The Chinese nation originated in large river basins, and the fertile land along the banks nourished the happy homes of our ancestors. And frequent floods are a major worry that disrupts perfection. The long-term large-scale water conservancy project construction required by this made the ancestors accustomed to obeying unified leadership and praised the brave and selfless flood control heroes. The process of gathering the strength of everyone to resist the forces of nature and gradually achieving victory was also a good opportunity for the ancestors to understand themselves. Compared with the elusive God, the ancestors worshiped their ancestors who taught them survival skills and the heroes who led them to control floods, and paid more attention to their hard-earned peaceful life. This kind of rational care is mapped into the ideological field, and thoughts and speeches that care about people themselves and life itself appear. Pre-Qin Confucianism, which was formed on the basis of extensively absorbing the essence of ancient classics, is the master of it.
1. Definition of Pre-Qin Confucianism
As for the coverage of Pre-Qin Confucianism, the focus of controversy is often on Xunzi. The author believes that the essence of pre-Qin Confucianism, that is, the Tao of Confucius and Mencius, lies in "benevolence" and attaches great importance to people's self-cultivation and introspection, which is the so-called "being able to draw examples from near people can be said to be the recipe for benevolence." However, "Although Xunzi is a Confucian, he gains more from the outside and less from the heart." His focus was entirely on external constraints and the establishment of "rituals" as a code of conduct, so he did not understand the "fundamental meaning" of Confucius and Mencius. Therefore, this article defines Pre-Qin Confucianism as the Tao of Confucius and Mencius, and does not include Xunzi’s thoughts within the scope of discussion.
2. The main contents of Pre-Qin Confucian legal thought
(1) Ren
Confucius, the founder of Pre-Qin Confucianism, realistically and wholeheartedly paid attention to people’s life practice and When it comes to character building, we don’t talk about ghosts and gods or the “other side”. He used "benevolence" to establish lofty ideals for human beings. When Zigong asked: "What if you can help others by giving generously to the people? Can you call it benevolence?" Confucius replied: "What is benevolence? It must be holy! Yao and Shun were like sick others! A benevolent person wants to establish himself and establish others. "If you want to reach yourself, you will reach others." (Yong Ye) This kind of "benevolence", that is, the ideal state of humanism with deep and broad love for human beings, is indeed so high that even ancient sages like Yao and Shun, who were praised by Confucius, could not fully achieve it. Jinda. For the Chinese, the sacred height of "benevolence" is no less than that of the personal "God". The difference is that the personal "God" is on the "other side", while "benevolence" is at the pinnacle of the real world. Confucius also established some benevolences that are closely related to reality, have precise connotations, and that people can strive for as goals and be "near benevolence", such as "loving others", "loving others universally", "filial piety", "loyalty and forgiveness", and "Teach first and then punish" for politicians. It makes people feel that the moral pinnacle of "benevolence" is still rooted in the earth, rather than elusive, so they have the courage and confidence to approach benevolence.
Mencius provided the metaphysical basis for the concept of "benevolence" in Confucian philosophy that human nature is inherently good. That is to say, "Everyone has the heart of compassion;...the heart of compassion is the essence of benevolence;...it does not shine on me from outside, it is inherent in me, just thinking about it. (Gaozi 1)" "The heart of compassion, that is, Unbearable feeling. This touching tenderness is done by doing nothing, not instinct. It seems to have nothing to do with life but is outside of life. It is freed from the path of doing something and successfully doing it without doing anything. It does not have a meaning, it shows that one is not prepared to do anything to others." (Liang Shuming said) This is similar to the interpretation of the spirit of "goodness" in Greek ethical thought and the Huayan Sect of Buddhism.
(2) Etiquette
Etiquette is the externalization of the inner quality cultivation requirements of benevolence. Confucius's concept of "rituals" was inherited from Zhou Rites. The "rituals" in Zhou Rites proposed an idea of ??maintaining the "clear distinction" of various people in society and thus making society orderly. "Li" is a kind of external heteronomous norms and rules and regulations. People's observance of rites is mainly implemented as external rules and regulations. Confucius's "ritual" is the "ritual" accumulated in "benevolence", which has abandoned its other-performing nature. "To restrain oneself and return to propriety is benevolence. For one day, to restrain oneself and return to propriety, the world will return to benevolence. To be benevolent, one must have oneself, but does it depend on others?" From this point of view, if "people are not benevolent", then "propriety" is completely alien to them. It is an unwilling bondage; "when a person becomes benevolent", etiquette becomes a conscious virtue or spirit like his inner instinct. "Inner benevolence and outer etiquette" are unified in this way. With "benevolence", this humanistic spirit and "ritual" are no longer rigid rules and regulations. He has got rid of the "insensitivity" of "unkindness", and the active blood of "kindness" and kindness flows around him. This is Confucius's highest evaluation standard for extroverted behavior with "benevolence" as the inner orientation.
