Abstract: Mencius believed that human nature is inherently good, and the four elements of nature are inherent in people. He believes that improving people's moral cultivation requires self-introspection, so that people's "germinations of kindness" can arise from within, and then through a series of efforts of "dedication", "cultivation" and "sincerity", we can seek for all the benefits. You will eventually become a good person. Xunzi advocated evil nature, denied people's self-discipline, insisted on etiquette, and advocated that education should be used to transform nature into hypocrisy and accumulate hypocrisy into good, in order to achieve the purpose of improving moral cultivation. There are differences between Mencius and Xunzi in their methods and approaches to be good, but when it comes to the purpose of human nature, they all want to strengthen moral cultivation and achieve ideal personality through education. Keywords: human nature; benevolence; introspection; external pursuit; expansion; enlightenment CLC classification number: B22.2 Document code: A Article number: 1002-2589 (2012) 03-0006-02 The issue of human nature is a traditional Confucian issue The core and theoretical basis of philosophical thought is one of the most important contents throughout the history of Chinese philosophy. Since Confucius talked about human nature, various schools of thought have different opinions and endless debates on the interpretation of human nature. “The self-discussing of sex is not to study sex just for the sake of studying sex, but to discuss sex in order to discuss cultivation, education, and politics” [1]. Chinese philosophy has always paid attention to the status and value of human beings in the universe, time and space, and human ideological and moral cultivation has always been an eternal theme. In order to logically demonstrate the possibility of improving human nature and find ways to improve people's ideological and moral cultivation, scholars of all ages have persevered and tried to find theoretical basis to support their thoughts from the origin and essence of human nature. The most representative ones are Mencius and Xunzi. Both Mencius and Xunzi discussed human nature around the essential good and evil of human nature. The purpose of the two philosophers' discussions on sex was to strengthen acquired moral education in order to continuously improve inner cultivation and perfect oneself. However, there are many differences between the two in terms of the definition of good and evil in human nature and the ways and methods to achieve good. difference. 1. "Good nature" and "evil nature" - different human nature bases for people to be good. Mencius believed that human nature is inherently good. Said: "Everyone has the heart of compassion; the heart of shame and disgust, everyone has it; the heart of respect, everyone has it; the heart of right and wrong, benevolence, justice, etiquette and wisdom, cannot be tricked on me from outside, I It’s inherent, and it’s something that Firth has heard”[2]. Mencius believed that there are four fundamental good qualities in human nature: benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, and wisdom. The four fundamental good qualities are inherent in human nature and cannot be acquired. Mencius also said: "The reason why humans are different from beasts is that the common people should get rid of them, but the gentlemen should keep them." He clearly pointed out that the so-called nature refers specifically to the characteristics that make people human, and good nature refers to the inherent qualities that humans are born with. The possibility of doing good. Mencius believed that the difference between humans and animals is that humans have "four hearts" - the heart of compassion, the heart of shame, the heart of resignation, and the heart of right and wrong. These good qualities are people's inherent innate moral consciousness, and the completion of good requires the subject To develop and expand the good qualities, the subject needs to cultivate good qualities from within the heart - to cultivate the mind, cultivate the nature, and restrain desires. This process of moral cultivation is based on human goodness and aims to expand good and eliminate evil. Xunzi advocated evil nature. Xunzi's so-called human nature is "the reason why we are born", which is the nature or behavior that is completed by birth. He believes that human beings' innate nature is greedy and greedy. Therefore, human beings' innate nature must be evil. What is completed by birth is called As for nature, those who practice it after birth are all false. Xunzi said: "Human nature is evil, and those who are good are hypocritical" [3]. Thinking good is the result of hypocrisy. "Today's human nature is to love interests and be obedient. Therefore, if you strive for life and give in, you will perish. However, following human nature and obeying other people's feelings will inevitably come from fighting, and it will lead to violence if it violates divisions and chaos."[ 3]. Xunzi believes that following the natural development of human nature will inevitably lead to chaotic behaviors such as fighting and killing thieves, and there is no such thing as resignation or etiquette in nature. Xunzi believed that evil in human nature can be changed, and goodness is the purpose and highest realm of life. Through the teachings of others, through one's own "naturalization and deception", and using "propriety" to regulate behavior, people's moral cultivation can be improved and ultimately good can be achieved. It can be seen that both Xunzi and Mencius tried to start from exploring the nature of human nature to provide theoretical basis for cultivating ideal personality. The purpose of their discussion of nature is the same, and the nature of human nature in their arguments is opposite. 2. "Introspection" and "external pursuit" - Human nature has different abilities to cultivate goodness. Mencius advocated that human nature is good. He said that nature is good based on conscience, which directly determines the direction of his moral pursuit: conscience is intrinsic. , self-cultivation must also come from within. He weakened the heteronomous requirement of etiquette in Confucius's "Tao of Self-cultivation", weakened the exhortation and restraint of external etiquette on people, and strengthened the self-discipline requirement of "benevolence and self-discipline". He believes that people are born with the inherent potential to become a saint and a gentleman. Therefore, as long as a person discovers his true heart, seeks others from himself, cultivates his moral character, and cultivates his ambition, he can become a gentleman and a benevolent person without seeking outside. Mencius believed that the basis of benevolence, justice, propriety and wisdom comes from people's inherent virtue, which is the basis for human nature to be good. Mencius believed that benevolence and righteousness are intrinsic. Mencius' Taoism was good, and his words must be praised as Yao and Shun. Mencius believed that saints are of the same kind as me, but they are "beyond their kind and outstanding". As the same kind, I have the same potential as the saint, and the same ability to distinguish right from wrong, good and evil. This is the characteristic of the kind, and it is human nature. Those external force majeure forces cannot be controlled by people themselves, but the desire for etiquette that is actively pursued by oneself is destiny, not human nature. In real life, people are inevitably affected by the material desires of the external environment. Mencius believed that in order to improve the inner moral quality, discover the four characteristics of human beings, and improve these four characters, it is necessary to go through a series of "dedication", "nurturing one's nature", and "sincerity". "The cultivation skill of "establishing the greatness first" is also the introspection skill of seeking oneself instead, so that the heart can be clear and the good nature can be manifested.
