What is the value and significance of the Analects of Confucius to today's society?

What is the value of the Analects of Confucius for today's society

Like any other traditional Chinese culture, the Analects of Confucius, as a classic work, has a very obvious characteristic of its time, a strong flavor of the ancient times, and contains many exciting things, but of course there are also some things that are contrary to the present times. Reading through the Analects, and then seriously thinking about today's China, we can find that although the Analects is not a strategy for governing the country, not the Marxist-Leninist dictionary, not a strategy for seeking wealth and officialdom, it is still very educational in today's China, and in some aspects of life, it still has a great spiritual leading and guiding effect on today's China.

Confucius speaks of ren as the holy way, the way of the saint, the way of the saint's spiritual behavior. "Ren is the core of Confucius' thought", Confucius' ren is not an ethical morality, but a political thought, i.e., he has sublimated the ethical morality of ren into a political thought, thus creating a new doctrine of ruling the country. The most fundamental flaw in the previous argument that "ren is the core of Confucius' thought" is that it does not look at the problem from a political perspective.

First, the idea of "benevolence" as a way of governing the country was a new invention of Confucius. How did Confucius sublimate the ethics of ren into the political thought of ren? Take the Analects as an example (the same below): "Yan Yuan" says: "Zhong Gong asked 'Ren'. Zi said: 'Go out as if you were meeting a great guest; make the people as if they were bearing a great sacrifice; do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you; have no grudge in the state, and no grudge at home.'" This is the ideological tendency that inherited from the former "go out as if you were a guest, and undertake affairs as if you were a sacrifice", which attempted to take benevolence beyond ethics and morality to the political realm. Wei Linggong said, "Zi said, 'The people's desire for benevolence is greater than fire and water. Water and fire, I have seen the death of the dead; I have not seen the death of benevolence.'" This is the sublimation of the former "benevolence so that the people also", "not benevolent, then the people do not come" thought, clearly put forward the use of benevolence to rule the country and the people, benevolence has been taken as a political ideology. In Zi Lu, Confucius also predicted, "If there is a king, he must be benevolent after the world." It is indeed unprecedented for Confucius to take ren as a political thought, and it marks the birth of a new kind of thinker in ruling the country in ancient China.

Secondly, Confucius attached more importance to ren than to any other category. In terms of statistical frequency, in the Analects of Confucius, ren has the highest frequency, 109 times; whereas rites has only 75 times. Among them, others talk about ren 25 times, and Confucius himself talks about ren 84 times. The number of times Confucius himself talks about ren is more than the total number of times he talks about rites, which shows the importance Confucius attaches to ren. In the Analects, Confucius' disciples and others ask for ren especially often, asking for ren, including renren, renxing, and so on, totaling 20 times, which is in sharp contrast to asking for rites: there is no record of Confucius' disciples asking for rites in the Analects, but only the one of "Lin Fang asking for rites". It is clear that Confucius and his disciples attached great importance to benevolence.

