1. Confucius' political thought
Confucius is the greatest figure in the history of political thought in China. Since Confucius, China's political thought has entered an era of complete system. Confucius' contribution to China's political thought lies in that he systematically sorted out, inherited and enriched the past historical heritage and founded the political thought with benevolence and propriety as the core.
Confucius' political thoughts are mainly reflected in the Analects of Confucius, a collection of speeches he and his disciples made. In addition, the Six Classics compiled by Confucius also reflects Confucius' basic political thoughts. Confucius established a systematic and complete theoretical system, including philosophy, ethics, politics, education, economy, history, literature, aesthetics and other aspects. He was formed through the work of "narration" and "writing". The "narration" is that he systematically sorted out the ancient books and documents before the week, and compiled and deleted six classics: Poetry, Book, Rite, Music, Book of Changes and Spring and Autumn Annals. Zuo is Confucius' own writings, mainly The Analects of Confucius.
the main body of Confucius' political thought is the theory of benevolence and propriety, and benevolence and propriety are the core categories of Confucius' political thought.
1. The concept of benevolence existed before Confucius. In the early Spring and Autumn Period, people called it benevolence to respect their parents, respect their elders, love the people, be loyal to the monarch and be virtuous in manners and literature. Confucius inherited the concept of predecessors and developed it into a systematic theory of benevolence.
what is benevolence? Confucius mentioned benevolence in the Analects of Confucius in more than 1 places, which has a wide meaning, but its basic meaning has two: one is to love. His disciple Fan Chi asked Confucius what benevolence was, and Confucius replied, "Love". Shuowen has an explanation: "Benevolence, affinity and obedience", which is in line with Confucius' thought. Benevolence is the relationship between people. We should be friendly and help each other. There are differences in love. According to Mencius, "Kiss and be kind to the people, be kind to the people and love things". Love your relatives first, then spread to the people, and then spread to things; It is the first generation, the first inside and the second outside, both second and thickness. This is a kind of "benevolence difference" from the "natural nature" of human beings.
2. The second meaning of
benevolence is self-denial and courtesy. In reply to disciple Yan Yuan, Confucius said, "Self-denial is benevolence" (Yan Yuan). "Self-denial" means self-restraint. "Rewarding ceremony" means that all words and deeds should be accepted by ceremony. What is emphasized here is people's moral consciousness. By restraining themselves, people can reach the realm of conscious propriety and reach see no evil. Don't listen to evil, don't say evil, and don't move until evil. "Listening, speaking and acting are all in harmony with ceremony, which is the realm of benevolence.
"Li" is also an ancient concept, and the Duke of Zhou made Zhou Li. However, Confucius was the first person to discuss it in many ways. What is a gift? The meaning of ceremony includes two aspects: first, it belongs to the fundamental political system. "Zuo Zhuan" has been hidden from the public for eleven years: "Rite, serve the country, set the country, order the people, and benefit the heirs. "That is to say, courtesy is to govern and stabilize the country, consolidate the national system and maintain the order needed by society. Confucius also said that propriety is the "Great Classic of the King" (Zuo Zhuan has been known to the public for fifteen years), and it is the fundamental rule and the key to governing the country. Therefore, "a bad country will lose its ceremony when it loses its family" (<; Li Ji Li Yun). If you lose the gift, you will lose everything. It can be seen that the "ceremony" mentioned by Confucius here is actually "social order and social system". Second, there are etiquette rules, that is, there are different etiquette rules about the imperial court's sacrifice, going out to war, hiring at the court, even weddings and funerals, and serving people to the details of life. According to different grades and status, there are different etiquette rules, which is called "etiquette". The "instrument" here is actually a concrete form of "social order and social system".
Confucius thought: ceremony and ceremony are unified, ceremony is fundamental, ceremony is subordinate, ceremony is a "festival" or form, or ceremony is to consolidate and embody social order and system in the form of code of conduct and etiquette. Therefore, the realization of ceremony depends on both the force of compulsion and the force of custom, which is a combination of internal and external, so ceremony is connected with music. According to Confucius, the concept of "restoring courtesy to others" actually advocates the establishment of a "ceremonial society" like the Zhou Dynasty, that is, an "orderly and institutional society".
Confucius advocated the combination of propriety and benevolence, accepting benevolence from propriety and enriching propriety with benevolence. This is an innovation of Confucius. " Regarding the relationship between propriety and benevolence, he believes that benevolence is the inner spirit of propriety, and propriety is the manifestation of benevolence. Benevolence is the highest realm of ceremony, and ceremony is the way to realize benevolence. As far as the essence of benevolence and ceremony is concerned, benevolence, in the final analysis, reflects the benevolent relationship between people rooted in blood relationship; Rites mainly regulate the political order and system of society. In Confucius' ideological system, paying attention to the combination of benevolence and propriety, in essence, paid attention to the combination of humanity and politics, thus making a major revision of Zhou rites. Benevolence and propriety are not contradictory, because benevolence is content and propriety is form, and the combination of them is a kind of system perfection.
