The Relationship between China's Ancient Social Etiquette System and Modern Social Morality

Traditional Confucian ethics endows the principle of consanguinity and kinship with the supremacy of roots, which has caused various drawbacks in moral life; Only by establishing the universal rational spirit of modern morality can we overcome these drawbacks and meet the needs of modernization. However, due to the lack of moral rational factors of Confucian ethics, both of them are in a historical dilemma in modern moral construction: traditional Confucian ethics cannot complete the rational transformation of modernization without self-digestion, and modern rational spirit has to face an established tradition of Confucian ethics that is difficult to inherit but must be inherited and digested. This paper aims to explain the essential characteristics of Confucian consanguineous ethical principles and modern moral rational spirit through comparative analysis, so as to point out the historical dilemma they face in modern moral construction. In Confucian ethics, the principle of consanguinity, which is intrinsically related to the ancient patriarchal clan system, occupies a particularly important position. First of all, Confucianism attaches great importance to the ethical significance of patriarchal relations. Mencius' definition of "human relations" clearly points out: "The father and son are related, the monarch and the minister are righteous, the husband and wife are different, the age is orderly, and the friends are trustworthy." ("Mencius? "On Teng Wengong") Therefore, it is generally believed that the clan blood relationship belongs to the category of "private morality", which constitutes the main content of the so-called "five ethics" specially emphasized by Confucian ethics. Secondly, Confucianism advocates the consanguinity based on natural physiology as the basis of establishing patriarchal ethics. Confucius once emphasized that "it is wrong for a gentleman to be unwilling to eat, unwilling to listen, and uneasy to live." "... to be unkind! The child was born for three years, and then he was separated from his parents. ..... also have three years of love for parents? "("The Analects? Yang Huo) (Li Zehou once pointed out that Confucius attributed etiquette, an external social norm, to the life consciousness of parent-child love, showing a tendency to interpret "courtesy" with "benevolence". See the History of Ancient China Thought, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1986, p. 16-22. In other words, the reason why "short mourning" is heartless is that it violates the love between parents and children, so it cannot keep the inner feelings of the gentleman in a comfortable and pleasant state, which is called "unbearable". The basic moral norms such as fatherhood, filial piety, brothers, friends and brothers recognized by Confucianism are the direct embodiment of this principle of consanguinity and kinship.

Thirdly, Confucianism believes that observing these blood ethics norms is the fundamental basis of all moral activities. Confucius demanded: "Disciples should be filial, and younger brothers should be filial. They should be sincere and believe, love the masses and be kind. " ("The Analects? If you think: "Filial piety is also the foundation of benevolence!" (ditto) Mencius pointed out: "The truth of benevolence is that the relatives are also; The truth of righteousness, from the brother is also. " ("Mencius? Li Lou I) The Book of Changes claims: "Father and son, brother and brother, husband and wife, home is right. Stay at home and the world will be stable. "

Finally, Confucianism further ontologized the ethical principle of consanguinity, thus giving it the supreme significance of "taking it for granted". "Yi Zhuan" said: "There is heaven and earth followed by everything, everything followed by men and women, men and women followed by couples, couples followed by fathers and sons, fathers and sons followed by ministers, ministers followed by ups and downs, ups and downs followed by courtesy." The Book of Filial Piety says: "The way of father and son is also natural." Cheng Hao said, "Father, son, monarch and minister, there is no escape from the laws of the world." (Volume 5 of Henan Honest Letter) Zhu Yue: "It is only natural to kill relatives and respect sages." China's other ancient ethical thoughts, such as Mohism, Legalism, Taoism, Buddhism, etc. It also recognizes the ethical significance of patriarchal blood relationship to varying degrees; However, taking the principle of consanguinity as the supreme fundamental basis of the moral standard system obviously constitutes the unique essential feature of Confucian ethics. Because of this, it has profound reasons for existence and historical roots in China ancient society, which is based on the family-style small-scale peasant economy and retains many primitive clan blood customs. On the one hand, it has occupied a dominant position in the moral field for a long time, on the other hand, it has accumulated imperceptibly in the subconscious level of the cultural and psychological structure of ordinary people, showing tenacious vitality, so that it can still have a profound impact on the realistic moral life today. But at the same time, this essential feature also makes Confucian ethics show an obvious hierarchical tendency, and has caused a series of negative effects in real life. In addition to the negative political role of maintaining the feudal patriarchal hierarchy, what deserves our attention in the field of pure moral life today is the incompatibility between specific business ethics and universal moral standards.

