On the Ethical Thought in the Thought of "Harmony but Difference"

On the Ethical Thought in the Thought of "Harmony but Difference"

Paper Keywords: modern significance of harmonious but different ethics

China's traditional thought of "harmony but difference" is the core and essence of China culture, an important law of the development of things and social relations, a criterion that people should follow in their lives, and the essence of the coordinated development of human society. The ethical thought contained in the thought of "harmony but difference" has important practical significance for us to build a harmonious society today.

As one of the core and essence of China traditional culture, the thought of "harmony but difference" contains rich philosophical thoughts, ethical thoughts and political thoughts, and its ethical thoughts are more prominent for us to build a harmonious society today.

China is a country rich in resources, but because of its large population, China is also a country with a small amount of natural resources per capita, and there are many serious problems. For example, the unreasonable use of resources leads to the conflict between man and nature, and the inequality of people's possession of resources leads to the conflict between people and society. To build a harmonious society, we must solve these contradictions and puzzles, and to solve these contradictions and puzzles, we can use the ethical thought contained in the thought of "harmony without difference" as a guide to correctly handle the contradictions between man and nature, man and man, man and society, and build a socialist harmonious society.

First, the theoretical origin of the idea of "harmony but difference"

In China's ancient books, the word "He" appeared in both Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen. "Harmony" originally refers to the coordination of musical stress, and later it is extended to the philosophical category of interaction and coordination between all different things.

The thought of "harmony" has been formed in the pre-Qin period, when "the debate on harmony while being the same" appeared. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, Shi Bo was the first to give an accurate explanation of "harmony" by comparing "harmony" with "similarity", pointing out that "harmony without difference, similarity without action" and "harmony without difference" are the root causes of the disadvantages. Here, Shi Bo emphasized the interaction, supplement and restriction between different elements in "harmony". Homology is an abstract identity that rejects differences and cancels the foundation of the existence and development of things. It can be seen that the reason for the existence and development of things is "harmony" rather than "homogeneity". Later, Shi Bo and Yan Ying's theory of "harmony and identity" further revealed to us that "harmony and identity" are different from "harmony and reality". "Homology" is abstract and direct identity; "Harmony" is a concrete dialectical unity containing contradictions and differences.

Confucius put forward the idea of "gentlemen are harmonious but different, villains are harmonious but different" from the perspective of "the debate on harmony but different" based on his empirical cognition of moral personality in the real society at that time. It means that a gentleman can accept different opinions and get harmony; Little people only agree with the same opinion and reject different opinions, so they are not harmonious. In other words, a gentleman has no idea of keeping his place, he can tolerate and listen to different opinions, he can be eclectic and live in harmony; The villain forms a party for self-interest, and the party opposes differences and is equally disharmonious. That is to say, harmony, harmony and harmony are mutually exclusive, harmonious and harmonious in different conflicts, which embodies two different ways to deal with complex relationships such as interpersonal relations, social relations, political relations, ethnic relations, ethnic relations and religious relations, and also contains two different ideal personalities, moral sentiments and ways of thinking.

Zhang Zai once said, "One image is correct, and the correct one will be the opposite; There is a saying, revenge must be repaid, and revenge must be reconciled. Generally speaking, reconciliation is the general trend. Another example is the golden mean, which says that all things coexist and do not harm each other, and the Tao goes hand in hand. And this is exactly the ideological realm of Zhou Enlai's "harmony but difference". In China, the mainstream of public opinion in the 1960s was the theory of struggle. People dismiss the "balance theory" of "harmony but difference" as "rice dialectics of vulgar mechanism" During this period, when dealing with Sino-Soviet and US-Japan relations, Zhou Enlai took a very realistic position of seeking balance and stability. This theory of balance is a valuable historical and cultural heritage left by Zhou Enlai, and it is the theory of "harmony but difference".

In short, the so-called "harmony without difference" is an important law of the development of things and social relations, a criterion that people should follow in their lives, and the true meaning of the coordinated development of human society. "Harmony without difference" is the correct method that must be advocated to implement the golden mean.

The second is the concrete embodiment of the ethical thought of "harmony but difference"

First of all, in dealing with the relationship between man and nature, it advocates the unity of man and nature and affirms the unity of man and nature. It is emphasized that human beings should know and conquer nature. As a part of the organic whole of nature, the emergence and development of human beings are closely related to nature. On the one hand, in production practice, human beings constantly transform themselves, use nature and obtain material means of production from nature to meet their own needs of food, clothing, housing and transportation. On the other hand, human beings constantly change nature through labor. Therefore, the relationship between man and nature is equal, not the relationship between ruling and being ruled. When dealing with the relationship between man and nature, we must act in accordance with the laws of nature, safeguard the unity of man and nature, correctly understand and grasp the unity of opposites between man and nature, and ensure that man and nature live in harmony, which is not only related to the ecological balance of nature, but also to the survival and development of mankind itself. This ideological principle of dealing with the relationship between man and nature is exactly what China's traditional ecological ethics advocates that man originates from nature and is a part of nature. Therefore, people must respect nature, follow the laws of nature, and cannot do whatever they want against the laws of nature.

Secondly, in dealing with the relationship between people, we advocate "harmonious coexistence", treat people sincerely and generously, care for each other, understand each other, be kind to others, and establish interpersonal relationships of unity, mutual assistance and friendship. The harmony between people is the basis of the harmony of human society. To form a harmonious interpersonal environment, it is inseparable from the mutual help and care between people. In China's traditional society, people live in natural economic relations and consanguineous ethical relations, and the relationship between people is simple and stable. However, with the continuous development of social economy, the relationship between people has become more and more complicated, and the feelings between people have become more and more indifferent and utilitarian. Therefore, when dealing with the relationship between people, we should respect and care about people. Only in this way can an equal, friendly and harmonious interpersonal environment be formed under the conditions of socialist market economy.

Finally, in dealing with the relationship between man and society, it is emphasized that man and society are organically unified, individuals cannot live without society, and society is composed of individuals. Therefore, we should respect the development of personality and encourage individual pursuit and creation. At the same time, individuals must integrate into the collective and combine personal goals with social needs. In ancient society, individuals and society were passively integrated, individuals had to obey the will of the ruling class, and individual principles were often suppressed by group principles. Modern society has brought unprecedented publicity to human personality and individual principles. However, the expansion of individual rights consciousness and the extension of personality principle have brought about the disintegration of social organizations and the indifference of group principle. In order to make social politics, economy and culture develop in an orderly and stable way, society should respect the legitimate rights and interests of individuals, and individuals should obey the ideal goals of social groups. This principle of dealing with the relationship between man and society embodies the core and basic principles of socialist morality. That is, serving the people is the core of socialist morality, and the principle of collectivism is the basic principle of socialist morality. In the process of developing the socialist market economy, we should not only establish a legal norm system that is compatible with the socialist market economy, but also establish a moral norm system that is compatible with the socialist market economy. Carrying out socialist moral construction with serving the people as the core and collectivism as the principle is of great significance for cultivating citizens' moral quality, establishing good social moral customs and promoting the construction of material civilization and spiritual civilization.