3. The idea of ruling by virtue
is related to Confucius' theory of benevolence and propriety. In the general plan of governing the country, he advocates "ruling by virtue", and governing the country with morality and ethics is the noblest way to govern the country. This strategy of governing the country is also called "rule by virtue" or "rule by courtesy". In fact, this strategy has broken the traditional credo that courtesy is no less than Shu Ren's, and has broken an original important boundary between the nobility and the common people.
The specific measures to implement the rule of virtue:
1) Emphasis on education and light punishment. Confucius believes that to govern a country well, we must strengthen education on the basis of satisfying the people's affluent life. On the issue of ritual punishment, Confucius advocated that ethical code is fundamental, and punishment must be used with caution if it is necessary. It is believed that political affairs will be harmonious only by combining leniency with fierceness. The combination of leniency and fierceness means the use of both civil and military skills, and the rule of virtue and punishment.
2) Oppose excessive extraction and advocate "making people righteous". Righteousness is appropriate, that is, to serve the people not too much and to be appropriate.
Confucius saw the reality of polarization and great disparity between the rich and the poor at that time, and thought it was the basic factor that caused social unrest and national subversion, so he put forward the economic proposition of equalitarianism. He said: "Those who have a state-owned family do not suffer from inequality because of widowhood, and they do not suffer from poverty but from anxiety." (Ji Shi)
3) Correcting oneself for political needs. Confucius believes that to govern the country and be upright, we must be upright first, and then we can be upright. He said: "His body is upright and he does it without orders: his body is not upright, although he does not obey orders." ("Zi Lu") Therefore, Confucius advocates that the ruler must be a "gentleman" who is highly respected and practical. In this way, if he plays an exemplary role for the politicians, he will be promoted from the top to the bottom, and naturally he will govern the people and the country. Confucius put forward certain moral standards for politicians.
4) promote talents. Linked with Confucius' thought of ruling by virtue, he believed that a monarch must promote talents, discover and promote outstanding talents and participate in state affairs if he wants to rule the world. Regarding the standard of talent, Confucius thought it should be "aiming at Tao, relying on virtue, relying on benevolence and wandering in art." ("Shu Er") is to have political ideals and goals, to be based on the spirit of benevolence and noble morality, and to be good at using business knowledge and skills. In short, a talented person should have ideals, morality, knowledge and ability to govern the country. This is a standard of have both ability and political integrity.
Confucius' theory of benevolence embodies the spirit of humanity, while Confucius' theory of ceremony embodies the spirit of ritual system, that is, order and system in the modern sense. Humanism is the eternal theme of mankind, which is applicable to any society, any era and any government, while order and institutional society are the basic requirements for establishing a civilized human society. This humanitarianism and order spirit of Confucius is the essence of China's ancient social and political thought.
Source: Excerpted from Zhang Yongdong's
Second, Confucius advocated "teaching without distinction" in education.
Before Confucius, "learning was in the government", and only aristocratic children had the right to receive education. Therefore, only aristocratic children were qualified to be officials. However, in the era of Confucius, social politics, economy, culture and education were moving down, which provided opportunities for private schools. Confucius seized this opportunity and started his career of establishing private schools, hoping to train "talents" and officials through education to realize his political thoughts. On the object of education, Confucius clearly put forward the idea of "teaching without class" [7]. The original meaning of "teaching without class" is that there is no distinction between aristocrats and civilians, regardless of national boundaries and foreigners, as long as they have the heart to learn, they can enter school and be taught. Confucius' disciples came from different countries such as Shandong, Qi, Jin, Song, Chen, Cai, Qin and Chu, which not only broke the national boundaries at that time, but also broke the distinction between Yi and Xia at that time. Confucius absorbed the Chu people, Gong Sunlong and Qin Shang, who were regarded as "barbarian countries" by the Central Plains people, and wanted to live in "Jiuyi" to teach, which explained the latter point. Some of Confucius' disciples came from the noble class, such as Uncle Jing, Sima Niu and Meng Yizi, but most of them came from civilian families, such as Yan Hui, Zeng Shen, Min Ziqian, Zhong Gong, Zi Lu, Zi Zhang, Zi Xia, Gongye Chang and Zi Gong. And civilian education can better reflect the spiritual essence of Confucius' "teaching without class".
the theoretical basis of Confucius' thought of "teaching without class" is his theory of human nature that "sex is similar, but learning is far away" [8]. "Similarity in sex" shows that everyone has the possibility of success and virtue, while "learning from each other" shows the importance of implementing education. It is based on the understanding that "everyone can become a virtuous person through education" that Confucius made the decision of "teaching without distinction".
The implementation of the idea of "teaching without distinction" has expanded the social foundation of education and the source of talents, and undoubtedly played a positive role in promoting the quality of all members of society. Therefore, Confucius' thought of "teaching without class" has epoch-making significance in the history of educational development.