The four core concepts of Chinese traditional values ??are invincible, the benevolent are invincible, and peace is the most important thing. The unity of nature and man
The traditional values ??passed down from generation to generation by the Chinese people are the carrier of the unity of the entire nation and the Chinese nation. People's cultural genes and thinking characteristics that are different from those of other countries, especially the core concepts of traditional values, are the deep structural factors that have kept China's social form ultra-stable for more than two thousand years since the Qin Dynasty.
1. A benevolent person is invincible?
“A benevolent person is a human being” - the definition of “human being” in Chinese culture. Confucius said, “A benevolent person is a human being, and closeness is the greatest.” It means that only those who have benevolence and righteousness become human beings. From the perspective of the meaning of the hieroglyphic character, "Benevolence" is the character "二" next to the word "人". That is to say, only in the human relationship corresponding to "two people" can a person be defined. In ancient society, the corresponding relationships between such "two people" include: monarch and minister, father and son, husband and wife, brothers, and friends, these five ethical relationships. This definition of "human" has been expanded to include community and collective relationships in modern times, but in the sense of "deep structure", this definition of human beings in interpersonal relationships has basically remained unchanged. In other words, the definition of people in traditional culture is relatively vague, and is mainly defined by others in social relationships. This determines the weakening and invisibility of the "individual" in traditional culture. Chinese people often talk about "how a person should be", which mainly refers to being a person who conforms to secular standards, even if these secular standards are different from his personal thoughts, rationality, will and judgment. Otherwise, in the eyes of the world, you just don’t know how to behave. This secular standard is the word "benevolence" used by Confucius to define people.
The meaning of "benevolence" - the way of life that always considers the other person. Using the word "benevolence" to define people shows that "benevolence" is the core concept of Confucian ethics and morality. Confucius said: "Being close to each other is called benevolence." "A gentle person is the foundation of benevolence." Mencius said, "A benevolent person loves others." This way of being a person who always considers the other person makes the Chinese appear particularly "humane." As a result, some people are embarrassed to refuse the other party's excessive demands in the face of favors, and often lose their principles, bend the law for personal gain, and destroy rules and regulations. For most people, benevolence is mutual. Only when both parties can "physically" feel that the other person's "heart" is "in" their own "body" can they "become a human being". Once the warmth of the magnetic field of human affection is exceeded, If there is a siege, or if the two sides are at odds, they will not know what to do, and it is inevitable that they will lose their grace, such as disorderly behavior, littering and other uncivilized behaviors in public places. So how can we be benevolent? Confucius said, "Restraining oneself and returning rituals is benevolence. For one day, self-denial and restoration of rituals will lead to the return of benevolence to the world. Benevolence depends on oneself, but not on others." For saints and traditional scholar-officials, although they regard benevolence as the basis of individual existence, However, this high-level principle still takes human relations as its content, reflecting the strong moral and ethical color of Chinese culture. It is reflected at the political level, forming the following concepts:
The inner sage and the outer king, the benevolent are invincible - the integration of morality and politics. The "inner sage and the outer king" is what Confucius said in "The Great Learning" The investigation of things, Zhizhi, sincerity, righteousness, self-cultivation, ordering the family, governing the country, and bringing peace to the world mentioned in the classics are: studying things in depth to study the laws and essence of things, Zhizhi elevates them to theory, being sincere and upright, Think about your thoughts and attitudes three times a day, restrain yourself and return to etiquette, make your family harmonious, respect yourself and others, so that everyone can become a benevolent gentleman like yourself, and then manage the country with benevolence and make the world peaceful. This process embodies the unity of morality and politics. , became the life learning path from the inside out for the scholar-bureaucrats in China's past dynasties. The inner sage is the rule of virtue; the outer king is the rule of men. The inner sage and the outer king are a social governance model that combines the rule of virtue with the rule of people. However, in the face of highly concentrated power, the restraint of the rule of virtue on the centralizers is always very limited, and it is at best a glossy fig leaf. Therefore, the relationship between the ruler and the ruled can only be "If the person is upright, he will not do what he is told; if he is not upright, he will not obey the order." The rule of virtue combined with the rule of people requires that a king must be a teacher at the same time. As a relative. In Confucianism, the five roles of heaven, earth, king, parents, and teachers serve as rulers, serving as leaders, teachers, and parents for the common people. In this way, people's thoughts and will as well as private areas outside of state law have naturally become the objects of management, leaving little space for individuals.
