Advantages and disadvantages of Confucianism and Legalism

Confucius, the founder of pre-Qin Confucianism, paid attention to people's life practice and character building, not talking about ghosts and gods or the other side. He established the lofty ideal of being a man with "benevolence" When Zigong asked, "What if you can give to the people and help them?" Can you call it a benevolent person? Confucius replied, "What is benevolence? Will be holy! Yao Shun is still sick! The benevolent wants to stand and stand, and wants to reach people. " (Yongye) This kind of "benevolence", that is, the ideal realm of humanitarianism's deep love for mankind, is indeed the highest, and even the ancient sages such as Yao and Shun praised by Confucius cannot be fully achieved. For China people, "benevolence" is as sacred as the personified "God". The difference is that the personified "God" is on the other side and "Benevolence" is at the peak of the real world. Confucius also established some benevolence virtues that are closely related to reality and have definite connotations, and people can strive for them, such as "loving", "loving", "filial piety", "loyalty and forgiveness" and "teaching before punishing" for politicians. It makes people feel that the moral peak of "benevolence" is still rooted in the earth, not out of reach, so they have the courage and confidence to approach benevolence.

Mencius provided a metaphysical basis for "benevolence" in Confucius' philosophy. That is, "everyone has compassion; ..... Compassion is the end of benevolence; ..... I'm not external, I'm internal, I'm just thinking. (Gao Zi) "Compassion is unbearable. This touching tenderness is doing nothing, not instinct, and seems to have nothing to do with life but to be outside it. It is liberated from the way of doing something and doing nothing successfully. It never meant anything. This shows that it is not prepared to do anything for others. " (Liang Shuming) This is similar to the Greek ethical thought and the explanation of the spirit of "goodness" by Hua Yanzong of Buddhism.

(2) Ceremony

Rite is the externalization of the inner quality cultivation requirements of benevolence. Confucius' concept of "ceremony" was inherited from Zhou Li, and the "ceremony" in Zhou Li put forward an idea of "clearing out" all kinds of people in society and making society orderly. "Li" is an external heteronomy norm and legal system, and people's observance of Li is mainly implemented as an external legal system. Confucius's "ceremony" is the "ceremony" accumulated in "benevolence", which sublates its otherness. "Self-denial compound ceremony for benevolence. Self-denial will return to the world one day. For benevolence, but by people? " From this point of view, "man is heartless", then "ceremony" is completely external to him and is a reluctant bondage; "People are human beings", then the ceremony, like people's inner instinct, becomes a conscious virtue or spirit. "Benevolence inside and courtesy outside" is unified. With the humanistic spirit of "benevolence", "courtesy" is no longer a rigid legal system. He got rid of "insensitivity" and "insensitivity" and had ingenious blood circulation of "benevolence" and "dependence". This is Confucius' highest evaluation standard for extroverted behavior with "benevolence" as its internal direction.

(3) rule by man

As Confucianism pays attention to people and life, it will inevitably pay attention to the group society on which people depend. Governing the world in harmony between the monarch and the people has always been a utopia that pre-Qin Confucianism firmly believed and longed for. Based on the theoretical basis of its goodness, it is bound to pay attention to the rule of courtesy rather than the purely mandatory rule of law. The way of social organization advocated by pre-Qin Confucianism can be summarized as "benevolence inside and courtesy outside", that is, the moral cultivation of internalized "benevolence" and the norms and regulations of externalized "courtesy" coordinate people's behavior in order to achieve a harmonious state of society.

In management science, the reason why human behavior is regulated in the process of social organization comes from the outside, that is, the situation that others control and reach the code of conduct is called "other organization"; People consciously regulate personal behavior because of the psychological tacit understanding caused by ideals and beliefs, ethics and values, which is called "self-organization". With the help of these two concepts and the thought of "harmonious dialectics", we can get the harmonious characteristics of "self-organization-other organization" of "benevolence inside and courtesy outside"

First of all, Confucius interpreted benevolence as "love", which is not only the standard of personal moral cultivation, but also the highest principle used in dealing with the relationship between people in practical management and being a political country. Therefore, while emphasizing the exertion of individual subjective spirit and moral cultivation, "benevolence" has become the moral norm of people's inner experience and external practice, which restricts people's way of thinking and specific behavior. The moral cultivation of life theory is combined with the means of being a political country, and personal moral cultivation becomes the means of social organization, which makes "benevolence inside and courtesy outside" have the function of "self-organization"

Secondly, since the formulation of "Zhou Li", "Li" has become the sum total of the whole country, society, family and individual behavior norms. Just because the ceremony has the political function of consolidating the state power, maintaining the monarchy and governing the country, it becomes a part of the law, obtains compulsory power and is supported by the state power. "Rite" is essentially the "law" of pre-Qin Confucianism. As an objective and external system, it has produced the power to regulate people's behavior, and made "benevolence inside and courtesy outside" gain the function of "other organization".

