The issue of justice and benefit is actually an important issue of what kind of ethical value orientation a society establishes and what kind of life value goal a person sets. Zhu said: "the theory of justice and benefit is the first meaning of Confucianism", which shows the importance of justice and benefit. Although the issue of justice and benefit can be viewed from multiple disciplines and levels, it is mainly an ethical issue and the core issue of ethical values. In the history of China's traditional philosophy and ethics, the discussion about justice and benefit runs through. Politicians and literati have different interpretations of justice and benefit in history, among which the Confucian concept of justice and benefit has the greatest and deepest influence on the cultural mentality of the Chinese nation.

Confucianism strictly distinguishes between righteousness and benefit.

Historically, the meaning of so-called righteousness and benefit in Confucianism has been different with the changes of the times. Formally speaking, Confucian righteousness has two meanings: first, righteousness is an unconditional moral response, that is, the so-called "righteousness, people are also on the road"; Secondly, righteousness is the best moral way to do something in a certain situation, that is, the so-called "righteous person should be also". In content, there are two main criteria for Confucianism to distinguish between righteousness and benefit. First, "whose interest is it", that is, the standard of public and private: the interests of others and society are just, and the public interest is just; Self-interest is benefit, and self-interest is benefit. The second is "for whose benefit", that is, the standard of motivation or purpose: seeking the interests of others and society is a righteous motivation or purpose; Profit is the motive or purpose of seeking self-interest and self-interest.

It can be seen that the so-called righteousness of Confucianism is essentially based on the interests of others and society, and is for the benefit of others and society. And profits are based on their own interests and self-interest, not for their own interests and self-interest.

Confucian relationship between righteousness and benefit

The Confucian discussion on the relationship between righteousness and benefit can be divided into two issues, one is which is more important, and the other is whether righteousness and benefit are compatible.

It is the Confucian answer to the question of which is more important than which is more important. Pre-Qin Confucianism valued righteousness over profit. Confucius regards righteousness or profit as the watershed between villain and gentleman, and advocates taking profit as his own, but opposes forgetting righteousness. Mencius advocated valuing righteousness over profit; Xunzi also advocated righteousness before profit. Dong Zhongshu of the Han Dynasty inherited the pre-Qin Confucian thought of valuing righteousness over profit, and put forward the view that "righteousness does not seek its benefit, and knowing its way is not its merit", and advocated valuing righteousness over profit. In the Song Dynasty, Ming Dow scholars further developed the idea of valuing righteousness over profit, and influenced by Buddhist abstinence thought, they brought the Confucian concept of righteousness and profit to the extreme and put forward the slogan of "keeping justice in heaven and extinguishing human desires". The martial arts in the Southern Song Dynasty and the realism school in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties realized the reaction to Taoism in the Song and Ming Dynasties, and advocated equal emphasis on righteousness and benefit, believing that both righteousness and benefit are inseparable. It can be seen that in the historical development, although the Confucian concept of justice and benefit showed a trend of gradual extreme, this trend was corrected to some extent in later Confucianism. Therefore, it can be generally considered that the main tradition of Confucianism in the view of justice and benefit is to value justice over benefit.

The unity of opposites between righteousness and benefit is a Confucian proposition about the compatibility of righteousness and benefit. Because Confucianism strictly distinguishes between righteousness and benefit and emphasizes the boundary between righteousness and benefit, some commentators believe that Confucianism has an ideological tendency to oppose righteousness and benefit. In fact, it is not difficult to find that although Confucianism does have an increasing tendency to oppose righteousness and benefit, Confucianism does not strictly oppose it. Although the pre-Qin Confucianists regarded righteousness as a value goal higher than profit, they did not completely ignore profit. They are not opposed to seeking profit for the sake of righteousness, but to forgetting righteousness for the sake of profit, and taking profit as the first value goal. Although Dong Zhongshu tends to value righteousness over profit, he does not completely deny the necessity of profit. However, the opposition between justice and benefit of Ming Dow scholars in Song Dynasty was corrected by Gong and Shi. Therefore, on the question of whether justice and benefit are compatible, the mainstream of Confucianism believes that justice and benefit are dialectical and unified, that is, justice and benefit have both opposing and unified sides. In short, justice and benefit are unified in "serving the public".

Obviously, the mainstream of Confucian concept of justice and benefit in history is: strictly distinguish between justice and benefit, value justice over benefit, and unity of opposites between justice and benefit. The mainstream of Confucian concept of justice and benefit has many similarities with the concept of justice and benefit advocated in the primary stage of socialism in China.

Contemporary value of mainstream Confucian view of justice and benefit

With the deepening of reform and opening up and the rapid development of market economy, individual subjectivity has been rapidly promoted and continuously strengthened, and people have begun to reflect on the traditional concept of valuing righteousness over profit, and the value and role of "profit" have been paid more and more attention. Through the criticism and reflection on history, individual values, individual needs and individual interests have been paid unprecedented attention and strengthened, which is of positive significance for breaking the excessive bondage of the traditional concept of justice and interests to the development of modern economy and society and affirming the legitimacy of people's pursuit of reasonable personal interests and material interests. But the problem is that since the reform and opening up, the reflection on "valuing righteousness" has been realized through the path of "promoting profit", which can easily lead to the occurrence and even flooding of the phenomenon of valuing profit over righteousness. In real social life, the phenomenon of moral anomie, which stems from the imbalance of righteousness and interests, occurs from time to time. In recent years, the phenomenon of only paying attention to self-interest and ignoring morality, seeking profit and forgetting righteousness is proof. It can be said that people have moved from one-sidedness of valuing righteousness over profit to one-sidedness of valuing profit over righteousness.

Therefore, under the social background that the traditional moral values of valuing justice over interests are dissolved and the relationship between justice and interests is unbalanced, how to correct people's extremely inflated concept of pursuing economic and material interests and then build a new concept of justice and interests that meets the requirements of the times has become a major and urgent theoretical topic. The basic way to construct a new concept of justice and benefit is to attach importance to benefit but not to righteousness, to promote righteousness without derogating, and to unify righteousness and benefit. The construction of the new concept of justice and benefit means that the dominant position of the concept of justice and benefit is generally established and cannot be carried out spontaneously. Therefore, to build a new concept of justice and benefit, we must carry forward the excellent traditional concept of justice and benefit of the motherland and explore and utilize the reasonable factors in the traditional concept of justice and benefit. In this special historical period of our country, if we can learn from and absorb the reasonable core of the mainstream Confucian concept of justice and benefit, we can not only make up for the imbalance of the concept of justice and benefit, but also provide ideological nourishment for the construction of a new concept of justice and benefit.

In a word, as long as we fully understand China's excellent traditional philosophy and ethical thought, including the mainstream thought of Confucian concept of justice and benefit, take its essence, discard its dross, make the past serve the present, bring forth the new and strengthen the excavation and elucidation of the spiritual value of excellent traditional philosophy and ethical thought, we will certainly be able to effectively solve the problems existing in contemporary ethical construction, such as the confusion of right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, and the growth of money worship, hedonism and extreme individualism. Neglect of justice, damage to public interests and private interests have occurred from time to time, dishonesty and deception have become public hazards, and abuse of power for personal gain and corruption have become serious problems, thus making excellent traditional philosophy and ethical thoughts a spiritual force to inspire people to advance in the new era.