Who knows the information about Confucius?

Confucius (55 BC1~ 479 BC) was named Zhong Ni. A great thinker, educator and founder of Confucianism in the late Spring and Autumn Period. Lu people. He was the founder of the Confucian school and put forward the idea of "benevolence". He was a famous thinker and educator in ancient China.

He is studious, knowledgeable and versatile. He initiated the atmosphere of private lectures, and recruited disciples, regardless of wealth. It is said that there are 3000 disciples, 72 of whom are excellent. He became an emissary of cultural exchange. He traveled around the world, and devoted himself to the collation and dissemination of ancient documents, education, sorting out ancient classics such as poems and books, and deleting Chunqiu in his later years. Its students recorded their thoughts and actions in The Analects.

Through lifelong advocacy and the development of Confucianism in past dynasties, Confucius made China's Confucianism the mainstream of China culture and the guiding ideology of China people for more than 2,000 years. The core of Confucius' ideological system is the rule of virtue, and he persistently advocates a benign society and a benign life. The highest standard of Dehua society is "courtesy", and the highest value of Dehua life is "benevolence". Confucius taught people to actively pursue the "loyalty and forgiveness" of "standing if you want, reaching if you want" and "don't do to others what you don't want", so as to establish a correct outlook on life and correctly handle the relationship between people. Confucius advocated the teaching of "harmony between man and nature" to deal with the relationship between man and nature. He also expounded and spread the truth that people should not only be kind to people, but also love things. Confucius advocated that the country should implement the moral policy of "teaching the rich" to develop society and culture. Confucius believes that the highest achievement of civilization is to create an ideal society by cultivating ideal personality, and to achieve the realm of "the world is public" and "the world is harmonious" by practicing the principle of "the sage inside and the king outside". Because of Confucius' outstanding contribution and far-reaching influence, he was respected by the people of China as the most sacred teacher and a teacher for generations.

Confucius has gone for more than 2,000 years, and the theory he founded occupied a dominant position in ancient China and became the mainstream of China culture, with far-reaching influence. Modern China was impacted by western culture, and his theory was strongly criticized by the intellectual elite, which was almost a devastating blow. In the 20th century, when people deeply thought and reflected on people's own problems, his thoughts and theories attracted the attention of experts and scholars all over the world.

Confucius is the founder of Confucianism, not the full receiver of Zhou Wenhua. The reason why he "follows Zhou" is related to his highest ideal of pursuing order. Much of our understanding of Zhou Wenhua is the result of Confucius and his later research, and Ziwuyu is just a way for Confucius to change his mind on the premise of "following Zhou". There is no core concept in the functional system of Confucius sociology. The gentleman's personality system, the benevolence system as a cultural value and the etiquette system composed of social structure and rules are mutually stipulated and restricted. They are all time-sensitive and historic subsystems in the process of continuous transformation, and together they form a broader balanced and orderly civilization structure.

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The history of China's philosophical thought was written by Confucius. For more than two thousand years since the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius thought has been a classic text studied, interpreted, even criticized and refuted by scholars. It can be said that as many people think about Confucius' thoughts, there are many different faces of Confucius. Scholars of different times have different knowledge backgrounds and talents. Influenced by the academic fashion of the times, they interpret Confucius from different logical starting points and angles for different motives. Prejudice and even prejudice are inevitable. In the interpretation of traditional texts, there is constant communication and dialogue between the reader and the interpreted, individual details and the overall structure of the text, and both sides of the interaction contain creativity and initiative. Just as Confucius' foresight in the culture of rites and music in the Zhou Dynasty constructed his own ideological system, which stimulated the vitality of memory and made it give full play, it is an inevitable requirement of the new era to interpret Confucius' thoughts in classic texts at a new logical starting point, which will further clarify Confucius' thoughts and stimulate the creativity of thinkers.