Benevolence is subjective moral cultivation, while propriety is objective institutional norm; Benevolence is internal consciousness, and propriety is external control. They are mutually causal and accompany each other, and with the help of internal and external coupling structure, they form an integrated relationship of "benevolence inside and courtesy outside", which has the harmonious characteristics of "self-organization-other organization"

What needs to be explained here is that the self-discipline of "ritual" mentioned above is the perfect "unity of benevolence and ritual" constructed by Confucius, and it is the ideal state of "doing what one wants without overstepping the rules", which cannot be regarded as Confucius' absolute denial of the heteronomy of "ritual". The heteronomy of "Li" is the only way to the self-discipline realm of "Li". The key is that "ceremony" must be a ceremony based on benevolence.

Rule by man means benevolent governance and rule by courtesy.

Third, the influence of the pre-Qin Confucian legal thought.

The pre-Qin Confucians took etiquette as the "law" and combined the self-discipline of educating people with heteronomy until perfect self-discipline became the guarantee of social operation, supplemented by the overall planning of the wise king and ministers, which constituted their utopian political conception. What it pursues is not a temporary effect but a model of eternal life, not the prosperity of one family and one surname, but peace in the world, which is quite different from the realistic consideration of the rulers on the premise of their own self-interest, so it is unsuccessful.

However, Confucianism has always maintained the spirit of "gain and loss" advocated by Confucius, so it has the openness to other world outlook systems and the ability to absorb nutrients from other philosophies and integrate into its own system. In order to enable Confucianism to be adopted by rulers, later generations have carried out many "gains and losses" continuously, so they can rank among the ranks and stay on the historical stage. The pre-Qin Confucianism's political and legal thoughts have also been "lost" almost beyond recognition, so it can be said that the pre-Qin Confucianism as a system has disappeared in the long river of history. Only a part of thoughts and spirits are still inherited by later Confucianism, which has a long history and even turned into the blood of the Chinese nation and became a deep-rooted thing.

1. Ren

Benevolence has the most far-reaching influence in Confucian legal thought. It denies that rulers only consider their own interests and points out the importance of taking into account the interests of the people. Because it is found to be effective in reconciling the relationship between the ruling class and the people, all previous "governing the world" have regarded it as a policy of governing the country. The vision of pre-Qin Confucianism and the rule of the world was alienated, which played an indelible role in the smooth progress of social production and the sustainable development of Chinese civilization. This point has been proved by many predecessors, and the author will not repeat it here.

Step 2 stick to reality

As pointed out at the beginning of this article, the pre-Qin Confucianists were born to pay attention to real life, and made no mention of Machamp's confusion. Although the most respected "benevolence" is the "ultimate concern" alleged by paul tillich, its "religious nature" has not gone to the transcendental and ideal heaven, but has followed the golden mean of "destiny is nature, truth is Taoism, and cultivation is teaching" and has been implemented in the daily life of the vast society. This theme has a great influence on later generations:

(1) makes the ethical rationality in China culture extremely developed. Ethics runs through the history of China's thought; Ethical concepts are deeply rooted in people's hearts.

(2) Being too attached to reality and not thinking about problems beyond the other shore will inevitably lead to rigidity, alienation and vulgarization in a certain period of time. For example, Confucius said that "self-denial is benevolence" and Mencius said that "cultivating the mind is not good at lacking desires", all of which are based on the premise that everyone needs it. Starting from the maintenance of family, clan and country, he emphasized rationality, and restricted people's irrational desires, including those in power, with moral norms such as benevolence, righteousness, reason and faith, so as to make them moderate. However, later generations paid too much attention to how to control the people realistically, and when it came to Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, it was "developed" into the classical theoretical basis of asceticism.

