political and economic needs of the society of the time. Fourthly, Confucianism emphasized the important role of morality in human social life, seeing it as an important force in maintaining national stability, maintaining interpersonal harmony, improving the quality of human beings and perfecting human society. In a certain sense, Confucianism believes that the difference between human beings and animals lies in the fact that animals do not have morality, while human beings have morality. In studying and analysing the various schools of thought in ancient China, it is important to consider this situation, which is unique to Confucianism. As a school of thought, Mohism also placed great importance on the integration of theory and real life, and sought to make its contribution to the interests of the people. Why did Moism remain unappreciated by the rulers for more than two thousand years of its history? There are of course many reasons for this, but the main ones are probably two: one is that the agenda they put forward was somewhat beyond the possibilities of the actual development of society at the time; the other is that they did not place enough emphasis on the role of morality. Like Confucianism, Legalism, as a school of thought, also placed great emphasis on the integration of politics, advocating innovation and change, and seeking to enrich the state and strengthen the army; but because it denied the utility of morality altogether, it became known in history as a school of amoralism, and after the Qin dynasty it lost its original status. One of the major reasons for the emergence of Confucianism was that it was a good way to govern the country and save the people in response to the needs of social development at the time, to “save the evils of the time” and to “worry about the chaos of the world”. Because of its special emphasis on moral education and moral reform, it was always unlikely to be taken seriously in times of war, turmoil, revolution and chaos, and was even subject to various kinds of criticism and ridicule, and was often regarded as pedantic and not adopted by the utilitarian politicians. However, in times of national stability and peaceful social development, when there was a need to strengthen moral education and improve personal qualities, Confucianism was often taken seriously by the ruling class. The most striking feature of Confucianism is that it places special emphasis on the spirit of morality, the so-called “benevolence”. It hopes that through the conscious effort of each individual, he or she will be able to “love people with benevolence”. Confucianism believes that the highest pursuit in life for a person living in society is to become a “saint” with the moral quality of “benevolence”. In Confucianism, the aim of learning is to improve one’s moral character and to learn to be a moral person. Confucianism emphasizes that society should set out clearly and in detail the various political and legal systems and moral codes that govern human behavior, which is what Confucianism calls “ritual”. The various codes of etiquette were permeated with a strong ethical and moral imperative, thus serving to maintain the political system of the time. Therefore, everyone in social life should eliminate the wrong ideas in their minds that are not in line with rituals, in order to achieve the state of benevolence, which is what Confucius called restoring rituals to oneself is benevolence. This is

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what Confucius meant when he said, “to restrain oneself and restore propriety is benevolence. Confucianism is an ethical ideology that serves politics and is closely integrated with politics. The politicisation of ethics and the ethicalisation of politics is a distinctive feature that distinguishes Confucianism from other schools of thought, and is one of the fundamental reasons why Confucianism has been the ideology of the ruling class for a long period of history. Throughout its long history, Confucianism has evolved and changed. The Han dynasty was a period of further development and refinement of Confucianism, especially in terms of the politicisation of ethics. During the Song and Ming dynasties, as feudal society was in decline, the state was in constant distress, and government corruption was increasing, Confucianism also became extreme and one-sided. In order to maintain the rule of the feudal dynasty, the idea of the ‘Three Principles’ was reinforced and the idea of foolish loyalty and filial piety developed. I Since ancient times, scholars have held different views on how the core of ancient Chinese Confucianism should be summarized. Some scholars believe that the core of Confucianism is “benevolence”, while others believe that the core of Confucianism is “propriety”. Personally, I believe that the core of Confucianism can be summarized in five areas: (1) The idea of benevolence Confucius emphasized ‘benevolence’ and believed that a benevolent person should love others. In the relationship between people, he put forward the ideas of “seeking the truth from oneself” and “being able to draw parallels”. From the idea that all people are the same “class”, he advocated that people should love each other. Confucius believed that the most important criterion for judging a person’s morality or moral awareness was whether he could “love others”. In the Analects, it is written that “Fan Chi asked for benevolence”, and Tzu said, “Love people”, an important and profound explanation of benevolence given by Confucius. This is an important and profound interpretation of ren by Confucius. From the numerous discussions of ren in the Analects (according to statistics, the word ren is mentioned 104 times in the Analects), the one that best represents Confucius’ idea of “loving people” is the Analects of Confucius. The most representative of Confucius’ idea of “loving others” are four passages from the Analects: “Do not do to others what you do not want” (Analects—Yan Yuan), “Do to others what you want to do to them, and do to them what you want to achieve” (Analects—Yong Ye), “I do not want others to inflict me, I also want to inflict no one” (Analects of Confucius—Gongye Chang), “To be able to practice the five (respect, generosity, faith, sensitivity, and beneficence) in the world is to be benevolent” (Analects of Confucius—Yangcai). By linking these four passages together, we can understand the main meaning of what Confucius means by ‘benevolence’. Here, Confucius sees ren as the highest moral code and moral quality. To “love others” means to put oneself in the shoes of others, which means to use oneself as a metaphor. Whatever you do not want for yourself, do not put it on others; whatever you wish to have, make it possible for others to have; whatever you wish to achieve, make it possible for others to achieve. For a ruler,

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this means to try to satisfy the needs of the people, to “benefit the people according to their interests”, i.e. to make the people rich according to the actual situation and according to the possibilities; to “benefit the people”, to make the people receive practical favors. Confucius not only regarded “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” as an important element of “loving others”, but also stressed its methodological significance, i.e. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” as a fundamental way of dealing with people. He also emphasized its methodological significance, i.e. he regarded “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” as a fundamental way of dealing with each other, or what he called “the way to be benevolent”. Why did Confucius emphasize this “way of being benevolent”? Because Confucius believed that these principles of benevolence should be the motive, the starting point and the means to an end for all the thoughts and actions of a moral person. On the other hand, if one can start from these principles, one’s behavior is bound to be moral. Although it was impossible for the slave-owning class to truly love the slave class, and it was impossible for Confucius and the nobles of the time to treat the slaves as they did the slave-owners, the idea of “loving people” reflected, to a greater or lesser extent, his generosity towards the working people, and was of positive significance in feudal society at the time and in the future, It had positive significance both at the time and in later feudal societies. This idea of Confucius was developed by Mencius and became a more systematic people-oriented idea. Mencius further put forward the idea that ‘the people value the ruler’, stressing that not only should people love each other, but also that as a ruler, it is more important to love the people, i.e. to love the people, otherwise the people will oppose the ruler and it will be impossible for society to be stable. According to Mencius, a ruler must win the hearts of the people if he wants to make the country rich and strong and keep his rule stable. He said, “The Jie and Zhou lost the world because they lost their people, and those who lost their people lost their hearts. There is a way to win the world: if you win the people, you will win the world; if you win the people: if you win their hearts, you will win them; if you win their hearts, you will gather them with what you want, but do not give them what they hate. When the people return to benevolence, it is as if the water is going down and the beast is going to Xieng Khouang. Therefore, those who drive away the fish from the abyss are the otters; those who drive away the lord from the bush are the sparrows; those who drive away the people from Tang and Wu are the Jie and Zhou. If there is a benevolent ruler today, then all the vassals will be driven away by him. Though he wishes to be without a king, he cannot be.” (Mencius—Li Lou I) Mencius also said, “The three dynasties won the world by benevolence, but they lost it by unbenevolence. The same is true of the reasons for the rise and fall of states. If the Son of Heaven is not benevolent, he will not protect the four seas; if the vassals are not benevolent, they will not protect the land and the society; if the officials are not benevolent, they will not protect the temple; if the common people are not benevolent, they will not protect the four bodies. To be unkind and to rejoice in unkindness is to be unkind and to be drunk.” (ibid.) Mencius believed that the most important thing for a ruler was to win the hearts of the people, and in order to win the hearts of the people, he had to have the idea

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of loving the people. For, in his view, as long as a ruler had the idea of loving the people, he would be able to satisfy the demands of the people as much as possible, and what the people wanted, he would give them; what the people hated, he would never give them. Mencius believed that this idea of loving the people had a very broad and universal significance, and that it was necessary not only for the rulers at the top, such as the emperor and the vassals, but also for the scholars and the common people. In short, we can see that while Mencius stresses that ‘love for the people’ is an important moral principle between people, he also emphasizes the greater significance of ‘love for the people’ as a moral requirement for rulers. Xunzi was the master of Confucianism during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, and he developed the Confucian idea of ‘love for others’ in a new way. Inheriting the ideas of Confucius, Xunzi further developed a clearer view of the characteristics of human beings from the perspective of the “class”. He said: “Water and fire have qi but no life, grass and trees have life but no knowledge, and animals have knowledge but no righteousness. Man has qi, life and knowledge, and he has righteousness. Therefore, he is the most valuable person in the world.” It is also said that man “is not as strong as an ox or as fast as a horse, but he is used by them. He said,” A man can herd, but he cannot. How can a man herd? He said, “By dividing. How can the division be done? He said: Righteousness”. Therefore, if righteousness is divided, there will be harmony. Thus, Xunzi stresses the importance of maintaining mutual harmony between people. However, Xunzi also saw that “if a man desires something, and if he does not want it, he cannot do without it; if he desires it without a measure of division, he cannot do without strife; strife leads to chaos, and chaos leads to poverty.” (Xun Zi—Li Lun) How can we overcome or avoid this situation and ensure harmony between people? Xunzi particularly emphasizes the role of rituals. According to Xunzi, rites can “nourish people’s desires and give them what they want”, and everyone should limit their own desires according to the requirements and regulations of rites, and think of the desires of others when pursuing and satisfying their own desires, so as to maintain social stability. At the same time, Xunzi also emphasized the importance of developing production and improving the living standards of the direct producers in his book Enriching the State. During the Song and Ming dynasties, Zhang Zai took Confucianism’s idea of ‘love for others’ to a new level by giving it a broader interpretation. There is a rather long but important passage in Zhang Zai’s Zhengmeng, which we quote below: “Qian is called Father, Kun is called Mother; I am small, but I am mixed up in the middle. Therefore, the plug of heaven and earth is my body; the command of heaven and earth is my nature. The people are my compatriots, and I am with all things. The great ruler is the son of my parents, and his ministers are the ministers of the sons. He who respects the senior, so that he may grow up; and he who shows mercy to the orphan, so that he may be young. He is a man of virtue, and a man of virtue. All the world’s tired and disabled, lonely and widowed, all my brothers are upside down and have no complaints.” (Zhang Zi Zheng Meng—Xi Ming). The meaning of this passage is very profound. It means that heaven and earth are the parents of man. Man is endowed with the qi of heaven and endowed with the form of the earth, and lives in the midst of heaven and earth. Our human bodies are

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made up of the imaginable qi between heaven and earth, and our humanity is made up of the clear and communicative gods between heaven and earth. Since all men are born of the common parent of heaven and earth, all men are brothers to each other; all other creatures in the world are companions and friends of mankind. Emperors and kings are the eldest sons of the common parents of us all (heaven and earth), and their ministers are the chief stewards of the house of the eldest sons of heaven and earth, and they are also brothers to all others. We are to honor all the older people in the world as we honor the older people in our own families, and we are to love all the weak and lonely people in the world as we do the youngest in our own families. All those who have high morals in society are in harmony with the morals of heaven and earth, and all those who are talented and virtuous are excellent talents among our brothers; and all those who are disabled, lonely and widowed are those among our brothers who are in distress and have no place to turn to, and we should give them the greatest care and love. Zhang Zai’s idea of “the people are my compatriots, and I am with them” was a major development of the Confucian idea of “loving people”, which was highly respected by thinkers after the Song Dynasty and had a very important influence in the history of Chinese philosophical and ethical thought. (2) Emphasis on holistic spirit For a long time, scholars have overlooked this important spirit that is embedded in Confucianism in their generalizations of Confucianism. From Confucius onwards, the interests of the state, society, the nation and the whole have had a special place in Confucian thought. According to Confucius, the only condition for the attainment of benevolence is to “restrain oneself and restore propriety”, i.e. to restrain oneself from all thoughts and actions that are inconsistent with propriety. In the Analects of Confucius, it is written: “Yan Yuan asked about ren. Tzu said, ‘To restrain oneself and return the rites is to be benevolent. Once you have done so, the world will be benevolent.’ …… ‘Please ask about its purpose’. Tzu said, ‘Do not look, do not listen, do not speak, and do not move unless you are courteous.’” To his son, he particularly emphasized that ‘without learning rites, there is no way to stand’ (Analects of Confucius—Ji Shi), fully affirming the importance of rites. In ancient thought, the content of rituals was very broad and consisted of three main aspects: the requirements of the national political system, the constraints of legal codes and the norms of ethics and morality. In a nutshell, rites represent the interests of the state, of the whole, of the nation and of society. The Zuo Zhuan quotes the words of a gentleman as saying, “Rites are those that govern the state, define the community, order the people, and benefit future generations.” (Zuo Zhuan—The Eleventh Year of Duke Yin) “Rites are also the scriptures of heaven, the righteousness of the earth, and the conduct of the people.” (Zuo Zhuan—25 years of the Duke of Zhao) “If rites are not practiced, the upper and lower classes will be in a daze, so how can the world grow? ”(Zuo Zhuan—Xi Gong XI Nian) Confucianism emphasizes “righteousness” in addition to “ritual”, and regards “righteousness” as opposed to personal “self-interest”. “In addition to ritual, Confucianism also emphasizes righteousness, which is seen as a public good in contrast to one’s private interests”. In terms of the relationship between individuals and others and society, Confucianism stresses

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“righteousness as the highest priority” and “righteousness before profit”, and advocates “seeing righteousness as righteousness” and “seeing profit as righteousness”. Confucianism emphasizes “righteousness as the highest priority”, “righteousness before profit”, “righteousness in view of gain”, “righteousness in view of profit”, and “righteousness in view of profit”. When Confucius said, “A gentleman is guided by righteousness, while a villain is guided by profit”, he did not see the gentleman and the villain as two fixed and opposing modes of personality, but proposed a criterion for judging the gentleman and the villain. If one is guided by self-interest and acts according to whether or not it can be satisfied, one becomes an immoral villain; on the contrary, if one is guided by righteousness and acts according to it, one becomes a moral gentleman. In this context, “righteousness” refers mainly to the overall interest, while “profit” refers mainly to individual self-interest. As early as in the Shang Shu, there is a reference to “fighting selfishness with the public” (Shang Shu—Zhou Guan), and in the Zuo Zhuan, “loyalty” and “the public” are repeatedly linked, suggesting In the Zuo Zhuan, “loyalty” is repeatedly linked to “the public”, and “loyalty is when one knows what is in the public interest and does not fail to do it” (Zuo Zhuan—Nine Years of Duke Xi) and “loyalty is when one does not forget one’s country in the face of trouble” (Zuo Zhuan—Year of Zhao A.D.). Jia Yi, a thinker in the early Han dynasty, further proposed that “the state should forget the family, the public should forget the private, profit should not be taken for granted, harm should not be removed, and righteousness is the only thing that lies in it” (Xinshu—Classes). After the Song dynasty, Confucianism also emphasizes the importance of the interests of the state and society, and the essence of the distinction between righteousness and profit is the distinction between public and private. According to Zhu Xi, ‘the tendency of the gentleman and the small man is different, between public and private’ (The Collected Commentaries on the Four Books—Commentaries on the Analects). At the end of the Spring and Autumn period, Confucius, in response to the social turmoil of his time, strongly emphasized the importance of centralised power for the stability and economic development of a society. Of course, from the point of view of historical development, it is true that he was on the conservative side, serving to preserve a slave society that had fallen into decline. However, today we should also analyze these statements of Confucius in a dialectical way, using a historical materialist approach. In the Analects of Confucius, there are two passages in which Confucius speaks about the defence of the Son of Heaven and the rule of the state at that time, which in the past we have mostly rejected from a critical point of view. This rejection and criticism, it should be said, is basically correct, but today there is another aspect of it that should be seen. In the Analects of Confucius, the Eight Dancers, it is written: “Confucius said to the Ji family: ‘Eight dancers dancing in the court is something that can be tolerated, but what cannot be tolerated?” Confucius also said, in response to the situation of the “three schools of thought”, “‘The son of heaven is in the hall of the three schools of thought’? “Here, we can see that Confucius’ orthodoxy and his stance on defending the interests of the ruling class were firm, and he firmly opposed the subordination of the vassal states to their superiors. What is the “eight dancers dancing in the court”? Why was Confucius so angry with the Ji clan? At that time, the Ji clan was only a vassal state governor under the Zhou dynasty,

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with a very low rank. According to the rituals of the time, the Son of Heaven used eight dancers, the vassals used six dancers, and the great officials could only use four dancers. Confucius was of the opinion that the practice of the Ji clan, which showed his usurpation and behavior, would lead to social disorder and turmoil, which was the greatest danger to the society and the state. This was the greatest danger to society and the state. Therefore, when Confucius learned of this incident, he was very angry and said that if such things could be tolerated, what else could not be tolerated? What are the three schools of thought? The three families to which Confucius referred were the three families of the great rulers of the state of Lu, Meng Sun, Shu Sun and Ji Sun. According to the rules of rituals, the music of “yong” could only be used during the rituals of the Son of Heaven. When the three families had finished their rituals, they also asked the musicians to sing the poem “Yong”, which reads: “The lords of the four quarters came to assist the rituals, while the Son of Heaven solemnly officiated there”. Therefore, in Confucius’s view, this was treacherous. In The Analects of Confucius, Confucius also discusses this view in another way. He says: “If there is a way in the world, then rites and music will come from the Son of Heaven; if there is no way in the world, then rites and music will come from the vassals. If the vassal comes out, it will not be lost for ten generations; if the great minister comes out, it will not be lost for five generations; if the minister holds the command of the state, it will not be lost for three generations. If there is a way in the world, the government is not for the great officials. If there is a way in heaven, the common people will not discuss it.” What exactly did Confucius mean when he provoked such a great debate? The meaning and content of the “Way” that Confucius refers to is very broad, and in this case, it refers mainly to the ruling order of a society. Confucius believed that if the ruling order of a society is stable, then there is the Way of the World; otherwise, there is no Way of the World. So what is the criterion for judging whether a society is stable or not? According to Confucius, an important criterion is the authority of the central government and whether its decrees can be implemented throughout the country. If the power of the Zhou emperor fell into the hands of the ruler of a vassal state, there would be very few cases in which it would not collapse after ten generations; if it fell into the hands of a vassal state’s governor, there would be very few cases in which it would not collapse after five generations; if it fell into the hands of a governor’s vassal, there would be very few cases in which it would not collapse after three generations. Therefore, Confucius said, “If there is a way for the world to be governed”, the state power must not fall into the hands of the vassal states. Confucius stressed the importance of strengthening the authority of the central leadership in order to maintain social stability and order in a society. Of course, we should analyze this issue in the light of Marxist historical materialism. What Confucius wanted to preserve was the rule of the slave-owning class, and what he called centralised authority was a kind of oppression and domination of the exploited class by the exploiting class, which should be completely rejected. However, this idea of Confucius has had an important influence on the development of Chinese society, and its role in history should be analyzed dialectically. Today, the authority of state power and central leadership is based on the democracy and freedom of the people, and this is something we must be aware of.

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The holistic thinking of Confucianism has played an important role in promoting the patriotic spirit of the Chinese nation. From Mencius’ “kill oneself for benevolence” and “sacrifice one’s life for righteousness”, to Fan Zhongyan’s “worry before the world’s worries and rejoice after the world’s happiness”, to Gu Yanwu’s “The rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of every man,” and Lin Zexu’s “If you want the country to live and die, do you want to avoid it because of disasters and blessings” can all be said to be based on the holism of ancient Chinese Confucianism. (3) Promoting human values Confucianism emphasizes the place of each individual in social relationships and the duties and rights to which he or she is entitled. In social life, people are bound to have different kinds of relationships, and therefore, there must be different kinds of norms to regulate the relationships between people. An important feature of traditional Chinese ethics is that it attaches great importance to the status and value of each individual in human relationships, emphasizing that each individual must do his or her duty according to the requirements of the norms. As we can see, the idea of the Five Teachings was put forward as early as in the Shang Shu. According to the Shangshu-Sun Canon, the Five Teachings had become the five most important moral codes recognised by society at that time. It is said that Shun paid great attention to his own moral cultivation before he succeeded Yao as emperor, focusing on the five human virtues of father’s righteousness, mother’s kindness, brother’s friendship, brother;s respect and son’s filial piety. Later, when he succeeded to the throne, he appointed a man called Qie to be in charge of education and said to him, “Qie! He said to him, “Che! The people are not close to each other, and the five grades are not respectful. You are to be the chief minister of education, and to be respectful of the five teachings, and to be generous.” The meaning here is that among the people, parents, brothers and children are not harmonious with each other, and now you are asked to be a minister of the five kinds of education, and you should be careful to be generous to them. The five kinds of education mentioned here are “righteousness of father, kindness of mother, friendship of brother, respect of brother, and filial piety of son”. In Zuo Zhuan—Duke Wen’s Eighteenth Year, Ji Wenzi quotes Zang Wenzhong’s words and asks Shi Ke to tell him that the Gao Xin clan “raised the eight elements and spread five kinds of education in all directions: father’s righteousness, mother’s kindness, brother’s friendship, brother’s respect and son’s filial piety, so as to achieve internal peace and external success”. The Zuo Zhuan (Zuo Zhuan— The Twenty-sixth Year of Duke Zhao) records a conversation between Yanzi of Qi and the Marquis of Qi, in which Yanzi tells the Marquis of Qi, “Rites have been in place for a long time and are in harmony with heaven and earth. The ruler’s orders, the ministers’ cooperation, the father’s kindness, the son’s filial piety, the brother’s love, the brother’s respect, the husband’s harmony, the wife’s tenderness, the aunt’s kindness, the woman’s heed, these are the rites. The ruler’s order is not disobeyed, the ministers share it, the father’s kindness is taught, the son’s filial piety is respected, the brother’s love is friendly, the brother’s respect is obedient, the husband’s harmony is righteous, the wife’s tenderness is righteous, the aunt’s kindness is obedient, and the woman’s listening is gentle: these are also the good things of rites.” In this passage,

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Yanzi gives a more comprehensive explanation of the ‘ten righteousnesses’ of ancient Chinese moral codes. Confucius inherited the ideas of the five religions from before the Spring and Autumn Period, and among these relationships, Confucius attached particular importance to the position and role of the father-son relationship and the relationship between ruler and subject in the various human relationships. In the Analects of Confucius, when Duke Jing of Qi asked Confucius how to govern the state, Confucius replied: “The ruler, the minister, the father, the son, and the son”. This means that in order to govern a country well, one must first behave like a ruler, like a subject, like a father, like a son, and like a son. If the ruler, the subjects, the father and the son can all fulfil their responsibilities in human relations, then the country will naturally be well governed. Confucius attached particular importance to filial piety and saw it as the starting point for all human relations, so as to safeguard the interests of feudal society as a whole and the interests of the state. It was from this requirement that filial piety was called the root of all morality and the starting point of all education. The first chapter of the Analects of Confucius begins with the following statement: “There are few people who are filial, but are good at offending their superiors; those who are not good at offending their superiors, but are good at rebellion, are not found. A gentleman is concerned with the root, and when the root is established, the way is born. Filial piety is the foundation of benevolence!” Confucius believed that parents should not only be nurtured, but also respected. Confucius believed that one should not only nurture but also respect one’s parents. He said, “Nowadays, those who are filial are said to be able to nurture. As for dogs and horses, they can all be nurtured; if they are not respected, how can they be distinguished?” Confucianism stresses that “the filial son who has deep love must have harmony. If a filial son has a deep love, there must be harmony. He who has a pleasant colour must have a gentle bearing.” (Book of Rites—Ji Yi) Confucianism believes that one can deduce a person’s attitude towards the state and the nation from his attitude towards his parents. Only if one is filial to one’s parents can one be loyal to the state; if one cannot love one’s parents, how can one expect him to love the state and the nation? It was from this premise that the saying “seek loyal subjects at the door of filial sons” was derived. During the Warring States period, Mencius summarized the relationships in society at that time into five broad areas and proposed guidelines for dealing with them, namely, “there is kinship between father and son, righteousness between ruler and subject, distinction between husband and wife, orderliness between elders and children, and trust in friends”. These five relationships, as proposed by Mencius, include the relationships between father and son, ruler and subject, husband and wife, elders and children, and friends, and the five different principles for handling these relationships. The father and the son have affection, which means that parents should be loving to their children and children should be filial to their parents; the ruler and the subjects have righteousness, which means that the ruler should be courteous to his subjects and the subjects should be loyal to the ruler; the husband and the wife have distinction, which means that the husband should be in charge of external affairs and the wife should only be in charge of internal affairs; the eldest and the youngest should be in order, which means that the eldest should be in front and the youngest in order; and

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the friends have trust, which means that friends should be honest and trustworthy with each other. Friends have trust, meaning that friends should be honest and trustworthy with each other. These five types of human relations outlined by Mencius basically reflected the actual situation of human relations at that time, and the five principles he put forward to deal with these five types of relations were beneficial to the adjustment of various relations between people at that time. Because of this, these principles have been valued throughout history and have had a significant impact. After the Han Dynasty, thinkers put forward new principles in order to better regulate the ever-changing interpersonal relationships, such as Dong Zhongshu’s “five constants of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trust”, and the Song Dynasty’s “four virtues of loyalty, filial piety, modesty and righteousness”. The four virtues were reinforced and the importance of human values was stressed. (4) The pursuit of spirituality and ideal personality The pursuit of spirituality and the ideal personality is an important element of Confucianism. Confucius advocated that, when the material needs of life are basically satisfied, the pursuit of a noble ideal personality should be regarded as a high level need among the various needs of life. He even believed that even in the midst of extreme material hardship, one could still live an optimistic and happy life as long as one had a noble pursuit. He considered his student Yan Hui to be in this position. He said, “Wise, Hui too! A frying pan for food and a ladle for drink in a humble alley, where people cannot bear to worry, but Hui does not change his happiness. He is so virtuous, Hui too!” Confucius also said of himself, “I am happy when I have eaten and drunk water, and when I have bent my arms and pillowed my head; I am as happy as a floating cloud when I am unjust and rich.” (The Analects of Confucius—Shu Zi) The meaning here is that since Confucius already had a noble pursuit of life, he had great pleasure in such a life, even though he could only eat coarse food, drink plain water, and sleep with his arms bent as a pillow; on the contrary, the wealth and riches obtained by unjust means were like floating clouds in the sky to Confucius, and he did not need to bother about them. When Duke Ye asked Confucius’ pupil Zi Lu what he thought of Confucius’ character, Zi Lu did not know how to answer. When Confucius found out, he said to Zi Lu, “Why don’t you say this: He was a man who, in pursuit of a lofty ideal, was so angry that he often forgot to eat, so happy that he forgot to worry, and he didn’t even know that he was getting old.” “He was a man who was so indignant that he forgot to eat and so happy that he forgot to worry, not knowing that old age was approaching.” [ibid]) It was because Confucius himself had this spirit that he could also praise Yan Hui’s in particular. The Confucian scholars of the Song dynasty, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, when teaching their students, also asked them to ponder and appreciate why Confucius and Yan Hui had such happiness under difficult conditions, which is what Confucianism calls “the joy of Confucius and Yan”. This pursuit of a noble ideal of character, as emphasized by Confucianism, often became the spiritual backbone of death, sacrifice, selflessness and love of country and people. The joy of Confucianism, as emphasized in the Analects of Confucius, and the worries and pleasures of the world as expressed in Mencius, as well as the words “the rich and the noble cannot be lusted after, the

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poor and the lowly cannot be removed, the mighty and the strong cannot be bent” and “only righteousness can be found”, are the embodiment of this pursuit in life. The pursuit of a noble ideal personality, as advocated by Confucianism, is always linked to an attitude of self-improvement, robustness and vigour, and a sense of “knowing what is impossible and doing it”. Although this noble pursuit cannot be achieved overnight or is even difficult for the average person to attain, Confucianism stresses that even if one cannot attain it, one must still pursue it with perseverance and persistence. In the pursuit of spirituality and the ideal personality, Mencius proposed the difference between the “heavenly title” and the “human title”. Mencius said, “There are those who have a heavenly title and those who have a human title. He who is benevolent, righteous, faithful, and happy to do good, is also a heavenly title; and he who is a public official, a great official, is also a human title.” (Mencius—Gaozi I) The “heavenly title” that Mencius refers to is a moral “title” that is naturally formed among the people by one’s moral conduct and moral qualities, which is the most noble “title It is the highest “title”, the highest expression of one’s personality value. The “human title” he refers to is a political title that one acquires in society, a position that can only be given by others and can be removed by them at any time, so it is not necessarily related to one’s personality value. In response to the fact that some people in society at that time were only interested in power and not in morality, Mencius said: “In ancient times, people cultivated their heavenly titles, and the human titles followed them. Today’s men cultivate their heavenly titles in order to claim their human titles; those who have acquired the human titles and abandon their heavenly titles are also very confused, and will eventually perish.” (ibid) According to Mencius, in ancient times, when people cultivated their moral titles, their political titles came with them; nowadays, people cultivate their moral titles in order to pursue political titles, and once they obtain political titles in government, they abandon their moral titles, which is a very confusing approach, and as a result, they cannot even keep their political titles. He also put forward the idea of “Liang Gui”. He believed that a man must have many pursuits in his life, and that the most worthwhile one was not power or title, but his moral character. He said, “The desire for nobility is the same as the heart of man. Everyone is more valuable than himself, but he does not think about it. What people value is not good value. What is valued by Zhao Meng is valued by Zhao Meng.” (ibid.) Mencius believed that the pursuit of wealth and prosperity was a common desire of all people, and this was acknowledged by all. However, for each person, there is something that is most valuable and worth pursuing for him or her, which many people do not consider carefully. Mencius suggests that this most worthy thing is what he calls “Liang Gui”. Gui, in ancient China, meant to be valuable and worth pursuing, and in today’s terms, it means to have value. Therefore, the so-called “liang gui” is the most valuable and worthy thing that people should pursue. What is this thing? For Mencius, it was the noble pursuit of morality and the ideal personality. In the pursuit of a lofty spiritual state, Confucianism takes the "supreme goodness" as the highest moral state and the "sage" as the most perfect ideal personality. The Confucian classic "The Way of the University" states that "the way of the university is to understand virtue, to be friendly to the people, and to stop at the highest level

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of goodness", and that the purpose of learning is, firstly, to understand one’s own virtuous nature, secondly, to promote one’s own virtuous nature to others, and thirdly, to strive to achieve the highest level of goodness in one’s moral cultivation. According to Confucianism, although the highest goodness is an extremely high moral state that not everyone can necessarily attain, there is a supreme state that everyone should and must know in order to cultivate his or her virtue. Only by knowing and clarifying such a supreme state can one have a clear goal for one’s cultivation. Without such a goal, one will often lose one’s way in the process of cultivation. (5) Emphasis on the importance of cultivation and practice According to Confucianism, the purpose of learning is to “cultivate the temperament” and “change the temperament”, so as to achieve the goal of becoming a saint and a sage. Therefore, in addition to establishing high ideals and moral character, Confucianism believes that the most important thing is to improve moral character through cultivation and practice. Confucianism starts from the goodness of human nature, believing that everyone is born with compassion, shame and evil, resignation and right and wrong, and that if one can develop one’s “original heart” and enlighten one’s “conscience”, one can achieve the moral level of Yao and Shun through long term study. Confucius advocated “cultivating oneself”, “restraining oneself” and “being prudent”, “seeing the virtuous and thinking of the virtuous, and seeing the unvirtuous and reflecting on oneself “Mencius advocated “nurturing one’s nature”, “nurturing one’s body” and “nurturing one’s mind”. “Mencius advocated ‘nurturing one’s nature’, ‘nurturing one’s body’, and ‘nurturing one’s hao qi’; the Taoists of the Song and Ming dynasties put even more effort into cultivation, stressing the importance of self-reflection, preservation, discipline, knowledge of shame, prudence, and self-discipline. In the ancient Chinese thinking of Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism and Dharma, Confucianism not only attaches special importance to cultivation, but also places particular emphasis on the so-called “cultivation efforts”, that is, on the use of various means of cultivation in order to achieve the purpose of cultivation. According to Confucianism, once the moral codes and principles of a society have been established, it is most important that these moral principles and moral codes are quickly transformed into people’s ideology and behavioral practices, so that good moral habits can be developed and a perfect moral personality formed. If the moral principles and norms of a society do not take effect in people’s thoughts and behavior, then all moral education and moral requirements will be nothing but empty words. It is for this reason that Confucianism sees the practice of cultivation as the fundamental guarantee for solving this problem. As early as Confucius’ time, he placed great emphasis on “self-restraint”, “introspection”, “cultivating oneself” and “selfreflection”. However, Confucius did not elaborate on the methods and requirements of such cultivation. Confucius’ student, Zengzi, although he took the phrase “I examine myself three times a day” as a requirement for his own cultivation and set out the three aspects of cultivation, he did not specify how he actually carried out his cultivation. Mencius further developed Confucius’ ideas by proposing “cultivating one’s body”, “nurturing one’s nature” and “nurturing one’s aura”, while further answering

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the question of what constitutes He further answers the question of what is “the qi of the great and powerful” and discusses how he cultivated that “qi of the great and powerful”. According to Mencius, what he calls “the qi of greatness” is a kind of righteousness that is “the greatest and most rigid”, and if one can cultivate it without harming it and with justice, it can be “stuffed between heaven and earth If one can do no harm to it and cultivate it with righteousness, it will “fill the space between heaven and earth”, that is, it will fill the four directions and be everywhere. If a person can possess this righteousness, he will be able to maintain his good heart without being tempted by all external evils, and he will be able to dedicate himself to all righteous causes and become a morally upright person. He believed that at the dawn of the day, one’s mind is in a state where one is able to discern between good and evil, and therefore one should be well cultivated and reflective. He pointed out that this “righteousness” must be accompanied by “righteousness” and “the way”, and that it is the result of a long-term accumulation of righteous thoughts and actions, not of accidental acts of righteousness. It cannot be achieved by accidental acts of justice. As soon as one does something unethical and shameful, one’s “spirit of righteousness” will be weakened. On the one hand, he emphasized the need to cultivate this “qi of the powerful” seriously, but on the other hand, he pointed out that the cultivation of this “qi of the powerful” must follow the rule of gradual progress and perseverance, and should not be aided and abetted by pulling up the seedlings. In the Song and Ming dynasties, due to the influence of Taoist thought, especially Buddhist thought, the theory and practice of cultivation in Confucianism was further developed, and more attention was paid to the so-called “cultivation efforts”. Most of the Song and Ming scholars emphasized the significance of “meditation” and “introspection” as one of the most basic methods of moral cultivation. Confucianism’s classic “Book of Rites” clearly put forward, “cultivate oneself” is the family, the state, the world’s prerequisite and foundation, which is also the fundamental purpose of Confucianism so emphasize cultivation. In order to make a country can be safe and prosperous, Confucianism emphasizes “from the son of heaven to the common people, one is all to cultivate their own body for this”. If a person does not pay attention to the cultivation of the body, it is impossible to rule the country and the world. Therefore, in order to make the country safe and secure, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of moral cultivation among the people. In the Book of Rites, it is also said: “Those who are in disorder at the beginning but not at the end are not in disorder, and those who are thick are thin, while those who are thin are thick are not.” This means that the moral cultivation of every individual, from the highest ruler to the lowest commoner, is the most fundamental. It is like the relationship between the roots and the leaves of a tree, only when the roots are deep can the leaves flourish. The prosperity of a nation is like the luxuriant branches and leaves of a tree, only when the roots are deep will the leaves flourish; if the roots are withered, how can there be luxuriant branches and leaves? In the Confucian theory of human nature, Mencius and Xunzi each advocated one end of the spectrum, one advocated promoting the good nature of human beings, the other advocated strengthening education to “transform nature into falsity”; one advocated “turning one’s body into sincerity”, the other advocated rituals and teachings, but both

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advocated education and cultivation to improve the moral quality of human beings, so as to achieve the goal of becoming a person. Both advocate the improvement of one’s moral character through education and cultivation in order to attain the goal of becoming a saint and a sage. II From the above analysis, we can see that although Confucianism is a school of thought, it is closely linked to politics, with the ultimate aim of governing the state, stabilising society, harmonizing relations and perfecting human virtue. Confucianism emphasizes the following five principles in governing and administering the state: (1) Benefiting, benefiting and enriching the people and teaching, transforming and guiding the people Confucianism believes that in governing a state, it is necessary to benefit, benefit and enrich the people on the one hand, and to teach, transform and guide the people on the other. The ruling class that governs the state must not only enrich the people, but also free them from the desire to compete for wealth and profit, i.e. to benefit them while reducing and eliminating their selfishness. Confucius advocated the principle of ‘benefitting the people for their own good’, which was one of the main principles that Confucius taught his disciples in politics. What does it mean to “benefit the people for their own good”? It means that the people should be given the benefits that they can get according to their demands and realities. Only in this way can we achieve what Confucius called ‘benefit without cost’, i.e. to give the people a real benefit without costing the state its wealth. In the Analects, we can clearly see that on the one hand, Confucius believed that a moral person should never seek personal gain; on the other hand, he advocated giving benefits to the people, and he stressed that the people should be “respectful, generous, faithful, sensitive and beneficent”. He also stressed that the people should be treated with respect, generosity, faithfulness, sensitivity and favor. By ‘favor’, he meant giving favor to the people, for ‘favor is enough to make people happy’. When he spoke to his disciple Ran You about ruling the populous state of Wei, he first emphasized the need to enrich the people of the state. In the Analects of Confucius, it is written: “When Zi Zi was in Wei, Ran You served him. He said: ‘The people are not rich!’ Ran You said, ‘If the people are already rich, what can be added?’ He said, ‘I am rich.’ He said: ‘If you are rich, how can you add to it?’ He said, ‘Teach.’” Confucius also believed that while “benefiting the people”, “benefiting the people” and “enriching the people”, attention should also be paid to “equality”. He said, “We should not worry about scarcity, but about unevenness”, and he believed that “there is no poverty in equality” and “there is no scarcity in harmony”. Harmony between people is the most important thing for the stability of a country. Confucius emphasized the importance of ‘benefitting the people’, ‘benefiting the people’ and ‘enriching the people’, while at the same time placing special emphasis on the fact that ‘the gentleman is guided by righteousness, while the villain is guided by profit’. “He believed that if a man only believed in righteousness, he would not be able to make a profit. He believed that if a person only knew how to pursue his own personal interests, he would certainly become an immoral villain. He also said that

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if a person only knew how to act in accordance with his personal interests, he would attract resentment from the people around him, i.e. “if he acts in the interest, he will have many resentments” (Analects—Liren). By ‘profit’ Confucius meant, in most cases, one’s own personal gain, and Confucianism therefore holds that ‘if one wishes to benefit oneself, one must harm others, and so there is much resentment’. When Confucius’ pupil Zi Xia asked how to engage in politics, Confucius said: “If you do not want to be quick, you will not see small profits. If you want speed, you will not achieve it, and if you see small gains, you will not achieve great things.” (Analects of Confucius—Zi Lu) Here, Confucius believed that in politics, one should take a long-term view and not just pay attention to the immediate and narrow interests to the neglect of the fundamental interests. In short, in order to achieve “great things”, one must not only see “small gains”. Mencius inherited and developed this idea from Confucius, and further discussed it. According to Mencius, “Civil affairs must not be delayed, as the poem says: ‘The day is spent in the hut, and the night is spent in the twist. It is urgent to take advantage of the house, and to begin to sow a hundred grains.’” (Mencius—Teng Wen Gong Shang) The most important thing for the ruling class is to make sure that the common people have the necessary material living conditions, and only when they have a certain amount of material living assurance can they have a stable and healthy mind. In other words, only when the people have a certain amount of industrial income can they observe certain moral norms and codes of conduct, and this is what he says about constant production and constant mind. The following three passages can represent this idea of Mencius: Those who have a constant product have a constant mind, but those who do not have a constant product do not have a constant mind. If they do not have a constant mind, they will do whatever they want to do. If they are caught in a crime and then punished for it, they are also reckless. How can any benevolent man in office be reckless to the people? (Mencius—Teng Wen Gong I). Therefore, a wise ruler must make sure that the people’s property is sufficient to serve their parents and their wives, that they are satisfied for life in happy years, and that they are spared death in bad years. Then he will drive them to be good, and they will follow him lightly. (Mencius—King Hui of Liang I). If a house of five acres is built with mulberry under the walls, and a woman is a sericulturist, the old man will be able to clothe himself with silk. If five hens and two swine are kept in good time, the old man will have enough meat to live without loss. When a hundred-mu field is ploughed by a single man, there will be enough for a family of eight to be free from hunger. (Mencius—Exhausting the Mind I). The only way to make the people persistent is to make them persistent. Otherwise, if they suffer from hunger and cold, they will do whatever they want, breaking the law and doing whatever they want. To wait until they have committed a crime and then punish them is tantamount to framing. What kind of moral person in power would frame the people? A wise ruler, therefore, must make sure that his people’s property is such that they can support their parents above them and their wives and children below them. If there is a good year, the whole family will be well fed, and if there is a bad year, they

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will not die of hunger. The people would then be able to follow the path of goodness, and the people would easily listen. What, then, are the basic conditions for a family to fulfil for the common people? Mencius gave his own criteria. If a house is built on five acres of land and mulberry trees are planted under it, women will raise silkworms and reel silk, so that the elderly will have enough silk and cotton to wear. By raising five hens and two sows in the house and keeping them multiplying, the elderly would have enough meat to eat. Each family was given a hundred acres of land to be cultivated by the men, so that a family of eight people could have enough to eat. Mencius emphasizes the importance of ‘constant production’, but also the need to ‘teach the people’, the most important thing being to remove the people’s desire for profit and fame. The first chapter of Mencius opens with a dialogue with King Hui of Liang. Mencius said, “In a country of ten thousand, the one who kills its ruler must be from a house of a thousand; in a country of a thousand, the one who kills its ruler must be from a house of a hundred. If a nation of ten thousand takes a thousand, and a nation of a thousand takes a hundred, it is not too much. If righteousness follows righteousness and profit precedes righteousness, it will not be taken away but will not be eaten.” (Therefore, if people in a country “are in favor of profit”, then the country is in danger. Mencius believed that “there is no one who is benevolent but leaves his relatives behind”, and that it was most important to educate the people to get rid of the desire for profit in the interest of the ruler. During the Han dynasty, Confucian scholars revived Confucianism, further developing the idea of teaching and guiding the people and combining it with the ideology of the ruling class. In the Zhou Rites, there are two ideas on the governance of the people: firstly, the “eight systems” of the Dazai (one is to be close to the people, secondly, to respect the government, thirdly, to promote the virtuous, fourthly, to make the people capable, fifthly, to protect the mediocrity, sixthly, to respect the nobility, sevenly, to reach the officials, and eighthly, to be courteous to the guests), and secondly, the “nine taels” of the Dazai (firstly, to gain the people by the land; secondly, to gain the people by the nobility). The second was the ‘nine taels’ of the Da Zai (one, the shepherd, to gain the people by land; two, the chief, to gain the people by nobility; three, the teacher, to gain the people by virtue; four, the Confucian, to gain the people by the Way; five, the clan, to gain the people by clan; six, the lord, to gain the people by profit; seven, the official, to gain the people by governance; eight, the friend, to gain the people by appointment; nine, the servant, to gain the people by wealth), and according to the general spirit, the teaching was the core part of it. The rulers of the Han dynasty established the teaching of the people as a state policy, to which subsequent rulers added and subtracted, and which had an extremely important impact on Chinese society. (2) Moral education is the first priority In the governance of the state, Confucianism upholds the ideas of “clear virtue and prudent punishment”, “virtue is the mainstay of punishment” and “moral education is the first priority”, which means that in the relationship between the rule of law and moral education, more importance is attached to the role of moral education. In other

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words, in the relationship between the rule of law and moral education, the role of moral education is given greater importance. In the history of Chinese political rule, the pre-Qin dynasty was a period of parallelism between Confucianism and law. Qin was one of the vassal states of the pre-Qin period that emphasized the rule of law and enforced strict laws. After the Duke of Qin adopted Shang Yang’s advice and implemented the change of law, the state thoroughly criticised and rejected the Confucian idea of moral rule and adopted the rule of law as the only guiding principle in governing the state. After more than a hundred years of efforts, Qin finally put an end to the centuries-long period of war and turmoil and achieved the unification of China, based on Shang Yang’s policy of rewarding farming and warfare, developing agriculture, increasing production and expanding armaments. But no one could have imagined that only fourteen years after this great victory, the Qin Empire would fall. After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, for more than a hundred years, politicians and thinkers engaged in a great debate on how to learn the lessons of the fall of the Qin Dynasty, thus further affirming and developing the Confucian idea of “virtue as the master of punishment”. Confucianism’s idea of “virtue as the master of punishment” in the governance of the state can be traced back to Ji Dan, the Duke of Zhou, in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. After replacing the Shang dynasty, the Zhou dynasty inherited the idea of the divine right of kings from the Shang dynasty, claiming that they were ordained by heaven to rule the country. The Duke of Zhou, based on the lessons of the Shang dynasty’s misuse of criminal law, proposed that a ruler must “match heaven with virtue” and “respect virtue to protect the people”, advocating the improvement of the ruler’s own moral standards and the strengthening of moral education for the common people to convince them. “The rulers of the Western Zhou Dynasty saw the need to improve their own moral standards and to educate the people about morality. The rulers of the Western Zhou Dynasty saw that “Heaven’s order is not constant”, that is to say, Heaven’s order would not always allow any one surname to rule a country, but only those who were virtuous would be blessed by Heaven. Only those who are virtuous will be blessed by the heavens. It is because “there are no relatives in the heavens, but only virtue is an aid” (Shang Shu—Cai Zhong’s Mandate) that it is most important for a ruler to be virtuous and to educate the people with less punishment and more morality. Confucius inherited the ideas of the Duke of Zhou and proposed the idea that “if the people are free and have no shame when the government is followed by punishment, and if the people are free and have no shame when the government is followed by virtue and the people are followed by rites, then they will have shame and behave” (The Analects of Confucius—For the Government). This means that, in the area of political rule, if the people are only taught by decree and restrained by criminal law, they will be spared from committing crimes without knowing that it is shameful; if they are educated by moral education and restrained by moral codes, not only will they not commit crimes, but they will also know that it is shameful to commit crimes, and this will improve the moral quality of the people and the moral morality of the society. For a ruler, Confucius emphasized that “to be virtuous in government is like the North Star, where all the stars are in common” (ibid). This means that if a ruler is able to rule the people with virtue, he will be like

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the Big Dipper, sitting still, while all the other stars will surround him. Mencius’ emphasis on benevolent rule led to the further development of the idea of moral rule. Mencius believed that there were two fundamentally different ways and paths to governing a state, one being the “kingly way” he favored and the other being the “hegemonic way” he opposed. He opposed the use of force by the ruler to make the people obey, but advocated the use of moral persuasion to make the people obey. He said, “He who uses force to pretend to be benevolent will become a great nation; he who uses virtue to be benevolent will become a king, and the king will not have to be great. The king will not need to be great. He who uses his strength to subdue others is not submissive in heart, but in strength; he who uses his virtue to subdue others is submissive in heart, as the Seventy Sons were submissive to Confucius.” (Mencius— Gong Sun Chou Shang) By “force” Mencius means what people call punishment; by “virtue” Mencius means what people call moral teaching. In the governance of the state, Mencius particularly emphasized the role of ritual and music in educating the people, and he strongly praised the “Way of the King”, which meant that on the one hand, the ruler himself must be moral, and on the other hand, he must educate the people by means of moral induction and not by means of subjugation. In the Han Dynasty, Jia Yi and Lu Jia further analyzed the essential role of punishment and morality. According to Jia Yi, “The wisdom of all men can see what is, but not what will be. The rituals are forbidden before they will be, while the laws are forbidden after they have been, so it is easy to see the use of the law, but difficult to know what the rituals are.” (Han Shu—Jia Yi Zhuan) According to Jia Yi, the role of moral education is “to eliminate evil before it starts, and to teach it in the smallest detail, so that the people will change their ways and distant their sins without knowing it”. Therefore, the aim of moral education and probation is to “remove punishment with virtue”. This is why Confucius said: “I am like a human being who listens to lawsuits, so I must also make sure that no lawsuits are filed.” (The Analects of Confucius—Yan Yuan) Jia Yi believed that the security of a society is determined by the accumulation of many things: “The secure are not secure in a day, and the dangerous are not dangerous in a day, but they are all accumulated gradually, and must not be ignored. The accumulation of the master is a matter of choice. Those who rule with propriety and righteousness will accumulate propriety and righteousness; those who rule with penalties will accumulate penalties. Those who rule by punishment will accumulate punishment, but those who rule by decency will accumulate decency. Therefore, the lord of the world wants the people to be good in the same way, but the reason for making them good may be different. He may teach them morally, or he may drive them away by decree. Those who teach by virtue will make the people happy by virtue and respect; those who drive by decree will make the people sad by decree. (The Book of Han—The Biography of Jia Yi) Jia Yi’s “Security Policy”, which Lu Xun called “the best political treatise of the Western Han Dynasty”, was his outline of governance for Emperor Wen of Han. Comrade Mao Zedong said that the essay “hit the nail on the head and had a rather good atmosphere, and is worth reading”. The emphasis on the importance of moral rule and the profound analysis of the different roles of moral rule and the rule of law are the main content and guiding ideology of this essay.

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The early Han thinkers paid particular attention to the causes of the fall of the Qin dynasty, arguing that only by correctly understanding the causes of the fall of the Qin dynasty would they be able to learn from them and thus consolidate the rule of the Han dynasty. Jia Yi believes that: The king of the Qin dynasty was able to overcome the six dynasties, to control the world with his long strategy, to conquer the two Zhou dynasties and to destroy the vassals, to control the six rivers with his supremacy, and to flog the world with his power. In the south, he took the land of Baiyue and made it Guilin and Xiang County, where the rulers of Baiyue bowed their heads and tied their necks, entrusting them to officials. He made Meng Tian build the Great Wall in the north and guarded the fence, and stopped the Xiongnu for more than 700 miles, so that the Hu did not dare to go south to graze their horses, and the soldiers did not dare to bend their bows to report their grievances. He then abolished the ways of the previous kings and burned the words of a hundred schools of thought to fool the Qian. He overthrew the famous cities, killed the great and powerful, gathered the world’s soldiers in Xianyang, killed the fronts and dysprosies, and cast them into twelve golden men to weaken the people of the world. Then he trampled on Hua as a city, because of the river as a pool, according to the height of a hundred million feet, facing the unpredictable abyss as a solid. The good general, strong crossbow, guard the key places, trustworthy ministers and elite soldiers, Chen Li soldiers and who. The kingdom of China has been settled, the first emperor’s heart, think of Guanzhong’s solid, golden city of a thousand miles, the descendants of the emperor, the business of ten thousand generations. From this passage of Jia Yi’s, it is clear that after Qin Shi Huang had unified China by destroying the six kingdoms, his military and political power was very strong, he was powerful in the four seas, and the country was prosperous and had a very bright future. Moreover, after the massive wars of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States, especially the last hundred years of the Warring States, the people wanted to have a stable environment, “The cold people are happy with caftans, while the hungry people are happy with chaff. In Jia Yi’s view, as long as there was general leadership, the right use of virtuous officials, and the proper satisfaction of the people’s demands, everyone would be happy to live and work in peace and contentment, and no one with mischievous intentions would be supported by the people. But no one could have imagined that such a powerful Qin state would be completely destroyed only fourteen years after the First Emperor had unified the Six Kingdoms. He was a “son of a rogue and a migrant, not as talented as the Chinese, not as wise as Zhongni or Mo Zhai, not as rich as Tao Zhu or Yidun”, and “with a few hundred soldiers and a few hundred men, he turned to attack the Qin. He was able to chop wood for soldiers and unveil poles for banners, and the whole world responded with a united response, winning food and following the scenes. The Qin Dynasty was a small state, and after more than a hundred years of efforts by six rulers, it was finally built up into a great state. The Qin Emperor had intended to pass on the world from one generation to the next to the next, but after his death, before the grave was dry, it was quickly destroyed. What was the reason for this? According to Jia Yi, it was because “benevolence and righteousness were not applied

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and the attacking and defending forces were different.” What Jia Yi meant was that the situation had changed radically after the Qin dynasty had won a national victory, but the rulers did not recognise the importance of benevolence and morality in the new situation, so the old ideology of everyone competing with each other for profit continued to develop. The rulers of the time did not understand the principle that “a peaceful people can practice righteousness, but a dangerous people is easy to do wrong”, which ultimately led to their own downfall. Confucianism, while emphasizing the importance of moral edification over punishment, also stresses the importance of punishment as necessary for every ruling class to maintain power. When Confucius was alive, there was a rebellion in the state of Zheng, which was suppressed. The Zuo Zhuan records this incident and says that when Confucius learned of it, he said something very important: When Zheng Zisan was ill, he said to his son Da Shu, “When I die, my son will be in charge. Only a virtuous man can convince the people with leniency, and the next best thing is fierce. The fire is strong, and the people are afraid of it, so they rarely die. If water is cowardly and weak, and the people play with it, they will die more often. He was sick for several months and died. Da Shu’s administration was not fierce but lenient. When the state of Zheng was full of thieves, they took people from the pond of the reeds. Da Shu repented and said, “I should have followed Fu Zi earlier, but I would not have done so.” He raised an army to attack the thieves in the reeds and killed them all. The pirates were rarely stopped. He said, “Good! If the government is lenient, the people will be slow, and if they are slow, they will be fierce. If you are fierce, the people will be crippled, and if they are crippled, you will be lenient. If the government is lenient, the people will be slow, and if they are slow, they will be fierce, and if they are fierce, they will be lenient. (Zuo Zhuan—Twenty Years of Duke Zhao). It is clear from this that, although Confucius stressed the importance of moral education, he still advocated the firm suppression of those who broke the law in order to maintain the stability of the ruling class. Confucius also believed that “if the government is lenient, the people will be slow”, i.e. if moral education is only provided without legal sanctions, the people will be lax and unruly, and will even commit rebellion. If we only know how to use punishment to suppress the people, then the people will be cruel and violent. Ever since Confucius said this, the idea of “leniency for fierceness, fierceness for leniency, and government for harmony” has become a Confucian idea that requires both punishment and moral education. (3) The ruler must “lead by example” In political rule, Confucianism emphasizes the important role of the ruler as an example. Confucius said many such things. He said: “Politics is also about righteousness. If the son is righteous, who will dare to be wrong?” (Analects of Confucius—Yan Yuan) “If you have righted your own self, what is the point of being in government? If you are unable to do so, what can you do if you are a righteous person?” Confucius also believed that whether the decrees issued by the ruler could be carried out was closely related to the ruler’s own “righteousness” or “wrongness”, “If he is righteous, he will not follow orders; if he is not righteous, he will not obey

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them” (ibid.). When Ji Kangzi, a great official of the state of Lu, asked Confucius how to govern the state, he emphasized that if the ruler could set an example, his morality would have a moral influence on the people. The Analects of Confucius records: Ji Kangzi asked Confucius about his government, “What if I kill the unscrupulous in order to make the virtuous?” Confucius said to him, “How can I kill when I am in charge of government? If you want to be good, the people will be good. A gentleman’s virtue is the wind, but a villain’s is the grass. The wind on the grass will be laid down.” (Analects—Yan Yuan). According to Ji Kangzi, a state should be governed by killing those who are unethical so that those who are ethical can be made ethical. Confucius, however, disagreed with him and suggested the importance of the ruler leading by example in morality. What he meant was that the moral character of a gentleman is like the wind, while the moral character of a villain is like the grass, and when the wind blows on the grass, the grass is bound to follow in the direction of the wind. The Confucian ethics of governance, in particular, emphasizes the importance of one’s own integrity. Confucius even believed that if a ruler could restrain his own desires and be simple and clean, the common people would be inspired and would not be tempted to seek pleasure, live extravagantly or rob others of their possessions. It is written in the Analects of Confucius: “When Ji Kangzi was suffering from theft, he asked Confucius about it. Confucius said to him, “If you do not desire it, you will not steal it, even though you are rewarded.” (ibid.) For those in politics, Mencius emphasizes that a moral person should lead by example when it comes to taking or not taking. He said, “You can take, you can not take, but taking hurts integrity.” (This means that one should not take those things that can be given to oneself or not. Taking these things, though not against the law, hurts the integrity of a person in politics. The government of the Three Kingdoms, the statesman Zhuge Liang said: “The law is not law, not to say, not the way not to do, the upper for, people look forward to it. …… Therefore, if a ruler is righteous, then he should follow his orders. If the body is not right, the orders will not be obeyed, and if the orders are not obeyed, chaos will arise.” (Zhuge Liang Ji—Cheap Sixteen Strategies) Xue Xuan, a famous thinker and moralist of the Ming Dynasty, went further and pointed out that there were also levels of integrity. He said, “There are three types of honesty in the world: those who see reason and do not take it presumptuously, those who have a good reputation and do not take it frivolously, and those who have authority and law and do not dare to take it to protect their position. Those who see reason clearly and do not take it presumptuously are the top; those who are impetuous and do not take it meticulously are the second; those who fear the law and protect their position but do not dare to take it are the bottom. (Xue Xuan Quanji—Xue Wenqing Gong’s Quotations from Politics, vol. 2) Later Confucianists believed that a ruler should set an example in three areas. In his book The Legacy of Politics, Chen Hongmou pointed out that “there are only three things to be an official: to be clear, to be prudent, and to be diligent. If you know these three things, you will know how to hold yourself together”, and that “frugality is the only way to maintain integrity”. According to Confucianism, the ruler is like a person’s body, and the people are like his shadow.

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It is for this reason that Confucianism stresses the need to “promote the virtuous”, so that those who are capable and moral can rule the people. (4) Putting the people first As early as the Zhou dynasty, enlightened statesmen, thinkers and educated people paid attention to the role of “the people” in stabilizing society and governing the state. “The words ‘for the people’, ‘to protect the people’, ‘to gain the people’, ‘to shelter the people’, ‘to trust the people’ and ‘to love the people’ appeared frequently in various early They are frequently found in various early literary texts. Lu Dafu quoted from Shang Shu—The Great Oath, saying, “When the people want something, heaven will obey it.” (Zuo Zhuan—The Thirty-first Year of Duke Xiang), asking those in power to pay attention to the demands of the common people. Chen Fengslide said, “I have heard that when a state is flourishing, it is a blessing if it treats the people as if they were wounded; when it falls, it is a curse if it treats the people as if they were wastes.” (Zuo Zhuan—The Year of Ai A.D.) This means that when a minister hears of the rise of a state, he treats the people as if they were wounded, which is its good fortune; when the state falls, he treats them like dirt and wastes, which is its calamity. Confucianism inherited these people-centred ideas from the Spring and Autumn period, emphasizing that the people are the foundation of the state and the country, and that ‘the people are the foundation of the state’ (Shang Shu—Xia Shu). Confucius emphasized the importance of “loving people” and “generosity will win the public”, while Mencius emphasized that “the people are more important than the ruler” (“the people are more important than the land and the society, and the ruler is less important”). “Xunzi further put forward the idea that ‘the king’s boat and the people’s water’, pointing out that water can carry a boat and also overturn it. Xunzi said in The King’s System: “Chuan said: ‘The ruler is also the boat; the common people are also the water. Water carries the boat, but water overturns it.’ …… Therefore, if a ruler wants to be safe, he should do nothing more than to be peaceful and love the people; if he wants to be honorable, he should do nothing more than to be polite and respectful; if he wants to make a name for himself, he should do nothing more than to be virtuous and capable; this is also the great discipline of a ruler.” Confucianism believes that a ruler must be happy with the people and must not go beyond the level of the common people to seek enjoyment and be resented by them. Therefore, he must care for the hardships of the toiling masses, and make sure that the vast number of toiling people receive practical benefits, so that the rule of the state can be long lasting and secure. The people-oriented thinking of Confucianism is prominently reflected in Mencius’ statement that ‘the people are precious, the ruler is light’. Mencius said, “The people are the most important, the community is second, and the ruler is less important.” (He regarded the people as the foundation of a state, the most important, and believed that, apart from the people, the regime of a state was more important than the ruler, who was the least important if these three were compared together. It can also be said that Confucianism saw the importance of the people in politics. In a certain sense, this thought of Mencius is an extremely profound summary of the Confucian experience of ruling. Although the ruling class and its ideologists could

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not really recognise the historical role of the people, they knew that it was impossible to maintain their rule without the support of the people. It is from this point of view that a wise ruler always has the interests of the common people in mind at all times. (5) Meritocracy In the appointment of officials, the ancient Chinese tradition, especially Confucianism, emphasized meritocracy and opposed cronyism, paying more attention to the moral qualities of people than to the requirements of both virtue and talent. In the Analects of Confucius, he emphasizes the need to ‘promote the virtuous’, that is to say, to promote those who are moral and talented to leadership positions. A dialogue between Confucius and Duke Lu in the Analects of Confucius further illustrates Confucius’ idea of “promoting the virtuous”. The Duke of Liao asked, “What is it that makes the people obedient?” Confucius said to him, “If you do what is straight and do what is wrong, the people will be convinced; if you do what is wrong and do what is straight, the people will not be convinced.” (The Analects of Confucius—For the Government). The Duke of Liao was a faint ruler who appointed those who had no morals and talents to rule the country, so the people were not convinced. Confucius answered his question by saying, “You should choose the righteous and moral people to rule the country and depose the wicked ones, then the people will obey you; if you choose the wicked ones to rule the country and depose the moral and righteous ones, then the people will not obey you. Confucius himself was a man of great respect for the virtuous. He believed that “the virtuous know the great, and the unvirtuous know the small”. He also said that “a gentleman respects the virtuous and tolerates the many”, showing that he had great respect for virtuous people. Mencius inherited the tradition of Confucius of “promoting the wise” and emphasized the importance of keeping the “wise in their positions” and the “able in their posts” when governing a country, and of putting the wise in positions of power. Mencius also advocated the idea of “giving the virtuous a place in power”. Mencius also advocated the idea of “giving credit to the virtuous”. He believed that a ruler should “respect the virtuous and make them capable, and put the handsome in their places”, and should “value virtue and respect the scholar”. Only in this way could a country be well governed. The book Yanzi Chunqiu (The Spring and Autumn Annals of Yanzi) records a conversation between Shu Xiang, a great official of Zheng, and Yan Ying, a great official of Qi, during a visit to the state, reflecting the importance attached to morality in ancient Chinese ethics. Shu Xiang asked Yanzi, “What is the highest intention? What is the most generous action? He said: “There is no higher intention than to love the people, and no thicker action than to rejoice in them. He also asked: What is the lowest intention? What is the lowest in deeds? He said, “There is no lower intention than to carve the people, and there is no lower action than to harm oneself. (Yanzi Chunqiu—Nei chun qiu xia—22nd).

