The meaning of honesty

Honesty is one of the basic moral concepts in China culture. From the late Shang Dynasty, the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, honesty has always been respected by all walks of life as a basic code of conduct. Confucianism, represented by Confucius, regards honesty as one of the important goals in life. "People have no faith and don't know what they can do." Confucianism after Confucius also insisted on honesty as the fundamental morality of being a man. Mencius said, "Honesty is heaven." If you think sincerely, you will learn from others. "It means: honesty is the law of nature; Pursuing honesty is the truth of being a man. As a social moral standard, honesty plays an extremely important role in stimulating and maintaining the cohesion and centripetal force of multi-ethnic groups in China.

Honesty in China's traditional culture mainly includes five aspects: first, honesty, that is, people should be honest when they get along with each other, and their words and deeds are consistent. Second, keeping promises means keeping promises to others. Third, trust and obedience, that is, in dealing with people, we must trust him and submit to his insights. Fourth, persistence and ambition, that is, persistent pursuit and holding of an ideal value. Fifth, the theoretical basis of belief is honesty, that is, honesty is the fundamental moral attribute of justice, so it is also the source of ethics.

Traditional honesty embodies China's traditional moral norms of honesty and trustworthiness, and its connotation can be summarized as follows: honesty is the principle of standing in the world, the principle of grazing management, the creed of self-cultivation, the principle of mutual communication and the discipline of maintaining social order. It can be seen that honesty in China's traditional culture mainly refers to the feudal ethics of honesty and trustworthiness, which basically belongs to the category of life ethics and political ethics.

On the basis of criticizing and inheriting the traditional concept of honesty, modern honesty has absorbed cultural elements such as fairness, justice, independence and development under the conditions of modern market economy, thus forming a modern moral conduct and value orientation that adapts to the development of market economy and society, and has become another powerful spiritual force to restrain and standardize the modern social and economic order. Generally speaking, the integrity of modern society includes both the economic meaning of contract economy and the sociological meaning of ethics.