Confucian understanding of love?

The love emphasized by Confucian culture is the love between people, which is natural, concrete and emotional. According to people's perceptual needs, Confucian culture advocates that people are born with a kind of affection, which is innate and instinctive and does not need any special training and artificial indoctrination. This kind of love comes from the love between mother and son, and gradually extends to form the love between family members, and then extends to the love between all mankind, that is, "the old are old, the few are few." Naturally, everyone loves everyone and everyone is happy.

The core of Confucian culture is "benevolence", which is "love" in today's words. It is clearly written in The Analects of Confucius: Fan Chi begged for benevolence, and Confucius said, "Love." "Yan Yuan 12.22" means that Fan Chi asked Confucius what benevolence is, and Confucius replied, "Love."

In the Analects of Confucius, there are many specific expositions about "benevolence", that is to say, "benevolence" has many connotations and can be embodied in many different aspects. People with different levels, different groups, different identities and different social divisions have different ways to practice "benevolence", but as an individual, Confucius put forward such a standard, which I think can be used for reference:

Confucius said, "Disciple, you are filial when you enter, but you are young when you leave. You will sincerely believe that you will treat others well. I have spare capacity to study literature. " "Learning Six" is what Confucius said. "A person should be filial to his parents at home, love his brothers when he goes out, be cautious and honest in his words and deeds, care about being close to noble people, and read more books after work and life."

When we were children, we could feel the love from our parents and relatives, but we didn't necessarily know the true meaning of love. Confucian culture tells us why and how to love, which is the education of love in China traditional culture.

This kind of love education can be taught by our parents and teachers, or it can be passed down by ourselves through learning traditional culture. Learning this kind of love is a long process, so Confucius is advocating that we should "have more mechanical literature".

Why is the study of love a long process? This is inseparable from the characteristics of Confucian culture and love. On the one hand, Confucian culture encourages independent thinking and does not advocate blind obedience. Confucius said, "Learning without thinking is useless, and thinking without learning is dangerous." On the other hand, with the growth of people's age and experience, people's understanding of love will also change, and they will face more and more complicated problems related to love. Therefore, only by constantly learning and thinking can we find the best way to implement love for us.