Understanding of Confucian honesty, wisdom and belief

"Benevolence, courtesy, wisdom and faithfulness" are the five most basic ethical categories summarized by ancient Confucianism in China. As early as the pre-Qin period, Confucian sages made many specific explanations on the connotations of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faithfulness respectively. In the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu combined them into one and called them "the five permanent members" [1](p.599). From then on, the "five cardinal guides" and "three cardinal guides" were often called "three cardinal guides and five cardinal guides", which became the most basic moral dogma for the ruling class in ancient China to maintain the feudal hierarchical social system. After the Han Dynasty, Confucian figures in different dynasties made their own interpretations and displays of "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith" according to the needs of social and ideological development in different periods. Its specific content is constantly enriched and complicated, and there are indeed many feudal dross. According to today's moral standards, it is not too much to condemn it as "cannibalism".

Nevertheless, "Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faithfulness", as five highly generalized and abstract names of moral categories summarized by China ancients, still have eternal and universal significance and value. This is because: on the one hand, in the long historical development process, the specific content of "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and trust" has also accumulated some fine moral traditions of the Chinese nation, which are of universal significance, and many of them, such as "Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you" [2](p. 123), have long been recognized as the universal moral norms of mankind; On the other hand, "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith", as a generalization and abstract expression of moral category, is also an extremely precious heritage of China traditional culture, which can be said to be the "brand" of China traditional ethics. Its value in the national cultural tradition can be compared with the market value of a commercial brand with a long history. In the process of moral civilization construction under the condition of socialist market economy in contemporary China, we can still learn from the form of "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faithfulness", absorb its excellent essence, and endow it with new contents embodying the spirit of the times, so as to build a socialist moral category system in contemporary China with distinctive China characteristics that is loved by China people. The profound historical and cultural origin of "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith" is conducive to establishing a sense of authority and moral belief belonging to the public. The language form of "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith" is highly abstract and extremely concise, and it is also very suitable for moral education and publicity. This paper attempts to make a brief explanation of Confucianism's "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faithfulness" in combination with the realistic content of the construction of social moral civilization in contemporary China, as an attempt to make a modern transformation of traditional Confucianism in China.