Confucius used "love" to explain "benevolence", and if there is love, there are likes and dislikes. He said, "Only the benevolent can be good and evil." Only benevolent people have correct value judgments, including likes and dislikes, and benevolence is the standard of moral judgment. "Those who are determined to be benevolent will do all kinds of evil." If you are determined to be benevolent, you will not do evil. He added, "It is better for a gentleman to be famous than to be benevolent?
If a gentleman has no final food, he will violate benevolence. If he expects anything, he will be unhappy. "Without benevolence, how to achieve its name? Therefore, a gentleman always takes benevolence as the code of conduct and insists on it at any time and on any occasion.
And "unkind people can't make an appointment for a long time and can't be happy." The benevolent is benevolent, and the knowledgeable is benevolent. "A heartless person can't be strong and hard, nor can he be strong and happy. Benevolent people are content with benevolence, learned people do it because of its benefits, and wise people also take benevolence as their code of conduct.
Confucius also knew that it was not easy to distinguish between love and hate. He said, "I can't see who is good and who is evil." Kind people are the best; Those who are evil but not kind, those who are kind, don't impose unkindness on them. Can you work hard on benevolence for a day? I have never seen anyone who is weak. It was covered, but I didn't see it. "
Benevolence here is the standard to distinguish two kinds of people: one is the one who loves benevolence, and the other is the one who hates benevolence. Although the latter hated inhumanity, Confucius did not say whether he had achieved benevolence. He himself has never seen either of them. In his view, people who love benevolence are not much better, and those who hate benevolence are not influenced by unkind people when they practice benevolence.
If you put your own strength into Ren's practice, you will have enough strength, but he is skeptical about whether you can do it. It can also be said that it is difficult to be benevolent, so he stressed that as the main body of benevolence, people should work hard by themselves.
Extended data
Reform courtesy and benevolence:
Confucius also said courtesy, for example, "People are heartless. What about courtesy?" ? People are heartless, so what are you happy about? "Yan Yuan asked about benevolence, and Confucius said," Self-denial is benevolence. Self-denial and self-denial, the world is benevolent. "Benevolence and propriety are mutual interpretations, but they are biased. Ceremony belongs to the external ceremony, while benevolence belongs to the inner heart, which is more fundamental and embodies the characteristics of the times.
We should understand "benevolent government" from the perspective of social change and academic thought change. Confucius lived at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, and the academic circles often described the society at that time as "the ceremony collapsed and the music was bad", which meant that the original feudal rules and regulations and cultural order of the Zhou Dynasty began to collapse, which opened the transition from feudal system to county system, aristocratic society to civilian society, and the study of Wang Guan to the study of a hundred schools.
At this time of social change, there is an urgent need for saints to come out to improve and create heroes of the times. Confucius came into being and assumed the historical responsibility of connecting the past with the future. He clearly realized that it is impossible to maintain the old ceremony, and he must adapt to this new change, that is, systematically expound the value of benevolence.
Relatively speaking, propriety belongs to the old things of the Zhou Dynasty, representing rank, while benevolence is an innovation since the Spring and Autumn Period, representing equality, and benevolence came into being only after the collapse of propriety. He also realized that the development of society and morality is inseparable, so he didn't completely deny the ceremony, but transformed it with benevolence, giving it new meaning, expecting the interaction between benevolence and ceremony to achieve the role of safeguarding the people all over the world.
Confucius' exposition on benevolence, self-reliance, self-improvement and others embodies two characteristics of benevolence: consciousness and equality, which are the essence of Confucius' interpretation of benevolence with "love"
Baidu encyclopedia-Confucius