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According to Liu Shibei’s testimony in the early Republic of China, the four characters “意” in this quotation are all errors of the character “德”. This is because in ancient times, the character “德” was written with the character “直” on top and the character “心” on the bottom, which is very close to the character “意” today. The shape of the character is very close to that of the character “意” today. In this way, the Chinese character for “意之為高” is taken to mean “德何為高”, and the Chinese character for “意莫之上愛民” is taken to mean “德莫之上愛民”. The words “the intention is lower” are replaced by “the virtue is lower”; “the intention is lower than that of the people” are replaced by “the virtue is lower than that of the people”. The Chinese saying, “The intention is lower than that of the people”, is taken as “the virtue is lower than that of the people”. Liu Shibei’s understanding is correct, and it reflects the understanding of ancient Chinese thinkers on this issue. Generally speaking, Confucianism emphasizes both virtue and talent in the appointment of talents, but it also emphasizes meritocracy and opposes cronyism. In particular, Confucianism stresses that when a ruler governs a country, “if he has the right people, he will prosper, if he loses them, he will perish”, “the way to rule a country is to recruit the right people” and “there is no selfishness among officials, only the right people are close to him”. The appointment of talents must be made out of a public mind, not avoiding enemies from outside, and not concealing sons from within. The story of Ji Huangyang is recorded in both the Zuo Zhuan—Three Years of the Duke of Xiang and the Lu Shi Chun Qiu. When he retired from his post as lieutenant of the Jin army, he was asked by the Duke of Jin to recommend someone to serve him. The Duke of Jin was surprised to hear this and said, “Isn’t Xiehu your enemy? He replied, “You are asking who can replace me as your minister, not who has an enemy of mine! Later, the Duke of eulogies asked him to nominate a general to lead the army. He replied, “You asked who could be a general, not whether he was my son! Both of them were very competent, and that is why I recommended them. Confucius praised this, saying, “Excellent! I pray that the Yellow Sheep’s argument is true. The external candidate does not avoid enemies, and the internal candidate does not avoid sons.” (Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals—Removing the Private) In China’s long history of rule, central and local officials were often examined by the merits of the people they recommended in order to gauge their loyalty to the king. To a certain extent, this tradition of recommending wise and virtuous people has also played a positive role in Chinese political life. In the relationship between virtue and talent, Confucianism attaches greater importance to the role of one’s moral qualities and stresses the need to unify talent with virtue. In his book Zizhi Tongjian, Sima Guang made a comprehensive discussion of the relationship between virtue and talent. He said: The difference between talent and virtue, which no one in the world can distinguish, is commonly called virtuous, and this is why they lose people. The word “wisdom” means talent, and the word “integrity” means virtue. Talent is the capital of virtue; virtue is the command of talent. The bamboo of Yunmeng is the strongest in the world; but if it is not artificed or braced, it cannot be made firm. The gold of Tang squabbles is the best in the world; but if it is not fused and sharpened, it will

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not be able to strike the strong. Therefore, a sage is called a “saint” if he has all his talents and virtues, a “fool” if he has neither, a “gentleman” if he has more virtues than talents, and a “villain” if he has more talents than virtues. “A man of virtue is a gentleman, and a man of virtue is a villain. Whenever a sage or a gentleman is not available, it is better to have a fool than a villain. Why? A gentleman takes talent for good, but a villain takes talent for evil. If a gentleman takes talent for good, good will come to him; if he takes talent for evil, evil will also come to him. Though a fool desires to do evil, he is not wise enough to do it, and he is not strong enough to overcome it. The little man is wise enough to commit treachery, and brave enough to overcome his violence; he is a tiger with wings. The virtue of a man is strict, but the talent of a man is loved. Since the ancient times, there have been many people, not just the wise, who have been the subject of disorder in the country and the son of the family, who have had more than enough talent but not enough virtue, to the point of subversion. Therefore, if those who are responsible for the state and the family can examine the division of talents and virtues and know the priorities, there is no need to lose people. (Zizhi Tongjian, Vol. 1). III We must treat ancient Chinese culture and traditional morality, including the Confucian Way of Confucius and Mencius, correctly, inheriting their essence and promoting the good parts of them, but also eliminating the dross and criticizing and rejecting the negative elements in them. Confucianism’s emphasis on hierarchy and the relationship between inferiority and superiority is, of course, wrong, but Confucianism does contain many reasonable elements which we should analyze. Because of the special relationship between Confucianism and social politics, it is useful to draw on its reasonable elements in order to overcome some of the negative elements in our current political life. For example, the Confucian hierarchy is wrong, but it is good in that it advocates respect for the elderly, for the virtuous and for teachers. Confucianism’s emphasis on filial piety should also be analyzed. While the part of Confucianism that promotes foolish loyalty and filial piety is certainly wrong, children should respect and support their parents. Confucianism’s preaching of “righteousness before profit”, “righteousness in the face of profit” and “righteousness in the face of profit” has some reasonable elements and should be inherited. However, the competition we advocate is different from that in a capitalist market economy. We advocate fair competition and oppose forgetting righteousness in the face of profit and forgetting the “greater righteousness” in the face of “petty profit”. We are against forgetting righteousness for the sake of profit and forgetting righteousness for the sake of “small profits”. What we want to build is a modern socialist country, and in the relationship between righteousness and profit, we should emphasize the value of collectivism, and not allow selfishness and forgetfulness of righteousness to corrupt our cadres and the masses. In recent years, some individualistic ideas have been rising again in our social life, which is very harmful to our reform and opening up and socialist modernization. We cannot allow those ideas that emphasize individual interests above all else, and those who put the interests of the nation at risk and specialize in their own personal interests. We should adhere to Marxism as our guide, strengthen education on collectivism, strengthen education on the supremacy

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of national interest, national interest and social interest over personal interest, and strive to carry forward the fine traditions of the Chinese nation. At the same time, we should be vigilant against the infiltration and corruption of Western ideology and values. In short, we should study and analyze the traditional culture of ancient China carefully, remove the dross and take the essence, so as to use the past for the present.

2 Traditional Morality and Contemporary Moral Development I2 Traditional Chinese morality, in general, refers to the sum of ethical thought and moral practice from Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism and the Law, from the pre-Qin dynasty to the Xinhai Revolution, and is an important element of the national spirit of the Chinese people, which has gradually coalesced over a long period of social practice. For special reasons in Chinese history, Confucianism plays an important role and has a significant influence. Traditional Chinese morality is an important part of the ideological and cultural traditions of the Chinese nation, and is the summation of the moral practice of the Chinese nation by ancient Chinese thinkers. In a certain sense, traditional Chinese morality is the core of the ideological and cultural traditions of the Chinese nation. The fundamental purpose of promoting the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation is to invigorate our national spirit, strengthen our national pride and sense of national responsibility, and enhance our national self-esteem and self-confidence; to make socialist morality richer in content, in a form more pleasing to the masses, and with a more cohesive and centripetal force of national characteristics; to better harmonize interpersonal relations in socialist society and promote the healthy development of the socialist market economy It is to make collectivism, patriotism and socialism the main theme of our society, thus promoting the construction of socialist spiritual civilization and the formation of values and ethical and moral norms with Chinese characteristics. II In order to promote the fine moral traditions of the Chinese people, it is necessary to establish the right attitude. In the modern history of China, the attitude towards this issue has gone through a tortuous process. Guided by Marxism, the Chinese Communist Party has adopted a correct approach to ancient Chinese culture (including ethics and morality), which it has critically inherited. Comrade Mao Zedong said: “Today’s China is a development of historical China; we are Marxist historians, and we should not cut off history. From Confucius to Sun Yat-sen, we should summarize and inherit this precious heritage.”3 And again: “Cleaning up the development 2

This section was originally published in the book Traditional Chinese Morality, People’s University of China Press, December 1995 edition. It has been slightly altered for inclusion in this book. 3 Selected Works of Mao Zedong, 2 edn, vol. 2, p 534.

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process of ancient culture, eliminating its feudal dross and absorbing its democratic essence, is a necessary condition for developing a new national culture and raising national self-confidence; but it must not be incorporated uncritically.”4 The historical heritage and all progressive culture should not be absorbed raw and uncritically, but “as we do with food, we must go through our own oral chewing and gastrointestinal movements, sending in saliva and gastric juice and intestinal juice, breaking it down into two parts: the essence and the dross, then excreting the dross and absorbing the essence, in order to be beneficial to our bodies”5 . These remarks of Comrade Mao Zedong correctly address the issue of attitude and approach to traditional culture, including traditional ethics and morality. Looking back at the decades since the founding of New China, there was a period of time when people failed to treat traditional Chinese culture and traditional morality correctly due to the serious interference of “left” and “right” thinking, which also affected the construction of socialist ideology and morality. At first it was the influence of “leftist” thinking, that is, the wrong attitude towards traditional culture, especially traditional morality, which only emphasized criticism without paying attention to inheritance. From the anti-rightist struggle to the criticism of the “exploiting class moral inheritance theory”, to the “breaking of the four olds” (old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits) during the “Cultural Revolution” and the criticism of Liu Shaoqi’s “black cultivation”, to the “criticism of Confucius” and “evaluation of the law and criticism of Confucianism” movements, forming a “leftist” trend that denies traditional Chinese culture and traditional morality. The “leftist” trend of thinking denied traditional Chinese culture and morality. This trend of thought has almost completely rejected traditional ethics and morals, especially Confucianism, which has been a major influence in Chinese history, without any analysis. After labelling Confucianism as reactionary, conservative, trying to restore the old system and reversing history, Confucius, Mencius, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Zhu Xi, Lu Jiuyuan, Wang Shouren and other ancient philosophers and ethicists were all regarded as apologists for the restoration of the reactionary class and the creation of public opinion for the counter-revolution. Then, from 1980 onwards, due to the influence and corruption of Western values on some people, a wave of right thinking emerged in China for a period of time, which was a total Westernization. In the view of some people, modernization means Westernization, and Westernization requires the comprehensive, complementary and thorough transplantation of Western science and technology, political systems and values into China. An important element of this total westernization theory is the use of Western individualist-centred values against socialist collectivist values. The doctrine of total westernization is a thoroughgoing theory of national nihilism. They see Chinese cultural traditions as an inseparable whole that cannot be distinguished between the best and the worst, and in order to break them, they must break them as a whole. The Westernization theorists realize that the excellent traditional Chinese ethics and morals, after being inherited critically under the guidance of Marxism, 4 5

Ibid., pp. 707–708. Ibid. at 707.

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are also an important force against the Western individualist ethics and morals, and therefore take the opposition to traditional Chinese culture and the negation of traditional Chinese ethics and morals as an important element in their promotion of the bourgeois individualist ethics and morals. Of course, when we review the “left” and “right” erroneous trends in the treatment of traditional Chinese culture and morality since the founding of New China, we should also see the development of another trend, the so-called “revival of Confucianism” of traditional conservatism, and its harmful effects. Before the May Fourth Movement, Confucianism, which served the feudal ruling class, had a history of more than two thousand years in China, and could be said to be deeply rooted and influential. After the May Fourth Movement, although traditional Confucianism was under attack by the “Down with Confucianism” movement, the trend of reviving Confucianism continued to rise during the Kuomintang rule. The so-called “NeoConfucians” claimed to have been moving forward with the ideas of traditional Confucianism. At present, there are indeed some so-called neo-Confucian schools in Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas with the aim of creating a “new inner sage” and a “new outer king”, and some so-called “propagandists of Confucian capitalism” By advocating the revival of Confucian culture and ethics, they oppose socialist culture and socialist ethics. Although this trend of thinking does not have a large market in China, it still deserves our attention. We should take stock of the lessons learned over the years in dealing with traditional Chinese culture and traditional morality, and deal with our traditional culture and traditional morality in a realistic manner. III We believe that the traditional morality of the Chinese nation is closely related to the modernization of socialism in China today. Firstly, the modernization of the country, the development of its economy and the enrichment of its people are the historical tasks facing the developing countries of the world since their independence. The modernization of any country is guided by its cultural and moral traditions and values. Every nation has a traditional culture that is different from that of other nations, and every individual is directly or indirectly nurtured and influenced by traditional culture, including traditional morality. In the whole process of modernization, the question of how to deal with one’s traditional culture and traditional ethics is an important one for developing countries. Traditional culture and traditional ethics are embedded in the ideological consciousness and behavioral norms of the nation, and are part of the national psyche and character, governing and influencing people’s real life. A country or a nation that looks to the future and makes great efforts to modernise will certainly not forget its history, let alone abandon its fine moral traditions. From this point of view, since the twentieth century, developing countries all over the world, in the process of modernization, have been making great efforts to advocate and promote their own national values and to maintain and carry forward their own fine moral traditions. China’s modernization is a socialist modernization, with the ultimate aim of achieving communism. It is of particular significance to maintain and promote the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation.

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Secondly, modernization is by no means the same as Westernization, and this is especially true of socialist modernization. If we want to modernise socialism, we must absorb all the best achievements in the development of human civilization, including the best achievements of modern Western ethical thought and culture. However, in the process of modernization, we must not be influenced by Western money-grubbing, hedonism and extreme individualism. It should be noted that selfishness, forgetfulness of justice, self-interest and self-serving behavior induced by the negative effects of the commodity economy are extremely harmful. With the formation of the socialist market economy system, people are bound to face diverse value orientations in a situation where multiple economic components, mainly public ownership, and multiple forms of distribution, mainly according to the distribution of labor, co-exist. However, socialism, in accordance with its basic economic, political and cultural system requirements, is inevitably monolithic in its value orientation, which is the collectivism of socialism guided by Marxism. The critical inheritance of traditional Chinese morality means that the national virtues are used to better promote socialist collectivist morality. Thirdly, the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation, especially its fine moral traditions, is of great significance in promoting the current modernization of our country. Fundamentally, our modernization should include not only the modernization of material aspects, social structure and social relations, but also the maintenance and development of strong spiritual strength, the inheritance and promotion of the traditional culture of the Chinese nation, especially the fine moral tradition. It can be said that the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation are an indispensable spiritual force for socialist modernization. History has shown that the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation have played and are playing a very important role in the formation of a fine moral culture in Chinese society, and in the unity, harmony and development of the Chinese nation. The economic development of China and some neighbouring countries has proved and is proving that the ancient Eastern traditional culture, especially the fine moral traditions of Confucianism, has not only not affected the modern development of the country, but has also become a spiritual force for maintaining social order, improving social morals, harmonizing interpersonal relations and strengthening national cohesion. In the cause of socialist modernization, we should enable the fine moral traditions of the nation to play a greater role in socialist modernization through transformation and development. IV In terms of moral development, socialist morality does not arise out of thin air or fall from the sky, but is the inheritance and development of all the good morals of mankind in the past. Socialist morality must be rooted in the traditional morality of the nation. Socialist morality does not simply affirm or deny traditional morality, but discards the worst and takes the best. Although traditional morality contains the content of the times, class and limitations, it also has its inheritable content that cannot be ignored and transcends the times. Love for the motherland, hard work and thrift, respect for the elderly and the young, punishment of evil and promotion of good, honesty and trustworthiness, filial piety and respect for teachers, honesty and integrity, solidarity and love, discipline and generosity, modesty and courtesy are still

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important elements of socialist social morality. The spirit of benevolence and love, which is to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and “do not do unto others as you would have them do unto you”; the business ethics of being honest and trustworthy, being charitable and opposed to being unkind for the sake of wealth; the ethics of “wealth and nobility cannot be lusted after, The spirit of a man who can’t be moved by wealth and riches, who can’t be moved by poverty and who can’t be bent by might and power; the enterprising spirit of a gentleman who can’t stop being strong; the generous spirit of a gentleman who can’t stop being virtuous; the spirit of a man who can’t stop being virtuous. Knowing is knowing, not knowing is not knowing”; “Knowing shame is closer to courage”; and so on, which have nurtured countless heroes and heroines and wise men and women in Chinese history and made great contributions to the nation and to the country. In today’s socialist world, it is still of great social and moral significance to carry forward these fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation. Needless to say, traditional Chinese morality is distinctly contradictory and twofaced. It has both a democratic essence and a feudal dross; a positive, progressive and innovative side and a negative, conservative and backward side. And in some cases, the best and the worst are combined with each other, with a mixture of good and bad, and a mixture of flaws and defects. We should neither reject nor inherit traditional Chinese morality in its entirety. A total rejection will inevitably lead to historical nihilism, while a total inheritance will inevitably lead to retrogressivism, both of which are wrong. The correct attitude is to take historical materialism as the guide and adhere to the policy of critical inheritance, discarding the worst and taking the best, comprehensive innovation and the use of the past for the present. “Critical succession” is a general principle, that is, it emphasizes that succession is a critical, selective and purposeful succession under the guidance of the theory of historical materialism, and that it is a succession based on the principle of whether it is in the interests of the general public. “It is an important requirement for the inheritance of cultural heritage, especially traditional ethics and morals, and is an inheritance that promotes the essence and discards the dregs, and is an inheritance that has been chewed and digested. The concept of “synthesis and innovation” emphasizes the need to pay attention to synthesis and innovation when inheriting traditional Chinese ethics and morals. On the one hand, the ethical and moral thoughts of the hundred schools of thought in Chinese history should be compared, analyzed and synthesized to form a new thought that meets the needs of the times and becomes an integral part of socialist and communist ethics. On the other hand, we should also pay attention to collating, comparing and identifying the ethical and moral heritage of all mankind and absorbing what is useful in it, combining it with traditional Chinese ethics and morals to create an advanced spiritual civilization. The main purpose of “using the past for the present”, which emphasizes the critical inheritance of traditional Chinese morality, is to adapt to the needs of socialist construction with Chinese characteristics, to solve the problems of ethics and morality in real life, to create a good moral environment for China’s economic construction, and to ensure that the construction of China’s material civilization can follow socialist morality in a more The aim is to create a favorable moral environment

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for the economic construction of China and to ensure that the construction of material civilization in China can develop more healthily in accordance with socialist morality. V The inheritance of traditional Chinese morality is a critical inheritance. In practice, how should we promote the best and discard the worst of a specific moral proposition? Generally speaking, traditional Chinese morality, in terms of what we can inherit today, can be roughly divided into several different categories. Some traditional morals are essentially the essence today; others, because they are totally integrated with the feudal hierarchy and the concept of hierarchy, can be said to be the dregs; at the same time, there are also many traditional morals that are a mixture of the essence and the dregs. The dross that promotes feudal hierarchy should naturally be discarded; but we should also be clear that even the parts that are essentially the best are still flawed and need to be carefully scrutinised. Although ‘a flaw does not cover up a fault’, the ancients have always stressed the importance of ‘careful selection’ in cases of ‘flawed and misrepresented’. To inherit critically means to use a historical materialist attitude, to process and transform the moral heritage that has been selected and ready to be absorbed according to the requirements of current historical progress and the interests of the masses, according to the needs of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, according to some of the norms and standards of human relations that people have agreed to in their thinking over the centuries, and according to the moral principles for dealing with human relations in a socialist society. The moral heritage that has been selected for absorption is processed and transformed in accordance with the moral principles that govern human relations in socialist society, so that its feudal, backward and negative aspects are discarded and its scientific and positive aspects, which reflect the interests of the people, are absorbed. First of all, we should analyze those traditional ethics which are essentially the best. These analyzes will enable us to further understand why even traditional morality still needs to be given a new meaning that is required by the times in a historical materialist manner. For example, the famous phrase “to worry about the worries of the world first, and to rejoice in the happiness of the world afterwards”, which has been widely recited among the people, was uttered by the famous statesman Fan Zhongyan in the Northern Song Dynasty in his essay “A Record of Yueyang Lou”. The phrase “the world” referred to both the vast area of land inhabited by the entire Chinese nation and the area ruled by the Song dynasty at that time; and the words “worry” and “joy” in the phrase refer to both the worries of the people and the happiness of the people. The two words “sorrow” and “joy” in this sentence refer to both the sorrow and joy of the people and the rise and fall of the Song dynasty. In this essay, Fan Zhongyan also says, “If you live in a high place in the temple, you worry about your people; if you live in a faraway place in the rivers and lakes, you worry about your king”, which means that if you are in a high position in the court, you worry about your people, and if you live in seclusion in the mountains as a citizen, you worry about your king. Thus, when we inherit this phrase with a historical materialist attitude, in the light of the characteristics of today’s socialist era and the needs of the general public, the “world” we understand should be the interests

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of the entire Chinese nation, that is, the “world” we understand has been replaced by the “world” we understand. In other words, the “world” we understand has replaced the “world” Fan Zhongyan spoke of, and the “worries” and “happiness” we should have are naturally the same as the “worries” and “happiness” Fan Zhongyan spoke of. The “worries” and “joys” we should have are naturally different from those Fan Zhongyan calls “worries” and “joys”. In traditional Chinese morality, there are many other examples of this. For example, “The benevolent person loves others”, “Do not do unto others what you do not want”, “Do unto others what you would like to do unto them, and do unto others what you would like to do unto them”, etc. Inheritance should pay attention to abandoning their original aspects of reconciling class conflicts and safeguarding the interests of the ruling class. Inheritance of these principles should be done in such a way as to discard their original aspects of reconciling class conflicts and defending the interests of the ruling class, and to promote their positive aspects that can better regulate and rationalise the various conflicts within the people and strengthen solidarity among them today. For example, “To live in the world’s broadest dwelling, to take up the world’s rightful place, and to act in the world’s way. If you have a will, you will follow it with the people; if you do not, you will follow it alone. A man who cannot be lusted after by the rich, cannot be moved by the poor, and cannot be bent by the mighty and the powerful is a great man” (Mencius—under Teng Wen Gong). (Mencius—Teng Wen Gong xia), and the “wide residence”, “the world”, “the way”, “the will” and so on, should be inherited critically, using a historical materialist attitude and the principles we have mentioned above. If we can grasp this attitude, we will be able to inherit the traditional moral content, which is essentially the essence. Secondly, traditional morality, which is clearly a mixture of the best and the worst, needs to be carefully identified and carefully digested. The question of the relationship between righteousness and profit is an issue of great concern to traditional Chinese morality. In the Analects of Confucius, it is said that “when you see profit, think of righteousness”, “when you see gain, think of righteousness”, “righteousness is then taken”, etc. These ideas are basically the essence, but they are also mixed with some This requires a correct distinction between what the ancients meant by righteousness and profit and what they mean by righteousness and profit today, so that we can properly discard the dross and absorb the essence. There is another situation here. For example, “A gentleman thinks of righteousness but considers profit, while a villain covets profit but disregards righteousness” and “A gentleman is a metaphor for righteousness, while a villain is a metaphor for profit” are moral thoughts that can be described as complex situations in which the essence and the dross are intertwined. In ancient Chinese society, “moral values” and “moral values” were the most important elements of the Chinese system. In ancient Chinese society, a “gentleman” generally referred to a member of the ruling class or a moral person, while a “villain” generally referred to a lowly person in an inferior position, or sometimes to a person who only cared about self-interest and had no morals. “On the one hand, it is believed that only the ruler understands righteousness, while the working people know only selfinterest; on the other hand, it is also believed that only the moral person understands righteousness, while the immoral person knows only self-interest. In societies where

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the exploiting classes have long dominated, the rulers have emphasized only the first understanding, seeing themselves as knowing righteousness and stigmatising the working people as knowing only self-interest, thus creating public opinion to consolidate their rule. This aspect should be thoroughly criticised, but at the same time, its emphasis on the moral as those who know righteousness and the immoral as those who seek only private gain can be absorbed and adapted to play a positive role in the new era. The reason why we emphasize critical inheritance is that traditional Chinese morality is rooted in ancient China’s small peasant economy, where farming was the main business and the family was the unit, and was nurtured, formed and developed in a society ruled by the slave-owning and feudal classes for a long time. As a result, all traditional morality bears the imprint of the will of the ruling class to varying degrees, and essentially serves to safeguard the interests of the ruling class and stabilise the social order of the class. The moral codes and virtues formed in China’s long-standing feudal society, such as the “Three Principles and Five Rules”, loyalty, filial piety and righteousness, were, on the whole, designed to serve the interests of the traditional social order and the ruling class. Therefore, if the old morality is not criticised by historical materialism, and the content of the old morality that serves the interests of the ruling class is denied, there can be no correct inheritance. VI For the critical inheritance of traditional Chinese morality, from a methodological point of view, there is also the question of how to correctly treat the relationship between the general and the individual, the common and the individual, the abstract and the concrete, and the universal and the particular. For a period of time in the past, there have been two kinds of bias in the understanding of traditional Chinese ethics and morality. The methodological root of this bias is due to the failure to understand correctly the interrelationship between the common and the individual, the abstract and the concrete, the general and the individual, and the universal and the particular. The mistake of those who reject the idea that ethical traditions can be inherited lies in the fact that they only see the particularity of traditional ethics as having emerged from a specific era, a specific person and a specific thing, but do not see that it also contains universal elements that transcend the times. They deny the need for change. How do we understand this relationship between the universal and the particular in critical succession? In The German Ideology, Engels once pointed out that in a society of antagonistic classes, there are both antagonistic and common interests between classes, and that “this common interest exists not merely as a ‘universal thing’ in conception, but above all as a division of labor between The interdependence of individuals exists in reality”6 The ideologists of the ruling class used this common interest in order to defend the long-term interests of the ruling class, to formulate moral codes for social stability, to resist foreign aggression under the banner of a common, universal 6

The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, 1st edition in Chinese, vol. 3, 37 p., Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1960.

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interest, and to develop nature and water resources in accordance with this common interest, etc. The ruling class officials of successive generations were fundamentally concerned with safeguarding the interests of the ruling class, but they were mindful of the universal and common interests of the various classes that coexisted. Confucius once put forward the idea of “benefiting the people for their own benefit”, which, in today’s interpretation, means that the people should be benefited according to their own interests. Although his particular aim at the time was still to maintain and consolidate the political stability of the ruling class, it should be said that this was also to the benefit of the people. Similarly, Mencius’ proposal to “reduce penalties and taxes” was intended to ease class conflicts, but it also objectively had a beneficial effect on the development of production. The universal and the particular, the abstract and the concrete, the general and the individual, are philosophically inseparable from each other. Any moral thought inherently contains a dialectical relationship between the universal and the particular, the abstract and the concrete, the general and the individual. Any particular, concrete, individual moral thought, moral proposition, moral requirement and moral code necessarily contains a universal, abstract, general content. From the dialectical point of view, the individual contains the general, and the general is never outside the individual, but only within the individual. From the point of view of the inheritance of ethical and moral thought, we should first of all acknowledge that anything universal, abstract and general exists in connection with something particular, concrete and individual, and that they can only exist in these individual moral thoughts, moral requirements, moral propositions and moral principles. But we should also see that what is universal, abstract and general is often the common content that can be accepted by other times, selected, refined, accumulated and preserved, leaving behind the specific meaning of a particular time, place and place. Moral propositions and moral demands have both a special and a universal significance. When a moral imperative is formulated, it always takes into account the requirements of the interpersonal relations of the society of the time and the stability and harmony of the social order. In slave and feudal societies, it was inevitable that the hierarchy of the time would be maintained, and this was its special significance at the time. However, due to social, historical and class limitations, the ancients, in accordance with their particular circumstances and purposes, put forward certain moral propositions, moral requirements and moral codes, often thinking that they had discovered the eternal truths of human moral life, and regarded these moral propositions and moral requirements as enduring for all time, like “the heavens remain unchanged The “heavens are unchanging” and will never change. Of course, this metaphysical understanding that “if heaven remains unchanging, so does the Way” is completely wrong. But these moral requirements, which are generalised according to particular circumstances and purposes, still reflect certain moral requirements that people in social life have to observe in common, that is, they reflect some universal, abstract, general moral requirements. These requirements contain what Lenin called the rules of public life that have been developed by human beings over the centuries, and can also be described as the common moral requirements that have been developed over a long period of common social life. As Engels pointed

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out in his Anti-Dühring, certain common historical contexts inevitably lead to certain commonalities in morality. This commonality is the theoretical basis on which we can critically inherit it today, and the basic principle that we can critically inherit it today by discarding its particular, concrete, individual, epochal and class characteristics and by grasping its universal, abstract and general properties as they apply to today. To promote the best and discard the worst is the basic principle of our inheritance of traditional Chinese morality. What criteria do we use to distinguish between the best and the worst? In our view, at present, the fundamental criterion for distinguishing the best from the worst is whether it is conducive to promoting the cause of socialist construction with Chinese characteristics, whether it is conducive to building and forming a socialist moral system with Chinese characteristics, whether it is conducive to the interests of the general public, and whether it is conducive to training new socialist “four-spirited” people. What meets these requirements is the essence, which is scientific, progressive and democratic. To inherit critically is to inherit the essence of scientificity, progressiveness and democracy. The working people are the creators of human history and are an important driving force in the conception, formation and development of social morality. As Engels said, because of their class status, there is indeed a different kind of morality prevailing among working people from that of the exploiting classes. Although the ideologists of the ruling class often reflected, to varying degrees, the morality of the working people, they were denied the right to engage in cultural and educational activities because of historical limitations, and although they played an important role in the struggle for production and the class struggle, they did not play an important role in the field of ideology, in the field of culture, education and ethics, especially in summarising and generalising from the real moral life of the people. But in the field of ideology, in the field of culture and education and in the field of ethics and morality, especially in drawing and generalising moral ideas, theories and demands from the real moral life of the people and forming them into norms, principles and theories, they are greatly restricted. In most cases, they are not even in a position to participate in the formulation and establishment of ethical and moral norms. Despite our efforts to uncover the ethical and moral heritage of the working people, there is relatively little that reflects their moral thinking. VII The core of traditional Chinese morality and its consistent ideology is the idea of holism for the sake of society, the nation, the state and the people. In China’s long-established feudal society, the so-called whole refers to the whole society, the whole nation and the whole country. It can be said that all traditional virtues revolve around this holistic spirit. The poem “The Poet’s Classic”, which states that “we are always in the public service”, and Jia Yi’s “the state forgets the family and the public forgets the selfishness”, all constantly emphasize a spirit of dedication to the whole. It was under the influence of this spirit that Fan Zhongyan advocated “worrying about the world before the world’s worries and being happy after the world’s happiness”, Wen Tianxiang believed that “there is no death in life since the beginning of time, leaving the heart of a man to shine in the green”, and Gu Yanwu

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proposed “the rise and fall of the world, The spirit of dedication to society, to the nation and to the country is evident in the words of Gu Yanwu, Yan Yuan and Lin Zexu. The spirit of dedication to society, to the nation and to the country. It is also from the principle of national interest and overall interest that traditional Chinese morality emphasizes the relationship between the individual and others and society, emphasizing the importance of putting others before oneself, helping others and doing one’s duty to society, and consciously serving others and society. This holistic thinking should be said to be an important characteristic and merit of Chinese ethical and moral tradition that distinguishes it from Western ethical and moral tradition. The development of history, the constant changes in dynastic rule, the strife and integration of various ethnic groups have nurtured, cultivated and formed such a noble, great and simple holistic ideology that has enabled the Chinese nation to remain unbroken and unyielding, standing proudly in the forest of the world’s nationalities like no other nation in the world. The unity of the country, the unity of the nation, the opposition to division and civil war have been the common aspirations of all peoples for thousands of years, and have thus determined the mainstream and direction of China’s historical development. Despite the fact that the Chinese nation has experienced numerous serious external and internal problems that have divided the country and caused regional rivalries, such as the Wei and Jin dynasties, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Ten Kingdoms of the Five Dynasties, the Song, Liao, Jin and Western Xia dynasties, the Chinese nation has relied on its own strength to regain new life time and again. The holistic thinking of the Chinese nation has a very rich historical connotation. Throughout its thousands of years of history, the Chinese nation has relied on this spirit to fearlessly overcome one difficulty after another, overcome one obstacle after another, produce one batch after another of national heroes who have shone brightly in the sun and the moon and who have gone down in history, and compose one song after another of a soaring and stirring ode to holism. Today, the promotion of the spirit of Chinese nationalism is not only of profound historical significance but also of profound practical significance in uniting the people of all nationalities in a concerted effort to revitalise our politics, economy and culture, to build our great motherland and to achieve socialist modernization. Of course, we should see that the idea of holism in traditional Chinese morality always bore the stamp of the exploiting class in the past, when the exploiting class was in power, and became an ideological weapon for the exploiting class to maintain class rule. In the long-standing feudal society, the ruling class always posed its own class interests, or even the interests of a dynasty, as the so-called national interests and the interests of the whole. The spirit of holism in traditional Chinese morality is to be criticised today for using one’s own self-interest to pass off as the interests of the nation and the interests of the whole, and to inherit the spirit of “being in public at all times” and “forgetting one’s own selfishness”. The interests of the state, the community and the nation are indeed linked to the well-being of the people, social stability, productive development and interpersonal harmony. Whenever a dynasty is economically developed, politically clear and clean, socially orderly and morally sound, all sectors of society, including, of course, the working people, benefit from

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it, directly and economically. On the contrary, whenever a dynasty was in decline, economically depleted and politically corrupt, it was the working people at the bottom of the ladder who suffered the most. Especially when a dynasty is in a situation of poverty and decline, the direct result of external and internal troubles is that the working people suffer the most direct and deepest disasters and are in deep water. It is for this reason that countless heroes and heroines throughout history, despite their different levels of awareness of the oppressive and perverse rule of a particular feudal dynasty, have been brave enough to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the nation and the country. For example, Gu Yanwu, a thinker of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, was a thoughtful patriot with a unique vision. He was aware of the corruption of the Ming dynasty under the surname of Zhu, but at the same time had a strong spirit of dedication to the nation and to the people. It was for this reason that he made a distinction between the “death of the state” and the “death of the world”. He said: “There is a fallen state and a fallen world. What is the distinction between the fall of the state and the fall of the world? He said: “To change one’s surname and name to another is called the death of the state; to be filled with benevolence and righteousness to the extent that animals eat people and people will eat each other is called the death of the world.” He argued, “Those who protect the state are the rulers and their subjects, and those who eat meat seek to do so; those who protect the world are the lowly people who are responsible for it.” (In Gu Yanwu’s view, the “state” was the embodiment of the interests of the feudal ruling class, the “meat-eaters” who enjoyed the salary of the “state”, The “world”, on the other hand, represents the interests of the people and the stability of society. He also emphasized that every man had an important responsibility for the rise and fall of the world. The patriotism and holism advocated by Gu Yanwu (as summarized by Liang Qichao) is the essence of the traditional morality of the Chinese nation. Today, we emphasize the promotion of the spirit of holism of the Chinese nation, which means that we should promote this spirit of dedication to the interests of the people, and give it a new and contemporary connotation in the light of historical development.

3 Traditional Culture and Talent Cultivation At the turn of the century7 , the issue of traditional culture and the training of future talents in society is attracting increasing attention. People in social life always grow and develop from and under the influence of established historical traditions, cultural milieu, national psyche and living environment. Although people are always trying to get rid of old traditions, erase old stigmas, create new lives and develop new moral values, they cannot completely overcome the influence of traditions on them. Therefore, the question of how to deal with tradition properly, i.e. how to eliminate 7

This section was originally published in Theoretical Frontiers of Higher Education, No. 6, 1998. It was slightly altered for inclusion in this book.

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the negative aspects of tradition and promote and develop its positive aspects, is one that we should pay special attention to. What is tradition? It is a category in which people have different views. Generally speaking, we can find a general and broadly similar understanding among the various opinions that differ. Tradition is something that has passed away, a norm that has been built up over time in social life and in the psyche of people and that still has an influence and effect in today’s reality. Traditions can be material or spiritual, while cultural traditions refer more to those related to spirituality, thought and cultural ethics. Of all the traditions of mankind, cultural traditions are of particular importance for the training and development of human resources. What is a cultural tradition? Generally speaking, cultural tradition is a general term for the spiritual phenomena created by mankind up to the present day. It consists of the sum of philosophical, political, economic, legal, ethical, literary, artistic and religious ideas that are oriented towards certain values. Although cultural tradition is multifaceted, it also has its own core. What that core is a matter of debate and disagreement. The core of cultural tradition is, in a certain sense, the pursuit of goodness. It is a thread that runs through all philosophical, political, economic, legal, literary, artistic and religious thought, namely the desire for the good and the rejection of the ugly, the desire for human happiness and the desire for high moral qualities. Therefore, I think it is very important and meaningful for us to focus on the relationship between traditional culture and the training of human resources when discussing it. Of course, when we discuss the training of human resources in the twenty-first century, we must first consider the needs of reality and the requirements of the times, and we are thinking in order to solve the most important and urgent major problems of human society in the future. Therefore, we must look forward, look to the future and try to adapt to the needs of the times. It is precisely because the cultural traditions of mankind contain elements that we should learn from, assimilate and promote that we propose to inherit and promote cultural traditions.

3.1 The Basic Characteristics of Traditional Chinese Culture What are the basic characteristics of traditional Chinese culture? This is an important question that needs to be discussed and studied by scholars. What is meant by “the basic characteristics of Chinese traditional culture” here has three meanings. Firstly, it is Chinese in the sense that it is comparable to the traditional culture of other countries; secondly, the traditional culture referred to here refers mainly to the traditional culture of ancient China before 1840; thirdly, the characteristics of Chinese traditional culture referred to here can only be some basic characteristics. Traditional Chinese culture is extremely rich in content, the most important parts of which can be summarized in the following three areas. The first characteristic of traditional Chinese culture is that it is ethical. In a certain sense, Chinese traditional culture is an ethical culture, or it can be called a “virtuous”

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culture. In the whole of traditional Chinese culture, ethical thinking does occupy a very important place. In ancient Chinese philosophy, politics, history, literature and education, ethical thinking is a constant thread of thought. The promotion of good and the suppression of evil, the praise of good and the depreciation of evil, and the pursuit of the noble is one of the dominant ideas in traditional Chinese culture. This is also agreed upon by most thinkers. The pursuit of a noble purpose in life is an important element of traditional Chinese culture. In the relationship between people, a person should have the creative spirit of self-improvement and vigour, but also the broad-mindedness of putting oneself in the shoes of others and loving others as oneself. The “Heaven is healthy, the gentleman to self-improvement”, “the earth is Kun, the gentleman to thick virtue to carry things”. These two sentences from the famous ancient Chinese classic I Ching, which was written more than two thousand years ago, clearly and vividly illustrate the Chinese people’s attitude towards people, their spirit and ideal state of being. A person should be faithful and honest to others, be conscientious and diligent, be dedicated to his work and enjoy his work, constantly improve his moral character, and strive to take up his responsibilities. At the same time, we must treat our own kind and all living things with the utmost generosity and kindness. “The great virtue of heaven and earth is to be born” and “I am one with the people, and I am one with the things”, which is a very respectable and noble state. Of course, in the reality of human social life, the most important and realistic thing is how people can be selfreliant and how they treat their own kind, that is, how they treat others. According to ancient Chinese culture, the ultimate goal of one’s moral cultivation should be “to be in harmony with heaven and earth”, and only when one has achieved such a state can one be considered a person of high moral character. What is the spirit of self-improvement? The saying “As Heaven moves, so a gentleman should be self-improving” means that Heaven is strong and robust, so a moral person should follow the example of Heaven and be self-improving. “Selfimprovement” means to be self-motivated, to be self-respecting, to be enterprising and to strive for innovation. “Self-improvement” means to be “self-knowing” and “self-victorious”, and to be determined to “strengthen our actions”. Lao Tzu said: “He who knows others is wise, and he who knows himself is wise. To overcome others, one must first overcome one’s own weaknesses, and only those who persevere and act with strength can be regarded as a person of ambition. Mencius said, “A lady must insult herself before others will insult her; a family must destroy itself before others will destroy it; a state must attack itself before others will attack it.” (Mengzi— Li Lou I) Thus, the so-called “self-improvement” is the traditional Chinese culture of self-improvement, independence, tirelessness, perseverance, indefatigability and perseverance. This spirit is vividly embodied in the stories of the ancient Chinese, such as Jingwei Reclamation, Dayu’s Water Treatment, Yugong Yishan and Quaifu Chasing the Sun. The spirit of self-improvement can be said to be the backbone of the Chinese nation, and has been an important spiritual pillar of the Chinese nation for thousands of years. The sincere patriotism of the Chinese people and the holistic thinking for the country, society and the nation are also rooted in this spirit of selfimprovement. Throughout the history of the Chinese nation, countless noblemen and

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heroes and heroines have gone on to defend the territory of the country and safeguard the dignity of the motherland, even at the cost of their own lives, all inextricably linked to this spirit of self-improvement. It is the common aspiration of all Chinese peoples to have a unified country, a strong people, a united nation and a stable society. What does it mean to say that “the earth is generous and smooth, and a gentleman should be generous in virtue and carry all things”? The meaning here is that the earth is generous and smooth, and that a moral person should be generous in virtue and carry all things. On the one hand, one should “put oneself in the place of others and love them as oneself”; on the other hand, one should have a generous heart that loves all life. As early as the sixth century B.C., during the Spring and Autumn Period, the Chinese people developed the idea of “benevolence”. Confucius was the first to elaborate the meaning of benevolence from the point of view that all human beings are the same “class”, emphasizing that “benevolence” means “loving others”. The first Confucius explained the meaning of benevolence from the point of view that all people are of the same “class”. Confucius gave a classic explanation of why people should love others, how they should love others, and in what way they should love others. Confucius has consciously realized that man and self are interdependent, and that since all people are of the same kind, we should care for and love each other. To truly love others, one must “put oneself in their shoes”, that is, put oneself in their shoes, so that one can appreciate their needs. “Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you” (Analects—Yan Yuan), “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you, and do unto others what you would have them do unto you” (Analects—Yong Ye), “I do not want others to do unto me, but I want to do unto others” (Analects—Yong Ye), “I do not want others to do unto me, but I want to do unto others” (Analects—Yan Yuan). “These three interrelated and mutually reinforcing principles are the central expression of Confucius’ idea of loving others. Again and again, Confucius discusses his important idea of how one can think and act in order to truly achieve the goal of ‘loving others’, starting from the fact that man and I are both opposed and united, that man is both subject and object, that one must both love and be loved, and that all men are of the same kind. From these quotations, it is clear that Confucius, born in the sixth century B.C., was a worthy humanist thinker. What is the way to love people? Confucius put forward a methodological principle, which he called “being able to draw analogies”, i.e. using himself as an analogy to consider how to treat others, which in ancient times was called “putting oneself in the place of others”, and nowadays is called “thinking differently”. This is what the ancients called “putting oneself in the shoes of others” and nowadays people call it “thinking differently. We can see that the method of “putting oneself in the place of others” is an extremely important principle of moral methodology, and that the possibility and practice of all human moral behavior cannot be separated from this simplest and most easily understood principle. In the Song Dynasty, Zhang Zai further developed the traditional Chinese culture of “virtue and materialism” and clearly put forward the idea of “the people are my compatriots and the things are my friends”. He believed that all human beings are brothers born of the same parent (i.e. heaven and earth), and that all things in the world are friends of human beings. Zhang Zai has taken the ancient Chinese idea of

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‘the unity of man and heaven’ and given it a concrete content—‘benevolence and love for the people’—and brought it to a new level. It is precisely from the perspective of ethics and morality that traditional Chinese culture attaches particular importance to the so-called “inner sage and outer king” approach, that is, politically, it calls for the implementation of “the way of the king” and “benevolent government”, and for the rule of the state by virtue. In other words, in politics, it requires the practice of the “Way of the King” and “benevolent government”, and the rule of the state by virtue; in personal cultivation, it requires the strengthening of one’s cultivation and the perfection of one’s personality, with “sage” as the highest ideal. The aim of learning is to become a moral “perfectionist”, a “real person” and a “supreme person”. In traditional Chinese culture, “ruling the country” and “cultivating one’s moral character” are closely intertwined, and in order to “rule the country”, one must “cultivate one’s moral character”. “Only by making efforts to cultivate one’s moral character and becoming a morally upright person could one govern the country well. In order for the people of the country to be moral, the ruler of the country should first be moral, as Confucius said: “A gentleman’s virtue is the wind, while a small man’s is the grass” (Analects of Confucius—Yan Yuan). The second characteristic of traditional Chinese culture is that it emphasizes the importance of reason and wisdom, the pursuit of truth and dialectical thinking, and has a strong tradition of discernment. The Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism and Buddhism of pre-Qin China all attach great importance to the importance of reason and wisdom, and to the importance of people knowing the truth. Confucius and Mozi, from their own perspectives, emphasized the significance of knowledge and wisdom in perfecting oneself and society, in cultivating one’s moral character, in preparing one’s family, in ruling one’s country and in pacifying the world. Traditional Chinese culture is also rich in dialectics. The idea of the unity of the two poles of yin and yang in the I Ching, the complementarity of the two poles, and the creation and change of the 64 hexagrams, can be said to be a rich and vivid manifestation of dialectics in human social life. The dialectical thinking of ancient Chinese thinkers was comprehensively and profoundly elaborated in the thought of the Taoist school of thought during the Spring and Autumn period, which occupied a very important place in traditional Chinese culture and had a very profound impact. However, after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty “dismissed the hundred schools and revered only Confucianism”, the orthodox Confucianism dominated the ideology and these valuable ideas of Taoism were not developed as much as they should have been. Xunzi, a famous thinker of the Warring States period, paid special attention to the important role of reason and wisdom in human understanding, and explored in depth various aspects of people’s knowledge of the truth. From the perspective of nature, he first put forward the proposition of “the division between heaven and man”. He said, “Therefore, if one understands the division between heaven and man, one can be considered a supreme being.” (Xunzi—On Heaven) This means that, in order to know the truth, we must distinguish between nature and society, between matter and spirit, between subject and object, in order to gain truthful knowledge. He stresses that “there is a law of nature, which does not exist for Yao and does not perish for Jie” (ibid.), and that “the sky does not cease to be cold for the sake of man’s evil,

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and the earth does not cease to be vast for the sake of man’s evil” (ibid.). Nature has its own laws, and it will not change its laws because of man’s subjective wishes. In the light of the above principle, he argued that “all knowledge is the nature of man; all knowledge is the reason of things.” (Xunzi—Unclouding) “Therefore, those who know in man are said to know, and those who know something together are said to be wise.” (Xunzi—Zhengming) This means that man has the ability to know objective things, and that objective things are capable of being known by man; and that man’s ability to know in conformity with objective objects is wisdom. In order to achieve a correct understanding of objective things, it is necessary to overcome and eliminate all kinds of one-sidedness and to grasp the laws of dialectical development and the interconnectedness of things. For more than two thousand years, Chinese thinkers, such as Wang Chong and Wang Fuzhi, have developed this idea, allowing the ancient Chinese idea of the pursuit of truth and wisdom to flourish. The Taoists, represented by Laozi and Zhuangzi, attached particular importance to dialectical thinking. As early as the fourth and fifth centuries BC, Taoists took human dialectical thinking to a new level. In Laozhuang’s view, everything has its opposites, everything is interconnected, everything is developing and changing, everything is capable of mutual transformation, everything is both absolute and relative, there is relative in the absolute and absolute in the relative, and any static, frozen and rigid viewpoint is contrary to the original appearance of objective things. This is how things in nature should be perceived, but also how all social phenomena should be perceived. Although there is a certain element of metaphysics and relativism in the thought of Lao and Zhuang, their dialectical thought is, on the whole, very rich and profound. Not only are size, height, up and down, movement and stillness, etc., opposites and unity, but also the good and evil, beauty and ugliness, gain and loss, misfortune and happiness, quantity and difficulty, etc., in human social life are all interrelated, interdependent, interpenetrating and mutually transforming. “When misfortune is the source of blessing; when fortune is the source of misfortune” (Laozi—Chapter 58); “When all the world knows that beauty is beauty, then evil has been done; when all know that good is good, then bad has been done” (Laozi— Chapter 2); “When there is nothing, there is a” (Laozi—Chapter 2), “The easy and the difficult are made together, the long and the short are shaped together, the high and the low are tilted together, the sound is in harmony with each other, and the front and the back follow each other” (ibid.), “The sage does not make a big deal out of it, but he can make it big” (Laozi—Chapter 63), “It is not because he has no selfishness that he can make it selfish” (Laozi—Chapter 63). (Laozi—Chapter 7), “To be first after one’s own self” (ibid.), “To be first before the people, one must be second after oneself” (Laozi—Chapter 66), and “To hide much will lead to a thick death” (Laozi—Chapter 6). “(Laozi—Chapter 44), “Many easy things will lead to many difficult things” (Laozi—Chapter 63), “The more you think you have, the more you have with others” (Laozi—Chapter 81), and so on. These extremely profound, incisive, wise and simple summaries of the changes in nature and human society can be said to be the most brilliant achievements of early human dialectical thought, and they still shine brightly to this day.

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One of the outstanding features of dialectical thinking in traditional Chinese culture is that it regards the natural world and human social phenomena as a unified whole, and seeks to observe and analyze these phenomena in terms of their mutual opposition and interconnectedness. Human society is a whole, nature is a whole, a country is a whole, and a human being is a whole. Therefore, when understanding, observing, analysing and knowing these phenomena, one must examine their interconnectedness from the perspective of a unity, otherwise, one will not be able to achieve a correct understanding of these phenomena. The ancient Chinese Nei Jing, by examining the various parts of the human body from the perspective of a unified whole, was a genius in recognising the meridian system of the human body, avoiding the one-sided understanding of metaphysics, and is also of great importance to the development of modern medicine. The emphasis on reason and wisdom is also manifested in the pursuit of the true meaning and purpose of life. Most ancient Chinese thinkers sought to understand the place, role and attitude of man in social life and the degree of freedom he could achieve. The Taoists believed that the Tao was the origin of all things. People living in nature and human society must act in accordance with the laws of nature and human society, that is to say, “Tao follows nature”, as Taoists say, and in particular, they must consciously grasp the law that opposites are bound to transform into each other, so as to live well in the midst of misfortune, luck, gain and loss, glory and disgrace, so that they can be blessed by misfortune, turn good fortune into good fortune, lose and regain, and In this way, we can be blessed with good fortune, turn good fortune into good fortune, regain good fortune after loss, and glory after humiliation. In a certain sense, these ideas are still extremely useful today as a guide to better living. Zhuangzi explored how human beings can live in society and how they can escape, transcend, overcome and free themselves from the limitations that override them to achieve a state of complete freedom. He believed that by removing personal desires, looking beyond worldly fame and fortune, abandoning one’s own gains and losses, and freeing oneself from the bonds of honor and shame, one could “be a scribe to the governor” (Zhuangzi—Master of Health and Life) and “overcome things without harm” (Zhuangzi—Ying Di Wang), The “human form, the human emotion” (Zhuangzi—De chong fu), thus achieving a state of complete “no waiting”, people can become what he called “real people” and “supreme people”. In this way, people can become what he calls “real people” and “supreme beings”, and can be “fully alive”. While the Taoists were incorrect in their negative outlook on the world, their emphasis on overcoming materialistic desires and the constraints of fame and fortune had a reasonable content. Confucianism differs from Taoism in its outlook on life. They believe that the true purpose of life is to perfect society on the basis of perfecting oneself, starting with personal cultivation, mediating through the family, and ultimately ruling the country and pacifying the world as the fundamental purpose. In the University, it is said: “In ancient times, those who wished to be clear and virtuous in the world first ruled their country. He who wishes to rule his country must first reorganize his family. Those who wish to bring their families into line must first cultivate their bodies. Those who wish to cultivate their bodies must first correct their minds. Those who wish to rectify their hearts must first be sincere in their intentions.

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If you wish to be sincere, you must first attain knowledge. To attain knowledge, we must first grasp things. When the mind is right, the body is cultivated. When the body is cultivated, the family is united, the family is united, the country is governed, and the country is governed, the world is at peace. This passage expresses in a comprehensive, systematic and complete way the Confucian view of the fundamental meaning and purpose of life, expressing that man should perfect society on the basis of perfecting himself, and at the same time, in the process of perfecting society, he should constantly improve himself, a process that is never-ending. For a long time in the past, there were some people who thought that traditional Chinese culture was all about ethics and not about wisdom, which is a serious misunderstanding of traditional Chinese culture. This is a serious misunderstanding of traditional Chinese culture. Traditional Chinese culture is rich in wisdom, rationality, discernment and knowledge, which should be re-understood. The third characteristic of traditional Chinese culture is its unique aesthetic sense and humanistic spirit. Traditional Chinese culture is one of the most important and splendid treasures in the history of human culture, with its glorious achievements in literature and art. With its emphasis on ethics, morality and intellectual wisdom, ancient Chinese literature and art have played a unique role in guiding the Chinese people and forming their unique aesthetic consciousness and humanistic spirit. More than three thousand years ago, during the Zhou dynasty, there emerged a collection of poetry that reflected social life in a profound, vivid and imaginative way, examining the thoughts and feelings of people in different situations with the characteristic wisdom of scourging social evils and aspiring to a better life. In the Spring and Autumn period, the Ch’u Shu, especially the Li Sao, is the most important piece of patriotism of the Chinese people, expressing the author’s concern for the people, the country, the pursuit of ideals, the transformation of reality and the spirit of tenacious struggle. In the course of the Chinese nation’s development, there were also several high points in the development of literature and art, such as Tang poetry, Song lyrics, Yuan opera and Ming and Qing novels, which created splendid, brilliant and permanently fascinating works of literature and art. Traditional Chinese culture is characterised by the expression of thoughts and feelings in the form of poetry. Its origins can be traced back to the time of the emperors and the shuns before the Book of Songs, and it has continued to develop throughout the thousands of years of Chinese history. What is even more noteworthy is that since the Tang dynasty, with the formation of a new unified state and the strengthening of national power, a period of unprecedented prosperity in literature and art emerged in which poetry was used to express people’s thoughts and feelings, ideals, values and sentiments in life. It was a time of unprecedented poetry in the history of the Chinese nation, with a large number of talented poets and literary scholars such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Meng Haoran, Wang Wei, Bai Juyi and Han Yu, who produced tens of thousands of famous and far-reaching poems. There are over 50,000 poems from the Tang dynasty alone, of which more than 10,000 are famous. It was an age of poetry, and the great poet Bai Juyi even had to read his poems to an old woman before revising them. These poems embody the national character of the Chinese people, who love peace, defy violence, are enterprising, pursue ideals, are

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indifferent to fame and fortune, and yearn for nature. The poets passionately celebrate all that is good in real life, resist all the unreasonable forces of darkness in society, praise the sincere feelings and friendship between people, and persist in the pursuit of ideals and a better life. On the one hand, these poems are full of romanticism and idealism; on the other hand, they are full of realism and pragmatism from a practical point of view. These poems not only enriched the spiritual civilization of human society, but also contributed to the development of society and the prosperity of the country, and played a powerful role in the progress of society. The poems “The stench of wine and flesh at the gate of the vermilion gate, the bones of the frozen dead on the road”, “The country is broken, the mountains and rivers are there, the grass and trees are deep in the city in spring”, and “Three Officials” and “Three Farewells” are popular poems. “These poems, which are popular with the public, express the great poet Du Fu’s concern for the country and the people. The great poet Du Fu’s thoughts of worrying about the country and the people are expressed in his poem, “A house of ten million rooms, a shelter for all the poor people of the world, and a mountain of peace when the wind and rain do not move. When will I see this house before my eyes? When will I see this house suddenly before my eyes, it will be enough for me to freeze to death in my house alone!” This poem expresses the poet’s feelings about the poor who are in a similar situation, even at the cost of his own death by freezing, so that the poor can have a good house to live in. How sincere and deep is the poet’s affection for the working people! “A grain of corn is planted in spring, and ten thousand seeds are harvested in autumn. There are no idle fields in the sea, and the peasants are still starving.” (Li Shen: “Compassion for the Farmer”) “When the day of hoeing is noon, the sweat drips from the earth. Who knows that every grain of food in a plate is hard work?” (Li Shen: “Compassion for the Farmers II”) “My father plows the fields on the plain, my son mows the barren hills below. In June, before the harvest is ripe, the government has already repaired the barn.” (Nie Yizhong: “The Family in the Fields”) “In February I sell new silk, in May I sell new grain. The sore in front of my eyes is healed, but the flesh of my heart is plucked out. I wish that the king’s heart could be turned into a candle of light. I wish that the king’s heart could be turned into a candle of light, a candle that would not shine on a feast of beautiful flowers, but on a house of escape.” (Nie Yizhong: ‘A Song of the Tianjia’) These famous poems by Tang poets fully reflect the thoughts and feelings of the working people, reflecting their strong discontent with the fruits of their labor and their hatred of exploitation. Among the famous poets of the Tang dynasty, there are also Wang Wei and Meng Haoran, who were adept at depicting natural scenery, combining the freshness and beauty of the landscape with the richness of the poet’s emotions in it, thus achieving a new realm of evocative beauty. The poet’s poem, “Spring sleeps, and the birds are heard everywhere. The sound of rain and wind at night, and the falling of flowers.” (Meng Haoran: “Spring Dawn”) “The peach is red and the rain is overnight, the willow is green and the smoke is in the morning. The flowers have not yet been swept by the houseboy, and the warbler is still sleeping on the mountain.” (Wang Wei: ‘Music in the Garden’) These two poems link the poet’s tranquil, quiet mood and thoughts on life with the spring rain, falling flowers, crying birds, and the red peach, green willow and crying warbler.

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From the Tang Dynasty onwards, poetry, which was used to express people’s thoughts and feelings, began to be combined with music and sung. In the Song Dynasty, it developed into a new literary genre, known as ‘Song lyrics’, which, together with Tang poetry, became another splendid treasure of the Chinese cultural tradition. It is noteworthy that the Song has its own unique tradition in terms of its choice of subject matter, artistic style and ideological orientation. It is good at using musical melodies to express the subtle psychological changes of characters, either euphemistically or boldly, and is always closely linked to the life of the people, the governance of society and the security of the state. After the Tang poetry and Song lyrics, there were also the Yuan opera and the Ming and Qing novels, which, in their unique way, formed a unique aesthetic consciousness and humanistic spirit, inculcating and nurturing the unique humanistic qualities and national spirit of the Chinese nation.

3.2 Traditional Culture and the Development of High Quality Human Resources The twenty-first century is an era of fierce competition in all aspects, and if we cannot develop in the fierce competition, we may be eliminated. Competition is multifaceted, there are economic competition, competition in science and technology, competition in management, competition in talent, etc., of which the most important is the competition of talent, and in the competition of talent, the quality of thought and moral quality has a particularly important role. Therefore, it can be said that the quality of human beings is a major issue related to the survival and development of a country and a nation. The traditional Chinese culture, with its emphasis on morality, wisdom, cultural and artistic cultivation, humanistic spirit and humanistic quality, is conducive to the improvement of the ideological quality of human beings in the new era, and should be seriously promoted in the process of cultivating talents in the twenty-first century. On the issue of traditional culture and the development of quality human resources, we must first recognise that, since traditional culture still plays a role in today’s reality, we must make a dialectical analysis of it. Generally speaking, the role of traditional culture in reality can be divided into two aspects: it is both a valuable spiritual asset created by mankind, a basis for mankind to continue to move forward, and a burden that prevents people from moving forward. Therefore, when inheriting traditional culture, we must emphasize identification and selection, adhere to the principles of critical inheritance, discarding the dregs and extracting the essence, integrating and innovating, and using the past for the present, discarding the conservative dregs that do not meet the requirements of the times, absorbing the essence needed by the times, and integrating and innovating to give new meaning to traditional culture. When any country inherits its own traditional culture, it must absorb all the outstanding cultural achievements created in human history. Therefore, when China

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inherits and carries forward the fine traditions of the Chinese nation, it must also treat the outstanding cultural traditions of all nationalities and countries in the world, including the cultural traditions of the West, with the right attitude. The developed countries of the West have not only inherited the rich and colourful culture of ancient Greece, but have also, in the centuries since the Renaissance, created new and unprecedented cultures, which are of great significance for the training of talents for the twenty-first century. The ancient Egyptian and Indian cultures have not only achieved glorious successes in history, but they are still something we should critically inherit today. Of course, when inheriting foreign cultural heritage, we must adhere to the principle of “we are the mainstay and we use it for ourselves”, and at present, the general principle is to take the needs of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. Generally speaking, every country and nation has its own traditions, and these traditions should be respected. With the development of the economy and the progress of society, exchanges between cultures are becoming more frequent. Clashes between cultures are also inevitable, but there is no question of one culture overcoming all others and replacing them in the twenty-first century, as some people believe. The future of cultural development will be one of increasing integration of cultures through interaction and conflict, through interconnection and mutual absorption. Despite the differences in social systems, the culture of each country and each nation will maintain its own cultural characteristics, while inheriting the best of its own traditional culture and absorbing the best of all cultures in the history of mankind, so as to make its own culture even more colourful and distinctive.

4 Brief Discussion on Traditional Virtues 4.1 The Virtue of “Public Loyalty” Among the moral codes developed in ancient China, the moral code of “public loyalty” occupies a very important place. It is the highest principle of social morality and the most fundamental requirement for personal moral character. It was not only regarded as a personal “key to cultivating one’s moral character”, but was also enshrined in all moral codes. What is “public loyalty”? What are the basic requirements of the ethical code of “public loyalty”? In ancient times, “loyalty” often represented an attitude towards the world, and the ancient interpretation was that “one should be loyal to the best of one’s ability”. The ancient interpretation was that one should always do one’s best in whatever one does, and this is “loyalty”. Confucius’ disciple, Zengzi, once said some very famous words, which were quoted by Zhou Enlai during his lifetime, and confirmed their positive meaning. Zengzi said, “I have been thinking about myself three times a day. Do you not trust your friends? Is it not a good practice to pass on?” This means that one should always reflect on whether one has done one’s best for others, that

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is, whether one has done one’s best. Nowadays, we still often say that we should be “loyal to the cause”, “loyal to our comrades”, “loyal to our friends” and even “loyal to the community”, “loyal to the country” and “loyal to the country”. “loyalty to the cause”, “loyalty to comrades”, “loyalty to friends”, “loyalty to the collective”, “loyalty to the country”, “loyalty to the nation” and so on. This shows that “loyalty” is the most important and basic moral requirement for people to live together in society. In ancient times, “loyalty” has always been associated with “public” and “righteousness”, so the ancients proposed that “loyalty is also the righteousness of virtue This is why the ancients said, “Loyalty is the righteousness of virtue” (Zuo Zhuan—The Year of Wen A.D.), and considered “loyalty” to be the most important of all moral codes. The “Classic of Loyalty”, which appeared after the Sui and Tang dynasties, gives a more detailed explanation of the meaning of “loyalty”, saying: “The greatest of all is loyalty, which is overlaid by heaven, contained in the earth, and performed by man. Loyalty is also the middle, the most public and selfless. Without selfishness in heaven, the four seasons will move; without selfishness in the earth, all things will come into being; without selfishness in man, the great will flourish. Loyalty is also the name of a single heart. What is the basis of a state but loyalty?”. In ancient China, ‘public’ was the opposite of ‘private’. Generally speaking, “public” refers to the interests of the clan, the nation and the state. In the long history of slave and feudal societies, the state was always in the hands of the exploiting class, and even belonged to one family. Thus, what the ancients called “public” had a feudal aspect, which we should analyze in Marxist terms. However, on the whole, in slave and feudal societies, whenever the country faced internal and external troubles, those who suffered the most were inevitably the working people at the bottom of the hierarchy, and therefore, in such circumstances, the “public” spirit, which was brave enough to sacrifice itself and defend itself against foreign invasions to the point of sacrificing its life for the survival of the country, is still worthy of recognition. It is still worthy of recognition. Numerous patriotic national heroes in history, such as Su Wu, Yue Fei, Wen Tianxiang and Qi Jiguang, are still worthy of our recognition today for their indomitable spirit for the sake of the nation and the people. As “public” is the opposite of “private”, how did the ancients understand “private”? In traditional Chinese morality, “selfishness” generally refers to private interests or personal gain, and sometimes even refers explicitly to the idea and behavior of “selfishness” and “enriching oneself at the expense of the public good”. Han Fei, a thinker of the Warring States period, once explained the opposing meanings of “public” and “private” in terms of the origins of Chinese writing. He said, “In the ancient times, when Cang Jie was writing, those who made the book from the ring were called private, and those who made it behind private were called public. (Han Fei Zi—The Five Dangers) What Han Fei meant was that since ancient times, “public” and “private” had been opposed to each other, and that Cang Jie, who was the first to create characters, had created the words “public” and “private” in accordance with this meaning. The earliest characters for “private” did not have the same meaning. In the earliest version of the character 私, there was no “wo” side, but only the other half, which was a circle starting with oneself. The character ‘八’, which we are all

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familiar with now, had a contrary meaning in ancient times, so the character ‘八’ was added to the ancient character ‘厶’, which had the opposite meaning, to make the character The character for ‘Gong’ is now known as ‘Gong’. From Han Fei’s explanation, it is clear that at least as far back as the early days, there was already a consensus that ‘public’ and ‘private’ were the opposite of each other. The Bai Hu Tong Yi (Bai Hu Tong Yi) compiled by Ban Gu in the Han dynasty was actually a standard dictionary of the time, in which it was said that “public means just and unselfish”, and that “public” and “private” were also interpreted in opposition to each other. This is also an interpretation of the terms “public” and “private” in opposition to each other. In ancient Chinese traditional morality, people have long linked “public” and “loyalty”, requiring one to do one’s utmost to dedicate oneself to the country and the nation. In the relationship between “public” and “private”, one must restrain and give up one’s personal interests for the sake of the public good, and one must “serve the public with self-restraint”. This moral requirement of public loyalty for the country, the nation and society is the core of the Chinese nation’s unique spirit of holism, which is of great significance to the prosperity and survival of the nation. Historically, as early as in the Shang Shu—Zhou Guan, which reflects the political thinking of the Western Zhou period, there is a reference to “eliminating selfishness with public interest, so that the people will be willing to embrace it”, which means that only when a ruler eliminates selfish desires with public interest will he or she gain the trust of the people and gain their support. The idea of “being in public at all times” is also found in the Poetic Edda. The Zuo Zhuan—Nine Years of Duke Xi further suggests that “if one knows what is in the public interest, one should be loyal”, linking “public” with “loyalty”. This is the original source of the moral code of “Gongzhong”. This is the original source of the moral code of “public loyalty”. In Zuo Zhuan—Zao A.D., it is also said that “not forgetting one’s country in times of trouble is also loyalty”, taking one’s personal responsibility to one’s country, especially when the country is in danger and in times of trouble, as the greatest form of loyalty. Since the monarchs of both the slave and feudal eras belonged to the exploiting class, this “public loyalty” to the state contained both the best and the worst that we need to analyze. Jia Yi, a famous statesman of the Han dynasty, linked loyalty to the state with righteousness and justice when he said, “The state forgets the family, the public forgets the private, profit is not taken for granted, harm is not taken away, and righteousness is the only thing.” (Xinshu—Class) In this passage, Jia Yi emphasizes that when personal interests and national interests are in conflict, according to the moral code of “public loyalty”, one should “forget one’s family” and “forget one’s selfishness”. “This is something that should be carried forward, as one should do whatever one is supposed to do according to principle, and not do what one is supposed to do or not do. However, we should also see that the idea of “public loyalty” includes the idea that a subject should think of the sovereign wholeheartedly, and this should be criticised and discarded. In ancient thought, the terms ‘public’, ‘private’ and ‘good’ and ‘evil’ often had the same meaning This means that ‘public’ is ‘good’ and ‘private’ is ‘evil’. Lu Jiuyuan, a scholar of the mind in the Song Dynasty, believed that the ideas of “public” and

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“private” reflected the “righteousness” and “evil” of one’s “mind”. He said, “To be good and to be public is the righteousness of the heart. He said, “To do good for public good is righteousness of the heart, but to do evil for private gain is evil of the heart. If one does good for the public, there will be harmony and harmony, which is a blessing; if one does evil for the private, there will be mischief, which is a disaster.” (Lu Jiuyuan Ji—A gift to the street builder of Jinxi) In traditional Chinese morality, it has always been a noble and virtuous virtue to serve the public, to put the interests of the people and the nation above all else, and to regard selfishness and self-interest as evil, as a sin, as a despised and despicable thought and behavior. It is under the influence of this tradition that our Chinese nation has developed a strong centripetal and cohesive force that celebrates national unity, praises national harmony and emphasizes national unity. In view of the real situation in China, since the reform and opening up, in order to develop the productive forces more quickly and promote economic development, we have put more emphasis on personal interests, which has had its positive effects for a certain period of time. But at the same time, we should also see that with the development of the commodity economy and market economy, especially under the influence of Western thinking, some people pursue personal enjoyment and are concerned about their personal interests, while being passive and perfunctory about their duties, and failing to do their best and do what they should do seriously. In the great cause of revitalising China, we all have responsibilities and obligations to the nation, to the collective and to the country. When Dr Sun Yat-sen spoke of the word “loyalty”, he once said, “Now we say that loyalty to the ruler is of course not allowed, but is it possible to say that loyalty to the people is not? What about loyalty to the people? If we do not succeed, we will sacrifice our lives, and that is loyalty.”8 The great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics that we are building requires the people to be loyal, dedicated, tough, courageous, indefatigable and to fight to the end for the cause of the collective, the nation and the country. If everyone can consciously, actively and strictly fulfil their responsibilities and obligations to others, to the collective, to society and to the country, then our socialist cause will certainly flourish and our nation will become a nation of great hope in the world.

