Self-cultivation means improving one's ideological and moral level through study, training and exercise. In Confucian ethics, self-cultivation occupies an extremely important position. Today, when human society has entered the 2 1 century, we must learn and draw lessons from the theory and thought of self-cultivation in Confucianism in order to improve the ideological and moral quality of college students and shape new people with perfect personality characteristics. Self-cultivation-the premise and foundation of "managing the family, governing the country and leveling the world" The Book of Rites University says: "If you want to be the wise man in the world first, you should govern your country first; If you want to govern your country, you should first get your family together; If you want to reunite with your family, you should first repair your body; If you want to cultivate yourself, you should be upright first; If you want to be right, you must be sincere: if you want to be sincere, you must know first; Know in the matter. " This summarizes the eight steps advocated by Confucianism to carry out moral cultivation and rule the world: seeking truth, knowing and doing, sincerity, integrity, self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world. In these eight steps, "self-cultivation" is a key link between the preceding and the following, and it is a principle that everyone should follow, regardless of rank. "From heaven to Shu Ren, cultivation is the foundation." Confucianism believes that the first thing to cultivate one's morality is to aim high. The purpose of self-cultivation is to manage the family, govern the country and level the world. This is not only to improve one's moral cultivation, but also to be friendly to the family, to ensure the country and to educate the world, that is, Confucius said "cultivate one's morality to respect", "cultivate one's morality to protect people" and "cultivate one's morality to protect the people", as Mencius said "cultivate one's morality to level the world". Confucius said, "He who is kind has no evil." "Benevolence" is the highest moral standard and ideal of Confucius, and it is also the goal he pursued all his life. He is determined to be benevolent. He will stick to his ambition even when he is frustrated and poor, and he will stick to his ambition when he is down and out, so as to achieve "doing all kinds of evils" and become a collection of "gentleness, kindness, courtesy, frugality, tolerance, faith and sensitivity". Therefore, only by making up his mind first and setting up lofty ideals and ambitions can he turn self-cultivation into a subjective and conscious action, constantly urging himself and inspiring self-cultivation. The combination of learning and thinking is the basic way and method for Confucianism to strengthen its own cultivation. Xia Zi, a student of Confucius, said: "Be knowledgeable and determined, ask and think, and benevolence is among them." Determined is the premise and foundation of self-cultivation, but only determined not to study will eventually get nothing. "A gentleman learns what he knows." Studying hard and reading widely is not only the way to realize personal ambition, but also the premise and foundation to cultivate a gentleman's personality. "If you don't know, ask, if you don't learn, you will give in, and then you will be virtuous." While studying, we should also pay attention to "careful thinking", that is, ethical thinking about what we have learned and introspection about our words and deeds, which is an important part of strengthening our self-cultivation. Confucius said, "Learning without thinking is useless, and being good without learning is dangerous." Learning and thinking complement each other and promote each other. Learning must take "thinking" as the center, study with a thinking attitude, and cultivate thinking with learning in order to become a saint. Based on this, Confucius put forward the idea of "gentleman Jiu Si": "If you see clearly, listen attentively, think enthusiastically, look respectfully, speak loyally, think respectfully, ask questions, think hard and think hard, you can see what you mean." How to "think", we should constantly "introspect", always check whether our words and deeds meet the moral requirements, consciously carry out moral supervision, minimize shortcomings, and strive to correct mistakes. As the saying goes: people are not sages, to err is human. In real life, there is no saint who doesn't make mistakes. The key is what attitude to treat mistakes. Confucius said, "If you go too far, you are not afraid of change." If you make a mistake, don't be afraid to correct it. It would be great if it could be corrected. To do this, we need to constantly strengthen self-examination and self-discipline, and correct mistakes when we know them. In this way, "a gentleman is learned and cares about himself every day, but he knows it clearly and does not make mistakes." Not only should you be knowledgeable, but you should always reflect on yourself, so as to keep a clear head and not make any mistakes. Confucius said, "A gentleman seeks for himself, while a villain seeks for others." As a gentleman, you should turn your back on yourself, be strict with yourself, find faults from yourself when something happens, and "bow to yourself and despise others." Only when a person constantly reflects on himself, seriously finds out his own problems and shortcomings, and constantly corrects and improves, can he shape a perfect personality. Cultivating noble moral sentiments involves not only learning and thinking, but also "doing". "Conduct", that