2. Settling down and establishing a life?
The meaning of body, Chinese people use the word "body" to refer to themselves, such as themselves, themselves; at the same time, they also use body to represent life. For example, lifelong refers to a person's life; the career of a person's life is to settle down and live his life. In addition to arranging the body figuratively, it also means to maintain it statically in line with destiny. In addition to using the word body to refer to oneself and life, it is also used to describe some occasions that do not belong to "body" in other cultures. For example, a person's background and origin are called origin; the total assets under his name are called net worth. Being forced to do something against one's own will means that one cannot help it; things that fall within the scope of thinking and understanding can also be expressed with words such as experience. Things that fall within the scope of morality, such as practicing one's actions and teaching through words and deeds, are also included in the category of body and are expressed using the word body. Therefore, from the perspective of the meaning of the body, the body that settles down and establishes a life refers not only to the body and the physical body, but also to life and living. Once these are settled, with food to eat and clothing to wear, life can take root and sprout and pass on the family lineage.
The culture of food is a physical expression, and the exquisite Chinese cooking technology can be said to be the most developed in the world. Chinese people pay special attention to the health-preserving and social functions of food. This shows that traditional culture regards people more as a physical existence and ignores that they are a spiritual subject with a complete form. Of course, there are different levels and realms of understanding between the scholar-bureaucrat class and the common people. The tradition of the unity of morality and politics in ancient times determined that the scholar-bureaucrat class was born with a sense of mission of "putting the people first", that is, to make everyone in the world have a place to live and have a bite to eat. Therefore, the slogans they put forward, such as "Relieve the people from hanging upside down", "Guard the world from the bottom of the bed", etc., are also full of bodily imagination, but this body refers to society and the people's livelihood in the world, and the country takes care of this. The heart of the body. As for the shelter of ordinary people, they generally only care about their families, and this body must be placed in the shrinking magnetic field of human affection, and only by keeping each other warm can they feel at ease. This need for shelter and peace of mind makes them, on the one hand, very realistic and materialistic. Even when praying to gods and Buddhas, they go to the Three Treasures Hall for everything. They only make temporary arrangements when they have something to do. They are completely practical and secular; on the other hand, they are very practical and secular. It can also easily lead to mental and emotional numbness.
If you settle down, you will gain your heart - the concept of people's livelihood and the tendency to settle down and make a living, so that the people's requirements are basically limited to "having a mouth to eat", and they will not rebel. Therefore, if you are at peace with yourself, you will be at peace with your mind, and if you solve people's livelihood problems, the world will be governed and peaceful. The highest political and social ideal of the Chinese people is the realm of great harmony in "Liyun Datong Chapter", which is to make everyone in the world feel nourished. Most of the book "Mencius" discusses how to implement benevolent governance, and the center of benevolent governance is the issue of people's livelihood; until Sun Yat-sen's people's livelihood doctrine, the concept of people's livelihood runs like a red line through China's political thought for more than two thousand years. "The Book of Han" says that "food is the most important thing for the people." Food is indeed a concentric axis that closely connects all areas of Chinese culture, people's lives, and political ideals. Lao Tzu even compared governing a country to cooking. He said, "Governing a big country is like cooking small dishes." Among the officials listed in the book "Zhou Rites", Zhongzai is both the prime minister and the great cook. In short, the first problem that must be solved to settle down and live is the problem of food. Even in modern times, the scope of survival and development has become wider and the requirements have become higher, but having to eat to survive has always been the primary criterion for the Chinese people's concept of "settling down and settling down."
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3. Is harmony the most important thing?