4.2 “Awareness of the Problems” and “Preparedness for Danger” During its long history,9 the Chinese nation has developed its own unique national psychology, emotions and spirit, and the sense of worry is an important element of this spirit. In our traditional culture and morality, a sense of worry is always associated with “thinking of danger in times of peace”. That is to say, not only should one be worried 8 9

Selected Works of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, vol. 2, p. 650. This section was originally published in Being and Doing, No. 7, 2000.

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when the country is in difficulty or when it is invaded by foreign enemies, but also when the country is stable and strong, one should still think of the possible crises that may arise and be on high alert at all times, so as to be prepared for them and thus always be invincible. (1) The sense of worry in the I Ching The Chinese sense of worry has been developed in the classical text, the I Ching. In a certain sense, we can say that the leading idea of the I Ching is a sense of worry, and that this sense of worry leads to a spirit of striving for improvement. The I Ching summarizes the lessons learned from the rise and fall of nations and societies, analyzes the various causes of individual success and failure, examines the complexities of change, sees the factors of dialectical development, and puts forward the extremely important idea of “a sense of worry”, in order to enable nations to prosper and flourish, and individuals to “It was for this reason that the Chinese philosophers were able to develop the idea of “a sense of worry”. It is also for this reason that the Book of Changes says: “He who made the Book of Changes has worries?” This means that the author of the I Ching was a man with a sense of worry, for the entirety of the I Ching is based on a sense of worry. The first time the I Ching—Qian says about the “gentleman” is when it says: “The gentleman should be alert and fearful from morning to night, even when it is time to sleep. This phrase means that a moral person should be in a state of “caution and fear” from morning to night, and even when it is time to go to bed at night, he should still be worried and alert. In this way, one can be free from calamity in dangerous and unfavorable situations. The Elephant’s Tale goes a step further in its interpretation of this passage. It emphasizes that a moral person should “advance his virtue and cultivate his work” and strengthen his moral cultivation, “so that he will not be arrogant when he is at the top and will not be worried when he is at the bottom, so that if he is vigilant at the right time, there will be no blame despite the danger”. This means that as long as one is alert and worried at all times, one will be free from calamity even if one is in a dangerous situation. The I Ching sees the importance of thinking of danger in times of peace in the context of the dialectical development of things, as it says in the Book of Changes: “Therefore, a gentleman does not forget danger in times of peace, does not forget death in times of existence, and does not forget chaos in times of rule. The meaning of this saying is that the security, survival and chaos of a country, a society and a person are interrelated and can be transformed into each other. A stable society can develop into a dangerous situation; a state that exists can become extinct; a well-governed society can become an unmanageable chaos. How can this be avoided? The most fundamental thing is to have a sense of security and danger. By “thinking of danger”, we must anticipate possible “dangers”, “dangers”, “dangers” and “dangers” when we are in “peace”, “in existence” and “in governance”. This will enhance people’s sense of worry and enable them to overcome difficulties with foresight. To think of danger in times of peace and security means to be “cautious and fearful” even before

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danger arrives, to be “as if facing an abyss and walking on thin ice”, and to oppose complacency, extravagance, etc. (2) The development of the sense of worry by Confucius and Mencius The sense of worry was further developed by Confucius. Confucius said, “If one does not have far-seeing concerns, one must have near ones” (Analects of Confucius—Wei Ling Gong). He opposed the short-sightedness of seeing only immediate interests and temporary wealth, and stressed the importance of looking at problems from a broader perspective. On the one hand, Confucius’ saying “If one does not have far-reaching concerns, one must have near-term worries” has two meanings: on the one hand, he considers the state and society, as he saw that the reason why some vassal states at that time went from prosperity to decline was often related to the lack of a sense of worry, On the other hand, he also understood the problem from the perspective of life, believing that a person should live in society with great ambitions, high morals and noble sentiments, and that he should always be vigilant and reflect on himself. He said: “A gentleman worries about the way, not about poverty” (Analects of Confucius—Wei Ling Gong), and for himself: “I am worried because I do not cultivate my virtue, I do not learn, I do not hear righteousness, and I do not change my misdeeds” (Analects of Confucius—Shu Zi). For Confucius, morality must be cultivated before it can be achieved, learning must be taught before it can be gained, righteousness must be understood and righteousness must be changed, and this is the key to one’s continuous progress. Inheriting Confucius’ sense of worry, Mencius made the famous assertion that ‘to be born in worry is to die in peace and happiness’. This thought of Mencius is a summary of the law of development and change, and contains a profound philosophy. In the case of a country or an individual, comfort and happiness can easily lead to destruction and death, while a sense of worry can lead to better survival. In the case of a nation, Mencius said, “A nation will always die if there are no enemies abroad” (ibid.), because under the constant threat of enemy aggression, the nation will have a strong sense of worry and will strive to be strong and self-reliant, and will be able to defeat enemy aggression and survive tenaciously. For a person, worry is the best way to exercise one’s strong will. “Therefore, when the heavens will send a great task to a man, one must first suffer his heart and mind, toil his muscles and bones, to starve his body and skin, to empty his body, to do what he does, to move his heart and endure his nature, to have benefited from what he cannot do” (ibid), which is also the truth. (3) A sense of worry and national spirit In China’s long history, we can see that the sense of worry has become an important part of the Chinese national spirit, which is both a patriotic spirit of worrying about the country and the people, and a sense of responsibility for the country and the people, as well as a spirit of self-reliance, hard work, hard work and selfless devotion. Inspired by this spirit, many noblemen and moral models have either killed themselves for mercy or sacrificed their lives for righteousness, or died in the name of their country, leaving behind many touching stories that can be sung and cried.

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Fan Zhongyan, a famous thinker of the Song Dynasty, put forward the idea of “worrying about the world before the world’s worries and being happy after the world’s happiness”, emphasizing that a moral person should take the worries of the country, the nation and the people as his worries, reflecting his far-reaching political ambition and broad-mindedness. In The Records of Yueyang Tower, he says: “When I live in a high temple, I worry about my people; when I live in a faraway place, I worry about my ruler. I am also worried when I enter and when I retreat.” When he was an official in the imperial court, he had to think of the people at all times; when he was deported and far away from the imperial court, he had to think of the king’s safety and security constantly. Fan Zhongyan’s sense of concern for the country and the people reflects the national spirit of the Chinese people. Gu Yanwu, a famous thinker of the Qing Dynasty, further put forward the idea that ‘the rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of every man’, extending this sense of worry to all people, stressing that every citizen should worry about the rise and fall of the country, its survival and death, and should do their part for the prosperity and strength of the country. The Chinese nation’s sense of worry has played an extremely important role in the development of the Chinese nation. The reason why the Chinese nation has been able to maintain its independence and development through hardships, internal and external troubles, and a multitude of dangers and crises, is closely related to the national spirit of the sense of worry. (4) A sense of worry and being a man In terms of dealing with people, a sense of worry and the idea of being prepared for danger have an important relationship with one’s life path, career development, success or failure. A person with a sense of worry is always able to spur himself, remind himself, check and reflect on his problems in work and life, analyze the reasons for the difficulties and setbacks he encounters on the road of life, so as to find ways to correct them and overcome the difficulties on the way. A person with a sense of worry is always able to observe problems with an open mind and objectivity, to maintain the virtue of humility, to be strict with himself at all times in his life, and to correct his shortcomings and mistakes as far as possible. It is for this reason that the ancients often associated a sense of worry with the cultivation of one’s virtue, emphasizing that it is an important condition for one to be able to turn crisis into peace. A person with a sense of worry always has a broad vision, good at observing and grasping the overall situation of things, but also able to consciously motivate themselves, grasp the key aspects of the development process, to turn bad things into good things. Only those who have a sense of worry will be able to safely navigate the reefs and shoals in the long river of life and reach the other side smoothly. The phrase “To be born in worry and die in peace and happiness” contains a profound philosophy, which not only has a meaning for individuals to guide their lives, but also plays an extremely important role in the survival, development, enrichment and revitalisation of the country and the nation, as well as the formation of a

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national spirit of self-reliance and self-improvement. The reason why the Chinese nation has stood for so long among the nations of the world is closely related to this philosophy. At a time when we are building socialism with Chinese characteristics, we should be sober enough to see that the road ahead is not smooth. At the present time, it is of great practical significance to inherit and carry forward the Chinese nation’s sense of worry and danger in times of peace. We must strive for self-improvement and self-reliance, and be fully prepared for any difficulties and setbacks that may arise, and have the fearless spirit to overcome all difficulties and dangers. Only in this way can we advance smoothly on the road to building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

4.3 Modesty and Hard Work Soon after the closing of the 16th Party Congress,10 Comrade Hu Jintao led a study tour to Xibaipo, calling on all Party comrades, especially leading cadres at all levels, to remember the “two imperatives”, vigorously carry forward the spirit of modesty and prudence and hard work, and fully implement the “Three Represents” We should make greater contributions to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The idea of “two imperatives” was an admonition given by Comrade Mao Zedong to the entire Party and the people of China when the Chinese revolution was on the verge of national victory. He said: “To win a national victory is only the first step in a long march of ten thousand miles. …… The Chinese revolution was great, but the journey after the revolution is much longer and the work is even greater and more arduous. This must be made clear to the Party now, and comrades must be made to continue to maintain the style of modesty, prudence, lack of arrogance and impatience, and the style of hard struggle.” Comrade Mao also stressed that “because of the victory, pride in the Party, pride in taking credit for the victory, pride in not seeking progress, and pride in not wanting to live a hard life, may grow” and that the weak-willed in our ranks may be conquered by enemies who do not have guns, etc. In order to better learn the idea of “two imperatives”, now the ancient Chinese thinkers on “modesty and prudence” and “hard work”, a brief introduction, for your reference in For your reference when studying. (1) On modesty and prudence and not being arrogant According to ancient Chinese thinkers, modesty and prudence is the most important moral quality of a person. It is not only the proper attitude of an individual in his studies, in the world and as a person, but also one of the necessary virtues for a ruler to win the hearts of the people and thus the world. Therefore, modesty and prudence are the key to the prosperity of a person and a country.

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This section was originally published in Teaching Ideology and Politics, No. 6, 2003.

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The phrase “full of losses, modest benefits” is a quote from the famous ancient Chinese classic “Shang Shu”. In the Shangshu—Dayumu, it is said, “It is the way of heaven to be full of harm and humble enough to benefit.” This is the universal law of nature and society that complacency will lead to damage and modesty will lead to benefit. In the view of ancient thinkers, the law of “fullness invites loss and modesty benefits” is reflected in all aspects of people’s social life, including learning, being a man, dealing with the world and governing the country. Confucius expressed an extremely humble attitude towards learning when he said, “There must be a teacher for all three of us” (Analects of Confucius—Shu Zi). He believed that anyone who had a skill was worth learning from. In order to acquire profound knowledge, one must not only be “sensitive and studious”, but also “not be ashamed to ask questions”, and seek advice from those who are not as good as oneself or less knowledgeable than oneself, and to do so, one must be humble. Mencius, on the other hand, criticised the problem of learning from those who knew little but were complacent, and those who knew little but were eager to be taught by others. He said, “The trouble with man is that he is a good teacher.” (Mencius—Li Lou I) Later, Tang Yan said in his article “Qianshu—Void Receiving”: “The way of learning is to be able to subordinate people; who will not be happy to tell them to be good!” This is like the objective law of nature that water flows downward, “the pond and the marsh, so a corner of the water to the; under the river and the Han, so a side of the water to the; under the sea, so the world’s water to the”. Among the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching, an ancient Confucian classic, the trigram “Qian” is devoted to the requirements of “modesty” in all aspects of life. The I Ching is both a philosophical work and a summary of the experiences of the ancients in politics and the conduct of people in the world, as outlined in their practical lives. In the trigram “Qian”, we analyze the various situations in which people are prone to complacency and emphasize the importance of “Ming Qian”, “Lao Qian” and “Wei Qian”, in the hope that people can always maintain the quality of modesty. The word “mingqian” means that a person should be modest after he has gained fame; “laoqian” means that a person should not be proud of his merits but should be modest; “The word” “Wei Qian” means that one should be modest even when one is moving forward. The word “humility” means that a person who is high in the hierarchy and is able to be humble will grow in virtue and have a more radiant character. The famous Taoist thinker Laozi also emphasized the role of modesty when he said, “If one does not see oneself, one will be clear; if one does not behave oneself, one will be successful; and if one does not reserve oneself, one will be long.” (Laozi— Chapter 22) This means that without self-expression, one can reveal oneself; without self-righteousness, one can distinguish oneself; without self-aggrandizement, one can achieve success; without complacency and self-conceit, one can make progress. This is a warning against self-importance and self-righteousness, so that one can achieve personal success. If a person is complacent, what will happen to him? The Book of the Shang Dynasty says: “If one is complacent, the nine clans will leave.” In other words, if a person is complacent and arrogant, his relatives will stay away from him. The Book of Shang Shu—Bi Ming also says, “Pride and reserve with a foreign accent

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will end in evil.” In the Zuo Zhuan, there is an admonition that pride will lead to defeat: “There is no such thing as a man who is proud but does not die” (The Thirteenth Year of the Duke of Ding), which sums up the lessons of history when many vassal states died because of pride. Wang Yangming, a famous thinker of the Ming Dynasty, believed that “a thousand sins and a hundred evils all come from pride” (Wang Yangming Quanji—Wenlu 5—Shu Zhengxian Fan), because a proud man is bound to be arrogant and refuses to submit to others. If a son is arrogant, he will not be obedient to his parents; if a brother is arrogant, he will not be obedient to his elder brother; if a subject is arrogant, he will not be loyal to the king. “The opposite of ‘arrogance’ is ‘humility’” (Wang Yangming Quanji—Wenlu 5—Shu Zhengxian Fan). The “humility” that Wang Yangming understands is not only humility in appearance, but also sincerity and respect in the heart, the ability to constantly reflect on oneself, to discipline oneself, to find one’s own shortcomings and to correct them. In this way, “if you are humble as a son, you will be filial; if you are humble as a brother, you will be a disciple; if you are humble as a minister, you will be loyal” (ibid.). If everyone is humble and not proud, and if fathers are kind to their sons and sons are filial, and brothers are friendly and respectful, then the people will be simple and the society will be stable, and thus will continue to develop. Therefore, Wang Yangming also said, “Humility is the foundation of all goodness, while pride is the leader of all evil.” (Chuan Xi Lu). There are many other famous quotes and warnings from ancient Chinese thinkers about pride being a sure recipe for failure, such as “If you breed pride, you will be in danger”, “There is no greater misfortune than to be self-sufficient”, “The great disease of man is only the word pride” The purpose of these lines is to warn people that they must not become complacent at any time. If a person is humble, he or she will be careful and conscientious in whatever he or she does, and will “think twice before acting” (Analects of Confucius—Gongye Chang). If one weighs the pros and cons of everything in advance and then proceeds cautiously, one will make fewer mistakes and take fewer detours; if one thinks twice before acting, one will avoid unnecessary setbacks and failures. Ancient thinkers believed that the sages were prudent in their words and actions, that they considered the implications before they spoke and the consequences before they acted. In the Book of Changes, it is said: “If a gentleman lives in his room and speaks well, he will be answered from a thousand miles away, not to mention those who are close to him! If he lives in his room and speaks badly, he will be disobeyed from a thousand miles away, not to mention those who are close to him. “The words that come out of the body will be added to the people; the deeds that come out of the far side will be seen from afar. Words and deeds are the pivot of a gentleman; the pivot is the master of honor and disgrace”. It is in this sense that the I Ching stresses that “words and deeds are the reason why a gentleman moves heaven and earth, so we must be careful”. Confucius said, “A gentleman wants to be careful in what he says but not in what he does” (Analects—Li Ren) and “A gentleman is ashamed of what he says but not of what he does” (Analects—Xian Wen). “The Chinese saying”. We can learn from the experience of the ancients that only by combining “modesty” and “prudence”, and by maintaining a style of non-arrogance in the face of

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achievements and honors, will the future of a person, a political party and a country be unlimitedly bright and the cause Only then will the future of a person, a political party and a country be bright and the cause flourish. (2) On hard work The ancient Chinese thinkers always combined the idea of hard work with the idea of opposing luxury and corruption and advocating diligence and thrift. They believed that a nation or a country could only flourish and develop if it persisted in hard work and opposed luxury and corruption, or else it would sink and perish. These legends reflect the perseverance and indomitable spirit of hard work that the ancient Chinese people displayed in their struggle against nature. Mencius’ statement that “when the heavens are about to send a great task upon a man, he must first suffer his heart and mind, toil his muscles and bones, starve his body, and act in a way that is disruptive to his work” (Mencius—Under the Admonition) has become an inspirational quote that has inspired Chinese people to survive in difficult times for thousands of years. Mencius stressed that a country and a person can only become a strong country and a useful person by refining in hardship and suffering and struggling in a difficult environment, and that only through adversity can one’s will be tempered and one’s talent grow to achieve greater things, which is what people later used to call “hardship and suffering, jade will become This is what is often referred to as “hardships and suffering make thee perfect”. It is precisely because of the importance of a strong will and a sense of worry to human growth that Mencius pointed out that “to be born in worry is to die in peace and happiness” (ibid.), meaning that only when one is constantly in worry can one withstand all kinds of tests and strive for improvement, and thus survive and develop; on the contrary, in an environment of peace and happiness, one will be content with the status quo On the contrary, in an environment of comfort and happiness, people will be content with the status quo, crave enjoyment and become demoralized, which will eventually lead to their demise. This is the same as what Ouyang Xiu said: “Worry and labor can raise a nation, while leisure and pleasure can kill a man” (New Five Dynasties History— Preface to the Biography of Lingguan). Worrying about the affairs of the state can make the country prosperous, while pursuing ease and pleasure can lead to one’s own demise. This is a warning to us, whether we are emperors, generals or commoners, that in order to achieve something, we must be able to withstand trials and tribulations, be aware of the need for peace and danger, and have the spirit of self-reliance and self-improvement, but that it is difficult to achieve success in one’s career by pursuing comfort without moving forward. The ancient people’s admiration for the spirit of hard work was always linked to the idea of opposing luxury and pleasure and promoting diligence and thrift. By hard work and thrift, we mean hard work and frugality. As the ancients used to say, “If people are industrious, they will not be in want” (Zuo Zhuan—The Twelfth Year of Duke Xuan), they believed that the livelihood of the people lay in hard work, and that only by working hard would they not be in want of money. Mozi was an ancient thinker who placed particular emphasis on frugality. He said, “If you are

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thrifty and frugal, you will prosper; if you are anonymous, you will perish” (Mozi— “Resignation”), which means that if you are thrifty and frugal, you will prosper and develop, while if you are anonymous and enjoy yourself, you will perish. According to Mozi, “Those who rely on their strength are born, but those who do not rely on their strength are not born.” (He saw hard work as a sure way to create wealth and survive. Hard work and frugality are interlinked, for only those who have worked hard can truly appreciate the meaning of frugality. Ancient thinkers attached great importance to the role of frugality in the cultivation of one’s moral character, the development of one’s family and the governance of one’s country. They regarded frugality as a virtue and extravagance as a vice. In the trigram of the Book of Changes, it is said that “a gentleman who is frugal and virtuous will be able to avoid danger and disaster”. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the great official of the state of Lu, Yusun, advised the then ruler of Lu that “frugality is the common denominator of virtue, while extravagance is the greatest of evils”, arguing that frugality is the greatest virtue of all good deeds, while extravagance is the greatest of all evils. Confucius also believed that it was better to be shabby through frugality than to be unworthy through extravagance. He said, “Extravagance is not grandfatherly, but frugality is solid. It is better to be solid than not to be grand.” (The Analects of Confucius—Shu Zi) Between extravagance and frugality, pride and shabbiness, Confucius believed that the latter was extremely important for personal cultivation. Sima Guang, a famous thinker and historian of the Song Dynasty, also placed special emphasis on frugality and simplicity, saying, “Everyone is proud of extravagance, but my heart is beautiful in frugality and simplicity. The gentleman who is frugal has no desire for anything, and can walk in a straight path; the lesser man who has no desire for anything, can be careful with his body and use it sparingly, and is far from being sinful and rich.” The gentleman who desires too much will be greedy for wealth and prosperity, and will be in danger of wasting his way; the villain who desires too much will seek more than he should, and will lose his family and his life. This is the reason why officials will always bribe and villagers will always steal.” (Sima Wenzheng Gong Zhuanjia Ji—Discipline Frugality and Show Kang) Sima Guang saw the close relationship between extravagance and the downfall of the family and state, and believed that greed could lead to the degradation of people and the corruption of the officialdom. He believed that greed could lead to the degradation of people and the corruption of officials. If a person was infected with luxury, he would lose his life; if a family was infected, it would be corrupted; if an official was infected, it would be corrupted; and if a country was infected, it would be destroyed. It is for this reason that Li Shangyin’s poem, ‘A review of the countries and families of the sages who have gone before us shows that diligence and frugality lead to extravagance’ (A Winged History), has become a cautionary tale. It is a warning to people that, from the state to the family, all are born of diligence and frugality, and all are lost to extravagance. The spirit of self-improvement, diligence and frugality that ancient thinkers promoted is the core connotation of the spirit of hard work as we understand it now. We can say that without the spirit of self-improvement, we will not be able to

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keep our spirits up in the face of hardship and suffering; without the fine virtue of diligence and frugality, we will let the wind of arrogance and extravagance break down our high spirits. Therefore, hard work is premised on frugality and self-improvement. To carry forward the spirit of hard work is to maintain the simple style of hard work, thrift and frugality, and to carry forward the spirit of struggle that is undaunted by hardship and danger, indomitable and self-improvement.

4.4 “Respect for the Elderly” and “Orderliness of Elders and Children” This year is the International Year of Older Persons.11 At a time when both the world and Chinese populations are ageing, many issues concerning the elderly have attracted widespread attention from all quarters. Among these issues, how to treat the elderly is an important issue concerning the construction of social morality and family virtue. This article reviews the traditional Chinese morality of “respect for the elderly” and “orderliness among the young and the old”, so that we can better critically inherit this moral heritage and make it play a positive role in the construction of the four modernizations of socialism. (1) “Respect for the elderly” is an important element of traditional Chinese virtue. After thousands of years of incubation, formation and development, it has become a special national sentiment that has accumulated deep in the minds of the people, and has played and is playing an important role in the harmony of families, interpersonal relations and social order. Two of the “Five Rites” of traditional Chinese morality are closely related to respect for the elderly and elders. In the ‘father and son are related’ ethic, filial respect for parents is an important requirement, while the ‘orderly conduct of the young and the old’ requires the younger to respect the older. In this way, we can also see the importance attached to the idea of respect for the elderly in traditional Chinese morality. In the Shuowen Jiezi, the word for “old” is explained as follows: “老 (old) means “examination”. It is said to be old when it is seventy, and is derived from the words 人, 毛 and 匕. It is also said that the hair and beard become white. All the genera of old are from Lao.” According to Xu Shen, the words ‘old’ and ‘kao’ are related, and a person is considered old when he reaches the age of 70. He also believes that the word “Lao” is derived from “人”, “毛” and “匕” in terms of its origin. “The word ‘hair’ represents hair and beard, and the word ‘dagger’ represents change, which means that when one’s hair and beard turn white, one is old. However, as Xu Shen did not have access to the oracle bones we see today, his interpretation of this character is inaccurate. According to the oracle bone inscriptions, the character for “old” is in the form of a man with a walking stick. Since ancient times, traditional Chinese morality 11

This article was written in 1999.

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has attached great importance to and respected the elderly. In the Book of Rites, it is said: Fifty begins to decline, sixty is not enough for meat, seventy is not enough for silk, eighty is not enough for human beings, and ninety is not enough for human beings. This means that, according to the laws of human physiology, after the age of 70, one must wear silk and cotton clothes to keep one’s body warm, and after the age of 80, one needs to be accompanied by one’s relatives. The Book of Rites also suggests that after a person reaches the age of 60, his family should prepare for his death, 60 in years, 70 in seasons, 80 in months and 90 in days, emphasizing the importance of early preparation for the death of the elderly. Traditional Chinese morality, with its emphasis on respect for the elderly, has long historical roots, as recorded in the Rites of Passage: In the past, the Youyu clan valued virtue and had teeth, the Xia Hou clan valued titles and had teeth, the Yin valued wealth and had teeth, and the Zhou valued kin and had teeth. There is no such thing as a lost year in the Yu Xia Yin Zhou ……. The year has been precious to the world for a long time, and is second to serving one’s relatives. We can also see from this passage that from the legendary time of Yao and Shun, through the Xia and Yin dynasties and up to the Zhou dynasty, there was always an emphasis on respect for those who were older in terms of values. How old is old age? In ancient times, a person was considered to be an old person when he was over 50 years old. The Rites of Passage—King’s Rules states: Fifty staff in the home, sixty staff in the village, seventy staff in the country, eighty staff in the court; ninety, the emperor wants to have a question, then on its room, in order to treasure from. A staff is a walking stick or cane used by the elderly to walk. In the ancient tradition of respecting the elderly, government officials were given a cane by the government or by a certain institution when they reached old age, indicating that they had acquired this right. In the case of the “80 years old staff at the court”, this meant that at the age of 80, one could walk around the court with a walking stick to present matters to the king. In a certain sense, the “staff” was also a document proving the preferential treatment of the elderly, and depending on the staff held in the hand, it could prove different status. When a person reached the age of 90, even if the Son of Heaven wanted to see him, he would have to bring good food to his home to show his respect. Of course, the ‘old man’ mentioned here refers to the nobility, and more often to the rulers of the time. But it is also a reflection of the way in which society treated the elderly at the time, and of the social climate of the time. Since the government promoted it, the people were naturally proud of their respect for the elderly. Respect for the elderly and respect for the elders are closely intertwined. Not only should the elderly be respected, but there should also be an order of precedence between the elders and the young. The Book of Rites says: “If one is twice as old, one’s father will serve him; if one is ten years older, one’s brother will serve him; if one is five years older, one’s shoulders will follow.” This means that a person twice

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as old as oneself should be treated like one’s father; a person ten years older than oneself should be treated like one’s elder brother; and a person five years older than oneself should be followed when one walks with him. In this way, one should respect not only one’s parents but also one’s elder brothers in the family, and not only the elderly but also all those older than oneself in society. (2) In Chinese history, since the Western Zhou Dynasty, the emperor and the rulers of all countries have respected the elderly as a virtue, and the elderly have been treated with the utmost respect. During the Han dynasty, the idea of respecting the elderly was further reinforced in conjunction with the implementation of the ‘rule of filial piety’. We can see the importance attached to respect for the elderly in the case of Liu Bang’s change of prince. Liu Bang favored Madame Qi and wanted to abolish the original crown prince (born to Empress Lu) and replace him with a son born to Madame Qi. Empress Lu was terrified, but was at a loss as to what to do, and the ministers tried their best to stop him, but to no avail. Finally, Zhang Liang came up with the idea of asking four old men over 80 years old to intercede on behalf of the prince, and the prince’s position was saved. The story of this incident can be found in the Records of the Grand Historian (Shi Ji—Lihou Shi Shi Ji): The prince served the wine. The four men were all more than eighty years old, with white eyebrows and magnificent clothes. He was surprised and asked: “What are they?” The four men came forward and gave their names, saying that they were Dong Yuan Gong, Jiao Li, Qi Li Ji, and Xia Huang Gong. He was astonished and said: “I have been asking you for several years, but you have not escaped me, why have you been travelling since my son?” The four of them said: “Your Majesty is light on the scholar and good at scolding, so I am afraid to be humiliated, so I am afraid to go into hiding. I have heard that the prince is a kind and filial person, respectful and loving, and that everyone in the world would like to die for him. The king said, “I beg you to please protect the prince.” This shows that Liu Bang, after he became emperor, sought to practice the Chinese ideological tradition of respecting talent and virtue, which led to the further promotion and development of respect for the elderly after the Han Dynasty. Later on, the ruling classes of China, while advocating filial piety, also stressed the importance of respecting and honoring the elderly, always showing themselves to be particularly respectful of the elderly before the court and the people, because they understood that doing so was beneficial to the formation of a good social climate and the maintenance of a regime’s rule. (3) The ancient Chinese tradition of respect for the elderly, although associated with filial piety, has had a negative effect in some respects; on the whole, however, as a traditional virtue of the Chinese nation, it has historically served a positive purpose and should be vigorously promoted. From the point of view of human development, “respect for the elderly” means respecting life, the laws of human development, the cultural traditions of human beings and nations, and the dialectic of development. Anyone who lives a normal

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life has to go through a process from birth to death, from childhood, youth, middle age, old age and even death, and in this sense, to respect the elderly is to respect oneself. All elderly people have contributed to society and the nation, in varying degrees, with their physical and intellectual strength during their youth and middle age, and therefore deserve to be rewarded and respected as they grow old or become old. Society should do its best to provide the necessary care for the elderly in life and in spirit, so that they can live out their old age in peace. A nation that respects its elderly will be able to live in harmony with its generations, its society will become more stable and its people will develop more prosperously. Generally speaking, older people have a rich experience of life, knowledge and familiarity with history and traditional culture, as well as with the productive skills that have been accumulated by mankind. A people with a tradition of respect for the elderly can develop more. In the early days of mankind, due to the low level of productivity, there were cases of abandonment and killing of the elderly, but with the development of productivity, mankind understood the important role and significance of the elderly in human development and replaced the foolish practices of the past with respect and dignity for the elderly. With the development of science and technology, it is particularly important to give full play to the role of the elderly in transmitting human cultural knowledge and science and technology. In the context of human development as a whole, the problem of ageing is becoming more prominent as the life expectancy of human beings continues to increase due to economic development and the increasing level of health care, and as older people make up a larger proportion of society as a whole. Therefore, the care and respect for the elderly is becoming an increasingly important issue for society in the future. We should not and cannot leave the maintenance of the elderly entirely to society, let alone neglect the importance of psychological and spiritual care for the elderly. Society as a whole should seriously promote a culture of respect and dignity for the elderly, and create a culture of respect and dignity for the elderly in society as a whole, so that society can move forward in a more harmonious manner. In terms of personal moral character, respect for the elderly is not only a reflection of one’s attitude towards them, but also of one’s noble character of love and humility. A person who stands tall in front of the elderly and does not know how to be humble is unlikely to make much progress. Mao Zedong once said, “Modesty makes people progress; pride makes people fall behind.” The ancient Chinese trigram “Yi Jing” (The Book of Changes) also deals with the principle of “fullness invites loss and modesty benefits”. There are countless examples in real life that show that humility is an important virtue. While we promote respect for the elderly, we should also promote the noble Chinese virtue of humility and respect, so that everyone can continue to make progress.

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4.5 “Be Kind to Your Parents” and “Be Dutiful to Your Parents” (1) From the explanation of “filial piety” in the Shuowen Jiezi At the Fourth International Symposium on Ethics in China, Korea and Japan, held in Xuzhou on 13 October 1997, Chinese and Korean scholars had a lively discussion on the meaning of “filial piety”. This discussion was very helpful for us to further understand the meaning of filial piety in ancient Chinese. During the discussion, there was no consensus among the participants on the interpretation of filial piety in ancient traditional morality. Now, I would like to present my views on this issue. This discussion was prompted by Professor Xiao Qunzhong’s lecture. In his lecture, entitled “Filial piety is the origin of education”, Professor Xiao argued that filial piety in ancient China was mainly a concept of respect for ancestors developed from respect for heaven. He said, “The filial piety of the Zhou people was mainly a concept of respect for ancestors developed from respect for heaven, and this concept, i.e. filial piety, emerged from ritual activities and expressed the respect of the descendants for their ancestors by means of ritual activities.” After Professor Xiao Qunzhong’s report, a Korean scholar made one of his observations, saying, “According to the interpretation of the Shuowen Jiezi, ‘filial piety’ means ‘to serve one’s parents well’, and there is no concept of respect for heaven or ancestors in it.” In response to a question from a Korean friend, Professor Xiao Qunzhong said, “The filial piety of the Zhou people that I am referring to is mainly ‘respect for heaven and ancestors’, which is roughly the same as the interpretation of filial piety in Shuowen Jiezi, which is ‘to serve parents well’, Or rather, their meanings are basically the same.” Due to time constraints, Professor Xiao did not give a detailed answer to this question, as if he had not fully resolved his Korean friend’s doubts. How can we understand that the interpretation of filial piety by the Zhou and the interpretation of filial piety in the Shuowen Jiezi are basically the same? What are the differences between the two? Why did our Korean friends ask this question? Korean scholars believe in the interpretation of ancient Chinese characters in the Shuowen Jiezi, which is certainly true, and Chinese scholars have also relied on it to interpret and study the ancient Chinese language. However, one new development that deserves our attention is that archaeological discoveries, especially the study of oracle bone and bell and tripod texts from before the Zhou Dynasty, have led us to discover some incomplete, inaccurate and even erroneous parts of the Shuowen Jiezi. The interpretation of filial piety is one of them. Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the author of Shuowen Jiezi, explained the word “filial piety” as follows: “Filial piety is a person who serves his parents well. From 老省, from 子, 子承老.” At that time, people were not aware of the existence of oracle bones and bronze inscriptions and understood ancient Chinese according to the script developed after the Zhou Dynasty. Xu Shen was no exception to this rule, as he made a great achievement in interpreting ancient Chinese characters in terms of their sound, meaning and form, according to the laws of ancient Chinese writing. However, Xu Shen did not see the oracle bones and bell and tripod inscriptions that

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preceded the Zhou dynasty, nor did he recognise the major change in social thought that took place from the Shang to the Zhou dynasties, which led to a significant change in the meaning of certain ancient Chinese characters, one of which was the character for filial piety. 1. The formation and development of the idea of filial piety In the history of ancient Chinese thought, the term ‘filial piety’ in the Shang Dynasty had a different meaning from that of the Western Zhou period. According to archaeological findings, the word “filial piety” does not yet exist in the Shang oracle bone script. It is only in the late Shang and Zhou dynasties that the word “filial piety” appears in large numbers in the Zhongding script. According to modern research, the more than one hundred Chinese characters for “filial piety” found in the Zhong Ding script are often used in conjunction with the words “enjoy” or “raise”, which means to offer food and wine to the gods and to the ancestors who have died. The word ‘filial piety’ is often used in conjunction with the word ‘enjoy’ or ‘nourish’. We know that the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties had a strong sense of respect for the heavens, and that in their rituals, sacrifices to the heavens were of primary importance. Therefore, in this sense, Professor Xiao Qunzhong is correct in saying that “the filial piety of the Zhou people was mainly a concept of respect for ancestors developed from respect for heaven”. The question is, how did this concept of respect for heaven and ancestors develop into filial piety for parents, or what Xu Shen calls “good service to parents”? Here we must examine the fall of the Shang dynasty and the rise of the Zhou dynasty, as well as a new understanding of providence and morality on the part of the rulers of the Zhou dynasty. The rulers of the Zhou dynasty inherited the idea of the ‘divine right of kings’ from the slave-owning nobles of the Xia and Shang dynasties, and described their rule over the people as being ‘ordained by heaven’. But didn’t the rulers of the Xia and Shang also say that their rule was “ordained by heaven”? Why did they lose their rule in the face of popular resistance? For this reason, the thinkers of the Western Zhou summed up the idea of “punishment by heaven”, which had been used by the Xia and Shang, and put forward the new concept of “matching heaven with virtue” and “respecting virtue to protect the people”. The new concept of “virtue for heaven” and “respect for virtue to protect the people” was introduced. The “Heaven” was mindful of the morality of the rulers on earth, “There is no kin in Heaven, only virtue is the complement”. In the past, the rulers of Xia and Shang were once moral, so Heaven gave them the power to rule. Later, because they did not know how to respect virtue, Heaven stopped trusting them and withdrew from them the power that had been given to them. Now that the king of Zhou was virtuous, the mandate of Heaven was given to Zhou and not to Shang. It was for this reason that the rulers of the Western Zhou, while emphasizing the need for virtue in their rulers, also recognised the importance of strengthening the support and obedience of children to their parents in the family for the stability of a dynasty and society. Guided by this idea, thinkers gave a new content to filial piety, emphasizing the importance of supporting and obeying parents. Confucius, a thinker of the Spring and Autumn period and the founder of Confucianism, used

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the meaning of filial piety in his Analects, on the one hand, but on the other hand, gave a new interpretation to filial piety, making it On the other hand, it is interpreted in a new way, so that “filial piety” has a clearer connotation of respect for parents. Xu Shen’s interpretation of filial piety in Shuowen Jiezi can therefore only be the understanding of filial piety after the Western Zhou, or even after the Spring and Autumn Period. It is for this reason that the recently published Chinese Dictionary does not base its interpretation of filial piety entirely on Xu Shen’s explanation in Shuowen Jiezi, but considers the first meaning of filial piety to be “The second meaning is filial obedience, and the third meaning is “to be able to follow the wishes of one’s ancestors”. This interpretation is, in a sense, an addition to and correction of the explanation given in the Shuowen Jiezi. Why is the first meaning of filial piety interpreted as ‘sacrifice’ (which includes both respect for heaven and ancestral worship)? The Chinese Dictionary cites the Analects of Confucius and the Historical Records of Xia Benji to illustrate this. The Analects of Confucius—Taibe says: “The son said: ‘Yu, I have no interruptions. He ate and dined with filial piety to the ghosts and gods; he wore bad clothes to the beauty of the embroidery; he humbled himself in his palace and did his best in the ditch.’” In the Records of the Grand Historian, it is said, “(Yu) was thinly clothed and fed, and was filial to the gods and demons. He humbled himself in his palace, and made every effort to ditch and moat.” From these two passages in the Analects of Confucius and the Records of the Grand Historian, we can clearly see that the word “filial piety” in the phrases “to show filial piety to the ghosts and gods” and “to show filial piety to the ghosts and gods” both mean The word “filial piety” in both “To be filial to the ghosts and gods” and “To be filial to the ghosts and gods” means “to offer sacrifices”, not to be filial to one’s parents. 2. Both the importance of the Shuowen Jiezi and the analysis of its interpretation As mentioned earlier, the Shuowen Jiezi is a major achievement in the study of writing based on Xu Shen’s comprehensive and in-depth study of ancient Chinese writing. Our scripts are diverse, ranging from the oracle bone script to the bell and tripod script, and then to the Big Seal, Small Seal and Official Script. Xu Shen’s work on the Little Seal Script, together with the Ancient and Pre-Han scripts, is a more systematic and correct interpretation of ancient Chinese writing. Xu Shen was able to see a large number of ancient scripts and mastered a systematic approach to their interpretation, making his Shuowen Jiezi a must-read for our understanding and study of ancient Chinese writing in general. Xu Shen’s Shuowen Jiezi can help us to understand the oracle bones we have discovered since the turn of the century, and this must be acknowledged; at the same time, we must also see that, due to the limitations of the times, Xu Shen could not have seen the oracle bones we have seen, and therefore his interpretation of some characters is inaccurate. We can also cite the character 老 (old) as an example. In the Shuowen Jiezi, the word 老 is interpreted as “from 人, 毛, 匕. The word “old” is interpreted in the Shuowen Jiezi as “from man, hair, and dagger”. “The word ‘hair’ means hair and beard, and ‘dagger’ means change. From the oracle bone inscriptions found in archaeology, the character for “old” is an old man leaning and walking slowly, so the current consensus among scholars is that “old” looks like an old man leaning, and points out that Xu Shen’s

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interpretation is incorrect, or at least It is also pointed out that Xu Shen’s interpretation is incorrect, or at least inaccurate. 3. A complete and accurate understanding of “filial piety” In short, we need to have a comprehensive understanding of filial piety. Before the Western Zhou Dynasty, the main meaning of filial piety was sacrifice, including sacrifice to the gods and spirits of heaven and earth and to the dead ancestors. During the Western Zhou period, the meaning of filial piety was gradually expanded from offering sacrifices to the gods and spirits of heaven and earth and to the dead ancestors to respecting and nurturing the living ancestors and parents. By the end of the Spring and Autumn period, although filial piety still meant both sacrifice and respect for one’s parents, as we can see in the Analects, the main meaning of filial piety was already respect for one’s parents. Since Confucius founded the Confucian school, the idea of respecting and nurturing one’s parents has been strengthened, and after the publication and widespread circulation of the Book of Filial Piety, especially the influence of “ruling the world by filial piety” as practiced in the Western Han Dynasty, by the time of Xu Shen, the meaning of “filial piety” was only In the time of Xu Shen, “filial piety” only meant “serving one’s parents well”. At the same time, we should also see that Xu Shen explained the word “filial piety” in the Shuowen Jiezi in this way: “Filial piety is a person who serves his parents well. It is from 老省, from 子, 子承老也.” This means that he also saw that the word ‘filial piety’ in ancient times contained the idea of inheriting from one’s predecessors. Generally speaking, in the pre-Qin period, although filial piety also included the idea of hierarchy and placed more emphasis on children’s obedience to their parents, it had not yet developed to the extent of the foolish loyalty and filial piety advocated by some thinkers in the Song and Ming periods. Therefore, we must take a historicist view of the Confucian idea of filial piety and take a critical approach to inheritance, discarding its dross and absorbing its essence. (2) The tradition of filial piety and its transmission An important element12 of traditional Chinese morality is the importance attached to human relations and the moral principles that should be followed in the relationship between human beings. Mencius said that “father and son have kinship, rulers and ministers have righteousness, husband and wife have distinction, elders and youngsters have order, and friends have trust”, which is the most basic human relations emphasized by traditional Chinese morality, among which “father and son have kinship” means “father is kind and son is filial The “father and son have kinship”, that is, “father is kind and son is filial”, is the basis and starting point of all other human relationships. It is for this reason that “filial piety” is considered to be the foundation of one’s moral cultivation and moral character. In the Analects of Confucius, it is said: “The gentleman is concerned with the fundamentals, and when the 12

This part is the author’s paper, originally entitled “The ancient Chinese tradition of ‘filial piety’ and Chinese society today”, which was presented at the Sino-Korean International Academic Conference in May 1995.

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fundamentals are established, the way is born. Filial piety is also the foundation of a man!” This emphasizes that filial piety is the starting point of moral education and moral activities, and plays an extremely important role in maintaining interpersonal relationships. Confucius was the first to give a more comprehensive explanation of filial piety. According to Confucius, filial piety is not only about supporting one’s parents and keeping them well-fed and warm, but also about treating them with ‘respect’. At the same time, Confucius also emphasized the importance of being “pleasant” in one’s attitude towards one’s parents. Confucius said, “Nowadays, those who are filial are said to be capable of nurturing. As for dogs and horses, they can all be nurtured; if they are not respected, how can they be distinguished?” This means that if one understands filial piety as merely keeping one’s parents well-fed and warm, but not “respecting” them, then what is the difference between keeping dogs and horses? According to ancient Chinese morality, “respect” is a sincere love for one’s parents, the highest level of which is to be gentle and pleasant to them from the heart. Confucius’ pupil Zi Xia asked him what constituted filial piety, and he said, “It is difficult to be colourful”. This means that it is most difficult to maintain the highest level of ‘grace’ and ‘cheerfulness’ towards one’s parents. In the Rites of Passage, it is said: “A filial son who has depth must have harmony. If there is harmony, there must be pleasant colours. He who has a pleasant colour must have a gentle bearing.” This is the highest requirement of filial piety towards one’s parents. Traditional Chinese morality emphasizes the importance of loving people, but also of loving one’s relatives, which is the prerequisite and foundation for loving people. Only when one has done so can one truly have love for others. In Confucius’s thought, ‘ren’ occupies a very important place, and his interpretation of ‘ren’ is love for others based on love for one’s relatives. Confucius said, “Ren” means “loving others”, “to stand up for oneself and to stand up for others, to reach out for oneself and to reach others”, “to do unto others what one does not wish for oneself” It means to put oneself in the shoes of others and to care for them in every way. Confucianism believes that “love for others” is one of the greatest virtues of human beings, and that if everyone in society loves each other, people will get along well with each other. So where does this love begin to develop? According to Confucianism, this love should be cultivated from love for one’s parents. According to traditional Chinese morality, if one cannot love one’s parents, how can one love others? On the contrary, if one can be filial to one’s own parents, one is bound to think of the parents of others, which is what traditional Chinese morality calls “pushing one’s benefactors”. This is what traditional Chinese morality means by “pushing one’s benefactors”. In the Book of Mencius, King Hui of Liang says, “If one is kind to one’s parents, and one is kind to one’s children, then the world can be transported to the palm of one’s hand.” This means that if one can take care of other old people as one takes care of one’s own, and love other children as one loves one’s own, then ruling the world will be as easy as turning a small thing in the palm of one’s hand. He also said, “To show kindness is enough to protect the four seas, but to not show kindness is not enough to protect one’s wife.” “There is no other reason why the ancient people were so superior to others, but they were good at pushing what they did.” From this we can

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see that the principle of “pushing oneself to others” is a very important principle that makes traditional Chinese morality possible, and the basis and starting point of this principle is one’s “filial piety” towards one’s parents. Confucianism believes that if one extends from oneself to others, that is, from one’s own parents to the parents of others, and then extends to others, from one’s own difficulties and frustrations to sympathy and concern for the difficulties and frustrations of others, then the highest moral requirement of benevolence, namely “loving others”, will be able to play a more active role in society. This is the highest moral requirement of benevolence. As long as a person truly understands and practices the requirement of filial piety, he will be able to be sincere to others, respectful to others, and loyal to the state, and will develop into a moral saint. It is from this premise that the so-called “seeking of loyal subjects at the door of filial sons” begins. Traditional Chinese morality emphasizes filial piety and believes that if a person truly understands filial piety, he or she will be able to conduct himself or herself in a strict manner and become a moral person. The Book of Rites and Rituals provides a number of rules for filial piety, including the following: “It is not filial if one does not live in a dignified place; it is not filial if one is not loyal to the ruler; it is not filial if one is not respectful in government; it is not filial if one is not trustworthy in friends; and it is not filial if one is not brave in battle. If you fail to do all five, you will suffer disaster to your relatives. “It is believed that all one’s actions are related to the honor and disgrace of one’s parents, and that actions that violate the law and morality will not only bring shame and misfortune to oneself, but also to one’s parents. Therefore, in order to be filial to one’s parents, one should be responsible and faithful in all one’s endeavours throughout one’s life and work. In other words, traditional Chinese morality bases one’s responsibilities to society and the state on filial piety towards one’s parents. Traditional Chinese morality holds that filial piety is not only about obedience to parents, but also about children advising and remonstrating with their parents when they are out of order. Confucius said, “To serve one’s parents with several admonitions, to see one’s will not obeyed, and to respect not to disobey, and to labor not to complain.” This means that one should politely criticise one’s parents for their mistakes, and even if one’s parents do not accept them, one should still respect them and not directly offend them, nor should one feel resentment for them. Xunzi suggests, “To obey the Way and not the ruler, to obey righteousness and not the father, is the greatest of all human actions.” (Xunzi—The Way of the Son) He also proposed that “if one can be obedient, one is not a son; if one cannot be obedient, one is not sincere. If one understands the meaning of disobedience, and is able to be respectful, faithful, and honest, and to act prudently, then one can be said to have great filial piety.” (ibid.) This passage means that if the parents’ advice is right, the son should obey it, and if he does not, he is not a good son and has not fulfilled his duty as a son; on the contrary, if the parents’ advice is wrong, he should not obey it, and if the child obeys it, he is unfaithful and disloyal. Xunzi believed that if one understood this principle of obedience and disobedience, and if one could show respect, faithfulness, honesty and prudence, then one would be the most filial son of all. On the question of filial piety, Xunzi places special emphasis on ‘righteousness’,

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believing that what is righteous should be obeyed, but otherwise, it should not be obeyed. However, in the late feudal period, the feudal ruling class and its ideologists distorted filial piety to protect their own interests, creating many theories of foolish loyalty and filial piety, and even preaching the idea that “there are no parents who are not right” and “there are no parents who are not right”. The idea that “if the king wants his subjects to die, they have to die; if the father wants the son to die, the son has to die” has turned filial piety into a kind of rope that severely binds children and restricts their personal development, which we should of course criticise and reject. In the new historical period of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, it is still of great relevance to critique and analyze the idea of filial piety in the ancient Chinese morality, using the Marxist standpoint, viewpoint and method to discard its dross and inherit its essence. In the history of moral development in ancient China, the original meaning of “filial piety” was to honor one’s ancestors and to take good care of one’s parents. One of the earliest Chinese dictionaries, the Erya, says, “To serve one’s parents well is called filial piety.” This means to take good care of one’s parents. In later developments, the meaning of filial piety became more and more enriched. Generally speaking, during the rise of feudal society, the content given to filial piety was mostly positive; during the decline of feudal society, the content given to filial piety tended to be more negative. As we mentioned earlier, in the pre-Qin period, Confucius, Xunzi and other thinkers interpreted filial piety in a more reasonable way, and after the Song and Ming dynasties, Luo Zhongyan and others said that “there are no parents who are not parents” and “if the father wants the son to die, the son will die. After the Song and Ming dynasties, Luo Zhongyan and others said that “there are no parents who are not right” and “if the father wants the son to die, the son has to die”, but it can be said that there are only negative elements but no positive ones. Of course, on the whole, in the long-standing slave and feudal societies, filial piety, as a moral code in a hierarchical society, necessarily bore the stigma of inequality, and this is something we should criticise and reject. In the process of building socialist modernity with Chinese characteristics, it is still relevant to use the Marxist position, viewpoint and method to promote the reasonable elements of the ancient Chinese morality of filial piety in the following ways. First of all, promoting the reasonable elements of filial piety in traditional Chinese morality is conducive to the strengthening of family virtues and, more importantly, to the harmony of family relations. Of course, when we advocate filial piety today, we are not advocating filial obedience, but rather filial respect, i.e. we should both support and respect our parents, and this support and respect is not unprincipled obedience, but doing one’s duty. We should listen to the right advice of our parents and politely criticise them if their advice is incorrect. What we mean by support and respect is exactly the same as what we call “respect for the elderly” in our family virtues. Since the reform and opening up of China, in the context of the market economy, due to the influence of individualism, money-grubbing and hedonism, some children are often only concerned with their own interests, only know how to enjoy their rights rather than doing their duty, they do not support their parents, or even allow their

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parents to live in hardship without taking care of them. Worse still, when parents lose their labor force, they cannot live without the support of their children. It is for this reason that our law stipulates that children have an obligation to support their parents. This means that it is against both morality and the law of the land if one does not support one’s parents. The Marriage Law of China stipulates that “parents have the duty to raise and educate their children; children have the duty to support and support their parents.” Article 19 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly provides even more clearly that “the breadwinner may not refuse to fulfil his or her obligation to provide support by renouncing the right of inheritance or for other reasons. If the breadwinner fails to fulfill the obligation of maintenance, the elderly person has the right to demand the breadwinner to pay maintenance, etc.” In view of the level of social and economic development in China, the vast number of elderly people who have lost their working capacity in rural areas, especially in poor areas, if their children cannot consciously do their due diligence, society and the state will have to spend more efforts to take care of them, which at present will cause greater difficulties to society and the state, and is not conducive to family harmony and harmonious interpersonal relations. Secondly, the promotion of filial piety and respect for parents is conducive to the moral training of the younger generation and to the harmonisation of interpersonal relations in a socialist society. Traditional Chinese morality holds that it is an important issue in moral education to cultivate the virtue of caring for others from an early age so that a person can have the idea of “loving others”, and in order to cultivate this virtue of caring for others from an early age, one must first cultivate their love for their parents. If a person knows how to love his parents when he is young, he will be able to love others when he grows up. If a person cannot love his own parents, how can he be expected to love others? And by extension, how can he be expected to love society, the nation and the country? It is in this sense that traditional Chinese morality takes “filial piety” as the starting point for all morality. In the Analects of Confucius, it is even more explicitly stated: “The gentleman is concerned with the root, and when the root is established, the way is born. Filial piety is also the foundation of man!” In the Classic of Filial Piety it is further said, “Filial piety is the essence of virtue, and the source of education.” Filial piety is seen as the root from which all morality arises. In the relationship between human beings, there are inevitably many connections between them, including the relationship between giving and receiving. Traditional Chinese morality requires a moral person to “never forget a favor given, never forget a favor received”, and especially to repay the favors of others. From the point of view of blood relations, traditional Chinese morality attaches particular importance to repaying the kindness of parents, believing that children should never forget the kindness of parents who gave birth to me, raised me and brought me up. Confucius’ pupil Zai I thought that three years was too long to observe mourning for one’s parents, but Confucius was not convinced. For this reason, Confucius criticised Zai I, saying, “I am unkind! A son is born for three years, and then he is spared from his parents’ wombs. Three years of mourning is the most common mourning in the world. I also have three years of love for my parents?” Confucius believed that after a child is born, he lives in the arms of his parents for three years, and that parents are

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anxious about their children’s needs, think about their children’s thoughts, work for them, and raise and educate them for a long time afterwards. Finally, strengthening education on filial piety and respect for parents is conducive to the formation of patriotism and the cultivation of a sense of collectivism. Moral education must begin at an early age. If a person knows how to love his parents and family from an early age, it will be easier for him to be taught to love the school, the community and the country when he enters school. Ancient Chinese moral education also places special emphasis on the relationship between filial piety and loyalty, believing that in order to cultivate the concept of “loyalty”, people must first cultivate the concept of “filial piety”. Why is this? In a sense, it is also derived from the idea of repaying kindness. If a person knows how to repay the kindness of others, not forgetting the kindness they have received from others, and trying to live up to the expectations of others, he will become a moral person. Therefore, a moral person who knows how to be filial to his parents in the family will become a good citizen in society who loves the society, the country and the nation. There is an ancient Chinese saying: “Seek loyal subjects at the door of filial sons”, which means that only among those sons and daughters who are filial to their parents can we find those who are loyal to the country. Of course, we must also see that it does not necessarily mean that if one is filial to one’s parents, one will be loyal to the state. “Although filial piety is the foundation of loyalty, it cannot be spontaneously transformed into loyalty. It is necessary to continue the education of “loyalty” on the basis of “filial piety”, so that “loyalty” is an expansion and improvement of “filial piety”. This is why “loyalty” is an expansion and improvement of “filial piety”. There is also a contradiction between filial piety and loyalty to one’s parents and loyalty to one’s country, and we must analyze the contradiction between filial piety to one’s parents and loyalty to one’s country. The principle that “filial piety” should be subordinated to “loyalty” should be properly addressed. In conclusion, in the current new historical period of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, strengthening education on filial piety and respect for parents is of great significance in improving family virtues, promoting harmonious interpersonal relationships and improving social morals. Therefore, according to the Marxist position, viewpoint and method, giving a correct interpretation of filial piety in a comprehensive and scientific manner and giving it a new meaning should be beneficial to our ideological and moral education. (3) Filial piety and real life Among the fine traditional culture and morals of the Chinese people13 , filial piety occupies a special place and the culture of filial piety should be studied in greater depth in order to make it more relevant to today’s reality and to play a more important role in raising the moral standards of human beings. Throughout the history of the Chinese nation, the role of filial piety in social life has developed in a tortuous process. On the one hand, for a certain period of time, it 13

This section was originally published in Morality and Civilization, No. 3, 2003, under the title “’Filial Piety’ and Traditional Chinese Culture and Traditional Morality”.

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has strongly maintained the harmonious development of the Chinese nation, united the patriarchal relations based on blood ties, and played a special and important role in maintaining family unity and social stability; on the other hand, during the long period of hierarchical society, mainly from the Song and Ming dynasties to May Fourth, it was distorted by the ruling class and its thinkers, and foolish filial piety was taken as a moral example, and sacrificing the basic rights of children was taken as a moral dogma. The basic rights of children were made a moral dogma, so that the suppression of human nature became the inevitable destination of filial piety. Therefore, we should take a comprehensive, scientific and dialectical approach to the complexities of filial piety in the long-term development of Chinese society, refining, sifting, digesting and absorbing it, inheriting its essence and discarding its dross, in order to make use of the past for the present. What is “filial piety”? According to the traditional Chinese moral understanding, “filial piety” means “serving one’s parents well”, which means treating one’s parents with good thoughts and actions, so that they can live a happy life during their lifetime and be buried well after death. Why should children be filial to their parents? From the point of view of traditional Chinese moral requirements, it is mainly because parents are kind to their children in three ways, and when they grow up, they should repay them. It should be said that the basis of filial piety is ‘repayment of kindness’, which is a moral requirement of Chinese society that values blood relations and clan ties, and is characteristic of Eastern culture and Eastern moral traditions. What are the three ways in which parents are kind to their children? Firstly, the love of childbirth, secondly, the kindness of nurturing and thirdly, the kindness of education. The combination of these three aspects is the most fundamental and main reason why traditional Chinese morality and culture emphasize filial piety. In the Book of Songs, it is said that parents “patted me and raised me”; Confucius said, “A son is born for three years, and then he is spared from the bosom of his parents”; and the Book of Filial Piety says, “The body, hair and skin of a child are the parents’ responsibility”. The Book of Filial Piety says, “The body and skin of a child are the result of their parents’ care, and they dare not destroy them”. Indeed, in general, parents have to work hard for their children in these three areas. There are, of course, a few exceptions to this rule which are beyond the scope of our discussion. It is clear from this that in ancient China filial piety was closely linked to the idea of repaying kindness. In ethical circles, there is a long-standing view that does not agree that filial piety and other morals are linked to the idea of repaying kindness, or even that filial piety is not linked to the idea of repaying kindness. In my view, this is a questionable view. Some Western scholars believe that parents are responsible to society for the birth and education of their children, and that they have no beneficence to their children, and therefore do not believe that children have a duty of filial respect and maintenance to their parents. When a person is old and incapacitated, society and the state are responsible for his or her livelihood, and children should not be held responsible for this. This is one of the major differences between Eastern and Western cultures and deserves to be studied carefully.

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It is of course right that society and the state should take responsibility for the care of the elderly when they lose their working capacity and are no longer able to contribute to society. The more society advances and the more the economy develops, the better the social protection for the elderly is bound to be, and this is the inevitable trend of social development. However, the idea that it is the duty of every citizen to bear and raise children, and therefore that parents have no favors for their children, is open to question. Is parental childbirth not a form of affection? Is parental upbringing not a favor? Is parental education not a kindness? Should not a child repay these favors? Since ancient times, in moral relations, the ability to repay favors received has been an important criterion for judging a person’s morality and moral standards. In social life, people are always involved in various relations of interest, except for the sale of goods, which can only be exchanged for equal value, in moral relations, in order to be moral, a person always has to make some sacrifices to others, to society and to the state. The social, professional and family virtues that have been handed down in human society since ancient times are the moral norms that regulate these relationships. The relationship between parents and children has not only the aspect of blood and affection, which should be stressed, but also the sincere and voluntary sacrifice of parents. However, no one can deny that whether or not a person consciously and voluntarily repays the kindnesses of others, and whether or not he or she returns the help given by parents, others, society and the state in his or her growth and development, is an important criterion for measuring, testing and evaluating whether or not a person is moral and whether or not he or she is morally superior or inferior. A famous Chinese moral maxim is “Don’t forget to give favors, and don’t forget to receive favors”. If a person is not even able or willing to repay the kindness shown to him by his parents, or even mistreats them, how can we expect him to repay the kindness shown to him by his country, society and others? How can such a person be a moral person? Traditional Chinese morality emphasizes filial piety as the root of morality and the starting point for all moral behavior, and I should say that this is justified. We should also see that in the current market economy, with the pursuit of personal interests, individualism, money worship and hedonism are spreading, and the principle of exchange of prices is increasingly permeating all aspects of human relations, and even in family relations, the cloud of money is hanging over them. Shouldn’t we be concerned about the fact that, for the sake of money and personal gain, one can abandon both parents and even kill one’s father and mother? Filial piety is a fundamental and important element of traditional Chinese morality, the growth point of moral behavior, and has a special significance in regulating the moral relationship between people, maintaining social stability and improving the moral quality of people. I believe that it is important for the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, as well as for other countries and nations in the East and the world, to understand, study and promote the culture of filial piety in the current and future societies.

