How to treat China's ancient moral tradition scientifically

China's traditional ethics has two sides, one is positive and progressive, the other is negative and conservative. There are essence and dross, and the good and the bad are intermingled. In particular, China's traditional ethical thought was gradually formed in China's long-term traditional society, especially consolidated and developed in the feudal society. After the Han Dynasty, Confucianism was feudalized and became the dominant ideology in feudal society, which lasted for thousands of years. Therefore, to understand China's traditional ethics scientifically, we should not only grasp and affirm its excellent aspects, but also clearly understand its stale aspects. We should inherit the positive aspects of traditional morality; We should criticize and abandon the negative aspects of traditional ethics. Therefore, it is very important to correctly treat the moral tradition of the Chinese nation, take its essence and discard its dross, and creatively transform it according to the requirements of contemporary social construction and development.

The understanding and attitude towards China's moral tradition and even the whole China's traditional culture has experienced a complicated and tortuous process in the modern history of China. Around the May 4th Movement, the New Culture Movement with the main goal of "overthrowing Kongjiadian" strongly criticized the ancient culture of China, especially the traditional ethical culture represented by Confucianism, and played a positive role in liberating people's minds at that time. However, at that time, there was a lack of historical and dialectical analysis attitude towards Confucian culture, especially Confucian ethics and morality, and there was no theory of actively constructing new morality, which could not solve the problem of how to correctly treat China's traditional ethics and morality. After the founding of New China, China's * * * Production Party, guided by Marxism, correctly put forward the attitude and method of treating historical and cultural heritage including traditional morality. However, due to the interference of "left" and right erroneous ideas, the work of inheriting and carrying forward the excellent cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, including excellent moral heritage, has not been carried out well for a long time. Even after the Cultural Revolution, there were some deviations in how to treat China's traditional culture, including China's traditional moral culture. With the deepening of reform and opening up, especially the continuous enrichment and improvement of Socialism with Chinese characteristics's theoretical system, we are becoming more and more mature, rational and scientific in how to treat China's traditional culture, including China's traditional moral culture, both in theory and in practice.