Thus, even in the sage character of Confucian ethics regarded as "the supremacy of human relations", there are often signs that universal norms are not applicable to specific ethics, and specific ethics cannot be transformed into universal norms. For example, Shun, who is famous for his great filial piety, on the one hand, is tolerant of his heartless brother out of blood and affection, urging him to "be close to him, be rich with love", "be humble to him, treat him well" and even follow the principle that "father and son don't complain about others". After his father killed someone, he "ran away" and followed him to the seaside, where he was happy all his life. On the other hand, when the blood relationship is not good, he insists on taking off his work, letting go of his pocket, killing Sanmiao and drowning, and forgiving without considering "the old and the young", so that Zhang Wan will send out "Is human nature so solid?" In others, it will be punished, and in younger brothers, it will be sealed. Mencius' clear affirmation of this point more intensively reflects the ethical tendency of traditional Confucianism to recognize people's different moral standards based on the specific differences between internal and external relations. (See Mencius' exposition and dedication on Li Lou and Zhang Wan.)

"Everyone can think of Yao Shun"-In the past, people often emphasized the positive moral significance of Confucianism, but relatively ignored the negative ethical connotation of Yao Shun's character itself. In fact, in the historical process of more than 2,000 years, Confucian consanguinity ethics rarely cultivated the ideal "holy king" of "giving to and benefiting the people", but often created a secular "homesickness" that drowned social morality with private affairs. Fei Xiaotong believes that in the "differential order pattern" in which China people take themselves as the center and take kinship as the network, there is only "private morality" and there is no "public morality" in the western sense. See Fei Xiaotong's Academic Essentials, edited by Bao Ji, Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press 1988, pp. 357-365. Liang Qichao, Liang Shuming and others also pointed out the phenomenon of "lack of public morality" in China people's life from different angles. Even today, it is not difficult for us to find the tension confrontation between the specific affair ethics and the universal moral standards in real moral life: on the one hand, those effective friendly attitudes, enthusiasm patterns, civilized habits and polite expressions with strong human feelings among family members, relatives and friends will disappear immediately and inexplicably when they enter public places and face ordinary strangers, and even after being strongly advocated, it is difficult to surpass the blood hierarchy and become universal. On the other hand, those behaviors that violate universal moral standards and even legal provisions are often criticized and reprimanded on the conscious and rational level, such as cronyism, cronyism, back door, trusting others and other unhealthy practices, as well as corruption such as cronyism, favoritism, corruption and bribery. If they happen in a specific interpersonal circle such as affection, kindness, friendship and nostalgia, people will be in a subconscious emotional state. Although these phenomena have many roots, the negative influence of Confucian consanguinity ethics is obviously the culprit.