There are usually two schools of research methods about Confucius' thought: one is diachronic research, that is, trying to restore the historical truth of Confucius' thought from the aspects of Confucius' life time and life, ideological, cultural and social roots and its influence on later studies; The second is the study of temporality, that is, the philosophical method, which is more concerned about the essential significance of Confucius' thought to the development and evolution of human society than the original meaning, and discusses the possibility of the thinking system and logical evolution arising from his words and deeds. Hirsch distinguished between "meaning" and "meaning". Meaning refers to the only thing the author holds, but the meaning of a work is varied and depends on people's interpretation of the work. Post-scholars' understanding of classics is historic and uncertain, especially in terms of meaning. I am here to discuss the significance of Confucius' thought.

I don't want to discuss and care whether Confucius thought cries out for saving slave society or aims at feudal society construction. There is no doubt that there are young Confucius and old Confucius in the existing materials about Confucius' thought; There are Confucius as a teacher and Confucius as an independent thinker. There are thoughts that disciples understand and thoughts that are completely misunderstood. It is an impossible task to sort out its clues one by one. Thinkers like Confucius are usually suddenly inspired by ideas, but they must have their relevant theoretical background. I am concerned about how Confucius constructed his ideological system, or what kind of theoretical background he expressed his thoughts, attitudes and behaviors.

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In Hegel's eyes, Confucius is only a practical wise man in the world, not a philosopher. "There is no speculative philosophy in him-only some kind, worldly and moral lessons, from which we can get nothing special." He even thought that "in order to maintain Confucius' reputation, it would be better if his books had never been translated."

Confucius thought that "Hegel can't get anything special from it" is of great significance to China culture and even the whole East Asian culture. Hegel's understanding of Confucius is not only based on a few imprecise translations, but also only sees scattered moral lessons, without touching the overall structure of Confucius' thought, and it is impossible to deepen the grasp of some details from a holistic perspective. Because Hegel constructed a unique philosophical development history of "world spirit" on the road of the development of western civilization. The late Professor Fu Weixun, who studied Buddhism, also denied that Confucius was a philosopher. But Mencius was a philosopher, and Confucius only told you the conclusion, not how it came about. But even so, the conclusion must have its philosophical basis and deductive way. Fu Weixun's premise is that he can't be considered a philosopher unless he explains the source of his thoughts clearly in plain words. Based on this inference, neither the Zen monk who pays attention to the way of doing things without writing, nor Yan He of Taizhou School in the next season, are philosophers, and Sakyamuni probably was not a philosopher when he was alive.

Of course, more and more people regard Confucius as one of the pioneers of oriental philosophy. They must first try to find the core of speculation and logic in their scattered quotations, hoping to rebuild a philosophical theory system for them. "Benevolence" is often regarded as the core concept of Confucius' ideological system. Du Weiming believes that the primitive form of Confucianism is centered around Confucius' benevolence, and uses the famous words of European and American academic circles to define benevolence as a kind of "philosophical anthropology". Kuang Yaming's Biography of Confucius and Guo Moruo's Ten Books of Criticism also regard benevolence as the core of Confucius' thought. Therefore, Mr. Yang Guorong said: "Benevolence is the core of Confucius' thought, which is an accepted view. "In fact,' recognition' is just an overconfident wishful thinking, and there are still many people who hold different views. Cai Shangsi has experienced a transformation from the Confucius' ideological system with "benevolence" as the core to "ceremony" as the core. He thinks that the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are just Confucian etiquette. The ideological trend of criticizing Confucius, which reached its climax from the May 4th Movement to the Cultural Revolution, was mostly criticized from the perspective of "courtesy".

In fact, in the pre-Qin era, the understanding of Confucius' thoughts by Confucius disciples was already ambiguous. After the death of Confucius, his disciples wandered in various vassal countries, gathered disciples to give lectures or engage in economic and political activities to publicize and practice Confucius' theory. Because disciples have different knowledge background and personal temperament, they also have different choices and interests in Confucius' theory, so there are different factions and divisions within Confucianism. Ceng Zi respects filial piety, Mencius shows benevolence, and Xunzi pushes gifts. In the history of philosophy, the post-study of great philosophers is often "how to learn to be close to each other's nature, which has a long history and will eventually benefit." Today's debate is just a continuation of the division between Mencius and Xunzi. In fact, the so-called core is often the initial concept of narrative, and the different choices of core are the premise of ideological innovation.

