Honesty is the most common and basic ethical value demand in society. In today's society, with the increasingly complex exchange relationship, market participants' demand for honesty is also increasingly strong. Not only economic activities need honesty, but also political activities, spiritual and cultural activities and all other social fields need honesty. The report of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly puts forward that we should focus on honesty and trustworthiness and strengthen the ideological and moral construction of the whole society. Hu Jintao and other central leading comrades have repeatedly emphasized the extreme importance of strengthening the construction of honesty and credit on different occasions. So, what is honesty? Why does our society today need honesty so much? The meaning of honesty and the category of essential honesty are composed of two concepts: "sincerity" and "faith". Sincerity means sincerity and honesty; Faith refers to trust, credit and trustworthiness. As a scientific moral category, "honesty" and "faith" are the products of modern society. In modern society, the marketization and internationalization of economy, the democratization and legalization of politics, the diversification of culture and the modernization of communication methods all highlight the value of honesty and require its practice. We can define honesty as the sum of psychological consciousness, principles and norms and behavioral activities that meet the requirements of the development of modern market economy, are closely related to modern economic contractual relations and democratic politics, and inherit the traditional virtues of honesty and trustworthiness. The essence of honesty should be grasped from the following aspects: first, honesty is a sincere and realistic attitude that people must and should have in life, in dealing with people and in life practice, and it is a behavioral quality of keeping promises. Its basic requirements are telling the truth, doing honest things and being honest. Honesty is sincerity and loyalty; Honesty means keeping your word and keeping your promise, which is the basic quality and character that modern people must and should have. Under the condition of market economy, only by establishing the moral quality of honesty and trustworthiness can people adapt to the requirements of social life and realize their own life value. Secondly, honesty is a kind of social moral principle and norm, which requires people to guide their behavior with the principle of seeking truth and being pragmatic, and treat all work with the attitude of knowing and doing. In modern society, integrity not only refers to the commercial integrity between citizens and legal persons, but also includes social integrity based on social justice, such as institutional integrity, national integrity, government integrity, enterprise integrity, organizational integrity and so on. In other words, any government and system should be organized and constructed according to the principle of good faith, and should also exercise its functions and powers according to the principle of good faith. Once it deviates from the principle and spirit of honesty, the government will lose faith in the people and the system will become an unreasonable burden. Thirdly, honesty is the dialectical unity of individual and society, psychology and behavior. Honesty is essentially the unity of virtue ethics and normative ethics or belief ethics and responsibility ethics, and the unity of deontology and utilitarianism, teleology and means theory. If "sincerity" emphasizes the sincerity of one's inner belief and is a kind of conduct and virtue, then "sincerity" is the externalization of this inner moral character and a kind of responsibility and norm. There is a saying in the history of China called "Sincerity in China, Faith in Foreign Countries". Honesty is not only a moral purpose, a belief that people should have, but also a moral means, a social responsibility that people should bear, and a way to seek and realize benefits. Honesty can be axiological and utilitarian, as well as deontological and deontological. The theory of value and the utilitarian view of honesty regard honesty as a kind of value and a means to achieve goals, and believe that without honesty, people cannot achieve their own development and perfection, and it is difficult to obtain long-term and real benefits. The view of honesty in deontology and deontology regards honesty as an obligation and an inherent requirement, and holds that people attach importance to honesty is the need to improve their own quality and realize all-round development. Even if it can't bring material benefits, it is still precious. We advocate the combination of deontology and utilitarianism on the issue of honesty. We regard honesty as a means of making profits and promoting development, and as a sacred mission and inherent obligation, which makes honesty noble and practical, great and ordinary, and embodies the value characteristics of "extremely bright and moderate" advocated by China traditional culture. In a word, honesty is the foundation and origin of all morality. It is not only a personal virtue and quality, but also a social moral principle and norm; It is not only an internal spirit and value, but also an external reputation and resource. Honesty is the embodiment of morality and the guarantee or source of utility. There are different types and forms of honesty. From the vertical historical coordinates, we can divide honesty into natural honesty in primitive blood society, family or interpersonal honesty in medieval agricultural society and public honesty in modern contract society. The natural integrity of primitive consanguineous society is manifested in the connection with consanguineous relationship, which arises from the needs of production and life within the original group, and the consanguineous group is the behavioral boundary of similar groups. In primitive society, where the level of productivity development is extremely low, individuals are completely dependent on blood groups, and naturally have loyalty and credit to blood groups, so "keeping promises and cultivating friendship" has become the basic code of conduct of primitive people. Moreover, this natural honesty is closely related to natural unity and courage, primitive collectivism and so on. The natural factors of honesty at this stage are more than social factors, and it is hazy, chaotic and lacking in ideological content as a whole. Honesty in medieval agricultural society is family or interpersonal honesty related to the dependence of status and rank. Agriculture-based economy is a self-sufficient and closed inward-looking economy, which is limited by narrow space-time and communication. It relies on family ties and "acquaintance society" for production, exchange and consumption. People live in an acquaintance society, and thus form moral principles and norms such as honesty to maintain this acquaintance society. In such a society, people have different status levels and different rights and obligations, so the content, nature and methods of honesty are different. In modern market society, honesty is characterized by contract. An essential difference between modern society and traditional agricultural society is from identity to contract, from acquaintance society to