Confucius compared the practice of "cultivating oneself to bring peace to the people" with the goal of strengthening subjective cultivation and achieving the goal of transforming the objective world to archery, saying: "A gentleman is like a gentleman who loses his integrity. (Bullseye), but seek it from him. "("Xueer") If the archery fails to hit the target, you should go back and check the subjective reasons. The implication is that after finding out the subjective reasons, you must correct the mistakes in order to hit the target. The purpose of Confucius' internal moral cultivation It is fully reflected in the external management of the world and the governance of the country and the people. It is this kind of character that he bestows on the gentleman, saying: "A gentleman learns the Tao and loves others." "("Yang Huo") A gentleman who loves others must learn the right way, take the world as his own responsibility, and save the world.
Second, be cautious in words and actions. Confucius believes that a gentleman must do what he says. Words and deeds should be unified. He said:
A gentleman should be cautious and slow in his words, but diligent and quick in his work ("Li Ren")
(A gentleman) should be diligent and quick in his work, but cautious in his words. ("Xue Er")
(A gentleman) What you say must be practical. ("Zi Lu")
(A gentleman) first implement what you want to say, and then say it. Come out. ("Wei Zheng")
A gentleman is ashamed to talk more and do less. ("Xianwen")
Confucius requires a gentleman to be practical and pragmatic. , modest style.
Third, use power to achieve change. Confucius believed that a gentleman should be both principled and flexible in morality. This is an important difference between a gentleman and ordinary people. "You can learn from others, but you can't learn from the right way; you can learn from the right way, but you can't stand with it; you can stand with it, but you can't stand with it. "("Zihan") Learning, adaptability, establishment, and power represent four different realms of moral cultivation. Others lack the concept of benevolence and can only belong to the realm of establishment but not power, while the gentleman possesses the three virtues of wisdom, benevolence, and courage. Virtue belongs to the state of being established and capable. "Quan" refers to flexibility. The original meaning of Quan is that the weighing weight must be moved at any time before it can be balanced with the weight of the object being weighed. Being principled and not being flexible is not a good way to deal with things. In fact, to understand power is to understand dialectics and not to be rigid. In Confucius' view, the Weiguo official Zang Boyu praised. "A gentleman's official position is to act righteously" ("Wei Zi"). That is to say, in order to act righteously, a gentleman should be an official, but whether he should be an official should be flexibly determined according to the political situation. "Wei Linggong" records that Confucius said: "What an upright and unyielding Shi Yu! Political clarity is as straight as an arrow, and political darkness is as straight as an arrow. What a gentleman, Prince Shun! When politics is clear, you can become an official; when politics is dark, you can hide your talents. "Shi Yu is a doctor of Wei State. He is an upright man. He has repeatedly advised Duke Ling of Wei to use Zang Boyu and repel the sycophant Mi Zixia. But Duke Ling of Wei turned a deaf ear. When Shi Yu was about to die, he told his son not to " "Consecrate the funeral of the principal wife", in order to advise Wei Linggong to promote the virtuous and demote the unworthy. The ancients called this practice "corpse admonishment" (see "Han Shi Wai Zhuan" Volume 7). Despite this, in Confucius' view, Later, Shi Yu could only be regarded as an "upright" person, but not a true gentleman, because he did not know how to use power to achieve change, and could only be like King Shun Bo, who said, "If the country has the way, then you can be an official, and if the country has no way, you can be an official." "The Tao can be rolled up and cherished." Only then can he be called a gentleman.
Confucius advocated loyalty and trustworthiness in making friends with the king. This is a principle, but the specific practice depends on the situation. Confucius said that for friends You should "give advice and be good at it, stop if you can't do it, don't humiliate yourself" ("Yan Yuan") Ziyou said: "It is humiliating to serve as many kings as it is to have few friends." "("Li Ren") This all means that the advice to the monarch or friends should be moderate and not too complicated, otherwise it will backfire and be counterproductive.
In short, we must not only adhere to principles, but also use power to make changes, so that our moral conduct and righteousness are just right, and then we can be a gentleman.