(3) The rule of man
Confucianism’s concern for people and life must also be concerned about the group society on which people depend. A peaceful world where the king and the people enjoy each other's happiness has always been the utopia that pre-Qin Confucians believed and longed for. Based on the theoretical basis of good nature, it has become inevitable to focus on giving people the rule of law that is beneficial and guiding rather than the purely coercive rule of law. The social organization method advocated by Confucianism in the pre-Qin Dynasty can be summarized as "internal benevolence and external propriety", that is, the internalized moral cultivation of "benevolence" and the externalized "propriety" norms and regulations are used to coordinate people's behavior to achieve social goals. state of harmony.
In management, in the process of social organization, the reason why people's behavior is regulated comes from the outside, that is, the situation where behavioral norms are controlled by others is called "other organizations"; while people are called "other organizations" because they have * **The tacit psychological understanding caused by ideals and beliefs, ethics and values, etc., and the conscious regulation of personal behavior is called "self-organization".
With the help of these two concepts and the idea of ??"harmony dialectics", we can get the "self-organization-other organization" harmonious characteristics of "inner benevolence and outer courtesy".
First of all, Confucius interpreted benevolence as "loving others", which is not only the standard of personal moral cultivation, but also the highest principle used in real-life management to deal with relationships between people and for the political state. Therefore, while "inner benevolence" emphasizes the development of personal subjective spirit and moral cultivation, "benevolence" has become the moral norm of people's inner experience and external practice, restricting people's way of thinking and specific behaviors. The moral cultivation of the theory of life is combined with the means of political country, and personal moral cultivation becomes a means of social organization, which makes "inner benevolence and outer courtesy" have the function of "self-organization".
Secondly, after Zhou Gongdan established Zhou rites, "rituals" have become the sum of behavioral rules for the entire country, society, family, and individuals. Because rituals have the political function of consolidating state power, safeguarding monarchy, and governing the country, they form part of the law, obtain mandatory power, and receive the support of state power. "Li" is essentially the "law" of Pre-Qin Confucianism. As an objective and external system, it generates the power to regulate people's behavior and enables "inner benevolence and outer rituals" to acquire the function of "other organizations".
Benevolence is subjective moral cultivation, etiquette is objective institutional norms; benevolence is inner self-consciousness, etiquette is external control. They are the cause and effect of each other and accompany each other. With the help of the internal and external coupling structure, they have an integrated relationship of "benevolence inside and courtesy outside", and have the harmonious characteristics of "self-organization-other organization".
What needs to be explained here is that the self-discipline of "rituals" mentioned above is the perfect "unity of benevolence and etiquette" constructed by Confucius. It is the ideal state of "doing what one wants without going beyond the rules" and cannot be regarded as Confucius absolutely negated the heteronomous nature of "ritual". The heteronomy of "ritual" is the only way to the state of self-discipline of "ritual". The key is that "ritual" must be the etiquette that Naren sets as his standard.
Government by people means rule by benevolence and rule by etiquette.
3. The influence of pre-Qin Confucian legal thought
Pre-Qin Confucianism regarded etiquette as "law" and combined people's self-discipline with heteronomy until perfect self-discipline guaranteed the operation of society. , coupled with the coordination of wise kings and wise ministers, formed his utopian political vision. What it strives for is not a temporary effect but a model for centuries, not the prosperity of a family but the peace of the world. This is very different from the realistic considerations of the rulers based on their own self-interest, so it is unsatisfactory.
However, Confucianism has always maintained the spirit of "profit and loss" advocated by Confucius, and therefore has the openness to other worldview systems and the ability to draw nutrients from other philosophies and integrate them into its own system. . In order to enable Confucianism to be adopted by those in power, their successors continued to make many "profits and losses", thus being able to enter and stay on the stage of history. However, the political and legal thought of Pre-Qin Confucianism has also been "gained and lost" to the point where it is almost beyond recognition. It can be said that Pre-Qin Confucianism as a system has been lost in the long river of history. Only some of these thoughts and spirits were inherited by later generations of Confucianism, and have been passed down for generations, and have even been incorporated into the blood and bones of the Chinese nation, becoming something deeply ingrained.
1. Benevolence
The influence of "Benevolence" in Confucian legal thought can be said to be the most profound. It denies that the rulers only consider their own interests and points out the importance of taking into account the interests of the "people". Because it was found to have a remarkable effect in mediating the relationship between the ruling class and the people, all previous "rulings of the world" followed this as the guideline for governance and legislation. The peaceful governance longed for by the pre-Qin Confucians achieved an alienated realization, which played an indelible role in the smooth progress of social production and the sustainable development of Chinese civilization. There have been many detailed analyzes and evidence on this point by predecessors, so I will not go into details here.
