Who were the thinkers before Confucius in ancient times? That is, the Spring and Autumn Period.

The Thought of Confucius, an Ancient Thinker in China Ⅰ. The Formation of Confucian School

It seems that China people are the nation that can create miracles the most, which has become the consensus of all people on the earth. In the field of material civilization, China people created two miracles in the eight wonders of the world, accounting for 1/4. The world-famous Great Wall of Wan Li is a rare man-made building that can be seen from space. After more than 2000 years of vicissitudes, it is still like a huge black dragon, showing its majestic posture to mankind. Although the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang in Xi 'an have been buried underground for more than 2,000 years, once excavated, the orderly art phalanx still stands there vividly today, telling the story of ancient war suffering. These two wonders are immortal monuments built by the people of China for the material civilization of the world. And their establishment happened to be completed in the Qin Dynasty.

In the field of spiritual civilization, the people of China have also created miracles and built monuments. Moreover, the miracle of spiritual civilization appeared earlier than the miracle of material civilization and was completed before the Qin Dynasty, which is the so-called pre-Qin rational spirit.

The so-called pre-Qin, of course, mainly refers to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. This period is just a childhood in the long history of China. However, in this childhood, a huge group of China philosophers appeared on the stage of the history of world thought with a mature and rational attitude. If this is not a miracle, what is it? The symbol of ideological maturity in this era is the completion of rational spirit in the pre-Qin period.

The pre-Qin rational spirit was not achieved overnight, but gradually formed in the process of hundreds of schools of thought contending for hundreds of years. The so-called "hundred schools" is just an exaggerated figure. As far as schools are concerned, Sima Tan, the father of Sima Qian, can be divided into six schools, namely, Yin and Yang, Confucianism, Mohism, Ming, Fa and Morality (that is, Taoism). At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Xin had four schools, namely, farming, vertical and horizontal, miscellaneous and novel, and ten schools. China's top ten novelists regard it as a "path", which belongs to gossip and so on, so Ban Gu wrote it in Hanshu? "History of Literature" said: "There are ten philosophers, and only nine are impressed." In this way, there is a saying of "nine schools and nine schools", and nine schools other than novelists are called nine schools. In the ninth stream, the philosophy of farmers is not prominent, and schools are generally backward. So we only describe Yin and Yang, Confucianism, Mohism, Ming, Fa, Dao, Zongheng and Za in the order of Hanshu? Old examples of art and literature.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, due to the social and economic development, the feudal system gradually replaced slavery. The change of social system has caused fierce class struggle. At that time, the king was not allowed to leave the palace gate, and the princes were exclusive, with no abbot and no son of heaven. "A country has no friends, and a scholar has no master" (under Article 13 of Records of the Day and Weekend Customs). All classes and strata have their own representatives and put forward their own opinions and demands on various issues in the reform, resulting in a situation in which a hundred schools of thought contend and different opinions are expressed. For this period, or described in history as "the holy king is not dry, the princes let go, and Chu Shi discussed it horizontally" ("Mencius? Teng Wengong "), or described as" the world is in chaos, the sage is unknown, the morality is different, and there are many methods "("Zhuangzi? World "); Or described as "different governors, different schools, must be either one or the other, or rule or chaos" ("Xunzi? Uncover "); Or describe it as "although the kingly way is small, the princes are in power and the princes are in charge, and their likes and dislikes are different." Is based on the technique of nine factions, each lead one end, worship its goodness, and use it to win the governors "("Han Shu? Art and literature ") ... The issues they debated involved many fields such as world outlook, epistemology, concept of name and reality, and social history. Strong or weak, relaxed, blowing or playing, playing or striking, they played an orchestral symphony of ideas.

Then, after historical screening and precipitation, China's traditional way of thinking was formed, with Confucianism as the main body and Taoism as the supplement, and other schools also had it, which played the main theme of China's traditional thinking.

Except for the deaf-mute with dementia, there are almost no people in China who don't know Confucianism, but not many people really know the exact meaning of Confucianism.

Mr. Zhang Taiyan, a famous scholar in modern times, divided "Confucianism" into three different usages (see Zhang Taiyan's On the Balance of National Heritage? Yuan Confucianism, Complete Works of Zhang Taiyan, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1985. )。 There are two kinds of "Confucianism" in a broad sense. The first is the most extensive, referring to all warlocks. For example, Historical Records? "The Scholars" is "a warlock who pits the world in the season of Qin Dynasty", and the world calls it "pit Confucianism". This kind of Confucianism knows astronomy, is versatile and omnipotent, including artists. The second kind of "Confucian" with a slightly smaller extension is a person who knows the "six arts" (that is, the number of books shot by rites and music). These two kinds of "Confucianism" are generalized and have something in common, which was used in Confucius' time. Confucius said that "women are Confucianism of gentlemen, not Confucianism of villains" (The Analects of Confucius? Yong also), it is this broad sense of "Confucianism".