Fourth, comprehensive virtue. One time, disciple Zi Zhang asked: "Ziwen, the magistrate of Chu State, served as magistrate Yin three times without showing any joy; he was dismissed from office three times without showing any sign of resentment. Each time, he informed the new magistrate of his decrees. How is this man? ?" Confucius replied, "It can be regarded as being loyal to the country." Zizhang asked, "Is it considered benevolent?" Confucius said, "I don't know. How can it be considered benevolent?" Zizhang asked again, "Cui Zhu is unreasonable." After killing Duke Zhuang of Qi, Chen Wenzi abandoned the 40 horses and left Qi. He said, "The ruler here is similar to our Qi State official Cui Zi." So he left again. How?" Confucius replied: "It is very innocent." Zi Zhang asked: "Is it considered benevolent?" Confucius said: "I don't know; how can it be considered benevolent?" ("Gongye Chang") Here, Confucius only praised Chu Ling Yin Ziwen's "loyalty" and Chen Wenzi's "pure" virtues, but did not grant them the title of gentleman because their virtues were not comprehensive enough and did not reach the realm of benevolence. There is a kind of people with higher virtues. Confucius only calls them "adults" and does not allow them to be called gentlemen. Once, Zilu asked what it meant to be an adult. Confucius replied: "If you are as wise as Zang Wuzhong, as pure as Meng Gongchuo, as brave as Bian Zhuangzi, and as versatile as Ran Qiu, if you educate them with rituals and music, they can be said to be adults." "There is no need for adults nowadays. so? When you see benefits, you can remember what you deserve, when you are in danger, you are willing to sacrifice your life, and when you have been in poverty for a long time, you do not forget your daily promises, you can also be said to be an adult." ("Xian Wen") It can be seen that even if you have the The combined virtues of wisdom, abstinence, bravery, and versatility cannot be regarded as a gentleman, but can only be called an adult. Because he lacks the most important virtue of benevolence, the quality of an adult is still incomplete and incomplete. The key to being different from the above-mentioned people is that he has the concept of benevolence and unswervingly adheres to benevolence. Confucius said: "A gentleman does not leave benevolence when he has finished a meal, but he must be benevolent when he is in a hurry." To be together means to be with humanity even when we are wandering around. " ("Li Ren") For others, be able to "establish others if you want to be established" ("Yong Ye"), "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you" ("Yan Yuan"). For yourself, be willing to sacrifice for benevolence. One's own life, "There is no need to survive to harm benevolence, but to kill oneself to achieve benevolence" ("Wei Linggong"). Precisely because a gentleman has benevolence as the ideological foundation, he can abide by moral norms in all aspects of social life, more than adults. In order to achieve perfection.
Confucius regarded the "gentle and gentle" gentleman as the goal of cultivating students' moral cultivation, and guided his disciples to develop comprehensively with benevolence as the core and become morally perfect people. This is unique in Chinese history. It is of great significance. The title of gentleman has indeed attracted countless people with lofty ideals to work hard to achieve it. Many national heroes, decent politicians, scholars, and thinkers in Chinese history have been inspired by Confucius's teachings. With the ambition of becoming a benevolent person, he made a vigorous career. The image of a gentleman established by Confucius was a pioneer of the times who had ideals, morality, knowledge, and talent, and a high degree of sympathy for the people. He was a great influence on the Chinese nation. Traditional culture has had a profound impact.
In the teaching process, Confucius required students to study seriously, believing that learning something is never done overnight and should be "learned and practiced" and "reviewed and learned. "Know something new". Only through repeated practice and review can you consolidate what you have learned. In the same way, when teachers teach students, they cannot succeed every time, but must be patient and careful. This is what Confucius said "Know it silently, be tireless in learning, and tireless in teaching" ("Shu Er"). Only in this way can we achieve the purpose of teaching and learning well. He said modestly: "How can I dare to be holy and benevolent?" It's just that you never get tired of studying and working, and you never get tired of teaching your disciples, that's all. After hearing this, his disciple Gong Xihua said: "This is exactly what we cannot learn." "("Shu Er") This is a high praise for the teacher Confucius's "tireless teaching" teaching attitude.
Confucius did not have a class teaching system at that time. Teachers did not teach to a large number of students at the same time, but gave instructions one by one and provided individual education. Because each student’s origin, experience, age, level, characteristics, etc. are different. But when students asked him various questions, Confucius never expressed boredom and always answered them patiently. In this way, the workload will naturally increase. Confucius has the spirit of "tireless teaching", and the students can still learn a wealth of knowledge from the teacher. Confucius once said to his students: "Do you students think that I have something to hide? I have nothing to hide from you. There is nothing that I do not hide from you. This is the kind of person I am, Confucius." ("Shu Er") That is, Make it clear to the students that they must not hide what they teach, and show how much ability they have. Confucius's teaching attitude of "tireless teaching" deeply moved his disciples. Yan Yuan once talked about his personal experience when he was educated in front of Confucius, saying: "The way of a teacher, the more you look up, the higher you feel; The harder we study, the deeper we feel. Looking at it, it seems to be in the front, and suddenly it is in the back. Although it is so profound and elusive, the teacher is good at guiding us step by step, using various documents to enrich our knowledge, and using various methods. Certain etiquette restrains our behavior, making it impossible for us to stop learning." ("Zihan") This heartfelt language expresses the disciples' reverence and gratitude to Confucius and is his " The best reward for the spirit of “tireless teaching”.