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(4) Filial piety and future society—A brief account of the international academic conference on filial piety. From 15 to 17 May 1995, an international symposium on “Filial piety and the future of society” was held in Seoul, Korea. The conference was jointly organized by the Korea Institute of Spiritual Culture and the Korea Broadcasting Corporation, and was attended by representatives from a dozen countries, including Korea, China, the United States and Japan. As a Chinese scholar, I was invited to participate in the conference and presented a paper on “The Ancient Chinese Tradition of Filial Piety and Chinese Society Today”. The conference was also attended by Susumu Takahashi from Japan, Weiming Du from the United States and Chung-Ying Cheng from Taiwan. The conference discussed the meaning of the moral code of filial piety, the various issues that arise in today’s society regarding filial piety, and the role of filial piety in the future of society. The topics covered were The participants exchanged information and fully affirmed the importance of promoting filial respect for parents in today’s and tomorrow’s society, and considered that the issue of strengthening the promotion and education of filial respect for parents should be given attention by all parties concerned. The broader context of this conference is that the individualism, money-worship and hedonism that have emerged with modern economic development, especially the endless pursuit of material things by some people, have led to a serious spiritual and moral crisis in some countries with highly developed material civilization, the continuation of which people seem to be unable to control. As one Korean scholar put it: “Modern society knows only the pursuit of modernization and the growth of economic wealth, thus filling the whole world with corruption, injustice, crime, violence, sin and war. In Korea, for example, a son killed his father and another father killed his son; in Japan, a religious group released poison gas in an underground railway that cost some lives; and in the Middle East and the United States, terrorist attacks on buildings have killed many innocent people.” Some scholars have suggested that, in the face of the coming twenty-first century, if we fail to see the seriousness of these problems and their evolving trends, humanity faces an inevitable aftermath. Some of these problems are particularly noteworthy in the light of human relationships and the trend towards an ageing human society, such as the fact that some young people are now only interested in personal enjoyment but not in caring for their parents who have lost their working capacity in old age, that the legitimate rights and interests of the elderly are not protected, and that many social problems cannot be solved. This situation, which is becoming more and more serious with the development of the economy, is of particular concern to scholars in the East and the West who are concerned with the building of spirituality and morality. In the specific case of Korea, which is a country deeply influenced by Confucianism and where filial piety plays an important role in traditional Korean morality, the phenomenon of disrespect for parents and disregard for the rights of the elderly has become a worrying issue in Korean society since the 1970s, as the country’s economy has taken off and family structures have changed. It is for this reason that the scholars of the Korean Institute of Spiritual Culture, who prepared the conference,

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emphasized the human values of filial piety in the Chinese Confucian tradition from their worldview, outlook on life and values. “The idea that filial piety is the essence of virtue and the source of education still plays an important role in maintaining human relationships and interpersonal order. Some scholars have stressed that mankind is facing a crisis of losing its humanity, and therefore believe that emphasizing virtue, especially filial piety, which is the foundation of all moral activities, helps to awaken people’s love for their parents, respect for their elders and concern for others, and helps to restore and promote the good nature of human beings, which is different from that of animals, thus improving the moral quality of human beings and maintaining social stability. This will help to restore and promote the goodness of human beings, which is different from that of animals, thus improving the moral quality of human beings and maintaining social stability. They strongly urge that in order to make the future of humanity a better society, it is necessary to mobilise all forces today to promote filial respect for parents in society. One of the organisers of the conference, the Korea Broadcasting Corporation, launched a campaign to nominate filial sons in Korea. Each year, five filial sons are selected as the best in the country in terms of filial piety, after being nominated and awarded by local organizations. The selected filial son is given a prize of US$10,000 in addition to the cost of a trip to Korea for himself and his parents, and the award is publicised and praised on radio and television. At the same time, many companies and organisations across the country have also selected filial children within their own organisations and awarded them with different prizes depending on the circumstances. They believe that in a society where relationships are dominated by money and where the rights of the elderly and their normal lives in old age are not guaranteed, education in the Eastern tradition of filial piety will be an extremely important force in maintaining social stability and promoting interpersonal harmony. It will be increasingly recognised that filial piety will have a long life, not only now but also in the future. Some Western scholars argue that the East and the West have different cultural traditions and different perceptions of filial piety. The Eastern tradition, especially Chinese Confucianism, was formed under the conditions of a small peasant economy, which believed that children were raised by their parents, and that “a son is born for three years, and then he is spared from his parents’ wistfulness” (Analects of Confucius—Yangcai), and therefore parents have the grace of being born to their children. Therefore, it is particularly important for children to repay their parents’ kindness when they are old and incapacitated, i.e. children should be ‘filial’ to their parents. In contrast to the Western political and cultural tradition, especially when the economy has developed considerably and social welfare and security are firmly established, Western scholars believe that the birth and upbringing of children is a duty that people owe to society and to the state. When children grow up, they are expected to repay the state and to bear and bring up the next generation for society and the state. Therefore, children are not legally or morally obliged to support their parents who have lost the ability to work in their old age. When they are old and incapacitated and unable to support themselves, society and the State should take responsibility, i.e. social insurance and public welfare, and not the children. The two

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different views on filial piety reflect the cultural differences between East and West, and therefore it is difficult to make Westerners attach as much importance to filial piety as Easterners do. In terms of changes in the structure of the family, the original extended family in the East has gradually disintegrated as society has developed, but the question of what direction the family will take in the future is still of concern to some scholars. In the developing countries of the East, where the economy is not yet well developed, the maintenance of the elderly is not yet entirely the responsibility of society. In particular, traditional kinship ties in the East, even in the face of considerable economic development, are still inseparable from people’s attachment to their parents. Some scholars spoke of the trend towards a diminishing role for the family in today’s society, and the spread of individualism, hedonism and money-grubbing, which has given rise to problems that affect the healthy development of society. For example, some married couples are reluctant to have children and bear social responsibilities, some parents are reluctant to spend more energy on educating their children, the crime rate of young people from single-parent families is increasing, sexual freedom is corrupting the relationship between husband and wife, and some elderly people are left unattended and unsupported. Some scholars argue that the family, with its natural emotional ties of blood, is one of the characteristics that distinguish human beings from animals, with its family life and human relationships between husband and wife, father and son. While the old family relationships should be discarded, we should establish new principles for the healthy development of the relationship between husband and wife and between father and son. Therefore, the promotion of loving parents and respectful children is still important for the future of society. As the family structure in today’s society is increasingly transformed into a small family consisting of a husband and wife and one or two minor children, the pampering of children has become a prominent issue in the upbringing and education of offspring. In some only-child-centred families, the only child grows up to be self-centred, and some even become the “little bully” of the family. Children who grow up in such a family environment only know how to care for themselves, not for their parents and family, let alone for others. While traditional Eastern morality requires children to greet their parents in the morning and evening, parents are now required to care for and greet their children several times a day. When their children are sick, their parents are always concerned about them and would rather take their place, while their children not only fail to greet their parents every morning and evening and care for their parents’ health, but even when their parents are sick, some of them turn a blind eye to it. Although this phenomenon is only a minority of cases in family education, it is still a problem that deserves our utmost attention. The participants also spoke about the current phenomena of infringement of parents’ rights and interests, such as forcible extortion of elderly people’s property, forced occupation of their homes, abuse and assault, and interference in their marriages, which have aroused the concern of many people. These problems are particularly noteworthy in countries with less developed economies, lower income levels and housing difficulties. Some participants spoke of the lack of education on

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filial piety and respect for parents, with sons often being influenced by their daughtersin-law to abuse their parents after marriage. In the past, feudal societies promoted foolish filial piety, and if a mother-in-law did not like her daughter-in-law, she had to drive her away, thus causing many family tragedies, which was of course wrong. Nowadays, the opposite is true: if a daughter-in-law does not like her mother-in-law, she will encourage her son to throw her mother-in-law and father-in-law out together, displacing the elderly. Therefore, it is equally important to properly manage the relationship between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law and to strengthen education on filial piety and respect for one’s parents-in-law. While we should criticise the foolish filial piety of the past, we should also advocate that daughters-in-law must have the virtue of respecting and honoring their in-laws. Despite the different positions, perspectives and approaches of the participating scholars, and their different understanding of the meaning and role of filial piety in the present and future, all of them realized that giving a new meaning to filial piety is important for both modern and future societies. The exchange of ideas between Western and Eastern scholars has led to the recognition that the differences in cultural backgrounds have led to different understandings of filial piety, as well as to a further broadening of the meaning of filial piety in comparison with each other. The Korean Institute of Spiritual Culture and the Korean Broadcasting Corporation intend to promote the conference and expand the impact of this international conference so that filial piety can be further developed in Korea and hopefully have an impact in the East and around the world, thus contributing to the future harmony of human society.

4.6 “Chengmen Lixue” and the Promotion of Traditional Virtues In ancient Chinese morality,14 the story of “Chengmen Lixue” is a famous story of respect for teachers. This story tells of Yang Shi and You Xu, who, despite their status as great officials in the Song Dynasty, stood by their teacher Cheng Yi for several hours during a cold winter day, so as not to disturb his rest. It was not snowing when they arrived, but by the time they left, the snow outside the door was already a foot deep. This shows how much respect they had for their teacher. To this day, this attitude is still worth learning from. It is worth noting that some popular books on traditional Chinese morality published in recent years have exaggerated this story, which is quite different from the original situation. Both Yang Shi and You Wen were originally standing in their teacher’s study, but were said to be standing outside the door in the snow. Some books even have drawings of the two of them standing frozen in the snow and ice,

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This section was originally published in The Collected Works of Luo Guojie, Hebei University Press, 2000, under the title “Where does ‘Chengmen Lixue’ stand”.

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their feet buried in a foot of snow. Although the author’s intentions are good, such untrue and inaccurate interpretations are not effective and should be corrected. This situation arises mainly because of a problematic understanding of ancient books. The primary sources that we can now see for this story are mainly from the History of the Song Dynasty and from the Er Cheng Collection. First, let us look at the account in the History of the Song Dynasty—The Biography of Taoism—The Biography of Yang Shi: He was a member of the Hegelian Academy of the Confucian and Mencian Studies. When he was transferred to a government post, he met Roy in Yingchang with the gift of a teacher, and they enjoyed each other very much. When he returned, Hazel saw him off and said, “I’m going south.” Four years after the death of Hazel, when he heard of it, he set up a place and cried at his bedside door, and went to tell the same scholars in a letter. At that time, he met Cheng Yi again in Luo, when he was 40 years old. The first day to see the Yi, Yi even sitting, when the time and you entertainment service not to go, Yi is aware that the snow outside the door is a foot deep. The passage reads: Henan Hazel Cheng and his brother Cheng Yi taught the teachings of Confucius and Mencius during the reign of Song Emperor Xianing and Yuanfeng, and the scholars of the Central Plains all worshipped them. When Yang Shi was transferred to a new post, he went to Yingchang to pay a visit to Cheng Hao as his teacher. When Yang Shi left, Cheng saw him off, saying that my teachings could be taken to the south by you. Four years later, when Cheng Hao died, Yang Shi set up a shrine at his home and wept, grieving greatly. One day, Yang Shi and You Xu went to see Cheng Yi, who was sitting down for a nap, and they waited beside him. In the Er Cheng yu zi yan yan, we can also see: When Yü and Yang first met Yichuan, he sat with his eyes closed while they stood by. When they realized it, they said, “Are you still here? It is late in the day, so let us rest.” When he went out, the snow outside the door was a foot deep. The author of Hou Zi Ya Yan is Hou Zhongliang, who was Cheng Yi’s brotherin-law, and this account is more credible. It is very clear from the narrative here that Yang Shi and You Er were not standing in the snow, but standing indoors. The fact that Yang Shi was already in his forties, not only had he achieved some academic success, but also had a considerable official position. In the cold winter, Cheng Yi’s family would not have let him stand outside the door waiting for his teacher to wake up. When inheriting and promoting the fine traditional morality of the Chinese nation, there are two issues that deserve our attention. Firstly, we should try to analyze and identify the dross and the essence of the ancient traditional morality using the Marxist position, viewpoint and method, and while absorbing its essence, we should also give it a new meaning according to the development of the times, so that it can better serve the socialist moral construction; secondly, the content of these fine moral traditions should also be explained accurately in a realistic and serious manner. In particular,

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the propaganda of moral models should be appropriate and reasonable. If they are deliberately exaggerated, they will be taken out of life and will have a negative effect. All moral exemplars are born out of life and above it, and only if they are promoted truthfully can they have a powerful impact on the people.

Chapter 15

Moral Development and Governance

1 Confucian Thought on Rule of Morality Confucianism in ancient1 China was a distinctive school of scholarship that was closely integrated into the political life of the society of the time. From the point of view of the political demands of society, its main aim was to perfect the individual and at the same time to try to rectify the ills of the time and improve society, and to put forward a systematic programme for the governance of the country and the state, and to help the world and the people, in order to achieve the goal of “grimoire, knowledge, correctness of mind, sincerity, cultivation of one’s moral character, the cultivation of the family, the governance of the country, and the pacification of the world”. How did the Confucians achieve this aim? Among Confucianism’s demands for the “remedy of the ills of the time” and the improvement of society, the idea of “moral rule” occupies a particularly prominent place. We can see that the idea of moral governance is not only the fundamental strategy of Confucianism, but also an important reason why Confucianism has occupied an important place in Chinese history. There are many schools of thought in Chinese tradition, of which Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism and Buddhism are the four most famous, and Confucianism occupies a unique position among them. Both Confucianism and Mohism were the socalled ‘prominent schools’ of thought during the Spring and Autumn period, and both were schools of thought that had a significant impact on society. However, later on, the Mohists were unable to hold their own against the Confucians, and for a long period of time, the Mohists simply disappeared into obscurity. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, Legalism was also a powerful school of thought, favored by some rulers of the time. The state of Qin began with the appointment of Shang Yang, the Duke of Qin, who introduced a change in the law, and over the next hundred years, after six generations of rulers, finally unified China in the reign of Qin 1

This section was originally an exchange paper for the Cross-Straits Ethics Seminar.

© China Renmin University Press 2023 G. Luo, Traditional Ethics and Contemporary Society of China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0256-9_15

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Shi Huang. In terms of ideology, the political philosophy of the Qin state was guided by the ideas of the Legalists during these hundred years. Similarly, in the Han dynasty, Legalism was defeated by Confucianism. Taoism, despite its far-reaching influence in the intellectual and ideological sphere over a period of more than two millennia, nevertheless failed to dominate among political thinkers. This raises the question of why, of the four major schools of thought in ancient China—Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism and Buddhism—only Confucianism was able to overcome the other three, resulting in the “sole reverence for Confucianism” after the Han Dynasty. Of course, there are many reasons for this, and we can discuss them in terms of the characteristics of Chinese society, the special circumstances of its economic and political structure, and its national traditions. First, in the long process of its emergence, formation and development, Confucianism has always emphasized the need to combine academic thought and theoretical construction with the realities of social and political life, and to make its thought and theory applicable to the world and to serve the economic and political needs of the society of the time. Secondly, Confucianism places special emphasis on the important role of morality in human social life and its special and irreplaceable role in maintaining harmony among people, maintaining social stability, strengthening national unity and consolidating national unity. Since Confucianism places special emphasis on the role of morality (including moral personality, moral ideals, moral education and moral cultivation), we can say that the Confucian school is a school centred on ethical thought, or rather it is a school centred on virtueism. Because its entire ideology is closely linked to the social and political life of the people, we can also say that it is characterised by the politicisation of ethics and the ethicalisation of politics.

1.1 The Formation and Development of Confucianism’s Moral Governance In the history of ancient Chinese thought, the importance of morality in the governance of the state was raised by thinkers as early as the Western Zhou. The rulers of the Western Zhou inherited the idea of “divine right of kings” from the slave-owning nobles of the Xia and Shang dynasties, and described their rule over the people as “commanded by heaven”. But didn’t the rulers of the Xia and Shang also say that their rule was “ordained by heaven”? Why did they lose their rule when the people rebelled against it? For this reason, the thinkers of the Western Zhou summed up the idea of “punishment by heaven”, which had been used by the Xia and Shang to “punish the people on behalf of heaven”, and put forward the new concept of “matching heaven with virtue” and “respecting virtue to protect the people”. The new concept of “virtue for heaven” and “respect for virtue to protect the people” was introduced. Heaven is mindful of the morality of the rulers on earth, “There is no kin in heaven, only virtue is the complement”. In the past, the rulers of Xia and Shang had been moral, so Heaven gave them the power to rule; but later, because they

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did not know how to respect virtue, Heaven no longer trusted them and withdrew from them the power it had given them in the past. Now that the Zhou kings were virtuous, the Mandate of Heaven was given to the Zhou and not to the Shang. In view of the fact that the rulers of the Shang dynasty had placed too much emphasis on the punishment of the common people, the rulers of the Western Zhou dynasty, while proposing “to match heaven with virtue” and “to respect virtue and protect the people”, further proposed “to be clear in virtue and careful in punishment”. The rulers of the Western Zhou Dynasty, while proposing to ‘match virtue with heaven’ and ‘respect virtue to protect the people’, also put forward the idea that ‘virtue should be clearly understood and punished with care’, placing more emphasis on the role of ‘virtue’ in the governance of the state. Confucius put forward the idea of ‘rule by virtue’ in a more complete way. He said in The Analects of Confucius: “If the people are free and have no shame when the government is followed by punishment, and if the people are free and have no shame when the government is followed by virtue and the people are followed by ritual, they will have shame and behave.” In this passage, Confucius makes a comparison between ‘moral rule’ and ‘rule of law’, and asserts that ‘moral rule’ is superior to ‘rule of law “Confucius argues that if the rule of morality is used only for the purpose of the rule of law, it is better than the rule of law. Confucius argued that if the people were only governed by decrees and penalties, the result would be that although the people would not dare to commit crimes, they would not know that it was shameful to do so, and thus they might continue to commit crimes in the future. If moral education could be used to educate their minds and unify their behavior, the people would have a sense of shame and would never commit crimes again. Mencius inherited and developed Confucius’ idea of moral governance, and raised the issue of “the way of the king” and “the way of the hegemon”, expounding in greater depth and comprehensiveness the importance of morality in political administration. According to Mencius, there are two different approaches and paths to governing a state: the ‘kingly way’, which he favored, and the ‘hegemonic way’, which he opposed. He opposed the use of force by rulers to subdue the people, but advocated the use of persuasion to make the people happy and obedient. He said, “He who uses force to pretend to be benevolent will become a great power; he who uses virtue to be benevolent will become a king, and the king does not need to be great. Whoever conquers by force is not convinced by heart, but by force; whoever conquers by virtue is convinced by heart, like the seventy sons who conquered Confucius.” (Mencius—Gong Sun Chou I) By force, Mencius means what people call punishment; by virtue, he means, roughly, what we call moral teaching. After the fall of the Qin dynasty, thinkers of the Han dynasty were devoted to discussing the lessons of the fall of the Qin. Jia Yi’s arguments are somewhat representative. In his view, the main reason for the fall of the Qin dynasty was the neglect of the important role of morality. He said: “The wisdom of all men can see what is, but not what will be. The rites are forbidden before the future, but the laws are forbidden after the present. He also said: “However, it is said that the rites of the cloud, the more important to eliminate the evil in the unemergent, and start teaching in the subtle, so that the people day to change good far from the crime without

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knowing it” (ibid.). He believed that the safety and security of a state and society was related to the importance it attached to morality. He said, “The safe is not safe in a day, and the dangerous is not dangerous in a day, but by accumulating gradually. It is in the choice of the master that the accumulation is made. Those who rule with propriety and righteousness will accumulate propriety and righteousness; those who rule with penalties will accumulate penalties. Those who rule by punishment will accumulate punishment, but those who rule by decency will accumulate decency. Therefore, the lord of the world wants the people to be good in the same way, but the reason for making them good may be different. He may teach them morally, or he may drive them away by decree. Those who teach by virtue, the people will be happy when virtue is taught; those who drive by decree, the people will mourn when the decree is extreme, and the feeling of mourning and happiness is the response to misfortune. (Han Shu—Jia Yi Zhuan) After the Han Dynasty, Confucianism’s idea of moral governance became more and more influential in the field of political thought, and became the main strategy of rulers in governing the state.

1.2 Moral Rule is not the Absence of Punishment Confucianism does not advocate the idea of moral rule, but rather that moral rule is more important than punishment in governing a state. Confucius advocated the rule of virtue and stressed the importance of moral education, but he was also very conscious of the need for punishment. When Confucius was still alive, there was a rebellion in the state of Zheng, and the state sent troops to quell it. The Zuo Zhuan records this incident and says that when Confucius learned of it, he said something very important: When Zheng Zisan was ill, he said to his son Da Shu, “When I die, my son will be in charge. Only a virtuous man can convince the people with leniency, but the next best thing is fierce. The fire is strong, and the people are afraid of it, so they rarely die. If water is cowardly and weak, and the people play with it, they will die more often. He was sick for several months and died. Da Shu’s administration was not fierce but lenient. When the state of Zheng was full of thieves, they took people from the pond of the reeds. Da Shu repented and said, “I should have followed Fu Zi earlier, but I would not have done so.” He raised his troops to attack the thieves in the reeds and killed them all. The pirates were rarely stopped. He said, “Good! If the government is lenient, the people will be slow, and if they are slow, they will be fierce. If you are fierce, the people will be crippled, and if they are crippled, you will be lenient. If the government is lenient, the people will be slow, and if they are slow, they will be fierce. (Zuo Zhuan—Twenty Years of Duke Zhao). It is clear from this that, although Confucius stressed the importance of moral education, he still advocated the firm suppression of those who broke the law in order to maintain the stability of the ruling class. Confucius also believed that “if the government is lenient, the people will be slow”, i.e. if moral education is only provided without legal sanctions, the people will be lax and disobedient, and will

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even commit crimes, so it is necessary to “correct them with fierce punishment”. If we only know how to use punishment to suppress the people, then the people will be cruel and violent. Ever since Confucius said this, the idea of “leniency for fierceness, fierceness for leniency, and government for harmony” has become a Confucian idea that requires both punishment and moral education, and is known simply as “leniency for fierceness”. Zhu Xi, a famous thinker of the Song Dynasty, gave a more comprehensive explanation of Confucianism’s idea of moral governance. It was the intention of the sages that the people should be governed by government and punishment, but not by virtue and propriety. He said that the government and punishment were only to make the people far from sinful; if they were to be punished for their wrongdoing, it would be necessary to have morality and propriety. The sages had never abolished punishment and government when they ruled the world! (Zhu Zi Yu Lei, vol. 23). Zhu Xi certainly placed great emphasis on the role of moral education when he said: The “Way of Virtue” is to go out on oneself so that one knows what to admire; the “Way of Rites” is to make one know the rituals of marriage and funeral, and the difference between the small and the small, so that one knows where to go. If they know the virtues and rites, they will have the shame to be good. But if the government of the country is to be followed by the government of punishment, it will not be able to change the hearts of the people, but to make them less reformed, and when the government and punishment are less relaxed, they will still be unashamed (Ibid). According to Zhu Xi, only through moral education can people understand moral right and wrong, and know what they should do and consciously try to do it; and what they should not do and consciously refrain from doing it. If one has done wrong, one should be ashamed of it and consciously correct it. He said, “Shame is the heart of shame and evil. When one has shame, one can refrain from doing something.” (Zhu Zi Yu Lei, Vol. 3) “To know shame is to be born from within, but to hear of faults is to be gained from without. Only when one knows shame can one change one’s faults.” (Zhu Zi Yu Lei, vol. 94) In governing the common people, if one relies on punishment alone and fails to “grasp their unrighteousness”, it is impossible to prevent it. Nevertheless, Zhu Xi still believed that punishment was indispensable.

1.3 Moral Rule is not the Same as the Rule of Man For a period of time, there was a view among some people that the “rule of morality” was the “rule of man”, and that the rule of morality was the “dregs” left over from the ancient Chinese slave and feudal societies, It is incompatible with the requirements of a modern legal society and should be discarded. This view should be analyzed. It is a misunderstanding that “moral rule” is not the same as “human rule” and that “moral rule” is the same as “human rule”. This is a misunderstanding of moral governance. Of course, the idea of the rule of virtue, because it emphasizes the

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importance of the moral character of the ruler and the importance of moral education for the people, can easily be seen as an idea of the rule of man. Confucius did say something like this: “The government of civil and military affairs is based on the policies of the people. When his people exist, his government will be carried out; when his people die, his government will rest. If the people are sensitive to the government, the earth is sensitive to the trees, and the government is the same as Pulu. Therefore, government is about people, taking people for their bodies, cultivating their bodies for the Way, and cultivating the Way for benevolence” (The Book of Rites—Way of the Mean). This means that the way in which King Wen of Zhou and King Wu of Zhou governed the country was already recorded in the canon. If a wise man is on the throne, this method can be practiced; if a wise man is not on the throne, this method cannot be practiced. The way to rule people is to work hard at government; the way to manage the land is to work hard at cultivation. The way to rule the country is to do what the bee does with the borer. Therefore, to rule the state is to get wise men; to get wise men, the ruler must cultivate himself; to cultivate himself, he must practice the Way; to cultivate the Way, he must rely on benevolence. What Confucius stresses here is that the most important thing in governing a state is to get moral and virtuous people, and in order to get moral and virtuous people, the ruler should cultivate his own moral character. Confucius’ thought is still focused on “virtue”, and this is clear. At the same time, it should be noted that Confucius and later Confucian thinkers, although they also valued the role of punishment, neglected the importance of the legal system or rule of law, especially in the appointment of government officials, and failed to set up a practical selection system, with undesirable consequences, which should be seen and improved. In short, the Confucian idea of moral rule has elements of human rule as well as important ideas that emphasize moral qualities and moral education, so we should not treat moral rule as human rule, and we should not criticise the Confucian idea of human rule by dismissing all the reasonable elements of the Confucian idea of moral rule.

1.4 Both Rule of Law and Moral Rule In terms of the management of modern society, it is impossible to achieve social stability without building the rule of law. Social progress, frequent interactions, economic development, the temptation of material desires, the complexity of relations of interest, etc., are constantly increasing the conflicts between people. Therefore, in order to maintain a stable, harmonious, healthy and orderly development of modern society, it is necessary to strengthen the legal system, strengthen the legislative work, make the legal provisions as perfect as possible, strengthen the enforcement of law, and strive to achieve compliance with the law and strict enforcement, which is the need of the times. At the same time, we should also see that it is impossible to maintain social stability without moral education and the improvement of the quality of thinking of the general public. In many cases, people break the law, not because they do not know what is illegal, but because their ideological and moral level is

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too low, in their minds, full of selfishness and self-interest and self-interest ideology. According to information, many of the criminals are party and state cadres, and there are even many law enforcement officers who are very familiar with the provisions of the law, and they know the law and break it, sometimes to an outrageous extent. This fully illustrates that only by strengthening moral education and constantly raising the ideological and moral level of the general public can we fundamentally prevent the occurrence of criminal acts. From the practical point of view of social life, in many cases, the root cause of poor social security and the constant occurrence of crimes is not the problem of legislation and law enforcement, but the result of insufficient attention or neglect of moral education. In conclusion, in modern society, it is very important to strengthen the legal system, especially in the process of modernization, which is of particular importance to the economic development and political democracy of a country. In strengthening the legal system, we must, on the one hand, make the legislation as perfect as possible, and strive to achieve “a net of laws that can be restored without any omission”; on the other hand, we must also strictly enforce the law, so that everyone is equal before the law. At the same time, we must also strengthen moral education and constantly raise the moral and ethical level of the general public, so that everyone has a sense of shame, that is to say, to make people realize that in social life, it is shameful to care only about oneself, selfishness and self-interest, and that all acts that harm the interests of others and the interests of society and even violate the law are despicable. What’s more, people should know that all thoughts and actions that care about others, the community and society are noble and respectable. In short, the rule of law should be accompanied by a vigorous strengthening of moral education for the whole society so that everyone can distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong, beauty and ugliness, thus reducing crime, improving relations between people and making society more stable and harmonious.

2 “Rule of Law” and “Rule of Morality” Should Complement Each Other In the process2 of achieving socialist modernization, we need to emphasize not only the importance of the rule of law, but also the importance of the rule of ethics, for if either of these aspects is neglected, the aim of bringing economic development, political stability and social order to our country will not be achieved. It is noteworthy that for a long time we have seen the importance of the rule of law more clearly and the importance of the rule of ethics very much less. The result was that, despite our 2

This section was originally published in the pilot issue of the Journal of Ethical Studies under the title “On ruling the country by virtue—and on how the ‘rule of law’ and the ‘rule of virtue’ should complement each other”. It was originally entitled “On the Rule of the State by Virtue—A Concurrent View that ‘Rule of Law’ and ‘Rule of Virtue’ Should Complement Each Other”. It has been slightly modified for inclusion in this book.

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hopes for the rule of law, the rule of law failed to have the desired effect because of the neglect of the role of moral governance. Since the reform and opening up of China, legislation has been improved, law enforcement capacity has been strengthened, the rule of law has become the basic strategy of China, and social order and political stability have improved considerably compared to what they were before, which is something we should celebrate. However, there are still many unsatisfactory situations in our social life. As we can see, there are serious moral failures in some areas of our society, money-grubbing, hedonism and individualism are growing, the use of power for personal gain, bribery, corruption and decadence still exist in some places, and social evils such as pornography, drugs and gambling are on the rise, and it is particularly noteworthy that some people have confused and blurred the boundaries of socialist concepts of right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, honor and shame. It is worthwhile for us to seriously and carefully reflect on how to better address these issues. At the Central Conference on Ideological and Political Work held in 2000 and the National Conference of Propaganda Ministers held in 2001, Comrade Jiang Zemin raised the issue of “moral rule” and “ruling the country by virtue”, further expounding clearly the importance of “rule by law” and “moral rule” in the governance of the country. The importance of giving equal importance to the “rule of law” and “rule by virtue” in the governance of the country was further elaborated. It should be said that this idea is of great relevance and practical significance. He pointed out that: In the process of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and developing a socialist market economy, we must persistently strengthen the socialist legal system and rule the country according to the rule of law; at the same time, we must also persistently strengthen the socialist moral system and rule the country with morality. For the governance of a country, the rule of law and the rule of morality have always been complementary and mutually reinforcing. Both are indispensable and cannot be neglected. The rule of law belongs to political construction and political civilization, while the rule of morality belongs to ideological construction and spiritual civilization. The scope of the two is different, but their status and function are very important. We need to closely combine the construction of the legal system with the construction of morality, and the rule of law with the rule of morality.3 We should seriously appreciate the importance of this idea. Indeed, the law is undoubtedly important for the governance and stability of a country. We can clearly see that it is absolutely impossible for a country or a society to maintain economic development and social stability without laws, without penalties, without political administration and without compulsory restraint. Those who endanger the country, the people or break the law must be punished by law, otherwise it will not be enough to maintain the stability of the country and protect the lives and property of the people. However, we must not neglect or even deny the important role of morality, because without the improvement of the moral level of the general public, without the improvement of social morality, without a clear 3

Selected Writings of Jiang Zemin, 1 edition, vol. 3, 200 p., Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 2006.

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concept of right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, honor and shame, not only can we not maintain the stability of society, it is impossible to fundamentally eliminate the ideological roots of some people’s crimes. Therefore, today we need to further raise our awareness of the importance of moral development and the important role of moral education in maintaining social stability. To rule by morality means to strengthen socialist moral construction and attach importance to socialist moral education, which means that we need to raise moral construction to the level of the strategy for ruling the country, and to regard ruling the country by morality and ruling the country by law as two equally important and inseparable components of the strategy for ruling the country.

2.1 The Differences and Links Between the “Moral Rule” of Today and the “Moral Rule” of Ancient Times What is the relationship between what we call “moral rule” and what Confucianism has called “moral rule” in Chinese history? What are the differences and connections between them? This is an important question to which we should pay attention. Some people believe that since the “rule of virtue” advocated by Confucianism in China’s history is essentially a “rule of man”, which contradicts the “rule of law” that we are now advocating, it is inevitable that the “rule of law” in China will not be implemented. Therefore, in the process of implementing a socialist market economy and realizing the four modernizations in China, only the “rule of law” can be advocated, and it is not appropriate to advocate the “rule of morality”. This understanding is somewhat representative. For this reason, it is important to seriously explore what the ancient Chinese Confucian “moral rule” means and how it differs from the socialist “moral rule” we have today. In ancient China, the idea of moral governance, or ‘ruling the country by virtue’, has a long history. In a certain sense, we can say that it is an important element of Confucian political and ethical thought. Since the Han dynasty, Confucianism has been the dominant ideology in China, and the idea of moral rule has therefore been of particular importance in the country’s political rule. In Chinese Confucian political and ethical thought, the rule of virtue consists of four main requirements: Firstly, the rule of morality requires that the highest leader of the state and all officials must be a moral or ethical person. Chinese Confucian ethics believes that a person can only participate in the management of state affairs if he or she is a moral person, and the Son of Heaven is no exception. Confucianism emphasizes that “from the son of heaven to the common people, one is all to cultivate their own body for this” (Book of Rites—Great Learning), from the “cultivate their own body, family, ruling the country, the world” reasoning, only first to cultivate themselves into a moral person, can the family governance; Only when the family is well governed can the country be well governed; likewise, only when the country is well governed can the world be well governed.

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Secondly, the rule of morality requires that a ruler should act in a moral manner and influence the general public by his own example and exemplary actions. This is what is known as “The ruler is also righteous. If the son is righteous, who will dare to be wrong?” “If his body is right, he will not do what he is told; if his body is not right, he will not obey what he is told” (Analects—Zilu), and “If you have righted your body, what is the point of being in politics?” (ibid.) and other wise words of the philosophers. According to ancient Chinese Confucianism, the prestige and power of a politician lies neither in his power nor in his status, but in his moral character. Only noble moral qualities and exemplary moral behavior can influence the people and enjoy prestige among them, and this is where the real power of a politician lies. Once again, the ancient Chinese Confucian rule of morality attaches great importance to the moral education of the common people and the cultivation of their sense of shame. Only when a person has a sense of shame about all immoral things can he or she refrain from committing crimes; otherwise, even severe punishment cannot eliminate the root cause of crimes. Confucius once said, “If the people are free from shame when the government is followed by punishment, and if the people are free from shame when the government is followed by virtue and the people are followed by ritual, they will have shame.” The meaning of this saying is that if a ruler only instructs the people with decrees and restrains them with penalties, the people will not dare to commit crimes, but they will not be ashamed of their bad deeds; only if he instructs them with “virtue” and restrains them with “rites”, the people will not be ashamed of their bad deeds. It is only by guiding them with “virtue” and restraining them with “rites” that the people can develop a sense of shame about committing crimes and build up a strong defence against all crimes in their hearts, thus eliminating them at the root. In governing the state, Confucianism emphasizes the improvement of people’s moral qualities and the strengthening of social opinion and the power of moral probation, and this has reasonable elements. Finally, Confucian moral governance emphasizes the need to practice benevolent rule over the people. Mencius, who followed Confucius, attached even greater importance to benevolent rule, making it an important criterion for judging whether a ruler was virtuous and whether a country could prosper. Of course, we must also recognise that some representatives of Confucianism were right to see the importance of morality and moral education; but they were wrong to overstate the role of morality in social life and thereby deny the importance of the rule of law—although Confucianism did not deny the role of punishment in the governance of the state. The Confucian idea of the rule of law The ancient Confucian idea of moral rule had its class and historical limitations, serving to maintain the rule of the feudal landowning class. In our ancient Confucianism, the “rule of virtue” was indeed linked to the “rule of man”. This was not a requirement of the rule of virtue per se, but was determined by the autocratic system of the time. In both slave and feudal societies, the emperor had the highest authority. The “rule of law” in ancient China was not linked to the “rule of man”. Socialist China, based on the four basic principles and the continuous development of socialist democracy, will never move towards the rule of man if it adopts the strategy of ruling the country by virtue.

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The ancient Chinese Confucian ideology of moral governance must be inherited from its reasonable and correct aspects, while at the same time critically discarding its erroneous contents that are not adapted to the requirements of modern society. In other words, it is necessary to inherit the best of its essence while discarding its corrupt dross. What we call the new ideology of moral governance, which has been critically inherited from our historical ideology of moral governance, is a new socialist moral governance formed under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory and in accordance with the reality of our socialist society. First of all, the morality we are talking about in moral governance is a new socialist morality that represents the interests of the general public. This new morality is based on the core of serving the people, the principle of collectivism, and the basic requirements of love for the motherland, love for the people, love for labor, love for science and love for socialism. Secondly, the moral rule of socialism that we advocate attaches importance to moral education and moral probation, to the care and love of the people’s immediate interests, to the practical interests of the people, and to guiding them to form a concern for society, the collective and the state, so as to create a noble moral consciousness and moral concepts in the hearts of the people, and to form a correct standard of good and evil, right and wrong, beauty and ugliness, honor and disgrace. It is in such an atmosphere that the people’s moral consciousness and moral values are created. It is in such an atmosphere that our social atmosphere can be continuously improved and the interpersonal relations in our society can become more and more harmonious. Once again, the socialist “moral rule” that we advocate should, in practical political life, make full use of moral incentives. Through moral means, when promoting, demoting, appointing, dismissing and selecting government officials, special attention should be paid to their moral qualities. When examining the performance of government officials, it is necessary to examine their administrative performance and their moral qualities and moral character on the one hand, and on the other hand, to examine whether there has been a marked improvement in the social climate under their jurisdiction, whether interpersonal relations are harmonious, whether social security is good, etc. In the selection of cadres, it is important to adhere to the criteria of both virtue and talent, to insist that leaders and civil servants should lead by example and to pay attention to the role of the cadres in leading by example. Finally, what we mean by moral rule is a moral rule based on the affirmation of the importance of the rule of law, a moral rule that considers moral rule and the rule of law to be of equal importance, which is one of the important differences between our moral rule and the ancient Chinese Confucian moral rule. More importantly, what we call moral governance serves to maintain the stability and development of socialist society, which is fundamentally different from the socalled “moral governance” of ancient Chinese Confucianism. What should be the place of moral governance in the programme of governance of a socialist state? While we emphasize and strengthen the rule of law, should we also emphasize and strengthen the rule of morality? Why do we have to raise moral governance to the level of a national governance strategy?

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It should be said that in our national governance strategy, it is extremely necessary to emphasize the idea of the rule of law in order to carry out modernization smoothly, to properly resolve various conflicts under market economy conditions and to maintain social and political stability in our country. Without a sound legal system and strict law enforcement measures, we will not be able to give due punishment to those who break the law and maintain normal social order. However, we must not, and should not, neglect or even deny the important role of moral rule. It is often said that some people break the law because they do not know the law, so they need to be educated about the law. However, there are also many people who break the law not because they do not know the law, but because they are immoral. Many of them are familiar with the law or even proficient in it and are good at exploiting its loopholes; some of them are also our political and legal cadres, members of the law enforcement team; some of them are repeat offenders and are not ashamed of it. Without moral education and moral probation, and without a conscious sense of shame, it will never be possible to tackle the root causes of crime in society. Moreover, how can a person without morals enforce the requirements of the rule of law in an impartial manner when all acts of law are carried out by human beings? Our emphasis on “ruling the country by virtue” does not mean that we should overstate the social role of morality and make morality omnipotent; rather, we should give morality its rightful place in the political life of the country and the daily life of the people, so that it and the law can go hand in hand and work together to safeguard and promote the socialist market economy and modernization. The development of the socialist market economy and modernization.

2.2 The Different Roles of Law and Ethics Marxism emphasizes that both law and morality are important components of the social superstructure and are important means of maintaining and regulating people’s thoughts and behavior. The emphasis on the use of law to govern the state and the use of coercive means to regulate people’s behavior is the main connotation of the rule of law. In terms of maintaining social order and ensuring social stability, the law has an indispensable and important role to play. Particularly in times of great social change, when the old systems no longer meet the needs of social development, the establishment of new laws, regulations and rules is of even greater importance. In the history of the world, rulers in both slave and feudal societies have always attached great importance to the use of legal means to govern the country and maintain their rule. After the bourgeoisie established its own power, bourgeois thinkers emphasized the importance of a complete legal system and legal system, and the idea of ruling the country according to law became an important means of maintaining the stability of capitalist society and promoting its development. We particularly emphasize that our socialist market economy must be a rule of law economy, and that the compulsory means of law must be used to regulate people’s

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behavior. The main reason for this is that without a complete legal system and severe sanctions, our socialist market economy cannot be developed successfully. According to Marxist theory, the law embodies the will of the ruling class, the requirements of the state on the behavior of its members in various fields such as politics and economy, and the requirements of maintaining social stability, protecting people’s lives and property, and safeguarding national security. Since the law is the expression of the will of the ruling class, the means it relies on is necessarily the coercive state apparatus. If a person violates the law, he or she must be punished accordingly, and the state relies on powerful tools such as the courts and the police to ensure that the law is enforced. Although morality is also an important aspect of the superstructure, it is also an important means of regulating people’s thoughts and behavior. Unlike laws, however, they are not enforced by coercive means, but through moral education, which is a persuasive and persuasive means of influencing and raising the moral consciousness of members of society, so that people will consciously observe these norms of behavior. The so-called ‘power of persuasion’ refers mainly to the inner motivation of moral behavior through enlightening people’s moral awareness, stimulating their moral feelings, strengthening their moral will and enhancing their sense of honor and shame. In the final analysis, it is about cultivating and forming what the ancients called a sense of shame. With this sense of shame, one has the most important foundation and prerequisite for moral behavior. The so-called “power of persuasion” means that by forming a broad moral opinion, fostering a good moral environment and enhancing people’s sense of moral responsibility, people realize that if a person fails to fulfill his moral obligations, or if a person violates the moral requirements of society, he will be condemned by public opinion and criticized by the public. Such condemnation and criticism may bring humiliation and pain to the person, and may make him feel that he has no place among people, and may even bring him frustration and failure in his career, with the serious consequence of losing his reputation. Generally speaking, public opinion is invisible and seems to have little power, but this is not the case. The power and influence of public opinion cannot be ignored. A strong public opinion can have a very important impact on major issues in society. It can change people’s temperament, change their temperament, change the ethos of society and create a moral climate. This social opinion can play an important role if it is combined with inner beliefs.

2.3 Integrating the Rule of Law and Morality As Comrade Jiang Zemin pointed out, in the process of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and developing a socialist market economy, we should not only persistently strengthen the socialist legal system and rule the country by law, but also persistently strengthen the socialist moral system and rule the country by virtue.

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These two “persistent strengthening” can be said to be our fundamental guiding ideology in governing the country and formulating state policies, and are a prominent feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The combination of the socialist rule of law and the rule of morality is the most perfect and effective state policy that combines Marxist political construction, legal construction and moral construction, and will play an unprecedentedly important role in the governance of our socialist state. In terms of maintaining and safeguarding the stability of society, law and ethics have equally important roles to play, and they are interrelated and complementary. Moral norms and legal norms should be combined with each other and work together. With good moral quality, people will be able to consciously help to eliminate evil, promote good and punish evil, which will be conducive to the formation of a good social culture of pursuing nobility and inspiring progress, thus ensuring the healthy development of the socialist market economy and promoting the improvement of the overall quality of the nation. How can the construction of the legal system and the construction of morality be closely combined, and the rule by law and the rule by morality be closely combined? From the current situation, the following aspects should be noted. First of all, it is necessary to comprehend in depth the idea of combining the rule of law and the rule of morality proposed by Comrade Jiang Zemin, to fully understand the equal importance of the two, and to avoid one-sidedness in understanding. It is necessary to combine “rule of law” and “moral rule”, “rule by law” and “rule by morality”, “legal construction” and “moral rule”. The close combination between “legal construction” and “moral construction” should be regarded as the basic platform and basic means of governance in China, and our understanding should be raised from the ideological and theoretical perspectives. Since the law focuses on punishing those who have already broken the law and committed crimes, while moral construction focuses on educating those who have not yet broken the law and improving their moral quality so that they will not commit crimes, we can also say that the rule of law and punishment focus on treating the symptoms, while moral construction focuses on treating the root. Only by addressing the root causes and improving the ideological and moral quality of people can the construction of the legal system and the rule of law be strongly guaranteed and social stability be fundamentally maintained. Secondly, we should consciously link “ruling the country by morality” with “ruling the country by law” in the actual construction of the legal system and morality. In the legislation, we should pay attention to the moral basis of the law, and should incorporate some of the most important and basic moral requirements directly into the regulation of the law. At the same time, in moral construction, especially in moral education, law-abiding should be presented as the most basic moral requirement for citizens of a socialist country, so that the rule of law and moral rule can interpenetrate, complement each other and be more closely integrated. This will be very beneficial to improving people’s moral quality, improving the social atmosphere and further promoting the construction of the legal system.

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Finally, in order to develop a socialist market economy, it is necessary to establish a socialist legal system that is compatible with it and at the same time make efforts to establish and form a socialist moral system that is compatible with it in society as a whole. The construction and development of a socialist moral system that is compatible with a socialist market economy has become an important and urgent task proposed to us in real life, and is an issue of great practical significance for China to maintain social stability, to better develop a socialist market economy and to better build socialism with Chinese characteristics. The development of the market economy has posed a series of new questions to moral construction, including how to correctly deal with various interests, how to deal with the relationship between fairness and efficiency, the relationship between the breadth and advancement of morality, how to insist on inheriting and carrying forward the fine moral traditions of the nation and actively absorbing the excellent moral and cultural ideas from outside, and so on. We should follow the guiding principle of “socialist moral construction should be based on the core of serving the people and the principle of collectivism”, mobilize the efforts of all parties and make joint efforts to establish and form a moral system that is compatible with the socialist market economy at an early date.

2.4 Some Countermeasures and Suggestions In order to strengthen the rule by virtue, we must do a lot of solid work in all aspects, from political, legal, moral, cultural and educational aspects, especially the mass media and social opinion, to form a strong synergy for the implementation of the rule by virtue, so as to achieve the purpose of raising awareness, clarifying requirements, enhancing confidence and seriously implementing. First, at the national level, we should fully understand the importance of “ruling the country by virtue” from the perspective of ensuring the long-term stability of the country, improving the moral morality of society, raising the moral standards of the people and realizing the four modernizations of socialism, and understand the relationship between “ruling the country by law” and “ruling the country by virtue”. We should understand the relationship between “ruling the country by law” and “ruling the country by virtue”, clear our misunderstanding of the rule of virtue, and overcome the mistake of viewing “rule by virtue” as “rule by man” or equivalent to “rule by man”. We should clear our misunderstanding of moral governance and overcome the misconception that “moral governance” is regarded as “human governance” or equivalent to “human governance”. To fully understand the spirit of the rule by virtue, we must realize that the “rule by virtue” we are talking about today is a new socialist “rule by virtue” that has inherited the fine traditions of ancient China, but has also undergone a Marxist transformation and abandonment. We should make use of various mass media to carry out extensive, in-depth, practical and effective propaganda and education, clarify some of the existing ambiguous understanding, and make the idea and theory of ruling the country by virtue take root in people’s

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hearts. Under the conditions of a socialist market economy, the rule of law and the rule of morality are of equal importance. Secondly, it is necessary to further understand and discuss among cadres the important responsibilities that party and state cadres should assume in implementing the strategy of “ruling the country by virtue”. The rule by virtue is never “rule by virtue”, let alone using many moral codes to discipline the masses. The first thing we need is for our cadres to set an example in morality, to act by example, to lead the masses by their exemplary behavior. Thirdly, the implementation of the rule by virtue must also be guaranteed by a set of institutions and mechanisms. In the process of legislation, it is advisable to add contents that are conducive to the implementation of the rule by morality, and to attach importance to morality and moral education in political life. At the same time, in the promotion, appointment and dismissal of party and government cadres, the importance of moral quality and moral character of cadres should be particularly stressed in the assessment of their performance. In assessing their performance, performance and ability, it is important to consider whether they can lead by example and set an example in morality as an important criterion. Fourth, in the propaganda work, in some major, the general formulation, can be considered more comprehensive. In the past, we said that the market economy is a legal economy, but in the future, can we mention it like this: socialist market economy is both a legal economy and a moral economy; contemporary Chinese society is both a legal and a moral society; we want to build China into a country under the rule of law as well as a moral country. Fifth, in the construction of socialist spiritual civilization, in addition to the work currently being done, the importance of moral education should be further strengthened for a considerable period of time, and moral education should be treated as a fundamental task. At the same time, when measuring and evaluating the work achievements of various departments, we should take as one of the main indicators the moral education provided to the general public and the role it has played in improving the social atmosphere and raising the moral standards of the people. Sixthly, it is proposed that special ethics committees be set up in the discipline inspection departments of the Party at all levels and in the standing committees of people’s congresses at all levels, so that ethics can be institutionalised as far as possible while relying on moral education and the guidance of public opinion.

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3 Moral Development and Governance In order to revitalize4 the Chinese nation and create a new situation for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, while vigorously strengthening the construction of material civilization, we must also improve the construction of socialist spiritual civilization, and while emphasizing the rule of law, we should also emphasize the importance of ruling the country by virtue. The historical experience since the establishment of New China proves that socialism with Chinese characteristics can only be achieved if both civilizations are well developed, and that only by strengthening the socialist legal system and at the same time vigorously strengthening moral development and implementing the rule by morality will we be able to revitalize China and overcome all the difficulties and hardships on the road to ultimate victory.

3.1 Historical Controversies The role of morality and law in the governance of the state has been an important issue of great concern to politicians and thinkers since ancient times. The question of what place morality and civilization should have in the governance of a state, apart from reliance on law, has been debated for a long time in Chinese history. More than 2000 years ago, Confucius proposed a strategy for ruling the country that was based on “leniency and fierceness” and “the use of virtue and punishment”. By “leniency”, Confucius meant to educate the people through moral education, and by “fierceness”, he meant to use punishment to maintain social stability. A famous passage of his is “If the people are free and have no shame when the government is followed by punishment, and if the people are free and have no shame when the government is followed by virtue and the people are followed by ritual, they will have shame and behave themselves” (Analects—For the Government). The meaning here is that if a ruler only uses “politics” to guide the people and “punishment” to restrain them, the people will not commit crimes, but they will not know that it is shameful to do so. If they are guided by “virtue” and restrained by “propriety”, then not only will they not commit crimes, but they will also know that it is shameful to do so. In today’s terms, “zheng” means decree, and “jing” means law (in those days, mainly punishment), and together, they were what people later called “rule of law”. “Virtue” is what we call morality, and “rites” is what we call norms, and these two together are what we call today the “rule of virtue” These two together are what we today call “moral governance”, or what Confucius called “government by virtue” and “moral government”. He agreed that punishment had an important role to play in restraining people’s behavior, but he attached more importance to people’s ‘sense of shame’ because it 4

This section was originally published in the Journal of China University of Mining and Technology, No. 2, 2003, under the title ‘Moral Construction and the Rise of the State—Combining the Rule of Law with the Rule of Virtue’. It has been slightly modified for inclusion in this book.

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could improve one’s moral sentiments and build a dam of crime prevention in one’s heart, which could eliminate crime from the root. In Chinese history, the state of Qin during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period, which specialised in punishment, became powerful for a period of time and eventually unified China. However, after only a dozen years of unification, a powerful Qin state fell. In his “Security Policy”, Jia Yi argued that the fundamental reason for the fall of the Qin dynasty in the second century was that the Qin state was preoccupied with punishment and neglected the role of morality in its governance strategy. In a letter to Tian Jiaying in April 1958, Mao Zedong said that the essay was the best political essay of the Western Han Dynasty; it was relevant and had a good atmosphere, and was worth reading. Today, it can be said to be a summary of the experience of China’s pre-Han period approach to governance, which fully illustrates the importance of the rule of law and moral rule at the same time. After the Han dynasty, Confucianism inherited the ideas of Confucius and Jia Yi, and while imposing penalties, it also advocated moral rule; at the same time, learning from historical experience, it adopted the strategy of “Yang Confucianism and Yin Law”, emphasizing the important role of moral probation while imposing feudal dictatorship.

3.2 Strategies for Governing a Socialist Society In contemporary socialist China, what kind of “governing strategy” should we follow in order to govern our country? “In the process of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and developing a socialist market economy, we must persistently strengthen the socialist legal system and rule the country according to the rule of law; at the same time, we must also persistently strengthen the socialist moral system and rule the country with morality. For the governance of a country, the rule of law and the rule of morality have always been complementary and mutually reinforcing. Neither one can be absent from the other, nor can they be neglected.”This clearly points out that in our socialist country, we should adhere to the idea that the rule of law and the rule of morality should be given equal importance in our strategy of governing the country, and overcome the one-sidedness of giving preference to either side. The idea of “strengthening socialist morality and ruling the country by virtue” is of great theoretical and practical significance to the current situation in China. As an important part of the social superstructure, law and morality are important means of regulating people’s behavior. In a certain sense, the law focuses on punishing those who have already broken the law, while moral construction focuses on educating those who have not yet broken the law; one relies on the coercion and majesty of the state machinery, while the other relies on people’s inner beliefs and social opinion. Both play a unique and irreplaceable role in the healthy functioning of a normal society. As Comrade Jiang Zemin pointed out, “For the governance of a country, the rule of law and the rule of morality have always been complementary and mutually

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reinforcing. Both are indispensable and cannot be neglected. The rule of law belongs to political construction and political civilization, while moral governance belongs to ideological construction and spiritual civilization. The scope of the two is different, but their status and function are very important. We should closely combine the construction of the legal system with the construction of morality, and the rule of law with the rule of morality.”5 From the perspective of the strategy of governance, moral governance and the rule of law are like “two wings of a bird and two wheels of a car”, complementing each other and serving each other’s purpose. Since the reform and opening up, China’s legal system has made significant achievements, which are evident to all. In contrast, there are still some problems in moral construction that cannot be ignored and need to be seriously addressed. In the real life of our country, due to the corrosion of individualism, money worship and hedonism, the phenomenon of moral misconduct is becoming more and more serious, which not only affects the social atmosphere and moral style of our country, but also hinders the normal development of the economic construction of our country and affects the smooth progress of the construction of our country’s legal system, which has become one of the important problems that need to be solved urgently at present. This has become one of the most important problems that need to be solved. The “rule by virtue” is a strategic plan that is based on the current problems in China and is a major initiative to strengthen moral construction in China. Although morality and law are both important aspects of the superstructure and are equally important means of maintaining and regulating people’s thoughts and behavior, morality differs from law in that it is implemented not by some coercive means, but through the persuasive power of moral education, which influences and raises the moral consciousness of members of society and makes people consciously comply with these norms of behavior. Why is it not easy to see the important role of morality? As Jia Yi said in the Han Dynasty, “The wisdom of a man can see what is, but not what will be. The rites are forbidden before the future, while the laws are forbidden after the present. (The Book of Han—The Biography of Jia Yi). The ‘rites’ Jia Yi refers to is what we call morality. He believes that the most important value of morality lies in its ability to “prevent evil from sprouting, and to teach it in the smallest detail, so that the people will change their ways and distant their sins without knowing it” (ibid.). This means that the role of morality lies in its ability to eliminate and cut off the roots of thoughts that may lead to crime before the idea of committing a crime arises, and through subtle education and induction, to make people develop good morals unknowingly, so as to stay away from crime.

3.3 The Main Elements of the Rule by Virtue What are the main elements of what we call “ruling by virtue”? 5

Selected Writings of Jiang Zemin, 1 edition, vol. 3, p. 200.

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The “moral rule” we are talking about today is a completely new type of socialist moral rule. It is rooted in the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation for thousands of years, and also inherits and carries forward the fine traditions of the Communist Party of China in political and ideological work and spiritual civilization construction. It is a moral rule that, in accordance with the requirements of the “Three Represents”, stands for the advancement of advanced culture and persistently strengthens socialist moral construction. Firstly, what we call moral governance is an integral part of socialist democratic politics and an important aspect of the strategy for governing the country under the socialist system. Socialist moral governance puts moral construction and moral education at the forefront of the strategy for governing the country. The organising principle of the socialist democratic political system is democratic centralism, which determines that today’s moral rule not only cannot lead to the rule of man, but also, precisely because it emphasizes the moral qualities of those in politics, is more conducive to overcoming the shortcomings of the rule of man in the process of selecting and training cadres. Secondly, the fundamental purpose of socialist moral governance is to improve the moral quality of people through strengthening moral construction as an important part of the revitalization of the Chinese nation. As Comrade Jiang Zemin pointed out, “With good moral quality, people will be able to consciously help righteousness and eliminate evil, promote goodness and punish evil, which will be conducive to the formation of a good social culture of pursuing nobility and inspiring advancement, ensuring the healthy development of the socialist market economy and promoting the improvement of the quality of the whole nation.”6 Thirdly, socialist moral governance, in terms of moral construction, stresses the importance of serving the people as the core, collectivism as the principle, and love for the motherland, love for the people, love for labor, love for science and love for socialism as the basic requirements. In order to better promote and accelerate socialist modernization, we should especially emphasize the importance of serving the people, give full play to the persuasive and probative power of moral education, make full use of moral incentives, and make “serving the people” and “the principle of collectivism” We should give full play to the power of moral education to persuade and inspire, and make full use of moral incentives so that “serving the people” and the “principle of collectivism” can play a more important role in improving social morale, harmonizing interpersonal relations and maintaining social stability. Fourthly, socialist moral governance places a higher moral demand on party and government cadres. Today’s moral rule takes the best interests of the people as the highest moral principle, therefore, the rule by morality is first and foremost an ideological and moral constraint for leading cadres at all levels, requiring leading cadres at all levels to take the lead in not only managing state affairs according to law and administering according to law, but also managing state affairs with morality and administering with morality. The leading cadres of the party and government have a certain level of morality, moral cultivation and moral realm, is not only an 6

Selected Writings of Jiang Zemin, 1 edition, vol. 3, 91–92.

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important prerequisite to achieve the purpose of clean government construction, but also a key to improve the social climate. As the saying goes, “the upper beam is not right, the lower beam is crooked, the middle beam is not right to fall down”, this is the truth. Our party and government cadres should take ruling by virtue as a higher requirement for themselves, constantly motivate themselves, and strive to improve their moral quality.

4 Some Questions About “Govern by Virtue” At the National Conference of Propaganda Ministers held in early 2001, Comrade Jiang Zemin stressed the need to combine the “rule of law” and the “rule of morality”, and the “rule by law” and the “rule by morality”. “The 16th National Congress of the Party The report of the 16th National Congress of the Party proposes to closely combine “rule by law” with “rule by virtue”. Since “ruling the country by virtue” was proposed as a strategy for governing the country, there has been a lively discussion on this issue in the theoretical circles. Generally speaking, this formulation has been generally accepted by the theoretical community, but there are also some different and even opposing views. Initially, these issues can be summarized into seven questions, which can be analyzed, studied and discussed to help us understand, implement and enforce the strategy of “ruling the country by virtue”.

4.1 Will “Rule by Virtue” Lead to the Rule of Man? What is the rule of law? What is the rule of ethics? What is the rule of man? Will our rule of law by virtue lead to the rule of man? This is an important question that we need to explore. The rule of law and the rule of morality are the two basic methods of governing the country. In the process of building the four modernizations of socialism, the rule of law must be implemented at the same time as the rule of morality, so that “the rule of law” and “the rule of morality” are organically combined. (1) The rule of man is always associated with authoritarian regimes Before discussing the rule of law and the rule of morality, it is necessary to talk about what the rule of man is. In Chinese history, what is the relationship between the rule of law and moral rule and the rule of man? Nowadays, some comrades are always concerned about ruling the country by virtue, fearing that this will lead to the rule of man, which will in turn affect the rule of law. “The rule of man” means that at all levels of the state, the ruler’s personal will is used to govern the country from the top down, and is characterised by the concentration of power in the hands of key leaders over major decisions, appointments and dismissals, as well as penalties and punishments.

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In terms of historical development, in primitive societies, humans governed themselves through the leaders of their clans. This was mainly based on the authority, traditions and customs that had developed over time, and on the prestige of the clan chiefs in the group. During this long period of human history, since laws had not yet been created, it can also be said that a “rule of man” was practiced. After the emergence of private ownership and the state, in the long history of slave and feudal societies, the basic political system of the state was inevitably linked to the rule of man, as it was linked to autocracy. In the early days of slavery, the state was governed by the will of the sovereign of the slave class, and there were no laws. The emergence of law was both a necessity and a reflection of the progress of society. In the course of the long development of slave societies, it became increasingly clear that only by translating the will of the ruling class into law could the will of the faint-hearted monarchs be prevented and the misdeeds of corrupt officials be prevented. The thinkers and politicians who advocated the enactment of laws and made them public were progressive at the time. In both slave and feudal societies, the state was governed in accordance with the law because the law itself was the expression of the will of the ruling class. The slave and feudal classes, in ruling and governing the country, also needed to have their will fixed in the form of law, so as to make it more conducive to their rule. So, is this what we now call the rule of law? Of course not. For, although the ruling class made the laws, it was not the letter of the law but the subjective will of the ruler that ultimately had the power to decide. Among the thinkers of the slave and feudal societies, we can also see some who emphasized the importance of law, stressing that “the law does not discriminate against the nobility” and “the punishment does not avoid the minister, and the reward for good deeds does not leave the common man behind”, etc. However, this kind of legalism under the authoritarian system is fundamentally different from what we call “the rule of law” today. However, this kind of legalism under the autocratic system was fundamentally different from what we call “the rule of law” today. (2) The Rule of Law in Chinese History Was the ancient Chinese idea of legalism a form of rule by man? For a long time, some comrades have argued that legalism in Chinese history is not the rule of man, but a rule of law different from the rule of man, a method and means of governance that emphasizes the equality of all before the law. We believe that ancient Chinese legalism is not the rule of law in the modern sense; it is still a rule of man. In the history of China, it was the Qin state during the Warring States period that had a strict legal system. It was a period of more than a hundred years in the history of China when the so-called “rule of law” was strictly enforced, beginning with the appointment of Shang Yang by the Duke of Qin and the implementation of the Law Change, and continuing through King Hui, King Wu, King Zhaoxiang, King Xiaowen, King Zhuangxiang and the First Emperor of Qin. The “rule of law” in this period was not what we would call the rule of law in the modern sense. In a nutshell, the Qin state advocated that the people should be informed about the law,

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that the law should be strictly enforced, that the law should be strictly enforced, and that the purpose of “removing punishment from punishment” should be achieved. As the legalists of the time advocated the use of “techniques” and “power” (the power and influence of the monarch) to strengthen the power of law enforcement, this “rule of law” was still a form of rule by man, which was closely related to the feudal absolutist system of the time. This was closely linked to the feudal absolutism of the time. In the end, not only the emperor, but also the powerful minister Zhao Gao, was able to call a stag a horse, so what rule of law was there? Shang Yang once stressed that a prince who broke the law should be punished in the same way as the people, but when the prince did break the law, he could only punish his master, Gong Zi Qian. What is even more worthy of consideration is that Shang Yang, who insisted on implementing the change of law, could not escape the tragic end of being split into five horses under the oppression of the aristocracy in the end. Not only did the law fail to protect the people, but it also failed to protect Shang Yang, who advocated the rule of law. The main feature of the so-called ‘rule of law’ in the Qin dynasty was that it was based on the premise that people were selfish by nature and made full use of their tendency to avoid harm by imposing harsher laws and giving more titles to officials to reward farming and warfare, in order to develop production and strengthen armaments. It should be said that this was beneficial to the development of the productive forces of the time and the strengthening of Qin’s military power. As a result, the state grew richer and stronger and finally unified China. However, for a long period of its history, it allowed people’s selfish desires to expand to the point of neglecting or even denying the importance of moral education, which led to the destruction of the ethical and moral order of the time and turned the relationship between people into a naked relationship of interest, resulting in the deterioration of social customs and political turmoil, and eventually leading to the rapid demise of the Qin state. We should make a dialectical, comprehensive and historical analysis of the rule of law in ancient China. (3) Moral Governance in Ancient China The idea of moral rule in ancient China dates back to the early days of the Western Zhou Dynasty. When the small state of Zhou finally defeated the powerful Shang dynasty, they realized that they could not maintain their rule by relying solely on harsh laws. The reason for the fall of the Shang dynasty was that the rulers had no morals. The rulers of the Western Zhou Dynasty put forward the idea of “respecting virtue and protecting the people” and “using virtue to match heaven”. They realized that “only orders are not constant” (Shang Shu—Kang Gong), and that “there is no kin in Heaven, but virtue is the only complement” (Shang Shu—Cai Zhong’s Order). This means that in order to maintain the rule of a class, it is not possible to rely solely on harsh laws, but most importantly, the ruler himself must be moral, and this is the earliest meaning of the rule of virtue in ancient China. Later on, Confucius, the founder of Confucianism, further proposed that in ruling a country, not only should the ruler himself have high morals, but he should also strengthen the moral education

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of the people while applying punishment, which is what Confucius meant by “being lenient and fierce”. This is what Confucius meant when he said, “If the people are free and have no shame when the government is followed by punishment, and if the people are free and have no shame when the government is followed by ritual, they will have shame and behave themselves” (The Analects of Confucius—For the Government). It is believed that if only punishment is used to restrain and sanction the people, they will be spared from committing crimes but will not know shame; if morality is used to educate the people and rituals are used to convince them, they will have a sense of shame. The meaning here is clear: a man without a sense of shame, no matter how severe the punishment imposed, will be tempted to commit a crime as soon as he has the opportunity. This is why moral education is essential in the governance of a country. Was moral rule in ancient China only about moral education and not about punishment? No, the rulers of ancient China, even during the period of moral rule, still attached importance to the role of punishment, because it was difficult for an exploiting class to maintain its rule without the coercive power of punishment. It is worth noting that most of the important laws of our ancient times were established during the period of moral rule. The Tang Law, the most complete of our ancient laws, was enacted at a time when the greatest emphasis was placed on the rule of virtue. In ancient China, was the rule of virtue associated with the rule of man? Yes, it was. In ancient China, during the long period of slave and feudal societies, there was a monarchical system in which the emperor and local chiefs at all levels, within their jurisdiction, had absolute power, and they played a decisive or important role in major decisions, personnel appointments and criminal sentences. The emperor’s will is the law, is above any law of absolute authority, he can even decide the life and death of anyone. In the appointment and removal of officials, due to too much emphasis on the moral character of the officials, which is difficult to measure, which makes the appointment and removal of officials with a certain element of subjective speculation. (4) The rule of law is linked to democratic politics The rule of law is a way of governing the state, as opposed to the rule of man, and is linked to the democratic system. The rule of law does not only mean that things are done in accordance with the law and that “everyone is equal before the law”, but more importantly, that the laws on which the rule of law is based must have been enacted through a democratic process. If a country is governed by a monarchical system of law, where the monarch has absolute power in the management of the affairs of the state, then although it can be said to be “governed by law”, it still cannot be said to be the rule of law in the modern sense. The rule of law in the modern sense has the following characteristics: firstly, the rule of law relies on the authoritative power and coercive means of the State to regulate and restrain the behavior of members of society, so as to maintain the normal order of society and the stability of the State; secondly, the law treats all

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people equally, that is, “all people are equal before the law”, as people often say. “Lastly, the basic requirement of the law is to ensure the reciprocity of rights and obligations for everyone, that is, only when one has fulfilled one’s obligations can one enjoy the corresponding rights, and through this reciprocal relationship, one can strive to Through this relationship of reciprocity, the aim is to achieve justice between members of society and to ensure a reasonable distribution of benefits. The idea of the rule of law in the modern sense only emerged after the bourgeoisie entered the stage of history in the modern era. In the name of representing all mankind, the bourgeoisie sang of freedom, equality and fraternity, of “equality before the law”, and of the rule of law as the true rule of law. But we know that in modern Western bourgeois societies where the bourgeoisie is in power, this rule of law, although formally irreproachable, where everyone is equal before the law, is, in its essence, a hidden inequality underneath this apparent equality. A wealthy owner and a proletarian who has nothing cannot and will not be completely equal in law. The rich man can use his money to hire a lawyer, while the proletarian has to endure injustice. What is more, in a bourgeois society, where the law itself is the expression of the will of the ruling class, the scales of law are always tilted in favor of the interests of the bourgeoisie on fundamental issues. However, we cannot fail to acknowledge that the implementation of the bourgeois rule of law was a great advance in history, which, for the first time in human society, brought about apparent legal equality and allowed the proletariat to use the law as a weapon to wage the necessary struggle for its own interests. (5) Only the socialist rule of law is the true rule of law A socialist society is a new kind of society in which the working class and the masses of the people are the masters of their own house. The essence of socialism is to liberate the productive forces, develop them, eradicate exploitation, eliminate polarization and ultimately achieve common prosperity. The rule of law in a socialist society is free from the rule of man that characterised slave and feudal societies, and free from the false aspects of the bourgeois rule of law, and is thus higher than the rule of law in modern Western societies. Firstly, the fundamental aim of the socialist rule of law is to act in the interests of the people and to protect their legitimate rights and interests. The building of socialist modernity and the maintenance of social and national stability are important objectives of the socialist rule of law. The socialist rule of law must use its authority and coercive power to maintain social stability and resolutely stop all kinds of illegal and criminal activities that endanger society, the state and the interests of the people. Secondly, the rule of law in socialism is a true “equality before the law”. Regardless of social status, wealth, ethnicity or profession, all people are completely equal before the law and no one is entitled to any privileges. The interests of all citizens are equally protected by law. Anyone who violates the law will be punished by the law, without any exception. Finally, the rule of law in socialism is the most powerful means of achieving social justice, which strives to protect all honest workers and to combat and punish all those who break the law.

