What is Chinese Ethics

Generally speaking, disciplines with practical characteristics take a certain field of social life as the object of study, and circle a relatively stable scope of knowledge on this basis. Therefore, the key to understanding a discipline is to look at what exactly is the field of social life it studies, rather than simply understanding it from its name alone.

It should be said that the Chinese nation has had its own ethics since ancient times, only that it has its own distinctive way of expression. Thinking and discussing about this kind of problem, as early as in the pre-Qin era, there is an understanding of the expression, that is, "the reason of human nature". Although the "university" and "elementary school" education opened in the Han Dynasty were divided into educational stages according to the age of schooling, in terms of the content and purpose of education, it was not only the ancestral ethical, moral and ceremonial education, but also the "way of governing and educating people" as the "way to govern and educate people". The way to govern and educate people" is to learn and practice ethics, morality, etiquette, ethics or moral character. Zhu Xi, in his "Lectures on the Scripture Feasts," stated precisely: "In ancient times, there was a small boy's learning, and there was a big man's learning." The so-called "adult learning", mainly "poor reasoning, right mind, cultivate themselves, the way of governance"; the so-called "kid's learning", that is, "cleaning, response, The so-called "learning of the boy" is "sweeping, coping, the rules of entering and exiting, rituals and music, shooting, and the literature of books and numbers. The former is to learn the way, i.e., to rule the world with poor reasoning, and the latter is to learn the words and respond to the rituals. Although the contents and levels of learning were quite different, they were all within the scope of ethics, morality and etiquette. In ancient times, schools were set up to teach the people of the world. Primary schools were the foundation of universities, and universities were to cultivate "adults" as Xunzi puts it - "to be born from what is, to die from what is, and this is what is called moral integrity. Virtue and then be able to determine, be able to determine and then be able to respond, be able to determine and be able to respond to the husband is called adult. An "adult" is a mature person who is aware and capable of taking responsibility. The main purpose of education is to remove the temperament that favors individual materialistic desires, and to restore its goodness and rationality to the fullest extent of human nature. It is not difficult to understand that the so-called "Way of the University" is to enable people to gradually understand and practice "the reasoning of human ethics and the way of being a human being" from childhood to adulthood. This "principle of human ethics and the way of being a human being" is the ethics or moral philosophy that has been handed down in China for thousands of years (the ethics and morality of the Song and Ming dynasties have matured into a unique Chinese philosophy).

In ancient China, our sages used to gather together the sayings and learnings of the sages and call them classics, such as the Analects and Mencius, which were compiled from the records of Confucius and Mencius' lectures in the early days. Many of the heirloom classics that appeared after them are also characterized by this feature. For example, the writings of Xunzi in the Warring States period were based on the actual social life of the time, and in line with the principle of "cultivating one's moral character, aligning one's family, ruling the country, and pacifying the world", they discussed the governance of the country, human morality and civilization of manners and etiquette separately. This kind of discussion of ethics and etiquette in the realm of social life is a uniquely Chinese way of exploring the Tao.

Xunzi has a wonderful exposition of "Dao" in "The Book of Uncovering": "The Way of the Tao is constant and full of changes, and a corner is not enough to lift it. The person who knows the way is not able to recognize the corner of the way. Therefore, they think that it is sufficient to decorate it, to confuse themselves internally and to confuse people externally." When one discusses the Way in a distorted way and is limited to the view of a corner, one cannot improve one's understanding of the Way. Not only will one's own thinking be disordered, but if one uses it to handle affairs, it will also confuse others, jeopardize one's career, and cause serious consequences. Therefore, Xunzi then emphasized the role of "balance": "What is balance? Said: Dao." (Note: Dao, is the rites and righteousness) this "balance" refers to both the constant value of the goal, but also refers to the fundamental standard of judgment, and the key to the "balance" is "to rule the heart". "If the heart does not know, then it cannot be the way, but may not be the way"; "If the heart knows, then it can be the way. If the heart knows what is right, then it can be right. If it can be right, then it can guard the way and forbid what is not right. Taking people with the heart of the Tao, it will be in line with the Tao and not in the Tao of the people carry on. Then, "how can the heart know? It is said that it is empty and quiet." "The heart has not been not hidden, however, there is the so-called virtual; the heart has not been dissatisfied, however, there is the so-called one. The heart has not been immobile, but there is the so-called quiet", "not to get the way and seek the way, called the virtual one and quiet. Therefore, the center is "the way to cure the heart". To the heart should be guided by reason, to feed the feelings, not for the object to lead, then you can determine the right and wrong, to determine the doubt. The "way to rule the heart" lies in "the desire to open the ears and eyes" to achieve self-improvement, self-suffering, self-discipline.