Zhu Xi said: "No matter how big or small, everything has justice and benefit."
Righteousness, in Confucianism, is based on patriarchal etiquette or patriarchal ethics and morality. It refers to morality, justice and justice; profit refers to material interests. He believes that "for righteousness" and "for profit" are two fundamentally opposing value orientations, and uses them as the standard to distinguish between gentlemen and villains, good and evil. In ancient my country, the traditional morality dominated by Confucianism required people to correctly handle the relationship between justice and benefit, so as to establish the value goal of doing good. This should be affirmed. As the founder of Confucianism, Confucius had a clear attitude on the issue of the importance of righteousness and benefit or the standard of righteousness and benefit. He put forward the proposition that "righteousness is the highest" and "righteousness is the quality", and regarded righteousness as the highest standard. The foundation of one’s life. He said: "A gentleman puts righteousness first. A gentleman who is brave but has no righteousness will lead to chaos; a villain who is brave but has no righteousness will become a thief." ("The Analects of Confucius Yang Huo") Although Confucius "rarely talks about benefit", but in justice Concerning the relationship with benefit, Confucius did not say anything about benefit, but he believed that when you see benefit, you think of righteousness, and when you see gain, you think of righteousness. There must be a balance between righteousness and benefit. Therefore, he said: "Righteousness can be taken later, and people will not be tired of taking it." ("The Analects of Confucius·Xianwen") It is allowed to pay attention to material interests on the premise of not violating righteousness: "Wealth and honor are what people want, and they are not what they want." If you get it through the way, you won't get rid of it. Poverty and lowliness are what people hate. If you don't get it through the way, you won't get rid of it. "("The Analects of Confucius") Although Confucius emphasizes "righteousness" here, But he does not rule out obtaining "wealth and honor" that are not inconsistent with "righteousness" on the premise of "righteousness". However, it is undeniable that in ancient my country's traditional moral thought, there is indeed a tendency to overemphasize justice and belittle profit. Mencius inherited Confucius' views of "rarely talking about profit" and "righteousness is paramount", but went to the extreme of "why daily profit". Shen Hanguang, a poet in the early Qing Dynasty, talked about his experience in his "Jingyuan Xiaoyu" and said: "Mencius talks about the disadvantages of favoring benefits and benefits at the beginning of the book. It is known that this matter is the source of eternal diseases." It can be seen that Mencius's view of justice and benefits has had an impact on social history. What a profound impact it has. For example, my country's feudal ruling classes of all dynasties believed that businessmen valued profits over righteousness, and even regarded promoting agriculture and suppressing business as a policy of governing the country. It is believed that "a gentleman upholds justice, and a villain upholds profit. Upholding profit leads to chaos, and upholding righteousness leads to governance" (Volume 14 of Shao Yong's "Yichuan Jingliang Collection" "Yin of Yili"). Bai Juyi, a feudal scholar-bureaucrat, also included the line "Businessmen value profit over separation" in his poem "Pipa Xing". People seem to have formed such a value orientation: striving to be a "gentleman" who "means righteousness" and not a "villain" who "means benefit". This may be one of the ideological roots that has caused poverty and backwardness in China's past dynasties.
It should be said that the relationship between justice and benefit is a dialectical unity. In fact, the ancients understood this point long ago, but no one emphasized it. There is such a saying in "Guoyu": "Righteousness will bring benefit", "Righteousness will bring benefit, and benefit will enrich the people." From the perspective of the entire cultural system, there is no such thing as disinterestedness. There are all kinds of economics, politics, military, education and even philosophy of life contained in human cultural thoughts, without exception. If being an official and doing business are for profit (such as the benefit of the country, the collective, and the individual), then reading and learning all contain profit factors. Even for Mencius, his so-called "not talking about profit" means that he does not seek small profits. What he ultimately seeks is big and long-term benefits. What's more, while talking about justice, he did not give up material interests. When he traveled around the country, he used "tens of thick carriages and hundreds of followers." It can be said that it is beneficial in meaning.
Not all those who seek profit are unjust people. Even those who pursue personal financial gain do not necessarily make ill-gotten gains. Since "righteousness can bring about profit", then it can also be said that "profit can bring about righteousness". During the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a businessman named Bai Gui in Luoyang who was very good at business management. He adopted the business strategy of "I take when others abandon, and I take when others take", and his business was very prosperous. Every autumn harvest, when the people had a lot of grain, he bought a lot of it. When the people needed to weave cloth and repair houses for the winter, he sold silk and paint; every spring when silkworms were on the market, he bought silk and silk cotton and sold them. cereals. In this buying and selling, Bai Gui not only obtained reasonable and legal profits, but also met the material needs of the people in production and life. Doesn't this contain a certain amount of "righteousness"!
Of course, when it comes to the relationship between righteousness and benefit, there are many people who forget righteousness when they see benefit, those who only care about benefit, and those who care about benefit and abandon righteousness. There are many people since ancient times. For example, Wang Xifeng in "A Dream of Red Mansions" is an example. She was in charge of the general affairs of the Jia Mansion. In order to satisfy her own selfish interests, she borrowed her status and power to obtain some ill-gotten gains. When Qin Keqing was buried in Qiqi, the old nun of Mantou'an begged her to pass Yun Guang, the military governor of Chang'an, to force Zhang Jinge to break off the engagement with the son of a former guard in Chang'an and marry another Li Yanei, with a promise of a large sum of money. As a result, the infatuated young man and the infatuated girl both committed suicide, while Wang Xifeng swallowed three thousand taels of silver. Not only that, she also used usury as a means to make huge profits for a long time, exploited poor intellectuals, and ruined their families. However, Wang Xifeng's final outcome was that justice was harmed by profit. When the imperial court inspected Jia's mansion, one of his crimes was to bully the weak by relying on his power, taking advantage of the violation of regulations, and ultimately cost his life.
In contemporary commodity society, it is also very important to correctly handle the relationship between justice and profit. Nowadays, there are fewer people who value righteousness over profit, and there are more people who value profit over righteousness. Especially in today's market economy, there are more extreme egoists than in the past who are counterfeiting, shoddy, cheating, and greedy for money. Of course, as the socialist market economic system and the legal system continue to improve, such people will gradually decrease and will either be eliminated or change their ways.
Therefore, in the new historical period, we must value both justice and profit. In other words, it is necessary to emphasize both social benefits and economic benefits. It is necessary to seek profits on the premise of teaching, and to teach teachings on the basis of seeking profits. However, when there is a conflict between righteousness and benefit, righteousness should take priority and benefit should be secondary. The ancients said: "If you put righteousness first and then benefit, you will be honored; if you put benefit first and then righteousness, you will be disgraced." ("Xunzi Honor and Shame") If righteousness is the foundation, then benefit is the last, and you cannot put the cart before the horse.