In modern times, discussing the different attitudes of Confucius' thought from the perspective of academic thought mostly implies a premise: a thinker must also be based on speculative philosophy, and a talented ideological giant should be able to construct a theoretical framework with a strict logical thinking system. In fact, suppose there is a static closed body with a certain structure or center. In different philosophers, this center has been given different names, such as entity, idea, God and "benevolence" in Confucius' philosophy. Although many scholars advocate that the spirit and path of eastern and western philosophy are different, they are still trying to find the philosophical foundation and the core of the system behind Confucius' quotations. Due to the loss and confusion of ancient books, we have no direct and exact evidence to prove whether Confucius really wrote Yi Zhuan and founded his philosophical system. On the other hand, there is ample evidence to prove that Confucius did know, read and even carefully studied Zhouyi, and perhaps some speculative achievements in his later years were unknown. Hegel obviously didn't know the relationship between Confucius and the Book of Changes, and he also admitted that "China people also noticed abstract thoughts and pure categories, and the ancient Book of Changes was the basis of this thought". There are few speculative and pure categories in The Analects of Confucius, and some important theoretical terms often still point to the concrete experience world. It can be seen that Confucius did not regard the thought of Zhouyi as the inevitable philosophical basis for establishing his ideological system. This may be related to Confucius' rejection attitude caused by his misunderstanding of Zhouyi when he was young, but more importantly, it depends on Confucius' lifelong ambition and cultural choice. The greatness of ideological giants is the same, but they are always endowed with their own unique cultural choices.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucius, as the successor of Zhou Wenhua, took it as his duty to rule the world. Therefore, it is not important to build a speculative philosophy system. What is important is to focus on the present and think about the ways of social integration and order, coordinated development of individuals and society, and people's living and working in peace and contentment. This is the continuation of humanitarianism since Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and it is also an important issue that China, a vast area, composed of many tribes, has paid attention to for generations. Therefore, Confucius' ideological system does not necessarily have a unique logical starting point and ideological core. What matters is not the logic and speculation of theoretical deduction, but its secularity and practical reliability. It can accommodate individuals and society, inherit tradition and change, and combine ideals, beliefs and life here. Therefore, Confucius established the functional system of sociology. In this system, Confucius focused on the specific behavior orientation and social significance of the concepts of gentleman, benevolence and etiquette, thus forming three interrelated subsystems, namely, the personal personality system, the cultural value system of benevolence, righteousness, wisdom and trust, and the social control system of etiquette.

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If we find a more important concept as the beginning of the narrative, then "adult" is the key concept that runs through the whole ideological system. Because people are the actors and undertakers who realize value and guide society. The Analects of Confucius contains Lutz's question to adults. Confucius said, "If you know what Wu Zhong knows, people don't want it, Bian Zhuangzi's courage, Ran Qiu's skill, and his writing is based on etiquette and music, you can also become an adult." Yue: "What is the necessity of being an adult today?" It is easy to see what is right. You can become an adult if you don't forget your life for a long time. Liu Xiang also wrote in Shuo Yuan: Yan Yuan asked Zhong Ni: "What about the adult journey? "Confucius said:" The journey of adults depends on the principle of temperament, the change of things, the understanding of mystery and the source of swimming. If so, it can be called an adult. If you know justice, you should bow with righteousness and lick your body with ceremony and music. Husband's benevolence, righteousness, propriety and music, adult's journey is also. If you are ignorant, your virtue will be carried forward ... "("Shuo Yuan "Volume 18) The behavior of" adults "should conform to the values of benevolence and righteousness and etiquette norms. Adults should be human, perfect their personality and be kind and polite.

