This paper briefly introduces the ideal personality, and compares the differences in contents, ideas and values between Confucius and the western ideal personality, with a view to integrating the essence of Chinese and western thoughts, which has clear enlightenment for shaping modern ideal personality.
Paper Keywords: Confucius; Western thoughts; Ideal personality
First, the definition of ideal personality
The word personality in English comes from the Greek persona, which means mask. It refers to the masks worn by Greek actors during performances to represent the personality of the characters they perform. Just like the facial makeup of Peking Opera, different facial makeup and colors represent different personalities. There are many definitions of personality. Generally speaking, personality is a unique pattern that constitutes a person's thoughts, emotions and behaviors. This unique model contains a stable and unified psychological quality, which distinguishes one person from others. Ideal personality is a perfect model of morality and the highest embodiment of moral requirements and ideals in a certain society.
Li Zonggui, a scholar, believes that "ideal personality is a persistent behavioral tendency and pattern and a response to social ethics." The ideal personality has three characteristics: first, it has the function of moral example. Ideal personality is the most perfect personality model, which does not exist in real life, but is a surreal ideal personality. Therefore, the ideal personality is the goal that human beings pursue all their lives. If "personality" can also be divided into morbid and healthy or noble and low, then the ideal personality is undoubtedly a moral model and an example worthy of learning and admiration from members of society. Second, it is eternal. The ideal personality will not disappear with the development of society or the change of social form, and it can stand the test of time. Third, it can reflect the ideal personality behavior pattern. People who pursue ideal personality must have keen insight and lasting endurance, be able to explore the interactive potential of subjective initiative, environment and culture, and constantly improve their personality characteristics.
Second, the ideal personality of Confucius
Confucius is a great thinker, educator and founder of Confucianism in China. He was born in the Spring and Autumn Period when the society was in turmoil and people's livelihood was depressed. It is this chaotic situation that created Confucius' strong sense of social responsibility. He hopes to establish a harmonious and orderly social order by establishing an ideal ethics. But the establishment of this ideal ethics must be based on ideal personality. Therefore, the Analects of Confucius involves the definition, cultivation and cultivation of ideal personality, and Confucius' ideal personality can be summarized as "sage" and "gentleman". Confucius' so-called "sage" and "gentleman" are not much different, and they are both representatives of ideal personality. Zhang Liwen thought: "A gentleman is an ideal personality that Confucius thinks can be realized in the real society, and a saint is the ultimate personality that can be seen." "Gentleman" appears in The Analects of Confucius as many as 107 times. The word "gentleman" was originally a general term for aristocrats. It was only from Confucius that it was endowed with moral meaning and became a title for people with noble moral character and perfect personality. The ideal personality conceived by Confucius is the personality of a saint and a gentleman, not an isolated combination of benevolence, wisdom and courage, but an organic combination of the three. The first is benevolence, which is the core of Confucius' ideal personality. It is the benevolent we talk about every day. And "wisdom" refers to people's wisdom, which is people's understanding of nature and rational thinking. But for Confucius, the "wisdom" of ideal personality is not the acquisition of rational knowledge, but mainly the understanding of ethics. The so-called "knowing people" and "knowing courtesy". With this kind of wisdom, it is possible to become a virtuous person, so having "wisdom" is a necessary element of "benevolence" and finally, there is "courage", which, as the name implies, is courage and courage. Courage is also an essential element of a gentleman and an integral part of benevolence. Therefore, it can be said that "the benevolent must be brave, and the brave need not be benevolent" ("The Analects of Confucius"). We can see that Confucius fully explained "benevolence", but simply mentioned "wisdom" and "courage", emphasizing that "wisdom" and "courage" serve benevolence. So Confucius' so-called ideal personality is actually moral personality.
Third, Western ideal personality.
At first, western psychologists only paid attention to morbid personality for a long time, and established modern psychological theory on this basis. This situation was not changed until the rise of humanism, the third ideological trend in the 1950s. Maslow, a representative figure of humanism, defines "self-realization" as the fact that individuals can constantly realize their potential and complete their careers or days. A self-fulfilling individual is to fully tap and make use of his own potential to make it perfect. Such an individual is called a mentally healthy person or a natural person by Maslow. Maslow's self-fulfilling individual is the highest realm of human nature. Rogers described the ideal personality as a trend, not an end. He believes that self-realization is a difficult and painful process, including facing the challenges of life problems, removing the obstacles set by the environment to self-realization and accepting the weaknesses in one's own humanity. Jung and Maslow both believe that only a few people can realize their ideal personality. Why do few people realize their ideal personality? Jung believes that all people will be influenced by their personal behaviors, thoughts and values in the first half of their lives. Maslow not only listed his childhood experiences, but also listed the required material, social environment, educational model and cultural atmosphere as important reasons that prevented people from realizing their ideal personality. So the degree of self-realization can only be "close" or "possible". Fromm attributed all the reasons to modern society. He believed that only a morbid society can produce morbid personality.
Fourthly, the comparison between Confucius' ideal personality and Western ideal personality.
1. Similarities between them
(1) Their ideal personality backgrounds are similar. Confucius showed a sense of hardship because of dissatisfaction with the reality at that time, and then put forward the ideal personality of a saint and a gentleman. However, at first, western psychologists only analyzed the morbid personality, but they all realized all kinds of ills in social reality, and then comprehensively expounded and developed the "ideal personality".
(2) The purpose of proposing ideal personality is similar. Both Confucius and western scholars put forward the "ideal personality", hoping that people will follow this example, not succumb to the pressure of living environment, and persistently pursue and realize the ideal personality.
(3) Both pay attention to the integrity and separability of ideal personality. Both Confucius thousands of years ago and western scholars in the 20th century have noticed that ideal personality is an organic combination of many factors. Confucius is divided into three parts: benevolence, wisdom and courage, while western scholars comprehensively expound intelligence, morality, ability and potential.
2. The difference between the two.
(1) The content of ideal personality has its own emphasis. Sages and gentlemen are the representatives of Confucius' ideal personality, and the most important thing is "benevolence" "Cultivate one's morality, keep the family in order, govern the country and level the world" is a concise summary of the personality of the sages. The ideal personality in the west pays more attention to individual development. He advocates that social justice fully affirms the individual and opposes being above the individual. In a word, the ideal personality in the west is the right standard, while the ideal personality of Confucius is the ethical standard.
(2) The evaluation criteria of ideal personality are very different. "Gentleman's righteousness, villain's benefit". When there is a contradiction between righteousness and benefit, you should give up your life for justice. Confucianism emphasizes being a person of "virtue, merit and eloquence". However, westerners' personality value orientation is to value profit over righteousness. Although there are various values in the west, utilitarianism has always been the mainstream value in the west. They think people should maximize their rights.
(3) There are different ways to practice ideal personality. Confucius takes "benevolence" and "righteousness" as the primary standards, and practice should finally reach the highest state of harmony between man and nature through introspection, self-discipline and self-cultivation. The ideal channels of personality cultivation in the west are from outside to inside and from outside to inside. Because westerners place too much emphasis on individualism and hedonism, there must be strict legal provisions to supervise and restrain their behavior. Personal freedom and power in western society are maintained by the strengthening of external forces.