First, we should take a clear-cut stand against relic forgetting righteousness. Realizing people's ideal personality is the focus of Confucianism, and self-denial and self-cultivation have become its spiritual pursuit. To this end, Confucius changed the previous concept of distinguishing gentlemen and villains by social status, took virtue as the fundamental standard, and made a conclusion that laid the basic spiritual direction for the distinction between righteousness and benefit: "A gentleman is righteous and a villain is beneficial." It is the basic requirement of Confucianism to be a virtuous gentleman, not a mean person who only pursues self-interest. For this reason, on the one hand, Confucianism clearly advocates "seeing Si Qi" and "seeing Si Qi", on the other hand, it also explicitly opposes "forgetting righteousness for profit".
Second, affirm the legitimacy of reasonable interests. Because of Confucianism, starting from the basic requirements of adults, it attaches importance to morality and fully highlights the primacy of righteousness. Since Confucius, it has created a record of "not talking about interests". In addition, Mencius said that "there is no need to talk about profit", and Dong Zhongshu left a record of "taking sincerity as a friend, not seeking profit, knowing that it is not a merit". Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties also strictly distinguishes between "righteousness and benefit", which is easy to give people an impression. It seems that this understanding is not in line with reality. On the basis of advocating "seeing righteousness" and opposing "forgetting righteousness", Confucianism affirmed the legitimacy of reasonable interests. In this regard, Confucius and Mencius have clearly discussed it.
Confucius once said: "being rich and expensive is what people want, and if there is no way, there is nowhere;" Poverty and meanness are human evils. If you don't get them their way, you won't go. "Confucius clearly admitted that wealth is liked by ordinary people and poverty is hated by ordinary people. This recognizes the legitimacy of reasonable interests. Of course, whether you are getting rich or getting rid of poverty, you should do something for it, not be reckless. This passage can be confirmed by another passage of Confucius: "I can also ask for wealth. Although I am a whipping man, I do the same. "If not, just do as I say." It is based on this understanding that the Analects of Confucius illustrates the truth of "taking righteousness before taking it". It can be seen that in Confucius, as long as it does not violate morality and deserves benefits, it can be obtained with a clear conscience. Mencius also clearly affirmed the rationality of the legitimate material interests of ordinary people. In the face of war, the unremitting pursuit of kingliness is an important feature of Mencius. To this end, he put forward the idea of benevolent governance and specific measures. One of its basic economic positions is to first ensure the basic needs of the people in terms of material interests. Mencius clearly regarded "keeping in good health and mourning for death" as "the beginning of kingly way". On the basis of ensuring the material interests of ordinary people to be "rich" and educating them, we can implement kingship all over the world.
Third, the motive is against "righteousness and benefit", and the result is acceptable. That is to say, it opposes the reality of making profits in the name of benevolence and righteousness subjectively, but accepts legitimate interests, especially big profits, objectively. The most typical example of this is Mencius Huiliang Wang Shang. In the face of Liang's question that "it will be good for the country", Mencius replied: "Wang, why bother to pay attention to benefits? Only benevolence and righteousness. " On the surface, Mencius seems to oppose morality and interests, and only stresses teaching materials, not benefits. Careful analysis, this understanding is difficult to establish.
Throughout the whole article, the complete significance of this chapter lies in: if all levels of the whole society only talk about profit and fall into interest disputes, it will certainly bring great harm to all levels of the country and society, including the monarch; Only by practicing benevolence and righteousness can we "rule the world", that is, end the war and move towards reunification. Obviously, this is not only in the interests of the monarch himself, but also in the best interests of the people at that time. And this interest is realized in the process of justice. This is not only against justice and benefit, but also "the unity of justice and benefit" in terms of its objective effect. Of course, as the answer of "Why bother to benefit, only to be righteous" shows, Mencius' related proposition can not be attributed to "righteousness for benefit" voluntarily, but is opposite to "righteousness for benefit" in motivation, but it is acceptable in the end.
