How college students should view and pass on New Confucianism

How should contemporary university students treat traditional Confucianism

There are many positive aspects of Confucianism that should be understood:

(1) Confucianism attaches importance to education, and advocates that "there should be education for all", i.e., there should be no distinction between the noble and the lowly, the wise and the foolish, and that there should be equal opportunities for all to be educated. This idea broke the hierarchical boundaries of education, expanded the target of education, and extended education to the general public, which undoubtedly had great progressive significance at that time. It was undoubtedly of great progressive significance at that time, and is now recognized and practiced by all. Confucianism also created "teaching according to the material" and other teaching methods, pay attention to personality differences in teaching, good at inspiring teaching. This has an important place in the history of education in China. In addition to purifying people's souls with benevolence, righteousness and propriety and coordinating people's social behaviors, the important purpose of Confucian education was to cultivate "gentlemen" and "gentlemen" with benevolence and righteousness, so as to serve the society of that time. The idea of education and the goal of training were in harmony with the social needs of the time, which reflected the social value of education. This is also very much the same as the purpose of education today.

(2) Confucianism emphasizes the importance of being a man, and proposes that a man should be upright and upright, that a man should emphasize "benevolence and virtue", and that a man should emphasize the all-round development of cultivation. On the shaping of a gentleman's personality, Confucianism puts forward more specific requirements: first, to have a variety of talents; second, to attach importance to self-cultivation, and to make more contributions to society during one's lifetime; third, to be strict with oneself everywhere, and to pay attention to abstaining from personal desires at all times; fourth, to emphasize righteousness and avoid profit, to pursue moral righteousness, to be consistent in word and deed, and to be consistent in one's appearance; and fifth, to be "circumspect and non-comparative" in one's dealings with others. "circumspect but not comparable" and "harmonious but different". This was undoubtedly of great significance at that time. Even for contemporary people, it is also of great significance.

(3) Confucianism also has something to say about the idea of learning. For example, it advocates the pursuit of learning to love and enjoy learning; learning to have a down-to-earth spirit, quietly remember the knowledge learned, and study hard without being satisfied; learning to be dedicated, not tired of the world, and dare to know the difficulties of progress; learning to be open-minded to ask for advice, not ashamed to ask questions; learning to learn and think, and practice, and strive for excellence. This is especially meaningful to us as college students.

(4) Confucianism advocates the rule of the country by "etiquette" and "government by virtue". Not only should we emphasize the selection of outstanding talents, the importance of enriching the country and educating the people, but also the role of the rule of law in the governance of the country. These ideas, which need not be neglected, are worthy of our reference. In addition, Confucianism is precocious and ruled strongly throughout most of the period of the Chinese nation, and has played a great role in stabilizing the society.

To make a general understanding of its negative ideas:

(1) Confucianism has developed from the beginning of "if a minister is not loyal, he should die; if he does not say the right thing, he should also die" to the later "if a ruler wants a minister to die, he has to die". The emphasis on the subordination of the group to the individual has led to the development of a nationalistic culture. Emphasizing the subordination of the group to the individual caused the people to be foolishly loyal and filial, which prevented the development of the human spirit, and ultimately made them ignorant and insensitive.

(2) Confucianism emphasizes the solidification and absolutization of ethical relations, and puts forward the ideas of "Three Principles and Five Principles" and "Parental Dictatorship", oppressing personal freedom and abusing the spirit of human freedom, which restricts the way of thinking and the way of living of the whole nation, and ultimately hinders the progress of the Chinese nation. This has ultimately impeded the advancement of the Chinese nation.

(3) Confucianism uses the idea of "do not look, do not listen, do not speak, do not move" to restrain the majority of women, but they themselves are in violation of this idea, and they are so obscene that they are doing all kinds of bad things, and they do not have the slightest bit of shame in their hearts.

(4) Confucianism paralyzes the people with the idea of "hoping for a bright ruler" and makes them yield to the brutal rule and do not know how to resist. (e) Confucianism did not emphasize the teaching of knowledge of agricultural production and the learning of scientific knowledge, but only had a strong political purpose and despised other classes of people, resulting in backwardness of the society and the inability to keep up with technological updating.

(6) Confucianism does not attach importance to logical reasoning, and focuses on past experience, forming "empirical rationality", so that logical reasoning and the theory of profoundly explaining the laws of things can not sprout, society gradually backward, and ultimately caught up with the other countries, and the conservative beatings.

With rational thinking, we should do this:

(1) The excellent value principles formed in the long-term historical practice can be transformed into the spirit of the times to inherit. For example, in the "Zhou Yi", "the sky is healthy, the gentleman to self-improvement," the spirit of robust and active; the "Analects of Confucius" advocated "give up life for righteousness," "see the benefits of righteousness," "see the danger and give orders, The independent personality of "the rich and the noble cannot be lustful, the poor and the lowly cannot be shifted, and the mighty cannot be subjugated", as well as the sense of anxiety of "joyful to the world and anxious to the world"; and the idea of the unity of the world emphasized in the Biography of the Spring and Autumn Periodicals of the Dukes of the Ram, etc. These valuable ideas should all be taken into consideration in the future. These valuable ideas should be inherited by us.

(2) Some of the contents can be extracted from the feudal ideological kernel, and the useful spiritual factors can be extracted, so that they can become useful ideological elements for the construction of a new culture today. For example, the idea of "people-oriented". From the "respect for heaven and protection of the people" of the early Western Zhou Dynasty, to Mencius's "the people are the most important thing, the gods of earth and grain come second, and the ruler is the least important thing", to Xunzi's "the ruler is a boat, and the common people are water. Water carries the boat, but water overturns the boat", the people-oriented thinking constitutes an important part of ancient Chinese political thought. Although the real connotation of the ancient "people's principle" is not and cannot be the interests of the people, it is meaningful for us to remove its feudal core and transform the ancient people's principle from the perspective of the people being the masters of their own house, and develop it into the socialist concept that the interests of the people are above all. Other ideas of Confucianism should also be able to be transformed in this way.

(3) For the dregs of traditional culture, it is necessary to negate and discard them, and must not be attached to them. For example, the "three from four virtues" of the female view, "the sky does not change, the road is also unchanged" of the concept of nature, "different respect for the inferiority and superiority of the noble and lowly" of the feudal hierarchy, etc.

This is the first time in the history of Confucianism.