is, moral practice, is one of Confucius' "four teachings" (literature, conduct, loyalty and faith), which has always been highly valued by Confucian teachers. The Book of Rites, The Doctrine of the Mean, says, "Walk near benevolence." Only by striving for moral practice can we reach the ideal state of "benevolence" pursued by Confucianism. Xunzi pointed out: "Although the Tao is close, it cannot be done;" Small as it is, it is not impossible. "Any lofty goals and ideals must be achieved by our own practical actions. Only through one's own practice, unity of knowledge and action, no empty talk, putting the cognition of morality into concrete moral practice and deepening the accumulation of moral emotion can one better regulate one's behavior and become a gentleman with good moral character. Defects of Contemporary College Students' Personality Development The mainstream of contemporary college students' personality cultivation is to be aggressive and healthy. However, there are still many problems, many of which have become the focus of social attention. For example, in recent years, the bear injury incident in Liu Haiyang and the Ma Jiajue incident, as well as the frequent murders and jumping off buildings on some university campuses, have sounded the alarm for the cultivation of college students' personality. Lack of moral cultivation. In the face of moral standards, many college students are in a state of contradiction in their words and deeds. Most college students know the basic social ethics such as respecting the old and caring for the young, courtesy and honesty, unity and friendship, diligence and self-improvement, dedication, law-abiding, and caring for public property. However, in real life, this is not the case. Cheating in exams, cheating on loans, academic plagiarism, not observing classroom discipline, spitting, fighting, smoking and drinking, not caring for public property, fancy clothes, disheveled clothes, toilet literature, desk literature, wall literature and other bad phenomena can be seen everywhere, with low content, obscenity and unsightly. Unmarried cohabitation, frivolity and debauchery, and even prostitution and whoring are also common, with moral decay and no sense of shame. These are quite different from people's imagined images of college students who are "civilized in language, polite in knowledge, decent in manners and noble in morality", and also incompatible with socialist morality. Ambiguity of ideals and beliefs Due to the influence of many factors, many college students' ideals and beliefs are diluted and deviated to varying degrees. Outstanding performance is weak ideals and beliefs. Some college students, including student party member, lack confidence in socialism and have a vague understanding of the future of socialism. The results of a special questionnaire survey conducted by Hainan University Working Committee in 2003 show that nearly one third of students have a vague understanding of this. For example, when answering "views on Marxism", 17% of college students think that "Marxism is out of date"; When answering "views on the socialist system", 26.3% of college students thought it was "unclear"; 2 1.4% of college students "can't explain clearly" when answering "the general view of China's economic development and political situation". Twisted values. Some negative and backward values, such as individualism, egoism and money first, have become the life creed of some college students. The value orientation of life is obviously inclined to material interests and utilitarianism, paying more attention to self-individualization, overemphasizing personal interests, unilaterally pursuing personal gains and losses, ignoring and ignoring the needs of others, the collective and society, and lacking social responsibility. Psychological quality is fragile. The psychological problems of college students have become a serious social problem. Due to the immature psychological development, lack of social experience, high social and family expectations, high employment pressure and other factors, college students are psychologically fragile, with poor interpersonal skills and environmental adaptability, emotional instability, psychological imbalance and abnormal behavior. When I encounter difficulties and setbacks in my study, love and job hunting, I feel confused, confused and uneasy. Those who are light break the jar and fall, fail to make progress, lose confidence and be at a loss; Worst case, despair, even suicide. Draw lessons from Confucian self-cultivation thought. Strengthening the cultivation of college students' personality is an important and critical stage in life, and it is also the best period for the development and perfection of college students' personality. The Confucian thought of self-cultivation centered on shaping ideal personality is very helpful to cultivate college students into high-quality talents with ideals, foresight, being good at learning, daring to face setbacks and adapting to the needs of market economy environment. The core of Confucian self-cultivation thought is determination. In ancient times, all accomplished intellectuals took the world as their responsibility and dedicated themselves to the country and the people. For example, Fan Zhongyan's "Worry about the world first, and enjoy the world later" and Lin Zexu's "Seek the life and death of the country, and avoid it in every cloud has a silver lining" all put the interests of the country and the people first. At present, it is the common ideal of people of all ethnic groups in China to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by taking the