The narrow sense of "Confucianism" was summarized by Liu Xin in "Seven Views" in the Han Dynasty: "The stream of Confucianism, with Stuart's official position, helps people to be enlightened by Yin and Yang. While wandering through the Six Classics and paying attention to benevolence and righteousness, the ancestors mentioned Yao Shun, Charter Wu Wen and master Zhong Ni, emphasizing their words and taking Tao as the top priority. " Hanshu? This kind of "Confucianism" was accepted by Yiwenzhi, and this is what we mean by "Confucianism" today. We all call him a "Confucian" who conforms to the scope described in Qilue. Confucianism is actually a group of scholars who regard Confucius as a master and worship Confucius' theory. From Confucius to today's contemporary Neo-Confucianism, it covers the history of China for more than 2500 years.

After Confucius, Confucianism was divided into eight schools: Confucianism of Zhang Zi, Confucianism of Zi Si, Confucianism of Yan, Confucianism of Meng,, (Xunzi) Confucianism and Confucianism of Le Zheng. In fact, the most important schools are Mencius and Xunzi. Therefore, Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi were the three masters who participated in the orchestral symphony of a hundred schools of thought contending and cultural integration during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

When it comes to Confucius, everyone knows. Those who praised him called him a saint, a saint and a teacher, even the Great Sage, Wang Wenxuan and Wang Su. His detractors called him Kong Laoer, a bookworm and a defender of the feudal class. No matter whether it is praised or criticized, one thing can never be changed, that is, Confucius belongs to China, China culture can never get rid of Confucius' influence, and China culture and Confucius are always in constant contact. As a thinker, Confucius will be immortal.

Confucius was the most influential thinker in ancient China, as well as a great politician and educator. From the Han Dynasty to the May 4th Movement, no one in China history can compare with him. As the founder of Confucianism, Confucius has always enjoyed an exclusive position in feudal society. His thoughts and theories are the orthodoxy of feudal society, which has always been dominant in the long feudal society; It also promoted the formation of China culture, and made the name of Confucius closely linked with the Chinese nation, becoming a household name in China society.

Second, never tire of learning and never tire of teaching.

Confucius studied hard all his life and taught for fifty years. He "never tires of learning, never tires of teaching" (The Analects of Confucius? That's right. The following quotation from The Analects of Confucius is a model for scholars.

Confucius, the famous hill, the word Zhong Ni. Born in 55 1 year BC, he died in 479 BC at the age of 73. Confucius' ancestors were originally nobles in the Song Dynasty, but later they were changed to Kong's because they were more than five generations apart from their ancestors in the Song Dynasty. Confucius' great-grandfather Fang Shu fled to the city of Lu (now southeast of Qufu, Shandong Province) to escape the civil strife in the Song Dynasty, and the Confucius family became Lu people from then on. Congo, the father of Confucius, also had a name called Liang Shu (this is a combination of a word and a name, with Liang Shu in front and his name behind) (Yang Bojun? On Confucius, Zhonghua Book Company, 1980, p. 5. )), once worked as a city butcher (sir), made meritorious military service, and married a young girl, Yan Zai, at the age of 64. Yan Zhizhai was only 17 years old, and their combination was not suitable for etiquette at that time, so it was called "sexual intercourse" (historical records? Confucius "). Before Confucius was born, his parents prayed at Mount Nishan in Qufu. After Confucius was born, he took the word "Zhong Ni", which means the second child. Because Confucius' head was sunken in the middle, he was named Qiu ("just remember?" Confucius ").

