⑴ Politically, Confucius cared about people's sufferings. He put forward the theory of "benevolence (including all virtues)", arguing that "love" requires rulers to observe people's feelings, cherish people's resources, govern the country by virtue and oppose tyranny.
⑵ In education: Confucius was a great educator. He founded a private school and recruited disciples, regardless of rank. It initiated civilian education and broke the aristocratic education of "learning to be excellent and being an official". He put forward a series of valuable educational ideas, such as "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude", "reviewing the old and learning the new" and advocating heuristic teaching.
(3) Collating ancient cultural classics: compiling the book Spring and Autumn Annals, and revising classic documents such as poems, calligraphy, rituals and changes. His remarks are included in The Analects of Confucius.
(4) Confucius was an educator, thinker and half a politician, but he was above all an intellectual of noble character. He is upright, optimistic and enterprising, pursuing truth, goodness and beauty all his life and pursuing an ideal society all his life. His success and failure are related to his personality. His character has influenced China people for thousands of years, especially the intellectuals in China.
Confucius' Major Achievements in Thought and Education
Ideologically, Confucius put forward the theory of "benevolence", advocated "loving others", and asked rulers to observe people's feelings, cherish people's resources, "govern the country by virtue" and oppose tyranny and arbitrary punishment.
Education: (1) founded a private school, regardless of family background and wealth, and recruited a wide range of disciples, and successively trained 3,000 students. (2) Pay attention to "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude" and be good at inspiring students to think. (3) Educate students to have an honest learning attitude and be open-minded and eager to learn. (4) Ask students to review what they have learned from time to time, so as to "review the past and learn the new".
The historical fate of any theory depends on whether it reflects the needs of human survival and development, its vitality comes from its inherent humanistic value, whether it cares about human survival, development and future, and whether it provides wisdom and basic methods for solving the problems faced by human beings.
Confucianism, founded in the "axial age" of human society, deeply cares about the survival, development and future destiny of human beings and provides them with wisdom and basic methods to solve the difficulties faced by human beings. Therefore, Confucianism has great vitality. Although there have been achievements, rigidities and misfortunes in history, they have even fallen into the situation of "knocking over the ground, stepping on one foot and never turning over". But its basic value is not out of date. It looks like a tumbler and still has its vitality.
It is widely quoted in academic circles in China: It is said that the world Nobel Prize winners in 1988 met in Paris, and they said in their declaration: "To survive in the 2 1 century, human beings must seek wisdom from Confucius in China 2,500 years ago." It shows that Nobel Prize winners have a deep understanding of Confucius' thoughts. If not, it doesn't matter. More importantly, we should use our own brains to think about whether Confucius' thoughts can provide us with wisdom to solve many problems faced by mankind.
People-oriented and people-oriented is one of the core values of Confucianism.
Man is the center of the universe, and he is the foundation of society and country. Among the four measures of Confucius' theory of governing the country, it is particularly important to pay attention to the people, especially their diet. Mencius emphasized that "the people are the most important, the country is the second, and the monarch is the light." "Three treasures of princes, land, people and politics." This is the people-oriented thought clearly expressed by Mencius. Xunzi compared the relationship between the people and the monarch to the relationship between water and ships. Water dominates the boat, not the boat dominates the water. He said, "The monarch can sail and Shu Ren can swim. Water can carry a boat or overturn it. " Jia Yi of the Han Dynasty said: "One husband and one people are the foundation of the ages." "Smell it politically. People are in favor of this. The country thinks so, the monarch thinks so, and so do officials. In the old country, the people were the security, the monarch regretted the people, and the minister respected the people. This is called "the people are all for this." "Confucianism believes that the support of the people can consolidate the regime of the rulers, and the most important thing to win the people is to win the hearts of the people; Any regime, if it loses popular support, will collapse sooner or later. Therefore, Confucianism deeply realized the position of the people in the country and put forward an important social philosophy proposition that "the people are the foundation of the country, and this is the foundation of the country." "
Starting from the core values of people-oriented and people-oriented, Confucianism deeply discusses the issue of human nature, which is the theoretical basis for establishing a unique governance model of Confucianism. Whether it is Confucius's "rule by virtue", Mencius's "benevolent government" based on the theory of good nature, Xunzi's "kingly way" based on the theory of evil nature, or the later ideal of "great harmony", people-oriented thought always runs through it.