(3) This persistence in reality is also reflected in the attitude of seeking knowledge. Although pre-Qin Confucianism has rich knowledge connotation, although it has always emphasized the academic thought of "learning without thinking is useless, and thinking without learning is dangerous", its "wisdom" is not manifested in the simple pleasure of reasoning, but based on the principle of "virtue, practicality and generosity" and focuses on solving specific problems in real life. For thousands of years, China people's pursuit of knowledge is also quite utilitarian, and it has developed into a scene in which intuitive ability is prosperous and logical reasoning ability is declining. Therefore, China people can create four great inventions by intuition, but they don't understand their scientific truth; China people will imprison fireflies and reflect snow light to study the classics of governing the country, but no Newton generation will meditate on the fruit at leisure and concentrate on the light source and refraction. This way of thinking is particularly prominent in legal thinking. Confucius mentioned "too good to change" in his benevolence system. His method is to learn from Yao and Shun, which is a very intuitive way of thinking. At first glance, it is quite perfect, but it is impossible for everyone to be Yao and Shun, so this method is actually not a method. For thousands of years, sages have been constructing theories of governing the world, such as "morality first, punishment second", "stopping punishment with punishment", "merciful punishment and careful killing" and "advocating law and discipline". At first glance, it looks perfect, but the monopolist with the highest power may not be willing to adopt it, especially Fan Zhongyan's "anti-dogmatism", which restricts the monarch from doing whatever he wants. Temporary acceptance may not avoid the end of "death". But for better or worse, no one makes a logical analysis of the whole political structure, but struggles weakly or strongly in the alternating cycle of chaotic control. Generally speaking, the pre-Qin Confucianists' resistance to transcendence was inherited, but after fine-tuning and variation, the later Confucianists' thinking about reality stopped at the level of how to govern and could not be surpassed. This is also one of the reasons why China's feudal society was extremely long and democratic thoughts came late.

3. Thick groups and thin individuals

The pre-Qin Confucianists' concern for human beings is the concern for the whole human being and the concern for "teaching without distinction". Its basic foothold is to safeguard the interests of families, clans and countries. It insists on sacrificing individual differences and individuality to maintain * * *, and praises the noble-minded people who "died in danger" and the gentleman who "died in danger". This has the function of promoting social development in a certain historical period. As a part of pre-Qin Confucian ethics, this value orientation was inherited by later Confucianists, and it has been in the mainstream position of China traditional culture for a long time, and gradually internalized into the psychological structure of China people, which made China people have outstanding group consciousness, but lacked independent personality and subjective consciousness. This became the ideological and cultural condition for the long-term and slow development of China feudal society. It is also a very profound resistance to the enlightenment of modern democracy, freedom and human rights. Even in the legislation of new China, this excessive demand for morality is inevitable. The stipulation in the civil law that management without cause shall not require remuneration is the embodiment of this ethical incentive thought.

Legalist school is one of the most important people in pre-Qin philosophers. They are famous for advocating the "rule of law" of "ruling the country according to law" and put forward a set of theories and methods. This provided an effective theoretical basis for the later establishment of the centralized Qin Dynasty. The later Han Dynasty inherited the centralization of authority and legal system of the Qin Dynasty and was the political and legal subject of the ancient feudal society in China.

Legalists have made great contributions to jurisprudence, and made fruitful discussions on the origin, essence and function of law and the relationship between law and social economy, requirements of the times, state power, ethics, customs, natural environment, population and human nature.

But legalists also have shortcomings. For example, it exaggerates the role of the law, emphasizes the use of heavy punishment to govern the country, and "punishes punishment with punishment", and also imposes heavy penalties on misdemeanors and superstitious about the role of the law. They believe that human nature is to pursue interests, and there is no moral standard, so we should use interests and honors to induce people to do it. For example, in the war, high rewards are given for meritorious service, including official positions, so as to motivate soldiers and generals to fight bravely together. This may be one of the reasons for Qin Jun's strong fighting capacity. The role of Legalists in destroying the six countries and unifying China should be affirmed, although there are still some shortcomings.