In Kant's view, this kind of "moral rationality" originates from the inherent rational essence of human beings, so it is transcendental and super-historical. In fact, according to the viewpoint of Marxist philosophy, the existence of human nature has always been specified concretely and historically by the development of human production practice (see Marx: 1844 Manuscript of Economic Philosophy and Outline of Feuerbach; Marx and Engels: German Ideology); The rational existence of human beings in the modern historical stage is no exception. In the final analysis, it is a modern production practice with modern science and technology as the guide and modern industrial production as the core. By improving labor productivity, the positive contribution of individuals (first of all, individual workers) to social groups has been greatly improved, and the status, value and rights of modern people have been greatly improved accordingly, thus distinguishing them from useless prisoners who could only be killed in primitive times and from "talking tools" in the slavery era. It is also different from serfs who were in personal attachment in feudal times, and became a "modern man" with independent and rational consciousness in social life in relatively equal. It is this profound change of human nature in the modern historical stage that fundamentally determines that Kant can put forward the principle of moral rationality that affirms human freedom and equality and has distinctive modern characteristics in the18th century. In contrast, Plato in ancient Greece acknowledged the ruling role of rational principle in the moral field, but at that time, the specific historical conditions and the existence of human nature finally decided that he could only divide people (excluding slaves) into three grades in strict order according to the differences of rationality, will and desire endowed by gods.

Therefore, if the family-owned small-scale peasant economy in ancient China fundamentally decided that fathers, sons, couples and brothers must have very different status, values and rights because of their different contributions to family groups, thus laying a realistic foundation for the traditional Confucian hierarchical consanguinity ethics, then the mode of production of modern economy must also lay a profound reason for the existence of modern moral rationality spirit based on similar mechanisms. It is required to treat people as the subject of modern personality rights with universal independence and equality in the moral life of society, with the aim of realizing the essence and free development of people in the modern historical stage and making all the most basic moral norms have universal applicability and equal coverage. Only on the basis of such a spirit of moral rationality that is in harmony with economic rationality, political rationality and scientific rationality of modern society can we fundamentally readjust the moral relationship between people, break the shackles of various hierarchical relationships in ancient times, and establish a moral standard system that can actively promote modernization. At present, the rich content of spiritual civilization construction at a higher level in the moral field in China also needs this modern rational spirit as the basic element.

In order to overcome the disadvantage that traditional Confucian ethics cannot reach an agreement between specific business ethics and universal moral norms, it is also an indispensable prerequisite to establish a universal spirit of moral rationality. Because of this spirit of moral rationality, not only the subject of moral behavior is no longer regarded as a hierarchical individual in the ancient patriarchal clan system, but also the ethical relationship between blood relatives and their moral norms are no longer given the supremacy. Instead, it requires that the universal ethical relationship between people and their moral norms be regarded as the fundamental basis of all special moral activities, so that all kinds of particularities are always under the constraints of universal norms, thus blocking all kinds of unhealthy trends and corrupt ethical channels. Take the service industry as an example: only by building professional ethics based on the modern universal rational spirit and treating all clients as "targets" and people with equal personality can we establish a civilized service attitude and good service fashion with universal applicability, improve the service quality in an all-round way, and dispel the irregular phenomena that some service personnel adopt different attitudes and adhere to different standards according to the specific interpersonal relationship between the clients and themselves, such as being close to each other, respecting the humble, and so on; The promotion of modern moral rationality to modern economic construction will naturally be fully realized in the service industry.

Therefore, a basic task of modern moral construction is how to replace the traditional Confucian consanguinity ethics with the spirit of modern moral rationality, making it the fundamental basis of modern moral life.

