A hundred schools of thought contend, that is, hundred schools of thought during the Warring States Period. There are nine schools of thought in later generations, namely, Confucianism, Mohism, France, Taoism, Ming, Yin and Yang, military, agriculture, vertical and horizontal, and novels. But nine of them are impressive, and the novelist is unofficial history, which is not elegant. Generally speaking, the contention of a hundred schools of thought has its roots, especially the four schools of Confucianism, Mohism and Taoism. There are two main causes: first, facing the social reality that the ceremony collapses and the music breaks down, large-scale frequent wars have caused great social and political chaos, so how to "sit in the world and solve people's worries"; The second is how to rebuild people's spiritual belief in the face of the collapse of the value belief system. Faced with these two problems, different schools of thought and theories began to take turns on the historical stage.

The founder of Confucianism is Confucius, and the core of his thought is benevolence; The second representative is Mencius, who formally perfected Confucius' benevolence as "benevolent government", which is the core of Mencius' thought. The representative documents of the two are The Analects of Confucius and Mencius. Xunzi is an "alternative" of Confucianism.

So can Confucianism develop into a theory?

First of all, Confucianism inherited the change of Yin and Yang (the theory of heaven) and enlightened human relations (the theory of human nature). Confucianism closely revolves around the important theme of "valuing man over nature", and finally establishes a set of theories about ethical education. We know that as long as there are people, there will be human nature, and contradictions and problems will emerge one after another. To study and explore human nature, we must adhere to the people-oriented principle to solve contradictions and deal with problems. However, with the resolution of the old contradictions, new problems began to appear. Therefore, since the birth of Confucianism, people have been constantly studying and exploring humanitarian issues, making theoretical innovations and avoiding one size fits all.

Secondly, Confucianism advocates benevolence and righteousness. Confucius initiated the Confucian school and established a school with benevolence as its core, then Mencius established a theory with benevolence as its core and Xunzi established a theory with propriety as its core.

The basic requirements of benevolence, courtesy and righteousness are: benevolence, fairness and love; Righteousness, righteousness and appropriateness; Owners should be considerate, reasonable, respectful and nurturing. In modern language, it means to be public and forget private, and to give love; Uphold justice and behave appropriately; Distinguish between right and wrong, attack common sense, respect without loss, and regulate lust.

Third, Confucianism is a model of cultural inheritance. As we know, Confucianism began to practice the Tao of Yao and Shun, imitating King Wen and King Wu. However, this tendency of Confucianism will lead to more cultural inheritance and less cultural innovation. The preface to Biography of Taishigong in Historical Records says: "Confucians learn a lot and do little, so it is difficult to do everything." Li Bai's Irony also said: "Chaucer talks about the Five Classics, and his white hair dies. Asking about economic policy is like falling smoke. " These Confucian scholars stick to chapters and sentences, bow their heads and be poor in classics, divorced from reality, and "know less and use less, and work less." Of course, as long as this tendency of Confucianism is adjusted, based on cultural inheritance and guided by cultural innovation, it will be new.

Let's take a look at what innovations Mencius and Xunzi have made in inheriting Confucius' Confucianism.

Mencius put forward the theory that "human nature is good" and "one knows nature", which directly explored the root of human nature and laid the foundation for the moral principles advocated by Confucius and the political concept of "ruling the country by virtue".

Teng Wengong says, "Mencius is good in nature, and his words must be called Yao and Shun". It reveals the subordinate relationship between Mencius' thought of "benevolent government" and its philosophical basis. Mencius believes that his whole set of social and political ideals can be realized in real life because "human nature is good": "there is nothing wrong with people, and there is nothing wrong with water" (Gao Zi). However, people's "mouth is for taste, and there are similarities, and ears are for sound, and there are similarities; How is it possible if the color is equally beautiful? So, as for the heart, is it "unique"? Mencius pointed out: "Of course, people's hearts have similarities", in which "communication" means "reason and righteousness, and saints naturally win my heart first. Therefore, it is better to convince people with reason than with righteousness (Gao Zi). That is, sadness, shame, respect and right and wrong. And these four "hearts" are the "ends" of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom. People have four ends, but they still have four bodies "(Gong Sunchou). Later, Mencius extended this "unbearable heart" to politics, that is, the policy of the unbearable people, that is, benevolent government. The sages such as Yao, Shun, King Wen and the kings of the previous dynasties were all the best in sex, so they became models of benevolent government.