Thirdly, on the question of the ethics of ren and the politics of ren, Confucius' focus was always not on the personal ethics of ren, but on the politics of ren. For example, Confucius said, "Zi Zhang asked, 'Zi Wen, who was a magistrate for three years, did not look happy; and when he was already a magistrate for three years, he did not look sad. The policies of the old Ling Yin must be told to the new Ling Yin. How was he like that?' Zi said: 'loyal.' He said: 'Is benevolence enough?' He said: 'I don't know; how to get benevolence! 'Cui Zi killed the ruler of Qi, Chen Wenzi had a horse ten rides, abandoned and disobeyed. As for other states, it said, "As if my great Cui Zi also." Against it; one of the states, then again said, "As if my big Cui Zi also." Against it. How is it?' Zi said, 'It is clear.' He said, 'Is benevolence enough?' Zi said: 'Not yet; how can I be benevolent?'" And the Xianqi said, "Zi Lu said, 'Duke Huan killed Duke Zi Qiao, and Zao Hu died, and Guan Zhong did not die.' He said: 'Not yet benevolent!' Zi said: 'Duke Huan nine united the lords, not with troops and vehicles, tube Zhong's strength. As its benevolence! Such as its benevolence!' Zi Gong said: 'Guan Zhong is not benevolent? Duke Huan killed Duke Kao, could not die, and then phase.' Zi said: 'Guanzhong phase Huan Gong, hegemony of the vassals, a Converse world, the people to the present day by its gift. The people have been blessed by him. I have been overgrown by Guanzhong! Is it not as if the piker, the piker's woman for the understanding also, since the passage in the ditch, and no one knows also!'" Zi Chan is also like this, Confucius was influenced by others, think it "not benevolent", after hearing that he "not destroy the village school", said with emotion: "This is to see, people say Zi Chan is not benevolent, I do not believe it. " Fourthly, in Confucius' thought, benevolence has a commanding role over propriety. Especially when encountering the conflict of benevolence and propriety, Confucius did not hesitate to stand on the side of benevolence and let propriety be subordinated to benevolence. For example, "Yangguo" says: "Zai I asked: 'The period of mourning for three years is already long! If a gentleman does rituals for three years, the rituals will break down; if he does not do music for three years, the music will collapse. The old grain is gone, and the new grain is rising; the period of drilling flint and changing fire is over.' The son said: 'Eat husband rice, clothing husband brocade, in the female peace?' He said: 'An! ' 'If the woman is at peace, then she is for it! The gentleman's mourning, food will not be sweet, hear music is not happy, living in a disturbed place, so do not do also. Now that the woman is at peace, she will do it!' Zai I came out. The son said: 'I am not kind! The son was born three years ago, and then he was spared from his parents' embrace. The mourning of three years is the common mourning of the world; I, too, have three years of love for my parents?'" Why was Confucius so concerned about the "three-year mourning period"? The reason is very simple: as contained in Xuezhi (学而), there is a son who said, "Filial piety and brotherhood are the basis of benevolence!"

Confucius' idea of "benevolence" emphasizes the obligation of human relationships, and hopes that everyone will do his or her duty. In this way, in dealing with others, we should strive to do "what we want to do to establish ourselves, and what we want to do to reach others" and "what we don't want done to us, don't do to others". Confucius interpreted benevolence in terms of "love for others" as the fundamental symbol of benevolence. He not only hoped to deal with the relationship between people in the spirit of "love for others", but also used the principle of "love for others" to rule the country and secure the state. If everyone in the society can be benevolent and have the heart of benevolence, it will not be difficult to realize a society where the order of superiority, superiority, inferiority and superiority are in order.

Ren is the most basic idea of Confucius, and the core of his thought, in fact, it is a kind of holy virtue, a spiritual goal that Confucius tried to guide and regulate people's behavior in his thought, which is still very important to today's Chinese people. We can make us broad-minded, let us have a wide field of vision, let us do things atmospherically, these are very beneficial to our growth and progress.

"Loyalty" is an important element of Confucius' ethics, and it is also the guideline for Confucius to deal with interpersonal relationships. In Confucius' ethical thinking, "loyalty" is a controversial element. In the twentieth century, when people think of loyalty, they immediately think of the foolish loyalty of "the king wants the minister to die, and the minister has to die," and blame it on Confucius, which is actually not the original intention of Confucius' loyalty. Loyalty appears eighteen times in the Analects of Confucius, spread over sixteen chapters. Among them, it appears eleven times alone, once in cooperation with "forgiveness" (恕), and six times in cooperation with "faith" (信), which means "loyalty and faith" (信). and "faithfulness" with "faith" six times. In terms of their contents, they answer questions about politics, treating friends, dealing with the world, serving the ruler, cultivating oneself, and governing the people, etc., which mostly belong to the scope of dealing with interpersonal relationships. And these belong to the handling of interpersonal relations of the statements for classification, the most prominent or friends, rule the people, the ruler of the three categories, which belong to the relationship between the individual and the individual, the individual and the collective, respectively.

