What is Confucius?

Confucius (55 BC1September 28th-BC 1 1 April), son surname, Kong Shi, [1] Qiu Ming, word, ancestral home of Song (now Xiayi County, Shangqiu City, Henan Province), Lu (. China is a famous great thinker and educator.

Confucius initiated the atmosphere of private lectures and was the founder of Confucian school. His theory became the orthodoxy of China's feudal culture for more than two thousand years. He set up private schools, broke through government monopoly and expanded the scope of education. Educated by Laozi, he led some disciples to travel around the world for fourteen years. In his later years, he revised the six classics of Poetry, Book, Rite, Music, Book of Changes and Spring and Autumn Annals. After the death of Confucius, his disciples and their re-disciples recorded the words and deeds, quotations and thoughts of Confucius and his disciples, and compiled the Confucian classic The Analects. In ancient times, Confucius was regarded as a "saint of heaven" and a "muduo of heaven". He was one of the most knowledgeable scholars in the society at that time, and was honored by the rulers of later generations as the saint, the most holy and the most holy teacher of Confucius, the master of Wang Xuan and the teacher of all ages. His Confucianism has a far-reaching influence on China and the world, and Confucius is listed as the first of the "Top Ten Cultural Celebrities in the World". As the ancestor of Confucianism (non-Confucianism), with the expansion of Confucius' influence, Confucius' sacrifice once became a "great sacrifice" at the same level as the ancestor of God and country.

Confucius constructed a complete ideological system of "virtue and virtue": he advocated the virtue and virtue of "benevolence and courtesy" at the individual level. The ideological system of virtue and Taoism is based on the theory of goodness of human nature ("one yin and one yang is Confucius' way, those who follow it are also good, and those who succeed are also human"), aiming at establishing human pole ("three-pole way"), and meeting with human nature, heaven and tunnel, the golden mean will become a complete methodological ideological system in due course.

Confucius' theory of benevolence embodies the spirit of human nature, while Confucius' theory of propriety embodies the spirit of etiquette, that is, order and system in the modern sense. Humanism is the eternal theme of mankind, which is applicable to any society, any era and any government, and order and institutional society are the basic requirements for establishing a civilized human society. This humanitarianism and order spirit of Confucius is the essence of China's ancient social and political thought.

The highest ideal of Confucius in his later years is called "Great Harmony". In the world of great harmony, people in the world love each other and all the people in the world, not only their families, but also their parents and children. Children can get warmth and care, lonely people and disabled people can rely on them, men have their own things, and women have a satisfactory home. There is no fraud, no thief, no road to pick up, no door to close at night, everyone is honest with each other, talent selection, and the trip to the avenue is also a public service.

political thought

The core content of Confucius' political thought is "courtesy" and "benevolence". In the general plan of governing the country, he advocated "governing the country by virtue", which is the noblest way to govern the country. This strategy of governing the country is also called "rule by virtue" or "rule by courtesy". This strategy applies morality and politeness to the people, tightens the hierarchy, and completely divides nobles and civilians into ruled and ruled. Broke the original important boundary between nobles and civilians.

Confucius lived in Lu, which had a deep tradition of patriarchal clan system in the Western Zhou Dynasty. At this time, the ruling power of the Zhou Dynasty had existed in name only, and there were constant struggles among governors, resulting in the social reality of "losing the king, abolishing etiquette and righteousness, losing political power, and being at home in the world". "No monarch, no minister, no father and no son" became the characteristic of that era. The intensification of social contradictions has hindered the development of productive forces, and people's spirit and beliefs have also been destroyed as never before. These isomorphisms have become the historical origin and social conditions of Confucius' political thought, and "benevolence" and "courtesy" are the basic spirits of his political thought.