Confucius' father died when he was three years old, and then he moved to Qufu with his mother. He lived in poverty and was often given the cold shoulder by the society. Confucius himself said, "I am cheap because I am few, so I can despise." (Zi Han) Growing up, I did a lot of housework. However, the tempering of poor life did not make Confucius depressed, and even prompted him to establish an enterprising spirit from an early age. Confucius once said, "When you eat and drink water, you can bend your arms and enjoy yourself." . Unjust wealth is like a cloud to me. "(Shu Er) He regards eating coarse grains, drinking cold water and bending his arms as a pillow as a great pleasure, and regards the wealth gained from doing improper things as a thing of the past. He was born in Shandong, a country with a strong cultural atmosphere and a long history. Because Lu was once a feudal fief of the Duke of Zhou and maintained the cultural tradition of the Zhou Dynasty, he was influenced by traditional culture since he was a child. He is clever and eager to learn. Since he was a child, he used small bowls and plates as sacrificial vessels, played games and practiced etiquette, which was bigger. He also learned everything about ceremonies, music, archery, driving, literacy and calculation (then called "six arts"). Unfortunately, at the age of seventeen, Confucius' mother passed away again. After that, he began to live independently, but he still studied tirelessly, because he knew that he was not born with knowledge, but learned by loving ancient culture and being diligent and agile. ("Uncle") He said: "A threesome requires a teacher. Choose good and follow it, but change it if it is not good. " It means that if several people walk together, there must be someone who can be a teacher. I choose his advantages to study and correct his shortcomings when I see them. His learning style is mainly self-study, but he also pays special attention to asking others for advice. Ask someone if you don't understand something. This is the so-called "ask everything" (Bashu). All his life, he advocated listening more and seeing more, thinking that listening more can choose the best acceptance, and seeing more can be kept in mind. Through diligent study, Confucius mastered a lot of knowledge and cultivated his enterprising spirit. This made him a junior official twice first. Once a "Commissioner" (responsible for the accounting work of the warehouse) and once a "farmer" (managing cattle and sheep). Because of my earnest and responsible, my work is proceeding in an orderly way. Later, when I was in my twenties, I started a teaching school in Hedgerow, recruiting disciples from Yan, Qin Shang, Ran Geng and others, and started my private school teaching career.

Before Confucius, education was only the privilege of nobles, and ordinary people had no right to enjoy it. Since Confucius' political ambition could not be realized later, he cultivated talents by giving lectures and realized his political ideal, but as a result, he opened up a private road of giving lectures. Confucius put forward the slogan of "teaching without class", arguing that everyone has the right to education, regardless of status, rich or poor. Confucius enrolled students by himself according to this principle, and he could become his student by paying ten pieces of dried meat as tuition. Therefore, among his students, there are both aristocratic children of slave owners, such as Meng and Nangong. There are also small producers and children from poor families. Yan Yuan, for example, lives in a humble alley and leads a poor life. Luz often eats wild vegetables and travels hundreds of miles away to transport some rice to support her old mother. Zeng Shen had to grow melons by himself, which was not enough to make ends meet, and he had to rely on his mother to weave them himself. Other students, such as Min Zikai, Zhong Gong and Gong Zhi, are not rich families (Historical Records? Biography of Disciples of Zhong Ni). Confucius' students, not only from Lu, but also from Qin, Jin, Zheng, Wei, Chen, Wu, Chu and other countries, enrolled more than 3,000 students, 72 of whom studied best and were called "seventy-two sages". In the long-term educational practice, Confucius not only cultivated a large number of useful talents for the ruling class, but also paved the way for the spread of cultural knowledge among the people, breaking the phenomenon that slave owners and nobles monopolized cultural education. Therefore, Confucius is the first great educator in the history of education in China, and he deserves to be admired by later generations.

Confucius' education was very successful. He has a clear school-running policy and systematic teaching methods. Through fifty years of educational practice, he has accumulated rich educational experience and formed a complete educational thought.

Confucius' policy is very clear. He believes that education should be used to develop people's intelligence and serve the country. This is what Zhang Zi, his disciple, said: "A gentleman learns Tao" (Zhang Zi). He advocated "learning officials" ("Zhang Zi") and learned to be an official in politics. Confucius believed in the power of education. He believed that everyone, smart or stupid, had the possibility of learning well and could play an educational role.

Confucius' teaching methods are quite flexible and diverse. He pays attention to teaching students in accordance with their aptitude. Two students, Luz and Ran, asked Confucius this question: "After you heard a truth, did you immediately implement it?" Confucius' answer to Luz was: "You have a living father and brother. How can you execute it as soon as you hear it, without asking your father and brother? " You Ran's answer is: "Of course, you should do it at once!" This is the educational method adopted by Confucius according to the different characteristics of Lutz and You Ran. Lutz was impatient, so he was restrained to prevent him from acting rashly. Ran is conservative and indecisive, so he is encouraged to be decisive (advanced).

