In the Tang Dynasty, Kong Man defined virtue, merit and speech respectively in Justice in the Spring and Autumn Period and Zuo Zhuan: "Virtue means legislation and helping others"; "Meritorious service means saving the nation, and meritorious service means helping the time"; Making a statement means that it is important and reasonable enough to be passed on. This is not only an interpretation, but also raises the standard of "immortality" in some aspects, such as "giving alms to the masses", which Confucius thinks is done by saints, and "Yao Shun is still sick!" Requirements.
Later, in the Song Dynasty, Mr. Zhang Zai's "Four Sentences of Hengqu" said: "Establish heaven and earth, establish people, never forget the past, and the world will be peaceful", which further concretized the "three immortals"-"Establish heaven and earth, establish people", which is Lide. Mr. Ma Yifu has different interpretations of the "Four Sentences of Hengqu": "The size of heaven and earth is called life. All the virtues of the human heart are kindness. Scholars' affairs should not be based on knowledge, seeking, kindness and incompetence. You can do this. It is a heart of heaven and earth. " Confucius said, "The old man is well. Friends believe it. Less are pregnant. " Scholars are determined to have such a climate. This is for the people's life. "It can be said that the heart is heaven and earth and the life is for the people, which is the highest standard and embodiment of a person's public morality and private morality. The best way to "learn from the past" is to make a statement and write a book. "Peace for the world" is meritorious service, but I don't know how many times higher than "meritorious service means saving the nation and saving the nation". It should also be a lofty goal and ideal, which is difficult to achieve. As far as Washington and Jefferson are concerned, I dare not say that everything is peaceful.
In fact, these different interpretations, promotion and concretization are the results of continuous refining and adjustment by ancient scholars and thinkers in the process of Confucian practice, and they are all different manifestations of Confucianism. Influenced by Confucianism, ancient literati took self-cultivation, governing the country and leveling the world as their responsibility. The so-called "learn martial arts well and sell goods to the emperor." This pursuit, driven by the imperial examination system and the idea of governing the country, has become the pursuit of most literati. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, thinkers such as Wang Fuzhi, Huang Zongxi and Gu put forward that learning must be "practical", which is a high summary of this pursuit.
Many people say that only two and a half ancient literati or scholars can achieve "three immortals". Confucius, Wang Yangming and Zeng Guofan are half.
Confucius was a famous thinker and educator in ancient China and the founder of Confucianism. For thousands of years, his thoughts and theories have been influencing rulers and scholars. Confucius Sage and Great Sage are fixed.
Wang Yangming, a philosopher and thinker, is a "master of mind" in the history of ancient philosophy in China. Ideologically, Wang Yangming integrated the essence of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and founded a new psychology with the core of "mind is reason", "unity of knowledge and action" and "to conscience". Compared with his ideological achievements, his literary martial arts are not too rich. Wang Yangming, from the official to the left capital of Duchayuan, the governor of Guangdong, Guangxi, Huguang and Jiangxi provinces, has outstanding political achievements and a good official voice. He was appointed as a new official before his death and became a public official after his death. He led the troops to fight and put down the rebellion, and selected and trained the militia from the court for free, thus putting down the large-scale rebellion that plagued the four southern provinces.
Zeng Guofan, on the other hand, was a politician, strategist, philosopher and writer in modern China, the founder and commander-in-chief of Xiang Army. Mao Zedong said in "Letter to li jinxi" on August 23rd 19 17: It is foolish to be close to others, but it is foolish to serve Ceng Wenzheng alone ... Chiang Kai-shek also warned his children many times: "Read more books and letters like Ceng Wenzheng and Hu Linyi". Some people also summed up Zeng Guofan's life with couplets: "Lide made meritorious deeds, made three immortal words, served as a teacher and became a perfect person." However, because his "meritorious service" originated from the demise of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he was a great hero of the rejuvenation of the Qing court and was identified by later generations as the culprit in suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It is not easy to judge who is right or wrong. But it always casts a shadow over its "three immortals". As for the failure to effectively curb the killing in Laojiu, it makes it look less considerate, so Ceng Wenzheng is half.
These three people are the so-called "two saints and a half" who achieved "three immortals" in China history.
In fact, strictly according to this standard, Old Master Q's "achievements" can only be seen in later generations. He travels around the world to promote his theory, but he is not regarded as the idea of ruling the world. It was not until the early Han Dynasty that he gradually became the guiding ideology for rulers to govern the country and learn from scholars, and then developed into a unique "Confucianism". In order to break the situation of "learning to be an excellent official" and aristocratic monopolization of education, he put forward and practiced "teaching without distinction" according to the standard of "three immortals". For Old Master Q, the only regret is that he did not "contribute to time".
The height and difficulty of Wang Shouren's theory of mind lies not in its philosophical thinking and academic height, but in that it not only surpasses Confucianism, which has been in the dominant position for thousands of years, but also can find a new way and start a new stove, breaking the situation that Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism "Tian Li" is shrouded in Confucianism. Although his "contribution" is limited to a corner and his "words" are controversial, in any case, according to the standard of "Three Immortals", Wang Shouren has the highest total score in history, while Confucius, Mencius and Zhu Chengdu are not as good as him.
As for Ceng Wenzheng, if strictly according to the standard, his "virtue" is flawed, his "merit" is quite controversial, and his "words" are not enough to form a family, so he is lucky to be half. I think it has something to do with being more familiar with modern people and being respected by Rungong.
In fact, there is still a scholar in history who is "virtuous, meritorious and outspoken", but this gentleman's single subject score is not the best, better than the average. Yes, he is the Duke of Fan Wenzheng who cares about the word "sadness and joy".
In terms of personal morality, Fan Wenzheng is regarded as a moral model because of his outspoken, selfless, open-minded, indifferent to fame and fortune, honest and clean. In the martial arts of Wenzhi, he is a politician, strategist and educator who works for the people's interests, defends the border against the enemy, innovates government decrees, initiates education, recruits talents, builds the country with literature, and strengthens the country with martial arts. Compared with the above two semi-saints, his literary martial arts are worse, but compared with Confucius and Wang Shouren, this is his shortcoming in "speaking". According to the standard of "Three Immortals", I think model essay will be more balanced, purer and better than Ceng Wenzheng.
So I want to say that there should be three and a half saints among ancient scholars and philosophers, and there were still half.