Confucius' highest political ideal is to establish a "world for the public" Datong society. The basic characteristics of "Datong" society are: the road is smooth, and "the world is good for the public", so people can "choose talents and talents, talk about faith and friendship", "people are not only relatives, but also only children, so that the old can be supported, the young can be used, and the orphans can be supported", and the conspiracy fraud is not prosperous and the disaster can not be afford. "Well-off society" is a low political goal advocated by Confucius. The basic characteristics of a "well-off" society are: the avenue is hidden, "the world is home", and "every family, every son is their own, and all goods are their own". In line with this inequality between the rich and the poor, a series of laws, regulations and ethics have emerged, such as "taking the son of heaven, being loyal to the father and son, and being brothers and couples". This kind of society is obviously not as perfect as the "Great Harmony" world, but it has normal order, courtesy, benevolence, credibility and righteousness, so it is called a well-off society. This kind of society actually describes the "prosperous time" of class society after the emergence of "private ownership".

Confucius' ideals of "Great Harmony" and "Well-off Society" have a far-reaching influence on China's later generations. Later, thinkers in different historical periods and stages put forward different visions and goals, which also inspired progressive thinkers and reformers, and Kang Youwei, Tan Sitong and Sun Yat-sen were all influenced by them.

Economic thought

The most important economic thoughts of Confucius are "emphasizing righteousness over profit" and "enriching the people". This is also the main content of Confucian economic thought, which has a great influence on later generations.

Confucius' so-called "righteousness" is a social moral standard, and "profit" refers to people's pursuit of material interests. In the relationship between "righteousness" and "benefit", Confucius put "righteousness" in the first place. He said, "see what you want". Before BC, people were required to consider how to conform to "righteousness" in the face of material interests. He believes that "righteousness follows", that is, it can only be obtained if it conforms to "righteousness". Confucius even argued in The Analects of Confucius, Zi Han, that it is necessary to talk less about profits, but don't shy away from them. Zuo Zhuan's Two Years of Success records that doing immoral things to get rich is like floating clouds, disdaining ill-gotten gains. Confucius also believed that the attitude towards "righteousness" and "benefit" can distinguish "gentlemen" from "villains". A "gentleman" with morality is easy to understand the importance of righteousness, while a "villain" who lacks moral cultivation only knows "profit" but not "righteousness". This is what Confucius said in the Analects of Confucius, "A gentleman is righteous and a villain is beneficial." Some people think that since Confucius emphasized "righteousness", he must despise manual labor. This view is wrong. According to the Analects of Confucius, he was very dissatisfied with Fan Chi, a disciple who wanted to study agriculture, and called him a "villain" because Confucius believed that people should have greater ideals and pursuits and shoulder greater responsibilities. He wants his students to be value bearers, not farmers.

Educational thought

Confucius put forward for the first time in the history of China that people's natural qualities are similar, and the differences in personality are mainly influenced by acquired education and social environment ("The same is true of sexual similarity, and so is Xi xiang yuan's The Jade Book of Qilin"). Therefore, everyone can be educated and everyone should be educated. He advocated "no education for all", founded private schools and enrolled more students, which broke the monopoly of slave owners and nobles on school education and expanded the scope of education to civilians, conforming to the trend of social development at that time. He advocated "learning to be an official" and went to be an official after he completed his studies. The purpose of his education is to cultivate a political gentleman, who must have high moral quality. Therefore, Confucius emphasized that moral education must be placed in the first place in school education ("Disciples are filial when they enter, filial when they leave, sincere and trustworthy, loving the people and being kind. Learn to write if you have spare capacity ").

In terms of teaching methods, Confucius requires teachers to have the educational philosophy of "teaching without distinction" and "managing the country to help the world", the methodology of "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude" and "heuristic", and pay attention to early childhood education and enlightenment education. He educates students to have an honest learning attitude, be open-minded and eager to learn, review what they have learned from time to time, so as to "review the past and learn new things", broaden and deepen the extension of new knowledge, and "draw inferences from others".