Confucius paid attention to heuristic education for students. He said, "If you don't get angry, you won't get angry. If you don't turn a corner, you won't get it again." ("Tree") Be sure to let students think until they can't figure it out, and then take the opportunity to enlighten them. When the students understand, but can say it, continue to enlighten him and let him draw inferences from others. Without this ability, Confucius would stop teaching. He also teaches students that if they often review old knowledge, they will have new experiences and new inspirations, which is "reviewing the past and learning the new" (politics). In the process of teaching, Confucius paid attention to "coaxing" students and guided them step by step. He emphasized the combination of learning and thinking. Learning is mainly "listening" and "watching", and thinking is thinking. He believes that if you don't think about optics, you won't learn, and if you only think about it, you will easily make mistakes, that is, "learning without thinking is useless, and thinking without learning is dangerous." In learning, Confucius advocated the attitude of seeking truth from facts and opposed pretending not to know. He said: "Knowing is knowing, not knowing is not knowing, but knowing." These valuable educational experiences of Confucius are the spiritual wealth of our Chinese nation. Of course, Confucius despised "learning agriculture" and "learning garden", that is, agricultural production and labor, and looked down on the working people, thinking that "the people can make it, but not make it known" (tabor), which was his defect.

Throughout his life, Confucius insisted on "never getting tired of learning and never getting tired of teaching" (Book II). This spirit of never being too old to learn and not knowing that the old age is coming still has a guiding role for us today.

Third, the benevolent "loves"

At the age of fifty-one, Confucius had the opportunity to go into politics. He served as Du Zhongzai (Mayor of Ludu), Sikong (Chief of Management Engineering) in Lu, and was later promoted to Scott (Chief Justice), acting as Prime Minister. During his tenure, vendors dared not ask exorbitant prices. Men and women are different, and there is no road left. When guests from other countries come to Shandong, Shandong can meet their requirements. ("Historical Records? Confucius family ")

Confucius formed his own political and social view through political practice, which is his "benevolence" thought. The core of benevolence is love (Yan Yuan). The word "benevolence" was put forward before Confucius, but it was not used as an important philosophical category. Confucius widely used the concept of "benevolence" and developed it into an important philosophical category. According to statistics, in The Analects of Confucius, the word * * * appears 109 times, alone 105 times, and together with other words, it appears four times. Confucius' "benevolence" is not only the highest moral standard to deal with the relationship between people, but also the universal principle to determine social life. There are two paragraphs in The Analects that best illustrate the basic spirit of "benevolence". One is "Fan Chi Wen Ren". Confucius said,' Love.' "The second is" self-denial "(Yanyuan). There is no substantive contradiction between these two paragraphs. "Love" is the main content of benevolence, and "self-denial and courtesy" is the way to realize benevolence.

The kind "lover" includes a wide range. It requires mutual respect within the ruling class and the implementation of "consistent" "loyalty and forgiveness" ("establishing people"). Loyalty needs to be positive. "If you want to stand and be a man, you must be a man" ("Ode to Leaves") means to put yourself in others' shoes, stand for yourself and let others do everything. "Forgiveness" requires putting yourself in others' shoes, "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you" (Yan Yuan), that is, don't impose what you don't like on others. Within the ruling class, everyone has implemented the "loyalty and forgiveness", so as to achieve "courtesy and loyalty to the monarch" ("Bashu"), and the monarch uses courtesy and ministers are loyal to the monarch, thus eliminating contradictions within the ruling class. The contradictions within the ruling class in Confucius' era are mainly manifested in the contradictions between the new feudal landlords and the old nobles. This kind of "loyalty and forgiveness" is actually unable to reconcile this contradiction. This shows that Confucius' political stance is conservative.

The benevolent's "love for talents" also requires the ruling class to "cultivate talents" (Lutz). Subjectively, Confucius may want to promote the "Zhou Dao" by promoting talented people, but taking personal ability as the standard of being an official is actually a denial of the "Zhou Dao" that the Zhou Dynasty awarded officials and titles according to blood relationship, which opened the door for the wise among ordinary scholars to participate in politics. Confucius advocated that excellent talents should be promoted regardless of minor mistakes. Excellent talents should be above evil people and make evil people upright (Yan Yuan). Confucius emphasized that the ruling class can make it difficult for "heartless" people to stand on their feet and achieve the goal of ruling the world as long as they choose their talents among the people.