However, this view is actually due to a misunderstanding of the concept of "rationality". Ancient Confucianism in China not only discussed "reason" but also "sex", but there was no concept of "reason". Cheng Yi's "so-called reason" also refers to "nature is reason" (see volume 22 of Henan Cheng's suicide note). The concept of "rationality", which is frequently used in various discourses today, but rarely defined clearly, originally comes from the word "rationality" in western philosophy, which means people's ability and activities to understand the nature of things and obtain truth through logical reasoning (see Concise Encyclopedia Britannica 15, Volume 9, Rationality, Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica Company 65438+). The so-called "practical rationality" and "moral rationality" refer to the concentrated expression of this rational essence of human beings in the field of practice-morality related to will; As Kant said: "The true highest moral principles are independent of all experiences and are only based on pure reason." (Kant: Fundamentals of Moral Metaphysics, translated by L.W. Baker, p. 25. If we understand the concept of "rationality" in this sense, it is hard to say that there will be a spirit of pure rationality or theoretical rationality (Liang Shuming thinks: "Confucianism rejects rationality very much." See Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophy, Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1936, p. 128. Feng Youlan thinks: "China lacks the training of rationalism most". See Collection of Academic Works of Sansongtang, Beijing: Peking University Publishing House, 1984, p. 296. Mou Zongsan believes that traditional Confucianism pays attention to "rational expression" and "moral subject", but ignores "rational structure expression" and "cognitive subject" that western philosophy pays attention to. See Politics and Governance, Taipei: Wenguang Publishing House, 1960, pp. 46-55. Li Zehou thinks: "China's philosophy and culture generally lack strict reasoning forms and abstract theoretical exploration, which ... prevents the development of speculative rationality". See the History of Ancient China Thought, pp. 306-305); It's hard to say: it will further embody the spirit of moral rationality on the basis of ethics' understanding of the essence of human rationality.

It is true that both Confucian philosophy and western philosophy have the basic meaning of the law of necessity. But the most fundamental difference between the two is that if western philosophy mainly affirms the inevitability of reason on the basis of truth and knowledge logic, but rarely links it with emotion, then Confucian philosophy pays more attention to affirming the inevitability of reason on the basis of sincerity and comfort of emotion and emphasizes rationality. As mentioned above, the basic reason for Confucius' affirmation of three-year mourning is that it conforms to the love of parents and children and can keep the inner affection in a comfortable and pleasant state. In addition, Mencius said, "Yi Yue my heart, Ren Yue my mouth" ("Mencius? Gao Zi), Cheng Yi said, "The principle of the world, as it is, is not bad. It is not good to have emotions and sadness; In the festival, you don't do good all the way (Volume 22 of Henan Honest Suicide Letter), Zhu said that "benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom are deep, and emotions are moved" (Volume 98 of Genre), and Wang Yangming said that "the customs of seven emotions are all used by conscience" (Biography). It also clearly reflects this emphasis. " Even the core concept of Confucianism-"benevolence" is first of all "emotion" rather than "knowledge", which is what Zhu called "the principle of loving others and the virtue of the heart" (the Analects of Confucius notes? Learning and taking notes "). It is on the basis of affirming that "reason" lies in "emotion" that Confucianism further advocates taking "reason" as "nature" and holds that "gentleman's nature, benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom are rooted in the heart" (Mencius? Dedication), "People are the most spiritual, but they have the nature of the five permanents" (Zhu: Answer Uncle), focusing on the internal relationship between "emotion" and "sex" which are rarely mentioned in western philosophy. This is obviously different from the western philosophy's understanding of the essence of human rationality on the basis of affirming that rationality lies in knowledge. (Liang Shuming once pointed out: "The ancients in China liked to talk about subjective reasons, while today's foreigners are diligent in studying the principles of objective things ....., which should not be mistaken for one thing." But he called the former "reason" and the latter "reason", and regarded the former as the body and the latter as the use. See Introduction to Orientalism, Chengdu: Bashu Bookstore, 1986, pp. 39-46, 53-54. )[①]