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(6) The socialist rule of morality has nothing to do with the rule of man The moral rule practiced in a socialist society is a new type of moral rule that is closely integrated with the socialist rule of law. It attaches importance to the important role of moral education in social life and complements and promotes the rule of law, distinguishing and linking them to each other. The rule of law and the moral rule of socialism are like two wings of a bird and two wheels of a car, which complement each other if they are combined with each other. Failure to understand that the two complement each other will be extremely detrimental to the building and stability of socialist society. The moral rule practiced in socialist societies has completely abandoned the brand of the rule of man that characterized slave and feudal societies. The purpose of crime prevention can be achieved by strengthening moral education as a powerful means to improve the moral quality of the general public and their ability to distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil. The basic requirements of the moral rule of socialism include three aspects. Firstly, all Party and State cadres must be morally strict, resolutely follow the norms of socialist and communist morality, be impartial and clean, and be impartial and selfless. Secondly, in the process of managing state affairs, they must serve the people wholeheartedly, care for the interests of the people, and closely combine the management of the state with the protection of the people’s immediate interests. Thirdly, we should vigorously strengthen moral education for all the people, improve the moral quality of the people, cultivate their moral responsibility, form a distinct concept of good and evil, honor and shame, and enhance the ability of the people to resist the erosion of various corrupt ideas. In short, through strong moral education, a solid line of defense against all immoral behavior should be built up in the hearts of cadres and the people, so as to create better conditions for the construction of the four socialist modernizations. (7) Closely integrate the rule of law with the rule of law by virtue Comrade Jiang Zemin’s idea of ruling the country by virtue is the first time that he has explicitly raised ruling the country by virtue to the level of a socialist strategy for governing the country, stressing that “ruling the country by virtue” and “ruling the country by law” are complementary and mutually reinforcing; clearly pointing out that the two are indispensable and that neither can be neglected. It is an important contribution to the Marxist theory of statehood and governance that the two must be closely integrated. The rule of law is different from the rule of law in that it generally refers to the laws and institutions of the state, which is the institutionalization and legalization of the administration of the state by the ruling class; whereas the rule of law emphasizes the governance of the state in accordance with the law. In this sense, “rule of law” and “rule by law” mean the same thing, both of which refer to strict compliance with the law as a strategy for governing the country. Likewise, the words “ruling by virtue” and “ruling the country by virtue” also mean the same thing, that is, to govern the country through moral education, and

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to include moral education as an important part of the strategy for governing the country. “The word “yi” means to rely on, obey and follow, and the word “yi” means to use and follow. Here, they both emphasize the equal importance of moral rule and the rule of law, and there is no distinction between the lesser and the greater. Some people think that “in accordance with” is more important than “by”, and some people think that we should rule by morality under the rule of law, but these understandings are incorrect. We should understand and appreciate the importance of the complementary and close integration of the rule by law and the rule by morality from a strategic perspective. Under the conditions of a socialist market economy, in order to maintain China’s economic development and national revitalization, and to resist the westernization and division of China by hostile western forces, we should persistently strengthen the socialist legal system and the rule of law, and at the same time persistently strengthen the socialist moral development and rule the country by virtue, and make a close combination of the two. Moral construction will more rapidly improve the ideological and moral quality of the whole nation, strengthen the construction of clean government in China, adjust the various interests in socialist society, and more effectively maintain the stability of the whole society. In short, moral rule and human rule are two completely different categories with different contents. In ancient Chinese slave and feudal societies, the rule of morality was always combined with the rule of man, as the fundamental system of society was the monarchy. This has led some people to the misconception that in the current socialist society, the implementation of the rule of morality will still have the consequences of the rule of man, which is not true. If we can examine the moral rule and the rule of law in ancient China from a historical materialist perspective and approach, we can clearly see that even the “rule of law” practiced in some ancient dynasties, including the “rule of law” practiced in Qin during the period of Shang Yang’s change of law, was not the same as the dictatorship of the slave owners. Even the “rule of law” as practiced in some ancient dynasties, including the rule of man as practiced in the Qin state during the time of Shang Yang’s change of law, was combined with the rule of man as practiced by slave-owners. Of course, we should also see that the ‘rule of law’ at that time was different from the ‘rule of morality’ at that time, which explicitly emphasized the importance of punishment and the important role of law in the governance of the state.

4.2 Will the Promotion of “Ruling the Country by Virtue” Affect the Implementation of “Ruling the Country by Law”? On the relationship between the rule of law and moral rule, some comrades believe that China has long been a country lacking a tradition of rule of law and that the urgent problem now is to strengthen the socialist legal system. The 15th Party Congress put

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forward the idea of “ruling the country according to the rule of law”, and the 9th National People’s Congress included this strategy for governing the country in the new Constitution when it amended it. The rule of law and the building of a socialist state under the rule of law are the main goals of China at present and for a period of time in the future. Some comrades have doubts about this, believing that advocating “ruling the country by virtue” will inevitably affect the implementation of “ruling the country by law”. It should be said that the reason for such doubts is mainly due to a blurred understanding of the relationship between “moral governance” and “rule of law”, “ruling the country by morality” and “ruling the country by law”. The relationship between “moral rule” and “rule of law”, “rule by virtue” and “rule by law” is blurred. The rule by virtue is not a strategy for governing the country that is above and beyond the rule by law, but a strategy for strengthening the rule by virtue while implementing the rule by law. Combining the rule by law with the rule by virtue is a more comprehensive, scientific and complete understanding and expression of the strategy of governance, a development of the theory of governance, and a manifestation of political maturity. In a healthy society, the rule of law and the rule of morality are indeed like two wings of a bird and two wheels of a car, one relying on the coercion and majesty of the state apparatus, the other on people’s inner beliefs and social opinion, both of which go in the same direction and aim to regulate social relations and maintain social stability. Each has a unique and irreplaceable role to play in the healthy functioning of a normal society. Only when they are complementary and mutually reinforcing can we ensure that the means of social regulation are complete and effective. The proposal of ruling the country by virtue is not only a weakening or negation of the rule of law, but also a further affirmation and strong support for the rule of law. The emphasis on ruling the country by virtue is, from the perspective of the relationship between legal norms and moral norms, itself a strengthening of legal norms, and is to consolidate the moral basis of law by strengthening moral construction, and to guarantee the legitimacy of law with moral legitimacy, especially the legitimacy of legislation and law enforcement. The proposal of ruling the country by virtue is not to go beyond the rule of law, but to strengthen moral construction, moral governance and moral education while implementing the socialist rule of law. Compared with legal norms, moral governance is based on the power of persuasion and persuasion to raise the ideological awareness and moral consciousness of members of society. The rule by virtue is more about giving full play to the persuasive and persuasive power of morality, regulating and regulating the various conflicts in social interests, and giving full play to the positive role of morality, especially in raising the ideological and moral awareness of leading cadres at all levels, and giving full play to the inspiring role of leading cadres as role models. Will the implementation of the rule of law in China be affected by the implementation of the rule of morality? The answer is: no. Firstly, the proposal of ruling the country by morality will not only not weaken the rule of law in any way, but will also be more conducive to the further strengthening of the rule of law. In a certain sense, we can say that morality is the foundation of law, and without morality, law is only a building on the beach, which cannot be stable.

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Moral education, in the field of legislation and law enforcement, is mainly aimed at the moral quality of legislators and law enforcement officers. If legislators and law enforcement officers raise their awareness of law enforcement, they can create a good moral premise for them to consciously comply with the policy of “having laws to follow, having laws to follow, enforcing laws to be strict, and punishing those who violate the law”. Secondly, the proposal of ruling the country by morality is not to go beyond the rule of law, but to strengthen moral development and implement moral governance and moral education while implementing the socialist rule of law. The roles of law and morality are different. The rule of law regulates the behavior of members of society through authoritative and coercive means, manages state affairs, economic and cultural undertakings and social affairs; the rule of morality raises the level of ideological awareness and moral consciousness of members of society by persuasion and exhortation. Ultimately, the role of morality depends on the moral responsibility of people, or what is commonly known as “conscience”. Thirdly, the proposal of ruling the country by virtue is not to deny the importance of ruling the country according to the rule of law, but to make “ruling the country according to the rule of law” and “ruling the country by virtue” closely integrated, together forming a complete strategy for ruling the country. While we emphasize ruling the country by virtue, we must not overlook the importance of ruling the country by law, because without strong legal safeguards, it is impossible to maintain and consolidate any regime. At the same time, if the role of morality is neglected, if moral education is not emphasized, and if the general improvement of the moral quality of the people is not taken as a prerequisite, the political stability and long-term stability of a society will also be impossible to achieve.

4.3 Will the Promotion of “Ruling the Country by Virtue” Hinder the Democratic Political Process in China? The 15th Party Congress proposed to promote the reform of the political system and build a socialist democratic legal system. The development of socialist democracy has always been the goal of our Party. The development of democracy must be combined with the improvement of the socialist legal system. Therefore, the 15th Party Congress put forward the strategy of governing the country in accordance with the rule of law and building a socialist democratic state under the rule of law. The development of socialist democracy requires that the construction of political civilization and the building of institutions must be fundamental, comprehensive, stable and long-term in nature. By formulating the Constitution and laws and operating within the scope of the Constitution and laws, the implementation of the Party’s basic line and principles is ensured institutionally and legally. In other words, under the leadership of the Party and in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution

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and the law, the masses of people manage state affairs, economic and cultural undertakings and social affairs through various channels and forms, ensuring that all the work of the state is carried out in accordance with the law and gradually realising the institutionalisation and legalisation of socialist democracy, so that this system and the law will not be changed by changes in leadership, nor by changes in the personal views and attention of leaders. This is an important element of the rule of law. Promoting the rule of the state by virtue does not contradict the development of socialist democracy and the improvement of the socialist legal system. Without the building of democracy and the legal system, there will be no socialism and no socialist modernization. Likewise, without the building of morality, there will be no socialism and no socialist modernization. The emphasis on the rule of morality and the rule of the state by morality is based on the building of socialist democracy and the rule of law, and the importance of political civilization and institutional building, while closely combining the building of socialist democracy and the rule of law with the building of morality, so that the building of democracy and the rule of law can be carried out in a more perfect and orderly manner. The supervision of the legal system and the supervision of morality, the construction of institutions and the construction of morality complement each other. Since China entered the new period of reform and opening up, the construction of the legal system has made significant achievements, and a situation has initially emerged in which “laws can be complied with, laws must be complied with, law enforcement must be strict, and violations must be investigated”. Over the years, the speed of legislation in China has been amazing, and the efforts to popularize and enforce the law have been tremendous, and the achievements in the construction of the legal system are evident to all. However, in comparison, the hand of moral construction is relatively weak, and its achievements fall short of the actual requirements and need to be strengthened. In addition to the lack of moral education for the general public, the moral development of the law enforcement agencies is also not strong enough. For example, a phenomenon of particular concern is that the number of law enforcement officers committing crimes has risen significantly, with the customs, public security, courts and procuratorates all having major cases that have shaken the country in recent years. The fact that law enforcement officials know the law and break it will make the people doubt the fairness of the implementation of the law and even the legitimacy of the moral basis of the law. The implementation of the rule of law by virtue will greatly contribute to the improvement of the ideological quality of the whole nation, to the enhancement of the moral standards of the cadres and the people, to the cultivation of their awareness of self-improvement, self-respect, self-respect and self-confidence, to the promotion of their respect for others and the development of the spirit of democracy, and to the construction of the democratic legal system in China.

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4.4 How to Understand the Rule of Morality and the Rule of Law in Ancient China? The difference between the rule of law and the rule of morality has been acknowledged throughout Chinese history. People call thinkers who advocate the rule of law “Legalists” and thinkers who advocate the rule of virtue “Confucians”. The rule of law in ancient China can be traced back to Guan Zhong and Zi Chan. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the representatives of legalism included Wu Qi, Shang Yang, Shen Buhai and Shen Zai, while Han Fei, at the end of the Warring States period, was the mastermind of legalism in the pre-Qin period. The idea of moral governance can be traced back to the Duke of Zhou in the Western Zhou Dynasty, who put forward such ideas as “There is no relative in Heaven, but virtue is the only complement”, “Use virtue to complement Heaven”, “Respect virtue to protect the people” and “Be virtuous and prudent in punishment”. The ideas of “virtue and prudence” can be said to be the origin of the idea of moral governance. Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period was the representative of Confucianism’s moral governance thought. He put forward the ideas of “To be virtuous in government is like the North Star, in which all the stars live together” (The Analects of Confucius—To be Virtuous), “To be virtuous in government and to be punitive, the people will be free and have no shame; to be virtuous in government and to be ritualistic, they will be shameful and have a sense of duty” (ibid), and “The virtue of a gentleman is the wind, but the virtue of a villain is the grass. The wind on the grass will be laid down” (Analects of Confucius—Yan Yuan) can be regarded as representative of Confucian ideas on moral governance. There is no doubt that Confucius’ and Confucianism’s moral rule is linked to the rule of man, but one cannot simply deduce from this that moral rule is the rule of man or that moral rule inevitably leads to the rule of man. (1) What is the rule of man in ancient China? To put it simply, the so-called rule of man is a strategy of governance in which one person or a few people hold the supreme power of the state and manage and decide the affairs of the state according to their personal likes and dislikes. “The rule of man is a strategy in which one or a few individuals hold the highest power in the state and manage and decide the affairs of the state based on their personal likes and dislikes”. (Xunzi—The Way of the King), all of which refer to this meaning. Throughout Chinese history, Confucianism has been represented by a number of Confucian figures who, after Confucius, have pinned their hopes for the governance of the state and the world on saints, virtuous men and gentlemen, believing that the morality of the ruler is closely linked to the state’s governance. The Confucian ideology of moral governance, which places the hope of governing the country on the sages, benevolent rulers and the high morality of officials at all levels, is indeed a manifestation of the ideology of human governance; however, when evaluating this ideology of human governance, we need to understand more deeply the roots of the social system, especially the political system. Both slave and feudal societies were

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founded on the dictatorship of the exploiting classes. Under this system, the basic form of governance of the slave state under Zhou Gongdan and the feudal state under Qin Shi Huang was the one-man rule of the monarch and the emperor, who were above the state and the law. Under such an autocratic system, the moral qualities of the monarchs and emperors could not but have an important influence on the safety and well-being of the state, and it became almost a common phenomenon in ancient Chinese history that benevolent and wise rulers prospered the state while tyrants and faint rulers lost it. (2) What is the rule of law in ancient China? In ancient China, the word ‘law’ was associated with the word ‘punishment’. According to the Shuowen Jiezi, the ancient word ‘law’ (法) means ‘punishment’, which means ‘punishment for crime’. It should be said that since there has been a class society and class rule, there has also been law. According to ancient Chinese literature, there was the “Yu Penalty” in Xia and the “Tang Penalty” in Shang, but we no longer know their contents. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were the so-called “Nine Punishments”, and in the “Shang Shu—Lü Punishment” there is a record of “three thousand of the five punishments”. All this shows that “law” existed alongside class society. It should be noted that the law at that time, because it was mainly penal, was only in the hands of the ruling class and was not published for the common people. Around the late Spring and Autumn period, a group of thinkers emerged who wanted to make the laws public, such as Zi Chan and Deng Xue. Later, in order to maintain the political stability of the country, some thinkers, such as Li Yu and Shang Yang, advocated the imposition of strict laws on the common people, and this led to the formation of the Legalists. At the end of the slave society, the famous representative of Legalism, Shang Yang, responded to the needs of the emerging feudal landowning class by using both rewards and punishments, rewarding farming and warfare, preventing the common people from committing crimes through severe penalties, emphasizing the need to deprive the nobility of their privileges, and advocating that the nobility should be punished in the same way as the common people for breaking the law. These measures were conducive to social progress. The legalists who followed Shang Yang, such as Han Fei, largely developed their doctrines in accordance with these ideas, with varying degrees of gain and loss as the times went on. A very important feature of Legalism was that it overemphasized the role of punishment at the expense of the importance of morality in social life. Starting from the idea that man is selfish by nature, the Legalists believed that moral education, moral probation, moral formation, moral self-consciousness and moral conviction were all useless “empty talks”, and that only punishment was the only effective means. They were so opposed to the benevolent morality preached by Confucianism that they took the path of amoralism, which denied morality altogether. (3) The rule of morality and the rule of law in ancient Chinese society were both manifestations of the rule of man

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In ancient Chinese society, not only could the Confucian rule of morality be reduced to the rule of man, but the rule of law of the Legalists was inevitably another manifestation of the rule of man. The ancient Chinese legalists stressed the importance of punishment and law; they advocated that the law be made public so that the people could know and understand its content; they advocated that society be governed by law and even by harsh laws; they advocated that “the law is not for the noble” and that anyone who broke the law should be punished equally. All this was progressive under certain conditions, but we must understand that the ‘anyone’ referred to here did not include the emperor or the monarch, the supreme rulers of the state. On the contrary, all legalist thinkers placed great emphasis on the personal autocracy of the monarch and considered individual dictatorship and personal autocracy to be the most important prerequisite and basis for the rule of law. From the same point of view, Confucian moral governance is linked to the socalled rule of man for institutional reasons, not because moral governance itself necessarily leads to the rule of man. If the social system is originally a system of the rule of man, then moral rule under such a system is necessarily and only a moral rule of man. It was not the Confucian idea of moral rule that led to the rule of man in ancient China; on the contrary, it was the slave and feudal systems of ancient China that prevented the Confucian idea of moral rule from being linked to the rule of man. Since the supreme power in ancient Chinese society was in the hands of the emperor, and since this power was not supervised by any state organ or person, whatever methods were used to govern the state were merely different means of the rule of man. Thus, fundamentally, the rule of morality is a form of rule by man, and the rule of law is likewise a form of rule by man. In ancient Chinese society, the main content of the law, including the law that Confucianism despised, was the punishment. The law in ancient China was derived mainly from punishment. The laws of ancient China were also mainly penal laws. Therefore, in ancient China, the rule of law of the legalists was more about punishment, an authoritarian means of “governing people” under the rule of man, which is completely different from the spirit of social justice emphasized in the modern sense of the rule of law.

4.5 Is the Promotion of “Ruling by Virtue” a Way to Rule the People or the Officials? In order to implement the strategy of “ruling the country by virtue”, the ruling party must be subject to higher and stricter requirements. Therefore, ruling the country by virtue is not only “ruling the people”, but also “ruling the officials”. In a certain sense, we can say that ruling by virtue is mainly about “ruling the officials” rather than “ruling the people”.

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In this regard, there are two aspects of ancient Chinese moral governance that we should learn from: Firstly, in ancient China, the rule of morality required that the monarch and all officials must be moral people. In terms of the appointment and removal of officials, it was required that the official selected and appointed, by whatever means, should be a moral person. Secondly, the ancient Chinese rule of morality requires that the officials of the state should act morally, and should influence the general public by their own example and exemplary actions, which is what Confucius called “The government is also righteous”. This is what Confucius called “the righteousness of government is also the righteousness of government. If a person is righteous, who dares not be righteous” (Analects—Yan Yuan), “if his body is righteous, he will not do what he is told; if his body is not righteous, he will not obey what he is told” (Analects—Zi Lu), and “if one is righteous, what is the point of being in government” (ibid.). (ibid). In ancient China, moral governance is the belief that the prestige and power of a politician lies neither in his power nor in his position, but in his moral character. Only high moral character and exemplary moral behavior can influence the people and establish prestige among them, and this is where the real power of a politician lies. The moral rule of socialism places higher moral requirements on party and government cadres. The moral level, moral cultivation and moral state of party and government leaders is not only an important prerequisite for achieving the purpose of clean government, but also a key to improving the social atmosphere. Our party and government cadres should treat the rule by morality as a stricter requirement for themselves, constantly motivate themselves and strive to improve their moral quality. In the promotion, appointment, dismissal, assessment and performance evaluation of party and government cadres, we should adhere to the standard of “both virtue and talent”, and not only look at talent, but also emphasize the importance of moral quality and moral character of cadres, and overcome the bias of some people who emphasize talent over virtue. In assessing the performance and achievements of party and government cadres, the ability to set an example in morality and to set an example in morality should be one of the key points of the assessment, and the strengthening of the ideological and moral construction of party and government cadres should be an important aspect of the strengthening of integrity.

4.6 What is the Scientific Meaning of the Socialist “Rule by Virtue”? To rule the country by virtue is to bring the strengthening of moral education and moral construction to the height of the strategy for governing the country, and to understand the great role of socialist moral construction in the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation from a strategic perspective.

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Ruling the country by morality is the fundamental expression of the “two hands, both hands must be hard” in the strategy of governing the country. By combining the coercive power of legal sanction and the penitential power of moral education, and by organically blending hard laws and soft norms, we are able to make the masses consciously abide by the law and cultivate a sense of shame for breaking the law. We should make the general public consciously abide by the law, and at the same time cultivate a sense of shame for violating the law and a sense of honor for abiding by it, so as to achieve the goal of maintaining social and national stability at root. One of the important purposes of ruling the country by virtue is to strengthen moral construction and moral education, to further promote the national spirit, to enrich the spiritual life of the people, to strengthen their spiritual strength, and to constantly enrich their spiritual life while their material living standards continue to rise. As the ancients say, “Wealth makes a house rich and virtue makes a body rich”, improving moral standards can elevate the spirit of our people. A nation can only be rejuvenated if it has high morals. Ruling the country by virtue and strengthening moral construction will certainly become an important spiritual support for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The CPC has developed a set of outstanding ideological and moral traditions and norms during its 80 years of glorious history, which are not only a critical inheritance of the excellent traditional morality of ancient China, mainly Confucian morality, and the excellent traditional morality of foreign countries, but also a summary and creation of the present and contemporary Chinese revolution and construction, reflecting and safeguarding the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people. Firstly, we should adhere to the ideals of socialism and communism, establish a scientific outlook on the world, life and values, adhere to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and resist all anti-Marxist ideas and all corrupt ideas. Secondly, we should adhere to the core (serving the people), principles (collectivism) and basic requirements (love for the motherland, love for the people, love for labor, love for science and love for socialism) of socialist moral construction, and establish new types of social, professional and family virtues. Finally, we must inherit and carry forward the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, and vigorously cultivate and promote the national spirit of the Chinese nation. From the perspective of the strategy for governing the country, the implementation of these elements and requirements of socialist moral governance must also emphasize the following aspects. Firstly, our party and government cadres and all government workers must be able to take the lead and set an example by doing so. Without the example of party cadres and government workers, and without the strength of character of the leaders’ lofty morals, moral governance will inevitably be reduced to an empty sermon, and the country will not be truly governed. In this respect, the strategy of ruling the country by virtue is inseparable from the building of our integrity. Secondly, it is necessary to provide serious, practical and effective moral and ethical education to the people of the country, to overcome the phenomenon of “one hand being soft and the other hard”, and to make sure that the content of such education is internalised in the hearts of the people and becomes their ideals and beliefs. Finally, the state and society must also use all means of incentives and

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punishments to praise, encourage and commend people’s moral behavior, and criticise, reprimand and punish them for their immoral behavior. In the appointment and dismissal of Party and State cadres, and in the assessment of cadres’ performance, their own moral cultivation and moral quality, as well as the state of spiritual civilization in the areas and units under their management, should be fully taken into account.

5 The History, Theory and Practice of “Rule by Virtue” Comrade Jiang7 Zemin proposed at the National Ideological and Political Work Conference held on 28 June 2000 that law and morality, as components of the superstructure, are both important means of maintaining and regulating people’s thoughts and behavior. Moral norms and legal norms should be combined with each other and function in a unified manner. At the National Conference of Propaganda Ministers held in early 2001, Comrade Jiang Zemin further stressed the need to combine the “rule of law” and the “rule of morality”, and to combine the “rule by law” and the “rule by morality”. “In the process of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and developing a socialist market economy, we must persistently strengthen the socialist legal system and rule the country by law, and at the same time persistently strengthen the socialist moral system and rule the country by morality. For the governance of a country, the rule of law and the rule of morality have always been complementary and mutually reinforcing. Neither can be neglected without the other.” At the Fourth Session of the Ninth National People’s Congress held in March 2001, this idea was formally written into two important national documents, namely the Government Work Report by Premier Zhu Rongji and the Outline of the Tenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China, thus demonstrating that, like the rule of law, the rule of the country by virtue has been generally accepted by the people of China as an important aspect of the strategy for governing the country. During its 80 years of glorious history, the Communist Party of China has developed many glorious traditions, and the importance it attaches to the building of ideology and morality is one of the important elements. Comrade Jiang Zemin’s idea of “ruling the country by virtue” is not only an inheritance of our Party’s glorious tradition of attaching importance to ideological and moral development, but also a theoretical innovation made from the strategic height of governing the country and the state in the light of new historical conditions. The academic, theoretical and propaganda circles are studying and understanding the great theoretical and practical significance of the idea of “ruling the country by virtue”, and promoting the implementation of the idea of “ruling the country by virtue”.

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This section is a collaboration with Xia Weidong and was originally published in Theoretical Fronts of Universities, No. 6, 2001.

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5.1 On the Relationship Between the Rule of Law and Morality The 15th National Congress of the Party put forward the basic strategy of governing the country in accordance with the rule of law and building China into a socialist state governed by the rule of law. In a country like China, which has a long history of feudal rule by man, the realization of the goal of building a socialist state under the rule of law is of strategic and decisive significance in ensuring the long-term stability of Chinese socialist society. Since China entered a new period of reform and opening up, the National People’s Congress and its Standing Committee have enacted more than 390 laws and decisions on legal issues, the State Council has enacted 800 administrative regulations, and local people’s congresses have enacted more than 8000 local regulations. The seven legal departments that make up the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics are now relatively complete, and most of the basic and major laws in each legal department have been enacted, and the framework of the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, with the Constitution as its core, has basically taken shape. It can be said that the speed of China’s legislation over the years has been astonishing, and the efforts to popularize and enforce the law have also been tremendous, and the achievements in the construction of the legal system are evident to all. In contrast, however, the hand of moral development has been weaker and its achievements dwarfed. For example, a phenomenon of particular concern is the rise in the number of offences committed by law enforcement officials. These law enforcement officers broke the law, not because they did not know the law, but because they lost their moral character. The most serious consequence of law enforcement officers’ knowledge of the law and its enforcement may lead to the people’s doubts about the impartiality of the implementation of the law, and even about the legitimacy of the moral basis of the law. The current proposal of ruling the country by virtue is precisely a strategic deployment from the new situation, new tasks and new requirements of economic and social development, and in response to the current problems of ideology and morality in society. 1. The proposal of “ruling the country by virtue” is not only a weakening or negation of the rule of law, but also a further affirmation and strong support for the rule of law In terms of the relationship between morality and law, morality is, in general, the basis for legislation and law enforcement. In a certain sense, legal norms are also moral norms. In most cases, legal norms are the bottom line of morality, the minimum standard of moral behavior that a society can allow. Exceeding this standard or threshold would hinder or even jeopardise the interests of society and others, and the coercive means of the state apparatus must be used to prevent members of society from crossing this threshold. Once a member of society has crossed this line, he or she will be sanctioned by the state apparatus. Of course, this does not mean that

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all legal norms are moral norms of the lowest standard. Many legal norms contain a high level of morality and are moral norms of a high standard, but because they concern the vital interests of the state and other members of society, they must also be laid down in the form of legal norms, and their sanctity must be guaranteed by the powerful apparatus of the state. Legal norms at this level are not so-called bottom-line ethics, not low-standard moral norms, but high-standard, significant moral norms. Therefore, legal norms cannot be considered as bottom-line ethics in a general and simple way. The emphasis on “ruling the country by morality”, from the perspective of the interrelationship between legal norms and moral norms, is in itself a strengthening of legal norms, which is to consolidate the moral basis of law by strengthening moral construction, especially the function of moral edification, and to guarantee the legitimacy of law with moral legitimacy, especially the legitimacy of legislation and law enforcement. Among them, moral edification, in the field of legislation and law enforcement, is mainly aimed at the moral edification of legislators and law enforcement personnel. The moral consciousness and moral state of the legislators and law enforcement officers are raised under the influence of moral indoctrination, which in itself raises the consciousness and state of law enforcement, thus creating the best moral premise for them to consciously follow the policy of “having the law to follow, having the law to comply with, having the law to be investigated, and having the law strictly enforced”. The consciousness of law-abiding is itself a moral consciousness, and this is even more significant for the legislators and law enforcement officers. 2. To rule the country by virtue is not to go beyond the rule of law, but to strengthen moral development, moral governance and moral education while implementing the socialist rule of law On the whole, legal norms are relatively definite and have a more rigid meaning, and can be measured by a rigid yardstick to determine whether people are complying with or violating them. The rule of law, with its authority and coercive means, regulates the behavior of members of society. In this sense, ruling the country according to the rule of law means ruling the country according to the certainty of legal norms and using the compulsory and authoritative means of legal norms to manage state affairs, economic and cultural undertakings and social affairs. In contrast to legal norms, moral governance has the power to persuade and convince to raise the awareness and moral consciousness of members of society. Moral norms have both definite and less definite aspects and are often open to wider interpretation, so it is not appropriate to use a rigid yardstick to measure whether people are observing or violating them. Ultimately, the effectiveness of morality, despite the important influence of public opinion, cannot be determined by coercion and authority, but only by people’s moral responsibility, or what is commonly referred to as their “conscience”. In this sense, ruling the country by morality is more about making full use of the persuasive and persuasive functions of morality to regulate and standardise the various contradictions in social relations of interest and to play a positive spiritual role, especially by emphasizing the raising of the ideological and

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moral awareness of leading cadres at all levels and by giving full play to the role of leading cadres as an inspiration by example. From the perspective of the overall strategy for governing the country, ruling the country by law and ruling the country by morality are two basic aspects of the strategy for governing the country. In the process of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and developing a socialist market economy, we should not only persistently strengthen the socialist legal system and rule the country by law, but also persistently strengthen the socialist moral system and rule the country by virtue, combining the two closely. For the governance of a country, the rule of law and the rule of morality have always been mutually complementary, mutually reinforcing and inseparable. The scope of the two is different, but their status and function are both very important. A misconception that must be ruled out is that one should not think that when talking about the rule of law, one should only talk about law and not morality, as if talking about morality is a negation of the rule of law and a destruction of the strategy of ruling the country according to the rule of law. In fact, the rule of law itself also contains the content of moral education. For example, in China, criminals who break the law should be sanctioned according to the law, but they should also be educated and reformed in a humanitarian spirit, so that they can repent and reform themselves and become new people. Some comrades have doubts about the idea of ruling the country by virtue because they consciously or unconsciously oppose law and morality. In fact, if the rule by law is not given a corresponding place in the rule by morality, it will be very difficult to truly achieve the rule by law. 3. The proposal of ruling the country by virtue is not another strategy for ruling the country in opposition to the rule of law, but a close combination of ruling the country by law and ruling the country by virtue, thus together forming a more comprehensive and accurately expressed strategy for ruling the country. The combination of the rule of law and the rule of law by virtue is a more profound and complete understanding and expression of the strategy of governance, a development of the theory of governance, and a manifestation of political maturity. The combination of the rule of law and the rule of morality is a sign of the maturity of a country’s strategy of governance not only in Chinese and foreign history, but also in a modern society governed by the rule of law. At the founding of a country, or at a time of reorganisation and reconstruction, the rule of law is often the first thing to be relied upon to establish and consolidate social order. The rule of law has an immediate effect and is effective in a timely manner. It is for this reason that people pay extra attention to the construction of the rule of law, and it is also for this reason that some people tend to go to extremes in their understanding of the law, thinking that the rule of law can solve all problems. However, both history and reality tell us that if the law is given priority over morality, legal misconduct is likely to occur more frequently. It is often under such circumstances that people generally reflect on the deeper causes of legal misconduct and look for the root causes of legal misconduct in the ideological and moral qualities of members of society. It is only then that the importance of moral construction in society as a whole may be put on the agenda. It

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is only when people calm down and reflect on the deeper aspects of governance that it is easier to acknowledge the role of morality and the value of moral governance. Law and morality, the rule of law and moral governance, are indeed like two wheels of a car and two wings of a bird, one relying on the coercion and majesty of the powerful state machinery, the other on people’s inner beliefs and social opinion, both of which go in the same direction. Therefore, only when they complement each other can they ensure that the means of social regulation are complete and effective.

5.2 On the Relationship Between the Rule of Virtue and the Rule of Man In ancient Chinese history, the origins of the idea of moral governance can be traced back to the Duke of Zhou in the early days of the Western Zhou. Confucius inherited the ideas of the Duke of Zhou and developed them, becoming the founder of Confucianism’s idea of moral governance. He put forward the ideas of “To govern by virtue is like the star in the north, where all the stars live together”, “To govern by virtue and to punish by punishment, the people will be free and have no shame; to govern by virtue and to treat with propriety, the people will have shame and behave”, and “The virtue of a gentleman is wind, while the virtue of a villain is grass”. The virtue of a gentleman is the wind, but the virtue of a small man is the grass. The idea of ‘the wind on the grass will be laid down’ can be regarded as the guiding principle and representative of Confucianism’s moral thinking. There is no doubt that Confucius’ and Confucianism’s moral rule is linked to the rule of man, but we cannot simply deduce from this that moral rule is the rule of man or that moral rule inevitably leads to the rule of man. We can analyze and understand this issue from different perspectives. 1. Confucian thought on the rule of morality does have an aspect that belittles the rule of law, which is the inevitable result of Confucianism’s overemphasis on the importance of morality. But even within Confucianism, from the preQin period onwards, the role of punishment in social life was acknowledged to varying degrees, especially in Confucianism from the Han dynasty onwards, where it can be said that “Yang Confucianism and Yin Law” were basically “Yang Confucianism and Yin Law”. Confucius particularly emphasized the role of morality, but he did not exclude the role of punishment, and he clearly recognised that both ‘virtue’ and ‘punishment’, ‘leniency’ and ‘fierceness’, were indispensable for consolidating the stability of a society. “He also clearly recognised that both ‘virtue’ and ‘punishment’, ‘leniency’ and ‘fierceness’ were indispensable to the stability of a society”. One of his most famous quotes in this regard is “leniency for fierceness, fierceness for leniency, and government for harmony” (Zuo Zhuan—Zhao Gong 20). He also said, “If the punishment is not appropriate, the people will be at a loss as to what to do” (Analects— Zi Lu). Mencius, following Confucius’ idea, compared the role of “moral rule”

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(convincing people by virtue) and “rule of law” (convincing people by force), and concluded that “good government is not as good as good teaching in winning the people. Good government is feared by the people; good teaching is loved by the people. Good government wins the people’s money, but good teaching wins the people’s hearts” (Mencius -Perfection of the Heart I). He does not deny the role of the rule of law, but emphasizes that moral rule is the fundamental rule, as opposed to the rule of law. Xunzi’s views on the rule of law and punishment differed markedly from those of Confucius and Mencius, and as a successor to Confucius, Xunzi was essentially an advocate of moral rule. In particular, he inherited Confucius’s idea of “the rule of rites” and proposed a specific way of implementing the rule of morality—the rule of rites. In contrast to Confucius and Mencius, however, he apparently incorporated some of the ideas of the Legalists and took a more positive view of the rule of law and punishment, viewing rites and punishment as the basic means of governing the state and proposing the policy of “promoting rites while emphasizing the law”, advocating the rule of the state with virtue as the mainstay and punishment as an adjunct. From the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty to the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Confucianism was formally accepted by the rulers through the advocacy of Lu Jia, Jia Yi, Dong Zhongshu and other representatives of Confucianism. It was for this reason that Dong Zhongshu, in recommending the “dismissal of the hundred schools and the exclusive veneration of Confucianism”, emphasized the idea that “punishment is a complement to virtue” (Luxuriant Gems of Spring and Autumn—Heavenly Discernment in Man). This established the Confucian strategy of “virtue as a complement to punishment” in governing the state. It can be seen that the Confucian rule of virtue, while exalting the supremacy of morality, does not absolutely exclude the rule of law and punishment, but only gives less weight to the rule of law and punishment in its general idea of “virtue over punishment”, the extent of which varies from person to person and from case to case. 2. The Confucian idea of moral governance is, in a certain sense, the embodiment of the Confucian moral ideal. Since Confucius, the representatives of Confucianism have placed their hopes for the governance of the country and the world on sages, virtuous men and gentlemen. The highest moral ideal of Confucianism is that of the saint. The list of Confucian saints includes only Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, King Wen of Zhou, King Wu of Zhou, Zhou Gong Dan and Confucius, while Mencius is only listed as a “sub-saint”. With the exception of Confucius and Mencius, the Confucian saints were all rulers of the state, and these saints were listed by Confucianism as examples for successive rulers to follow. The Confucian ideal of the rule of virtue does indeed include the rule of the saints. In particular, from the Wei and Jin dynasties onwards, Confucianism and Taoism merged and the idea of ‘inner saints and outer kings’ was put forward, and Confucian thought on moral governance directly linked the moral level of rulers to the governance of the state. This is one of the reasons why Confucianism’s idea of moral rule is regarded by some as equivalent to the idea of human rule. The question is whether the Confucian idea of moral rule (including the idea of “inner sage and outer king”) led to the rule of man, or whether the actual social and

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political system of ancient China led the Confucian idea of moral rule to the rule of man? Confucius’ idea of moral governance has its direct roots in the Duke of Zhou’s idea of ‘respecting virtue and protecting the people’ and ‘matching virtue with heaven’. The concept of “virtue” was introduced as an important topic in the Zhou dynasty, which emerged from the destruction of the tyrannical rule of Zhou of the Shang Dynasty. As the last ruler of the Shang Dynasty, King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty was tyrannical and unethical, and “the common people did not tolerate the great evils of the people” (Guoyu—Zhou Yuyu I), further intensifying the conflict between the ruling class and the slave class and triggering the great slave revolt. King Wu of Zhou took advantage of the internal turmoil of the Shang dynasty to launch a war to conquer the Shang and establish the Zhou dynasty. The fall of the Shang dynasty and the rise of the Zhou dynasty led people to think deeply about the strategy of governance. The state ideology of the Shang dynasty was a religious ideology with heaven and God as its core concept. The Shang rulers claimed to be the representatives of heaven and God on earth, that they were blessed by heaven and that their rule was unchanging, and that their will was the will of heaven, blackmailing people into submitting to their rulers. However, the slave revolt led to a “change in the Mandate of Heaven to the Zhou”. King Zhou of Shang was much more powerful than King Wu of Zhou, yet he ended up as a loner, while King Wu of Zhou was loved by all, as King Wu of Zhou said in his proclamation of the conquest of Zhou: “I have hundreds of millions of barbarians who are separated from their virtue; I have ten rebellious ministers who are of one mind” (Shang Shu—The Oath of Tai), all because of the people’s hearts. After the death of King Wu, Zhou Gongdan, who succeeded him in power, put forward the ideological idea that “there is no kin in heaven, but virtue is the only aid; there is no change in the hearts of the people, but the only benefit” (Shang Shu—The Order of Cai Zhong). This means that Heaven only assists those who are virtuous, and that the Shang dynasty was given the Mandate of Heaven in Zhou because the Shang had no virtue, and only Zhou had virtue. “The reason why the Shang dynasty was given the Mandate of Heaven was that the Shang had no more morality, and only the Zhou was virtuous. “Virtue” was brought to the forefront of Zhou Gongdan’s understanding of the importance of ruling the country and the state. He constantly admonished the main leaders of the ruling class, especially the highest leaders of the state (the Son of Heaven and the rulers of the vassal states), to prove that they were the qualified executors of Heaven and God on earth, and the qualified bearers of the Mandate of Heaven, with the appropriate virtue. Therefore, rulers had to be careful to respect Heaven, but also to “know the difficulties of harvest” and to “know the dependence of the small” (Shang Shu—Wu Yi). Zhou Gongdan clearly put forward the idea of “grasping virtue and being prudent in punishment”. In Zhou’s thought, the requirement of virtue was always a two-way street: on the one hand, the ruling class was required to respect virtue itself, and on the other hand, the ruling class was required to master the art of governing the people, that is, to be good at harnessing and understanding the hearts of the people. Later, Confucianism, especially Xunzi’s idea of “water carries the boat, water overturns it”, was also derived from Zhou’s idea of “respecting virtue

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and protecting the people”, but it was further developed, not only more complete and systematic, but also more profoundly understood. Confucius and Confucianism are no longer in the same position. Confucius and Confucianism no longer speak of “virtue in the sense of primitive religion” and “respect for virtue and protection of the people”, but elevate virtue to the level of “virtuous governance”, especially “virtuous administration”. They elevated virtue to the level of “virtuous governance” and especially “virtuous government”. Just as Zhou Gongdan used “virtue” to admonish the ruling class to be virtuous and prudent, Confucianism’s understanding of virtue and government was fundamentally based on the hope that the ruler would become a sage and benevolent ruler like Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu and the Duke of Zhou, and not a tyrant or a dim ruler like Jie, the last ruler of the Xia Dynasty, and Zhou, the last ruler of the Shang Dynasty. Confucianism’s later criticism of Qin Shi Huang was mainly from the point of view of tyrants and dim-witted rulers. If the “virtue” of the Duke of Zhou was mainly in the area of virtuous governance, the Confucian idea of virtue and moral teaching were two important aspects, attaching importance to both the moral example of the ruler and the moral education of the common people. Indeed, Confucian moral governance also places the governance of the state on the moral qualities of sages, benevolent rulers and officials at all levels, which is a manifestation of the idea of human governance. However, in evaluating this humanistic approach to moral governance, we need to take a deeper look at the roots of the social system, especially the socio-political system. Both slave and feudal societies were founded on the dictatorship of the exploiting classes. Under this system, the basic form of governance of both the slave state under Zhou Gongdan and the feudal state under Qin Shi Huang was the one-man rule of the monarch and the emperor, who were above the state and the law. The emperor was the symbol of law, and his will was the sacred decree, the fundamental law. Even the most thorough implementation of “rule of law” in ancient China, although the Shang Yang Change of Law in the era of Duke Xiaoyao of Qin emphasized “one punishment”, that is, “there is no hierarchy of punishment, from the minister to the general to the common man, anyone who disobeys the king’s orders, violates the state ban, or disrupts the upper system, will be punished by death. (Shang Jun Shu—Reward and Punishment), which means that “a prince who breaks the law is as guilty as a commoner”, but in reality, when a prince breaks the law, it is only the prince’s master who is punished. According to historical materialism, social changes and dynastic changes are ultimately the result of the contradictory movements of the productive forces and the relations of production, but this law has different manifestations in specific historical processes and social forms. Therefore, under such an autocratic system, the moral quality of the monarchs and emperors could not but have an important influence on the safety and well-being of the state, and a benevolent and wise ruler would prosper the state, while a tyrant or a faint ruler would ruin it. From this perspective, Confucian moral governance is linked to the rule of man for institutional reasons rather than for moral governance itself. The system was originally an institution of the rule of man, and therefore the proposed moral rule was necessarily a moral rule of the rule of man. It was not the Confucian idea of

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moral rule that led to the institutional reality of the rule of man in ancient China, but the institutional reality of the rule of man in ancient China that prevented the Confucian idea of moral rule from being linked to the rule of man. In the context of the rule of man, the Confucian idea of moral rule and its implementation were more conducive to the consolidation of power and the development of society. Therefore, the Confucian idea of moral rule had a certain legitimacy and positive significance in ancient China. The Confucian idea of virtue and governance, which lists such benevolent and wise rulers as Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu and the Duke of Zhou, does contain a demand on the rulers in power that they should not only practice benevolent governance but also set an example for the world, with the aim that Confucius said: “If one’s body is right, one will not do what one is told; if one’s body is not right, one will not obey what one is told.” At the same time, we should also see that there is another very important element in Confucianism’s idea of moral governance, namely, that in governing the state, not only should punishment be used, but more importantly, moral education should be strengthened for the common people, so that they know that it is shameful to commit crimes and that they should have a “sense of shame”. “Moral education” and “benevolent government” are two inseparable aspects of Confucianism’s implementation of moral governance. The saints, sages and gentlemen required by Confucianism in the area of moral governance must be able to set an example by practicing benevolent government and attaching importance to moral education. While emphasizing moral education, Confucianism particularly advocates self-restraint, self-cultivation, selfreflection and internal litigation, seeking to internalise these moral principles and codes of ethics in order to achieve the ideal of moral governance. 3. In ancient Chinese society, not only was the Confucian rule of morality reduced to the rule of man, but also the rule of law of the Legalists inevitably became another manifestation of the rule of man. Ancient Chinese society had a comprehensive body of written law that was unparalleled in the world at the time. In slavery, there were already written laws cast on tripods, and in feudal society, there were systematic written laws such as the Qin Law, the Tang Law, the Song Law, the Ming Law and the Qing Law. Although Chinese feudal society followed Confucianism and sang about the rule of morality, this was not really practiced and was to some extent in name only; the rule of law, which was disparaged by Confucianism, was practiced in practice. The feudal ruling class never relaxed for a moment in its use of harsh laws to imprison people’s thoughts and behavior. The strict laws of the Legalists were the key to the rise of the Qin state during the Warring States period, and it was through their rule of law that Qin Shi Huang was able to unify China and ascend to the throne of the First Emperor. However, with the rapid demise of the Qin dynasty, Legalism, as an independent and complete ideology of governance, gradually dissolved into the Confucian ideology of virtue and punishment. To some, the idea of the rule of law in legalism seems to be unrelated to, or even opposed to, the rule of man. In fact, it is not.

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First of all, it is important to understand the essence of the rule of law in the context of the social system. In ancient Chinese society, the realistic social system of one-man rule determined that whatever methods the monarchs and emperors used to govern the country, they could only be different means of human rule. The rule of man was practiced by the First Emperor of Qin and the rule of man was practiced by Emperor Wu of Han, one was the rule of man by law and the other was the rule of man by virtue. The rule of law and the rule of morality are both means of the rule of man, and therefore it cannot be said that the rule of morality is necessarily causally related to the rule of man. Secondly, in ancient Chinese society, the “law” referred to in the rule of law, including the “law” that Confucianism regarded so lightly, was mainly “punishment”, that is, penalties. In ancient Chinese society, the main content of law was “punishment”, i.e. penalties. The laws of the ancient Chinese system were also mainly penal laws. Therefore, the rule of law of the Legalists was more of a penal system, a means of punishing the people for speaking and acting against the interests of the ruling class, an authoritarian means of “ruling the people” under the rule of man. This is not comparable to the spirit of social justice that the rule of law in the modern sense emphasizes. Again, the rule of law of the legalists was not the rule of law in the modern sense, but the rule of law at the will of the emperor, the rule of law without the rule of law, that is, the rule of law not within the framework of a society governed by the rule of law, not the rule of law in which everyone is equal before the law. The rule of law in the modern sense of the word has only gradually emerged since the modern bourgeois revolution. The capitalist system preached freedom, equality, fraternity and human rights, and used these banners to oppose the feudal dictatorship of men by proclaiming that “all are equal before the law”. The rule of law in capitalist society is a major advance in history compared to the rule of man in feudal society. Of course, fundamentally speaking, the rule of law in capitalism is only formally just, but in essence, it still protects the interests of the wealthy few, and thus fails to achieve true “equality before the law”. The socialist society wants to build a society based on the rule of law, emphasizing that legislation represents the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people, and on this premise, “equality before the law” in the true sense is achieved. Without legislative justice and equality before the law in the true sense of the word, there can be no talk of establishing a genuine state under the rule of law and a country governed by the rule of law. Capitalist societies cannot do this, and feudal societies even less so. The rule of law must be analyzed in concrete terms, and it should not be assumed that the rule of law is naturally opposed to the rule of man. Without the spirit of justice in the modern sense, and without a legal system based on the interests of the masses, the rule of law can be another expression of the rule of man. The impartiality of legislation, justice and law enforcement can only be fundamentally guaranteed if they are judged and monitored by the people. This is the key to distinguishing the socialist rule of law from the feudal rule of law and from the capitalist rule of law.

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4. The fundamental difference between the moral rule practiced in our country today and that of ancient times lies not only in the fact that today’s moral rule is not the moral rule of man, but also in the fact that today’s moral rule is a genuine moral rule under a socialist system. The moral rule we emphasize today is not opposed to or unrelated to the ancient Chinese Confucian moral rule. We should adopt a historical materialist approach and critically inherit the elements of Confucian moral governance that are of positive relevance today, and use them for our own benefit. Another aspect of thinking about the relationship between today’s moral governance and that of ancient times is to make a strict distinction between the essential differences between the two. Firstly, in ancient times, Confucian moral governance was a concrete form of the rule of man, and what led to it being reduced to the rule of man was the feudal dictatorship of the emperor’s rule over the whole world; today’s moral governance, on the other hand, is an integral part of socialist democratic politics and an important means of governance inseparable from the socialist rule of law. Today’s moral rule is not the rule of man, nor will it lead to the rule of man; today’s moral rule is the moral rule under the conditions of the socialist system. The democratic political system of socialism determines that today’s moral rule will not be marked by the rule of man because of the social system. Secondly, although the ancient Confucian moral rule was based on the people’s ideology as an important cornerstone, the Confucian emphasis on the “people’s principle” was mainly focused on the techniques of ruling and the strategies of governing the people, with the aim of paralyzing the people and bringing them into line, rather than on the interests of the people. Today, moral governance is based on the best interests of the people as the highest moral principle. Moral governance is not an expedient measure, not a tactic to govern the people, but a strategy to govern the country. Therefore, while it is true that moral governance should be vigorously reinforced through moral education for the people, it is first and foremost a “governance of officials”, an ideological and moral discipline aimed at leading cadres at all levels, requiring leading cadres at all levels to take the lead not only in managing the affairs of the state and administering it in accordance with the law, but also in managing the affairs of the state and administering it with virtue, and more importantly, to They are also required to act as moral role models for the people. Thirdly, in the end, the ancient Confucian concepts of virtue and people’s rule have been reduced to empty words and have become a deceptive tactic of attacking people’s hearts.

5.3 On the Content of Moral Governance Moral governance, as part of the strategy of governance, should not be simply equated with what is generally referred to as moral governance. Moral governance and the

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special role of morality in regulating social relations is indeed an important aspect of moral governance; but moral governance should also have a broader content, and this is a major issue that we need to study in depth when putting the idea of “ruling the country by morality” into practice today. The key lies in how to understand “virtue”. When we define the connotation of “virtue” in today’s “rule by virtue”, we should not limit ourselves to the scope of morality in a narrow sense, but should broaden our horizon and understand “virtue” in a broad sense as “morality of thought”. In this way, the “virtue” we are talking about today is not only morality as a code of conduct, but also includes ideals, beliefs, worldview, outlook on life, values, ideology, political thought, including Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory. The outstanding ideological and moral traditions and norms formed by the Communist Party of China during its 80 years of glorious history are not only a critical inheritance of the excellent traditional morality of ancient China, mainly Confucian morality, and the excellent traditional morality of foreign countries, but also a summary and creation of the present and contemporary Chinese revolution and construction, reflecting and safeguarding the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people. To sum up, these excellent traditional ideological and moral codes and their specific requirements are: Firstly, we should adhere to the ideals and beliefs of socialism and communism. The basic requirements for upholding the ideals and beliefs of socialism and communism are: loyalty to the cause of socialism and communism, unswerving commitment and lifelong struggle; establishment of a scientific and rational spirit, the conviction that the achievement of socialism and communism is an objective law of human historical development, and the establishment of a scientific outlook on the world, life and values; adherence to Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory; adherence to the path of building socialism with Chinese characteristics; and resistance to all anti-Marxist ideology and all corrupt ideas. They should resist all anti-Marxist ideas and the erosion of all corrupt ideas. Secondly, to serve the people. The basic requirements for serving the people are: to take the fundamental interests of the working class and other working people as the highest criterion for all speech and behavior; to establish a principled position of working for the interests of the people; to be a public servant and a diligent worker for the people; to adhere to the materialistic view of history that the people make history, to trust the people, to rely on the people and to care for the plight of the people; to come from the people and go to the people; to correct the Party style, to oppose We will also fight against bureaucracy, remove the degenerate ideas of the exploiting class such as officialdom and privileged thinking, and resolutely fight against corruption. Thirdly, collectivism. The basic requirements of collectivism are: the interests of the state, the collective and the individual are balanced and complementary; when the collective interests and the individual interests are in conflict and cannot be accommodated, the collective interests have priority, the collective interests take precedence over the individual interests, the individual interests are subordinated to the collective interests, and

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when necessary, the individual interests are sacrificed for the collective interests; the collective should safeguard the legitimate interests of the individual, respect the development of individuality, and create conditions for the realization of the legitimate interests of the individual and the development of a healthy individual personality; implement the principle of democratic centralism, correctly handle the relationship between democracy and centralism, the relationship between freedom and discipline, and the relationship between rights and obligations. The collective should safeguard the legitimate interests of the individual, respect the development of the individual, and create conditions for the realization of the legitimate interests of the individual and the development of the individual’s healthy personality; implement the principle of democratic centralism, and correctly handle the relationship between democracy and centralism, freedom and discipline, and rights and obligations; oppose individual-centredness, selfishness, and self-interest, and self-interest at the expense of others and the public good; oppose individualism and egoism in all its forms and manifestations. Fourthly, patriotism. The basic requirements of patriotism are: to strive for and defend the independence, unity and dignity of the motherland, to unite against insults, to defy violence, to maintain national integrity, to fight resolutely against all acts that undermine the unity of the motherland and national unity; to love the motherland, to unite love for the motherland and love for socialism, to believe firmly in the truth that only socialism can save and develop China, to actively participate in the grand cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics; to oppose hegemony, to oppose power politics, to defend world peace, to fight for the building of China into a rich, strong, democratic and civilized socialist country on the basis of the five principles of peaceful coexistence. Oppose hegemony, oppose power politics, uphold world peace, develop friendly and cooperative relations with all countries on the basis of the five principles of peaceful coexistence, and that China will never be a hegemon and will always be a firm force for world peace. Fifth, a love of science. The basic requirements for the love of science are: to adhere to the spirit of science and oppose superstition and blind obedience; to respect objective laws, to seek truth from facts, to start from reality, and to oppose idealism, subjectivism, dogmatism and narrow empiricism; to seek knowledge diligently, to love science, to learn science, to use science, to live and learn; to respect knowledge and talent; to explore courageously, to dedicate oneself to the truth, and to be selfless and fearless. Sixth, love of work. The basic requirements for a love of work are: labor is glorious, it creates the world, and it should be the most respected thing in the world; love of work, cultivating the habit of working, developing the skills of working, respecting the fruits of other people’s work, and distributing work according to one’s ability; love of working people, eliminating exploitative class ideas that despise working people, developing the concept of the greatness of working people, and cultivating a deep affection for working people. Seventh, revolutionary heroism.

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The basic requirements of revolutionary heroism are: to maintain vigorous revolutionary enthusiasm, forgetfulness, vigorous revolutionary energy and fearless revolutionary courage; to defy all enemies and all difficulties and overwhelm all enemies and all difficulties; to dare to fight against corruption in society, to fight against bad ideas and habits in oneself, to cultivate oneself and discipline oneself, and to be self-improving; to put the policy on the basis of self-reliance and self-reliance We should be self-reliant and seek foreign aid as the mainstay of our efforts, strive for excellence and hard work, be diligent and frugal, and oppose waste. Eighth, Revolutionary Humanism. The basic requirements of revolutionary humanitarianism are: to practice revolutionary humanitarianism and socialist humanitarianism; to have a scientific understanding of the nature of human nature, recognising that there is a concrete human nature and not an abstract human nature, and that in a society of class antagonism there is no supra-class, universal human nature; to establish a clear-cut position of love and hatred; to combine ruthlessness towards the enemy with peace towards oneself, and to combine dictatorship of the opposition with democracy within the people, To establish and coordinate sincere and friendly relations between people in the revolutionary forces and within the people, to care for people, to love them and to respect them; to use revolutionary humanitarianism to educate and reform revolutionary enemies and other criminals who have laid down their arms and surrendered to the people into new men. Ninth, the establishment of new social, professional and family virtues. The basic requirements of social ethics are: to establish a scientific, civilised and healthy way of life, to oppose ignorance, backwardness and decadence, to change customs, to improve social morals; to obey the law, to consciously maintain the public order of life in the new society; to help each other, to create a new form of public morality and civilization of solidarity, friendliness and honesty. The basic requirements of the code of ethics are: love and dedication to work, the spirit of mastery, work, love a line of work; study hard, technical excellence, and strive to become a professional in the profession; loyalty to duty, for the benefit of the people, moral and artistic; strengthen job training, regulate the conduct of the industry, and establish a new style of industry. The basic requirements of family virtues are: like-mindedness, fidelity, complementarity between personal feelings and the cause of revolution and construction; freedom of marriage, equality between men and women, opposition to arranged and sold marriages, discrimination and abuse of women; mutual respect and love, family harmony, diligence and thrift, building a loving, equal, civilised, harmonious and stable family; filial piety and support for parents, love and care for minor children, Parents should set an example by being strict in teaching and purifying the family. From the perspective of the strategy of governance, the implementation of these elements and requirements of moral governance must also emphasize the following aspects. First of all, party cadres and government workers are required to take the lead and set an example by doing what they do. Without the example of party cadres and government staff, and without the strength of character of the leaders’ high morals, moral governance will inevitably be reduced to a kind of empty preaching, and the

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country will not be truly governed. Confucius’ famous words: “If you are righteous, what is the use of being righteous in government; if you cannot be righteous, what is the use of being righteous”, are a reference to this. In this respect, the strategy of ruling the country by virtue is inseparable from the building of our integrity. Secondly, it is necessary to provide serious, practical and effective moral and ethical education to the people of the country, to overcome the phenomenon of “one hand being soft and the other being hard”, and to try to internalise the content of such education into the hearts of the people and to make it an ideal and belief of the people. Finally, the state and society must also use all means of incentive and punishment to praise, encourage and commend people’s moral behavior and criticise, reprimand and punish them for their immoral behavior. In the appointment and removal of leaders at all levels of the Party and the State, and in the assessment of the performance of cadres at all levels, full consideration should be given to their own moral cultivation and moral quality, as well as the state of spiritual civilization in the areas and units under their jurisdiction. Today, under the new situation, new tasks and new requirements of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and establishing a socialist market economy system, it is necessary not only to seriously inherit and vigorously carry forward these excellent traditional norms of ideology and morality created by the Communist Party of China over the past 80 years, but also to establish and improve a system of ideological and moral norms that is compatible with the development of a socialist market economy in accordance with the changed objective conditions, so as to provide a new and dynamic content for the “virtue” in the rule by virtue that is emphasized today. The “virtue” in the rule by virtue that is emphasized today should be supplemented with new and dynamic contents that meet the needs of the rapid and healthy development of our economy and society. This is a major and urgent task in the construction of ideology and morality.

6 The Theoretical and Practical Significance of “Ruling the Country by Virtue 6.1 Theoretical Reflection on “Ruling by Virtue” At the National Propaganda8 Ministers’ Conference in 2001, General Secretary Jiang Zemin put forward the important idea of “ruling the country by virtue”. This was the first time since the Communist Party of China led the people to victory in the national revolution, established the People’s Republic of China and fully exercised its function of administering the state that the Party had discussed the relationship between the rule of law and the rule of morality in a more systematic manner, and

8

This section was originally published in Guangming Daily on 3 April 2001.

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for the first time clearly proposed that the rule of law and the rule of the state by morality should be closely integrated. Firstly, ruling the country by virtue is conducive to the correct assessment of the social role of morality by society as a whole, and further enhances the consciousness of the whole Party and the nation to attach importance to moral construction. In the past few years, there has been a market for both moral omnipotence and moral uselessness in our society, but in terms of influence, moral uselessness is the one that prevails. One of the basic views of moral uselessness is that we are now engaged in a market economy, which is based on the selfishness of human nature. This view is that the market economy is about using the “invisible hand” (in economic terms, the market, in human terms, selfish motives) to drive individuals to become rich and wealthy. Thus, the market economy contradicts morality, especially collectivist morality, and morality is a natural obstacle to the market economy, which can only be governed by the rule of law, not by morality. Such a view is very harmful to the establishment of a socialist market economy and even to the overall healthy development of our economy and society. Comrade Jiang Zemin’s idea of ruling the country by virtue is undoubtedly of great significance to the correct assessment of the role of morality. The emphasis on ruling the country by virtue is not only to oppose the theory of the uselessness of morality, but also to appropriately position the role played by morality in social life, so as to increase the efforts of the whole society in moral construction. In this sense, in order to build a moral system that is compatible with our socialist market economy and the overall healthy development of our economy and society, it is necessary not only to put forward systematic moral norms, but also to make these moral norms penetrate into people’s hearts through various channels, transforming them from external norms into internal conscience, so that social opinion and moral conscience can echo and reflect each other. Only in this way can seemingly “useless” morality become a “useful” code of conduct, i.e. “a useless use is a great use”. However, in order to achieve such a goal, such a state of affairs, it is necessary to fully affirm the role of morality and moral norms, the role of moral opinion and moral conscience, and, ultimately, the role of moral construction. It is the role of morality and moral construction that is so highly valued in the rule of the state by virtue. Secondly, ruling the country by virtue is conducive to the adjustment of social relations, especially the adjustment of social interests, in the new situation. Since China entered a new period of reform and opening up, the various reform measures, with the reform of the economic system as the breakthrough point, have triggered a general adjustment of social relations in all walks of life and at all levels throughout the country. Since the introduction of the socialist market economy, the economic composition, distribution, employment and lifestyle of our society have become more diversified, the income gap has widened further and social relations have undergone great changes. The core of the adjustment of social relations is the adjustment of interest relations. The adjustment of social relations and relations of interest is not only the result of the self-improvement of the basic social system such as the economic and political systems through reform, but also has an effect on the basic social system in turn.

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Whether such an effect is conducive to the consolidation of the basic social system and the stable operation of society depends on whether the newly formed social relations and relations of interests are reasonable, coordinated and controllable. Rational, coordinated and controllable social relations and interest relations cannot be achieved by the reform of the economic system alone, or by the stimulation of individual interests alone. The disorderly and even chaotic social relations and interest relations in our society in certain aspects and to a certain extent over the years have proved that the reform of the economic system alone will never enable our society to achieve stable, coordinated and healthy development. Social relations, especially the adjustment of interest relations, are mainly the adjustment of individual and collective social interests, and at the same time derive from the adjustment of individual and personal interests. These relations are simple and easy to grasp in general, but in actual life, they are very varied and complex, and if one is not careful, sharp contradictions of one kind or another will arise. The diversity and complexity of the relationship between individual and collective interests and between individual and personal interests, and the depth and acuteness of the contradictory situations in our society over the years have been unprecedented since the founding of New China. In a functioning society, there are various means of regulating these interests, including economic, political, legal and administrative means, but morality is also one of these means, and a very special one at that. The peculiarity of morality in regulating relations of interest lies in the fact that when there is a conflict of interest between an individual and the community or with others, usually a moral person will always give priority to the interests of the community and others, that is, to put public interests before private interests, to put others before oneself; and when necessary, a moral person will even sacrifice his own interests for the sake of the community and others. From ancient times to the present day, the stable, harmonious and healthy development of a society in which members compete with each other has depended to a considerable extent on the special role played by morality in regulating the interests of society. If there is no moral spirit of cooperation and comity in the competition, the conflicts in the relations of interests cannot be properly and effectively mitigated or even resolved, but will only become more and more acute and eventually lead to fierce confrontation. When the conflicts of interest in a society cannot be reconciled or resolved in a normal way, they can only be resolved by other means of coercion or even violence. Therefore, when a society is undergoing rapid changes in interest relations and sharp conflicts of interest, it must pay more attention to and make good use of the special means of adjusting morality to maximize the adjustment of various conflicts of interest to a manageable range, avoid confrontation of interest conflicts, and gradually ease and even eventually resolve those sharp confrontations of interest conflicts that affect social stability. The current proposal of ruling the country by virtue is very conducive to the entire Party and society to proactively use the special function of morality in adjusting social interests, vigorously strengthen the ideological and moral construction, help the majority of cadres and masses to understand the situation, invigorate their spirits, strengthen their confidence, consciously integrate their personal ideals into the common ideals of the people of all nationalities in building

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socialism with Chinese characteristics, and integrate their personal struggles into the struggle to realize the socialist modernization of the motherland. They should also be able to correctly handle the relationship between their personal interests and the collective interests of society and the interests of others, so as to strengthen the cohesion of society as a whole and enable China’s economy and society to develop rapidly in a stable, coordinated and healthy environment in the long term. Thirdly, ruling the country by virtue is conducive to strengthening the education and shaping of a scientific and correct outlook on life, values and morality, improving the Party and social climate, and eliminating negative corruption. The diversification of economic composition, distribution methods, employment methods and lifestyles, and the widening of income disparities are reflected in people’s outlook on life, values and morals, and the trend of diversification of personal value orientations is becoming more and more obvious. The objective trend of diversification of individual values cannot be regarded as the basis for the inevitable trend of diversification of social values. On the contrary, the more diverse the individual’s values are, the more important it is to strengthen the monolithic value orientation of society, rather than leaving it to chance. The cohesion of a society often comes from the common ideals and beliefs of its members. Ideals and beliefs are always expressed in terms of outlook on life, values and morals. Therefore, if a society is to strengthen its cohesion, it must first strengthen its monolithic value orientation, and ultimately rely on common ideals and beliefs to unite its members. The current common ideal and belief of our society is to build socialism with Chinese characteristics. The proposal of ruling the country by virtue and strengthening ideological and moral construction is one of the most effective means to strengthen these common ideals and beliefs and to reinforce these most basic monolithic values and objectives. The trend of pluralism in personal value orientation is essentially a manifestation of the widening gap between the life realm and moral awareness of members of society. Over the past 20 years of reform and opening up, China has made great progress in economic development, but there are still many problems in the Party and social culture. Some of these problems are left over from history, while more are newly created due to the general climate abroad and the small climate at home. The most prominent problem, or the one that the majority of Party members and the people are most concerned about and dissatisfied with, is that the phenomenon of negative corruption has been repeatedly banned, and to a certain extent, has been intensified. Why these problems arise, how these problems can be eradicated, we need to seriously reflect on. The ideals and beliefs of the wavering, outlook on life, values, moral values of the retreat, the realm of life, the decline in moral awareness, is an important reason for the phenomenon of corruption. Therefore, it is of great importance to attach importance to the construction of ideology and morality, to pay close attention to moral governance and to rule by morality, in order to strengthen ideals and beliefs, to shape the correct outlook on life, values and morality, to sublimate the realm of life and to improve moral awareness.

