Mencius put forward in a very early period that "the heart of shame and evil is the end of righteousness" ("Mencius with all his heart"), which means that knowing shame is the beginning of goodness and the foundation of social justice. One of the most important reasons why people are proud of shame and do all kinds of immoral things is shameless. If everyone has no sense of moral shame, there may be a great crisis in society, the most direct impact of which is the corruption of social atmosphere. In other words, the vast majority of people in society are shameless and proud of shame, then the moral condition of society will be very poor and the social atmosphere will be extremely bad. Therefore, strengthening shame education is the premise and foundation of advocating good social atmosphere. One of the primary tasks of building a harmonious society today is to purify and purify the social atmosphere. Establishing a good social atmosphere requires the whole society to cultivate people's sense of shame and shame.
Then, what aspects should we start from to practice the shame culture and cultivate people's sense of shame and shame?
1. Inherit and carry forward the traditional shame culture in China.
China's traditional moral culture has a long history, which can also be called shame culture to some extent. After thousands of years of continuous accumulation and development, it still has strong vitality and universal educational value. When we reposition and interpret the rich shame education resources contained in shame culture, we can find that it is of great significance to awaken, stimulate and cultivate people's deep shame and create a good social atmosphere. Therefore, we should learn and absorb valuable things in traditional shame culture in shame education. For example, the famous saying that "the most important thing in life is a word of shame" is an effective educational resource that we can use.
2. Combined with the socialist concept of honor and disgrace
The "Eight Honors and Eight Disgraces" put forward by Hu Jintao, the leader of China, covers all the contents of the socialist concept of honor and disgrace, embodies the basic requirements of socialist ethics in many aspects, has strong practical pertinence and practicality, and provides us with basic guidelines for being a man and doing things. The distinction between honor and disgrace is the primary task of shame cultivation. The socialist concept of honor and disgrace helps people understand what shame is and what honor is, promotes people to enhance their sense of shame and form correct values, thus restraining their words and deeds. Strengthening shame education in combination with socialist concept of honor and disgrace can guide people to distinguish right from wrong, honor and disgrace, beauty and ugliness, establish correct values and promote the development of their own moral quality.
3. Do a good job in the construction of shame environment
The cultivation of shame and the promotion of social atmosphere all need a good social environment. Public opinion is an effective moral binding force and an invisible moral force. Television, movies, newspapers and magazines, including the Internet and other media, should be brave enough to expose and criticize those shameless phenomena, so that the public can correctly understand what is good, what is honor, what is evil and what is shame, and be ashamed without humiliation. The necessary supervision mechanism is also crucial. People and things that violate moral norms should be exposed in the media and subject to social supervision. Especially leading cadres, because their words and deeds have a great influence on society, often have the role of benchmarking. Of course, the continuous improvement of various rules and regulations and laws is an effective means to prevent and suppress shamelessness.
Establishing a good social atmosphere is the strong desire of the broad masses of the people and the inevitable requirement for the smooth development of the economy and society. We should oppose and stop bad social atmosphere and advocate good social atmosphere. For a country and the whole society, if people lack a sense of shame, the social atmosphere will be unimaginable. In view of the current shameless phenomenon, it is urgent to use shame consciousness to restrain people's words and deeds. If we can strengthen shame education from all aspects and make it a major spiritual project, so that all members of society know honor and shame, then it is just around the corner to improve good social atmosphere, and a harmonious and moral society will have the most reliable foundation.
From "Freedom and Shameless" to "Shameless Conformity"
In two historical moral traditions and two moral systems, whether based on the rule of virtue or the rule of law; No matter whether personal morality is the focus of the system or social ethics is the focus of the system, "shame" has a basic moral status.
The real ethical meaning of "shame" is "feeling ashamed of oneself", and its ethical motivation comes from the spiritual movement that individuals "become a person" and return to ethical entities and the universal essence of human beings. As an ethical spiritual movement, the fundamental value orientation of "feeling ashamed of oneself" is entity or collective, so it is impossible to really conceive and cultivate a healthy sense of shame in a culture where individualism is rampant.