stranger society, from personal attachment to personal independence. Modern market economy is an open and export-oriented economy, which links production and consumption through exchange. It breaks the kinship between people, breaks the traditional geographical restrictions and makes the "acquaintance society" enter the "stranger world". In such a society, the integrity of commodity exchange can only be carried out under the protection of laws and systems by relying on contracts and contracts. With the development of market economy, the norm of honesty has developed from subconscious to explicit ideology, and it has become increasingly clear and specific, becoming the most basic and universal criterion for regulating social relations. From the horizontal realistic coordinates, we can divide the integrity of a society into economic integrity, political integrity and cultural integrity. Economic integrity refers to the integrity in economic life and material civilization construction, which is directly related to profit and credit, mainly manifested in the integrity of enterprises. Market economy should be honest economy, and honesty is the soul of market economy. As a borrower, whether it can gain market trust depends on its solvency; As an operator, whether it can gain the trust of investors depends on its operational ability; As an agent, whether you can gain the trust of controlling other people's assets depends on your ability to bear the asset responsibility to others according to law; As a laborer, whether he can gain the trust of the labor market depends on his professionalism and professional ability. With the rise of new trading methods such as e-commerce, online trading and futures trading, the spirit of credit ethics has become an important foundation for the healthy development of market economy. Experience at home and abroad shows that the more developed the market economy is, the more it needs to strengthen credit ethics, which is a prerequisite for integrating into the world economy and participating in international economic competition. Therefore, Franklin said, "Credit is money." Credit, trust and reputation are the passport of modern economic activities, as well as the power source and superior capital to ensure its success. Modern credit is the solemn commitment of the main body of economic activity to its own behavior and the positive evaluation of its performance by all walks of life. Credit includes professional credit in the sense of borrowing capital (including commercial credit, bank credit and consumer credit) and social credit in general economic activities. Trust is an economic relationship between two parties to a transaction based on credit. Only trustworthy enterprises can gain the trust of the public and have a good business environment. Reputation is the sublimation of general credit relationship. A trustworthy enterprise has a high reputation in the market and can be favored by other enterprises and consumers. Reputation is the spiritual wealth and value resource of an enterprise, a place and even a country, and even becomes a special capital. A reputable enterprise has a good image and high popularity in the market, which is itself a huge intangible asset. Economic integrity includes production integrity, exchange integrity, distribution integrity and consumption integrity, which are embodied in economic decision-making, economic activities and economic evaluation. Political integrity refers to the integrity in political life and political civilization construction, which is mainly manifested in government integrity. Honesty should be emphasized in governing the country. Zi Gong was a student of Confucius. He asked Confucius how to govern the country. Confucius summarized it as "sufficient food and grass, many soldiers and people's trust." Zi Gong asked which of the three must be removed and which one to go to first. Confucius replied without hesitation: "To join the army." Zi Gong also demanded that "having enough to eat" and "things that people believe in" must be removed. Which one should I go first? Confucius said, "Eat." In Confucius' view, "people have died since ancient times, and people can't stand without faith." Building people's trust in the government is more important than a strong army and adequate food for the "establishment" of the country. Xunzi also had a profound understanding of this. He believes that the law is strong if it wins the trust of the people, and the country is weak if it does not win the trust of the people. Therefore, the purpose and foundation of governing the country should be to establish faith. In modern society, political democratization has become a trend, which requires standardizing the behavior of the government and its officials according to the principle of good faith, increasing the transparency of government behavior, avoiding administrative monopoly and black-box operation of administrative work, making government affairs open, administering according to law, and establishing an honest government. In addition, political integrity also includes the integrity of political activities and political systems. Cultural integrity is the integrity in cultural life and spiritual civilization construction, which is mainly manifested in educational integrity and academic integrity. In contemporary China, developing advanced culture means developing national, scientific and popular socialist culture facing modernization, the world and the future, constantly enriching people's spiritual world and enhancing people's spiritual strength. To build an advanced socialist culture, we must adhere to the direction of serving the people and socialism, adhere to the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend, arm people with scientific theories, guide them with correct public opinion, shape them with noble spirit and inspire them with excellent works. To this end, it is necessary to strengthen the civic moral construction focusing on honesty and trustworthiness, implement the moral standards and systems of honesty and trustworthiness in all walks of life, and resolutely eradicate dishonest behaviors in the spiritual and cultural fields. The function and function of honesty in social life, honesty not only has the functions of education, encouragement and evaluation, but also has the functions of restraint, standardization and adjustment. Personally, honesty is a noble personality force; For enterprises, honesty is a valuable intangible asset; As far as society is concerned, honesty is a normal production and living order; As far as a country is concerned, honesty is a good international image. First, honesty is the foundation of an individual. Honesty is a moral quality and character that an individual must possess. If a person does not have honest moral character and quality, it is not only difficult to form a complete self with internal unity, but also difficult to exert his potential and achieve success. Cheng Yi pointed out: "A scholar must not be dishonest, be dishonest and be good, and be dishonest and be a gentleman. If you don't study honestly, you will learn miscellaneous things; If you don't do things honestly, you will lose; Self-seeking is not sincerity, but deceiving your heart and abandoning your loyalty; If you don't treat others with sincerity, you will lose your morality and increase your resentment. "