Reflections on Confucian values of life
Cultivate life values with Confucianism
Keywords: Confucianism; Governing the country; Singapore
China Library Classification Number: G 1 12 Document Identification Number: A Document Number:1008-4428 (2012)1-22-03.
I came to Singapore with a lot of doubts. A country with an area of only 682 square kilometers is just a little red dot on the map of Malay Peninsula. Surrounded by the sea, there are no resources, and even the most basic domestic water needs to be imported from Malaysia. However, there are 5 million permanent residents on its land. It is such a crowded little place that has created an impossible miracle. The economy developed from the world's fifth busiest port and emerging financial and high-tech industries gave birth to "Switzerland" in Southeast Asia.
How does Lee Kuan Yew make people in multi-ethnic and multi-lingual countries live in harmony and unite as one, and what values does Lee Kuan Yew use to lead multiculturalism? It was only after the study that he recognized that he sublimated the basic values of Confucianism from the cultural and ethical levels into Singapore's national consciousness and regarded Confucianism as the ruling ideology and guiding ideology of Singapore as a whole.
In the early 1980s, the Singapore government identified "benevolence, wisdom, courage, righteousness, courtesy and faithfulness" as the important content of Confucian ethics curriculum in middle schools, and made "loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, love, courtesy, righteousness, honesty and shame" as the ruling program that the government must implement. Loyalty means loyalty to the country, and the interests of the country are above everything else, and the resulting group consciousness also gives people a sense of belonging; Filial piety, benevolence, love, courtesy, righteousness, honesty and shame are the basic requirements of family social ethics, forming people's unified values.
Confucianism can be passed down for thousands of years, and it must have its uniqueness. Many conceptual aphorisms in Confucian classics contain incisive meanings. Singapore's governance benefits from Confucianism, and China's future social development can also seek wisdom from this treasure house.
What is Confucianism? Generally speaking, Confucianism is a theory about the moral and ethical norms of human society. Its most basic theoretical basis is "the theory of good nature". That is, human nature (nature) is good, good. Moreover, this property is similar and universal. It is only because of the acquired changes in living habits and environment that all kinds of differences in behavior are caused, which leads to the deviation of "goodness".
On the basis of the theory of good nature, the main idea of China's Confucian culture governing the country is moral education. This thought holds that since human nature is good and bad habits are only infected later, social governance should start with moral education and persuade people to give up bad habits and return to the innate "good" situation, so that society will be peaceful. In ancient times, China emphasized "educating the world", that is, educating ordinary people. So Confucianism despises the legal system and values morality. Confucianism believes that if people are taught by morality and etiquette, they will respect themselves and be completely convinced.
The Confucian theory of benevolence is very important. Confucianism does not rely on force, but emphasizes benevolence and morality, and regards benevolence and morality as the only way to strive for and govern the world. In the past thousands of years, this idea has been proved to be correct countless times. Whoever can follow this law will succeed; Anyone who violates this law is doomed to failure. This is the crystallization of thousands of years of experience and wisdom accumulated in human history, which will play a role not only in the past, but also in the present and future. The Confucian theory of benevolence and virtue will never be out of date. This idea can not only be used as a concept of governing the country, but also be useful to leaders of any class.
The core of Confucian ethics is a word "ceremony". Since human nature is good, rulers should let people know self-control and return to that polite social state. It is the so-called "self-denial." This gift includes etiquette, courtesy, etiquette and rules and regulations. Therefore, Confucianism requires people to know how to control themselves, restrain their desires, observe etiquette and eliminate violence in order to achieve a peaceful social environment.
The inheritance of human culture is a basic reason why human beings can exist in the form of "people" and differ from ordinary animals. The essence of Confucianism, which adapts to the requirements of the times and internalizes the spirit of the Chinese nation, is an important part of the internal driving force of building a harmonious society in contemporary China. Confucian pursuit of "universal harmony" and its cultural and ecological model can provide us with the following two lessons for building a harmonious society today:
First, from the requirements of universal harmony, we attach great importance to the systematic pursuit of "harmony". The ecological model of Confucian culture pays attention to the basic operating mechanism of harmony, balance and stability, which should provide us with a certain degree of warning for seeking harmony today. At the same time, the value orientation of the internal unity of "harmony" and "life" that Confucianism attaches importance to is helpful to eliminate the one-sidedness in the pursuit of harmony. Building a harmonious society is an important part of China's characteristic modernization, and the discussion of its internal spiritual motive force naturally involves an important theoretical topic of China's modernization spiritual motive force.
