Sacrificing one's life for righteousness: the value pursuit of China traditional culture Abstract: Sacrificing one's life for righteousness is the indomitable spiritual pillar of thousands of Chinese sons and daughters in Qian Qian throughout the ages. As a progressive outlook on life, it has been regarded as the standard to evaluate the value of life by generations of people with lofty ideals. This national spirit has great historical shock and penetrating power in time and space, and always shines with the brilliance of humanistic spirit. Keywords: sacrifice one's life for righteousness; China traditional culture; Value pursuit. : G 122 Document ID: A Date of receipt: 20 18-02- 14 About the author: Zhou Deyi (1955-), male, president of Hunan Teachers' Education Association, postdoctoral consultant professor, philosophy professor and doctoral supervisor of Hunan Education Research Institute. "Righteousness" refers to spiritual morality, which can be said to be an appropriate principle in the world, the moral standard of China's traditional culture and one of the "five permanents" of Confucianism. Through the interpretation and deduction of the sages of past dynasties, the connotation of "righteousness" has been continuously enriched and developed. What people call "righteousness" today mainly refers to justice or public welfare. "Profit", that is, interest, mainly refers to material interests such as life, money and property, but also includes spiritual interests such as reputation and feelings. For people, the highest and greatest "profit" is life. "Righteousness" and "benefit" have always been two concepts of unity of opposites in China traditional culture. The debate about "righteousness and benefit" in the history of China's philosophy has a long history. Confucius first discussed the opposition between "righteousness" and "benefit". He said: "A gentleman is figurative, while a villain is figurative." He also said: "the gentleman's official position is also where righteousness lies." "The gentleman is also in the world, without comfort, without Mo Ye, but with the ratio of righteousness." In other words, a gentleman should take "righteousness" as the norm. Confucius' view of justice and benefit is the dividing line between a gentleman and a villain. In response to a question from Liang Huiwang, Mencius said, "Why does the king want to make profits? There is also righteousness. " He regards "righteousness" and "profit" as opposites, emphasizing that "righteousness" should be valued and "profit" should be despised. In the Western Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu inherited Confucius and Mencius' view of justice and benefit, and put forward the view that "just doing good (righteousness) is not beneficial to people, knowing is not merit", emphasizing that morality and utility cannot coexist, which has a great influence on future generations. Song Rucheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Zhu and others insisted on Dong Zhongshu's view that morality and utility repel each other. Cheng Hao said: "Generally speaking, if you give up righteousness, you will gain, and if you give up profit, you will gain righteousness. Everything in the world is just justice and profit. " "Righteousness" and "benefit" are both opposite and unified, and they kill each other. The essence of the dispute between righteousness and benefit refers to whether to choose "sacrifice benefit for righteousness" or "sacrifice benefit" when the contradiction between righteousness and benefit is irreconcilable, and its essence is the embodiment of outlook on life and values. On the other hand, within a certain range, you can have both righteousness and benefit. Throughout the traditional culture of China, our ancestors did not reject the affirmation and pursuit of legitimate interests. Confucius said, "Being rich and expensive is what people want, and there is no way to get it. Poverty and meanness are human evils. If you don't get them their way, you won't go. Isn't it good to be famous if a gentleman goes to benevolence? If a gentleman has no final food, he will violate benevolence and will do it again. " He also said: "Those who are determined by Tao are ashamed of those who eat sick food and clothing." It can be seen that a gentleman loves money and takes it properly. However, "unjust and letting wealth and fame drift by like clouds", never take unjust "profit". Xunzi believes that "righteousness before benefit is glorious, and righteousness before benefit is humiliating." That is, those who put righteousness first deserve praise, while those who put utility first deserve shame. Mohist Mo Zhai said: "Righteousness is beneficial." He advocates the consistency of righteousness and benefit, and both, and thinks that people should not only talk about benevolence and righteousness, but also pursue interests reasonably and legally. Ru Song Zhang Zai said, "Benevolence is beneficial to the world." He believes that the "public interest" in the world is "righteousness". The interests of the country, the nation and the people are public interests and require "benefiting from the interests of the people". Yan Yuan, a Confucian in the Qing Dynasty, was dissatisfied with Dong Zhongshu's view of justice and benefit, and changed his words to "profit from friends, know their ways and count their merits", thinking that justice and benefit should not be neglected, but should be paid equal attention to. Although "righteousness" and "benefit" are the unity of opposites, there are still differences between them, and this difference has always been regarded as the standard to test moral standards by the ancients. China's traditional culture holds that morality is the highest value pursuit, so a gentleman should value righteousness over profit, while a villain often values profit over righteousness. Confucius advocated "seeing profit and forgetting righteousness" and advocated that "gentleman's righteousness is above everything else" Therefore, people's thoughts come first and morality comes first. Extension means spirit and integrity come first. At the same time, The Doctrine of the Mean emphasizes that "everything from the emperor to Shu Ren is based on self-cultivation", and requires self-cultivation according to the requirements of "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faithfulness", constantly improving one's moral character and earnestly practicing it. A gentleman's life and moral ideal are mutually unified, but what should I do when they can't have both? Confucius said, "A benevolent person does not have to survive and harm benevolence, but kill it for benevolence." It is a glorious death to sacrifice one's life for lofty value pursuit. Mencius affirmed that life and morality are valuable. He said, "Life is as I wish, and righteousness is as I wish." However, when "you can't have your cake and eat it", you have to "sacrifice your life for justice". When dealing with the conflict between "life and death" and "righteousness and benefit", Mencius held high the rational spirit, advocated the fearless spirit of "sacrificing life for righteousness" and was not afraid of bloodshed and sacrifice. Therefore, the value choice of China's traditional culture has been pushed to the moral benchmark of just human beings praised by the world. Source: Teacher Shang