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6.2 On the Practical Implementation of the “Rule by Virtue” Principle “Strengthening the rule of law and ruling the country by law” and “strengthening moral development and ruling the country by morality” is an important idea about the governance of the country. On the one hand, it stresses the importance of the rule of law and the need to continue to strengthen the legal system in China; on the other hand, it stresses the importance of moral governance. Comrade Jiang Zemin has raised “ruling the country by virtue” to the same level of importance as “ruling the country by law” and regarded the two as two inseparable components of the strategy for governing the country, which is of great practical and theoretical significance. Since the reform and opening up of China, the achievements made in the construction of the legal system have been remarkable and obvious to all; however, for a period of time, due to the “soft hand and hard hand”, the construction of spiritual civilization and moral construction in China has also made encouraging achievements, but compared with the construction of the legal system, it is still somewhat dwarfed. Moral misconduct has affected interpersonal relations, moral ethics and social stability in China, with money-worship, individualism and hedonism spreading, and some long-extinct phenomena such as pornography, drugs and gambling beginning to grow again. In economic exchanges, counterfeiting is a serious obstacle to the development of our market economy. Corruption is also developing due to the intrusion of the principle of quid pro quo into our political life. The idea of valuing personal interests has become an excuse for some people to pursue their own interests without regard for the interests of the state and the community. Comrade Jiang Zemin’s idea of “strengthening moral construction and ruling the country by virtue” reflects the wishes of the people, the urgent requirements of the current stage of development of our market economy, the inevitable course of our history and the needs of the times. People are increasingly aware that if we fail to further strengthen moral construction, the construction of our legal system is bound to be affected, which will in turn affect our economic development and social stability. Therefore, to bring “strengthening moral construction and ruling the country by morality” to the height of the strategy for ruling the country is a far-sighted move from the overall situation and a profound understanding of the urgent need to improve the real moral situation in China and to strengthen moral construction. The implementation of “strengthening morality and ruling the country by virtue” consists of three main aspects. First of all, all cadres of the Party and the State must practice the moral requirements of socialism; they must adhere to the purpose of serving the people; they must dedicate themselves to the interests of the general public in accordance with the “three benefits” and the important thought of “three representations”; they must set an example, We must lead by example and influence the people with our moral qualities and strength of character. We can recall that one of the main reasons for the praiseworthy social and moral climate of the 1950s was that Party members and government workers at all levels were able to lead by example, be fair and clean,

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and not seek personal gain or favor. The moral example of the Party members and government officials at all levels created a noble force of character and gave them a moral prestige among the people. The masses responded positively and strove to follow suit, thus rapidly changing the habits of the old society and creating a new social and moral ethos. All this shows that in order to change the current social atmosphere and raise people’s moral standards, Communist Party members, state cadres and all government employees must pay attention to their own moral cultivation and raise their moral consciousness, so as to create good conditions and build a solid foundation for ruling the country by virtue. Secondly, we should attach great importance to the importance of moral education for the general public. In terms of the strategy of governance, we should not only rely on the law to govern society in order to achieve the purpose of maintaining social stability, but also be good at using inspiration, guidance, advice and persuasion to cultivate the moral conscience of the people to avoid evil through subtle methods. Only with such a “moral conscience” can people know shame and build up internal defences against all immoral behavior, thus maintaining social stability from the ground up. Only in this way can people’s moral quality and moral state be improved. From the perspective of the strategy for governing the country, ruling the country by virtue is not only about formulating some moral codes for the people to follow, but more importantly, it is about inspiring people’s ideological awareness and moral responsibility, so that they can consciously fulfil their moral obligations. Finally, we must also vigorously use the mechanism of rewards and punishments to promote the effective implementation of the rule of morality. Public opinion, especially the mass media, should praise and honor moral behavior, especially the noble and heroic behavior of those who are moral role models, so as to inspire more people to learn from them; for those who behave immorally, they should be reprimanded, criticised, admonished and even punished by the necessary means, so that they will be humiliated and punished to the point of being discredited. It is particularly important that in the appointment, dismissal, promotion and transfer of Party and government cadres at all levels, the ability to set a moral example and to practice socialist morality should be an important criterion for assessment. At the same time, when assessing their performance, it is also necessary to take into account whether they have a corresponding performance in the construction of spiritual civilization, especially in the construction of morality. Only in this way can social stability be truly guaranteed. Every Communist Party member should be strict with himself or herself from the perspective of ruling the country by virtue, recognizing the historical mission and sacred duties he or she is entrusted with. In all their thoughts, words and actions, they should always and everywhere take socialism and communist morality as the standard for their actions, adhere to the common ideal of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, but also use the moral requirements of communism to spur themselves on, carry forward the spirit of dedication for the collective and for the country, do their duty, be honest and conscientious, win the trust of the public with their noble moral behavior and strength of character, and make their due contribution

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to We should make our own contribution to socialist modernization and to the cause of the Party.

6.3 Theoretical and Practical Significance of the Idea of “Ruling the Country” by Virtue Comrade Jiang Zemin proposed9 that “rule of law” and “moral governance” should be closely integrated, and that “rule by law” and “rule by morality” should be closely integrated. “This is the first time in the history of our Party that “ruling the country by virtue” is mentioned as a high level of the strategy for ruling the country This theory is of great theoretical and practical significance. Firstly, ruling the country by virtue is a major development of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory in the new period on the issue of the strategy of ruling the country, and is a further enrichment and deepening of the theory of socialist spiritual civilization, which adds new contents to the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics stresses that the socialist country we are building must have not only a high degree of material civilization, but also a high degree of spiritual civilization. Moral development is an important element of socialist spiritual civilization, which is determined by the essence of socialism. Secondly, ruling the country by virtue is a major development of socialist political, moral and legal theories, and is of great importance to the further study of political science, law and ethics in China in the future. Comrade Jiang Zemin has clearly mentioned “ruling the country by virtue” as a strategy for ruling the country, and put it on the same level of importance as “ruling the country by law”, which is important for us to correctly understand the mutual relationship between morality and law in theory, and to pay attention to the close integration of the construction of the legal system and morality in practice. It is of great significance for us to have a correct understanding of the interrelationship between morality and law in theory, and to pay attention to the close integration of legal and moral construction in practice. We must understand the idea of combining the rule of law and the rule of morality in depth, and understand the equal importance of both, so as to avoid any one-sidedness in our understanding. The law focuses on punishing those who have broken the law, while morality focuses on educating those who have not. In a certain sense, it can be said that the rule of law and punishment are symptomatic, while moral construction is fundamental. Only by addressing the root causes and improving the ideological and moral quality of people can we fundamentally maintain social stability. Thirdly, the idea of ruling the country by virtue is not only based on the needs of the development of China’s reality, but also inherits the fine moral tradition of China’s ancient times. As early as the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Gong Dan put forward the idea of “respecting virtue and protecting the people”, and 9

This section was originally published in Theoretical Fronts of Universities, No. 3, 2001.

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Confucius further put forward the idea of “ruling the country by virtue”. What we mean by “moral governance” is the inheritance and promotion of the good elements of ancient moral thinking and the abandonment of the dregs of it. The “moral rule” we are talking about is a moral rule that is centred on serving the people, on the principle of collectivism, on the importance of moral education and moral inspiration, on the need to select cadres with both virtue and talent, and on the requirement that leaders and civil servants should lead by example and play an exemplary role. Fourthly, in practice, the idea of ruling the country by virtue will have a positive impact on social stability, moral construction, legal construction and the construction of socialist spiritual civilization in China, which will certainly improve the moral culture of our society, effectively maintain social stability and greatly promote the development of socialist market economy.

Appendix

An Analysis of Traditional Chinese Ethics Education In the entire history of the world,1 China is one of the countries that has placed the greatest emphasis on ethical education. China’s reputation as an “ancient civilization” and a “country of etiquette” is linked to this traditional ethical education. This tradition has had a positive as well as a negative impact on the formation and development of the Chinese nation. It has also had and is having an impact on many countries in the East, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and Korea. Therefore, the study of the Chinese tradition of ethical education and its development is of some significance today, not only for China, but also for many other countries. In particular, at a time when the construction of socialist spiritual civilization is being vigorously strengthened, it is of great practical importance to apply the basic views of Marxism and to critically inherit all the fine moral traditions of history in order to build socialist morality and to overcome the influence of the corrupt ideology and morality of capitalism and feudalism. I The teaching of ethical traditions in China began with the Duke of Zhou (Ji Dan), a famous political and ethical thinker of the early Western Zhou Dynasty in the eleventh century BC. Ji Dan was the son of King Wen, the founding monarch of the Western Zhou, and the younger brother of King Wu. He was familiar with the political experience of China from the Yin and Shang dynasties to the Western Zhou, and he had a deep understanding of the relationships between people in the society of his time. As a politician and ethical thinker, the key lesson he learned from his long political and moral practice was that ethical education should be closely linked to politics. His main idea in governing the state was to “match virtue with heaven”, “respect virtue and protect the people”, and “clarify virtue and punish carefully”. A ruler should not rely solely on his political power and military strength, but should also use his own noble morals to educate the people in order to manage and rule them. Ji Dan inherited the ancient Chinese concept of “heaven” (i.e. God) from the 1

This article was originally published in Educational Studies, No. 3, 1987.

© China Renmin University Press 2023 G. Luo, Traditional Ethics and Contemporary Society of China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0256-9

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Yin and Shang dynasties and gave it a new meaning. According to the traditional understanding of the past, the change of dynasties of the emperors was determined by the will of the “heaven”. But why did Heaven give the power to rule the people to one emperor, and why did it pass on to another after a certain period of time? From the changes in the rise and fall of emperors over the ages, Lord Zhou derived an important principle, namely, “Heaven has no relatives, but only virtue is an aid”. This means that God, who holds the fate of the emperors on earth, has no personal preference or affection for anyone, but only assists those who are virtuous to rule the people. For a tyrannical and corrupt ruler, “Heaven” will take the power of rule out of his hands and transfer it to another moral person to rule the people. If this ruler is to maintain and consolidate his power, he must not only be virtuous himself, but he must also make sure that his successors always bear in mind the commandment that “Heaven has no relatives, but virtue is the only complement”. II Confucius, the founder of Chinese Confucianism, further developed Ji Dan’s ideas of “virtue is worthy of heaven” and “there is no relative in heaven, but virtue is the only complement”, forming a more complete system of “ruling the country by virtue”. The theory of “ruling by virtue” was formed. First of all, Confucius distinguishes between ‘moral rule’ and ‘rule of law’, arguing that ‘moral rule’ is at a higher level than ‘rule of law’ and therefore has the strongest effect. First of all, Confucius distinguished between “moral rule” and “rule of law”. He said, “If the people are free and have no shame when the government is followed by punishment, and if the people are free and have no shame when the government is followed by virtue and ritual, they will have shame and behave.” If the people are only governed and restrained by criminal law and authority, they will be spared from committing crimes, but they will not feel the shame of committing crimes; if they are educated by morality, they will know that it is shameful to commit crimes, so they will not commit crimes again. Lu Jia, in the early Western Han Dynasty, went even further, saying that while law could only sanction people after they had committed a crime, morality could prevent them from committing an evil act. In particular, he stressed that moral education “starts from the subtle” and can “prevent evil before it starts”. In this way, through the constant reinforcement of Confucianism, especially by the Song and Ming scholars, the idea of moral rule became a powerful influence in China. Secondly, Confucius argued theoretically that a ruler should be personally moral. He argued that a ruler of a state can only make his subjects obey him if he is moral himself, so that his will, orders and decisions can be carried out throughout the country. He said, “To govern is to be righteous.” “If he is righteous, he will not do what he is told; if he is not righteous, he will not obey what he is told.” He also said, “To be virtuous in government is like the star in the north, where all the stars live together.” He also said, “A gentleman’s virtue is the wind; a villain’s virtue is the grass; a wind on grass will be laid down.” Therefore, if a ruler can set an example by his own noble morality and educate the common people in this way, the common people will be convinced to support the ruler with noble morality, just like all the stars in the world are around the North Star.

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Finally, Confucius also believed that the most important element in strengthening the ‘rule of virtue’ and the education of the common people was to use ‘benevolence’ or ‘love for others’ as the main principle to regulate the relationship between the ruler, the minister and the father and the son in the society. The most important element in the education of the common people was to regulate the relationship between rulers and subjects, fathers and sons, using the principle of “benevolence” or “love for others”. Confucius particularly emphasized the importance of family morality, which was linked by blood ties. In the relationship between parents and children, Confucius emphasized the importance of filial piety. He divided the filial piety of children towards their parents into many levels, and considered that only the highest level of filial piety was fulfilled before the most complete requirement was reached. The first level is to provide for one’s parents in order to repay them for the kindness they have given to him or her. The second level is respect. He said, “All dogs and horses can be nurtured, but if they are not respected, how can they be distinguished?” The third level, in addition to respecting one’s parents, is to have a heartfelt and pleasant attitude, which is, of course, more difficult. So, in his view, even though “colour is difficult”, it is something that should be achieved. The highest level is to be a righteous person who does not worry his parents about anything he says or does, except for the inevitable illnesses that must worry them, which is what he calls “the parents are only worried about their illnesses”. This highest level of filial piety for parents is closely related to the relationship between ruler and subject that Confucius speaks of. In the Analects of Confucius, “filial piety and fraternal duty” is considered to be the root of benevolence, and “those who are filial but good at offending their superiors are rare; those who are not good at offending their superiors but good at rebellion are rare”, thus linking filial piety to parents and loyalty to the ruler. Confucius said, “A ruler makes his ministers follow his rites, while his ministers serve the ruler with loyalty.” Mencius further developed this idea of Confucius by emphasizing that “if a ruler treats his subjects like his hands and feet, then his subjects will treat him like his heart; if a ruler treats his subjects like dogs and horses, then his subjects will treat him like his countrymen; if a ruler treats his subjects like dirt, then his subjects will treat him like an enemy.” On the other hand, it is stressed that if a king is as tyrannical and unjust as King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty, his subjects are not guilty even if they kill such a king. Of course, both Confucius and Mencius were advocating for the preservation of the exploiting class and hierarchy of the time. After Confucius, Mencius went further and outlined the most basic relationships between human beings into five categories, and proposed five moral principles to regulate these relationships, namely, “father and son have kinship, ruler and subject have righteousness, husband and wife have distinction, elders and children have order, and friends have trust”. These five moral principles have become the main content of ethical and moral education in China during the long period of feudal society. III Throughout China’s long history, school education has been centred on ethics and morality. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, emphasis was placed on the teaching of filial piety and brotherhood as the main focus of ziangxiao. One of the earliest

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Chinese political and historical texts, the Shang Shu, contains the so-called “Five Teachings”, the main content of which is “father’s righteousness, mother’s kindness, brother’s friendship, brother’s respect and son’s filial piety”, all of which belong to the category of ethical education. Later on, Confucius founded private schools and made “benevolence” and “propriety” and “respect, generosity, faith, sensitivity and charity” the main elements of education. Mencius also proposed the so-called “Five Rites of Education”. He believed that as long as these five relationships between people were properly adjusted, the normal order of society would be stabilized. From his own theory of the goodness of nature, he believed that people were born with a good heart, but that it was only through the temptation of materialistic desires that they had lost their good heart. Therefore, he believed that the way to learn was to seek to regain the original heart that had been lost, in order to achieve the correct adjustment of the five relationships. It is for this reason that ‘learning’ or ‘learning for the sake of learning’ does not refer to the learning of skills or knowledge, but mainly to the learning of ethics and morals and the cultivation of character. This is why the Chinese scholars of the Song and Ming dynasties famously said, “To learn is not to increase, but to decrease”, and to reach the point of “decreasing and decreasing again, to the point of nothing”. This is because learning is about overcoming, reducing and eliminating all immoral thoughts, consciousness and behavior by means of feudal moral principles, and only when these things have been eliminated will learning have achieved its proper purpose. Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, China has used the imperial examination system to select administrative officials at all levels, and since the Song and Ming dynasties, the examinations have been based on four books, namely the Analects of Confucius, Mencius, the Great Learning and the Middle Mean, which are ethical textbooks that clarify various moral relationships from different aspects. As the Song and Ming scholars acted in the interest of maintaining and saving the declining feudal class, they developed the principles and norms of Chinese feudal morality in a one-sided and absolute direction, thus making the relationship of the Five Rites into a relationship of absolute obedience and subordination of one party to the other, a rope to bind people’s personality and a shackle to confine them. IV Chinese ethical education is characterised by an emphasis on the unity of knowledge and action, and the consistency of learning and practice. In order to effectively achieve the aims and effects of ethical education, Chinese ethical thinkers not only focused on the relationship between good and evil in human nature and righteousness and profit (or rational desire), but also on the relationship between knowledge and action. Among the scholars of the Song and Ming dynasties, the school of teleology, which emphasized the role of conscience, more explicitly raised the issue of “the unity of knowledge and action”. They believed that “knowledge” and “action” were unified, the same and consistent. They took the feudal morality of filial piety as an example and argued that “knowledge is the beginning of action” and “action is the completion of knowledge”. Even if a person can read and recite the moral theory of filial piety, but cannot practice filial piety and even scold his parents, can he be considered to know filial piety? Therefore, if one knows but does not do it,

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one cannot be considered to know. Knowledge is the beginning of action, and action is the completion of knowledge. This view of the unity of knowledge and action is not an epistemological proposition, but an ethical one, in terms of its main purpose and meaning. This proposition reflects a twofold significance. On the one hand, it emphasizes that ethics, as a form of knowledge, must have a distinctive practical character that is different from that of knowledge in general; on the other hand, ethical behavior, as a practical category, must have a conscious and autonomous moral consciousness. In other words, without this conscious and autonomous moral consciousness, “acting” without knowing is still not an ethical act. The question of how to transform people’s moral knowledge into their moral practice is a very important one in the study of ethics. Chinese ethical thinkers thought they had found the only way to solve this problem by emphasizing individual moral cultivation. From Confucius onwards, “introspection” and “self-reflection” have been regarded as an important way to improve moral status. Confucius also recognised that this ‘introspection’ and ‘self-examination’ was characterised by a struggle between two tendencies of thought within the self, which is why he also called it ‘internal litigation’ or “Self-suit”. One of the key principles of Confucius’ ethical thinking is what he calls “to restrain oneself and restore propriety as benevolence”. This can be divided into three levels of meaning. Secondly, in order to achieve benevolence, one must “restore rites”, that is, to conform to the moral norms and ritual systems required by society at that time; thirdly, in order to restore rites, one must “restrain oneself Thirdly, in order to restore rites, one must “restrain oneself”, i.e. overcome all thoughts, motives and actions that do not conform to moral requirements. This is why “self-restraint” plays a particularly important role in “being benevolent”. “It also means “introspection”, “self-reflection” and “internal litigation”. Later on, the Song and Ming scholars further developed the concept of “cultivation”, which was seen as a kind of “introspection and control”, making individual moral cultivation more complete through various specific methods. At the same time, this approach became increasingly formalistic and idealistic. The proposition of “knowledge in action” has been inappropriately treated as a thoroughly idealistic proposition for some time, as it was understood only epistemologically, and was thought to confuse knowledge (knowledge) and practice (action) and to be devoid of any rational thought. Today, this view is clearly incorrect. V In traditional Chinese ethical education, the attitude of ‘being able to draw parallels’ was introduced in order to enable people to share ideas, understand each other, and be in harmony with each other. Confucius pointed out that in order to achieve the goal of “loving others”, it is necessary to use oneself as a metaphor for others at all times and in all places. Confucius said, “Do not do to others what you do not want done to you”, “Do to others what you want done to you, and do to others what you want done to you”, “I do not want others to do to me, and I want to do nothing to others”. What I do not want for myself, I should not put on others; what

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I want to stand up for myself, I should help others to stand up; what I want to live well for myself, I should help others to live well; what I do not want to be put on me, I should not put on others. This is what the Chinese people often call “taking the example of oneself”, “pushing oneself to others”, “putting oneself in the shoes of others” and “putting oneself in the shoes of others”. This is the attitude of the Chinese people. This attitude and method of putting oneself in the shoes of others is based on human moral experience, moral feelings and moral experience. This means that in human relationships, each person can infer the desires, ideals and pursuits possessed by others through his or her own desires, ideals and pursuits. According to this principle, if we expand it, we will be able to adjust the relationship between people in the best possible way, if we treat them as ourselves. Although this is not really possible in a society of class oppression, this attitude is nevertheless of great importance in human relations. VI Today, our country is striving to build a high level of socialist spiritual civilization throughout the country. The fundamental task of building a socialist spiritual civilization is to adapt to the needs of socialist modernization, to cultivate ideal, moral, cultured and disciplined socialist citizens, and to improve the ideological, moral and cultural quality of the entire nation. The quality of human beings is a product of social history, and each nation has its own characteristics due to its different economic, political, cultural and national psychology. The new qualities that are adapted to the new situation of reform and opening up of the socialist society and that have national characteristics will certainly have a great impact on the current reform and opening up. Traditional Chinese ethical education has played an important role in maintaining and consolidating the order of feudal society and in harmonizing relations between people. As the economy, politics and culture develop, ethics, as a superstructure and ideology, must change in tandem with this change. In particular, with the establishment of new socialist economic and political relations and the development of science and technology, all the old morals, traditions and concepts and their cumbersome and mindless forms of cultivation, which are not adapted to the new economic and political requirements, should be changed. The influence of feudal morality is still not to be underestimated and must be thoroughly criticised. However, if traditional Chinese ethical education can be criticised and inherited from a Marxist standpoint, it is still important for us to build new socialist ethical and moral relations. The national nihilistic idea that traditional Chinese culture and ethics should be rejected or thrown away in their entirety is wrong. In the moral construction of a socialist society, the idea of total westernization will only lead our people to the evil path of money and egoism, which we should resolutely oppose.

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Inherit and Carry Forward the Fine Moral Traditions of the Chinese Nation –Creating an advanced spiritual civilization for mankind I2 The fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation are an important part of the ideological and cultural traditions of the Chinese nation. In a certain sense, it can be said that the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation are the core of the fine ideological and cultural traditions of the Chinese nation. It is said that ‘traditional Chinese philosophy is ethical’, and this should be seen as one of the strengths of traditional Chinese philosophy, not as a weakness. There is a view that in traditional Chinese thought and culture, ethics and morality are conservative and cannot be inherited as the dregs of the feudal autocracy. This view is both untrue and extremely harmful. History has shown that the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation have played and are playing a very important role in the formation of the moral culture of Chinese society and in the unity, harmony and development of the Chinese nation. The economic development of China and some of its neighbouring countries has demonstrated or is demonstrating that the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation, after being absorbed and transformed, have not only not affected the modern development of these countries, but have also become a spiritual pillar for maintaining social order, improving social morals, harmonizing interpersonal relations and strengthening national cohesion, and have played a strong role in promoting the modernization of these countries. It has also become a strong driving force in the modernization of these countries. There is no basis for the general view that traditional Chinese ethics are incompatible with economic modernization. While it is wrong to exalt and praise traditional Chinese ethics without distinguishing between the best and the worst, it is even more wrong and harmful to dismiss traditional Chinese ethics as national nihilism without any specific analysis. Why is the ‘ethical’ philosophy not a disadvantage of Chinese philosophy, but an advantage of it? The most fundamental reason is that the “ethical type” of Chinese philosophy is an indication that Chinese philosophy is a philosophy that emphasizes moral values. In many philosophers, special emphasis is placed on the promotion of the spirit of the moral subject, and this emphasis on the spiritual realm of man is believed to enable society to move forward harmoniously through the moral perfection of man. Although Chinese philosophy has taken various and complex forms at different times and by different philosophers, this “pursuit of values” has always been the main thread running through it. By grasping this thread, we can also better grasp the development of Chinese philosophy and its core content. This is indeed a characteristic and an advantage of Chinese philosophy compared to other philosophies around the world. 2

This paper is the keynote report of the International Symposium on Traditional Eastern Ethics and Contemporary Youth Education, originally published in the Chinese Journal of Education, No. 4, 1993, and slightly abridged for inclusion in this book.

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China’s excellent ethical and moral traditions and good customs not only have a long and colourful history, but also have a very close relationship with many countries around the world, especially those in the East. Chinese culture and ethical traditions began to spread in Korea as early as the second century BC, and had a profound influence during the 500 years of the Li dynasty, which began in the fourteenth century. In Japan, Cheng and Zhu were the mainstay of Japanese cultural and ethical thought for a long time. In Singapore, Malaysia and other countries with a large Chinese population, the profound influence of Chinese ethics and moral traditions in modern society can be seen everywhere to this day. Therefore, the excellent ethical and moral traditions of the Chinese nation are not only a precious heritage of the Chinese nation, but also a spiritual treasure for the East and for all mankind. II The fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation, in general, refer mainly to the essence of moral thought with the Confucian ethical tradition as the main content. Throughout the thousands of years of history, this traditional ethical and cultural thinking has been subject to the constraints of slave and feudal societies to a considerable extent, and has been constantly changing with the development of the times. The most important of traditional Chinese ethical thought is Confucianism, and its development and changes cannot be ignored. Confucius established the basic principles of Confucian ethical thought in the pre-Qin period, forming a system of ethical thought centred on benevolence and propriety. In the Han dynasty, the Confucianist Dong Zhongshu, with his emphasis on the so-called “three theories” of “induction of man and heaven”, “yin and yang, the five elements” and “the three principles and the five rules The so-called “Three Doctrines”, with their emphasis on “Heaven and Man”, “Yin and Yang” and “Three Principles and Five Constants”, transformed and distorted Confucian ethical thought and placed it in a “sole” position in history. The Song and Ming scholars, represented by Cheng, Zhu, Lu and Wang, further transformed and distorted Confucian ethical thought with their emphasis on the so-called “three theories” of “righteousness and profit”, “rational desire” and “spirituality”. They further transformed Confucian ethical thought by emphasizing the so-called “New Three Theories”, which not only gave it a new content but also led it into a quagmire of one-sidedness and absolutism. The realists of the Ming and Qing dynasties, in view of the shortcomings of the Song and Ming scholars’ empty talk about “heavenly principles and human desires”, adopted the ideology of “chanting the real and dismissing the imaginary”, “the state and the world” and “the unity of righteousness and profit”. In view of the shortcomings of the Song and Ming scholars who talked only about “heavenly principles and human desires”, the traditional Confucian ethical thinking was interpreted in a new way by the ideas of “the unity of righteousness and profit” and “the unity of the world”. With the emergence of the Enlightenment and the development of the old democratic revolution, the slogan “Down with Confucianism” became an important symbol of the opposition to the old ethics and the promotion of new ones in the May Fourth Movement. From the 1930s onwards, Xiong Shili, Liang Shuming, Feng Youlan, He Lin, Tang Junyi and Mou Zongsan, among others, gave a new overview of Confucian ethical thought that was supposedly adapted to the development of the times. As Confucian ethical

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thought changed, it was always influenced by the thought of Mo, Dao, Fa and Shi, and was constantly enriched by its reasonable content. Since Confucian ethical thought has undergone many significant changes in its historical development, what we call the excellent ethical tradition with Confucian ethical thought as its main content has always been inseparable from its transformation and distortion by various thinkers in different times and from the influence of the ruling class, and therefore it is inevitable that the essence and the dross coexist and are mixed together. Therefore, in order to carry forward the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation, we must take a scientific and historical materialist viewpoint, pursue the truth and seek truth from facts, and carry out a critical inheritance of the moral traditions of Chinese history, with Confucian ethical thought as the main content, eliminating its feudal dross, absorbing its democratic essence, discarding its negative content and promoting its positive effects. By adopting the principles of discarding the bad and taking away the good, critical inheritance, comprehensive innovation and the use of the past for the present, we will vigorously promote the fine moral tradition of the Chinese nation, so that this tradition can play a new and greater role in the new era. What is the fine moral tradition of the Chinese nation? I believe there are five main aspects: firstly, it emphasizes the spirit of wholeness and patriotism for the sake of society, the nation and the country; secondly, it promotes the principle of benevolence and love, emphasizing “virtue and harmony” and interpersonal harmony; thirdly, it advocates the value of human ethics, emphasizing the rights and duties of each individual in human relationships; fourthly, it pursues spirituality and aspires to Fourthly, the pursuit of spirituality and the desire for ideal personality is an important aspect of China’s fine moral tradition; fifthly, emphasis is placed on cultivation and practice, and on the subjectivity of moral initiative.3 III In order to build a modern socialist country, while vigorously developing the productive forces and striving to create more material civilization, it is also necessary to create a spiritual civilization that can adapt to the needs of the times, which is what we often call “both hands must be hard”. A high level of spiritual civilization not only provides intellectual support and spiritual impetus for the construction of material civilization, but also ensures the healthy development of material civilization in accordance with the established value orientation. In order to create a high level of spiritual civilization in the practice of socialism, we must be guided by Marxism, absorb all the outstanding achievements of human cultural development, pay attention to inherit and carry forward the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation, and ultimately create an advanced spiritual civilization of mankind, which will be more conducive to the construction of material and spiritual civilization of the world. Among the many problems facing people around the world in terms of ideology and value choices, the most noteworthy and worrying is the corruption and poisoning of people, especially young people, by money-worship, individualism and hedonism. 3

See pages 393 to 404 of this book for more details.

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The ideology of money, selfishness and greed for enjoyment is distorting the souls of some people, affecting the harmony of interpersonal relationships, and constraining economic development and social progress. The new ideology will help to inherit and further develop the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation, help to resist the corruption and poisoning of people by all decadent and corrupt ideas, help to eliminate the influence of money-worship, individualism and hedonism, and help to educate the masses of people, especially young students. Therefore, under the current circumstances, it is still of great relevance not only for China but also for some neighbouring countries to vigorously carry forward the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation.

On Promoting Good Chinese Ethics Traditional Thinking It is important to promote the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation,4 to strengthen the moral and ethical education of young people, and to cultivate and improve the moral and ethical quality of people. The Outline for the Reform and Development of Education in China clearly states that “emphasis should be placed on educating students about China’s outstanding cultural traditions”. Throughout its long history, the Chinese nation has always attached great importance to the education of moral character for society and for young people. Among the long-standing, colourful and profound ethical and cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, there are many fine traditions that still have a strong vitality today and are the valuable wealth of the Chinese nation. Combining the requirements of socialist morality with the fine traditional morality of the Chinese nation, thereby creating a higher spiritual civilization for human beings, has become an objective requirement for the development of socialist morality in China. Socialist morality in China is in no way divorced from traditional Chinese morality, but must and should be the inheritance and development of the fine traditional morality of Chinese history. The combination of socialist morality and traditional national morality is bound to have a stronger vitality.

The Right Attitude and Approach to Inherit the Fine Moral Traditions of the Chinese Nation The understanding of traditional Chinese culture, especially traditional ethics and morality, has undergone a tortuous process in modern Chinese history. Erroneous views such as national nihilism and the wholesale restoration of Confucianism have been widely prevalent. After the founding of New China, the Communist Party of China, guided by Marxism, put forward the correct approach to the critical inheritance 4

This article was originally published in People’s Education, No. 11, 1993.

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of ancient Chinese culture, established the attitude of absorbing its essence and discarding its dross, and correctly solved the problem of the attitude and approach to traditional culture and ethics. However, in the course of concrete practice, it was constantly interfered with by leftist and rightist ideas, among which the influence of national nihilism was more serious. To a certain extent, it has become an important obstacle to our progress on this issue. The national nihilist ideology since the founding of New China has come from two different sides, the “left” and the “right”. It is useful to review the two different aspects, the influence of these two erroneous trends, and to draw lessons on the issue of inheriting moral heritage, so that we can establish the right attitude and approach and better inherit our fine moral traditions. Since the founding of New China until the end of the Cultural Revolution, “leftist” thinking was reflected to varying degrees in several academic and political critiques of moral succession. In the late 1950s, in the critique of the landlord class theory of human nature, some people denied that morality had any human element; in 1962, in the critique of Wu Han’s work on moral inheritance, some people argued that all exploitative class morality could not be inherited by the proletariat. From the beginning of the Cultural Revolution onwards, while breaking down all the old ideas and habits of the exploiting class, the criticism was directed at the ethics and morals of feudal society, thus arguing that in the matter of morality, we and the ancients still use common values such as “loyalty” and “filial piety”, in addition to “loyalty” and “filial piety”. In addition to the common linguistic terms such as “filial piety” and “filial piety”, there is no inherited relationship in any sense. Not only was traditional morality not inherited, but “cultivation” was also seen as a product of landlord humanism, and “On the Cultivation of Communist Party Members” was said to be a “black cultivation” that should be discarded. The subsequent struggles of “criticizing Lin and criticizing Confucius” and “evaluating the law and criticizing Confucianism” led to a nationwide, years-long verbal attack on Confucian ethics and morality, which not only considered Confucianism to be conservative, reactionary and intended to restore the old system, but also criticized the personalities of Confucius, Mencius and Zhu Xi. It was not only considered to be conservative and reactionary and to be a restoration of the old system, but it also denounced the personalities of Confucius, Mencius, Zhu Xi and others, which had a bad impact. Of course, we should first of all inherit the fine moral traditions developed by the working people over a long period of time, but we must not go to the other extreme of denying our historical culture and our moral heritage, thus falling into the quagmire of national nihilism. From around 1980, when the “leftist” influence in the moral sphere on how to treat China’s fine traditions had not yet been completely purged, a “total westernization” ideology, from the right, under the banner of opposition to tradition, denied more comprehensively the positive role of traditional Chinese culture, especially traditional morality, and advocated national nihilism. The “total westernization” ideology, from the right, under the banner of opposition to tradition, denied more comprehensively the positive role of traditional Chinese culture, especially traditional morality, and advocated national nihilism. The Westernization theorists strongly advocated that

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China’s modernization must be fully Westernized, that is, the so-called “overall Westernization”, not only to introduce advanced Western science and technology, but also to learn Western politics and values, to justify Western “individualism”, and to advocate the use of “individualism”. They advocate the renewal of the value orientation of “collectivism” by “individualism”. Those who argue for total westernization deliberately confuse right and wrong, and oppose traditional Chinese culture and ethics to reform and opening up and the development of a socialist commodity economy, saying that traditional Chinese culture and ethics restrict people’s individuality, limit their development, cause ignorance and backwardness, and accumulate the so-called “slave personality”, etc., which should be totally rejected. It should be rejected in its entirety. For a period of time, various theories of national nihilism have emerged, such as the so-called “Western body-medium use theory” and the “yellow and blue civilization theory”. Some even said that “the Chinese cultural tradition has neither a burgeoning sense of sensual life nor a consciousness of rational introspection, only life itself has withered”, and should therefore have died long ago. One of the fundamental purposes of the total Westernization theorists in their efforts to deny the excellent traditional ethics and morality of the Chinese nation is to advocate and promote the extreme individualism of the bourgeoisie and oppose socialist collectivism. They vilify both traditional Chinese morality and socialist collectivism as suppressing, fettering and limiting the individual, as necessarily “shrinking self-consciousness”, and as being contrary to the requirements of modern development of the individual, and must therefore be completely rejected. The doctrine of total westernization is the outright national nihilism of our country today. With regard to China’s cultural and ethical heritage, Comrade Mao Zedong proposed that “from Confucius to Sun Yat-sen, we should summarize and inherit this precious heritage” and “eliminate the dross of its feudalism and absorb the essence of its democracy”. We should oppose both national nihilism and the theory of total affirmation, which does not distinguish between the dross and the essence. In our view, the correct approach to traditional Chinese ethics should be: critical inheritance, discarding the dregs and taking the essence, comprehensive innovation, and the use of the past for the present. Critical inheritance is a general principle, which means that our inheritance is critical, selective and purposeful, and is carried out in accordance with the theoretical principles of Marxism and the interests of the proletariat. Discarding the bad and extracting the good is an important requirement for inheriting traditional cultural heritage, especially traditional ethics and morals. To make a comprehensive innovation is to draw on the essence of traditional Chinese ethics and moral thought, but also to pay attention to all the excellent moral achievements of mankind, compare and distinguish them, and use them as food and raw materials for one’s own ethics and morality, and on this basis, make new creations. In other words, the main reason why we should critically inherit the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation is to adapt them to the needs of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and to play a positive role in our real life.

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What is the Fine Moral Tradition of the Chinese Nation The Chinese people 5 are a nation with thousands of years of splendid cultural traditions, and have always been a civilised nation and a nation of etiquette, standing on their own feet in the world. In order for our socialist morality to have a strong vitality, we must draw from our outstanding traditional virtues scientific, people’s, democratic and healthy contents that are adapted to the current needs of society, so that they have national characteristics, can be enjoyed by the general public and can be integrated with the national psyche, so as to better serve the four modernizations of socialism. From a general perspective, the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation can be inherited in five ways. (1) Emphasis on the spirit of holism for the nation, for the whole and for the country. The spirit of holism is the core of the fine moral tradition of the Chinese nation. Since ancient times, the Chinese nation has developed a unique national spirit of “being in public at all times” and “putting out private interests with public ones”. For a long time, Chinese society has been a blood-based and family-oriented society, and in terms of ethics and morals, it has always advocated the principle of “forgetting the family and the public over the private”, emphasizing that personal and family interests should be subordinated to the interests of the state and the nation. For the sake of the country and the nation, a moral person should “kill oneself for mercy”, “sacrifice one’s life for righteousness”, “serve one’s country with loyalty”, “put the public before the private “These have become the noble moral qualities that people respect. It was under the influence of this spirit of holism for the country and the nation that Zhuge Liang advocated “to do one’s utmost and to die afterwards”, Fan Zhongyan proposed “to worry about the world’s worries before the world’s happiness”, and Gu Yanwu emphasized that “the rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of one’s own people”. Gu Yanwu emphasized the lofty ideal and pursuit of “the rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of every man”. Lin Zexu’s poem, “If you want the country to live and die, do you want to avoid it because of disasters and blessings”, shows his noble virtue of disregarding personal safety and security for the sake of the country and the nation. This spirit of holism for the country and the nation is a powerful unifying force for the Chinese nation and has been the cornerstone of Chinese patriotism since ancient times. In the long history of the Chinese nation, there have been countless patriots who have fought bravely to defend the interests of the nation, who have defied violence, who have sacrificed their lives, and who have been steadfast until they gave their precious lives. The reason why they did so is that they were all the embodiment of this holistic spirit. It should be noted that the ancient Chinese holism, which always served the feudal system, must be critically transformed to serve socialism and the interests of the 5

The second part of this article was previously published in People’s Daily, 23 March 1994, with minor modifications.

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people. Under the current conditions of reform and opening up, it is of particular importance to uphold and develop the idea of Chinese integralism and to carry forward the patriotic spirit of the Chinese nation. The interests of the whole, the interests of the state, the interests of society and the interests of the individual have both unifying and contradictory aspects. In ancient Chinese society, this is often referred to as the relationship between ‘righteousness’ and ‘profit’. Generally speaking, ‘righteousness’ refers to the public interest, the interest of society, the nation and the feudal state, while ‘profit’ refers, in more cases, to the private interest of the individual. In traditional Chinese ethical thought, there was a long debate on how to treat “righteousness” and “profit”. Confucius emphasized that “righteousness should be followed by righteousness”, “righteousness should be considered in the light of profit” and “righteousness should be considered in the light of gain”. Yan Yuan advocated that “the righteousness of the people should be considered as the righteousness of the people, and the righteousness of the people as the righteousness of the people. In general, Confucianism attaches more importance to righteousness than to profit, and opposes the idea of “forgetting righteousness for profit” and “profit is the only thing that matters”. Now that we are in the socialist era, the connotations of righteousness and profit in feudal society have long since disappeared, but the new relationship between righteousness and profit still exists. “The ideas of “righteousness before profit”, “righteousness after profit” and “righteousness before taking” were still in existence, and were of great importance in opposing The ideas of “righteousness before profit”, “righteousness in the light of profit” and “righteousness before taking” are still relevant to oppose the ideas of “forgetting righteousness in the light of profit” and “profit only”. (2) Promoting the principle of benevolence and love, emphasizing “love for others” and interpersonal harmony. The founder of Confucianism, Confucius, was the first to put forward the idea that “benevolence” means “loving others” and to make “loving others” a fundamental requirement of morality. The idea of “loving people” can be said to be the earliest humanitarian idea in ancient China, which means that all people are regarded as a class, and therefore advocates that people should have a sense of compassion, sympathy and love for their own kind. One should care for one’s own kind from the perspective of one’s own feelings. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you” are the principles on which people base their personal relationships with others. Mencius inherited Confucius’ idea of “the benevolent person loves others” and further raised the issue of human “conscience”. He believed that man is different from beasts in that he has morality, in that he has “compassion”, “pity”, “care” and love for others that beasts do not have. It is from this principle of benevolence and love that traditional Chinese morality emphasizes “human harmony”, “harmony” and “harmony is precious”, and “harmony begets wealth” in the relationship between human beings. The idea of “harmony creates wealth”. This is reflected in the saying that “Heavenly timing is better than geographical location, and geographical location is

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better than human harmony”, and that “When people’s hearts are in unison, the mountains will move”. In order to maintain the harmony of interpersonal relationships, traditional Chinese morality also places special emphasis on such moral requirements as “treating others with generosity and disciplining oneself with strictness”, “helping others with joy” and “giving oneself to save others”, in order to regulate the relationship between people. The “benevolence” in traditional Chinese morality is a key element in the relationship between human beings. The idea of “benevolence and love” in traditional Chinese morality has been constantly developed in different historical periods, and although it contains elements of consolidating the interests of the feudal ruling class and maintaining the ruling order, it has played an important role in the long-term development of the Chinese nation in harmonizing interpersonal relations and maintaining social stability. (3) The importance of human relationships and the promotion of human values. In a certain sense, we can say that Chinese culture is an “ethical” culture, and in traditional Chinese morality, the importance of ethical values has become an important feature. In an ancient society based on the family, traditional Chinese morality attached the greatest importance to the five human relationships of “father’s righteousness, mother’s kindness, brother’s friendship, brother’s respect and son’s filial piety”, and made them moral requirements for mutual observance. Confucius further highlighted the relationship between rulers and ministers, proposing the principle that “the ruler should treat his ministers with propriety and the ministers should serve the ruler with loyalty”. Mencius outlined the five most important human relationships in feudal society, namely, ‘father and son have kinship, ruler and subject have righteousness, husband and wife have distinction, elders and youngsters have order, and friends have trust’, which were used to maintain and improve the various relationships between people in society at that time. Among the “Five Rites”, traditional Chinese morality placed particular emphasis on the human relations between parents and children. “The phrase “father and son are related” is further interpreted as “father is kind to son”, and filial piety is seen as the root of all morality. If a person is able to serve his parents well in the family, he will be able to treat others and society properly, and he will be able to have “faith” in others and be loyal to the state. Traditional Chinese morality stresses that one should not only support but also respect one’s parents: “As for dogs and horses, they can all be nurtured. “If a person cannot even respect and love his parents who gave birth to and educated him, how can he love the motherland and the people? In traditional Chinese human relations, the requirement of “the king as the subject, the father as the son, and the husband as the wife” put forward during the Han Dynasty obliterated the independent personality of subjects, sons and wives, and served the hierarchy of the time. On the whole, however, China’s traditional morality, which attaches importance to human relations and human values, still has positive significance in harmonizing various human relationships today, if it is correctly analyzed and developed to its reasonable elements.

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Traditional Chinese morality has evolved over the course of history in terms of the importance it attaches to human relationships. On the one hand, Confucius and Mencius emphasized the importance of filial piety to parents, but on the other hand, they believed that parents could “admonish” them if they had made mistakes, but that they should be careful about their attitude. Confucius advocated the idea of ‘serving the ruler in the right way and stopping when it is not possible’, which meant that if the ruler could not listen to the right advice, he could leave him. Mencius believed that both rulers and ministers should fulfil their responsibilities. He said, “If a ruler treats his ministers like his hands and feet, then his ministers treat him like his heart; if a ruler treats his ministers like dogs and horses, then his ministers treat him like his countrymen; if a ruler treats his ministers like dirt, then his ministers treat him like enemies.” It was believed that subjects should not be absolutely subservient to the king. However, after the Qin and Han dynasties, especially the Confucians of the Song and Ming dynasties, the “three principles” of the Five Rites were distorted in a one-sided way, to the point of foolish loyalty and filial piety, which is wrong. We should analyze and distinguish this complex situation. (4) The pursuit of spirituality, the pursuit of a noble moral ideal personality. Traditional Chinese ethical thought places particular emphasis on the “purpose of learning”, which is first and foremost to change one’s temperament and cultivate one’s moral character, that is, to learn how to behave. In terms of the relationship between professional knowledge and moral character, the emphasis is on “knowledge before art and literature”, which means that moral quality should be given priority over literary skills, and that in order to be a person of expertise, one should first improve oneself morally. The pursuit of this noble moral state is always associated with a philosophy of life of “self-improvement” and “robustness”, and is always associated with “to be indignant and forgetful” and “to be happy and forgetful”. It is from this pursuit of noble spirituality that the philosophy of “self-improvement” and “virtuousness” has always been linked. It is from this pursuit of a noble spirituality that traditional Chinese ethics and morals attach importance to the spiritual power of an independent personality, “While three armies can take away a commander, a man cannot take away his will”. In the course of one’s life, no matter what situation one encounters, no matter what hazards one encounters, one must “not surrender his will, not humiliate his body”, one must have the character of a great man who “cannot be molested by the rich, cannot be shifted by the poor, and cannot be bent by the mighty”. We should be unyielding to all external pressures, and strive to maintain an unyielding, independent and noble personality. This is a consciousness of human dignity, which is the backbone of our nation and which plays a particularly important role in maintaining the development of the Chinese nation. Confucius said, “A man of virtue and will has no desire to live to the detriment of benevolence, but has to kill himself to become benevolent”; Mencius said, “If there is a way in the world, one will martyr oneself with the way; if there is no way in the world, one will martyr oneself with the way”; “I want to live and I want to be righteous, and I cannot have both. The one who sacrifices life for

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righteousness is also the one who sacrifices life for righteousness. This shows a persistent will and spirit in the pursuit of a lofty spiritual state and an ideal personality. It is with this pursuit that a moral person is able to “eat a frying pan and drink a dipper” without changing his happiness, always maintaining the optimistic spirit of pursuing a noble personality. From the pursuit of a noble moral ideal, traditional Chinese morality emphasizes the importance of educating children from the time they are young in their ideology and moral character, “making sure that they are taught and practiced at an early age”, so that they can “grow in wisdom with their studies and become wise with their hearts”. He wanted them to “grow in wisdom and in heart”, to be sincere, to correct their minds, to live in respect, and to practice, in order to achieve the goal of “becoming saintly” and “becoming virtuous”. Guan Zhong said, “A year’s plan is like a tree; a decade’s plan is like a tree; a lifetime’s plan is like a tree. A tree that reaps one harvest is also a grain; a tree that reaps ten harvests is also a wood; a tree that reaps a hundred harvests is also a man.” This is the traditional idea of education that values moral quality, which is “a tree for ten years and a man for a hundred years”. It is precisely because attention is paid to teaching people the necessary moral principles, moral norms and various manners from the time they are “young”, and trying to make them familiar with these principles and norms from an early age, so that when they grow up, they will not be “defiant” or “contradictory” to these norms and manners. “In this way, when they grow up, they will not have a rebellious attitude towards these norms and manners, and will be able to receive the desired effect of education. (5) Emphasis is placed on cultivation and practice, and on the unity of moral theory and moral practice, moral understanding and moral conduct. After setting up the lofty moral ideal, that is, the ideal personality of a gentleman, a sage or a saint, it is more important to develop one’s aspiration, cultivate one’s heart and body, practice and change one’s temperament in order to achieve this idea. First of all, traditional Chinese moral thought places special emphasis on the dynamic spirit of the moral subject, which is “to be benevolent by oneself”. Confucius said, “When I want to be benevolent, I will be benevolent” and “Can anyone use his strength to be benevolent one day? I have not seen anyone who is not strong enough”. When it came to the question of whether one could become a moral saint, Mencius opposed “self-abandonment” and believed that “all men can become Yao Shun”. Xunzi emphasized social education and individual selfawareness, and believed that “a man of Tu can become a Yu”, stressing that a person can become a moral man if he sets his mind to goodness. Secondly, traditional Chinese ethics and morality emphasize the unity of “knowledge” and “action”. Only when one knows how to behave is one not considered moral, but only when one has practiced the code of ethics is one truly moral. Wang Yangming emphasizes the unity of “knowledge and action” and believes that “if someone is said to know filial piety and someone knows brotherhood, he must have already done filial piety and brotherhood”. If one only says that one should be filial and a disciple but “refuses to practice them”, then one cannot be called

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a person who knows filial piety and a disciple. In order to achieve the unity of knowledge and action, it is necessary to strengthen the moral subject’s efforts to “examine and rule” himself. The following are some examples: “I have to examine myself three times a day”, “There must be a teacher for the three of us”, “See the virtuous and think of the virtuous, see the unvirtuous and reflect on yourself”, “Practice is better in hard work than in play; The saying goes, “If you listen to both sides, you will understand, but if you believe in one side, you will not”, “If you are not my teacher, you will be my teacher”, “If you flatter me, you will be my thief”, and “If you are a gentleman, you will be a thief”. “A gentleman’s transgressions are like the eclipse of the sun and the moon: when he transgresses, everyone sees him; when he changes, everyone looks up to him”. These popular aphorisms are all closely related to the practice of moral cultivation. In moral cultivation, traditional Chinese morality emphasizes the role of conscience in choosing good from evil, and considers the ability to be “prudent and solitary” to be the key to improving moral standards. When a person is alone, unsupervised, it is an important time for cultivation. An immoral person, when alone and unsupervised, will do everything and hide his immoral behavior in front of others, while a moral person will use this as an opportunity to do good deeds and try to be moral. By its very nature, “morality” is a conscious act, a “self-disciplined” act. Only by virtue of people’s moral awareness, by virtue of their self-discipline of “conscience”, will the normative role of morality become truly voluntary, free from external constraints, and will the social role of morality be fully brought into play. Therefore, it is right to emphasize the idea of “prudence” in moral education and moral cultivation. The above five aspects are an analysis of traditional Chinese morality in general. It should be noted that the moral traditions of the Chinese nation, especially the good customs and traditions of the working people in society, are as vast as a vast ocean. For example, love of labor, diligence, frugality, respect for the elderly and the young, respect for teachers and the virtuous, modesty and courtesy, honesty and trustworthiness, as well as honesty and integrity, positivity and enterprise, indignation, strength and courage, and so on, can be said to be the treasures of traditional Chinese morality. These fine moral traditions have played a very important and positive role in the history of China. We should bring together all the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation, combine them with the requirements of the new era, and give them new content so that they can shine with new light in the new society.

Promoting China in the Construction of the Four Socialist Modernizations: The Importance of the nation’s Fine Moral Traditions With the expansion of reform and opening up and the development of the commodity economy, China is carrying out the construction of the four modernizations of

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socialism, which has put forward higher requirements for the construction of spiritual civilization in China, especially for the construction of ideology and morality. From a worldwide perspective, competition is very fierce, but the competition in the future will ultimately be expressed in the competition for the quality of human resources. For our country, the most important thing is to be able to train new socialist “four-spirited” people who are “ideal, moral, educated and disciplined”. Strengthening moral and ethical education is an important aspect of cultivating the “four new men”. Therefore, in the light of the current situation, we must establish an ethical and moral system with Chinese characteristics, so that our socialist morality can have national characteristics and form a new cohesive force in the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. Many of the requirements and norms of socialist morality that we have advocated since the founding of New China can find their historical origins in the traditional virtues of China. Moreover, in the course of thousands of years of historical development, not only have these fine traditional virtues formed proverbs and maxims, but also countless moral models and exemplary examples, which have been recited from generation to generation among the people and have a very strong vitality. They have been recited from generation to generation, and have a powerful force of life. “The Chinese proletariat has become the flesh and blood of the Chinese nation and a precious treasure of the Chinese nation. The Chinese proletariat should be the inheritors and promoters of China’s excellent moral traditions. The new morality of socialism, reform and opening up can only be based on the critical inheritance of the Chinese moral tradition. Critical inheritance and comprehensive innovation are the inevitable laws of moral development in human society. We have been one-sided in our understanding of this point, which should be seriously corrected and overcome. Some people have doubted whether the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation can play a facilitating role in modernising society. The history and reality of the social and economic development of China and some of its neighbouring countries show that the excellent cultural and moral traditions of the Chinese nation have not only not hindered the modernization process of these countries, but have also become a driving force for the modernization of these countries. The development of the commodity economy and the negative effects of individualism, money-grubbing and hedonism that it may induce, such as forgetfulness of righteousness, profit-seeking, enrichment of the public and self-interest, as well as counterfeiting and speculation, are increasingly damaging the interests of the people and hindering economic development. These phenomena are incompatible with the spiritual civilization of socialism, and are also incompatible with the fine moral tradition of the Chinese nation. By vigorously carrying forward the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation, it will be conducive to opposing and resisting the various corrupt ideas in society, thus enabling the modernization of our country to move forward more healthily along the socialist road. In the current ideological and moral education in schools, we should make good use of the useful contents of the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation, make full use of the norms, stories, aphorisms and proverbs that have been repeatedly extolled and enjoyed by people, and after careful selection, compile them into a series of

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teaching materials to educate our young people from primary school, secondary school and even university, so that they can be nurtured from an early age to form a moral code and values unique to the Chinese nation and develop a moral personality unique to the Chinese nation, so that they can take up the historical burden of revitalising China and making the Chinese nation stronger and more prosperous. This will enable them to take up the historical burden of revitalising China and making it stronger and more prosperous. Finally, we should also emphasize that, with Marxism as our guide, while adhering to the moral principles of socialism, we should pay attention to all the outstanding moral achievements of mankind and vigorously promote the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation, so as to create an advanced spiritual civilization of mankind in the world and promote the moral progress of mankind as a whole. History is constantly moving forward, and the individualistic ideology and values of capitalist society have hindered the development of Western society as a whole. The excellent cultural and ethical traditions nurtured by the Chinese nation for thousands of years have been the spiritual pillar on which the Chinese nation has been built for a long time. At a time of reform and opening up and the building of socialism with Chinese characteristics, carrying forward the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation will not only create a strong national centripetal force and cohesion, but will also have an important impact on the exchange of ideas across the Taiwan Strait and the completion of the great task of reunification, as well as on the ideology, culture and values of many neighbouring countries, and will therefore play an increasingly important role in the building of spiritual civilization in human society as a whole. It will therefore play an increasingly important role in the building of spiritual civilization in human society as a whole.

Promoting the Fine Moral Traditions of Ancient China: A Few Noteworthy Points The 6 promotion of the fine traditional morality of the Chinese nation in ancient times is of great significance in building a socialist spiritual civilization with Chinese characteristics, cultivating the “four new men” and improving social morals, harmonizing interpersonal relations and maintaining social stability, as well as forming new values and moral codes. From the founding of New China until the reform and opening up of China to build a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we have travelled a tortuous path in inheriting the fine cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, especially the fine traditional morality of the Chinese nation, over a period of forty years. Long before the founding of New China, Comrade Mao Zedong had correctly proposed the correct attitude towards the traditional culture of the Chinese nation. However, interference from the “left” and the “right”, national nihilism and the uncritical revival of 6

This article was originally published in Yanhuang Cultural Studies, No. 3, 1996. This article was previously published in outline form in Seeking Truth, No. 10, 1996.

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Confucianism, especially the national nihilism of total westernization, have had many negative effects on the proper promotion of the fine cultural heritage of the nation. Through forty years of tortuous development, a consensus has now been reached on the importance of promoting China’s fine traditional culture. This consensus is that we must adopt a Marxist position, viewpoint and method to analyze the traditional culture, ethics and moral heritage of the Chinese nation, discard its dross and absorb its essence. We should oppose national nihilism and uncritical retrogressive thinking. Although in practice there may be deviations of one kind or another in the future, and even problems of one kind or another are bound to arise, not only must we not waver, but we must also adhere to the guiding principle of promoting the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation. In my view, there are five issues that deserve our attention in terms of our understanding of the promotion of the good moral traditions of ancient China.

The Fundamental Purpose of Promoting the Fine Moral Traditions of Ancient China The fundamental purpose of promoting the fine moral traditions of ancient China is to give socialist morality a national character and a rich and colourful connotation, so as to form ethical ideas, values and moral codes that meet the needs of the four modernizations of socialism, strengthen the spirit of self-respect, self-confidence, self-reliance and self-improvement of the Chinese nation, help to promote the main themes of patriotism, collectivism and socialism, and help China’s It is also conducive to the promotion of patriotism, collectivism and socialism, and to the smooth and healthy development of China’s reform and opening up along the socialist road. The construction of socialist ideology and morality is, in a certain sense, the core of the construction of socialist spiritual civilization, and the promotion of the fine moral traditions of ancient China is an important aspect of strengthening the construction of socialist spiritual civilization, which has an important position in the socialist spiritual civilization. To promote the fine moral traditions of ancient China is to adhere to the moral principles and moral codes of socialism, to adhere to the guiding ideology of Marxism, to strengthen the conviction of socialism, and to better develop healthily along the road of socialism. Some time ago, there was a misconception among some people that the reason for inheriting the traditional Chinese virtues was that our socialist morality based on the basic principle of collectivism was too demanding and not easy for people to achieve, so they lowered the requirements and promoted traditional Chinese morality. This means that traditional morality is being used to replace the current socialist morality, which is of course very wrong. The moral requirement of socialist collectivism is not an unattainable ideal that is detached from people’s actual moral life, but rather a number of ladders that people can climb to the moral summit. The principle of collectivism holds that the interests

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of the individual and the interests of the whole are unified, and that when the interests of the individual are in conflict with the interests of society and the state, the interests of the individual should be subordinated to the interests of the collective. However, collectivism does not mean that individual interests are not valued, it emphasizes the guarantee of the realisation of legitimate individual interests, the dynamic role of the individual, and the realisation of individual values as an important aspect of the realisation of collective values. As for traditional Chinese morality, its requirements are not, as some people believe, for anyone to attain. The wisdom, benevolence, courage, courtesy, righteousness, integrity and trust required by traditional Chinese morality in ancient times are also very high moral requirements. As for what Confucius called the “gentleman”, “saint” and “virtuous man”, they are even more difficult for ordinary people to attain. The ancients believed that the moral requirements of a society should be both practical and ideal. For this highest requirement, the ancients believed that even if it was not easy for ordinary people to attain it within a certain period of time, they should still pursue it tirelessly with the spirit of perseverance, “though they cannot attain it, they aspire to it”. In this way, how can we say that the demands of socialism are too high? Socialist morality is a morality that serves the ideal society of common prosperity, and we should comprehensively understand the relationship between its different levels of moral requirements and its emphasis on the ideal personality, and constantly improve our own moral quality.

Guiding Ideas for Promoting Good Morals in Ancient China Ancient Chinese morality is rich in content and has a long history, and is an important part of China’s intellectual and cultural tradition. As Comrade Mao Zedong said: “Our nation has a history of thousands of years, with its own characteristics and its many precious treasures. We are still schoolchildren in this. Today’s China is a development of historical China; we are Marxist historicists and we should not cut off history. From Confucius to Sun Yat-sen, we should take stock and inherit this precious heritage.” But at the same time, we should also see that traditional Chinese morality was formed during the long period of slave and feudal societies, and has the brand of the times and classes, with both the essence and the dross. Comrade Jiang Zemin pointed out at a conference to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China: “The Chinese nation is a great nation with a long history and excellent culture. Our cultural construction cannot be cut off from history. We must take the essence of the traditional culture of the nation and remove the dross, and develop it in the light of the characteristics of the times, pushing forward the new, so that it will continue to flourish.” In critically inheriting the traditional morality of the Chinese nation, special emphasis should be placed on the need to analyze it under the guidance of Marxist historical materialism, to eliminate its negative content which upholds the hierarchy, promotes male superiority over female and restricts the development of individuality, and to give it a new meaning in the light of the new situation arising from the development of the times and the process of socialist

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construction. Traditional Chinese morality should neither be rejected nor inherited in its entirety. The correct attitude is to be guided by Marxism and to adhere to the attitude of “critically inheriting, discarding the bad and taking the good, synthesizing and innovating, and using the ancient for the present”, so as to create a good moral environment for the construction of China’s four modernizations. Ancient Chinese traditional morality has both the democratic, popular, scientific and altruistic essence and the feudal dross; it has both the positive, progressive and innovative side and the negative, conservative and backward side. In many cases, the best and the worst are often combined, presenting a complex mix of good and bad, flawed and uneven. “Critical succession” is a general principle and a unified guiding ideology. Criticism and succession should be understood in the context of their interconnectedness, not in isolation and in isolation. The critical inheritance we emphasize is a historical, dialectical, discriminatory critical inheritance under the guidance of Marxism. The critique we are talking about is not a simple negation, but a negation that includes affirmation and a critique that includes inheritance; the inheritance we are talking about is not an inheritance that takes certain “good things” as they are, but an inheritance that is transformed and given new meaning. “It emphasizes that this is an inheritance that has been chewed, digested and absorbed. In general terms, traditional Chinese ethics can be divided into three different categories. One part is dross, one part is both essence and dross, and one part can be said to be basically essence (although, of course, strictly speaking, this form of division is not scientific). What needs to be stressed here is that even certain traditional morals, which are essentially the essence, still need to be critically inherited. We all recognise that Fan Zhongyan’s two famous lines, “To worry about the world first and to be happy afterwards”, are a fine Chinese moral tradition, but for us today they still need to be inherited critically, leaving behind the limitations of their time and giving them a new meaning. The “synthesis and innovation” is also important for the inheritance of the ancient Chinese moral tradition. The ancient Chinese moral tradition includes the rich ideological and moral contents of Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, Buddhism and Bing, etc. It must not be limited to one school of Confucianism, but should be analyzed and compared, synthesized and innovated, and made an integral part of socialist morality. In addition to this, “synthesis and innovation” also requires the collation, processing, comparison and identification of the moral heritage of all mankind, so that what is useful can be drawn from it and combined with traditional Chinese ethics and morality to create an advanced spiritual civilization for mankind. “The reason why we have to promote the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation is to meet the real needs of moral construction in socialism with Chinese characteristics, and to help solve the many ethical and moral problems that arise in the market economy, so as to create a good moral environment for our economic construction, a more stable and united situation for our political life, and a more harmonious and friendly atmosphere for our interpersonal relations. It is to help solve many of the ethical and moral problems that arise in our market economy, so as to create a good moral environment for our economic construction, a more

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stable and united situation for our political life, and a more harmonious and friendly atmosphere for our interpersonal relations. In short, “critical inheritance” is not a simple slogan, but a serious, serious and meticulous work on the ancient Chinese moral tradition based on the Marxist position, viewpoint and method.