Confucius also put forward the word "gentleman" as a model of being a man. Gentleman originally refers to the aristocratic class under the feudal system. Confucius said that the meaning of gentleman has changed, and it is often used to refer to people with noble morality, but to people with moral humanity. The basis of this change is that a gentleman is a respected person with a high social status and assumes the leading responsibility of society. In the Spring and Autumn Period, with the gradual disintegration of aristocratic society and the change of social structure, the connotation of a gentleman has also changed. There are many statements about gentlemen in the Analects of Confucius, which are general and have no clear classification. This may just explain the transformation process of the concept of a gentleman. For example, "a gentleman who is not kind has a husband, and a benevolent person has no villain." (Xianwen) means that the difference between a gentleman (aristocratic class) and a villain is that a gentleman can be benevolent, and a villain is not qualified to be benevolent at all. But also began to associate gentleman with benevolence. Another example is: "gentlemen are harmonious but different, villains are the same but not harmonious" (Lutz); "A gentleman is Thai but not arrogant, and a villain is arrogant but not Thai" (Lutz) is about the difference between a gentleman and a villain. The more important rules are as follows: Confucius said, "I know nothing about learning." The benevolent does not worry, the wise does not doubt, and the brave is not afraid. Zi Gong said, "Confucius is a Taoist." ("Xian Wen") Luz asked the gentleman. Confucius said, "Cultivate one's morality to respect." And said, "Is that all? He said, "Self-cultivation can help others." Say, "Is that all?" He said, "Cultivate yourself to protect the people. "Cultivate yourself to protect people and encourage them to get sick." (Xianwen) The so-called gentleman is the same as the "scholar" in the Analects of Confucius. "It is not enough to think that a scholar is pregnant." Gentlemen and scholars are "people" of "adults", but they are the embodiment of benevolence and the followers of etiquette. Confucius mixed these concepts with different connotations, which reflected his process of building a personality system. A gentleman should have three precepts, three fears and Jiu Si. (Ji's) The acquisition of these qualities must be achieved by learning rites and music, sage's words, deeds, self-cultivation and self-discipline. In Confucius' ideological system, a gentleman, as a moral subject, never exists as an individual, is not the center of the world and the fundamental purpose of action, but a part of the whole society and a point in the "relationship", which embodies neither individualism nor collectivism, but the key to the communication and interaction between the social and cultural value system formed by long-term historical development and the control mechanism of social stability and balance.

On the one hand, Confucius attached great importance to self-realization. "Ancient scholars are themselves, and today's scholars are human beings". (Xianwen) "Being yourself" means self-improvement and self-realization in virtue. Confucius always "takes the past instead of the present", and "the past" is the ideal form in Confucius' mind. Taking "being a man" as your own "is to turn the evaluation standard to yourself." Learning for oneself is a major feature of Confucius' Confucianism. "Man can preach, but not preach" (Wei Linggong) affirmed man's freedom and initiative in the sense of cultural creation. The resulting China cultural spirit is optimistic and confident about self-efforts, and a sense of self-responsibility and mission to know what not to do. In Confucius' view, self plays a leading role in both moral practice and moral cultivation. Whether the subject follows the principle of benevolence to shape himself depends on his own choices and efforts, not external forces. Confucius said, "Benevolence is far away.

I want to be kind. I am so kind. "("Uncle ")" What's wrong with Ren? What's wrong with people? "("Yan Yuan ") and said:" Is it possible to use its strength in benevolence for a day? I have never seen anyone who is weak. It's covered, but I don't know. " ("Li Ren")

On the other hand, self-realization is not a closed concept that excludes others and society. The independent choice and realization of self-worth itself includes the coordination and balance of the relationship between individuals and society, and through the concept of "loyalty and forgiveness", the moral subject communicates with the whole society. Confucius said, "If I take part in it, my Tao will be consistent." Zeng Zi said, "Wei." When the child came out, the master asked, "What is it?" Ceng Zi said: "The master's way is loyalty and forgiveness." Hu Shi believes that "consistency" and "loyalty and forgiveness" are not only the philosophy of life, but also the main methodology of Confucianism. It should be said that it is insightful. Self constitutes the starting point of the whole behavior, but it can't stop at self-achievement. It is not to cultivate unique personality, but to promote others to achieve people and talents. It can be said that establishing a person and becoming a talent are the content and purpose of establishing a person and an adult, and it is in the process of becoming an adult that the virtue of self has been further completed. At the same time, it also means that the individual's self-realization transcends his own realm, points to the group and reaches the realm of benevolence. As Confucius said: "A benevolent person has made a career and tried his best to achieve his goal, and can draw inferences from others, so it can be said that he is also benevolent." (Yongye) From a methodological point of view, the principle of loyalty and forgiveness is a kind of "externalization", which is close to the self-crossing person after Mahayana Buddhism, although the connotation of adult and becoming a Buddha is completely different.