The moral essence of "shame" is a law of subjective will, that is, freedom of subjective will. Its moral truth is not heteronomy but self-discipline, not sanction but encouragement. It is a spiritual force that guides people to strive for self-improvement in morality and stop at perfection.
Confucius described the social and cultural significance of "shame" best: "Tao should be based on politics, and the people should be punished without shame; Tao is virtue, courtesy, shame and dignity. " A society with strong spiritual vitality should be a "shameful and decent" legitimate, orderly and valuable self-discipline society, rather than a "free and shameless" heteronomy society governed only by external rules.
The crisis of "legalization" of ethics and morality caused by the collapse of traditional culture, individualism bred by market logic and misunderstanding of legalist thought are three basic factors that lead to the passivation and degradation of shame in modern civilization. Modern moral system must restore the historical position of shame as the original primary color of moral system and ethical spirit system, restore the moral life infected by modern cultural bacteria, and promote the dialectical development of national ethical spirit under the new cultural conditions.
It is urgent to rebuild the shame culture.
Where is our shame culture? Where is the sense of social responsibility and mission?
The moral decline in today's society warns us that it is urgent to reshape the shame culture! Knowing shame is a rich legacy left by our ancestors. China traditional culture has always attached importance to the spirit of "knowing shame". Mencius said, "People should not be shameless". Guan Zi treats "shame" from the height of the life and death of the nation and the country: "courtesy, justice, honesty and shame, four dimensions of the country, four dimensions can not be opened, and the country dies."
Ancient philosophers put honor and disgrace in the same position as personality: "I don't know honor and disgrace, but I can't be an adult", "I would rather destroy people than humiliate them" and "I would rather be poor than rich and lose my integrity"; In the Ming Dynasty, Gu said that "every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the world"; Gong Zizhen, an expert at the University of the Late Qing Dynasty, linked the sense of honor and disgrace with the rise and fall of the country: "Every scholar knows shame, then the country will never be shameless; Scholars are shameless, which is a great shame for the country "; There is a famous saying in The Doctrine of the Mean: "Knowing shame is almost brave", which means knowing shame is almost brave.
"Shame is almost brave", and a strong nation often rises from shame. "When I heard about ancient sages, I didn't suffer from their shortcomings, but from their lack of ambition" (Mandarin). Gou Jian, the King of Yue, never forgets his shame. He lived and studied for ten years. The 3,000 Yue family eventually annexed Wu. After World War II, the humiliation of Japan's defeated country prompted it to work hard and eventually become a world power. "Knowing shame is almost brave" also tells us on the other hand that it takes courage to recognize shame; Be brave, but also dare to change.
Knowing shame is a recognized virtue of human beings. Because you know shame, you can use shame to restrain your behavior. It is precisely because of this spirit of introspection and critical judgment, as well as shame and "shame culture" that we have a civilized way of life and understand what is obligation, temperance, justice, courage, creation, struggle, honesty, gratitude and fraternity, and what is filth and barbarism ... So shame, shame and "shame culture" can be said to be human beings. Moral decline will inevitably lead to ethical disaster, and it is urgent to reshape our shame culture.
Shame culture and people's inner world
Man is thoughtful and rational, and his spiritual world has a vast and rich field. How to grasp the direction of people's spiritual world, and then restrain people's behavior and make it develop in a direction conducive to social harmony and national stability is a problem that any nation and country attaches great importance to. From the inward direction, the traditional shame culture in China has the following connotations.
