China Confucian tradition, which comes first?

Benevolence in China's Confucian tradition comes first.

The spirit of benevolence is an important feature of Confucian culture, which has charm and value beyond time and space. The benevolence spirit of Confucianism has profound connotation, and its core can be summarized as filial piety and fraternity.

Confucius said "universal love" is actually "universal love". "Love" is synonymous with "benevolent people", which means "reaching the world" and universal love. The so-called "loving the people" refers to filial piety and even fraternity; The so-called "loving people and things" means caring for the benevolent, and it can also cover "loving everything".

Interpretation of benevolence

The benevolence spirit of Confucianism began with filial piety and has been criticized in two aspects since modern times: from the perspective of social evolution, it is considered to be the product of patriarchal society; From the comparison between Chinese and western cultures, it is considered that it violates the ancient Greek morality from the concept of "supreme goodness" and the Christian morality from the concept of "loving God".

In fact, attaching importance to family relations is not only the characteristic of China traditional society, but also the "normality" of human social life. In western culture, there are also the "sympathy" theories of Hume, Adam Smith and others about the origin of morality, which are close to the "kiss" or "sympathy" theories of Confucianism.

People grow up under the care of their parents as soon as they are born, and experience the sincere and warm feeling of "kissing" between people. The Confucian spirit of benevolence is based on this. However, Confucian culture also believes that it is not enough to just stay in the feeling of "kissing", and it must be expanded.