Fourth, under special circumstances, morality is realized at the expense of interests. In extreme cases, it is to kill yourself and die for justice. In the special environment of sharp opposition between righteousness and benefit, Confucianism does show a tendency to value virtue over benefit, which is an important feature compared with Mohism and Legalism. Confucius pointed out: "Those who are benevolent have no harm to benevolence, but kill themselves." Mencius then showed the great tension between righteousness and benefit under special circumstances, and revealed the reason why we should "sacrifice our lives for righteousness". Through Mencius' famous exposition that "fish and bear's paw can't have both", we can draw three conclusions: first, just as fish and bear's paw can't always choose one, righteousness and life can coexist and go their own way; Second, only when you can't have both, you have to make the choice of "sacrificing your life for righteousness"; Thirdly, we choose to die safely for morality, because the value of pursuing righteousness exceeds the value of life itself, and the aversion to violating righteousness exceeds the aversion to death itself. It can be seen that Confucianism holds that in the special case of sharp conflict and irreconcilable righteousness and interests, people with lofty ideals will never do anything detrimental to righteousness in order to survive, but would rather sacrifice their lives and practice righteousness.
It is not difficult to see that Confucianism does emphasize righteousness, but it does not understand the relationship between righteousness and interest on the basic premise of the opposition between righteousness and interest. Confucianism not only affirmed the legitimacy of reasonable interests, but also accepted the objective effect of "righteousness and benefit", indicating that its overall understanding of the relationship between righteousness and benefit includes the dimension of unity of righteousness and benefit. Therefore, even if the so-called Confucianism values righteousness over profit, it is not based on the opposition between righteousness and profit. It is only under the special circumstances of sharp opposition between righteousness and benefit that Confucianism clearly advocates making an either-or choice and sacrificing interests to realize morality. The proposition of "the distinction between righteousness and benefit" cannot be expanded and absolute because of special circumstances.
In the objective effect, accepting "righteousness and benefit" cannot be attributed to "righteousness and benefit", that is, actively and consciously seeking benefits under the banner of morality, which is also a principled issue that must be carefully analyzed when discussing the debate between righteousness and benefit of Confucianism. In fact, taking advantage is an act that Confucianism has always explicitly opposed. Mencius and Xunzi were ashamed to talk about it just because the five tyrants made profits under the guise of righteousness. Zhu made it very clear. When someone doesn't agree that "it's not good to be righteous, and it's not good to be good", he thinks that "Zhong Shu is wrong. I'm afraid it's not benevolence, but it will be beneficial; I am afraid it is not Tao, but Tao will make contributions. " Zhu clearly pointed out: "Only in this way will people do it for utility, not for cultivation. Morality is utilitarian. But morality is utilitarian, regardless of morality. " This hit the nail on the head and revealed the crux: if justice is for the benefit, then the final result must be "favoritism" regardless of morality. This involves Confucianism as the foundation of Confucianism. Confucianism, as a kind of knowledge to achieve virtue, focuses on the achievement of virtue personality. True virtue is highly independent and unaffected by external interests, and "taking advantage" is obviously contrary to this. Therefore, no matter what kind of subjective desire, it is believed that the Confucian debate on righteousness and benefit advocates "taking advantage of righteousness", which not only completely dispels the value significance of the Confucian debate on righteousness and benefit, but also violates its basic theoretical position.
To sum up, the distinction between righteousness and benefit of Confucianism is, in the final analysis, a spiritual pursuit of "righteousness is the highest", that is, taking morality as the foundation of people. When there is a conflict between morality and interests, and between moral spirit and perceptual desire, people with lofty ideals should transcend the entanglement between interests and perceptual desire and devote themselves to the pursuit of morality and virtue, and obtain spiritual satisfaction and spiritual freedom from it. Therefore, transcending the temptation of material desires and self-interest, constantly improving one's spiritual realm and realizing an ideal personality based on virtue spirit have become important features pursued by Confucianism.
In Confucianism, it is a great life choice to be a villain who pursues profits diligently and puts profits in the interests, so he has no virtue and no scruples, or to be a gentleman who values morality, strives for perfection and is ashamed of himself, which is related to whether to be a real person or a devil wears prada. Facing the materialistic living environment, modern people are not far away from this life choice. In the face of the impact of market economy, it is also of irreplaceable significance to embody the spiritual pursuit of "righteousness first" by upgrading the realm, build spiritual dikes and effectively resist the erosion of money worship and hedonism. However, under the condition of market economy, how to adhere to the dominant position of "justice first" and realize the objective effect of giving consideration to both justice and benefit is a challenging task of the times that the modern transformation of Confucian concept of justice and benefit should seriously face.
(Source: Guangming Daily National Studies Edition Original title: "Confucian concept of justice and benefit: justice is above" The author is a special researcher and professor at Peking University Socialism with Chinese characteristics Theory Research Center)