Secondly, it emphasizes the extreme importance of national spirit: national spirit is the spiritual support for a nation's survival and development. National spirit is the core and soul of national culture. Therefore, as one of the mainstream traditions of China culture, the essence of Confucianism can be said to constitute an important part of the Chinese national spirit. There is every reason to regard the essence of Confucianism, which adapts to the requirements of the times and internalizes the spirit of the Chinese nation, as the internal driving force for the construction of a harmonious society in contemporary China.
China is the birthplace of Confucianism, which has shaped the unique national character, psychology and quality of the Chinese nation and guided our national unity and struggle for thousands of years. Where is the value orientation of China people at present? Where do the socialist core values come from? Wen Jiabao recently lamented the lack of social integrity and moral decline, stressing that without the improvement of national quality and the restraint of moral strength, a country can never become a truly powerful country or a respected country. The People's Daily published an article saying that since the reform and opening up, China has successively carried out the activities of "five stresses, four beauties and three loves" in the field of social morality, and issued the Outline for the Implementation of Patriotism Education, but on the contrary, schools put moral education aside for scores; For the benefit of the hospital, medical ethics and saving lives are all lost. However, in China's extremely fragile moral ecology, it is getting worse and worse, permeating all walks of life and departments, seriously ruining the social atmosphere.
After more than 30 years of reform and opening up, China's economy has developed rapidly and become the focus of world attention. At the same time, under the impact of western culture, people's value orientation has changed, and the lack of morality makes individualism and money worship commonplace. Fake drugs and poisoned food constantly challenge people's moral bottom line. In the survey of 20 10, China people's happiness ranks 125 among 55 countries in the world, and only 39% of them are happy in spiritual life. In the past 30 years, people's economic conditions and living conditions have greatly improved, and most people have no worries about food and clothing, but in contrast, the happiness index has declined. The core of the problem is that values let desires dominate, and they lack faith. Apart from making money, they don't know what the goal and pursuit of life are, and they are not good at finding the sunny side. They only see their own misfortunes, ignore their own happiness and don't know how to contribute. There are fewer and fewer people who are willing to give selflessly. According to statistics, the owners of private enterprises in China are willing to spend a lot of money on gambling (70% of the turnover of Singaporean casinos is actually given by Chinese mainland people) and entertainment, but they are unwilling to lend a helping hand to charity. More and more people haggle over every ounce, and people are full of mutual distrust.
It is mentioned in Public Administration that no political system, judicial system or administrative management can replace ethical education. Learn and reflect, face the future of 2 1 century, explore the combination of Confucian culture with China's national characteristics and times, and take its essence. The foundation of building a harmonious socialist society is honesty first. It is hard to imagine what the social environment is like without honesty, and honesty comes from the heart and should be restrained at all times. Self-reflection every day, eradicate bad thoughts, and be sincere and good; See Si Qi, disgust and so on all show the purity and longevity of Confucianism. Learning from and using Confucianism is the consensus of every era in history, the correct choice that has been verified by experience, and the ideal coordinate that conforms to the national conditions of China people. It not only plays a positive role in promoting the construction of a harmonious socialist society today, but also has far-reaching educational significance for the future, which deserves our consideration and study of the Confucian concept of governing the country in Singapore.
Cultivating core moral values is a crucial decision. Morality is to the government what the soul is to the people. It is mainly to stipulate people's behavior direction and life goals, set life ideals, and solve how people should adjust according to the requirements of society. No matter how advanced the political system, management technology and legal norms are, they are all like an empty shell without ethics. Confucius pointed out the ethical orientation simply and clearly with the words "loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, love, courtesy, righteousness, honesty and shame". Learning from Singapore's experience, we need to start with education and solve people's value orientation problems with Confucian ethics.