Promoting the Fine Moral Traditions of Ancient China While Attention Should Be Paid to the Promotion of Chinese Revolutionary Moral Traditions The fine moral traditions of ancient China are our precious heritage and should be vigorously promoted. At the same time, it is even more important to promote the moral traditions of the Chinese revolution and to educate the masses with the deeds of revolutionary pioneers, benevolent people and moral models, as well as the workers, peasants and revolutionary intellectuals who are engaged in socialist construction. Since the Xinhai Revolution, and especially since the founding of the Communist Party of China, the noble deeds of the best sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, who sacrificed their lives for the nation and for the revolution and construction of a new socialist China, are an inexhaustible source of strength for us. The spirit of the times and the moral sentiments embodied in the moral tradition of the Chinese revolution are both inspired by and superior to the fine traditional morality of ancient China, and are a sublimation of the fine moral tradition of ancient China. In terms of ideology, according to the development of the revolution and construction, many revolutionaries, thinkers and theorists have made new Marxist generalizations about new moral theories, moral principles and moral codes. Comrade Jiang Zemin pointed out: “Carry forward the fine moral traditions of ancient China and the revolutionary moral tradition, draw on all the outstanding moral achievements of mankind, and strive to create an advanced spiritual civilization of mankind.” The importance of carrying forward the revolutionary moral tradition to the current moral construction was stressed. Therefore, we should better combine the good moral traditions of the ancient times with the revolutionary moral traditions. In the new era of reform and opening up and building the four modernizations of socialism, in the process of realizing a socialist market economy, the promotion of the fine moral traditions of ancient China can only be combined with the promotion of the revolutionary moral traditions since the founding of the Communist Party of China in order to truly achieve the goal of raising the socialist moral consciousness of the masses. We know that the development of the commodity economy will inevitably induce the growth of individualism, money-worship and hedonism, which will make some people calculate their personal interests and pursue various materialistic pleasures, while wavering or even losing confidence in the future of socialism. Therefore, when promoting the traditional morality of ancient China, we should also

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strive to elevate it to a higher level, so that it can play a greater role in building a socialist cause with Chinese characteristics. The fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation and the revolutionary traditional morality since the founding of the Communist Party of China are both different and related. Although they were formed in different times and in different social relations, and have different ideological characteristics, they share the national characteristics of national feelings, national psychology and national qualities as a whole. The ancient Chinese traditional morality of dedication to the nation, to society and to the country and the spirit of patriotism have a national origin, as do the traditional Chinese revolutionary morality of concern for the people, love for the people, dedication to the people and dedication to the motherland and patriotism. In the ancient moral tradition of the Chinese people, the ideas of “seeing profit and thinking of righteousness”, “seeing gain and thinking of righteousness”, “righteousness before profit” and “seeking profit with righteousness” have been adopted in the past. After the ideas of “righteousness before profit” and “righteousness for profit” in the ancient moral traditions of the Chinese nation have been critically transformed, it will be easier for our people to accept and identify with the socialist moral values of righteousness and profit, which are based on the interests of the people and the interests of the state. The healthy development of the market economy. Similarly, the firm belief in socialism and communism and the persistent pursuit of the ideal personality in our revolutionary morality are the leap and sublimation of the ancient Chinese fine moral tradition of “killing oneself for righteousness” and “sacrificing one’s life for righteousness” in the period of socialist revolution and construction. It is the new contemporary embodiment of this idea in the socialist period. Therefore, by promoting the fine moral traditions of ancient China and the revolutionary moral traditions of the new era, and by organically combining the two, we can better form a new socialist morality with Chinese characteristics, which will be more conducive to strengthening the cohesion and centripetal force of our nation and more effectively raise the moral standards of the general public.

Promote the Fine Moral Traditions of Ancient China, with Emphasis on the Question of the Distinction Between “Neo-Confucianism” and Confucianism, It is also a Current Issue Worth Noting Generally speaking, “Neo-Confucianism” refers to the school of thought that has been formed in China since the 1920s with the aim of promoting and restoring the doctrine of Confucianism. At present, this school has had varying degrees of influence in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as in the United States and Singapore, and since the reform and opening up of China, scholars of this school have also had a certain influence in our society through exchanges with scholars in China. For a long time, this school has been devoted to the study of traditional Chinese

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Confucianism, and has explored many issues of Confucianism in some depth, and has made certain achievements. Their opposition to “Taiwan independence” and their advocacy of Chinese reunification are also positive. However, they did not use the idea of historical materialism to critically inherit Confucianism, but stressed the need to “revive Confucianism”, to “return to the roots and open up new ones”, and to try to develop modern science and democracy in the root of Confucianism. There is a difference of principle with us. They oppose socialism and ultimately want to build a Confucian capitalist society, which is even more opposed to the socialist path we uphold. We should have a clear understanding of this point and a clear position of our own. In the previous period, some people were confused about the Confucian capitalism advocated by Neo-Confucianism and suggested that the spirit of Confucianism should be the spirit of our times, which is of course very wrong. The traditional culture of ancient China, including Confucian culture and Confucian ethics, cannot serve the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics if it is not criticised and discarded by Marxism; on the contrary, it may become a resistance to the construction of the four modernizations of socialism. The modern Neo-Confucians, with the aim of “reviving Confucianism”, have sought to reaffirm the value of Confucianism under modern conditions, and they have made a relatively in-depth study of Confucian ethical and moral thought, including a more in-depth study and new elaboration of traditional Chinese morality in relation to moral subjectivity, the ideal of life, moral rationality and the value of personality, They have also sought to make Confucianism conducive to the improvement of the moral qualities of people in the current society. However, the starting point for their study of morality was not historical materialism, but the so-called a priori good nature of human beings. The cultivation of the “moral self” that they advocate is basically out of touch with reality. Not only does it not contribute to the moral improvement of people, but it also fails to achieve what they call the moral ascension. In particular, it is worth pointing out that, in our view, although Confucianism should be critically inherited and its essence promoted, it is no longer possible for Confucianism to embody the spirit of the times of the Chinese nation, let alone to deny the guidance of Marxism and replace the direction of socialism with Confucianism. In the academic exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, the promotion of the excellent cultural traditions of the Chinese nation, especially the moral traditions, is conducive to the emotional exchanges between the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and the reunification of the motherland, and this should be affirmed. Our way forward can only be socialism and not Confucian capitalism. Promoting the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation can make our socialist morality more distinctive, more pleasing to the masses, and more easily shared by the people of all nationalities from an ideological and emotional point of view. However, all this can only be done on the premise of strengthening and enriching socialist morality, and should never be used as an excuse to take our morality away from socialism. In conclusion, in promoting the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation, we should see both the commonalities and the important differences between us and the current neo-Confucian scholars at home and abroad. We should adhere to the guidance of Marxism and the path of socialism.

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Be Aware of Unhealthy Retro Thinking Such as Feudal Superstition At home, when promoting the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation, we must also be aware of a new trend of retrospective thinking, which is still noteworthy, even though it is mainly found at the level of popular culture. This trend has taken the ideas of loyalty, filial piety, modesty, righteousness and retribution by ghosts and gods, and the inferiority of men and women, which were preached in feudal society, and promoted them in today’s society, even in the vain hope of raising people’s moral standards and improving our social atmosphere with such corrupt ideas. For example, in some places, the so-called “Twenty-four Filial Virtues” are sculpted into wax statues, and in some places, the so-called “The Book of Supreme Induction” is printed and distributed. In the past, many of the books on Mongolian learning were widely distributed without analysis or guidance. In these books, there are indeed some gems that can be inherited after being discarded, but there are also many drosses. The unswerving promotion of the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation has already gained a consensus among the masses of our people, and this is a guiding principle that we will always adhere to in the future. Therefore, in our popularization work, we should adhere to the Marxist attitude of critical inheritance, and prevent and oppose the use of reactionary, decadent, feudal and autocratic, foolish, loyal and filial, patriarchal, patriarchal, and harmful moral concepts that denigrate the peasant revolution as the essence of traditional morality to corrupt the masses of our people. Some examples of traditional Chinese morality must be carefully, meticulously and concretely analyzed, and must not be treated in a general way. In the case of the “Twenty-four Filial Virtues”, which have been popular in society since the Ming and Qing dynasties, there are indeed many examples of the traditional virtue of “filial piety and respect for one’s parents” that are worthy of our inheritance, but there are also examples of feudal superstition, ghosts, gods and goddesses, and absurd and nonsensical arguments that are not close to human feelings, They should be firmly discarded. At present, many popular books, popular magazines and reference materials for the purpose of promoting traditional virtues are springing up, and many historical enlightenment books, good advice books, aphorisms, family teachings and family heirlooms have been published in large numbers, a phenomenon that deserves serious attention at present. In terms of popularising the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation and educating the masses, this work is undoubtedly necessary. However, the publication and distribution of such books should be based on social benefits rather than on economic benefits. For the masses, especially children and young people, traditional virtues must be seriously identified and given a new meaning, and should never be printed without analysis and criticism to poison the masses with the absurd and nonsensical contents of ghosts, gods and superstitions. Theoreticians and publishers should be more conscious of the lofty responsibilities and arduous tasks facing them in the new era, so that the work of promoting the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation can contribute to raising the socialist moral awareness of the masses,

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encourage people to strive for success and make a positive contribution to the training of the “four new men”. This will encourage the people to strive for excellence and make a positive contribution to the cultivation of the “four virtues”.

The Traditional Ethical Culture of the Chinese People: Future Value Orientation As mankind looks7 towards the forthcoming twenty-first century, the question of what impact Chinese culture will have on the future clash and convergence of world cultures is a matter of great concern to many people. The cultural tradition of the Chinese nation is characterised by a national, unique and ethical value orientation. Therefore, in a certain sense, it can be said that traditional Chinese culture is an ethical value-oriented culture, an ethical culture with the promotion of good and the suppression of evil as its core, with the unity of truth, goodness and beauty, and with moral education as its purpose. The culture of the Chinese nation, united by the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty, is extremely rich in connotations. In terms of spiritual culture alone, it encompasses philosophical, literary, educational, historical, musical, artistic, legal and moral aspects such as those created by the Han and 55 ethnic minorities. …… has become a major aspect in the construction of Chinese culture. Although Chinese culture has been marked by different classes and times as history has developed, the emphasis on the spirit of virtue in culture, on the unity of virtue and wisdom, on the unification of virtue and wisdom, and on the idea of moral education in all cultures, has been an important feature that has distinguished Chinese culture from that of other nationalities for thousands of years. Looking at the history of the development of Chinese culture over thousands of years, examining the important aspects contained in Chinese culture, studying and analysing the social psychology of the Chinese nation, it is clear that the celebration of the true, the good and the beautiful, the depreciation of the false, the ugly and the evil, especially the praise of the good and the depreciation of the evil, the elimination of the evil for the sake of the good, the pursuit of the good and the aversion to the evil, and the turning away from the good, have become the centre of Chinese literature, art, morality, history, philosophy, education, religion and other fields. or centre of gravity. It is in this context that we can say that the traditional culture of the Chinese nation is a culture with a strong ethical value orientation towards virtue and goodness. As for the differences between Chinese and Western cultures, some people distinguish between a virtuous culture and an intellectual culture, but Chinese culture emphasizes virtue rather than wisdom, and therefore we should say that Chinese culture is a culture that emphasizes ethical values by unifying virtue and wisdom and by using virtue to unify wisdom. 7

This article was originally published in The Great Strategic Planning of China in the Twenty-first Century, Red Flag Publishing House, September 1996.

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The literature of the Chinese people is one of the oldest and most glorious in the history of mankind, and it profoundly embodies the idea of the unity of truth, goodness and beauty. For a long period of time, literature has been regarded as a means of “teaching the way”. Although this ethical value orientation was often influenced by feudal ethical principles due to the limitations of the times, the struggle between good, evil and beauty, the call to dedicate oneself to the people, and the spirit of pursuing nobility, debasing evil, aspiring to justice and opposing oppression are worthy of our recognition. In its long history, Chinese literature has also served the function of moral education for the masses, and this moral education is embedded in vivid and imaginative literature, which has had a subtle effect on improving the quality of the nation, improving the social atmosphere and strengthening national cohesion. Traditional Chinese education believes that the purpose of learning is first and foremost to learn to be a human being. Confucius said, “In ancient times, scholars learned for themselves; today, scholars learn for others.” This is what he meant. To learn is to teach people virtue and wisdom, first and foremost to learn to be a moral person, and therefore to cultivate temperament, change temperament, and ultimately to improve one’s moral character is an important aim of education. The order of study is “To be filial, to be fraternal, to be respectful and trustworthy, to love all, and to be kind. If you have the strength to do so, you should learn to read and write”. In traditional Chinese education, the emphasis is on “understanding the scriptures and cultivating one’s moral character”, not only by familiarizing oneself with the classics, but also by cultivating one’s moral character, and by combining moral education with physical practice. This tradition of moral education in ancient China is of relevance today and in the coming twenty-first century. Traditional Chinese historiography, as an important aspect of Chinese culture, has always taken as a basic requirement “to distinguish between praise and blame, good and evil”, and advocated moral evaluation as an important criterion for narrating historical events and judging historical rights and wrongs. The so-called “Spring and Autumn writing style”, which began with the Spring and Autumn Annals, took “punishing evil and promoting good” as an extremely important principle to implement in the narration and evaluation of all historical events and figures, in order to learn from the gains and losses of history and to submit to the correct moral choice. Therefore, the historian’s straightforward writing and bold praise and criticism became the most noble historical virtues of “good history”. Although in China’s long-standing feudal society, historians were always influenced by the moral principles and norms of the “Three Principles and Five Rules” of feudal society in their praise and criticism of good and evil, their emphasis on ethical values and their spirit of not shunning the powerful and writing straightforwardly have become a fine tradition of Chinese historiography worthy of our inheritance and development. The ethical values they developed and their spirit of not shunning the powerful and writing straightforwardly have become a fine tradition in Chinese historiography that we should inherit and carry forward. In Chinese national culture, music and the arts have a tradition of teaching music. “This is a summary of the ethical function of music and art, as stated in the Book

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of Rites and Music more than two thousand years ago. In ancient Chinese culture, music was always associated with ritual, i.e. with the moral code of society, and the importance of music to social stability and interpersonal harmony was stressed. In the Book of Music, it is said that “music is the same, ritual is different, the same is close to each other, different is respectful.” It is also believed that “music is the harmony of heaven and earth, and ritual is the order of heaven and earth.” It is precisely because music enables people to live together in harmony that it enables the moral code of rites to be practiced. The ancients believed that music “can improve the hearts of the people” and that “it touches people deeply” and can “change customs” and so on. All this shows that music and its related art forms were closely related to the moral education of all classes of people in ancient Chinese culture. Even in business culture, the traditional Chinese ideology of truthfulness, honesty, honesty, honesty and trustworthiness, righteousness, righteousness in the eyes of profit, righteousness in the eyes of profit, righteousness in the face of profit, credibility in the face of profit, and harmony in the face of wealth, etc., all give a strong sense of ethics. In short, we can say that in all aspects of Chinese culture, the role of moral education and the importance of ethical values are emphasized. Of course, as a broad concept of Chinese culture, its connotation and extension are large and encompass a much wider range of contents, and in terms of social ideology and spiritual creation, which is the core of culture, there are various complexities that need to be analyzed. However, on the whole, I believe that the pursuit of the unity of truth, goodness and beauty, and the emphasis on ethical values, should be regarded as an excellent cultural tradition of our traditional culture. As for traditional Chinese philosophy, it is more characteristic in that it is centred on morality and ethics, integrating ontology, epistemology, ethics and intellectualism, which can be said to be different from the Western ethical philosophy. Chinese philosophy places special emphasis on the exercise of human moral subjectivity and the pursuit of spirituality in life, and has become a spiritual force for harmonizing interpersonal relations, improving social morals and enhancing national cohesion. It should be affirmed that Chinese philosophy is ethical in nature, and this is one of its strengths. Not only is the excellent ethical and moral tradition of China longstanding and colourful, but it has also been spread to neighbouring countries and other countries since the second century AD, and has had a profound influence on the development of the East and humanity as a whole. This ethical value orientation of the Chinese culture has, over a long period of history, formed a special way of thinking and thinking and emotion, and has accumulated into a unique national psychology and national spirit, which is to take the happiness of the general public and the interests of the entire Chinese nation as the greatest good, and to sacrifice one’s life for the prosperity and development of the Chinese nation as the highest pursuit in life. This is the value pursuit of the Chinese people: “The rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of every man”, “to worry about the world before the world, and to be happy after the world”, “to be self-improvement”, and “to take the world as one’s responsibility”. “These are the embodiment of such values. “The Supreme Being has established virtue, followed by established merit, followed by established speech. This is called immortality.”

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This is the highest expression of the value of life. This spirit of the Chinese cultural tradition has become a powerful force of life and cohesion, which has had a positive effect on the survival and development of our nation, from the past to the present. Chinese culture and its pursuit of ethical values will play an even greater role in China’s development towards the twenty-first century. In inheriting and promoting the cultural traditions of the Chinese nation, we should also emphasize the need to adopt an analytical approach to the cultural traditions of the Chinese nation, i.e. to take the best and remove the worst, to use the past for the present, to introduce new ideas, and to make the fine cultural traditions of the Chinese nation combine with the requirements of the contemporary era and become an integral part of the new socialist culture. In emphasizing the ethical and moral values of Chinese culture, we must be able to criticise its negative aspects, which serve the feudal hierarchy, and promote its spirit of dedication to the well-being of the people and to the interests of the country, the nation and the whole, so that it is conducive to the promotion of the main theme of socialism, to the better formation of the centripetal force and cohesion of our nation, and to the improvement of the ethical and moral quality of our nation and to the better formation of a communist outlook on life and the development of a communist culture. It also plays a positive role in improving the ethical and moral qualities of our people and in forming a communist outlook on life, values, the world and morality. At the present time, ethical values have become a growing concern for thinkers worldwide. In developed countries, along with the high level of material civilization, people generally feel the loss of ethical values, and the cult of money and the pursuit of pleasure has become a magical desire that can never be satisfied and has become the purpose of life for some people. In the developing countries, with the introduction of advanced technology from the Western developed countries, the corrupted Western outlook on life and values are also becoming more and more widespread, becoming the most serious spiritual scourge in these countries. In this regard, it is important to promote the fine cultural traditions of the Chinese nation, especially the ethical valueoriented traditions of Chinese culture, in order to overcome the corruptions arising from egoism and individualism, and to improve the moral quality of the people of each country. The future of the twenty-first century is bound to be a new period of comparison, mutual absorption and intermingling of Eastern and Western cultures. In this period, there will be both opportunities and competition. The culture of the Chinese nation is also facing a new opportunity to flourish and develop even more. In this new period, there are both opportunities and competition. In addition, the Chinese culture will make an important contribution to the development of the spiritual civilization of all mankind through competition, intermingling and complementarity with other cultures of the world, and under the guidance of the idea of comprehensive innovation.

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Should Traditional Chinese Culture “Die Out”? I Recently, I read an article which argued that traditional Chinese culture, especially Confucianism, should be completely discarded in the current society, so that it could “die”. We have indeed heard the same and similar arguments in different languages during the Cultural Revolution and during the period of bourgeois liberalisation before 1989. However, today, this viewpoint has reappeared and cannot fail to attract our attention. In order to better understand the content of this view, I am obliged here to quote a few more representative passages from it: The culture of history and tradition has in fact become a heavy burden on the Chinese nation. It is understandable that the winds of national cultural revival are blowing from the West. However, the fervour of “discovering” the best cultural traditions has come from China itself, but it is tantamount to repairing the cocoon of “self-bondage”.8 Although it is not necessary to disregard the glimmer of Confucianism as a cultural message that is still available, and perhaps has some artistic value, it is in any case impossible not to see that, as a culture as a whole, it is a “sinking ship”, a “sick tree The “sick tree”. “Let the “past” pass, and let the “past” end its life, which is the “future”. Let the “past” pass away.9 The essence of why traditional culture has become such a heavy burden on the Chinese nation is that the aforementioned historical-logical framework of the Confucian cultural message has taken shape like a ghost in all the ways of life of the Chinese nation. This rigid framework has stubbornly resisted all attempts to transform Chinese traditions and has mercilessly devoured the talents and lives of each generation of national elites.10 Unless the most thorough and profound academic and intellectual critique of the historical-logical framework of traditional Chinese culture is firmly grounded in the spirit of freedom, democracy and science that is the true origin of Western culture, and unless the influence of this historical-logical framework is completely eradicated from all the ways of life of the Chinese nation, then any new effort to take off the Chinese nation will be a new cycle of reversion to the old tradition. Unless the influence of this historical-logical framework is completely eradicated from all the ways of life of the Chinese people, then any new effort to take off in Chinese thought will be a new cycle of reversion to the old traditions.11 From the four quotations above, it is extremely clear that the author’s aim is to completely reject Chinese cultural traditions and to “put an end to Chinese traditional culture” in order to “firmly anchor it in the spirit of freedom, democracy and science of its truly Western cultural origins”. “It should be said that, from the standpoint of defending Western culture, the author is indeed aware of the problem that the 8

Lai, M., ed.: China’s Crisis, op. cit. 37, Beijing, Reform Press, 1998. Lai, M., ed. 10 Ibid. at 38. 11 Ibid. at 39. 9

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promotion of traditional Chinese culture is extremely detrimental to those who want to “firmly ground the spirit of freedom, democracy and science” in its truly Western cultural origins. Of course, there is another meaning that can be clearly seen here, namely that the culture of socialism, the culture of Marxism, is also extremely unfavorable to the “spirit of freedom, democracy and science, which is firmly grounded in the true Western cultural sources”, and should also be “put to death”. “The author does not explicitly state this, however. For the time being, we are only expressing our views on the question of whether traditional Chinese culture should be “put to bed”. Why should China’s traditional culture ‘die out’? The author argues that one of the most fundamental reasons is that traditional Chinese culture is a closed, conservative system, a logical framework that is incapable of accepting foreign cultures. One of the author’s main arguments is drawn from what he calls the contrast between Chinese and Western culture, saying that Chinese traditional culture is a framework system that constantly has to rebuild the old traditions, while Western traditional culture is a framework system that constantly transforms the old traditions, and therefore, according to the author, Western culture should be vigorously promoted, while Chinese traditional culture should be completely rejected and made to “die”. The author argues that Western culture should be vigorously promoted while Chinese traditional culture should be completely rejected and made to “die”. How does the author arrive at this conclusion? The author says that traditional Chinese culture started from the theory of the goodness of nature and went through the internal search for the spirit, the rectification of the name, the single pyramidal social information structure, the irrational balance of the “virtuous man”, which led to the collapse, etc. Therefore, the author concludes that everything in traditional Chinese culture was aimed at the reconstruction of the old tradition. Western traditional culture, on the other hand, starts from the theory of sexual evil, goes through the spirit of external extraction, the concept of law, the integrated social information structure, the public rational equilibrium of law under the constraints of decentralization, and finally leads to the creation of an anomalous concept far from the equilibrium state. Moreover, the general tendency of this logical framework of Western culture is to lead to the transformation of old traditions.12 The author’s generalizations about traditional Chinese culture, his total affirmation of Western culture and his total rejection of Chinese culture, are, in our opinion, ill-founded and incorrect. Of course, we should be clear that, in terms of historical development, the culture of any nation contains two different elements or aspects: progressive, positive elements and aspects on the one hand, and backward, negative elements and aspects on the other, and any metaphysical, nihilistic or total affirmation is harmful. We should also adopt a two-sided approach to the traditional culture of the Chinese nation and analyze it in a comprehensive and dialectical manner. While we must face up to the backward, conservative and decadent dross in it, we must also see the progressive, open and vital essence that it contains. One of the reasons why socialist culture has become increasingly prosperous in the new era is that it has correctly 12

Lai, M., ed.

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absorbed all the excellent culture created in ancient China over the past few thousand years. On the whole, in order to build a new socialist culture, Chinese traditional culture should not be “put to bed”, but rather, under the guidance of Marxist positions, views and methods, we should discard its dross and absorb its essence, so that our new socialist culture will have a national form that is pleasing to the masses and The new socialist culture will have a strong vitality. II The first question we need to answer here is whether traditional Chinese culture is really a completely closed, conservative and non-open system of logic, as some people believe? No, we must not see traditional Chinese culture as a closed, conservative system of logic, because in fact it has its own open, progressive elements. It is a fact that, over a long period of time, Chinese traditional culture has also had its own open and progressive history, and has made brilliant and well-known achievements in this regard. It is only because of the closed-door policy of the Qing government in the last two or three centuries that China has been closed to foreign relations. How can we fundamentally deny the traditional culture of China because of the wrong policies of one government over a period of time? The culture of ancient China was open, not closed. We know that as early as the first century BC, Zhang Qian of the Western Han Dynasty made a mission to the Xiongnu, and that he made contacts with many Central Asian countries, which greatly facilitated cultural exchanges between China and these countries. In the first century, Buddhism was introduced to China, and as a foreign culture completely different from Chinese culture, traditional Chinese culture did not reject it, but allowed this culture to mingle and develop in China. By the time of the Wei, Jin and Northern Dynasties, China had received a considerable number of monks from India and translated many famous Buddhist texts. It is important to note that the entry of Buddhist culture into China was closely related to the openness of traditional Chinese culture (including Confucianism). During its centuries-long presence in China, despite the fact that our traditional culture had also rejected foreign cultures, China, on the whole, not only embraced Buddhist culture, but also developed it further, giving it a new content to survive and develop in China. During the Tang dynasty, the monk Xuanzang, at the risk of his own life and after more than ten years of hard work, finally brought a large number of Buddhist classics back to China and carried out translations, allowing Buddhist culture to spread and develop even more in China. The world-famous Silk Road is a powerful testimony to the openness of traditional Chinese culture, not only as a commercial route, but also, and more importantly, as a means of cultural exchange between China and the outside world. In the fifteenth century, Zheng He, a Ming Dynasty eunuch with three treasures, led a fleet of more than 200 ships on a voyage to Chamshuang (present-day southern Vietnam), Java, Sumatra and Ceylon to engage in economic and cultural exchanges. In the following twenty years, he made six voyages to more than thirty countries, exchanging Chinese silk and porcelain for local products, opening up not only water transportation between China and these countries, but also cultural exchanges with each other. Zheng He’s voyages made it possible for China to gain a better

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understanding of the commercial and cultural situation of the Pacific countries, and achieved important results. Unfortunately, the specific circumstances of the Ming Dynasty did not yet allow for greater cultural exchange. III Let us look again at the so-called “spirit of internal seeking” in traditional Chinese culture, is it all “conservative” and backward? In traditional Chinese culture, especially in Chinese Confucianism, the “spirit of inward seeking” occupies a very important place, which we should acknowledge. However, this “spirit of internal seeking” has two aspects, and should not be understood in one way only. The Chinese tradition of “the spirit of inward seeking” does have the meaning of inward pursuit, that is, it emphasizes that in the relationship between people and others, in the relationship between individuals and society and others, one should be more strict with oneself in terms of one’s own ideology and morality, one should be “lenient with others and strict with oneself”, one should We must be “introspective”, “self-reflective”, “seek to find out for ourselves” and “seek to be reassured”, etc. On “seeking within”, a passage from Mencius is most explicit, saying: A benevolent person loves others, and a courteous person respects others. Those who love others are always loved, and those who respect others are always respected. If someone treats me in a rebellious manner, the gentleman will be rebellious: I will be unkind, and I will be rude. If he has been benevolent and courteous, he will be rebellious, and the gentleman will be rebellious: I will be unfaithful. If he has been faithful, he will be rebellious, and the gentleman will say, “This is also a delusion! If so, what is the alternative to beasts? What is the difficulty in being a beast?” The gentleman has a lifelong concern, but not a momentary one. But if he is worried, he has one thing in mind: Shun is a human being, and so am I. I am also a human being, and I am also a human being. Shun is a law to be passed on to future generations, but I am not exempt from being a villager, so I am worried. What should I worry about? I am just like Shun. (Mencius—Li Lou Xi). This is a typical passage representing the “spirit of internal seeking” of traditional Chinese culture. We can see very clearly that the meaning here is mainly about the requirement of moral cultivation of the person concerned, which is to constantly adjust one’s relations with others through self-reflection. It is also clear from this passage that if, after reflecting on oneself again, one confirms that there is nothing wrong with oneself, then it is not worthwhile to bother with those who are unreasonable, for such people are just like animals, so what is there to reason with them about? There are, of course, some negative aspects in this passage, such as not emphasizing the need to argue with, criticise and fight against incorrect ideas and opinions. However, Mencius was mainly talking about principles and attitudes in dealing with internal conflicts among the people, and he was discussing this issue mainly in terms of self-cultivation. On the other hand, we should also see that the “spirit of internal seeking” in traditional Chinese culture has a positive meaning. In traditional Chinese culture, especially in Confucianism, the “spirit of internal seeking” is linked to the spirit of “self-improvement” and “striving for self-improvement”. This “inward seeking” is

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not a passive, static return to the heart, but a continuous improvement of one’s ideological and moral cultivation, starting with “cultivating one’s own body”, in order to achieve the goal of “cultivating the family, ruling the country and pacifying the world”. The aim is to “cultivate one’s moral and ethical cultivation”. “Cultivating oneself” is only a basic condition, or even a method or means, to achieve a higher goal. The purpose of “inward study” is to better deal with the various relationships between people, to properly engage in the management of the state, to more effectively transform the objective world, to become a moral person, to be able to “establish the heart for heaven and earth, to establish the life for the people, and to succeed the sages in the past, It is to be able to “establish the heart for heaven and earth, the life for the people, the learning for the past, and the peace for the world. IV In traditional Chinese culture, apart from the conservative and negative elements, there are also innovative, progressive aspects, and this aspect has been dominant for a long time. To ignore this would be to be ignorant of Chinese culture. It is also true that in some of the articles we have read recently, those who have a completely negative attitude towards traditional Chinese culture are often those who know less about it. As early as three thousand years ago, one of the earliest philosophical works in China, the Zhou Yi, had the idea of “revolutionizing the old and setting up the new”,13 which called for the removal of the old and the establishment of the new. In the Tuan of the I Ching—Ge, there is the idea of “Heaven and earth change and the four seasons become, Tang and Wu revolution, in accordance with heaven and in response to man, the time of the revolution is great”, emphasizing the importance of innovation and development. The Book of Changes, especially the Book of the System, can be said to be a study of the creation, destruction, change and development of things in the world, with a special emphasis on “birth is called Yi” and “newness is called virtue”. “It particularly emphasizes the meaning of ‘birth’ and ‘newness’, and insists on the significance of ‘birth’ and ‘newness’. In addition, in the Rites of the University, the notion of “maintaining the new” is specifically mentioned, requiring that “if the day is new, the day is new, and the day is new”, and that the important task of a political administrator is to be able to constantly innovate, It is important for a political administrator to be able to constantly innovate, to “make the old state of Zhou new”, and to “make the people new”, so that they too can have innovative ideas. The I Ching and the I Chuan, which have been important classics of Confucianism throughout the long history of ancient China, have an important place in Confucian thought. How can we say that Confucianism is a system that can only maintain the framework of the old tradition and let it “die”? As for the idea of innovation and change in ancient Chinese legal thought, it is even clearer and more explicit. From Shang Yang, Han Fei to Wang Anshi, their numerous writings and statements are ample proof that the idea of innovation occupies a very prominent place in the history of Chinese thought. How can we completely deny the vast amount of innovative ideas 13

Zhou Yi - Miscellaneous Trigrams: “Ge is the removal of the old. The Book of Ding is also about taking the new.”.

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of the Legalists and use Confucianism to represent the whole of traditional Chinese culture, thus describing it as a closed and conservative framework system and putting it to an ‘end of life’? Of course, we must also see that in the course of the development of Confucian culture, especially after the Han Dynasty, with the formation of a unified feudal state, the strengthening of the relationship between ruler and subject, father and son, and the establishment of the “Three Principles and Five Rules”, and especially after the Song Dynasty, with the decline of the feudal state, the ruling class and its thinkers became more and more conservative. It is a fact that the ruling class and its thinkers became more and more conservative, and that Confucianism, the dominant ideology of the time, also became more and more conservative. But how can we deduce from this that the whole of traditional culture was denied? Anyone who is familiar with traditional Chinese culture will know that after the Han Dynasty, there were not only Dong Zhongshu, but also Wang Chong and Zhong Changtong, and after the Song Dynasty, there were not only Cheng Yi, Cheng Hao, Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming, but also Chen Liang, Ye Shi, Huang Zongxi, Gu Yanwu, Wang Shansan and Dai Zhen, etc. How can we dismiss all these thinkers who advocated change and innovation? In short, we must summarize and summarize traditional Chinese culture (including Confucian culture) using the Marxist standpoint, viewpoint and method, remove the dross and take the essence, and give it a new meaning in accordance with the needs of the times. At present, the dominant ideology in our society can only be the new Marxist socialist culture, and never the “spirit of freedom, democracy and science, which is firmly based on the true Western cultural origins”. In order to build a new socialist culture, we must treat all foreign and Chinese cultural traditions correctly, and we must also treat the achievements of Western civilization correctly, absorbing what is good in them and discarding what is corrupt. We must not adopt a metaphysical attitude towards either traditional Chinese culture or Western culture. In the current process of building the four modernizations of socialism, it is of great importance to promote China’s fine cultural traditions, to strengthen the self-confidence and pride of the Chinese nation, and to resist the erosion of corrupt Western ideas. The view that attempts to promote wholesale westernization by rejecting all of traditional Chinese culture is extremely harmful.

How We Should Approach Tradition –A little reflection on how to get traditional ethics right.14 How to deal with tradition? How to deal with traditional ethics, especially in the field of ideology? This is a question that deserves serious consideration in the study of cultural issues, especially in the study of ethics. The word “tradition”, in its etymological sense, means, in both the West and China, the socio-political system, economic system, values, moral thinking and way 14

This article originally appeared in Ethics and Civilization, No. 1, 1998.

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of life created, shaped and perpetuated by those who came before us. In ancient Chinese, the word “Chuan” means “to transmit”, “to teach”, “to spread”, and also It also means to pass on from one’s predecessors to one’s successors. In the Analects of Confucius, Zizhang says: “What is the way of the gentleman first? In the Analects of Confucius, it is said: “Which of the ways of a gentleman is transmitted first? In ancient Chinese, the word “unity” means the succession of generations and the continuous development of things. In Mengzi—Under King Hui of Liang, it is said that “A gentleman who starts a business and establishes a tradition can continue to do so.” This means that a virtuous gentleman establishes a legacy and passes it on to his descendants so that it can be passed on from generation to generation. The word ‘tradition’ in English is TRADITION, the root of which is DIT meaning ‘to give’, and the word TRADITION also means to pass on from generation to generation. Generally speaking, tradition contains both the old, outdated dross that runs counter to the spirit of the new age, and the good, the people’s essence that is consistent with the spirit of the new age and can be useful in the new age. That is to say, traditions contain both outdated, classist and parochial fallacies as well as scientific, common and reasonable elements that are needed by society as a whole; traditions have their specific, historical limitations as well as their positive elements that can be useful in the long term for the whole of human society. What to do with tradition? This is a question that every society, every country and every person must face. If tradition is treated correctly, it will be possible to bring into play and carry forward the excellent achievements accumulated in human history, which will be conducive to the further development of human civilization, to the improvement of the ideological and moral quality of human beings, and to the development and progress of society as a whole; otherwise, if tradition is treated wrongly, it will form a kind of resistance that will hinder the development of society, cause social chaos, and even lead to social regression. There are two misguided tendencies that must be opposed in the treatment of traditional culture. There is a nihilist ideology, which takes a negative view of all cultural traditions and discards all historical cultures, including all the moral heritage of humanity, as obsolete. Philosophically, in the West, nihilism is sometimes associated with scepticism, and although in some specific cases there are positive elements in the thinking of nihilists that are revolutionary, that deny certain obsolescence and that wish to seek the truth, on the whole, nihilism is a false ideology. In the West, nihilism, together with scepticism, ended up in a mire of doubt and denial of everything. In the Soviet Union, after the Russian October Revolution, there was a so-called proletarian cultural school, which advocated the rejection of all human cultural heritage and the creation of a new culture in an empty space. In China’s modern history, nihilism also emerged in opposition to feudal culture and morality, and continued to have an impact for some time afterwards. It is well known that the so-called ‘Cultural Revolution’ in China also saw a wave of nihilism that denied everything and led to the total negation of traditional Chinese culture and the destruction of historical relics. This is a lesson we should learn from.

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The other is the idea of retrogressivism, the idea that everything from ancient times is good and should be inherited in its original form, which is also wrong. As a trend, retrogressivism has a different role to play in different periods of history. In a given period of history, it may also have the aim of opposing the unreasonable status quo of the society of the time, in favor of the growth of something new. In the late Qing dynasty in China, some people sought to achieve their desired improvements by restoring the past. However, on the whole, it was against the trend of the times and was a wrong trend of thinking that went against the tide of history. Society is evolving and progressing, and a total revival of the past cannot have any progressive effect. In China, around the time of the May Fourth Movement, the idea of retrogressivism had very harmful social consequences as a reaction to the progressive ideas of the time. There is another trend in the field of ideology and culture, namely cultural conservatism, which advocates that cultural issues should be dealt with in accordance with the characteristics of ideology and culture themselves and emphasizes the inheritance of culture, which is justified in this respect; however, this so-called cultural conservatism only sees what should be inherited in traditional culture and ignores what should be negated and criticised in traditional culture, and is therefore one-sided. What is even more noteworthy is that in a socialist society, some so-called cultural conservatives, by raising the slogan of opposing radicalism, are actually opposing the dialectical approach of historical materialism and denying the correct attitude that traditional culture should be critically inherited. In the view of the cultural conservatives, to advocate critical inheritance is to be “radical”, and only uncritical inheritance is in line with what they advocate. Historical materialism holds that tradition must be approached in a dialectical and analytical manner. Anyone who lives in a society cannot live without tradition; from the moment he is born, he is within tradition and is inevitably influenced by it. Marx said: “People make their own history, but they do not do so at will, not under conditions of their own choosing, but under conditions directly encountered, established, inherited from the past. All the traditions of the dead forefathers haunt the minds of the living like dream demons.”15 In reality, it is impossible to create whatever one wants, no matter how free one is from tradition. Therefore, the most important thing is to deal with tradition correctly, to discard what is outdated in it, and to absorb and develop its reasonable content. In a certain sense, tradition is indeed a conservative force. In his introduction to the English edition of his 1892 book Socialism from the Idea to the Development of Science, Engels says: “Tradition is a great resistance, an inert force of history, but because it is only negative, it must be destroyed; so, too, religion cannot long be the protector of capitalist society.”16 This is of course true of a tradition as particularly conservative as religion. Generally speaking, in the course of historical development 15

Selected Works of Marx and Engels, 1 edition, vol. 1, 603, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1972. 16 Selected Works of Marx and Engels, 1 edition, vol. 3, 402, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1972.

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and change, tradition always has a role to play in preserving the old in relation to the new, which is why it is often said to be old-fashioned and conservative. Human society is constantly evolving, and because tradition is always linked to the economic and political past, it becomes conservative in the face of new developments. In Western Europe, at the beginning of the Renaissance, people opposed all the old traditions and, in particular, religion. Engels said that religion, once formed, must always contain some material of tradition, because tradition is a great conservative force in all ideological spheres. But the changes that occur in these materials are caused by the class relations of the people who cause them, i.e. by economic relations. Throughout history, when a society is in a period of decline or decay, tradition, especially traditional ideas and traditional ideology, has often been an important means by which the ruling class has been able to salvage its crisis and maintain its rule. We have also seen that, even after the formation of a new society, certain forces that sought to restore it often had to draw on the power of tradition, including traditional ideas and traditional ideology, to serve their own restoration aims. It can be said that this has been a common occurrence throughout history. However, we must see that there are also positive aspects of tradition that are conducive to the growth of something new. Tradition also contains and embraces the elements of humanity as a whole, the basis on which new things are formed and developed. In the field of ideology, especially in the field of thought and ethics, in a certain sense, new ideologies and new ethics cannot develop better without the inheritance of the traditions of the past. Everyone knows that all new cultures and morals do not and cannot arise out of thin air. Generally speaking, the various classes in history have had different attitudes towards traditional ideologies and, in particular, traditional morality, in different circumstances. Since morality has the characteristics of reconciling human relations, maintaining social order and contributing to social stability, generally speaking, in times of revolution or change, the new revolutionary class always opposes the old traditions and breaks down the old stability in order to establish a new order. Conversely, whenever society has become stable, the emphasis is always on assimilating the useful elements of past traditions in order to better regulate human relations. This choice of tradition is entirely subordinated to the economic interests and political needs of the people. No matter how old a tradition may be, it is bound to play a positive role in a new historical period if it meets this need. An important feature of traditional culture and traditional morality is that they are always linked to the spiritual civilization, ideological quality and psychological habits of a nation, and they are an important spiritual force that can unite a nation in the process of long-term development. In order for a nation or a country to develop its culture, it must make its own culture with its own national and ethnic characteristics, therefore, the correct treatment of traditional culture has become one of the keys to the development of a country or a nation’s culture. From the perspective of human history, a prosperous nation is one that has correctly inherited its own fine cultural traditions and is able to develop them continuously under new historical conditions. Once a nation has abandoned or lost its national traditions, or has been subjugated by the culture of another nation, its survival is in jeopardy. All over the world, every

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country and every nation, regardless of its size, has its own culture and traditions, and has the right and freedom to maintain its own culture, to inherit its own culture and to develop its own culture. In the coming twenty-first century, we should promote the inheritance and promotion of the best parts of each nation’s culture, and strive to improve them in the new era, in accordance with the needs of social development, so that we can create a new and more glorious culture. It should also be particularly emphasized here that by tradition we are generally referring to the old traditions that existed before the revolution. For a revolutionary class it should be a different story with regard to the new revolutionary traditions that have developed during and after its revolution. The revolutionary tradition of the working class, far from being a conservative force, should be an impetus for the new society to move on. Lenin made it extremely clear that Marx attached great importance to revolutionary traditions and severely denounced the betrayal and vulgar attitude towards them. When we speak of tradition, therefore, we must distinguish between these two traditions.

How We Should Really Approach Traditional Culture In the process of building socialist modernity, how we should treat traditional culture is a very important issue in relation to the construction of socialist culture, the construction of socialist spiritual civilization, the cultivation of new socialist “fourspirited” people and the development of ideology as a whole. In order to build and develop a new socialist culture and to better build a socialist spiritual civilization, we must treat all the cultural heritage created by mankind correctly and draw from it what is useful. Lenin pointed out that it should be clearly understood that only an accurate understanding of the culture created by the whole process of human development and the transformation of this culture can lead to the construction of a proletarian culture. Without such an understanding, we will not be able to accomplish this task. Mao Zedong also said that a certain culture is a reflection of the politics and economy of a certain society in its conceptual form and gives great influence to and acts on the politics and economy of a certain society; while the economy is the basis, politics is the central expression of the economy. He also stressed that in a socialist society, we should strive to build a new culture, and at the same time, we should critically assimilate all foreign cultures and ancient Chinese cultures. Since the reform and opening up of China, the issue of how to treat traditional culture correctly has been widely discussed and much consensus has been reached, but there is not yet complete agreement on the understanding of some issues. Now, I would like to talk about my personal understanding and thoughts on this issue. First of all, what is tradition? In my article “What should we do with tradition”, I pointed out that: The word “tradition”, in its etymological sense, whether in the West or in China, refers to the social and political systems, economic systems, values, moral ideas and ways of life created, formed and perpetuated by those who came before us. In ancient

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Chinese, the word “Chuan” means “to transmit”, “to teach”, “to spread”, and also It also means to pass on from one’s predecessors to one’s successors. In the Analects of Confucius, Zizhang says: “What is the way of the gentleman first? In the Analects of Confucius, it is said: “Which of the ways of a gentleman is transmitted first? In ancient Chinese, the word “unity” means the succession of generations and the continuous development of things. In Mengzi—Under King Hui of Liang, it is said that “A gentleman who starts a business and establishes a tradition can continue to do so.” This means that a virtuous gentleman establishes a legacy and passes it on to his descendants so that it can be passed on from generation to generation. The word ‘tradition’ in English is TRADITION, the root of which is DIT meaning ‘to give’, and the word TRADITION also means to pass on from generation to generation. Generally speaking, tradition contains both the old, outdated dross that runs counter to the spirit of the new age, and the good, the people’s essence that is consistent with the spirit of the new age and can be useful in the new age. That is to say, traditions contain both outdated, classist and parochial fallacies as well as scientific, common and reasonable elements that are needed by society as a whole; traditions have their specific, historical limitations as well as their positive elements that can be useful in the long term for the whole of human society. The above passage is mainly about my understanding of ‘tradition’, but what about my understanding of ‘culture’? “What exactly is ‘culture’? In recent times, Chinese and foreign scholars have come up with many definitions. By 1952, according to Western anthropologists, they had collected 164 definitions of “culture”. Fifty years have passed since 1952, and it is impossible to count the number of definitions of “culture” that foreign scholars have come up with. Moreover, in recent decades, many scholars in China who are engaged in the study of culture have put forward many different opinions on the definition of “culture”. Taking a look at the meaning of scholars at home and abroad, generally speaking, there are several views that can serve as a reference for our research: One view is that “culture” is the sum of material and spiritual civilization created by human beings, and that not only all ideological aspects should be included in culture, but also all the achievements of material civilization, including architecture, sculpture, bridges, water conservancy facilities, etc., belong to the category of “culture The “culture” category; According to one view, “culture” refers to all conceptual forms, i.e. exclusively to spiritual phenomena created by human beings, such as the intellectual, spiritual, psychological, etc.; One view is that “culture” refers to the sum of all human creativity, that is, the coalescence and embodiment of all the fruits of human labor, which includes not only material and spiritual civilization, but also institution-building, institutional civilization, etc.; According to one view, ‘culture’ refers mainly to the ways of life, customs and patterns of behavior that have developed over a long period of social development. The above four views are only a general summary and overview, and each of these different views has its own reasons. Personally, I prefer the view that culture is the sum of the spiritual civilization created by human beings, of which the spiritual civilization

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linked to the material civilization and the ideology linked to the social system should also be included in what we call “culture”. If we want to give a more complete explanation, we should say that there is a distinction between “culture” in the broad sense and in the narrow sense: culture in the broad sense refers to the sum of material and spiritual achievements created and accumulated by human beings in the process of understanding the world, transforming it, understanding themselves and perfecting themselves; culture in the narrow sense refers to all consciousness, spiritual and psychological things reflected in the form of ideas. In a narrower sense, culture is the sum of all consciousness, spirituality and psychology, the main part of which is what we call philosophy, ethics, political thought, legal thought, science, religion, art and so on. Of course, in a certain sense, this definition may be narrower and may even be accused by some of being one-sided or of neglecting or fragmenting culture as a whole, but I still believe that it is necessary to understand culture in both a broad and a narrow sense, in certain circumstances. If all the material achievements of human creation are included in the category of ‘culture’, in some cases the connotation of ‘culture’ is too broad. What, then, is traditional culture? (I would like to clarify that the term ‘culture’ is used here mainly in the narrow sense of ‘culture’.) Traditional culture is the sum of all the consciousness, spirituality and psychology created by mankind as a whole and reflected in conceptual forms, the main part of which is the sum of philosophy, ethics, political thought, legal thought, science, religion, art, etc. Every nation in the world has its own national culture, but for historical reasons there are also different religious cultures, different regional cultures and so on. The cultural traditions of a nation are the spiritual continuity of a nation, the spiritual pillar of a nation’s development and continuity, and every great nation is always associated with its excellent and splendid cultural traditions. The fact that the Chinese nation has remained a multi-ethnic nation for thousands of years is closely related to its excellent cultural traditions. For a long period of time, the Western culture-centric ideology prevailed and the idea that Western culture was superior to the cultures of other peoples in the world was very wrong and should be firmly discarded today. The Chinese people have a long and glorious cultural tradition which we need to carry on and develop today. However, we should also reject the idea of the superiority of Eastern culture or the centrality of Chinese culture, and adopt the right attitude by taking into account the strengths of both Chinese and Western cultures in order to create a higher cultural and spiritual civilization. What attitude should we adopt towards traditional culture? In traditional culture, there are both good parts that can play a positive role today and drive society forward, which we need to inherit and promote, and negative aspects that are outdated, not adapted to the development of today’s times and hinder our progress. Moreover, these two parts are often interlinked, interpenetrating and have a part in each other, and it is impossible to extract them simply, mechanically and one-sidedly. In the development of human society, national culture, as an important part of ideology, is subject to certain economic and political constraints, but also plays a very important role in the economic and political development of a society and in the development of society as a whole, either by strongly promoting its development or by hindering its

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progress. Cultural traditions are both a burden and a driving force for social progress, with a conservative tendency to stick to the old ways and a progressive tendency to make changes. Therefore, we say that the question of how to treat culture correctly, including how to treat traditional culture correctly, is a question of social development and overall social progress, and is an important issue that should not be taken lightly. As a general principle, I believe that there are two aspects of traditional culture that we should always uphold in the future. One is to adhere to the principle of critique and inheritance, which Mao Zedong pointed out long ago and which is a correct principle that we should still adhere to today. To “criticize” means to criticize its dross, its outdated, negative aspects that are not in line with the development of today’s times and that hinder our progress; to “inherit” means to develop and carry forward its good, the positive aspects that can work today and can push society forward. Positive aspects. Mao Zedong said: “China has created a splendid ancient culture during its long feudal society. Cleaning up the development of ancient culture, eliminating its feudal dross and absorbing its democratic essence, is a necessary condition for developing a new national culture and enhancing national self-confidence. A distinction must be made between all the decadence of the ancient feudal ruling class and the excellent people’s culture of ancient times, that is, what is more or less democratic and revolutionary.”17 Here we must first of all reject the attitude of national nihilism, that is, the failure to see the “splendid” cultural heritage created by the Chinese nation in the course of its long development, or the one-sided belief that since the culture was created in a feudal society, it must have served the exploiting class, and that today it is a socialist society, then it should all be Today it is a socialist society, so all of them should be discarded. Such an attitude of national nihilism is extremely harmful to the development of a new national culture and the enhancement of national self-confidence. For some time in the past, this kind of nihilistic thinking has influenced some people and prevented them from carrying on and promoting the fine cultural traditions of the Chinese nation with a correct attitude. Since the 1990s, after thorough discussions, our understanding has been greatly enhanced and a consensus has been reached on the question of whether to inherit and promote the fine cultural traditions of the Chinese nation. Similarly, is it still necessary to absorb all foreign, especially Western capitalist, culture? Can the proletariat absorb and inherit the culture of the bourgeoisie? On this question, as early as January 1940, Mao Zedong said in his “On New Democracy”: “China should absorb a great deal of foreign progressive culture as raw material for its own cultural food, but this has not been done enough in the past. This is not only the current socialist culture and the new democratic culture, but also the ancient cultures of foreign countries, such as the cultures of the capitalist countries in the Age of Enlightenment, whatever we can use today should be absorbed.”18 However, for a period of time, this very correct understanding was not well realized in practice, thus hindering our absorption and inheritance of Western culture. Since the reform and opening up, we have gained a new consensus on the 17 18

Selected Works of Mao Zedong, 2 edn, vol. 2, pp. 707–708. Selected Works of Mao Zedong, 2 edn, vol. 2, pp. 706–707.

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importance of assimilating and inheriting all the best cultural heritage of mankind. However, another very wrong understanding has emerged, that is, the uncritical absorption and inheritance of Western culture and its individualistic political and ethical values, which in practice means taking the path of “total westernization”, which is contrary to the direction of socialism. As Mao Zedong pointed out, “All foreign things, like our food, must be chewed by our own mouths and gastrointestinal movements, fed into our saliva, stomach and intestinal fluids, and broken down into two parts, the essence and the dross, and then excreting the dross and absorbing the essence, in order to be beneficial to our bodies, and must not be absorbed raw and uncritically.”19 These words of Mao Zedong were relevant at that time and still have a very important relevance today and deserve our serious consideration and experience. What should be particularly stressed here is that we must not adopt a nihilistic attitude, rejecting all foreign cultures and ancient Chinese culture, but must have the right attitude. The analogy here is not only appropriate and vivid, but also very graphic and profound. Inheriting all foreign culture and ancient Chinese culture, we must, like food, “chew it in our own mouths and move it through our stomachs and intestines”, and “send it into our saliva and stomach and intestinal fluids”, to be carefully digested and absorbed. We must not gobble up dates and take what we need, nor should we just superficially and half-understoodly extract some fragments from them without a comprehensive and in-depth understanding and study, but we must break down all foreign and ancient Chinese cultures into two parts: the essence and the dross, and then excrete the dross and absorb the essence. One is that in the process of inheritance, we must adhere to the principle of “comprehensive innovation”, as proposed by Mr Zhang Dai-nian, a renowned expert in Chinese philosophy. He opposed the theory of the superiority of Eastern culture and the theory of total Westernization, and advocated the creation of a new Chinese culture by drawing on the strengths of both Chinese and Western cultures. This can be called “comprehensive innovation theory”. According to my experience and understanding, the word “synthesis” here has two meanings from a broad perspective: firstly, in the study of Chinese and Western cultures, we should study and compare them carefully, grasp the different characteristics of Eastern and Western cultures, identify the essence and dross of both, pay attention to the synthesis of the achievements of Chinese and Western cultural thought, and make innovations according to the requirements of the times. One is to say that in the study of ancient Chinese culture, the traditional culture of ancient China must not be studied from a single school of thought, but must also be synthesized and studied carefully from various eras and schools of thought, such as Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism and Buddhism, so as to create new ideas that meet the requirements of today. “Synthesis” is a comprehensive, comparative, analytical and discriminating synthesis, a synthesis that is closely linked to innovation. “Innovation” is a new creation based on synthesis, a new cultural construction in accordance with social development, historical progress and the requirements of the times.

19

Ibid. at 707.

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Under the general principle of ‘critical inheritance and comprehensive innovation’, the attitude towards inheritance of foreign and Chinese cultural traditions should also be different. Specifically, I believe that there are two situations. For foreign cultures, we should adopt the principle of “we are the main focus and we can use it for us”. Mao Zedong once put forward the idea of “using foreign culture for Chinese”, that is, the fundamental principle that all foreign culture should be used for Chinese purposes. In his report to the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Jiang Zemin pointed out that “the development of our culture cannot be separated from the common achievements of human civilization. We must adhere to the principle of using our own culture for our own benefit, carry out various forms of cultural exchanges with the outside world, draw on the strengths of other cultures, and show the world the achievements of China’s cultural construction. Resolutely resist the erosion of various corrupt ideologies and cultures.” Here, Jiang Zemin put forward a principle of “using us as the main source and using us for our own benefit”. Fundamentally, the two principles of “using the foreign for the Chinese” and “using the Chinese for our own benefit” are similar. Analytically, these two principles have three main meanings. Firstly, in order to inherit the cultural heritage created by all countries and nations in the world, we must take the building of our socialist culture as the main starting point and fundamental purpose, that is to say, it must be conducive to the building of a new socialist culture; secondly, it must be conducive to the prosperity, development and overall progress of a socialist society with Chinese characteristics; thirdly, when inheriting and absorbing all the outstanding achievements of mankind and Thirdly, while inheriting and absorbing all the best achievements of mankind and drawing on the strengths of other cultures, we must adhere to the guiding ideology of Marxism and the path and direction of socialism, resolutely resist the erosion of all kinds of corrupt ideas, pay attention to preventing the revival of feudal ideas, and be highly vigilant against the “westernization” and “division” of certain Western countries against us. “Only in this way can we be considered to have implemented the principles of the Chinese Communist Party. Only in this way can we implement and enforce the principles of “foreign for Chinese” and “use us for our own sake”. On the question of how to deal with ancient Chinese traditional culture, I think we should advocate the principle of “taking the present as the main focus and using it for the present”. When Mao Zedong talked about ancient Chinese cultural traditions, he stressed the need to implement the principle of “using the past for the present”, which means that in inheriting ancient Chinese culture, we must realize that the reason why we should attach importance to ancient Chinese cultural traditions is never to glorify the past but not the present, let alone to praise any feudal toxins, but to benefit the cause of socialism and the interests of the people. It is to serve the cause of socialism and the interests of the people, to develop a new national culture and to increase national self-confidence. The principle of “taking the present as the mainstay” means that when inheriting the traditional culture of ancient China, we should start from the current needs and the reality of building socialism with Chinese characteristics; the principle of “using it for the present” means that through our cultural innovation, we should give the ancient Chinese culture a new contemporary meaning. The principle of “use for the present” means that through our cultural innovation, we should give

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Chinese ancient culture a new meaning of the times. In short, the principle of “taking the present as the main focus and using it for the present” must not be understood as a vulgar, superficial, pragmatic and simple approach of labelling.

On the Traditional Morality of the Chinese People: “Essence” and “Dross” Basic Principles for the Inheritance of Traditional Ethics and Traditional Culture At a time when we are vigorously promoting the spirit of the Chinese nation and the fine moral traditions of ancient China, how to treat traditional Chinese morality, how to analyze traditional Chinese morality with Marxist historical materialism, and how to correctly understand the contemporary significance and value of traditional Chinese morality today is a question that deserves our serious attention. That is to say, should we distinguish between the “essence” and the “dross” of traditional Chinese morality? If the answer is yes, then the criteria for distinguishing between the “essence” and the “dross” of traditional morality should and must be clearly defined. Only when this distinction is made can we be clear about the “essence” that we should inherit and promote, and what “dross” we should reject and discard. The correct attitude towards traditional Chinese culture and traditional morality was clearly stated by Mao Zedong as early as in his New Democracy. He said: “China has created a splendid ancient culture during its long feudal society. To clean up the development of ancient culture, to eliminate its feudal dross and absorb its democratic essence, is a necessary condition for developing a new national culture and enhancing national self-confidence; but it must not be incorporated uncritically. A distinction must be made between all the decadence of the ancient feudal ruling class and the excellent people’s culture of ancient times, that is, what is more or less democratic and revolutionary.”20 Just as Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out, “China’s present new politics and new economy have developed from the old politics and old economy of ancient times, and China’s present new culture has developed from the old culture of ancient times; therefore, we must respect our own history and must not cut it off.” Our “respect for history is to give it a certain scientific status, to respect the dialectical development of history, not to glorify the past and not the present, not to praise any feudal toxins. For the people and young students, the main thing is not to lead them to look backwards, but to look forwards.”21 These words of Comrade Mao Zedong are not only of great theoretical and practical significance today, but are also highly relevant.

20 21

Selected Works of Mao Zedong, 2 edn, vol. 2, pp. 707–708. Ibid. at 708.

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Our aim and objective in promoting and inheriting traditional Chinese culture and morality is not to keep people in the “retro” situation of studying the “ancient texts” and appreciating ancient culture, but to make our advocacy and research conducive to the current new We should seek to make our advocacy and research conducive to the construction and development of a new economy, a new politics, a new culture and a new morality. If we ignore the requirements of the new era and fail to see the needs of socialist society, if we merely read and recite the “scriptures” without applying them, if we merely “promote Confucianism” and “appreciate” and “venerate” it, then we will not be able to make use of it. It is not enough to merely “promote Confucianism” and “appreciate” and “venerate” the ancient Chinese classics. We must realize soberly and firmly that what we want to build is socialist culture, socialist politics and socialist economy, and that it is not enough to uncritically emphasize the “revival of Confucianism” and advocate “the rule of Confucianism” and “the restoration of Confucianism” in isolation from the realistic requirements of socialism and from Marxist positions, views and methods. “It is even more wrong to advocate “restoration of the past” and “retrogression” and to believe that all ancient moral traditions can be applied to today.

A Dialectical Analysis of the Fine Moral Traditions of the Chinese Nation The moral traditions of the Chinese nation include both good virtues and corrupt dross. Using the position, viewpoint and method of historical materialism to eliminate the corrupt dross and absorb the democratic essence, and to develop a new socialist culture and morality, is an important aspect of promoting the national spirit of the Chinese nation and promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. At present, there is a noteworthy tendency to advocate uncritical incorporation of traditional Chinese culture and traditional morality and to oppose “critical inheritance”, believing that to propose “critical inheritance” is to restore the “Great Criticism” implemented during the “Cultural Revolution”, which is to deny the Chinese tradition in its entirety. They believe that to propose “critical inheritance” is to revive the “Great Criticism” carried out during the Cultural Revolution and to reject the Chinese tradition in its entirety. Others believe that all the classics, all the rituals and all the “ancient teachings” of the ancient feudal ruling class should be followed. There are even those who regard the ancient practice of “respecting Confucius and reading the scriptures” and “kowtowing and prostrating” as the essence to be inherited, in a vain attempt to position “Confucianism” as the “state religion”. “The aim is to use Confucianism as a guide and to make Confucianism the value guide of the new socialist China, with the ultimate aim of changing socialist China into a society ruled by Confucianism. It is true that China’s new socialist culture has developed from the old culture of the past, and we must respect our traditional culture and traditional morality. But

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this respect, as Comrade Mao Zedong said, can only give a certain scientific status to traditional culture and traditional morality, respecting the dialectical development of history, not glorifying the past but not the present, not praising any feudal toxins; for the people and young students, the main thing is not to guide them towards the ancient traditions, but to guide them towards the new, living socialist morality of the future morality.

The “Essence” of the Chinese Moral Tradition and Macro Judgement of “Dross” What is the “essence” and what is the “dross” of this moral system that the Chinese nation has developed over a long period of history? We need to analyze it from a dialectical materialist point of view. As Comrade Mao Zedong put it, all “the good people’s culture, that is, what is more or less democratic and revolutionary”, is the “essence” we should inherit, while all “all the decaying things of the ancient feudal ruling class” are the “essence” we should inherit. The “dross” that we should discard. To sum up, the Three Principles are basically “dross” that corrupts and binds humanity, while the Five Constants can be regarded as “more or less democratic and revolutionary” that maintain the harmonious development of human beings. “They are the essence of traditional Chinese morality. If we use Marx’s historical materialism as a criterion to examine the traditional morality and traditional culture of the Chinese nation, we can see that traditional Chinese morality was formed at the end of the slave society and has developed and integrated into a multi-layered and multi-faceted moral system after almost three thousand years of development. Our criterion today is that morality which promotes social progress, facilitates harmony and trust between people, better adjusts the conflicts between various interest groups in society, and contains elements of reaching the truth, is the “essence” of Chinese morality. On the other hand, those morals that hinder social progress, suppress the development of human personality, and increase social conflicts are the “dregs” of traditional Chinese morality. The idea of “three principles” has long existed in traditional Chinese morality. Confucius once said, “A ruler, a minister, a father, a father, and a son”, and Dong Zhongshu further proposed the idea of the “Three Principles” and the “Six Disciplines”. In the “Bai Hu Tong De Lun”, which came out of the Bai Hu Guan meeting, a more systematic principle and code of the “Three Principles” and the “Five Constants” were clearly put forward. In the “Bai Hu Tong Yi—Three Principles and Six Disciplines”, “What are the three principles? It means the ruler, the subject, the father and the son, and the husband and wife”, and therefore “The Book of Huanwenjia says: ‘The ruler is the outline of the subject, the father is the outline of the son, and the husband is the outline of the wife’”. In the Bai Hu Tong Yi—Sexuality, the “five constants” are referred to as the five innate natures of human beings: “What are the five natures? They are benevolence,

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righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith. Benevolence is not to be tolerated, but to give birth and love people. Righteousness is the righteousness, the right decision. Ritual is also the fulfillment of the word. Wisdom is also knowledge. It is the ability to see and understand things without confusion. Faith is also called sincerity. Therefore, we are born with the body of the eight trigrams, and the five qi are the constants: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith. What are the six emotions? They are the six emotions of happiness, anger, sadness, joy, love and evil, and they are the five natures of life.” In this way, the Bai Hu Tong Yi explains benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith not only in terms of the meaning of words, but also in terms of theory and human nature. After the Western Han Dynasty, thinkers no longer referred to the “three principles and five natures”, but always quoted Dong Zhongshu’s “three principles and five constants”.