Advocate caution and independence, emphasize introspection and self-correction, and achieve completeness through self-correction. Shame is an inner experience of human beings. It is a kind of inner change caused by interaction with the outside world, and then a thinking mode based on introspection and self-seeking is established to restrain the process of self-discipline and self-cultivation. This constitutes the core content of China's traditional shame culture. The standards of independence, introspection and self-correction are ethical norms such as courtesy, righteousness, honesty and shame. Regarding the cautious independence, The Doctrine of the Mean said: "A gentleman is cautious about what he has not seen and is afraid of what he has heard. If you don't see it, you don't show it, so the gentleman is cautious. " Being cautious and independent means asking people to be strict with themselves, so as to seek "Tao" when others can't see or hear. Regarding introspection, Confucius said, "If you don't cultivate yourself, you will be worried. If you don't talk about learning, you can't migrate if you are not good at it." (The Analects of Confucius). "Introspection is innocent, what is the husband worried about?" (The Analects of Confucius Yan Yuan). Confucius tells people here that they can be fearless as long as they often reflect on themselves and don't feel ashamed and uneasy. As for integrity, Confucius said: "integrity, doing things without orders;" His body is not straight, although he doesn't obey "(The Analects of Lutz). "Book of Rites University" said: "The ancient desire is obviously superior to the world, so rule the country first. If you want to govern your country, you should unite your family first. If you want to keep your family together, you should trim your body first. If you want to cultivate yourself, you should be upright first. If you want to be right, be sincere first. If you want to be sincere, let him know first. Know in the matter. " As a result, Confucianism has created a road of "inner sage and outer king" based on self-cultivation, and built an ideal life path through eight links of "discipline, knowledge, honesty, integrity, self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world", which had a far-reaching impact on ancient China society. Shame culture plays a central role in this life path.
Advocating "don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you" can stimulate people's spirit of struggle and make them proactive and indomitable in realizing their ideals in life and practicing moral norms. "It is shameful to do what you do" means asking people to be ashamed of their actions. If a person acts, he won't do what he thinks is shameful. In order to improve their personality, people with lofty ideals are upright and indomitable, and there is an ideological motive behind them to be ashamed of themselves. "The Doctrine of the Mean" says: "Learn to be close to knowledge, be close to benevolence, be ashamed to be brave". Among them, knowing shame is at the deepest level and plays an important role in learning, practice and other behaviors. Confucius said: "being rich and expensive is what people want;" If you don't follow the path, there is nowhere. Poverty and meanness are disgusting to people; If you don't follow it, you won't go "("The Analects of Confucius "). In order to realize the ideal of life, Confucius himself traveled around the world, was displaced from place to place, and suffered many hardships, but he was determined and showed a spirit of "approaching the big festival and having to seize it". Mencius further developed Confucius' thought and advocated a manly spirit: "Wealth can't be lewd, poverty can't be moved, and power can't be bent. This is called manhood" (Mencius Teng Wengong). Advocate the courage to sacrifice in order to realize one's life ideal: "Life is what I want, and righteousness is what I want;" You can't have it both ways, and those who give up their lives for righteousness are also. Life is what I want. I want it more than the living, so I don't want it. Death is what I hate, and what I hate is worse than the dead, so I have nothing to hide "(Mencius Gaozi). The ideal of life and moral practice advocated by Confucius and Mencius have been recognized and practiced by people with lofty ideals in China in the past dynasties, which has created the integrity in the historical development of China and formed the national spirit of integrity, integrity and independence.
Advocate morality and integrity. Because shame culture can make people control their behavior from the heart, knowing shame will make them do something wrong, thus forming a moral fashion of advocating ethics and not kitsch in ancient China. The specific connotation of morality mentioned here mainly refers to honesty, integrity and integrity. The so-called "the three armed forces can win the handsome, but ordinary people can't win the ambition" and "when the cold comes and the summer goes, you will know that the pine and cypress are withered and late" (The Analects of Confucius, Zi Han) is about this kind of ethics. In order to maintain their own personality and conduct, the ancients honed their reputations, practiced and respected honesty, and finally formed a long-standing concept of honesty of the Chinese nation on the basis of this value pursuit.
Shame culture and human behavior pattern
People live in groups, and their behavior is restricted by their inner value judgment, but their inner value judgment is often influenced by the outside world. China's traditional shame culture not only requires people to introspect, behave shamefully and advocate morality, but also requires people to turn over a new leaf and learn to think strangely, thus forming a social moral evaluation mechanism based on shame culture, thus affecting people's social practice.
