Confucius' moral cultivation theory must transform both the objective world and the subjective world, that is, only by dealing with the internal contradictions of good people can individual thoughts and behaviors meet the needs of social development and live in harmony with nature. This not only requires social education, that is, teachers preach, so that people can accept the concept of "benevolence" and the constraints of "courtesy"; Moreover, everyone is required to carry out self-cultivation, so that "benevolence" gradually becomes everyone's potential consciousness and "courtesy" becomes everyone's conscious behavior. In this way, everyone can become a prince who pursues perfect personality and meets the requirements of the big world. Therefore, the pre-Qin Confucians, represented by Confucius and Mencius, carefully designed a set of effective self-cultivation theories and methods according to the thought of "dealing with people", so that everyone can understand and control their inner thoughts and emotions at any time and realize the self-improvement of personality. This self-implemented moral cultivation theory and method consists of the following six links: 1 Introspection means to know and understand your thoughts, consciousness, emotions and attitudes at any time through self-reflection [1]. Confucius taught his disciples that the main sign that distinguishes a gentleman from a villain is: "A gentleman seeks for himself and a villain seeks for others" (The Analects of Confucius). He also said: "I have never seen anyone who can see from the inside out and sue himself" (The Analects of Gongye Chang). "Private prosecution" means remorse and introspection. Mencius further developed Confucius' thought of "being for oneself" and put forward: "If you don't love others, you will be benevolent; There is no medicine to save people, which is contrary to wisdom; Courtesy people don't answer, respect people. If there is a problem, it will turn around. " ("Mencius Li Lou") [2]. Explain that I love others and others are not close to me. I have to ask myself if my kindness is enough; If I manage others but I can't manage them well, I have to ask myself whether my knowledge and ability are enough; I was polite and didn't get a response. I have to ask myself whether my attitude is respectful enough. If any behavior does not achieve the expected results, we should ask ourselves well and check ourselves. Zeng Shen, the great disciple of Confucius, once famously expounded introspection: "I save three times a day, how can I be unfaithful to others?" Don't believe in making friends? Can't you learn? "("The Analects of Confucius "). Zeng Shen visited three provinces every day to check his thoughts, words and deeds from three other aspects; One is to reflect on the situation, that is, whether to be loyal to their duties; The second is to reflect on whether to keep promises when interacting with friends; The third is to reflect on whether you know or not, that is, whether you have put what you have learned into practice. In short, through introspection, we should deeply understand and analyze ourselves from the aspects of thoughts, emotional attitudes, words and actions. 2. Self-denial refers to the cultivation of self-restraint and self-restraint ability. Confucius has a famous saying about "self-denial": "Self-denial is benevolence". This means that everyone should restrain their improper desires, impulsive emotions and incorrect words and deeds, and consciously abide by social ethics (that is, "etiquette" provisions). Do "see no evil, don't listen if you are indecent, don't speak if you are indecent, and don't move if you are indecent", so that your sight, hearing, words, actions and actions conform to the rules of etiquette, that is, meet the requirements of social ethics. Confucius has always advocated controlling feelings with courtesy, restraining his words and deeds with courtesy, and repeatedly criticized emotional behavior, unable to restrain impulsive and reckless behavior. He said to the students, "I was so angry that I forgot my body and my loved ones. Are you confused?" (The Analects of Confucius Yan Yuan) It is unwise to point out that people who can't resist impulse often do stupid things that hurt themselves and their relatives. He also said: "If you are brave and study hard, your cover will be chaotic." (The Analects of Confucius Yang Huo) It means that you should be brave. If you don't like learning, you can't control your feelings with politeness. It is easy to get emotional and will inevitably get into trouble. Among the six aspects of self-cultivation, Confucius pays more attention to "self-denial", and thinks that as long as everyone can restrain himself according to the requirements of etiquette, everyone can become a gentleman, and the whole society can also carry forward benevolence and realize the ideal world of great harmony. Therefore, Confucius said: "One day, self-denial will be rewarded, and the world will return to benevolence." (The Analects of Confucius Yan Yuan) 3. Loyalty and forgiveness require inferring the thoughts and feelings of others according to one's own inner experience, so as to achieve the purpose of pushing oneself and others. This is an important principle used to deal with interpersonal relationships in Confucian moral cultivation. "Forgive" was first put forward by Confucius, and it is defined as: "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you" (The Analects of Wei Linggong). This is what Confucius said when he answered a question from Zi Gong. Zi Gong's question is: "Is there anyone who can walk all his life with a word?" (is there a sentence that can be pursued for a lifetime? Confucius also said in the Analects of Confucius: "A benevolent man wants to be a man, and he wants to be successful. It can be said that the benevolent side is already there. "Here" I want to stand up and stand up, I want to touch people. And "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you". "The meaning is similar, but the latter sentence is more negative, and the former sentence is proactive. About "loyalty", it is related to Ceng Zi's "infidelity for others." "Loyalty" here means trying to do things for others and being loyal to their duties. Accordingly, in the Song Dynasty, Zhu proposed [3] in "Notes on Four Books": "Be loyal to yourself and forgive yourself. "Later Confucianism has different interpretations of loyalty and forgiveness, but they all mean putting yourself in the other's shoes, that is, putting yourself in the other's shoes. In the future, the two words "loyalty and forgiveness" were gradually linked and used as a concrete concept, and they were no longer separated. The above two sentences: "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you" and "If you want to stand up, stand up, you must achieve it. "It is regarded as the specific connotation or explanation of the word" loyalty and forgiveness ". For more than two thousand years, "loyalty and forgiveness" has been an important content of Confucian moral cultivation, which still has practical guiding significance for correctly handling interpersonal relationships. 