Friendship is a relationship between people, and Confucius listed "loyalty" as a moral principle of human relationship, which is an expansion of Confucius' former content of loyalty. In the talk about "loyalty", the most is about making friends. There are seven chapters (repeated in one chapter) in which Confucius talks directly about friendship, covering the principles of treating friends, the criteria for choosing friends, and the methods of treating friends, which are very rich in content. Friendship is an important interpersonal relationship. In feudal society, it is called the Five Relationships, along with the relationships of ruler and minister, father and son, husband and wife, and brotherhood, and is ranked as the most basic relationship between human beings. Among the five relationships, friendship is the most unstable one. Father-son relationship and brother relationship have the bond of blood to maintain, couple relationship has the bond of love to maintain, ruler-subject relationship has the bond of rank to maintain, but there is no bond of blood, emotion, or political bond to maintain friendship, Confucius believed that friendship can only rely on loyalty and trust to maintain. Loyalty and trust have always been regarded by Confucius as the basic principle of treating friends, and the main content of education for his disciples, "The son has four teachings: literature, behavior, loyalty, and trust" ("Shuzhi"). In the context of friendship, "loyalty" means to treat others with dedication and sincerity. Being loyal to others" was regarded by Confucius as one of the important contents of "benevolence", the highest moral quality of human beings, and he repeatedly taught his disciples to "be loyal and trustworthy", "be loyal and trustworthy in words", "be loyal and trustworthy in deeds", "be loyal and trustworthy in words", and "be loyal and trustworthy in deeds". Confucius repeatedly taught his disciples to "master loyalty and trust", "speak with loyalty and trust", and "think with loyalty". One should criticize and correct the faults of one's friends, "If one is loyal, can one not teach?" ("Constitutional Questions"), but this criticism should be "advice and good guidance, can not be stopped", the friend of the faithful advice, good guidance, such as advice against the ear, the friend can not listen to, should stop in time, should not be self-defeating, "the number of friends, S sparse" ("Li Ren"), nagging, endless, "words", "words", "words", "words", "words", "words", "words", "words", "words", "words", "words", "words"). ), nagging endlessly, not only fails to achieve the purpose, but also hurt the peace and be alienated by friends. Under the education of Confucius, Zeng Zi put "for the people to plan and not loyal to" as "my three times a day to reflect on my own body's first content, he is y Confucius friendship principle of the true meaning of it.

The rule of the people belongs to the relationship between the government and the people, and the relationship between the government and the people is also an interpersonal relationship. There are only two chapters in the discourse on "loyalty" that mention the relationship between the government and the people. Ji Kangzi asked, "What is the best way to make the people respect and be loyal in order to persuade them?" Zi said, "If you approach them with solemnity, you will honor them; if you are filial and compassionate, you will be loyal; if you lift up the good and fail to teach them, you will persuade them." ("For Politics") Zi Zhang asked about politics. Zi said, "If you are not tired of living in the house, you will be loyal in your behavior." (Yan Yuan) The "loyalty" in these two chapters belongs to two types: the former is about how to make the people loyal by those who rule them, and the latter is about how to be loyal by those who rule them. In fact, both chapters are about the requirements of those who rule the people. The ruler of the people wants the people to be loyal, but in order for the people to be loyal, the ruler of the people must start with himself, be filial to his elders, love his young, be diligent in his office, and be loyal in carrying out his governmental orders.

Serving the king belongs to the relationship between the ruler and the minister, and the relationship between the ruler and the minister is a special kind of interpersonal relationship infused with political ethics. But it is not just a relationship between people, but also between individuals and the collective, because the ruler is the representative of the state, and to serve the ruler is to serve the state. Of course, the relationship between subject and object in this relationship is unequal: the object, the king, is located in a dominant position, and the subject, the minister, is located in a subordinate position. Among the discourses on loyalty, Confucius discussed very little about serving the ruler, only one chapter: Duke Ding asked, "The ruler makes his ministers, and the ministers serve the ruler, as it were?" Confucius replied, "A ruler makes his ministers behave in a courteous manner, and a minister serves his ruler in a loyal manner." ("Eight Rowers") In this chapter, Confucius put forward the principle of the relationship between ruler and minister. In this chapter, Confucius put forward the principle of the relationship between the ruler and the ministers. "The minister serves the ruler with loyalty" was Confucius' inheritance of the idea of loyalty to the ruler since the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, but it was never a simple inheritance, but rather a development, which was "the ruler makes the ministers serve the ruler with propriety", which amended the unilateral duty of loyalty to the ruler by the minister into the duty of the ruler and the minister with mutual conditions. This development is "the king makes his ministers observe the rites". There is a prerequisite for "a subject to serve the ruler with loyalty", and this prerequisite is "the ruler to make the subject serve with propriety". Only when the ruler of a country uses his subjects in accordance with propriety can the subjects serve the ruler faithfully. If the ruler does not use his subjects in accordance with etiquette, then there is no need for the subjects to serve the ruler faithfully. "Serve the ruler according to the way, but if it is not possible, then stop" (《Advanced》), to serve the ruler according to the way, if it is not feasible, then simply resign from the job. This is what Confucius said and did. When the ruler of the state of Lu did not distribute cooked meat for the sacrificial offerings to the great doctors according to the rituals, Confucius was not attached to the idea and left with his crown hanging on his head. In the Analects, Confucius also mentioned many times the principle of serving the ruler, to "serve the ruler with all the rites" ("eight rows of dancers"), and "even if one kills one's father and the ruler, one will not follow them" ("advanced"), to serve the ruler with all the rites, and if the ruler does something bad, he must never obey; and for the ruler's bad behaviors. "Do not deceive nor offend" ("勿欺也，而犯之"), not to deceive him in a masculine way, but to advise him and offend him to his face. Through the development of Confucius, loyalty was expanded from the purely political ethics of benefiting the people, the state, the public and the ruler to the social ethics of altruism, and from the guidelines for dealing with human-collective relations to the guidelines for dealing with human relations.