Therefore, in the moral field, the rational spirit of Confucianism and Kant must have essential differences. Kant once pointed out that "anything that comes from human's special natural situation, certain emotions and hobbies, or even a special tendency of human reason that does not necessarily apply to the will of all rational beings" can only provide us with subjective special moral principles, not objective universal moral principles. (See Kant: Fundamentals of Moral Metaphysics, translated by L.W. Baker, p. 43) It is from this point of view that he particularly emphasizes the universal ethical relationship and its moral norms formed between equal individuals based on rational essence and free will. In contrast, Confucian ethics takes consanguinity as the ultimate "natural principle" and pays attention to the specific ethics formed by various emotional associations between individuals with equal differences, thus constructing a moral standard system of "reason is ethics". As for its clear recognition of the rejection of universal moral norms by specific business ethics, it clearly reflects the great contrast between its "natural human feelings" and Kant's "moral rationality". Xie Zeng thought: "Reason is straight. Father is not hiding for his son, and son is not hiding for his father. Is it necessary to strengthen the vital energy? " (quoted from Zhu: "The Analects of Confucius? Lutz's note) This kind of "righteousness" can be said to be completely in line with the Confucian tradition of specific blood, but it is hard to say that it is in line with Kant's universal moral rationality. (Kant believes that any lie, no matter what the goal is, is immoral in terms of its motivation itself. See Fundamentals of Moral Metaphysics, translated by L.W. Baker, p. 18- 19). In this respect, Confucian ethics not only lacks Kant's modern concepts such as "man is the purpose" and "freedom and equality" because of historical times, but also lacks Kant's moral rational spirit itself because of ideological stereotypes.

In fact, the principles of consanguinity and rationality in Confucian ethics are quite different from the spirit of moral rationality in ancient Greece and belong to the same historical era. Plato, Aristotle and others do not deny the ethical significance of family consanguinity, but they never regard it as the fundamental basis for the supremacy of moral standard system. Instead, it advocates defining the "virtue" that people should have in various ethical relations and moral behaviors from the "rational" essence of people. More importantly, they all emphasize that rational cognition regulates and restricts people's emotional activities, and realizes the four virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance and justice, so as to achieve the purpose of being good, and thus demonstrates the legitimacy and rationality of the city-state hierarchy. This is in line with Confucian ethics, which restricts people's emotional activities according to the "rational" norms of the inevitability of blood and kinship, realizes benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and trust in the five permanents, and emphasizes that "if it is true, it can be good" ("Mencius? Gao Zishang), and from this point of view to demonstrate the legitimacy of the patriarchal hierarchy, obviously formed a sharp contrast. Although we should not simply judge the advantages and disadvantages of the two on this basis, it is undeniable that they agree with different "principles".

On the surface, Confucian ethics seems to advocate "if you want to achieve, you can achieve, if you want to stand up, you can stand up", "benevolent people love", "conscience" and so on. , which also contains the factors of universal moral rationality; Compared with "treating people as people" advocated by modern rational spirit, it is even slightly better in moral realm. However, problems still exist: firstly, these universal ethical propositions are not based on human rational nature, but on desire, benevolence and conscience with more emotional implications, so they are bound to be restricted by the specific principle of consanguinity, which is the supreme fundamental foundation of Confucian ethical system, and are branded as insurmountable grades. For example, determined by the consanguineous principle of "love is greater than loving relatives", the so-called "love of the benevolent" will of course be distorted into "kindness of Yao and Shun, always loving others and eager to kiss the virtuous", resulting in "love poverty" of loving father > brother > friend > lover, which is compatible with "fatherless" and "immoral" advocated by Mohism. Secondly, even if we put aside this limitation and directly understand them as "universal love for the people" (which will immediately transform Confucian ethics into Mohist ethics to a great extent), these "Confucian surpluses" after "abstract inheritance" are still only vague moral norms with abstract possibilities, which are difficult to be universally implemented in real life. For example, even if "I want a benevolent person" admits that "everyone can think of Yao and Shun" and "the streets are full of saints", it is difficult to show universal compassion for "villains", "villains" and "thieves in the mountains" in real life and practice benevolence and righteousness. In contrast, the spirit of modern moral rationality advocates that "I am a human being and everyone is a human being", "everyone can be a human being" and "people are everywhere". Although it can't make people free from dust and vulgarity, it is obviously more specific and universal than the former under modern historical conditions. Therefore, we can't simply confuse traditional Confucian ethics with modern moral rationality and human spirit.

