Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional stories - What is the traditional connotation of a letter?

What is the traditional connotation of a letter?

The traditional connotation of letter is human words, which means that people should be responsible for what they have said. This is the foundation of being a human being, the way to build a business and the way to govern the world; keeping promises and keeping faith are the core values ??of the Chinese nation. Recognized value standards and basic virtues.

The modern meaning generally refers to sincerity, honesty, trustworthiness, and so on.

"Faith" is not only one of the important conditions for Confucianism to realize the moral principle of "benevolence", but also one of the contents of its moral cultivation.

Confucius and his disciples proposed "faith" to require people to keep their trust in accordance with the provisions of etiquette, so as to adjust the conflicts between the ruling class and the opposing classes. Confucianism regards "faith" as the foundation for establishing and governing a country. "Faith", as a Confucian ethical category, means honesty, trustworthiness, and no hypocrisy. Han Confucianism included "faith" in the "Five Constants".

"Honesty and trustworthiness" is an important norm of the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation and an important part of the traditional revolutionary morality. With the continuous development and changes of the times, "honesty and trustworthiness" are constantly given new connotations that reflect the spirit of the times.

In the pre-Qin Dynasty, the so-called "sincerity" mainly refers to "honesty", "sincerity" and "loyalty". What you think in your heart must be consistent with what you actually do. This is what the ancients called "sincerity in China". , shape on the outside" means "don't deceive yourself" and "don't deceive others". The so-called "faithfulness" mainly refers to "truthfulness", "honesty" and "keeping promises", emphasizing that a person must "keep his word".

Be true to your word and so on. Later, thinkers often used "sincerity" and "faith" interchangeably. Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty said in his "Shuowen Jiezi" that "sincerity means trust" and "xin means sincerity". It can be seen that "sincerity" and "faith", whether used alone or in conjunction, generally expressed the same meaning in ancient times.