What is the essence and core of Confucianism?

As we know, Confucian culture emphasizes benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, faith, loyalty, filial piety and honesty. In modern society, the concept of Confucian culture has been deeply rooted in people's hearts and has become an important thought guiding people to advocate peace, pursue self-improvement, and realize self-harmony and social harmony. It is of great significance to dig deeply into the essence of Confucian culture.

What is the essence and core of Confucianism?

Confucian culture

Confucianism is the mainstream of traditional culture in China, and its main purpose is to cultivate one's morality and improve one's mind. The essence of Confucian culture is mainly in three aspects: benevolence, courtesy and moderation, which has continued to this day. Its specific significance is as follows:

"Benevolence" of Confucian Culture

In Confucian culture, "benevolence" means loving the people, that is, implementing benevolent policies with the heart of "loving the people" so that people from all walks of life can enjoy the right to life and happiness. Ceremony is the moral order of society, that is, through the way of "correcting the name", people from all walks of life have a stable moral identity and moral orientation to their social status, that is, moral education. The function of benevolence is to make people have no need to resist, and the function of courtesy is to make people have no sense of resistance. -People generally enjoy the right to life and happiness, so there is no need for rebellion and insurrection; People generally recognize the moral order of society and generally abide by the moral norms in line with their social status, so rebellion and insurrection have no moral basis.

"Rites" of Confucian Culture

The essence of Confucianism is the unity of benevolence and propriety. If people pay attention to courtesy instead of benevolence, they will resist their rule. If people don't pay attention to propriety, justice and shame, they will despise their rule-that is, people are not bound by morality, and anarchy in reality will be triggered by ideological anarchy. Human society is constantly developing and progressing, and ancient humans are especially threatened by nature. Everyone must rely on the strength of the group to survive. For this reason, everyone is used to observing the moral norms of the same group and thinks that the restriction of group on personality is very reasonable. However, in later generations, the threat of human beings from nature has been weakening. Therefore, the ideological trend of opposing sexual bondage and pursuing individual freedom has gradually developed, and people's moral concepts have also changed.

The golden mean in Confucian culture

The Doctrine of the Mean begins by saying that destiny is nature, frankness is Tao, and cultivation is teaching. It is natural to follow human nature. People in society need to be cultivated according to human nature. This is why "the joys and sorrows are not sent, which means" middle "; All are posted in the festival, which is and. " It can be seen that Confucianism does not suppress human nature, but recognizes, conforms to and bases itself on human nature, and should be cultivated according to human nature, which embodies the sociality of Confucianism. In fact, the doctrine of the mean is not to make people enterprising or not, but to tell people the attitude they should hold no matter whether they are strong or weak, whether they are advancing or retreating. The so-called dual-use, too much, is "middle", not before or after, not left or right, but a balance point between the outside world and the heart, the situation and strength.

To sum up, benevolence, propriety and moderation all have the meaning of promoting harmony. They are rooted in China's inherent value system and can adjust themselves at any time to adapt to the changes of the times and society. When people truly realize the Confucian culture, they will be impressed by the brilliant masterpiece of China's Confucian culture, and pass on the essence of Confucianism, so that it can be widely used in their own work and life practice, and continue to benefit from repeated experience summary.

Extension:

Confucius and Confucian knowledge

Confucius was a great thinker and educator in ancient China and the founder of Confucianism. Confucianism occupies a very important position in the history of China, and Confucianism is an important cultural spirit of China traditional culture. Confucianism has a great influence on China's past and present. At the beginning of the 20th century, when people were looking for the reasons for China's backwardness, many people regarded China's Confucian culture as the culprit.

Since then, the debate about the Confucian "ideal country" has never stopped. What happened to Confucius and his Confucianism? Is Confucianism the ideological root of China's backwardness? Should we inherit Confucianism now?

Confucius was born in the late Spring and Autumn Period. Less unfortunate, eager to learn from childhood, knowledgeable and versatile. When I was young, I was a small official, but I was very frustrated. After that, I started a private school in China. Three thousand disciples and seventy-two saints. At the age of 5 1, he served as a senior official of the state of Lu, and after the three chaos, he went to the official to travel around the world and publicize his political views, but to no avail. Later, he returned to Shandong. Editing ancient cultural classics in his later years, such as poems, books, rituals, changes, etc. He specially edited the history book "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" and devoted himself to education. His thoughts and viewpoints are embodied in The Analects compiled by his disciples.