Legalist thought is briefly introduced as follows:

Oppose the ritual system

Legalists attach importance to law and oppose Confucian "rites". In their view, the emerging landlord class at that time opposed the hereditary privilege of monopolizing economic and political interests by nobles and demanded private ownership of land, which was a fair and correct proposition. The etiquette system of maintaining aristocratic privileges is backward and unfair.

The role of law

The first function is to "settle disputes", that is, to clarify the ownership of things. Shen Dao, one of the legalists, made a very simple analogy: "A rabbit went and a hundred people chased it. Accumulate rabbits in the market and ignore them. No rabbits, no arguments. " A rabbit ran away, and many people chased it, but they didn't look at so many rabbits in the market. It's not that you don't want rabbits, but that the ownership has been determined and you can't argue any more, otherwise you will violate the law and be punished.

The second function is to "make meritorious deeds and fear violence", that is, to encourage people to make meritorious deeds and make those who are lawless feel afraid. The ultimate goal of prosperity is to make Qiang Bing rich and win the war of annexation.

The theory of human nature of "likes and dislikes"

Legalists believe that all people have the nature of "liking advantages and avoiding disadvantages" or "seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages". As Guan said, a businessman runs around day and night, driving thousands of miles doesn't feel far, because interests attract him ahead. Fishing people are not afraid of difficulties and dangers, and they don't care if they sail against the current. It is also the pursuit of fishing interests. Based on the same idea, Shang Yang came to the conclusion: "There are likes and dislikes in life, so the people can cure them."

Historical view of "violating the past and not following the present"

Legalists oppose conservative retro ideas and advocate reform. They believe that history is developing forward, and all laws and systems should develop with the development of history, neither retrogressive nor conformist. Shang Yang clearly put forward the idea of "violating the past and not following the present". Han Fei further developed Shang Yang's proposition that "time-shifting chaos is difficult to cure", and he satirized the conservative Confucianism as a fool waiting for him.

The general plan of governing the country by combining law, technique and situation

Shang Yang, Shen Dao and Shen Buhai advocated attaching importance to law, potential and technique respectively, each with its own characteristics. When Han Fei, a master of legalism, put forward the idea of combining the three closely. Law refers to perfecting the legal system, and potential refers to the power of the monarch, and it is necessary to monopolize the military and political power. Art refers to the strategies and means of controlling ministers, mastering political power and enforcing laws and regulations. It is mainly to detect and prevent the crime of rebellion and maintain the status of the monarch.

Legalist thought is fundamentally different from the form of democracy and rule of law that we advocate now. The biggest thing is that legalists strongly advocate the centralization of monarchy, and it is absolute. Pay attention to this. We can selectively learn and make use of other legalist ideas.

Mohists-

Mo Zhai, one of the pre-Qin philosophers, was called Mozi, which is the origin of the name of Mohism.

The Book of Hanshu, Yiwenzhi and Zhuzi's Brief Narration says: "Mohism is based on defending the Qing palace. Cottage rafters are expensive and frugal; Raising three young people is based on fraternity; It is a saint to choose a scholar and shoot him; Zong Siyan's father is a right ghost; Going with the flow is fatal; Look at the world with filial piety, as above; This is also its strength. " Those who cover it can see the benefits of thrift, but they also promote universal love because of indecency, and they don't know intimacy. "..." Defending the temple in Qing Dynasty "refers to managing things in the temple and carrying out suburban worship or other sacrificial ceremonies. Yi Yin in the early Spring and Autumn Period was the "guardian of the Qing Dynasty". It is said that his heir, Shijiao, lived in Shandong and Mozi went to school.

The ideal personality of Mohist school pays attention to "Ren Xia" and "there are many warriors under Mozi" (Xin Yu Si Wu by Lu Jia), which shows that the ideal personality of Mohist school is chivalrous and martial, while "Mozi can serve 180 people and make them go through fire and water without hesitation" (Xun of Huai Nan Zi Mao) shows that the ideal personality of Mohist school is chivalrous and fearless.

"A Brief Introduction to Huainan Zi" states: "Mozi learned Confucian techniques and was influenced by Confucius." Visible Mozi is divorced from Confucianism. Mozi also criticized and reformed Confucianism, thus establishing his own banner and becoming a striking "outstanding scholar" who competed with Confucianism during the Warring States Period. "Confucianism and Mohism are outstanding in the world" (Han Fei's Blood Donation). However, after Dong Zhongshu "ousted a hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone" in the Han Dynasty, Mohism gradually changed from a prominent school to a unique one.