Harmony, cooperation and coordination are the second core values of Confucianism.
Harmony and sameness are unique categories of China's philosophy. "Harmony" literally means harmony, coordination, moderation and harmony. In the philosophical sense, it refers to the organic combination of different elements or "real harmony and unity under the interaction of contradictory and opposing factors", that is, the concrete identity of contradictions. "Similarity", in the philosophical sense, refers to a simple mechanical combination of the same factors, or an abstract identity without contradictions and conflicts. This Confucian methodology of "harmony but difference" is also called "harmony". "The so-called harmony refers to the combination of various elements and elements in nature, society, interpersonal relationship, mind and civilization, and the combination of various elements and elements into a new structure, new things and new life in the dynamic process of conflict and integration." In short, harmony refers to the harmonious unity between different factors and different contradictions. The concept of harmony and the pursuit of harmonious value are the unique core values of Confucianism.
Furthermore, people-oriented, from the perspective of various relationships faced by people, can be divided into: harmony between man and nature, harmony between man and society, harmony between people, and harmony between human physiology and psychology. From the point of view of nation and country, it can be divided into harmony between nations within the same country, harmony between nations in different countries and harmony between countries.
"Unity of Heaven and Man" is the basic proposition of Confucian philosophy. Confucianism believes that man is a part of nature, but only a special part, and man and nature should live in harmony. Mencius put forward the theory of "knowledge-knowledge-knowledge of heaven", holding that human mind, nature and nature are a whole, and human mind and nature are interlinked. Mencius advocated expanding the nature of human love, Do "kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss Zhang Zai also said: "People are my compatriots and things are my friends." Everything is a friend of mankind. So we should protect the natural ecology, don't cut down trees at will, don't kill animals at will, and don't fish with dense nets. To be "self-sufficient", we should not only make ourselves successful, but also make things successful. This Confucian value orientation of caring for natural ecology has had a far-reaching influence in history and in the hearts of China.
Being close to the people, enriching the people and teaching the people are the third core values of Confucianism.
Whether people are "in love" or "thieves" are two different values. Contrary to the wolf relationship between people, Confucianism believes that people should "love each other". In China culture, benevolence is valued not only by Confucianism, but also by Taoism and Mohism. Kindness is the basic spirit of China culture and the important content of China's humanistic spirit.
In the Confucian theory of rule by virtue, the humanistic spirit of benevolence is fully embodied. In the political, ideological and cultural history of China, not only Confucianism stresses the people-oriented technique of governing the country, but Taoism also stresses the people-oriented technique of governing the country. Kang Cang, a disciple of Laozi, once said: "The country is people-oriented, and the people are safe, then the country is safe. Therefore, patriotism seeks managers. " The important feature of Confucian "the skill of governing people" is that "the Tao is based on morality" or "politics cannot bear the heart of others", that is, governing the country by virtue. Confucius said: "One country is a thousand times, respecting things and believing, loving the people and making the people take the time", and loving the people is an important way to govern the country. Confucius also said: "Political urgency is nothing more than making people rich and live longer." "Labor-saving service, thin tax collection, and people's wealth; Dan Li Jiao, if you stay away from evil, you will live a long life. "The most important thing in governing the country is to make the people rich and live long. Save hard work and reduce taxes, and the people will be rich; If we urge people to accept the education of courtesy and righteousness, keep people away from crime and reduce diseases, we can live longer.
Above, we only reveal and discuss the core values of Confucianism from three aspects from a specific angle, but the core values of Confucianism are not just these three aspects, but there are many rich contents. The core value of Confucianism has its universality and practical significance at many levels and angles.
The so-called "world ethics" does not mean a worldwide ideology, or a "single unified religion" transcends all existing religions, let alone that one religion dominates all other religions. The world ethics in our mind refers to' binding values, irrevocable standards, and the basic consensus of personal attitude'. Without such a basic consensus on world ethics, every community will be threatened by chaos or autocracy sooner or later, and individuals will despair. In the era of economic globalization, it is obviously necessary to establish a "basic consensus" that people of all countries can agree with.
In this real world created by human beings, its culture is complex and diverse. Different nations and countries have different cultural traditions, different levels of economic development, different political systems and different current tasks. We should seek unity and commonality from the complexity and diversity of the world, and seek its core values from various cultural models and concepts, so as to further seek the "basic consensus" that people of all countries can agree with, thus providing historical reference for the establishment of "global ethics".