Confucius' thought involves all aspects of society, and the core of Confucius' ideological system is moral education.

The core idea of Confucius is as follows:

Ceremony: The so-called "ceremony" refers to the political and social order educated in the name of discipline. In Confucius' thought, "ceremony" is combined with "moral politics". In "Being Politics", he said: "If Taoism is governed by politics, it will be punished, and the people are shameless; Tao is virtue, courtesy, shame and dignity. " In other words, it advocates the combination of rule by virtue and decree punishment.

Benevolence: For example, in the Analects of Confucius, "self-denial is benevolence" and "the benevolent loves others". "Benevolence" is not only the fundamental principle of Confucius' self-cultivation and governing the country, but also the highest principle of Confucius' practical morality. Benevolence, as a spiritual quality, contains many ethical principles. It is not only a moral accomplishment that makes people consciously and actively follow the ceremony, but also a moral and ethical criterion to deal with interpersonal relationships.

"Harmony between man and nature" can be simply called "Harmony between man and nature". Human nature talent, the unity of human relations and heaven, "human relations, heaven also." Heaven and man are connected. This paper expounds the relationship between man and nature, emphasizing the harmony between man and nature. He also expounded and promoted the truth that people should not only be kind to the people, but also love things. Confucius advocated that the country should implement the moral policy of "teaching the rich" to develop society and culture. Confucius believes that the highest achievement of civilization is to create an ideal society by cultivating ideal personality, and to achieve the realm of "the world is public" and "the world is harmonious" by practicing "the sage inside and the king outside".

The concept of respecting China and emphasizing harmony. Harmony in all aspects: man and nature; Interpersonal relationship; The way of governing the country. Or the golden mean, not the extreme "golden mean"

Educational thought: He advocated "teaching without class", which made some poor people get education. Many of his educational ideas, such as "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude", "never tire of learning, never tire of teaching", "review old things and learn new things", "learning without thinking is useless, and thinking without learning is lazy." "If you don't get angry, you will gain power" shines with the brilliance of educational thought.

How to treat Confucius and Confucianism;

As a thinker, Confucius expressed many views on the world and life in the form of aphorisms. Compared with some thinkers in ancient Greece and Rome, Confucius' thought is more intuitive and superficial. There are many positive things in Confucius' thoughts and opinions. His thoughts on moral education, people-oriented, "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you", advocating the spirit of "harmony", "the world is public" and "great harmony" and his educational thoughts all shine with the light of thought.

These thoughts of Confucius are precious treasures in China's ideological and cultural treasure house. It also has a place in world ideology and culture. Confucius is our memorable thinker and educator. It is not a scientific attitude to restore him from god to man, or from demonized ghost to man, to correctly understand Confucius and his thought and its importance, and to praise and totally deny him blindly.

There are many advanced ideas in Confucian culture and Confucianism, which have made great contributions to China's cultural heritage. Only our Chinese culture has been passed down for thousands of years in the world, which has a lot to do with our advanced culture. Confucianism has also played a great role in strengthening the cohesion of the Chinese nation and making it stand in the world for thousands of years.

We must see that Confucius' thoughts are not exactly the same as those of Confucianism, which later ruled China's ideological field. The development of Confucianism is all marked by maintaining the monarchy and strengthening the rule of Shu Ren.

This is caused by historical limitations. However, as far as its ideological system is concerned, although there are many dross, such as safeguarding monarchical power, "three obedience and four virtues", "three cardinal principles and five permanents" and "justice in nature and justice in human desires", we should take its essence and discard its dross.

In contemporary society, we are faced with the integration of various cultures and ideas in the world, especially in this era of lack of faith. It is an urgent task for us to establish a culture and concept that conforms to the social development trend and modern values. Facing the traditional culture of the Chinese nation and western thoughts, how should we choose and form a cultural and ideological system that conforms to the development of China? All this tests our wisdom.