Mencius said: "I am good at cultivating my awe-inspiring spirit." Nourishing Qi can help people return to their conscience and good abilities, become clear and unobstructed, and make their will strong and courageous. Mencius said, "Being sincere is the way of heaven; being sincere is the way of man" [4]. The way of heaven is sincerity, and the way of humanity lies in understanding the sincerity of heaven. This kind of understanding is through inner self-examination, so as to reflect on oneself and grasp the way of heaven. He advocated "establishing the big thing first", so that "the small one cannot take it away." If external desires cannot invade the original heart, the kind heart can be preserved and the adult can become a saint. Mencius's cultivation lies in recognizing the original mind, clarifying the original mind, and bringing out the good nature. Return to your own conscience, and after obtaining your own conscience, act according to it faithfully, and complete the journey from knowing to doing. In this way, you can feel no regrets in your heart, and "look up to God and do nothing to others" [5]. Achieve moral and rational self-consciousness through inner expansion and reflection. Compared to Mencius, Xunzi is not like that. Starting from human instinctive desires, he clearly pointed out that it was unrealistic for Mencius to pin the improvement of moral cultivation on inner consciousness. Starting from the theory of evil nature, he denies human self-discipline and insists on courtesy. He believes that "good things are fake", that is, man-made things should be accumulated fake things. To change the evil nature of human nature, we must resort to "external seeking", that is, relying mainly on rituals and laws to correct people externally. Only in this way can people survive better and realize the ideal of adult sanctification. Unlike Mencius who emphasized the nature of human beings as a species, Xunzi paid more attention to the nature of human beings as a group. Humans "are not as strong as oxen and cannot move as well as horses, but oxen and horses are useful, why? It is said: People can herd, but they cannot herd." [6] The reason why people are human is that they can "crowd" and obey others' desires. It is easy to cause contention and endanger the existence of the group. In order to eliminate mutual competition in the group, there must be a normative force to bind it with etiquette and righteousness to avoid the contradiction between "nature" and "group", thus giving birth to etiquette and righteousness. This illustrates the evil side of human nature, but it does not mean that "nature" is opposed to "group". People are ultimately "good", and the existence of external etiquette and justice enables people to eventually be good, and enable the community to exist and develop with the nature of good. Similar to Mencius, Xunzi also believed that the nature of saints and mortals is the same. "The nature of mortals is the same as that of Yao and Shun, Jie and Zhi" [3]. But why are there differences between saints and mortals? Xunzi believes that sages and gentlemen can "turn their nature into falsehood", and through this skill, they can replace the evil that may arise in their nature with external goodness. "The saint's nature is false, and falseness gives rise to etiquette and righteousness" [3]. The sage's system of laws, regulations, etiquette, education and correction corrects people's nature, transforming the evil nature into good. It can be seen that the existence of etiquette and laws is an important factor in the existence of human groups. Mencius advocates cultivating nature based on good nature; Xunzi advocates "transforming nature" based on evil nature. Different from Mencius' introspection route, Xunzi uses external etiquette to encourage people to transform their nature and eliminate evil, so that "people on the road can become Yu." As mentioned before, Mencius advocated that human nature is "originally good" and "benevolence and righteousness are internal", while Xunzi believed that "benevolence and righteousness are all external" and "nature becomes false", and human nature "becomes good", whether through "introspection" or "external reflection" The cultivation method of "seeking" is the same, but the ultimate goal and destination of cultivation are the same, that is, "goodness" is the ultimate direction of human development. 3. "Expanding good principles" and "transforming nature into falsehood" - the formation and development processes of goodness are different. Mencius and Xunzi both advocated goodness in the ideal of human nature and achieved the goal of everyone being good. How to make people do good and achieve ideal personality, they all advocate education. However, Mencius believed that we should "expand the good principles" and strengthen self-education, while Xunzi advocated "changing nature to bring about falsehood" and strengthen external education. There are differences between the two in the process of the formation and development of good. Mencius advocated good nature and believed that people are born with good intentions, but the desires of people's ears, eyes, mouth, tongue, and senses can blind people's good nature, preventing people from exerting their good nature and doing evil. Therefore, in order to regain our true nature, we must educate ourselves and inspire the goodness in our hearts. He pointed out: "Benevolence is the human heart; it is the path of a righteous person. It is a pity to abandon one's own path and not follow it, to let one's heart be free and not know what to ask for" [2].
Mencius believed that to become a saint, one should introspect oneself, cultivate one's nature with intention, expand good principles, and enhance the original moral attributes in people's hearts such as benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom, etc.; "preserve the night spirit" and "nurture the awe-inspiring spirit" so that good knowledge and good abilities are inherent in the heart and can be carried forward outside the body. These are necessary sources for human nature to be good and improve moral cultivation: Study Theory·Part 2