Integrity of Socialist Core Values

In terms of its connotation, integrity includes both sincerity and trust; these two aspects are both differentiated and can be used interchangeably.

The content of "sincerity" includes two aspects: one is true, the other is sincere. The meaning of truth is not to intentionally distort the original appearance of objective things. People's understanding of objective things, originally contains two aspects: one is the objective things to the sound, light, heat and other stimuli, and the second is the subject of these stimuli processing and organizing. As the subject processes and organizes the objective things, and as the basis of this organization of human practice is subject to historical conditions and other constraints, it is difficult to avoid the gap between human subjective understanding and the objective. However, truthfulness requires that one be faithful to one's present understanding of the objective without intentionally distorting it for any reason, especially because of one's own interests. Sincerity means not intentionally distorting one's subjective intentions as they are. One generally has an accurate grasp of one's subjective intentions, but expressing those subjective intentions directly may come at a cost. Sincerity, however, requires being true to oneself and not distorting oneself out of fear of the cost. Truthfulness and sincerity combine to form the basic content of "sincerity." The character for "faith" consists of the character for "man" plus the character for "speech", which means that a person must keep his words and be responsible for his promises, and that he must repeat his words and follow through on his promises. In ancient times, the word "shin" initially referred to the words spoken by people to the gods during rituals; since the ancients believed that the gods dominated nature and ruled over them, these words of rituals were of great significance to them and had to be obeyed. Later, this significance was expanded so that it was no longer just the words spoken to the gods that counted, but all words that counted; words must be trusted and actions must be carried out. There is a difference between sincerity and faith: sincerity speaks of not distorting the actual state of affairs, both subjective and objective, and emphasizes static truthfulness; faith speaks of not reneging on one's promises, and emphasizes dynamic perseverance. At a deeper level, sincerity is an internal virtue and cultivation, while faith is an external confirmation and expression. But the connection between the two is clear: the static truth is the basis of the dynamic firm, dynamic firm is also the result of the static truth; inner virtue and cultivation will be confirmed through the external words and deeds, and the external words and deeds without the inner cultivation as the basis that is difficult to last. Based on this, integrity is often used in conjunction with each other: on the one hand, the use of sincerity to explain the letter, with the letter to explain the sincerity, "sincerity, the letter is also from the word from the voice", "letter, sincerity is also from the people from the word"; on the other hand, the integrity of the integrity of the combination together, that is, the honesty of no deception, the meaning of abiding by the letter. .

What needs to be pointed out in particular is that the connotation of integrity is conditional, not absolute; it needs to be led and unified by higher and more important values. When the requirement of integrity conflicts with higher and more important values, integrity needs to obey those higher and more important values. For example, when integrity conflicts with patriotism, integrity should obey patriotism. If an aggressor asks a citizen for a secret that concerns the national interest, it would undoubtedly be very foolish for the citizen to speak of honesty in such a situation, because such honesty would harm the national interest. If they can conceal or deceive the enemy at this time, then they are very resourceful; if they cannot conceal, then they reject the enemy righteously, or even give up their lives, then they are even more national heroes.

(2) why integrity

Integrity is the basic value of each civilization to cherish, and the Chinese people are the integrity of the reason why people become one of the basic characteristics of human beings, that people do not have faith is not standing. After entering the modern era, Western society began to emphasize integrity as the most important personal quality due to the basic requirement of fulfilling the contract in the market economy. With China's accession to globalization, especially after the implementation of the market economy, the dimension of integrity required by the spirit of contract has also been increasingly highlighted. It can be seen that the quality of integrity of Chinese citizens is based on two intermingled traditions: the tradition of internal sincerity and external trust in Chinese culture, and the tradition of contractual trust in market culture.

One of the basic differences between classical Chinese culture and Western Christian culture is that the Chinese have no religious tradition, whereas Westerners cannot imagine how to design the meaning of their lives in the absence of God. The Chinese attribute their meaning not to God but to their family and race, using the nearly infinite continuity of blood and ethnicity, and the corresponding inheritance of civilization, to demonstrate the value of their finite lives. But where do family and race come from? From nature and the way of heaven. Therefore, being faithful to heaven and earth and conforming to nature have become one of the value supports for the Chinese people to settle down and build up their lives. And it is this value support that implanted the character of "sincerity" into the meaning of Chinese life. The Book of Rites, which says, "Sincerity is the way of heaven," and Zhu Xi's commentary, "Sincerity is the true and undelusional nature of heaven," all follow this logic to explain the value of sincerity for human beings. Therefore, "sincerity", as the foundation of traditional Chinese culture, did not enter the ethical system for external reasons like the letter of contract, but was internalized in the human nature due to the need for human values. In the view of the ancient Chinese, all things in heaven and earth have their own way and are not subject to change by human power, and human beings, as products of nature, should also preserve this natural characteristic of heaven's way, thus transforming the external natural characteristics into internal moral qualities. If in Western culture, a person without integrity is still only without morality, then in Chinese culture, the loss of integrity is theoretically disqualified from being a human being. This is something that the logic of Christian civilization, which believes that God created man, can hardly reach. Since sincerity is the basic characteristic and internalized virtue of human beings, sincerity must be manifested through human words and deeds and become a dynamic process, which is faith; in turn, whether a person is trustworthy or not becomes the basis and standard for judging whether he is sincere or not. If a person is sincere, then he must also be trustworthy; in turn, if a person is trustworthy, he must also be sincere. Along this line of thought, Confucius came to the conclusion that "I listen to people and observe their behavior". This tradition of internal sincerity and external faith and achieving unity of integrity suggests to us the intrinsic value of integrity for a person. Only through honesty does a person acquire the virtue of sincerity and freedom from delusion in accordance with nature, the peace of being in harmony with heaven and earth, and the unity of inner and outer body and mind. This is the first tradition of integrity of Chinese citizens, that is, the tradition of internal sincerity and external trust.