However, Mencius thinks that "human nature is good" only shows that it is possible to implement "benevolent government", not the reality of implementing "benevolent government" Only by "knowing the sky with one heart" can we ensure the implementation of "benevolent government" He believes that the crisis of people's belief (especially utilitarianism and solipsism) can be solved by the subjective conscious cultivation efforts (such as indifference, nourishing the heart, seeking reassurance, nourishing the mind, rebellious, sincere, etc.) to achieve the perfect value of life. ). Social and political fields; In addition, he advocated that politics should be carried out with compassion, benevolence and kingliness, and politics should be brought into the moral category. Therefore, Mencius inherited and developed Confucius' theory from the level of benevolence or morality. Mencius believed that this cultivation should be of high standards and strict requirements. Like "If you teach people to shoot, they will yearn for Yu Yi". Mencius could not bear to pawn people's grief and indignation that they did not pay attention to self-cultivation and benevolent governance: "Benevolence is better than cruelty, and water is better than fire." It is better to save a car with a glass of water if you are kind today "("Gao Zi ").

In order to prove that "benevolent government" can be realized, Mencius, as a generation of Confucianism, knew the Confucian classics like the back of his hand through history. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhao Qi called Mencius "the way to govern Confucianism, knowing the Five Classics and writing poems" (Mencius Ming). Mencius has seven chapters, twenty-nine books, thirty-five poems and twenty-three rites. The introduction of the Notes to Four Books: "Mencius said,' Those who can be officials can be officials; If you can stop, you can stop for a long time; If you can be fast, you can be fast. Therefore, there is no such person as Mencius who understands the Book of Changes. He also said,' the trace of the king is gone, and poetry is dead, and poetry is written in the spring and autumn.' Therefore, there is no one who knows Chunqiu better than Mencius. "

Xunzi, on the other hand, thinks that the human nature of real experience is evil, that is, "the theory of evil nature", so he emphasizes strengthening the acquired learning and the education of saints, standardizing people's behavior through the system of rites and music, and realizing the moral pursuit of "everyone can be Yao and Shun". Xunzi said that "learning is not enough", and he also emphasized that "a gentleman saves himself when he knows, so he knows clearly without fault". He also advocated that "knowledge" should be realized through practice, and "knowledge" needs both accumulation and mastery. Thus, Xunzi's theory of "great Confucianism" should have the standards of "unity theory and class theory"

"Historical Records" contains the purpose of writing: "Despise the politics in troubled times, subjugate the country and confuse the monarch, camp on witches and Zhu instead of the avenue, believe in auspicious things, despise Confucianism and be introverted, such as Zhuang Zhou and others, and then push the morality of Confucianism and Mohism to flourish and decline, with tens of thousands of words in turn."

It can be seen that Xunzi not only contains Xun Qing's understanding of the rise and fall of Confucianism and Mohism in the pre-Qin period, but also his criticism of various social chaos in the late Warring States period. Xunzi was well aware that although the learning of various philosophers promoted the prosperity of academic thought at that time, it also produced some drawbacks, such as "seeing this and not seeing that" and "hiding this and not knowing that". In other words, in his criticism, he identified and absorbed hundreds of theories and ideas. In a word, among the pre-Qin philosophers, Xunzi paid the most attention to the function and method of learning. Politically, Xunzi advocated the ritual system. Therefore, Xunzi inherited and developed Confucius' ideological theory from the perspective of "courtesy serves the country" and showed moral realism.

The influence of Confucianism is that the highest pursuit of idealistic intellectuals is to enter the official career, and at the same time, to restrain the society with courtesy, thus embodying the social concept of hierarchical system, and ruling the ruling class with virtue and courtesy with benevolence as the core thought.

Although these thoughts of Confucianism reflect the concept of feudal class hierarchy, it is undeniable that they are also the thoughts of maintaining the symbiosis between society and political countries, which have had a great political impact on governing the country in later generations and are also the source of China's traditional thoughts.