Mozi is a man-

Regarding Mozi's life experience, Tai Shigong of the Western Han Dynasty mentioned at the end of Historical Records, Mencius and Biography of Xun Qing: "He was a doctor of the Song Dynasty and was good at self-defense and saving money. Or when Confucius merged, or later. " Therefore, later generations have been arguing endlessly about his life and experience. Some say he is a Song Dynasty man, while others say he is a Shandong man.

Mozi, who is "studious and knowledgeable" (Zhuangzi), is a great man who takes the world as his responsibility and is determined to save the people from fire and water. Mencius still highly praised his spirit of "a scholar who is interested in Tao": "Mozi loves everything, and he is eager to benefit the world" ("Mencius"); Zhuangzi also sincerely praised: "Mozi is really the best in the world, and he will be very popular. Although he is haggard and unwilling to give up, he is a talent and a husband! " (Zhuangzi is the world).

Mozi's handwork is very clever. It is said that the axle he cut from the wood can bear an object weighing 600 kilograms. Wooden birds made of wood can fly in the sky for a day; It also invented ladders and the like earlier than the skilled bus disc at that time. This shows that Mozi is still an inventor and scientist.

However, in order to consolidate his theory, Mozi Xu proposed that there are ghosts in the world and taught people to respect ghosts and gods, thus forming a backward religious view. Therefore, when Wang Chong, a philosopher in the Eastern Han Dynasty, wrote Lun Heng, he was severely criticized by Wang Chong. But in any case, Mohism undoubtedly occupies a very important position in the history of ancient China thought, and Mozi himself is also an outstanding talent.

Mozi's book-

At the end of the Warring States period, Mohist post-school compiled the school's works into Mozi, which is a faithful portrayal of Mozi's words and deeds, also known as Mojing or Mojing Debate.

The style of this book is unpretentious, but some of its contents have been discounted, so that few people care about it for two thousand years. Until modern times, some scholars read this ancient book carefully, only to find that Mohist school had discussed optics (light propagates along a straight line, and some imaging situations of plane mirror, concave mirror mirror and spherical mirror, especially the theory that light can form an inverted image through pinhole), mathematics (the definition of circle has been discussed scientifically), mechanics (the relationship between force and weight has been put forward) and other natural sciences as early as 2,000 years ago. It's a pity that this science, however, shocked the current academic circles and made modern people sit up and take notice of Mohism and even a hundred schools of thought.

Mohist thought-

The thought of this school is mainly embodied in the book Mozi. Shang Xian and Monk are the basic political programs of Mozi. Mozi believed that "Shang Xian" was the basis of politics, and this idea of equality directly impacted the patriarchal clan system.

He also put forward that "where there is justice in the world, there will be chaos", and that "there must be justice in the world", that is, to stop the chaos in the world, talented taxis, ministers, doctors and emperors must be elected to join the world in order to benefit the whole people and harm them. This is "Shang Tong".

Mozi's utilitarianism is quite different from Yang Zhu's "for me". What he said is not self-interest, but universal benefit. This utilitarianism based on the ideal country is Mozi's basic moral concept.

Mohism speaks on behalf of the small working class and has a certain popularity. Therefore, Mohism opposes exploitation and advocates labor. It is put forward that "those who rely on strength live, those who don't lose strength don't live", and those who don't work can't "get real"

The basic core idea of Mozi's political view and moral view is "universal love" put forward by Mozi, and "universal love" is the main ideological viewpoint of Mohism. Other concepts such as not attacking, saving money, saving burial and being unhappy are also derived from this. Mozi's "universal love" is the transformation of the basic concepts of Confucius' ideological system. Mozi advocates "universal love", that is to say, he loves everyone in society indiscriminately.

Thought borrowing-

On the realistic value of Mohism, for example, drawing lessons from Mohism's thought of "universal love", which requires people to love each other equally, help each other and highlight the spirit of mutual benefit and mutual assistance; From the Mohist's "Shang Xian" thought, this "sage" mainly refers to moral and knowledgeable talents, and this moral value orientation has a positive effect on encouraging people to strengthen their self-cultivation and strive to become saints; If we learn from Mohism's "frugality" thought, it is still pertinent and worth promoting.