The moral cultivation mode of thinking strangely and seeing the good has been changed. This is the externalization of introspection mechanism based on shame culture. Shame on inaction is the first step of moral cultivation; Further, it is to meet the virtuous Si Qi when doing things, and finally reach the lofty realm of "supreme goodness". This is the moral cultivation mode pursued by countless sages. Confucianism has a lot to say about being good and thinking about gas. For example, Confucius said: "It is better to see good than not to see good, and to see bad is like exploring soup" (The Analects of Confucius Ji Shi). In other words, when you see good words and deeds, you should think about how to realize them, and when you see bad words and deeds, you should quickly avoid them. Confucius said, "If you see the sage Si Qi, you will be introspective if you don't see the sage" ("The Analects of Confucius"), "If you have a threesome, you must learn from me. Choose the good and follow it, and change the bad "(The Analects of Confucius) and so on. , has become eternal wisdom. Mencius said: "Lutz, people are happy to tell them that they already have it;" When you hear good things, you will worship them. Dashun has great ideas, is kind to others, sacrifices himself for others, and takes pleasure as kindness "("Mencius Gong Sunchou "). What Mencius is talking about here is also the four-qi moral cultivation model. Siqi's moral cultivation mode, which is based on the culture of shame and turns good into good, has purified the development of China society for thousands of years and has become a valuable heritage in China's traditional culture.
Social moral evaluation mechanism based on shame culture. Based on shame culture, China traditional society actually formed a social moral evaluation mechanism, which influenced people's behavior. For example, in the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhou Dunyi thought that the great misfortune of life was "shameless" because shamelessness was a manifestation of inhumanity. Zhu explained it this way: "Shame is born from the heart, and it is learned from the outside. People should be ashamed before they can change, so shame is the most important thing "(Zhuzi Language, Volume 94). Ouyang Xiu called honesty and shame "the great festival of gentlemen" (Collection of Ouyang Xiu (130). Throughout the traditional society of China, anyone who loses his sense of shame will be condemned by the whole society, and immoral and shameless people will be nailed to the shame column of history. This social moral evaluation mechanism has had an important impact on the development of traditional society in China.
Shame Culture and the Historical Development of China
The psychological basis of shame culture is that people have a sense of responsibility for their actions, and the social basis is that people can reach a consensus on social behavior norms. As a highly abstract life of ancient philosophers in China, China's traditional shame culture had an important influence on the development of China's history.
China's traditional shame culture especially emphasizes propriety, justice and honesty, and advocates the courage to know shame, but does nothing for it. It also makes shame culture widely penetrate into people's hearts of all social classes and strata in China, and it is reflected in the behaviors of all groups, which has become a universal cultural phenomenon, profoundly affecting people's behavior choices, and then has a great impact on the development of China's history. The traditional shame culture in China not only has a great influence on people's daily life and social interaction, but also plays an inestimable role in the survival and development of the Chinese nation.
In the history of China, whenever the times change dramatically and the nation suffers, shame culture is an important pillar to stand up the national backbone. Especially in modern times, the Chinese nation has been repeatedly invaded by foreign enemies and suffered great national humiliation. In the tide of countless people with lofty ideals struggling for national independence and rejuvenation, shame culture is an important internal cause to promote the rise of the whole nation. In the national crisis, "don't forget the national humiliation" has become the lofty theme of the times, showing the strong determination of the Chinese nation to unite and resist foreign aggression.
At present, we are making unremitting efforts to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. To realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, we need to build a socialist core value system, build a spiritual home shared by the Chinese nation, and cultivate civilized fashion. Since the reform and opening up, with the development of socialist market economy, people's ideas have changed greatly, and the sense of shame in some people's hearts has gradually faded, and even moral decline has occurred. In view of this, China has put forward the socialist concept of honor and disgrace with "eight honors and eight disgraces" as the main content. In essence, this is the great development of China's traditional shame culture in the new era. Under the new situation, we lead the fashion with the socialist concept of honor and disgrace, and take the positive factors of excavating, inheriting and carrying forward China's traditional shame culture as the important content of social construction and civic moral construction. This is undoubtedly of great practical significance for us to inherit and carry forward the excellent tradition of Chinese culture and build a spiritual home shared by the Chinese nation.