The main contents of Confucius' moral education are "courtesy" and "benevolence". Among them, "courtesy" is the moral standard, and "benevolence" is the highest moral standard. "Rite" is the form of "benevolence" and "benevolence" is the content of "ceremony". With the spirit of "benevolence", "ceremony" can be truly enriched. In terms of moral cultivation, he put forward methods such as determination, self-denial, practice, introspection and courage to reform. "Learning and knowing" is the dominant idea of Confucius' teaching thought. While advocating being shameless and eager to learn, he emphasized the combination of learning and thinking ("learning without thinking is useless, thinking without learning is dangerous"), and at the same time, he should "apply what he has learned" and apply what he has learned to social practice.

He first proposed heuristic teaching. He said, "No anger, no anger, no anger." This means that when students think seriously and reach a certain level, teachers should inspire and inspire students. He was also the earliest educator who adopted the method of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude in teaching practice. Through conversation and individual observation, he understands and is familiar with students' personality characteristics. On this basis, according to the specific situation of each student, different educational methods are adopted to cultivate talents in morality, language, politics and literature. Confucius loved education and engaged in educational activities all his life. He never tires of learning and teaching. We should not only teach by example, but also lead by example and influence students with our own example behavior. He loves his students and they respect him very much. The relationship between teachers and students is very harmonious. He is a shining example of ancient teachers in China.

Confucius' educational activities not only cultivated many students, but also put forward his educational theory on the basis of practice, which laid a theoretical foundation for China's ancient education. Because of Confucius' conservative political attitude, the reform of economic system also reflects conservative thoughts. For example, in the fifteenth year of Shandong (594 BC), the "initial tax mu" was implemented to legally recognize the legal status of private land, which was a major economic reform in the Spring and Autumn Period; However, according to Zuo Zhuan, Confucius recorded the "first tax mu" when editing Spring and Autumn Annals, in order to criticize its "indecent assault". People are not rich, and you are not rich. It is also recorded in the Analects of Confucius that Confucius advocated "benefiting people", that is, doing things that are beneficial to the people. On the other hand, he advocated that taxes should be lighter, and the apportionment of corvees should not delay the farming season. According to the Analects of Confucius, Confucius also preached to politicians at that time, demanding that politicians should not be too extravagant and pay attention to thrift. He said: "luxury is not inferior, thrift is solid." It is better to be practical than to feel inferior. At the same time, it also advocates "saving and loving others". This includes applying Confucius' thought of "benevolence" to the economic field.

Aesthetic ideology

The core of Confucius' aesthetic thought is the unity of "beauty" and "goodness", and the unity of form and content. Confucius advocated "poetry teaching", that is, combining literature and art with political morality, and taking literature and art as a means to change social politics and an important way to cultivate sentiment. Confucius believes that a perfect person should cultivate his self-cultivation in three aspects: poetry, ceremony and music. Confucius' aesthetic thought has a great influence on later literary theories.

Confucius clearly put forward famous aesthetic propositions such as "beauty lies in it" and "theory of difference" in the Book of Changes. The boy asked Yi published by People's Publishing House put forward the beauty of Yi school-the beauty of masculinity and the beauty of femininity; The beauty of life; The beauty of freedom; The beauty of neutralization. It is believed that "the beauty of yin and yang, the beauty of life, the beauty of freedom and the beauty of neutralization can be described as schools of aesthetics".

Historical thought

One of the important propositions of Confucius' historical management thought is "straightness", that is, we should seek truth from facts in studying history, attach importance to the basis, and "know what we know, don't know what we don't know" (Politics). He strongly opposes those who are arrogant but not straight, saying, "Crazy but not straight, Dong people are unwilling and unwilling."

Confucius' view of governing history is not only reflected in his attitude and proposition of governing history, but also in his view of historical development. Confucius believes that history is constantly "gaining and losing". He said: "Yin Yin, gains and losses are also known; Because of the yin ceremony, the gains and losses of the Zhou Dynasty can be known "("for politics "). It was on the basis of summing up Xia and Yin that the Zhou Dynasty reached an unprecedented civilization. History is not retrogression, but retrogression and development.