To truly realize the role of loyalty in contemporary society, it is necessary to solve the problem of loyalty to the king. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Confucius' principle of "the ruler makes his ministers behave in a courteous manner, and the minister serves the ruler with loyalty" was ossified into the principle of "the ruler is the rule of his ministers", and the idea of loyalty has since strengthened feudal autocracy and confined people's thoughts. In the twentieth century, people have been criticizing Confucius as the originator of the principle of "the ruler is the principle of the subject" and the ancestor of feudal despotism, but in fact, this is unfair. Confucius' discussion of loyalty mainly refers to friendship, although Confucius also talked about loyalty to the ruler, but loyalty to the ruler also has a prerequisite. Combined with Confucius' discourse and evaluation on serving the ruler in the Analects, Confucius' idea of loyalty is very thin. First of all, Confucius did not have the concept of "loyalty to the ruler but not to two masters" advocated by later generations. Guan Zhong was the teacher of Duke Zigang, who was killed by Duke Huan of Qi, and not only did Guan Zhong not show his loyalty, but also worked for Duke Huan of Qi and helped Duke Huan of Qi to accomplish his hegemony. Like Guan Zhong such a "two ministers", not only did not be accused by Confucius, but also highly praised by Confucius: "Duke Huan nine together with the vassals, not to war, the power of Guan Zhong also. Such as its benevolence! Such as its benevolence!" ("Xianqian") was recognized as having the virtue of "benevolence", the highest virtue in Confucius' mind. Secondly, Confucius did not have the concept of "sacrosanct sovereignty" emphasized by later Confucians. Shang Tang and King Wu of Zhou overthrew the brutal Xia Jie and Shang Zhou respectively, and Confucius not only did not criticize this kind of "regicide", but also praised them as gentlemen, praising Shang Tang's behavior of lifting up Yi Yin and praising King Wu of his supreme virtue in the Analects. In the Analects, he praised Shang Tang for his act of raising Yi Yin and King Wu for his supreme virtue. From this, we can see that Confucius not only did not have the later generation's idea of loyalty to monarchs, but also favored the overthrow of brutal monarchs. It is unreasonable for the later generations to forcefully point the finger at Confucius as the originator of the principle that "the ruler is the rule of his subjects". In fact, loyalty to the ruler is only a special political meaning of loyalty, which is a transformation of the meaning of benefiting the country, the public and others, limiting the object of benefiting the country, the public and others to the ruler of the country alone, and defining the relationship between the individual and the country as the relationship with the ruler of the country alone. Historically loyalty was associated with patriotism; the ruler of the state was the representative of the state, and to be loyal to the ruler was to be patriotic. Loyalty is an ethic that came into being along with feudal society, and its original meaning was to benefit the people, the public, and the country. It belongs to the category of political ethics, and it is the principle of dealing with the relationship between the individual and the collective. Confucius inherited and developed the meaning of loyalty, added the connotation of altruism, and expanded loyalty to the scope of social ethics and the handling of human relations. "Loyalty has played an important role in history and is still of great value in modern society.