The so-called "self-cultivation" means moral cultivation, which includes two aspects: one is to restrain and standardize one's own behavior, coordinate with the overall rules and systems of social groups, and promote their development; First, to cultivate one's own inner character, that is, to identify with and actively create symbols such as values, beliefs and languages that constitute a cultural model, is to "internalize" the beautiful morality contained in the social and cultural value system into one's own character, and extend it to others through personal efforts and the concept of "loyalty and forgiveness", so as to socialize, concretize and institutionalize the cultural value system and provide an integrated force for the maintenance and development of the whole society. The cultivation of internal character and its "externalization" are seeking benevolence, while the restraint and standardization of external behavior and its "internalization" are following etiquette. Internal and external interaction also shows that Confucius' thought is neither self-enclosed nor self-expanded by later corrupt scholars. The abstract cultural value system with "benevolence" as a whole and the socialized standard system with "ceremony" as a whole are intertwined here, influencing and promoting each other. As the stipulation of actors, "gentleman", "scholar" and "benevolent" also constitute a self-contained personality system and become the internal driving force to promote cultural and social development. If we must seek the core of Confucius' thought, it is better to say that the ideal personality of this nameless Confucius is the core spirit of Confucius' humanitarian thought.

The most important concept of gentleman's self-cultivation is "benevolence". Benevolence undoubtedly occupies a very important position in Confucius' thought, but Confucius does not have an exact definition, but defines and discusses it through dialogues in different specific situations and comments on human events, thus making abstract concepts point to concrete things and secular life. Therefore, every discussion about "benevolence" cannot be regarded as Confucius' full understanding and definition of benevolence. For example, in The Analects of Confucius Yang Huo, it is recorded that Zhang Wenren was kind to Confucius: Confucius said, "Doing five things in the world is kindness." Ask him: "fairness, tolerance, faith, people and benefit." Courtesy is not for prisoners, forgiveness is not for people, sincerity is considerate, sensitivity is meritorious, and goodness is enough to make people. In other words, gentlemen and Confucian scholars have acquired certain qualities through study and cultivation, so they can be "easy before difficult", "sincere in words" (Chanting Leaves), "respectful at home, faithful to deacons" (Lutz) or "resolute and dull" (Yan Yuan). Even "they gave the people" ("Xian Wen"), and "died for justice". (Wei Linggong) Cai Yuanpei's Ethical History of China says that what Confucius calls "benevolence" means "unifying all virtues and completing the name of personality". This is absolutely true. "Benevolence" was originally a beautiful and complete meaning, and Confucius promoted it to a universal concept representing all good moral qualities, cultural values and traditional beliefs, rather than a simple and concrete moral concept. Cheng Hao understood "benevolence" in this way: "A scholar must be a prophet of benevolence. A benevolent person is like a thing, knowing benevolence, righteousness and faith are all benevolent people. If you know this truth, you just keep it sincerely ... "(Volume 2 of Henan Cheng's suicide note) is the key. Feng Youlan also believes that "benevolent" means "a man of all virtue" and is interpreted as "the highest virtue". In Confucius' view, "benevolence" is a universal cultural value orientation, which can be internalized into the inner character of the actor (benevolent) in the process of observing etiquette, guiding and adjusting one's actions in society, thus reaching or approaching an expected social role. On the one hand, Confucius put forward some basic principles on how to achieve such a state, such as "help others by giving to others", "love" (eternal career), "Yan Yuan" and "filial piety is the foundation of benevolence!" (Xue Ji) and so on, these principles have gradually become the symbol of Confucianism. On the other hand, Confucius had a specific behavioral orientation to the questions of different disciples in different situations at that time. These answers are related to the social situation at that time and the basis of knowledge, culture and belief, and have no universal significance. Confucius did not intend to regard these as eternal proverbs. Later scholars are either superstitious and confused by the complexity of the discussion, or cite a little to explain its profound meaning but not as good as the rest, or are mixed with the concept of virtue and propriety without knowing its original meaning.