The historical difficulties of modern moral construction mainly stem from the fact that traditional Confucian ethics based on the principle of consanguinity simply lacks the spirit of moral rationality. As far as traditional Confucian ethics is concerned, the historical dilemma it faces in modern moral construction lies in: on the one hand, only through rational transformation can it continue to exist and play an active role in modern moral life; On the other hand, this rational transformation will inevitably replace its fundamental foundation-the principle of consanguinity and kinship with the spirit of universal rationality, which will mean the collapse and disintegration of the traditional Confucian ethical system itself. In fact, if we only abstract the restrictive effect of the principle of consanguinity on "the benevolent loves others" and immediately transform Confucian ethics into Mohist ethics, then it is more enough to fundamentally replace the principle of consanguinity with modern rational spirit, so that Confucian ethics loses its unique essential characteristics and is no longer a strict Confucian ethics.

It is true that modern rational spirit cannot completely deny the significance of consanguineous ethics, because the special relationship between parents and children inevitably requires its specific moral norms. However, in the modern moral system, this consanguinity norm will inevitably lose its fundamental supremacy in traditional Confucian ethics, and be based on the spirit of modern moral rationality. Therefore, it is required to establish a closer ethical relationship characterized by consanguinity and kinship on the premise of maintaining the equal personality relationship between parents and children. Obviously, this ethical relationship between father and son will be essentially different from the traditional Confucian relationship of "fatherly kindness and filial piety", which is not limited by universal moral norms and advocates "father and son keep secrets" and "father and son are not responsible for kindness"

Faced with the above-mentioned historical predicament, on the one hand, contemporary neo-Confucianists downplayed or even avoided the fundamental supremacy of the principle of consanguinity in the ethical field, actively absorbed the contents and methods of modern western philosophy, and re-expounded the universal concepts of benevolence, righteousness and virtue conscience of traditional Confucianism in an effort to complete the modern transformation of Confucian ethics; On the other hand, in order to keep the true colors of Confucianism, we don't want to take modern rational spirit as the fundamental basis. Instead, it explains moral rationality according to the traditional Confucian spirit of "sense and reason", adheres to the ontology of mind or emotion, and takes the cultivation of saints as the ultimate moral purpose. (For example, when discussing the issue of moral rationality, Tang Junyi, on the one hand, thinks that "it is directly rooted in the idealistic tradition of Kant and Hegel" and demands that "it is the ideal of family ethics to stipulate the kinship formed by natural physiological relations according to rationality", on the other hand, he emphasizes that "rationality is the so-called sexual theory of China Confucianism. Etiquette means reason, and benevolence means sex. ..... The earliest manifestation of rationality is in people's daily emotional will and behavior. Therefore, "family consciousness is discussed first" and "it is the basis of the later discussion", and it is considered that "the special emphasis on family in China culture also has its profound and glorious significance." See the Complete Works of Tang Junyi, Volume 20: Cultural Consciousness and Moral Rationality, Taipei: Taiwan Province Student Publishing House, 1986, pp. 19-22, 46 and 65. As a result, it often loses some essential features of traditional Confucianism, but fails to fully modernize at the same time, and flows into moral idealism that is "extremely bright" but cannot "mean truth". Under the modern historical conditions, it is difficult to have a practical impact on the moral construction of modern daily life.