2. Perseverance to reality
As pointed out at the beginning of this article, pre-Qin Confucianism has an innate concern for real life, and "does not talk about strange forces and chaos." Although the highly praised "benevolence" is referred to by Paul Tillich "Ultimate concern", but its "religious nature" does not lead to transcendence and the ideal kingdom of heaven, but follows the golden line of "Destiny is called nature, spontaneity is called Tao, and cultivating Tao is called religion", and is implemented in the broad society. In daily life. This theme has a profound impact on later generations:
(1) It makes the ethical rationality in our culture extremely developed. Ethics runs through the entire history of Chinese thought; ethical concepts are deeply rooted in people's hearts.
(2) If you are too obsessed with reality and do not think beyond the "other shore", your thoughts will inevitably become rigid, alienated, and vulgarized at a certain period of time. For example, Confucius's theory of "restraining oneself and restoring propriety to be benevolent" and Mencius' "nourishment of the heart should be done with few desires" are based on the premise that "everyone has it" and are based on the protection of family, clan, country and other unified entities. , emphasizes rationality, and uses moral norms such as benevolence, justice, reason, and trust to limit the irrational desires of people, including those in power, and make desires moderate. However, later generations paid too much attention to how to control the people realistically. By the Song and Ming Dynasties, Neo-Confucianism was "developed" into the classic theoretical basis of asceticism that "preserves natural principles and destroys human desires."
(3) This persistence in reality is also reflected in the attitude of seeking knowledge. Although Pre-Qin Confucianism has extremely rich intellectual connotations, and although the "learning without thinking will lead to confusion, and thinking without learning will lead to danger" is particularly emphasized, its "intelligence" is not reflected in pure speculation. Xinqu, but based on the principle of "morality, utilization, and welfare", focuses on solving specific problems in real life.
For thousands of years, Chinese people have been quite utilitarian in their pursuit of knowledge, and this has developed into a situation where the prosperity of intuitive ability is accompanied by the decline of logical reasoning ability. Therefore, the Chinese people can create the four great inventions based on intuition, but do not understand the scientific reason; the Chinese people will imprison fireflies and reflect the snow light to study the classics on world governance, but they will not leisurely do something about the ripe fruit. The meditative Newtonians stopped thinking about light sources and refraction. This way of thinking is particularly prominent in legal thought. Confucius mentioned in his system of benevolence that "there is no greater good than changing the past." His method was to learn from Yao and Shun, which is a very intuitive way of thinking. It seems perfect at first glance, but it is impossible for everyone to be like Yao and Shun, so this method is not actually a method. For thousands of years, virtuous ministers and scholars have been constructing theories of governance such as "virtue dominates and punishment assists", "punishment ends punishment", "killing with caution", "Zhang Fa Ji" and so on. It seems perfect at first glance, but the monopoly of the highest power may not be willing to adopt it, especially a theory like Fan Zhongyan's "anti-arbitrariness" that restricts the monarch from doing whatever he wants. And temporary acceptance may not avoid the ending of "people perish and government ceases to exist". However, no matter whether it is good or bad, no one has made a logical analysis of the entire political structure, but will only struggle weakly or strongly in the alternating cycle of chaos and chaos. Generally speaking, the resistance to transcendence in Pre-Qin Confucianism has been inherited, and has undergone fine-tuned variations. Later Confucian thinking about reality is limited to the level of how to govern, and cannot be transcended. This is also one of the reasons why my country’s feudal society lasted so long and democratic ideas were born late.
3． Thick groups but thin individuals
Pre-Qin Confucianism’s concern for people is the concern for people as a whole, and it is “education without distinction”. Its basic footing is to maintain the common interests of family, clan and country. It insists on sacrificing individual differences and personality to maintain unity and universality, and praises people with lofty ideals and benevolence who "sacrifice themselves to achieve benevolence". , a gentleman with a samurai spirit who "will die at the sight of danger". This indeed has the effect of promoting social development within a certain historical period. As part of the pre-Qin Confucian ethics and moral norms, this value orientation was inherited by later Confucians and has long been the mainstream in traditional Chinese culture. It has gradually been internalized into the psychological structure of the Chinese people, giving the Chinese people a prominent group consciousness. Lack of independent individuality and subjective consciousness. This became the ideological and cultural condition for the elongation and slow development of China's feudal society. It is also a very deep resistance to the enlightenment of modern concepts of democracy, freedom and human rights. Even in the legislation of New China, this excessive requirement for morality is inevitable. The provisions in the civil law that no remuneration is required for management without reasons are the embodiment of this ethical encouragement.
The above are some of the author’s superficial views on Pre-Qin Confucianism. Due to my narrow knowledge base, I only admire my own courage in trying to explain such a broad and complex proposition in such a short space of time. The views in this article are quite narrow-minded and immature. Please forgive me.