"Rite" is another extremely important concept in Confucius' thought. Rite is a custom and external norm naturally formed within a nation, including taboos, but it has a certain social and political integration function since its formation. Zhou rites also evolved from Zhou customs. In the expansion of the political field, they merged the customs of various places and ministries, including Xia and Shang tribes, and tended to be politicized, ethical and gradually complicated. It is not the result of personal subjective shaping, but the result of historical and cultural evolution. The five rites mentioned by Confucianism, namely, good luck, fierceness, hospitality, military service and good manners, are all concrete etiquette, which is not artificially created by politicians or thinkers, but an order maintained by changing power while the clan is formed and expanded. On the one hand, "Duke Zhou made rites and made merry" shows the outstanding contribution of Duke Zhou in the formation of rites and music culture, and it is also the product of Confucian sanctification movement. I'm afraid the main function of the Duke of Zhou is to help Zhou Li reach the four realms with martial arts, that is, to make a whole China with Zhou Li and form a new order in the vast area. According to the archaeological data of the Western Zhou Dynasty, it can be found that the basic formation and stability of Zhou Li was about the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty. It can be seen that the development of ceremony is the formation of order.

Feng Youlan believes that the ceremony "is only for those who sacrifice their ancestors to honor their feelings, so the significance of the ceremony is poetic, not religious." But we can imagine that people who have no feelings for their ancestors will also salute. Salute at this time is a way of value recognition and integration into society. In Confucius' eyes, the ceremony in Zhou is a kind of social civilization and order, which can make morality become righteousness, teach customs well, resolve doubts and disputes, make it orderly from top to bottom, and have social functions of controlling emotions, desires and self-discipline. Therefore, Confucius attached great importance to the level of etiquette, promoted the connotation of cultural value in the culture of etiquette and music, and advocated learning and knowing etiquette. "If you don't learn manners, you won't stand up", (Ji's) "see no evil, don't listen to evil, don't say evil, don't move if you are evil". (Yan Yuan) In his later years, Confucius compiled ancient documents and wrote Spring and Autumn Annals. "Spring and Autumn Annals is full of etiquette and righteousness". ("Historical Records, Biography of Taishigong" quoted Dong Zhongshu)

Ritual system and etiquette always embody some principles of benevolence in the long process of historical formation and development. Generally speaking, it is appropriate for benevolence to be embodied in the form of ceremony. The so-called "virtue, benevolence and indecent assault"; "On the Book of Rites", "Being respectful and rude is tiring, being cautious and rude is embarrassing, being brave and rude is chaotic, and being straight and rude is twisted." (Taber) Social cultural values and beliefs can be externalized into a ritual system because of human behavior, and a pure ritual system is meaningless. "People are heartless, why is it a gift?" "What's the fun of being heartless?" (Bashu) Only when courtesy reaches the realm of benevolence can people's behavior be truly regulated in practice, so as to "settle the country, make the people and benefit future generations". (Zuo Zhuan lived in seclusion for eleven years) People not only followed the traditional ritual system and its development, but also inherited the cultural spirit contained in the ritual system. Confucius said, "A gentleman's righteousness is essence, courtesy is deed, sun is example, and faith is success. What a gentleman! " (Wei Linggong) Benevolence and righteousness are the intrinsic important qualities of Confucius' ideal value. Righteousness is appropriate, of course, it should mean it. When we come to Mencius, we often talk about righteousness again. "Benevolence, people's homes are also safe. Righteousness is the right way to be human. " (Mencius Li Lou) The two are basically the same. Ritual system is relative to the virtues of benevolence, righteousness and respect, and it is external. It is meaningful only if it is consistent with the content of benevolence. However, it's not that kindness comes first, but that those who are kind should be polite, and those who repay kindness and "reciprocate courtesy" can also get kindness. The bridge between them is the cultivation of "adults" or "gentlemen". In Confucius' thought, gentleman, benevolence and propriety are mutually stipulated, and the interaction of the three levels is the development of human beings, the balanced trend of social order and the evolution of cultural spirit.