road of Socialism with Chinese characteristics. As college students in the new era, we should aim at national prosperity and national rejuvenation, strive hard and make selfless contributions to building a well-off society in an all-round way and realizing the self-value of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. A person's ideal pursuit determines the height of his life realm. Only with lofty moral requirements can we overcome all kinds of difficulties and setbacks on the road of life. What the current society needs is a person who combines national rejuvenation, national prosperity and personal struggle, and makes contributions to the country and society while realizing his own value, and is by no means a person who completely emphasizes self-realization. As a college student, as long as you persist in studying and strive for the rise of China, you should establish "for the heart of the world and the life of the people"; The lofty spiritual realm of "remembering the past and being a teacher of the future" will surely lead to a brilliant growth path through hard work and struggle. The Confucian way of self-cultivation is the combination of learning and thinking. The process of combining learning with thinking is also the process of acquiring knowledge. British philosopher Bacon said, "Knowledge can shape a person's character." Therefore, "only those who keep learning can constantly improve their self-cultivation and reach the other side of their ideals." Confucius said: "Kindness is not easy to learn, and its cover is also stupid; If you know well and don't learn well, your cover will waver; Honesty is not easy to learn, and its cover is also a thief; Straight board is difficult to learn, and the cover is distorted; If you are brave and study hard, your cover will be messy; This is difficult to learn and crazy. " This explains the disadvantages and harm of "not learning well" from many aspects. The university stage is the golden age of acquiring knowledge. College students should not only learn excellent professional knowledge, but also extensively dabble in all kinds of humanities and social sciences, especially learn nutrition from China's traditional excellent cultural classics, learn to treat people and cultivate honesty. Learn from the Confucian "introspection" moral cultivation method, and strengthen the inspection and reflection on one's own moral behavior. Always be self-disciplined, be strict with yourself everywhere, constantly reflect on your words and deeds, and be a man and do things. Take the initiative to do self-examination, often dissect and examine yourself, and make moral judgments on your actions. We should dare to face our bad thoughts and behaviors, and often consciously fight against them, and then restrain them, so as to get our words and deeds back on track and be an upright person. The Doctrine of the Mean says: "Don't be invisible, don't be insignificant. Therefore, a gentleman is cautious and independent. "Even when you are alone, you should be careful, act cautiously in accordance with the moral norms, strengthen your sense of self-supervision, consciously resist the influence of all bad behaviors and various mental pollution, adhere to your own moral ethics in various environments, maintain your inner purity, and gradually cultivate good moral quality. Be brave in facing setbacks and difficulties and enhance self-confidence. " "I ching gan gua" says: "Heaven is healthy, and gentlemen are constantly striving for self-improvement. "Moral cultivation is a process of repeated tempering and gradual improvement in social practice. People's life can't be smooth sailing, and they will encounter all kinds of difficulties and setbacks, but setbacks are the foreshadowing and ladder for a strong man to succeed. As long as we face setbacks correctly, adopt a positive attitude, learn to temper and stimulate our will with setbacks, and turn setbacks into a driving force for progress, we will surely cheer up and overcome difficulties. Mencius said: "If Yao wants to demote Sri Lanka, he must first suffer his mind, strain his bones and muscles, starve his body and skin, and mess with his actions, so be patient and get what he can't do." "Since ancient times, great people have suffered a lot, and there has never been a great person. "In history, many people with lofty ideals were tempered in adversity and ups and downs, as Sima Qian said in Historical Records:" Wang Wen was arrested and played Zhouyi; Zhong You wrote Spring and Autumn Annals; Qu Yuan's exile is a tribute to Li Sao. Zuo Qiu is blind and has "Mandarin"; The foot of Sun Tzu's Art of War has been revised; It's not Shu, but Lu Lan. Han Fei imprisoned Qin, expressing embarrassment, loneliness and anger; There are 300 poems, probably written by sages when they are angry. "They are all in trouble, but they have achieved great things. Therefore, encountering adversity and setbacks is not necessarily a bad thing. Take it as your own experience, try to overcome all kinds of difficulties, and you will eventually make a difference. Confucius said, "Gentleness. Then a gentleman. "As contemporary college students who shoulder the arduous historical responsibility of national prosperity and national rejuvenation, only by seriously strengthening their self-cultivation, correctly understanding themselves, constantly overcoming their weaknesses and shortcomings, and gradually forming the values and excellent qualities needed by the times can they become a new generation of college students with sound personality, noble soul, firm will, strong sense of mission and rooted national culture.