In contrast, the historical dilemma faced by modern rational spirit lies in: on the one hand, it can't grow out of traditional Confucian ethics lacking moral rational factors; On the other hand, in the field of morality, the power of traditional customs is far more deeply rooted than that of economy, politics and science and technology. It cannot be created out of thin air in the atmosphere of "moral vacuum", but it must face an established tradition that has to be inherited from Confucianism. Looking further, on the one hand, it can only stand on its feet if it thoroughly dispels the fundamental principle of blood relationship in traditional Confucian ethics; On the other hand, Confucian consanguinity ethics not only has a long historical roots in the social and cultural level, but also has a deep emotional foundation in family consanguinity, so it is difficult to completely eliminate it. It is precisely because we have to face the Confucian ethical tradition that is difficult to inherit but must be inherited and dispelled, so the establishment of modern moral rational spirit can never be realized naturally with the development of modern economic construction. An intriguing manifestation of this historical dilemma is that some thinkers (such as Hu Shi, Wu Yu, Lu Xun, etc. ) During the May 4th Movement, people who fiercely criticized the Confucian patriarchal clan system in theory still obeyed their parents' orders and pursued the traditional norms of fatherhood and filial piety in real life, and it was difficult to get rid of the profound influence of consanguinity ethics, so that Joseph, an American scholar? Joseph Richmond Levenson believes that the intellectuals in modern China are always in the contradiction between sticking to tradition emotionally and identifying with the West intellectually. (See Du Weiming: Modern Transformation of Confucian Tradition (edited by Elliot Ngok), pp. 49, 77-78, 242-244; Li zehou China's history of modern thought. Hefei: Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House, 1994, p. 23,123,2113. Correspondingly, although less noticeable, what is more serious in history is the phenomenon mentioned above: although people think that reason is unforgivable at the conscious level, it seems to be excusable at the subconscious level. The tension confrontation between "moral rationality" and "justice and human feelings" in the deep structure of people's cultural psychology is a profound reflection of the modern rational spirit in the face of the difficult but tenacious dilemma of Confucian consanguinity ethics.

In addition to the above-mentioned historical dilemma, the rational spirit of modern morality will also face another historical dilemma due to the so-called "post-modernity" problem: when it has not fully established itself in the historical process of modern moral construction in China, it gradually exposed some drawbacks of its "modernity" or "rationalization" due to the long-term historical development of the West, and was severely criticized by the post-modernism trend of thought. (For example, Alasdair MacIntyre believes that the modern self, which has got rid of the bondage of compulsory hierarchy but lacks specific social provisions, is the root of modern western moral crisis; However, various moral theories (including Kant's philosophy) since the Enlightenment failed to make a reasonable argument for the universal rational norms of modern morality. However, he also stressed that the basic characteristics of modern western moral culture are embodied in emotionalism derived from personal hobbies, and therefore advocated finding a real rational basis for morality in the tradition of "virtue" centered on Aristotle and inseparable from social life (family, tribe, city-state, etc.). See After Virtue translated by Gong Qun Dai, Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1995, especially the preface of the Chinese version, chapters 3, 4, 15 and 16. What is even more embarrassing is a series of negative phenomena, such as lax interpersonal relationship, weak family values, indifference to human feelings, community disintegration and so on. The relative neglect of emotion and its inevitability caused by the spirit of western moral rationality highlights some advantages of traditional Confucian ethics, which pays more attention to blood relationship and even advocates taking emotion as the reason, so that it is really necessary for us to seriously think about the scope and degree of rationality. Is it possible and feasible to complement each other, save money and return to the same goal simultaneously between the spirit of reason and the spirit of reason?

Of course, the above-mentioned "postmodern" problems will not only aggravate the dilemma faced by modern moral rationality-how to dissolve Confucian consanguinity ethics and construct modern morality, but also use Confucian consanguinity ethics to overcome its own modernity drawbacks; At the same time, this will also lead to another historical dilemma of traditional Confucian ethics: if we do not eliminate Confucian consanguinity ethics and establish the spirit of moral rationality to complete modern moral construction, there will be no disadvantages of modernity. Then, how can traditional Confucian ethics fully display and effectively exert its potential to eliminate these drawbacks? In other words, if the pre-modern Confucian ethics has not undergone the rational transformation of modernization and its existence as a Confucian ethics has not been dispelled, how can there be a post-modern Confucian ethics?

This paper does not expect to theoretically answer these difficult problems in modern moral construction. In fact, they are not logical paradoxes or antinomy, but historical dilemmas in real moral life, which cannot be overcome only by theoretically prescribing some panaceas. The further development of human history itself will naturally find a historic way to solve these dilemmas. The purpose of this paper is only to point out their existence.