As a social ideology, Confucius' thought was naturally based on in-depth consideration of the social problems of his time, as was his idea of benevolence. What Confucius thought about was how to stabilize the society and how to make the politics clear, so on the political level, Confucius' idea of benevolence was naturally derived from the idea of benevolence and moral governance, thus establishing a moral theory system with benevolence as the core, using benevolence to unify all the virtues, emphasizing the central position of benevolence among the important virtues of wisdom, benevolence, and courage, and taking the virtues of respectability, benevolence, honesty, generosity, and agility as the symbols of realizing benevolence and virtue. The virtues of respect, compassion, honesty, generosity, and agility are taken as signs of the realization of benevolence. Confucius listed loyalty as a moral principle of human relations, believing that friendships can only be maintained by loyalty and trust, and that loyalty in friendships means treating others with dedication and sincerity. Confucius repeatedly taught his disciples to "be faithful and trustworthy", "be faithful and trustworthy in speech", and "be faithful in speech and thought". The friend's faults should be criticized and corrected, "but this criticism should be" advice and good guidance, can not be stopped ", on the friend of the faithful advice, good guidance, such as the words against the ear, the friend can not listen to, should stop in time, should not be humiliated, nagging, not only can not achieve the purpose, but also hurt the peace, was alienated from the friend. If the advice does not fall on deaf ears, one should stop it in time. Those who rule the people want the people to be loyal, but if they want the people to be loyal, those who rule the people must start from themselves, they must be filial to their elders, love their young, be diligent as officials, and be loyal in carrying out governmental orders. Confucius set forth the principle of the relationship between ruler and subject. "The minister serves the ruler with loyalty," "The ruler makes the ministers with courtesy," and "Serve the ruler with the Way, but stop if you cannot." Only when the ruler uses his ministers in accordance with courtesy can the ministers serve the ruler loyally. If the ruler does not use his subjects in accordance with etiquette, then there is no need for the subjects to serve the ruler faithfully; and if serving the ruler with righteousness is not feasible, then he simply resigns from his post. If the ruler does something bad, he must not obey; if the ruler does something bad, he must not deceive him, but advise him and offend him. Through the development of Confucius, loyalty was expanded from the purely political ethics of benefiting the people, the country, the public, and the ruler to the social ethics of altruism, and from the guidelines for dealing with human-collective relations to the guidelines for dealing with human relations. Combined with Confucius' discourses and comments on serving the ruler in the Analects, Confucius' idea of loyalty to the ruler is very thin. First of all, Confucius did not have the concept of "loyalty to the ruler and not serving two masters" advocated by later generations. Secondly, Confucius did not have the concept of "the sacrosanctity of the power of the ruler" as emphasized by Confucianism in later times. When Shang Tang and King Wu of Zhou overthrew the brutal Xia Jie and Shang Zhou respectively, Confucius not only did not criticize this kind of "regicide", but also praised them as gentlemen, praising Shang Tang's behavior of lifting Yi Yin and praising King Wu for his supreme virtue in the Analects. In fact, the loyalty advocated by Confucius is only a special political meaning of "loyalty", which is a transformation of the meaning of benefiting the country, the public, and altruism, limiting the object of benefiting the country, the public, and altruism to the ruler of the country, and defining the relationship between the individual and the country as the relationship with the ruler of the country. Loyalty to the ruler is historically associated with patriotism; the ruler is the representative of the state, and loyalty to the ruler is patriotism.

In today's China, loyalty, as advocated by Confucius, has a very unique meaning. Confucius paid attention to moral cultivation, the cultivation of ideal personality, ethical politics, and moral cultivation with "benevolence" as the core, emphasized loyalty and cleanliness for the people, and opposed to being unkind to the rich and cruel to the people, which embodied the sympathy and concern for the people, and the shortcomings of the modern society, the most important of which are the unlimited expansion of selfishness, the degradation of moral qualities, spiritual slippage, and lack of love for the country. The evils of modern society are, above all, the unlimited expansion of selfish desires, the degeneration of moral qualities, the slippery slope of the spirit, and the lack of the heart of public morality which is beneficial to the people, to the public, to the country, and to the others, and loyalty is precisely the medicine to rectify these shortcomings. Confucius's idea of "filial piety, loyalty and faith" is an important part of traditional Chinese moral culture, which indicates that through "filial piety", "loyalty", The idea of "filial piety", "loyalty" and "faith" is the idea of thankfulness to repay the kindness of parents, friends, society and the country. In today's China, this is obviously very positive, very important significance: civilized and polite, helping people, caring for public property, protecting the environment, and abiding by the law, which should be the contemporary Chinese "etiquette"; love and respect for duty, honesty and trustworthiness, fairness, service to the public, and dedication to the community, which should be the contemporary Chinese "loyalty"; love and respect for duty, honesty and trustworthiness, fairness, service to the public, and dedication to the community. "Loyalty"; respect for the elderly and love for children, husband and wife, harmony, thrift and hard work, neighborhood unity, should be the contemporary Chinese "filial piety" as the starting point of the family virtues.