The theory of yin and yang reconciliation, ancient Chinese philosophy believes that the origin of the universe is the mutual reconciliation of yin and yang in Tai Chi. Yin and Yang are two aspects of the same thing, and the harmony of Yin and Yang basically eliminates "evil" factors. Because in this ontology, the so-called evil factor is not evil that must be overcome by good, but the imbalance of yin and yang. Therefore, if there is movement, it is also chaos and a kind of abnormality. In the end, the structure must be restored through harmony. Balance, return to the original state. Similarly, traditional culture's attitude towards nature is harmonious rather than confrontational. Expressed in interpersonal relationships, it means that you have me in you, and you have your "human touch" in me. The highest purpose of interpersonal relationships is to maintain harmony. Reciprocity is a courtesy, and there is no shame in fussing. Therefore, traditional Chinese culture does not advocate litigation, so words and deeds that blatantly fight for one's own interests are despised. As Confucius said, "The purpose of etiquette is to value harmony."?
For a stable political situation, the value of harmony is an attitude of giving up confrontation. When expressed in political life, it is easy to form a stable situation. . Even the Chinese who have already lived overseas are mostly just looking for a living, are indifferent to politics, and rarely organize pressure groups spontaneously to safeguard their own interests. Therefore, in the 1990s, when it came to the anti-Chinese anti-Chinese movement in Southeast Asia and the black riots in Los Angeles, the most unlucky people were the Chinese. Although the Chinese were large in number, their cowardice and indifference made them poor at organizing and uniting. They were scattered and had no power to fight back. According to dialectics and historical experience, the core concept of the traditional value of peace may also bring about the possibility of its opposite - chaos. People who are used to being submissive will easily get out of hand once they can't bear it anymore and start to vent. And because he is usually not good at using reasonable channels to vent his aggression, when this aggression finally breaks out, it is uncontrolled by reason, blind, extremely destructive, and has no rules of the game. A fight to the death.
4. The unity of nature and man
The philosophical thought of the unity of nature and man originated from Zhuangzi in the Spring and Autumn Period, was carried forward by Mencius and Dong Zhongshu, and was finally developed by Zhang Zai and Er Cheng in the Song Dynasty. Organize and mature. The unity of heaven and man means that the way of heaven and the way of humanity are unified, extrapolating the way of heaven from human relations, and comparing the way of heaven to human relations. Obviously, China's heaven is different from the "heaven" of any advanced religion in the world. China's heaven is not a God transcending the world, but an intrinsic component of the world system of "heaven, earth, and man."
Other advanced religions in the world believe that there is an insurmountable gap between heaven and humans. Although humans can aspire to transcendence, they can never reach the status of gods. Only China’s view of Tiandao advocates that heaven People are one. Moreover, this unity of heaven and man pulls the way of heaven down to conform to the way of humanity. He also believes that "the road to heaven is far away, but the road to humanity is short". Confucius said, "If you fail to serve people, how can you serve ghosts?" "If you don't know life, how can you know death?" That is to say, focus entirely on this human world.
The Chinese way of heaven is the way of humanity, which is a reflection of the idealized harmonious relationship in the world.
In other words, if people can maintain harmony, they are in line with the way of heaven. Otherwise, the way of heaven will be disturbed. Therefore, people have the merit of transforming and cultivating the heaven and earth. So, how to "participate"? Zhu Xi, a Neo-Confucian scholar in the Song Dynasty, believed that by "preserving the principles of nature and destroying human desires", one can channel all one's seven emotions and six desires into the formulaic channel of human ethics to achieve a neutralizing effect, so that the state of "harmony" can be maintained forever. Just as the harmony of yin and yang in heaven and earth is for the purpose of transforming all things into being, the seven emotions and six desires that are channelized in human relations must also be for the purpose of nurturing and continuing the physical existence - raising parents, wives and children. In this way, the way of humanity and the way of heaven are truly unified, and man reaches the state of unity between heaven and man.
The core concepts of the above four traditional values, as the deep factors in the deep structure of Chinese culture that maintain the ultra-stable social form, have a deep-rooted influence on the national psychology and the national and social levels. In the modern world situation, how to consciously reflect, guide and transform is the cultural mission that contemporary Chinese people need to shoulder.