The “Five Constants” in Traditional Chinese Ethics The “five constants”, what we call “benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trust”, are arguably the most influential moral codes in Chinese history. In terms of historical development, Confucius, while placing special emphasis on “benevolence”, also put forward the three virtues of “wisdom, benevolence and courage” and “respect, generosity, faith, sensitivity and beneficence”, while Mencius further summarized them as “benevolence, righteousness, propriety and propriety”. Mencius further summarized them into five basic moral codes: ‘benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trust’. “The idea of the ‘five constants’ has since become the orthodox model of traditional Chinese morality and has become popular throughout the world. On the whole, the “five constants” advocated in “benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trust” are the fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation and deserve to be vigorously promoted. It embodies the important moral principles that the Chinese people have summarized, outlined and enhanced in their relations with each other. In the long-standing feudal society, the ruling class, in order to maintain their own ruling purpose, had branded the Five Constants with a certain period of time, but “benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith”, as a moral belief rich in “people’s However, “benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith”, as moral beliefs rich in “people’s character”, still maintain their status and role as irreplaceable and important moral principles and moral norms regulating the relationship between people in society as a whole and in the practice of the general public. Inheriting this valuable heritage is of great significance to us today in properly regulating the relationship between people. (1) “Ren” is the fundamental requirement of traditional Chinese morality “Ren” is not only the basic principle of traditional Chinese morality, but also the core of traditional Chinese moral values. “It means that one can only be benevolent if one’s words and actions are in line with the moral norms of society. “The most concise

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explanation of benevolence is that “the benevolent person loves people”. “To be benevolent is to have compassion for others in social life and in dealing with people, to think of the interests and demands of others at all times, and to “do unto others what you would not have them do unto you. We should always think of the interests and demands of others, “Do not do to others what you do not want” (Analects—Wei Ling Gong), and “Establish others when you want to establish them, and attain them when you want to attain them” (Analects—Yong Ye). This is the basic premise and the highest requirement of what makes a person a person. “If one is only concerned with one’s own self-interest in social life, how can one be called a human being? In the broader sense of “benevolence”, “benevolence for the people” also requires that it be extended from human beings to all living things in the natural world. Thus, “benevolence for the people and love for things” has become a prominent feature of the fine moral tradition of the Chinese people. (2) “Righteousness” is an important support for the implementation of “benevolence” “Righteousness” has the meaning of “justice”, “fairness” and “equity”. Traditional Chinese morality emphasizes that the ability to uphold “fairness” and “justice” is the only criterion for measuring the moral standard and moral quality of a person and a society. Righteousness” in ancient Chinese traditional morality refers to a core value of the whole society, which is almost as important as “benevolence”. All human behavior must be regarded as the most fundamental requirement for being in line with “righteousness”. Confucius said, “A gentleman’s righteousness is the highest priority” (Analects—Yangcai), and he also said, “To be rich and noble without righteousness is like a floating cloud to me” (Analects—Shuwei). In human relationships, one of the most common, important and direct issues is how to deal with individual interests in relation to society, the state, the whole and the interests of others. In human relationships, we must put “righteousness above all” and “righteousness before profit”. In situations where it is possible to take or not to take, “righteousness prevails”, “righteousness is taken after righteousness”, “righteousness in the light of profit” and “righteousness in the light of gain”. We must “think of righteousness when we see profit” and “think of righteousness when we see gain. No matter how great the benefit, if it is not in line with “righteousness”, it should be firmly discarded. Traditional Chinese morality believes that a moral person must know and understand the importance of righteousness: “A man of honor does not have to believe in his words or act in his deeds, but where righteousness lies” (Mengzi— Li Lou Xi). When pursuing and acquiring personal interests, people are required to “think of righteousness”. At the same time, in social life, we must be brave in the face of righteousness and oppose those who do not act in the face of righteousness. In conclusion, the traditional Chinese morality of “righteousness” is an important criterion for judging the treatment of “profit” in ancient Chinese society, and is a measure for judging whether a person is morally noble or morally inferior. In today’s society, we still need to uphold moral righteousness in accordance with the requirements of the new socialist value system with Chinese characteristics. (3) Rites are the sum of moral norms

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China is renowned as an ancient civilised country and a nation of manners. Ancient Chinese statesmen, theorists and thinkers have made profound and incisive statements about the important role of etiquette in social life. Guanzi was the first to suggest that ritual, righteousness, integrity and shame were the four dimensions of the state, and that “if the four dimensions are not opened, the state will perish” (Guanzi—The Shepherd), and he listed ritual as “the first of the four dimensions”. This is what Confucius meant when he said, “Stand on rites” and “Do not look, do not listen, do not speak, and do not move unless it is a rite of passage” (Analects of Confucius— The Four Dimensions). This is the key idea of Confucius’ saying that we should “establish ourselves in ritual” and “do not see, do not hear, do not speak and do not move unless it is ritual”. In the governance of the state, it is important to “conduct the state with propriety” and to make “courtesy” a primary requirement. The most famous political, moral and ethical principle of Confucius is that one should “restrain oneself and restore propriety”, emphasizing that only by constantly overcoming one’s “selfishness” and conforming one’s words and actions to the requirements of “propriety” can one become a man of honor. He stressed that only when one overcomes one’s own “selfishness” and makes one’s words and actions conform to the requirements of “propriety” can one become a moral person. Laws and punishments were essential, but it was more important to use “rites” to influence, induce and educate people, so “rites and laws” became the most effective way of “ruling the country and securing the state” in ancient Chinese society. “The most effective way of ruling the country was to use rites and rituals to educate people. “This is a special and important position in the governance of the state. On the relationship between ren and rites, Confucius believed that ren is the highest moral requirement and moral expression of a person, and is the more important “essence”; while “ritual” is the “moral code” required by “benevolence”, “ritual” is the “essence” of “benevolence”. Rites” are the expression of “benevolence”. As the main means of regulating behavior between people, rituals are the means of “harmony”, therefore, in the relationship between people, the principle of “harmony is the most important” must be upheld. Therefore, in the relationship between people, the principle of “harmony is the most important” must be upheld. (4) “Wisdom” is the wisdom of identifying “good and evil” in social morality In a general sense, ‘wisdom’ refers mainly to the wisdom, knowledge and talent that a person possesses. In traditional Chinese morality, however, “wisdom” is not only “knowledge”, “skill” and “wisdom”, It also has a specific meaning of moral wisdom. The moral wisdom it refers to is the wisdom and ability to judge “good and evil”, the ability to recognise “good and evil” and, while recognising “good and evil”, to put it into action. It is the wisdom to choose between good and evil, and the ability to choose and act from good and evil. It is the ability to choose good from evil, and to choose and act from good to evil. Therefore, it will inevitably lead to moral behavior and moral practice, building a “gentleman” with moral cultivation and noble character. According to the ancients, knowledge is the ability to know “the beginning and the end of good and evil”. Therefore, “wisdom”, as one of the “five

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constants” of traditional Chinese morality, can be said to refer mainly to the wisdom of judging “good, evil and right and wrong”. The ancient Chinese thinkers, starting with Confucius, always linked “wisdom” and “benevolence” and stressed that without “benevolence”, it would be impossible to be considered “wise”. “How can one be “wise” if one cannot choose “benevolence” in one’s conduct? This is what he said, “If you do not choose to be benevolent, how can you know?” (The Analects of Confucius—Liren) and “How can one attain benevolence if one does not know?” (The Analects of Confucius—Gongye Chang). The word “wisdom” is both a kind of moral wisdom and at the same time, it also has the meaning of admiring, praising and encouraging people to be both “virtuous and talented” and “virtuous first” in social life, to become a person who is beneficial to society and can make greater contributions to it. It is also a form of moral wisdom that exalts, praises and encourages people to be both “virtuous and talented” and “virtuous first” in social life, to become a person who is beneficial to society and can make a greater contribution to it. (5) “Faith” mainly refers to the need to be “honest and trustworthy”, to “keep one’s word” and to “keep one’s word” in human interaction and social life. Honesty and non-deception”, etc. In social life, “faith” is the foundation of a person’s identity, and without it, one loses the basic conditions of being a human being. Confucius listed “faith” as one of the “four subjects” (speech, action, loyalty and trust) and one of the “five norms” (respect, generosity, faithfulness, sensitivity and benefit) in the education of students, emphasizing the need to “It is believed that only “faith” can gain the trust of others, and that “if one is faithful, one will be appointed” (Analects The Analects of Confucius) Confucius said: “If a man does not have trust, he will not know what and a small vehicle does not have , he can do. If a large vehicle does not have how can it be carried out? “This means that a man who loses his “faith” is like a car without the key components in its wheels, and cannot walk even one step. Confucius said that if a state is not honest with the people, it will not be supported by them; only by being honest with them can it establish its “prestige”. The ancients believed that in dealing with people, the most fundamental thing was to be “careful and trustworthy” (prudent and honest) and “respectful and trustworthy”. Mencius summarized the basic moral code of human relations in society in five principles, of which “faith” was one. This is what he meant by “father and son have kinship, ruler and minister have righteousness, husband and wife have distinction, elders and children have order, and friends have trust” (Mencius—Teng Wen Gong Shang). Thinkers from the early Qin dynasty onwards took ‘sincerity’ and ‘faith’ as the basic moral requirements for establishing oneself in the world. The Taoists of the Song and Ming dynasties gave ‘sincerity’ a more important status. Zhou Dunyi put ‘sincerity’ at the height of ‘the essence of the five constants and the source of a hundred actions’ (Song Yuan Xue Cuo—Lian Xi Xue Cuo). Zhu Xi said, “Cheng is the name of the true and undeluded, and the nature of heavenly reason.” (Chapter and Verse of the Four Books—Zhong Yong Chapter and Verse) From the above

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statements of these thinkers, we can see that in ancient Chinese traditional morality, “honesty” occupies a very important place. The Chinese people advocate “benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trust”, and from a positive point of view, the idea of “loving people with benevolence” can be transformed into an important aspect of “people-oriented” thinking today. On the positive side, the idea of “loving people” can be transformed into an important aspect of “people-oriented” thinking. The idea of “righteousness” encompasses “fairness”, “righteousness”, “justice” and the willingness to sacrifice for the collective and national interests. The idea of “righteousness” encompasses “fairness”, “righteousness”, “justice” and the spirit of sacrifice and bravery for the collective and national interests. “The idea of ‘propriety’ encompasses ‘courtesy’, ‘politeness’, ‘etiquette’ and the requirement to observe the rules of public life in the relations between people. The requirement to observe the rules of public life. In ancient China, the term ‘wisdom’ includes ‘wisdom’ and ‘intelligence’. “The meaning of ‘wisdom’ and ‘intellect’ is what we today call ‘virtue and wisdom’, which mainly refers to the ability to recognise good and evil, to choose good and dispel evil, to remove evil from good and to promote good and suppress evil. These five basic moral principles have a universal meaning in social life, and this universal meaning contains elements that have long been in force and that, if they are adapted to the needs of the times, will have an important effect on the improvement of current human relations. Of course, if we look at the Five Constants from a historical perspective, we can also see the historical limitations of the Five Constants. As a moral principle of universal significance, “benevolence” literally means “love for all”, but for a long period of time, it was not possible for “benevolent people to love all”. In a long period of history, it was not possible to “love all people”, but rather it had the imprint of time and class. “Righteousness” not only has the meaning of “righteousness as the top”, “righteousness before profit” and “righteousness before taking”, but we should also We must also see that under the conditions of the time, “righteousness”, “justice”, “ought” and “fairness” also had different meanings for different people. The terms “right”, “justice”, “ought” and “fairness” also had different meanings for different people. As for the moral principle ‘rites’, it had a clear meaning of distinguishing between ‘nobility and inferiority’, and its important role in the society of the time was not only to regulate relations between people, but also to maintain the social hierarchy. Among the Five Permutations, only “faith” is a truly universal moral principle, emphasizing that the moral rights and duties of each individual are equal and should be observed by each other. Therefore, today we still have to analyze and discard the traditional moral “five constants”. The “five constants” of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith, although limited by the times, do contain important principles of moral life that are timeless, universal and long-lasting. The fact that it is limited by its time in a particular historical context does not prevent and affect the important role it has played in human social life over time. In the language of philosophy, this is what we often call the relationship between the particular and the general.

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The “Three Principles” of Traditional Chinese Ethics The so-called “three principles” are the traditional Chinese moral principles of “the king as the subject”, “the father as the son” and “the husband as the wife”. The “three principles” are the traditional Chinese moral principles of “the king as the subject”, “the father as the son” and “the husband as the wife. It reflects the supremacy of “kingship”, “fathership” and “husbandship” in Chinese society and the sacred order of superiority and inferiority in slave and feudal societies. It is the moral branding of slave and feudal societies by the authoritarian and hierarchical systems. “As a moral principle and code of ethics, the Three Principles played an extremely harmful role in Chinese history, and it can even be said that all the moral codes and principles associated with the Three Principles were the dregs of traditional Chinese morality. In particular, during the Song and Ming dynasties, the Three Principles were excessively reinforced by the ruling class. “The first of the three principles is that “the king is the principle of the subject”. In the context of the constant exaggeration by the theoreticians, “the king as the subject” means that the sovereign has supreme “power” and that “the power of the king” is divinely ordained and cannot be violated by anyone at any time. It is a divine mandate that cannot be violated by anyone at any time. Thus, “there is no ruler who is not right” and “when the ruler tells his subjects to die, they have to die”, which elevates the power of the ruler to an unimaginable level. “The second of the three principles is that “the father is the principle of the son”. In his discussion of the relationship between father and son, the Song dynasty Taoist Luo Zhongsu clearly stated that “there are no parents in the world who are not parents”, elevating fatherly authority to a level second only to that of the monarch. “The third of the three principles was the “husband as wife” principle. The strict requirements of the “husband’s right” became the unbreakable rope that bound women forever, and they believed that for a woman, whether she was “betrothed” or “married”, As long as her husband died, she should remain a ‘widow’ forever and could not remarry for the rest of her life. When the question was asked, “Is it possible for a widow to remarry if she is poor and has no support?” The Taoist replied, “It is only because in later times they are afraid of dying of cold and hunger that they say so. However, starving to death is a very small matter, but losing one’s virtue is a great matter.” (Cheng’s Legacy, 22) This means that for a woman who has lost her husband, starving to death is of little importance to her, but only the loss of what is called a woman’s chastity is of the utmost importance. In such an atmosphere and under such moral requirements, the ruler had absolute power over his subjects, the father over his son and the husband over his wife, while the subjects, the son and the woman had only the duty to obey. In the long history of slave and feudal societies, in the construction of morality and in moral life, the “three rules” severely fettered the moral independence of the majority of people, suppressed their moral consciousness, fettered their moral freedom, and fundamentally denied them the moral rights to which they were all entitled. Therefore, we can say that the “Three Principles” are the dregs of traditional Chinese morality, and should be

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completely rejected today. It is worth pointing out that to this day, some people still uncritically and comprehensively affirm Confucius’ view of “ruler, minister, father, father, son”, arguing that the view of “ruler, minister, father, father, son” is “forward-looking, relevant, scientific and instructive. Only a madman would say that ‘ruler, minister, father, father, son’ is very bad”, and some people strongly advocate “Confucius’ Some people have been trying to promote the idea that “Confucius’ thought of ‘ruler, subject, father, father, son’ does not contain feudal hierarchical concepts that bind, confine, oppress, or bind people”, and so on. Such a viewpoint, which justifies in various forms and theories the idea of “restoring the past” and “revere the past”, should be criticized.

Promote the Fine Morality of the Chinese Nation with Patriotism at Its Core Tradition, Development and Construction of a New Socialist Ethic The spirit of the nation, with patriotism at its core, is the core of the fine traditional morality of the Chinese nation, and therefore the promotion of the fine traditional morality of the Chinese nation must be closely integrated with the promotion of socialist patriotism. We must have a deep understanding and overall grasp of the value of traditional Chinese morality for the country, for the whole, for the nation and for society, and unite the people of all nationalities to make a positive contribution to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. At present, there are certain phenomena of moral distortion, moral decline and moral degradation in society, which deserve our attention. These phenomena need to be analyzed comprehensively and gradually improved by a strong public opinion atmosphere and comprehensive management measures guided by socialist moral ideals and collectivist values. It is worth noting that some people are attempting to “revive Confucianism” and use Confucian morality to save the current moral distortions, and some people also advocate changing Confucianism into a state religion, nationalising Confucianism and blindly advocating that children should read the scriptures at an early age. These ideas are a kind of “retrogressive” and regressive thinking in disguise, and are extremely harmful. Some people think that “Western civilization has fallen from grace and is now in decline” and that it is also one-sided to replace “Western civilization” with Confucianism. It can only be the new culture and civilization of socialism.

Using the Past for the Present, Pushing the Envelope –On Inheriting and Promoting Traditional Chinese Virtues22 22

This article, co-authored with Xia Weidong, was originally published in Red Flag Manuscript, No. 7, 2014.

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To learn, implement and enforce the core socialist values, to integrate them into the spiritual blood of the whole nation, to internalize them in the heart and to externalize them in action, is a major strategic task that goes hand in hand with the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. One important way for the core socialist values to enter the ears, minds and hearts of the people, and to be transformed into the people’s customs and morals, is that they must be integrated with the fundamentals of Chinese culture, growing, developing and innovating in it. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the cultivation and promotion of socialist core values must be based on the excellent Chinese traditional culture. All solid core values have their inherent roots. To abandon the tradition and lose the foundation is to cut off one’s spiritual lifeline. General Secretary Xi Jinping also highlighted that traditional Chinese virtues are the essence of Chinese culture and contain a wealth of ideological and moral resources. We must not forget our roots in order to open up the future, and we must be good at inheritance in order to innovate better. The values and moral norms inherited from history and culture, especially from our ancestors, should be applied to the present, be updated, be treated with discrimination, and be inherited with appreciation and abandonment. These important assertions by General Secretary Xi Jinping are the basic guidelines for us today to correctly grasp the relationship between the cultivation of core socialist values and the promotion of traditional Chinese virtues.

Traditional Chinese Ethics Must Be Treated with a Correct Stance The key to a correct approach to traditional Chinese morality is to take the right stand. Since modern times in China, including the establishment of New China, on the issue of traditional culture and traditional morality, such trends as cultural nihilism, Westernization, and retrogressivism have never really disappeared, but they have always manifested themselves in different guises whenever the right conditions have arisen. For the Chinese Communists, the attitude towards traditional culture and traditional morality has also undergone a tortuous process of recognition. It was only from the generation of outstanding Communists represented by Comrade Mao Zedong that the Chinese Communists really solved the problem of the correct stance towards traditional culture and traditional morality, and in the process of the continuous Chineseisation of Marxism, put forward the basic principles of the Marxist approach to traditional Chinese culture and traditional morality, such as critical inheritance, the use of the past for the present, and the promotion of the new, etc. Comrade Mao Zedong said: “Today’s China is a development of historical China; we are Marxist historians, and we should not cut off history. From Confucius to Sun Yat-sen, we should take stock and inherit this precious heritage”23 ; “Cleaning up the development 23

Selected Works of Mao Zedong, 2 edn, vol. 2, 534 pp.

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process of ancient culture, eliminating its feudal dross and absorbing its democratic essence, is a necessary condition for developing a new national culture and increasing national self-confidence; but it must not be incorporated uncritically.”24 ; We should not absorb the historical heritage and all progressive cultures uncritically, but “as we do with food, we must chew it in our own mouths and through gastrointestinal movements, send in saliva and gastric juices, break it down into its essence and dross, then excrete the dross and absorb the essence, in order to be beneficial to our bodies” It is then excreted and absorbed in order to be beneficial to our bodies.”25 These representative statements by Comrade Mao Zedong have solved the problem of the correct stance towards traditional Chinese culture and traditional morality from a theoretical point of view. In practice, however, for a country with a civilizational history of 5000 years, it is not possible to deal with the issue of critical inheritance, the application of the past to the present, and the promotion of new ideas in traditional culture and morality. With five thousand years of cultural accumulation, Chinese traditional culture and traditional morality are distinctly dualistic and contradictory, with both the democratic essence and the feudal dross; the positive, progressive and innovative side and the negative, conservative and backward side. In some instances, the best and the worst are closely intertwined, with a mixture of good and bad, and a mixture of flaws and defects. On the one hand, there is an inexhaustible supply of resources, on the other hand, it is a matter of opinion and opinion, and since modern times, Chinese culture has always faced the challenge and impact of the powerful Western culture, which has made China’s approach to traditional culture and traditional morality more complex than any other country in the world can match or even imagine. The question of whether traditional culture and traditional morality are the driving force or the resistance to China’s advancement has caused great confusion and strife among the people of China in recent times. Although there have been different or even opposing attitudes and views on the treatment of traditional culture and traditional morality since modern times, it can be said that, on the whole, the attitude of progressive and educated people towards traditional culture and traditional morality has basically emphasized both the return to the original and the opening up of the new, and the continuous opening up of the new in the process of returning to the original. It is for this reason that such wisdom-filled ideas as “comprehensive innovation” have increasingly become the mainstream of thought, while the extreme antiquarians and the extreme restorationists have increasingly become non-mainstream. Today, when it comes to traditional culture and traditional morality, we should conform to this mainstream in the intellectual world, stop being trapped by extreme attitudes and views, reject historical nihilism, cultural nihilism and cultural retrogressivism and cultural conservatism in a clear-cut manner, and seriously summarize and inherit this precious cultural and moral heritage from Confucius to Sun Yat-sen. The most fundamental thing is, as General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: to strengthen the excavation and interpretation of the excellent Chinese traditional 24 25

Ibid., pp. 707–708. Ibid. at 707.

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culture, to strive to achieve the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional Chinese virtues, to promote the cultural spirit that transcends time and space, transcends countries, has eternal charm and has contemporary value, and to disseminate the contemporary Chinese cultural innovations that inherit the excellent traditional culture and carry forward the spirit of the times, based on the country and open to the world. This requires the dissemination of the achievements of contemporary Chinese culture, which inherits the excellent traditional culture, carries forward the spirit of the times, is based on the country and is open to the world. This requires that the historical origins, development and basic direction of the excellent Chinese traditional culture be clearly explained, the unique creation, values and distinctive features of Chinese culture be clearly explained, cultural and value confidence be enhanced, the essence of ideas and moral essence of the excellent Chinese traditional culture be carefully drawn, the national spirit with patriotism at its core and the spirit of the times with reform and innovation at its core be vigorously carried forward, and the spirit of benevolence, love, reform and innovation of the excellent Chinese traditional culture be deeply explored and expounded. We will also deeply explore and expound the contemporary values of Chinese fine traditional culture, such as benevolence and love, respect for the people, honesty and integrity, justice, harmony and the pursuit of common ground, so that Chinese fine traditional culture can become an important source of core socialist values. As long as the Chinese people pursue a beautiful and noble moral state from generation to generation, our nation will always be full of hope.

The Treatment of Traditional Chinese Morality Should Respect the Objective Law of Cultural Transmission The core values of socialism, whether they are the value objectives at the national level, the value orientations at the social level, or the value guidelines at the individual level, cannot be created by simple “design”, but by accurately grasping the spirit of the times and scientifically refining traditional culture and traditional morality. Today, with the rapid development of the times, it is easy to overlook the critical inheritance of traditional culture and traditional morality. There is no doubt that the culture and morals of the old times must contain the old spirit, customs, habits and morals of the old times, and that they are severely limited by region, time and class, and that many of them have long since lost their value for revival, and may even become a historical burden today. However, we must also see that the connection between today’s times and the culture and morality of the past is a root and blood connection that cannot be severed objectively, nor can it be cut off. The policy of applying the past to the present and promoting the new to traditional culture and traditional ethics is not a subjective preference for historical heritage, let alone a sentiment of pining for the past, but rather a respect for the objective laws of cultural transmission. In traditional culture and morality, there is a legacy of

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excellence that cannot be ignored, that transcends the times, and that can be inherited. The spirit of benevolence, respect for the people, honesty, justice, harmony and the pursuit of commonwealth is the essence of excellent Chinese traditional culture and traditional virtues. “The spirit of benevolence and love is the spirit of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, and the spirit of enterprise is the spirit of “As the heavens are healthy, a gentleman should strive for self-improvement”; The spirit of inclusiveness, “A gentleman’s virtue is strong enough to carry things”; the social ideal of “The way of the world is public”; the concept of righteousness and profit, “To be rich and noble without being righteous is like a floating cloud to me”; The spirit of a great man: “Wealth and nobility cannot be lusted after, poverty and poverty cannot be shifted, and might and strength cannot be bent”; the spirit of “being kind to others”, “helping others”, “helping the poor and helping the needy”, “knowing shame and being close to it”. “These traditional virtues of the Chinese nation should be inherited and carried forward with integrity, making them an important source of core socialist values. We should adopt an attitude that is generous to both the past and the present, and to the resources of the past and the use of the present. Chinese culture and traditional morality should neither be denied nor inherited in their entirety. A wholesale rejection will inevitably lead to cultural nihilism or wholesale westernization; a wholesale affirmation will inevitably lead to cultural conservatism or wholesale restorationism. We should be guided by historical materialism and adopt an eclectic attitude towards our ancestors’ inherited culture and morals, based on removing the crude, extracting the refined, removing the false and preserving the true. The purpose of returning to our roots is to open up the new, and the purpose of opening up the new is to use it in the present, and the key to success lies in whether we can use the ancient for the present and push forward the new. The main purpose of inheriting traditional morality is to serve the needs of the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, to create advanced morality, to refine advanced socialist core values, to solve the ideological and moral problems in real life, and to create a good ideological and moral environment for reform and development. The fundamental basis is to shape the spirit and soul of the nation through the inheritance and innovation of history, so as to understand and grasp the laws of China’s social development and inspire the confidence and courage of the people to continue to move forward. In order to promote the new, it is necessary to make a comprehensive study of the culture and moral thought of the hundred schools of thought in Chinese history, to take the essence of each school and discard the dross of each school, to incorporate and integrate them on the basis of comparison, analysis and integration, so as to form a new thought that meets the needs of the times and becomes an organic part of the core socialist values.

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The Treatment of Traditional Chinese Morality Should Be Analyzed on a Case-By-Case Basis The use of the past for the present and the development of new ideas is a general principle, but in the process of actual knowledge and practice, this principle needs to be concretised and analyzed on a case-by-case basis. In traditional Chinese ethics, from our position, perspective and approach today, several different situations can be broadly distinguished. In the first case, some traditional morality, which is basically the best part. In the second case, some traditional morality, the core ideology of slavery, feudal hierarchy and hierarchy, is basically the dross part. In the third case, some traditional morals, the best and the worst, are interwoven and blended together. It should also be noted that even the parts that are essentially the best are still flawed, and although “flawed does not cover up the good”, the ancients have always stressed the importance of “choosing carefully”. ”. First of all, those traditional morals which are essentially the essence should be inherited critically and righteously, but at the same time should also be analyzed according to the principle of using the past for the present and introducing new ideas to give new meaning to the times. For example, the two famous lines, “To worry about the world first and to be happy afterwards”, were spoken by Fan Zhongyan in the Northern Song Dynasty in his essay “The Record of Yueyang Tower”. The term “the world” referred to both the vast area of land inhabited by the Chinese people and the area ruled by the Song dynasty. The ‘sorrow’ and ‘joy’ in these two phrases refer to both the sorrow and joy of the masses and the rise and fall of the Song dynasty. The ‘world’ as we understand it today has both similarities and differences in principle with the ‘world’ as Fan Zhongyan understood it; accordingly, the ‘sorrow’ and ‘joy’ that should be present are both ‘sorrow’ and ‘joy’. “Accordingly, there are similarities and differences in principle between the ‘worry’ and ‘joy’ that we should have. There are many other examples of traditional Chinese morality, such as “The benevolent person loves others”, “Do not do to others what you do not want”, etc. When inheriting them, care should be taken to discard their negative content, which at that time was to erase class conflicts and safeguard the selfish interests of the ruling class. Inheritance of these teachings, we should be careful to discard their negative content, which at the time stifled class contradictions and defended the selfish interests of the ruling class, and to promote their positive content, which today is to reconcile people’s internal conflicts and strengthen solidarity and friendly relations among them. For example, “To live in the world’s broadest dwelling, to take up the world’s rightful position, and to practice the world’s great way. If you have the will to live with the people, but not the will to live alone. A man who cannot be lusted after by the rich, cannot be moved by the poor, and cannot be bent by the mighty. (Mencius—Teng Wen Gong xia) For the words “wide residence”, “the world”, “the way”, “the will”, etc., we should apply the ancient to the modern. (Mencius—Under

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Teng Wen Gong), we should apply the principle of using the past for the present and innovating the new. Secondly, traditional morality, which is basically dross, should be criticised and rejected with a straight face. For example, the “three principles” of the “three principles” are the ideological pillars of the authoritarian hierarchy and the concept of hierarchy, and they are completely contrary to the social system and social life today. It can be judged as dross and must be resisted. The patriarchal style and discrimination against women that are repeatedly manifested in the political life and daily life of today’s society have their roots in traditional culture, which is poisoned by such corrupt ideas as “the ruler is the rule of his subjects, the father is the rule of his sons and the husband is the rule of his wife”. Finally, traditional morality, which is a mixture of the best and the worst, needs to be treated with discrimination and inherited with abandonment. Take, for example, the relationship between righteousness and profit, the central issue of traditional Chinese morality. In the Analects of Confucius, it is said that “to be rich and noble without righteousness is like a floating cloud to me”, “to think of righteousness when one sees profit”, “to think of righteousness when one sees gain” and “to take righteousness after righteousness”. “These ideas are basically the best of the best, but they are also interspersed with elements that defend the selfish interests of the ancient ruling class. The point is to distinguish correctly between what the ancients called righteousness and profit and what they call righteousness and profit today, so that we can better discard the bad and take the good. More complex are other cases, such as “the gentleman thinks of righteousness but not of profit, while the villain covets profit but does not care about righteousness” and “the gentleman is a metaphor for righteousness, while the villain is a metaphor for profit”, which are typical cases where the essence and the dross are intertwined. The problem lies in the distinction between the “gentleman” and the “villain”. In ancient Chinese society, the term “gentleman” meant, on the one hand, a member of the ruling class and, on the other hand, a moral person; the term “villain” meant, on the other hand, a lowly person in an inferior position and, on the other hand, a person who was concerned only with personal gain and had no morality. Therefore, the understanding of “the gentleman thinks of righteousness and does not think of profit, while the villain covets profit and does not care about righteousness” and “the gentleman is a metaphor for righteousness, while the villain is a metaphor for profit” can contain two interpretations that are both related and different. The other interpretation is that only moral people think about and understand the greater good, while immoral people do not care about the greater good and only know about private gain. In China’s long-standing feudal society, the first interpretation is clearly the mainstream, and such content should be criticised and rejected. The second interpretation should be critically inherited, but after its transformation, it can help people to establish a correct view of righteousness and profit, and to deal with the relationship between righteousness and profit properly.

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The Right Methodology for Approaching Traditional Chinese Ethics From a methodological point of view, there is also the question of how to correctly deal with the relationship between moral particularity and moral universality. For a period of time in the past, there have been deviations in the understanding and practice of traditional Chinese morality, and methodological errors have also been a deep-seated cause. For example, the mistake of denying that traditional morality can be inherited lies in the fact that traditional morality was formed in a specific era, by specific people and things, without seeing that it may also contain universal elements that transcend the times; while the mistake of advocating wholesale inheritance and wholesale restoration lies in the fact that the universality of traditional morality is exaggerated, without seeing the particularities of different eras, thus denying the need to change traditional morality. This denies the need for change in traditional morality. How can this relationship between the particular and the universal be properly understood in traditional morality? In The German Ideology, Marx and Engels pointed out that even in a society of antagonistic classes, there are both antagonistic and common interests between the classes, “and that this common interest exists not merely as a ‘universal thing’ in conception, but above all exists in reality as the interdependence of individuals who have a division of labor between them”.26 For example, the ideologists of the ruling class, in order to safeguard the long-term interests of the ruling class, used this common interest not only to formulate moral norms to maintain social stability, to resist foreign aggression under the banner of this common, universal interest, but also to develop nature and build water resources in accordance with this common interest, etc. Moral demands have both a special and a universal significance. In the Chinese slave and feudal societies, when a moral demand was put forward, from the perspective of special interests, it had to be based on the maintenance of the fundamental interests of the ruling class and the hierarchical social order of superiority and inferiority; from the perspective of general interests, it also had to focus on the maintenance of the overall relations of production and life in the society at that time, on the maintenance of stability and harmony in the social order, and on the long-term peace and security of the country and society. Of course, due to the limitations of history and class, when the ancients put forward certain moral requirements and moral codes according to the special circumstances and purposes of the time, they often thought they had discovered the permanent truth of human moral life and believed that these moral requirements and moral codes would last forever, hoping that “if heaven remains unchanged, so does the Way”. These two dimensions of traditional morality make it possible to criticize and reject those moral principles which have emerged under certain historical conditions and which, at their core, are self-evidently the exclusive property of the exploiting 26

The Collected Works of Marx and Engels, vol. 1, 536, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 2009.

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classes and which, therefore, reflect the fundamental interests of the exploiting classes and have little scientific, democratic or popular element. It also makes it possible to criticise and reject those moral principles which do reflect the common moral principles to which people in the same society are bound, those which, as Engels pointed out, have a common historical background which inevitably gives them a certain “commonality”, those which, as Lenin put it, are the “rules of public life” developed by mankind over the centuries. There is a reasonable core of inheritance. The fundamental criterion for judging whether traditional morality should be critically inherited or critically rejected is whether it contains elements of science, democracy and peoplehood. The unique and outstanding cultural and moral heritage, which has scientific, democratic and popular elements, will become a unique cultural support and cultural advantage for the cultivation and practice of core socialist values, and for the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, after it has been selected and transformed in accordance with the principle of applying the past to the present and introducing new ideas. It is our unique cultural tradition, our unique historical destiny and our unique basic national conditions that reveal to us that China is destined to follow a development path that suits its own characteristics.

The Core and Mainstream of Traditional Chinese Virtues The core and mainstream of traditional Chinese virtues can be summed up succinctly as the spirit of “the world for the common good”. If we seriously reflect on the thousands of years of cultural and moral traditions, we can say that what can still be called virtues today reflect, to a greater or lesser extent, the spirit of “The Way of the World is Public” as stated in the Book of Rites. “The idea of ‘small prosperity’ and ‘commonwealth’, as explained in the Book of Rites, is essentially closely linked to the ‘Great Way’ of ‘the world as a public good’. The idea of “being in public at all times” in the Poetic Edda, the idea of “establishing virtue”, “establishing merit” and “establishing speech” in the Zuo Zhuan, and the idea of the “three immortalities” in the Zuo Zhuan, are all closely related to the “Great Way”. The idea of “the world for the common good” is emphasized in the three immortal ideas in Zuo Zhuan, and the idea of “the state and forgetting the family, the public and forgetting the private” in Jia Yi’s “Security Policy”. It was under the influence and inspiration of the spirit of “the world for the common good” that Fan Zhongyan wrote “To worry about the world first and to be happy after the world’s happiness”; Wen Tianxiang wrote “There is no death in life since the ancient times. “Gu Yan Yuan wrote, “To make the world rich, to make the world strong, to make the world safe”; Lin Zexu wrote, “If you want the country to live and die, do you want to avoid it because of misfortune?” Such moral maxims are found in traditional texts, and such moral personalities have emerged throughout the dynasties, together highlighting the invaluable value of traditional Chinese virtues in the interests of the country, the nation and the whole.

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In terms of the relationship between the individual and others and society, traditional Chinese virtues emphasize the individual’s duty to the state and the nation, putting others before oneself and helping others, up to the point of “killing oneself to become benevolent and sacrificing one’s life for righteousness”, which is an important feature and advantage of traditional Chinese morality that distinguishes it from the Western moral tradition that is centred on individualism. This holistic morality is an important feature and advantage of traditional Chinese morality that distinguishes it from the Western individualistic moral tradition. In its 5000 years of history, the Chinese nation has experienced internal and external troubles, ups and downs, but despite the old state of Zhou, its destiny is still new, and the Chinese nation has always stood out among the peoples of the world, becoming the only civilizational nation in the world that has made the ancient civilization and the contemporary civilization, and the ancient nation and the contemporary nation one and the same. There is no doubt that the holistic spirit of the traditional Chinese culture and morality of “the world is public” has become a strong spiritual bond that has sustained Chinese civilization and the Chinese nation and has made it stronger and stronger. The unity of the country, the unity of the nation, the opposition to division and civil war have been the common aspirations of the people of all ethnic groups for thousands of years, and have thus determined the mainstream and direction of China’s historical development. Although the Chinese nation has experienced countless external troubles due to foreign invasions, and countless internal troubles due to the division of the country and the confrontation between regional regimes, such as the Wei, Jin and North–South Dynasties, the Ten Kingdoms of the Five Dynasties, the Song, Liao, Jin and Western Xia Dynasties, the Chinese nation has ultimately relied on its own strength to achieve a new life. It should be noted that during the long period of slavery and feudalism, the traditional Chinese morality of “the whole world is public” was also deeply marked by the self-interest of the exploiting class and became an ideological weapon to defend the self-interest of the ruling class. The ruling class has always presented its own class interests, the selfish interests of a dynasty, as the interests of the so-called “world”. Inheriting the spirit of holism in traditional Chinese morality today, we must reject this idea of using one’s own self-interest as the interest of the world, and inherit the spirit of “being in public at all times”, “being public but forgetting one’s own self”, and worrying and enjoying the world. The spirit of “the world is for the public”. Today, the spirit of striving to achieve the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is the most fundamental spirit of “the world for the common good”.

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An Analysis of Ancient Chinese Thinkers’ Discourses on Qigong Qigong is a method and theory created by the ancient people of China during their long life and labor to prevent and cure diseases, to nourish morals and to inspire the intellect. The creation of this method and theory shows the wisdom of our ancient people and is an important treasure of our ancient cultural heritage.27 What is qigong? In ancient times there was no concept of qigong in China. The term “qigong” is the name given to the phenomenon of qigong by qigong practitioners after the founding of New China. In ancient China, there was “blowing and breathing, exhaling the old and nurturing the new”, “channeling”, “nurturing the heart”, “nurturing qi All these references indicate a phenomenon, that is, the use of the method of “nourishing qi” to achieve the so-called purpose of cultivating the body and mind. The qigong that has been referred to since the founding of New China has been more oriented towards the use of breath regulation to strengthen the mind and prevent disease, and has neglected the significance of the ancient Chinese so-called “guidance” and “the art of treating qi and nourishing the mind” in many ways. It is for this reason that I believe that in discussing qigong and studying it today, we should recognize and understand the full significance of ancient Chinese qigong so that it can play a better role today. Generally speaking, qigong in ancient China has three main aspects: firstly, it is for strengthening the heart and prolonging life; secondly, it is for inspiring intelligence and enhancing wisdom; and thirdly, it is for cultivating the temperament and nurturing morality. This article is a general and brief introduction to these three aspects of ancient Chinese qigong, and at the same time, it further demonstrates that these three aspects of qigong are still important today. It is important for China’s socialist construction to carry forward the good elements of the Chinese cultural heritage, eliminate its feudal dross, and make the good parts of it flourish today. The author lacks in-depth research on qigong, and what I have discussed here is only a description and analysis of the material on this subject in the history of Chinese philosophy and the history of Chinese ethical thought (in these views, I have also incorporated the results of the works on qigong published in China in recent years).

Qigong and the Prevention and Treatment of Diseases and the Prolongation of Life In ancient times, in order to maintain their own survival and development, human beings had to fight against their own diseases and ageing while fighting against the natural world. It was for this reason that qigong was, in the early days, mainly 27

This article was originally published in Yan Xin Qigong Phenomena, Beijing University of Technology Press, 1989 edition.

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associated with the prevention of disease, the promotion of health, health care and the prolongation of life. The medical practitioners of the motherland were the first to summarize and study the phenomenon of qigong in China and to apply it in medical practice, thus developing it in theory. In the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, qigong (i.e. “guiding and pressing the stilts”) was already mentioned as one of the five medical measures of the time.28 The so-called method of guiding is “guiding the flow of qi”,29 which is today’s qigong. Since qigong, the method of guiding by breathing, often has many “mystical” overtones and is often combined with superstition, and since the methods created in practice are not suitable for expression in writing, for a long period of time, although qigong has been more widely used in life, labor and medical practice for the prevention and treatment of diseases and the maintenance of health, it has been more widely used for the prevention and treatment of diseases. Therefore, for a long period of time, although qigong has been widely used in life, labor and medical practice to prevent and cure diseases and maintain health, it has not been well developed in theory. It can be seen that although the writings of many thinkers and medical scholars from the Spring and Autumn Period onwards have mentioned many times about the practice of qigong and considered it to have obvious efficacy, it has failed to achieve greater success in medical practice and medical theory. The thinker who expounded the theory and practice of qigong in terms of health maintenance was Zhuang Zhou, a famous thinker of the Warring States period. The book Zhuangzi reflects Zhuang Zhou’s thinking. Chuang Tzu—Carving Ideas says: “To blow and breathe, to exhale the old and to take in the new, to bear and to bird, for the sake of longevity is all that is required; this is also the preference of those who are guided by the Tao, those who cultivate their forms, and those who live and work in Pengzu.” Here not only is the practice of qigong described and the representative figures who performed it at that time presented, but also the main purpose of qigong is pointed out. Later, in the “Huainanzi—Spiritual Training” compiled by Liu An, the king of Huainan in the Han Dynasty, and in the “Baopu Zi” written by Ge Hong in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there are accounts of qigong being beneficial to health and able to prolong life. Zhuang Zhou, in his book Zhuangzi, also proposed the methods of “mind fasting” and “sitting in oblivion”, from the requirements of “valuing oneself” and “rejuvenation”. “He believed that if one could concentrate on one’s mind, exclude all distractions, and “breathe in and out of the past”, one could achieve a complete forgetfulness of one’s selfish thoughts and of all things outside, It is possible to forget one’s own existence. This kind of “sitting and forgetting”, as Zhuang Zhou calls it in The Great Teacher, is the same as the “sitting and forgetting” he calls it in The Treatise on Qiwu, 28

The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine—Su Wen—The Book of Different Methods and Prescriptions states that there were five main medical measures used by doctors at that time to treat illnesses: acupuncture, poison, moxibustion, moxibustion, nine needles, and guiding and stilting. 29 The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine—Ling Shu—The Transmission of Disease states that the medical measures used at the time were “to guide and move the qi, one of which was moxibustion, moxibustion, ironing, stabbing, treatment by gas, and drinking medicine”.

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in which he “sits in seclusion and sighs to the sky”. “It should be said that this is the best description of the ancient Chinese qigong methods, purposes and realms. In Zhuangzi—The Master of Health and Life, there is also a method of health and wellness known as “the scripture of the edge of the governor”, which is believed to be able to “protect one’s body, to live a full life, to support one’s relatives, and to live one’s life to the fullest”. How should this approach to health be understood? The thinkers who interpreted Zhuangzi had made many explanations, but they seldom understood it in terms of qigong. Wang Shansan, a thinker of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, was the first to notice this problem. What is Dou? According to the explanation in the famous ancient medical work “Ling Shu Jing”, the “pulse” is also the “Governor”; the “Governor” is the central neck vein, the “Governor”. In his book “Zhuangzi Xie”, Wang Shoushan explains the “margin of the Governor as the meridian” as follows: “The middle vein in front of the body is called Ren, and the middle vein behind the body is called Governor. The Governor lives in silence, but does not lean on the left and right, and has the position of the veins but no physical quality. The edge of the governor, with a clear and delicate qi, follow the void and travel, stopping at what is not feasible, and traveling since smoothly to fit in.” In ancient times, people believed that the Ren and Du veins, which run in front of and behind the body, are connected to all the veins in the body, so they are connected through breathing and become a cycle, and this is what is known as the Small Circumference in qigong. This is what is known in qigong as the “Small Circumference”. Although the term “Small Circumference” was first used in Taoist practice, today’s qigong practitioners have mostly adopted its rational elements and made it an important part of the qigong method. Taoism, as a religion, strongly preaches that one can attain immortality and longevity through cultivation. How can one achieve immortality and longevity? In his book “Baopu Zi”, Ge Hong believed that three things were most important: firstly, taking medicine, secondly, treasuring the essence, and thirdly, practicing air. By taking medicine, it means taking the golden elixir of Taoism; by treasure essence, it means to be good at the art of intercourse in male and female sexual life, in order to treasure one’s own essence; by practicing qi, it means what people today call qigong. According to Taoism, the purpose of practicing qi is to achieve immortality and transcend the mundane into immortality. In the book “Baopu Zi”, the Taoists wrote about the methods of qigong practice, the frequency of breathing, the time of practice, the influence of emotions, desires and diet on qigong, and the problems to which attention should be paid. At the same time, he also proposes the “birth breath” as the highest state of qigong practice. Ge Hong (284–364) was a Taoist theorist in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, more than 1600 years ago. The discussion of the ‘practice of qi’ in the Baopu Zi is the earliest text in history to describe the various details of qigong, and is still of some reference value despite its religious and superstitious content. In Baopu Zi, it is also theoretically proven why “practicing qi” can lead to fitness and even longevity. The book writes: “He who exhales the old and absorbs the new, because of the qi, grows the qi.” “If we can keep the righteous qi intact, the body and the spirit will be able to protect each other and no one can be hurt.”

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(Baopu Zi—Inner Chapter—Extreme Words) It is also said: “The form is the residence of the gods. Therefore, if the dike is broken, the water will not remain. If a candle is not used, the fire will not live there. When the body is strained, the spirit is dispersed, and when the qi is exhausted, the life ends. When the roots are exhausted and the branches flourish, the wood will be gone. If the qi is tired and wants to win, the genie will leave the body.” (Baopu Zi—Inner Chapter—The Supreme Reason) These insights should be considered profound. The significance and role of modern qigong in preventing and curing illnesses and prolonging life is well understood. In particular, during the popularization of qigong in recent years, many people have improved their conditions through qigong exercises and have been cured of various chronic and difficult illnesses that had not been cured for many years. What is more, some people who had been bedridden for a long time and had lost the ability to work were able to strengthen their physique after qigong exercises, so that they could continue to serve in the construction of the four modernizations of socialism. As qigong mainly emphasizes the role of holistic mechanisms and endogenous factors, it is used to bring into play one’s own physiological and psychological adjustments, thus bringing into play one’s active role and forming a virtuous cycle within the body, which can enhance blood circulation and relax the meridians, thus playing a role in health care and strengthening the body and even curing diseases.

Qigong and the “Wisdom of the Ears and Eyes” and the Development of Intelligence In addition to strengthening the body and prolonging life, qigong exercises can also enlighten the intellect and enhance wisdom, thus achieving wisdom in the eyes and ears, which is also emphasized by many thinkers and qigong practitioners. In the history of Chinese thought, the importance of ‘cultivating the mind’ is discussed in Guanzi’s ‘Baixin’, ‘Neiye’ and ‘Xinshu’. The ‘cultivation of the mind’ in this context refers in a certain sense to the mind of wisdom, i.e. it emphasizes the role of cultivating the mind in wisdom. From the main content of these four treatises, they all belong to the Taoist school of thought on nourishing health, nourishing qi and related qigong. According to Guo Moruo’s testimony, he believes that these four treatises are the ideas of Song Long-neck and Yin Wen of the Warring States period. The Guanzi Neiye says: “All human beings are born with their happiness. If we are worried, we lose our discipline; if we are angry, we lose our end; if we are sad, happy or angry, the Way is nowhere.” This means that people cannot live in the world with the distraction of emotions such as sorrow, grief, joy and anger, and so on, to achieve the goal of the Way. Therefore, the Neiye goes on to say, “Love desires to be quiet, and when you encounter chaos, correct it. Do not lead, do not push, and happiness will return. If you are quiet, you will gain, but if you are restless, you will lose. The spirit is in the heart, it comes and goes, it is small and it is big,

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so it is lost, and impatience is harmful. If the mind can keep quiet, the path will be determined.” (Guanzi—Neiye) Some qigong practitioners now believe that this passage is precisely the Taoist description of the state of qigong. Since people are disturbed by sorrow, grief, joy and anger, so that the “mind” cannot attain the Way, the best way is to use the Taoist method of nourishing the mind, that is, the qigong method of “quieting” and “correcting The best way to restrain one’s passions is to use the Taoist method of nurturing the mind, that is, to use the “quiet” and “correct” methods of qigong, that is, the so-called “spiritual energy in the mind, one coming and one passing” method of exhalation, inhalation, exhalation and inhalation, in order to achieve the goal of “if the mind can be quiet, the Tao will be determined”. This “aura” is very subtle and can run through the whole body and between heaven and earth, so it is “as subtle as it is internal and as large as it is external”. In the process of exercising this “coming and going”, the only way to achieve results is to be “quiet”. If one is impatient, one is bound to fail. Indeed, there is considerable basis for interpreting this passage from the Inner Work as a Taoist depiction of qigong.30 It is noteworthy that in discussing the “cultivation of the mind” and “nourishment of the mind”, Guanzi’s “Neiye”, “Baixin” and “Xinshu” (The Art of the Heart) consider that through this method, “the spiritual energy is in the mind, one comes and one passes away”, in addition to nourishing health and fitness, it also plays an important role in opening up one’s wisdom. “In addition to nurturing health and fitness, this method also plays an important role in opening up one’s wisdom. When the Neiye states that “if the mind can hold still, the path will be fixed”, it also says: “If you can be right and still, then you can be fixed. When the mind is fixed in the middle, the ears and eyes will be wise”; and it also says: “When a person can be righteous and quiet, his skin will be generous and his ears and eyes will be wise.” (Guanzi—Neiye) According to Guanzi—Xinshu Shang, “The mind is also the house of wisdom.” In other words, the heart is the place where wisdom resides, so “nourishing the heart” and “cultivating the heart” can increase one’s wisdom. If one is able to “cleanse one’s mind”, one can increase one’s wisdom. This means that if one can overcome one’s seven emotions and six desires through the method of channeling the “aura in the heart, one comes and goes”, then one’s wisdom can be enlightened. It is also said: “If we remove our desires, we will be able to proclaim them, and if we do, we will be quiet. If one is quiet, one is refined, and if one is refined, one is independent. If one is alone, one is clear, and if one is clear, one is divine.” (ibid.) It is stressed that by emptying one’s desires and reaching a state of stillness and tranquillity, one can attain greater wisdom. In addition, in Zhuang Zhou’s thought, it is also believed that wisdom can naturally arise when the mind is clear of desire and free from all external distractions. At the end of the Warring States period, Xun Cuo placed particular emphasis on the role of the ‘mind’. From an epistemological point of view, Xun Cun emphasizes the constraints of “concealment” on cognition. According to Xun Cuo, the most 30

Mr. Guo Moruo, in his ‘Critique of the Jixia Huanglao School’, also says of the ‘aura’ in Guanzi Neiye: “This so-called ‘aura’ is, in my opinion, undoubtedly Mencius’ “This so-called ‘spiritual qi’ is, in my opinion, undoubtedly Mencius’ ‘qi of hao-ran’”.

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important thing is to be able to know the Way, i.e. to know what the Way is. Therefore, in order to know the Way, one must remove the obstacles that prevent one from knowing the Way. Xun Cuo said: “Therefore, the key to governance is to know. How can people know? He says: the mind. How can the mind know? It is to be still and quiet.” (Xunzi—Unclouding) He believed that in order to remove the “scourge of obscurity” from one’s knowledge, one must make one’s “mind” “vain”, “one” and “quiet”. “and “stillness”. “Void” means to be open-minded, “one” means to concentrate on the mind, and “quiet” means not to be distracted by external objects in awareness. If we look at them together with the “art of treating qi and nourishing the mind” mentioned in Xunzi—Cultivating the Body, this “xu”, “yi” and “jing “is importantly related to qigong. Many modern qigong practitioners and those engaged in qigong exercises also believe that qigong has the effect of developing intelligence. From the perspective of overall functions, qigong exercises, especially through relaxation, meditation and breath regulation, can promote people’s blood circulation and eliminate all kinds of negative emotional disturbances, which in itself can play a role in strengthening the body, thus making people energetic and enhancing their intelligence. At the same time, in the process of qigong practice, due to the role of breath regulation, the cerebral cortex can be fully rested, so that the brain is in active inhibition, so that the vitality of the nerve cells of the brain is enhanced, so that the role of the brain can be better played. Not only can many people engaged in qigong exercise feel it for themselves, but it can also be verified from the scientific aspect and confirmed from life. The electroencephalogram of a person who has been practicing qigong for a long time shows a marked improvement over that before he practiced qigong. Some young students have improved their academic performance and sharpened their minds after practicing qigong, and this is also acknowledged by everyone. Since the founding of New China, many qigong practitioners have only emphasized that the main function of qigong is to prevent and cure diseases (in a certain sense, this is also correct), but have neglected or failed to pay sufficient attention to the fact that qigong can develop intelligence and increase wisdom, which is something that should be noted in the future.

Qigong and the Cultivation of Temperament and Moral Character Since ancient times, Chinese thinkers, especially some ethicists, have particularly emphasized the importance of qigong in nurturing morality. Taoists, on the other hand, emphasize the importance of qigong in the cultivation of morality, and demand that qigong should be used to improve people’s moral qualities and to fulfil the moral norms of society. Confucianism, on the other hand, emphasizes the combination of qigong with the cultivation of morality, and calls for the active role of people in improving their moral qualities and fulfilling the moral norms of society, thus

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contributing to the stability of social order and the development of society. Mencius, in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, was the first to systematically develop this idea. When Meng Ke’s students asked him what his speciality was, he replied that he had two specialities, one of which was “I am good at nurturing my great spirit”. How do we understand what Mencius meant by “I am good at nourishing my vast spirit”? In the past, thinkers only understood it as a moral self-cultivation effort, and did not relate it to qigong. The reason why ancient qigong practitioners exercised qigong, generally speaking, was that they had two purposes: one was to nourish their virtues, and the other was to live a long life. These two aims are interrelated, interdependent, mutually reinforcing and mutually complementary. Meng Ke paid special attention to the role of qigong in nourishing one’s virtue because, in Meng Ke’s view, man is born with a “conscience” and “good energy” that is different from that of animals, that is, what he called man’s innate “compassion” and “shame”. “These are what he calls the innate human hearts of compassion, shame and evil, resignation and right and wrong. These four hearts are also known as the good ends of human nature. Although these four good ends of human nature originally exist within human beings, they are often disturbed by various kinds of lucrative desires in social life, especially in human relationships, where people are often caught up in selfish interests because of personal gains and losses, so that these innate good ends are obscured. Therefore, through qigong methods, one’s “conscience” and “good energy” can be restored. When is the most effective time to nourish the qi? According to Mencius, the most suitable time for nourishing the qi is at the time of “Ping Dan”. In ancient China, the so-called “Ping Dan” is the time between midnight and dawn, when the three hours are Zi, Ugly and Yin. According to Mencius, the time of Pingdan is not only the time of the late night, but also the time when one wakes up and the day is not yet bright, when all the interests of yesterday’s dealings with others and the many disputes between individuals have passed and the new day has not yet begun. At this time, one’s “conscience” is still in a state of peace and tranquillity. At this time, we can use qigong and qi nurturing methods to nurture our righteousness, clear our conscience that has been obscured during the day, and “nourish” it continuously, repeatedly and sincerely, without harming it, so that this righteousness can become “the greatest and most rigid” to the extent that it can It can then be made to become a “great and virile” qi that can fill heaven and earth. In ancient times, many qigong practitioners in China emphasized the need to practice at the time of “Ping Dan”, which is somewhat related to the fact that people’s minds are not yet influenced by external material desires in the early morning. We can also see in the book “Baopu Zi” by Ge Hong that Taoists believe that the best time to exercise qigong is also the six hours of Zi, Ugly, Yin, Mao, Chen and Si, and that the three hours of Zi, Ugly and Yin are the best. Until now, many people can also appreciate that although qigong can be exercised 24 h a day, but getting up early in the morning, or before noon, qigong exercise is often better than practicing in the afternoon or evening, the effect is better. This is related to the fact that practicing qigong at this time is more

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conducive to the cultivation of morality, and it can be said that this is related to the influence of Mencius. It can be argued here that the “spirit of the great” is cultivated through the “collection of righteousness”, not by the “assault of righteousness”. This means that the “spirit of the great” is produced by the regular accumulation of “righteousness”, not by a sudden act. In the past, thinkers were divided as to what they understood by the term “gathering righteousness”. According to the Taoists of the Song and Ming dynasties, the meaning of “set righteousness” is to do more moral and good deeds in social life and to accumulate moral and righteous acts, and thus to develop this “hao yan qi”. This interpretation, although it touches on one aspect of the “collection of righteousness”, does not yet understand it from the perspective of “nurturing qi”. Meng Ke’s meaning is obvious, that is, in the process of nurturing one’s own qi, especially on the “day of peace”, one should bring to light the good deeds one has done and the good intentions that emanate from one’s conscience, such as filial respect for one’s parents, children, friends and elders In the course of the day, we must repeatedly reflect, analyze, recall, deepen and strengthen in our thoughts the good deeds we have done and the good intentions we have from our conscience, such as filial respect for our parents, children, friends and elders, honesty, compassion and resignation, as well as the sense of right and wrong, shame and honor and disgrace, which arise from our own evaluation of our actions (of course, for Mencius, first of all, all the actions he described as being in accordance with the four moral qualities of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom of the society at that time, and the actions of loyalty and filial piety, which Confucianism particularly emphasizes). It was only through this deepening and strengthening of the idea of “goodness” in thought and behavior that it could be sublimated into a “greatness and rigour” and a “vitality that fills the space between heaven and earth”. It is only then that the idea and concept of “goodness” in one’s behavior can be deepened and strengthened. Nowadays, some Chinese qigong practitioners also emphasize that when exercising qigong, one should consciously recall the moral things one has done, such as helping and caring for others, in order to help the effect of qigong and the cultivation of moral character, which is in line with Meng Ke’s idea of “gathering righteousness”. After Mencius, Xun Cun distinguished between “cultivating one’s qi for health” and “cultivating one’s mind” in his essay “Cultivating the Body”. He said, “If you cultivate your life by treating your qi, you will be followed by Peng Zu; if you cultivate your body, you will be worthy of Yao Yu.” (Xunzi—Cultivating the Self) He believed that if one only “cultivated one’s qi and nourished one’s life”, although one could live a long life, one could not be as moral as Yao and Yu. Therefore, it is more important to “cultivate the heart by cultivating the qi”. Xun Cuo said: “The art of cultivating the heart is not to be done by ritual, not to have a teacher, and not to have a good god. This is the art of treating qi and nourishing the mind.” (ibid.) Of course, Xun Cuo does not have a graphic description of how to “cure the qi and nourish the heart”. If we understand what we call “qigong” today in a broad sense, then what Xun Cuo calls “the art of treating qi and nourishing the mind” is also a way of using “qigong” for moral cultivation. Here, he clearly emphasizes that, firstly, the function of qi should be mobilized to “nourish the heart”, and the method

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of “treating qi” should be used for cultivation; secondly, this “technique of treating qi and nourishing the heart” should be used for moral cultivation. Secondly, the most important and quickest way to cultivate the mind is to follow the moral code; thirdly, to be taught by a teacher; and fourthly, to concentrate on the mind and not to be distracted by thoughts, that is to say, “when the mind is not divided from the will, it is concentrated in the mind” (Zhuangzi—Dasheng). Xun Cao said, “Rituals are the way to correct the body.” (Xunzi—Cultivating the Body). On the one hand, he stresses the importance of “cultivating the qi and nourishing the mind” by eliminating all distracting thoughts, and on the other hand, he stresses the importance of rectifying the body by means of rituals, which shows that Xuncun has clearly realized the significance of “cultivating the qi” for moral cultivation. This idea of Xun Cun’s is, in a way, as important as Meng Ke’s idea of the qi of the great. In emphasizing his “art of treating qi and nourishing the heart”, Xun Cuo also suggested the role of this “art of treating qi and nourishing the heart” in cultivating the temperament. Xun Cuo said: “The art of nourishing the heart by treating the qi: the blood is strong, it is soft to reconcile; the knowledge is deep, it is one of the easy good; the courage is fierce and violent, it is complemented by the way of obedience; the Qi is given to facilitate, it is tempered by the movement of the stop; the narrow and small, it is contoured to the vast; the humble wet and heavy late greedy, it is resisted by high ambition …… “The purpose of this article is to explain how to use the technique of “treating the qi and nourishing the heart” to achieve the purpose of cultivating the temperament and changing the temperament according to the characteristics of each person’s temperament and the situation of each person. For those who are strong in blood, we should use the idea of “softness” to reconcile them; for those who are “deep in thought”, i.e. deep in heart and mind, we should try to cultivate For those who are “courageous, bold and violent”, “we should complement them with the path of obedience”. To those who are “bold and violent”, “we must guide them with righteousness and obey them with propriety”; to those who are “quick and fast”, “we must restrain them with slowness and tranquillity”; to those who are “narrow and small-minded”, “we must clarify them with a broad mind”; to those who are lowly in ambition and slow to act, “we must clarify them with a broad mind”; and to those who are lowly in ambition and slow to act. For those who are low-minded, slow and greedy, use noble aspirations to change them …… Xunzi fully recognizes the importance of “the art of treating qi and nurturing the heart” in changing one’s temperament, correcting small-mindedness and improving moral connotations. The Taoists of the Song and Ming dynasties, following the ideas of Mencius, particularly emphasized the importance of “nurturing the qi” in moral matters. The Song Confucians’ emphasis on “meditation” and “sitting silently to clarify the mind”, and the need for people to “see the truth in a gradual manner” from “meditation”, are also related to what we call “meditation”. “They are also related to what we call “quiet work”. Song Confucianism’s emphasis on meditation, of course, also has the meaning of health, fitness and longevity, but in its main aspect they see “meditation” as the most important way of nurturing people’s morality. Cheng Yi even said, “When I see people sitting in meditation, I admire their good learning.” (Song Yuan Xue

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Cuo—Yi Chuan Xue Cuo) Zhu Xi’s former teachers, Luo Congyan and Li Dong, also “taught people to sit in silence to clarify their minds and to see what happens when they are happy, angry, sad and happy” (Song Yuan Xue Cuo—Hi Weng Xue Cuo). It was under the influence of this idea that Zhu Xi, in order to cultivate the moral qualities of his students, proposed to “sit in silence for half a day and study for half a day” (Zhu Zi Shi Shi Shu Shu, Vol. 116). Why is meditation the only way to cultivate people’s moral character? According to Song Confucianism, through “meditation” people can consider their daily lives in a calm manner. They can consider the various problems they encounter in their daily lives with a calm mind, understand and heed various truths correctly, and settle down their desire to chase after external objects, and through this activity of “meditation”, they can cultivate a kind of “duanxi” of being saintly and virtuous, i.e. To cultivate a saintly temperament. As a renowned ethical thinker of the Ming dynasty, Wang Yangming particularly emphasized the importance of the ‘unity of knowledge and action’ of ‘Zhi Liang Zhi’. According to Wang Yangming, the most important thing in moral cultivation is two kinds of work, one is to “hone in on things” and the other is to cultivate “meditation”. The other is the cultivation of “meditation”, which Wang Yangming also called “quiet observation and self-reflection”. One is to use one’s “conscience” to know good and evil in the process of “meditation and self-reflection”. The first is that in “quiet selfreflection”, one’s ability to know good and evil with one’s “conscience” is used to achieve the goal of “doing good and removing evil”. Wang Yangming’s famous four sentences are: “To have no good and no evil is the body of the mind, to have good and evil is the movement of the mind, to know good and know evil is the conscience, and to do good and remove evil is the grimoire.” Wang Yangming also places special emphasis on the function of “examination and control”. He said, “The function of “examining and controlling” is to have no time to spare, as in the case of going to a thief, one must have the intention of sweeping away and clearing up. When there is nothing to do, we must search for the good sex, the good goods, the good name, and so on, one by one, and make sure that the root of the disease is removed so that it never comes back. The cat is always like the cat that catches the mouse, one glance and one ear, and only when there is a thought, immediately grasp it and do not tolerate it. Do not harbour him or let him go, for this is the only true way to use one’s efforts and to clear up the situation.” (The Book of Discipline) He also said, “To overcome oneself, one must remove and clear away everything. If there is even a trace of it, then all the evils will come together.” (ibid.) On the other hand, what Wang Yangming calls “quiet observation and self-reflection” also involves the nurturing of qi by “nurturing the qi of my hao”. At the age of thirty, Wang Yangming almost died of a serious illness, and was later deported to Longchang in Guizhou due to the persecution of the eunuch Liu Jin, which inspired him to search for the meaning of life and morality, to break the bonds of fame and fortune, to purify his spirit, to cultivate his moral character, and to pursue what he saw as the noblest of human values. The reason why Wang Yangming was able to transcend to a certain extent the “gains and losses of glory and disgrace” of his time, and the distress of life and death, was that he had been “living in silence day and night for a long time, in order to be quiet; after a long time, his chest was sprinkled” (The Complete Works of Wang

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Yangming, Volume 33, Chronology I). (Wang Yangming, The Complete Works of Wang Yangming, vol. 13, Yearbook I). This method of “cultivating stillness” and “essence of one” and “practicing stillness” and “cultivating qi” has an important relationship. Liu Zongzhou, a famous thinker of the late Ming Dynasty, emphasized the special role of “prudence” in cultivation, and considered that “qi” had an important role to play. He believed that “all the qi in heaven and earth is the result of qi” (The Case of Ming Confucianism—The Case of Houttuynia Houttuynia), and that the reason why people have morality is also the result of the “prevalence of qi”. He not only advocates “meditation”, but also says directly and explicitly that “meditation is the work of nurturing qi”, which can change the quality of qi, and that one should be able to “cultivate the dawn from the stillness, which is the intention, the solitude, and the sky” (ibid.). This means that through “nurturing the mind”, one is able to “cultivate the spirit”. This means that through the practice of “nurturing qi”, one can develop a moral and saintly temperament, a temperament of prudence and solitude, or heavenly truth. The ancient Chinese idea of changing one’s temperament and nurturing one’s morals by nurturing one’s qi has been inherited by Chinese thinkers and has had an important influence on Chinese ethical thinking. Therefore, it is important to remove its idealistic and mystical elements and incorporate its reasonable elements, which are still relevant in today’s moral cultivation. Nowadays, qigong practitioners also emphasize that qigong is an ideal art of nourishing the body and mind and cultivating both life and limb, emphasizing that in order to get fit and strengthen the body, people’s ideology and moral character should be improved at the same time. The main reason why some qigong masters nowadays put forward such a claim is that their main purpose is to maintain health and prolong life. In their view, in order for people to achieve a state of “stillness” when doing qigong, they must exclude all selfish and evil thoughts. Some qigong practitioners believe that if you do not pay attention to the cultivation of character and if you think about personal interests in everything, then you will not be able to enter the state of qigong. If you cannot enter the state of qigong, you will not be able to let go of your baggage. If you do not cultivate the quality of your mind well, you will not get good results even if you practice qigong for a long time. In addition, some qigong practitioners now realize that the more a person’s behavior conforms to the moral norms of society, the more his behavior becomes noble; if he can do so, he will be praised in his relationship with others and with the community, feel the comfort of his “conscience”, and put himself in a happy state of mind often. Generally speaking, when one practices in such a state, it is easiest to achieve the so-called qigong state of tranquillity, which is conducive to the improvement of one’s moral level. From a scientific point of view, people’s moral cultivation cannot be based solely on the so-called “meditation” and “qi cultivation” methods, but must be exercised and cultivated in practice. The hope that moral cultivation can be achieved through the methods of “meditation” and “quiet meditation” is, of course, only an illusion. However, in order for people to climb up the ladder of morality, in addition to emphasizing the primary need to exercise and cultivate in practice, it is also necessary to

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advocate “prudence” and “introspection”, “introspection” and “introspection”. “The first and foremost method is to exercise and cultivate oneself in practice. Therefore, as an auxiliary method, while attaching importance to the fulfilment of socialist moral principles and norms through social practice, we should also pay attention to the cultivation of ideological consciousness in qigong exercise, to the development of the idea of doing good to others and to society in the relationship between the individual and others, and between the individual and the whole, and to the cultivation of a “righteousness” of socialist morality. This will contribute to both physical exercise and moral improvement.