Confucius' thought of "loving the people" emphasizes that people should have compassion, care for each other and respect each other, which mainly refers to the ruling class, but his "loving the people" not only refers to the love for the ruling class, but also shows the importance attached to ordinary people. He regards "giving to the people and helping them" (Yongye) as his highest ideal, and "loving the people" (Xueji), that is, loving the people, as his disciple's accomplishment. Confucius affirmed that ordinary people also have their own independent will, saying: "The three armed forces can win the handsome, but ordinary people can't win the ambition." (Zi Han) Ordinary people are ordinary people, and each of them has his own will, so we can't force them to give up their will. One thing can well explain Confucius' concern for the fate of ordinary people. Once, Confucius' stable caught fire accidentally, and Confucius had just returned from the imperial court. He immediately asked him if he had hurt anyone, not the horse. The "man" here is the groom, and his status is very low. Confucius cares more about him than about his own horse, which shows that Confucius values human status. This is very progressive.

Confucius' emphasis on ordinary people reflects the improvement of ordinary people's status in the late Spring and Autumn Period. Therefore, Confucius further suggested that in order to truly win the support of the people, we must give them some practical benefits, not just treat the people as servants, but cherish the manpower and use it rationally. This is his "help the world and love others, and make the people conform to the times" ("learn from the times"). Starting from the thought of loving the people, Confucius also put forward the ideas of "nurturing the people", "enriching the people" and "benefiting the people". He praised Zheng's "supporting the people with righteousness" ("Governor"), that is to say, the property allows the people to recuperate, treat the people well and serve the people reasonably. He advocated that all rulers should "benefit from the interests of the people" (Yao Yue), that is, let the people benefit when they can. Specifically, when the population develops, we should pay attention to "enriching the people" and make the people rich. When you are rich, you should also pay attention to "teaching the people" and let the people receive education. This idea of "getting rich first and then educating" is a progressive idea to get workers out of slavery, thus gaining the right to eat and wear life and education. From then on, Confucius opposed using politics and punishment to force people to obey. Once, Confucius passed by Mount Tai and saw a woman crying in front of a newly built grave. Confucius sent a student to ask why. The woman cried and said, "My father-in-law was eaten by a tiger, my husband was eaten by a tiger, and now my son has been killed by a tiger." Confucius drew a conclusion from this incident: "tyranny is fiercer than tiger." (The Book of Rites? From this we can see that Confucius' "benevolence" has made undeniable progress.

Confucius' benevolent "love" has high requirements for both the ruling class and the working people. Confucius believes that "love" is not easy, and it can only be achieved by giving full play to everyone's inner consciousness, so he emphasizes "benevolence is for oneself, but for others?" ("Yan Yuan") In other words, the practice of "benevolence" depends entirely on personal subjective efforts. However, everyone may not realize this consciously, and some people may even be disturbed by selfishness and unlimited personal desire, thus failing to realize "benevolence". To this end, Confucius also put forward a set of methods to realize "benevolence", mainly "self-denial, self-denial, the world belongs to benevolence" (Yan Yuan). Confucius emphasized that people should restrain themselves and make their words and deeds conform to "courtesy", so as to realize "benevolence". Once you do this, everyone in the world will recognize you as a "kind person". The "ceremony" here is not the original "ceremony" as the whole political and legal system of the Western Zhou Dynasty, but something that has experienced the moral norms of "gain and loss". Confucius asked people to restrain their behavior from the heart with moral norms, so as to achieve "see no evil, don't listen to indecent assault, don't speak indecent assault, don't move indecent assault" (Yan Yuan). Just don't look at immoral things, don't listen to immoral things, don't say immoral things, and don't do immoral things. Moral norms are external, so the realization of "benevolence" mainly depends on internal consciousness. Confucius said, "If a gentleman doesn't eat, he will violate benevolence, but if he wants more, he will do." (Li Ren) Never leave benevolence after a meal, keep benevolence when you are in a hurry, and keep benevolence when you are displaced. It is precisely because "benevolence" has such lofty intrinsic value that Confucius advocates that one can sacrifice one's life for "benevolence" when necessary, that is, to "kill one's body to become a human being" (Wei Linggong). Sacrificing one's life in order to realize moral ideals is the spirit of self-sacrifice advocated by Confucius. Although this thought has a class nature, it has played a huge positive role in the historical development of the Chinese nation.

Confucius advocated the idea of "benevolence" and advocated a kind of "human love". Although this kind of "human love" is impossible in class society-because it is impossible to love each other between different classes, especially between the ruling class and the ruled class-the slogan of "love" is democratic to some extent. It opposes tyranny and tyranny, demands leniency to the people, and has a fierce impact on slaves. His thought, of course, upholds the feudal system, and the fact that it is beneficial to the people objectively cannot be denied. Later, Mencius, a representative of Confucianism and a disciple of Confucius, said that "the people are more valuable than the monarch", which was induced by Confucius' thought of "benevolence"