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Confucius' Confucianism is not only a study of benevolence, but also a study of propriety, and more importantly, a study of human nature. Benevolence, courtesy and man (that is, gentleman, scholar or adult) are the three levels and poles of the three systems in Confucius' ideological system, which influence and restrict each other. Throughout the ages, in China's philosophy, people like to separate what is used from what is used. If it is not so incomprehensible, then benevolence is the way, courtesy is the way, humanity is the way, humanity is the way, and benevolence is the way. These three systems are Tao and each other's bodies.

But we must be clear that the state of mutual influence and promotion among the three systems is only an ideal equilibrium state of pre-Qin Confucianism. Confucius also understood the gap between social reality and ideal in the Spring and Autumn Period. Rites and etiquette do not always reflect the values of "benevolence", so it is not impossible to improve and "gain and loss", and the spirit of benevolence is not always expressed in the form of "combining rituals", and there are also inconsistencies between them. The Analects of Confucius recorded Confucius' evaluation of Guan Zhong: "The monarch blocked the door, so did the family. The monarch is the goodness of the two monarchs, and there are objections, and so do the Guan family. " Who knows manners when you are in charge? "("Eight Shu ") Confucius said:" Huan Gong and nine princes are not in the shackles, but in the power of Guan Zhong. That's it! That's it! Confucius said, "Guan Zhong is a duke and a tyrant, and the people are blessed by him today. Wei Guanzhong, I was left behind. "Did ordinary people forgive you, but they didn't know it in the ditch?" Guan Zhong is rude in Confucius' eyes, but he is "as kind as his heart". Although small etiquette can't be observed, his "action" has achieved the effect of maintaining the unity and immortality of Chinese civilization and values and guiding the society to order. This is actually the achievement of etiquette, and it should also reach the realm of benevolence. This is an explanation, and contradictions still exist. Confucius thought does not constitute a strict and complete logical system. In a sense, the contradictions and ambiguities show the openness of Confucius' ideological system to post-learning.

Confucius himself may have been conservative or moderate rather than radical in the specific social changes at that time, but his ideological system was open. Confucius also realized the change and development of society and the change of etiquette system. He said, "Yin gained and lost. Zhou lost because of gains, which is obvious. " His successor, though immortal, can be known. "(For politics) The social structure system, the cultural value belief system and the personality system in Confucius' ideological system are all temporal and historical subsystems in the process of continuous transformation, and they can form a broader civilization structure with each other. The pursuit of ideal personality, ideal harmonious society and perfect value is the internal motive force for the society to move towards order and balance. After Qin and Han Dynasties, the reconstruction of China's social and cultural beliefs after many great upheavals is no less than the stability and order of Confucianism, and it has become one of the main components of China culture.

The conservatism of Confucius' thought is related to its pursuit of order itself, because order is stable, which will inevitably bring some conservatism, but more importantly, it is an hermeneutic problem. We can't let Confucius take responsibility for the whole history of thought and even the history of China. According to the records in The Analects of Confucius, Confucius wanted to restore the Rites of Zhou, which seemed to be stubborn and conservative. Some people even confirmed that he wanted to restore slavery. In fact, Confucius pursues an ideal and orderly society in a disorderly era. His ideal western Zhou society is very different from the real western Zhou in history, and he has made some innovations in tracing back to the source. For example, Confucius didn't touch on many issues, so we can't know his true attitude. However, some questions are not unknown or not thought about, but deliberately "silent" and "rare" to show the direction of his ideological change, or have other profound meanings. There are many records in the Analects of Confucius: Zi does not speak the words of strangeness, strength, chaos and divinity. (The Analects of Confucius) Luz asked ghosts and gods, and Confucius said, "If you can't serve people, how can you serve ghosts?" He said, "Dare to ask death." "If you don't know life, how can you know death?" ("The Analects of Confucius Advanced") Zi Han talks about benefiting life and benevolence. (Zi Han) Zi Gong said: "The articles of the master can be heard, but the words of the master cannot be heard." (Gongye Chang) Confucius was "silent" and "silent" on many issues that occupied an extremely important position in the social and cultural ideological trend at that time. His attitude reflects his inner understanding of Zhou Wenhua. Taking an indifferent attitude towards some popular ideas and beliefs at that time was just a way to open a new topic and change the topic. Kang Youwei's Confucius theory of "reform from ancient times to the present" is not completely unfounded, but actually meaningful.