The origin of "the way of university is clear in virtue, new in people, and perfect" is university, which is listed as the first of the four books. Its main ideas are: the purpose of university is to show bright moral character; It is to reflect on and improve one's morality, push oneself and others, and let everyone turn over a new leaf, abandon evil and do good; Is to make the whole society achieve a perfect moral environment and maintain it for a long time.

Depth interpretation

The so-called "university" is relative to "primary school". The tasks of "university" and "primary school" are different. The content of "primary school" learning is more based on the survival and life skills needed by society, while the university lies in the promotion of morality. Confucius listed three ways to improve his moral level.

The first article of the program is "Ming Ming De". The first word "Ming" in Ming Ming De is a verb, which means to show clearly. "Mingde" is a bright figure. Confucianism advocates the theory that "human nature is good" and thinks that people are born with good morality, which is obscure only because they are obscured by desire. In this case, we should get rid of those things that blind our hearts and let our bright and beautiful characters show.

The second item of the program is "being close to the people". Many Confucian scholars in history have different views on the understanding of "being close to the people". There are two main opinions. One school, represented by Zhu, thinks that "being close to the people" means "being new to the people", even if people are morally totally honest; The other school, represented by Wang Yangming, believes that "being close to the people" means pushing others, being close to the people and treating the people as their relatives. However, Zhu's explanation should be more appropriate if he uses words such as "being new, being new, being new", "being new for the people", "being old for the week, being new for life" to explain "being close to the people". Now many scholars try to reconcile these two opinions, saying that they are not contradictory, because if people want to accept their own moral enlightenment, they must push themselves and others and be close to the people; But in fact, the main significance still lies in Zhu's explanation.

The third item of the program is "stop at the best". The main idea of these four words is to make the whole society reach a perfect moral state and keep it for a long time. Therefore, "stop at perfection" is definitely not only to improve a person's moral character, but to let everyone in the world show their bright and beautiful moral character, reach a perfect moral realm and keep it for a long time. It can also correct a misunderstanding that exists in many people's minds, that is, it is inaccurate to think that "leveling the world" means repairing the world. In Confucianism's view, "leveling the world" means "Ming De is in the world". What they want to do is to fix the morality of all people in the world and realize a beautiful society with perfect morality.

Summary: With the changes of the times, some specific ethical norms of Confucianism, such as "Three Cardinals and Five Permanences", are out of date, but there are still a lot of positive contents, such as kindness and filial piety, which are the most shining things in human nature, and they will be with the times and with human beings; Confucianism's idea of establishing an ideal country began with the improvement of self-morality, and then spread to society, the country and even the world, and still shines with lofty moral glory today.