Confucian view of destiny

The theory of destiny as fortune and misfortune. If the theory of virtue as happiness is used as a theoretical weapon in times of social change or as a spiritual support for a better vision of future life, then it has considerable vitality. However, if it is used as a theoretical basis for analyzing the happiness or otherwise of real life, it is rather pale and powerless. The inconsistency between virtue and fortune in social practice can never be covered up by the phrase "heaven's way of misfortune and good fortune". The backwardness of social productivity makes people helpless in the face of the arbitrary force of nature. The unjust social system makes the majority of people live under the shadow of the minority. The huge contrast between the theory of Eid prayer and the reality of life, the double oppression from nature and society, all of these can not help but people to seek solace from the fate of the underworld.

The Zhouyi, which enjoys the reputation of being "the first of the Five Classics," is recognized as a treasury of knowledge of fortune and fate. Yi Chuan" puts forward the "poor reason to exhaust the sex to life" "happy days know life without worrying" "Zuo Zhuan", "Guoyu" lists a lot of "Zhouyi" trigrams and lines of the words to trace back to the case. People in the life of honor and disgrace, fortune and misfortune are all attributed to destiny. Here, fate is not a personified supreme God, but the objective existence of the human will. The blessings and misfortunes of a person's life have been predetermined by the irresistible fate. The theory of predetermined fate denies the possibility of individual behavior to change fate. Morality has nothing to do with good or bad fortune. Morality is then put on the back burner. Because an individual's attempt to perfect his or her own moral behavior in order to reverse a situation of misfortune is like a mantis trying to stop a chariot or an ant trying to shake a tree.

For a long period of time in traditional Chinese society, the theory of destiny has been a sleeping pill for the rulers and the general public. From a political point of view, the popularity of the theory of predestination made the ruling base of the upper class more and more solid.