4. Being cautious and independent is a way for Confucianism to manage and discipline the hidden consciousness and emotions in the depths of individuals. It is a way of self-cultivation put forward by Confucius' later studies on the basis of "introspection" and "self-denial" in order to achieve a higher level of self-cultivation [1]. It first appeared in The Doctrine of the Mean: "Don't be invisible, don't be insignificant, so a gentleman is cautious and independent." It means "in the dark, subtle things, although the traces are shapeless, move a few times." Although people don't know it, they only know it. To stop people from growing up in obscurity, they should be cautious and pursue ethics "[4]. In other words, prudence means that when you are alone and no one else is watching, you should be strict with yourself, be alert to the wrong consciousness, improper selfish desires or abnormal emotions that are still in their infancy and have not yet attracted the attention of others, and consciously restrain them with courtesy (social morality) to restore them to normal state, prevent them from sneaking in and nip in the bud. It can be seen that this is a higher moral cultivation method than the consciousness of "self-denial". 5. The doctrine of the mean is not only the Confucian understanding of the law of development of things, but also a state of maintaining harmony in interpersonal relationships, so it belongs to both philosophical and moral categories. In moral cultivation, Confucianism has always regarded whether to master the golden mean as an important criterion to measure a person's moral level and choose and employ people. Because he can grasp the golden mean, it means that he can properly grasp the discretion of various things (that is, "degree"), neither too much nor too much; It is particularly difficult and complicated to master this "degree" in dealing with interpersonal relationships. A little carelessness will hurt others' feelings or dampen the enthusiasm of subordinates. The cultivation of the golden mean is really an important knowledge to maintain the harmony of interpersonal relationships, and it is also the basic skill of leading cadres. What I want to emphasize here is that the essence of the golden mean is moderation and harmony, and it should never be understood as reconciliation and compromise (that is a misunderstanding or even distortion). We should correct the name of the golden mean. 6. Practicing the cultivation of self-cultivation advocated by Confucius and Mencius is not the "thinking behind closed doors" criticized by the Cultural Revolution for being divorced from the masses and practice. On the contrary, Confucius and Mencius' moral cultivation theory emphasizes introspection, self-denial, cautious independence, loyalty, forgiveness and moderation. As mentioned above, the starting point of loyalty and forgiveness is to put yourself in others' shoes. The doctrine of the mean is the harmony of interpersonal relationships, both of which are inseparable from the people around them and the society. In addition, Confucius and Mencius also put great emphasis on personal practice and practice, and stressed that through practice, they can grow up in a harsh environment and improve their personality. The first sentence of The Analects of Confucius is: Confucius said, "Learn without saying anything." "Learning from time to time" means practicing hard and practicing hard. Confucius has always attached importance to "behavior" and clearly advocated "listening to his words and observing his actions" in the relationship between words and deeds. He warned the students that people's moral quality should be measured not only by words, but also by practical actions. In his view, the purpose of learning is to "follow the right path": "a gentleman applies what he has learned" (The Analects of Confucius, Zhang Zi) and "follow righteousness to become his way" (The Analects of Confucius, Ji Shi). Only by "doing" can "Tao" become a reality. The "Tao" mentioned by Confucius is his theory of benevolence or benevolence (that is, by spreading the idea of benevolence to the whole society, we can realize a world where everyone loves each other and the world is public). In order to practice, Confucius asked students to match their words with their deeds, and was ashamed of "exaggerating" and "being neither humble nor supercilious". Under the strict teaching of Confucius, Confucius finally formed an atmosphere of advocating practice. Mencius inherited and carried forward Confucius' thought of "practice", and further pointed out: "If Heaven wants to drop people, it must first suffer their minds, work their bones and muscles, starve their bodies, empty their bodies, and do things in disorder, so be patient and get what they can't do." In other words, if you want to take on a great responsibility and create a great cause, you should not only cultivate moral cultivation, but also consciously accept the tests of various harsh environments and difficulties and setbacks. Only in this way can we acquire outstanding talents, form a perfect personality and reach a lofty moral realm. This brilliant thought of Mencius is of great educational significance. It has not only become the motto of Confucian scholars' self-cultivation, but also become the great spiritual strength of our Chinese nation. For thousands of years, inspired by this spirit, many people with lofty ideals in China persevered and worked hard, and finally achieved countless earth-shattering and epic immortal undertakings. The method of moral cultivation advocated by Confucius and Mencius (that is, its practicality) is one of the most distinctive features of Confucius and Mencius' moral cultivation theory; Another notable feature of this moral cultivation theory is the above-mentioned "group" or "sociality" marked by "loyalty and forgiveness" and "moderation". It is these two points that make Confucius and Mencius' moral cultivation theory have a simple materialistic spirit, which is also the fundamental symbol that distinguishes it from all western bourgeois moral cultivation theories.