First of all, education should start with children. Starting from teenagers and starting from schools, Singapore adopts different methods for students at different levels. Primary school students will set up compulsory Confucian ethics through cartoons and diagrams when they enter middle schools and universities. Of course, this is not a simple sermon, but a kind of infiltration and positive influence on norms. The current exam-oriented education makes our school only teach and not educate people, putting the cart before the horse. We must be human before we can do anything to cultivate an excellent person.
Secondly, starting from public officials, we should know how to be kind, polite and honest. Confucianism emphasizes people-oriented. The government works for the people and bravely puts all the needs of the people above personal interests. The most important thing is to have great kindness. In Confucius' view, benevolence is not only the goal that people pursue and the ideal realm that they should achieve, but also the highest moral code of conduct for treating people. Its core is to love the people, but also to love the people. On the one hand, it respects people's personality, on the other hand, it seeks interests for the people, which embodies the idea of people-oriented and all-round development of people. Do as you would be done by.
"My responsibility is to make people live happily, not to profit from people's suffering." This is what Lee Kuan Yew said in 1965, and he did it. It took 46 years to build a non-state island into a powerful country with people living and working in peace and contentment and prosperity. Pragmatic style runs through the whole governance process of Singapore, and policies are implemented. Be honest and educate people to be honest and trustworthy. Confucius said that he respected things and believed in things, and he also believed in things. Only when the country wins the trust of the people can it be founded, and only when the people trust the country can they settle down. People without faith can't do it. Faith is the wealth of the country and the refuge of the people. Facing the 2 1 century and the colorful commodity economy of reform and opening up, advocating the virtue of honesty is still the foundation for the country to meet the challenges. When public officials exercise power on behalf of the people, they should always put the interests of the people first. Shame. Lee Kuan Yew emphasized that the key to the rise and fall of a country is to have a clean government respected by the people. The survival of Singapore depends on the integrity and efficiency of officials. At present, the voice of anti-corruption in China is getting louder and louder. Wen said in response to a reporter's question a few days ago: "At present, I think the biggest danger lies in corruption. The soil to eliminate corruption lies in reforming the system and system. I know that the life of the country lies in the hearts of the people. To solve people's grievances and realize people's wishes, we must create conditions for people to criticize and supervise the government. " Therefore, under the guidance of Confucianism, we should vigorously improve the quality of public officials and build a pragmatic, fair, clean and efficient government.
The third is to start with public media. Media is a tool for social propaganda and a beacon for leading social culture. People will look at society with media thinking, especially now that the internet is developed. The truth of news makes it impossible to tell right from wrong. At present, there are more negative news reports and less positive guidance in China. Everyone will cover the whole from the special case, and can't see the positive side of the government, the prosperity of the economy, the increasing prosperity of life and the progress of the country. The Singapore government is good at transmitting information to the society, and always makes the national consciousness everywhere in the crisis and puts the national interest first. Short reminders on the bus, such as "get off first and then get on, avoid crowding, and give up your seat voluntarily", make the shadow of respecting the old and loving the young everywhere and impressive. Let ideology be widely covered through various media, and always remind people of their daily words and deeds, be honest and trustworthy. Honesty is a noble moral quality.
The fourth is to strictly control heavy penalties. Events involving endangering public interests and losing morality should be severely punished. Poisoned milk powder and counterfeit drugs are life elements that endanger people's lives and safety, and public officials who neglect their duties and fail to perform their supervisory functions must be dealt with strictly. To enhance the image of officials and enhance the credibility of the government, we should first standardize public power and put officials in a "goldfish bowl". Publicly expose and hold accountable all kinds of dishonest behaviors of officials, and treat the behaviors of dereliction of duty and neglect of people's livelihood with a hellish zero tolerance attitude.
References:
Xu Lingyun, Xu Qiang. General theory of Confucianism in China [M]. Guangzhou: Guangdong Education Press, 2002.
[2] Zeng Guangcun. Research on the Methods of Ideological and Political Education in Singapore and Its Reference [D]. Southwest University.20 20 10/0.
[3] Item. Power or Aid: Confucian Traditional Culture and Singapore's Modernization [J]. Southeast Asian Studies, 201,(03).
About the author:
Xu Lin, female, Jiangsu Golden Laker, deputy magistrate of Jinhu County People's Government, Jiangsu Province.
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