■ Confucius lost his father at the age of 3, and moved to the sparrow with his mother Yan Zhizhai and was taught by him. When Confucius was young, he was "a child's play, forbidding the army as a gift." . When I was a child, my family was poor. 15 years old was determined to study. The dragon, on the other hand, became a "Commissioner" in charge of warehouses and a "farmer" in charge of cattle and sheep. He is open-minded and eager to learn, and has no regular teacher. According to legend, he invited Li to learn the truth of being a man from Changhong and the piano from the teacher. At the age of 30, he has become a well-known local scholar, and started a private school under his tutelage. Its ideological core is "benevolence", and "benevolence" means "love". He regards "benevolence" as the norm and purpose of benevolence, so that "benevolence" and "courtesy" can be used mutually. It is advocated that rulers should govern the people with virtue and treat others with courtesy, so as to reproduce the prosperous time of the Western Zhou Dynasty when "rites and music were conquered from the emperor" and realize their ideal of "great harmony".
■ At the age of 35, Confucius left because of civil strife in Lu. In order to get close, he became a vassal of the nobles of Qi State. The following year, Qi Jinggong asked Confucius about political affairs. Confucius said, "A monarch should be like a monarch, a minister should be like a minister, a father should be like a father, and a son should be like a son." Gong Jing appreciated it very much and wanted to use Confucius, but Yan Ying and Qi Xiang stopped him and had to give up. I want to return to Shandong as soon as possible, continue to learn knowledge and train my disciples. 5 1 year-old, served as the governor in the capital of Lu (now a local official in Wenshang West). The result of good governance is "one year, all directions follow". At the age of 52, he was promoted from Zhongduzai to an ordinary scout in Lu. In 500 BC (the tenth year of Lu), Lu and Qi joined forces in Oracle bones, and Confucius put forward that "those who have military affairs must have equipment, and those who have military affairs must have equipment". Trying to intimidate Lu Jun into submission, Confucius reprimanded him with courtesy, which saved national dignity, so that Qi Huangong had to agree to form an alliance to make peace and return Lu 'an and the three places to Lu. When Confucius was 54 years old, he was entrusted by Ji to take pictures. In order to improve the authority of the monarch, he put forward the idea of "reducing the three capitals" and restraining the three Huan (Dr. Lu San), but the result was opposed by the three doctors and failed. At the age of 55, the monarch and minister of Lu accepted the beauty presented by Qi, and indulged in debauchery all day long. Disappointed, Confucius abandoned his official position and left Shandong, leading his disciples around the world to find another opportunity to display his talents. During this time, he worked for more than 70 emperors, but nothing happened. In 484 BC (eleven years), Ji Kangzi of Lu listened to the persuasion of Confucius disciples and sent someone to pick him up from Weiguo.
■ Confucius returned to Lu, although he was honored as an "old man in the country", but he was still not reused. Instead of seeking official positions, he continued to devote himself to education and document arrangement. He trained more than 3,000 disciples in his life, 72 of whom were proficient in six arts (etiquette, music, archery, imperial defense, calligraphy and mathematics). In teaching practice, a whole set of educational theories, such as teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, paying equal attention to learning and thinking, drawing inferences from others, inspiring and inducing, studying and teaching others tirelessly, and the learning attitude of "knowing what it is, not knowing what it is" and "not ashamed to ask questions", are praised by future generations. He deleted poems, wrote books, ordered rites and music, revised Chunqiu, and comprehensively sorted out China's ancient literature. Grow old together with Yi, and reach the realm of "Bian Wei's Three Musts".
■ At the age of 69, his only son Kong Li died. 7 1 year-old, Yan Hui, a favorite pupil, died of illness. Confucius was extremely sad and sighed: "Heaven has fallen! The sky is lost! " This year, someone caught a monster named Lin in Luxi and died soon. He thought that the appearance and death of Kirin, a symbol of kindness and good fortune, was an ominous sign of chaos in the world, so he stopped compiling the book Spring and Autumn Annals. At the age of 72, I was deeply saddened to learn that my son had died in a national disaster. The following year (479 BC), in February of the summer calendar, Confucius fell ill for 7 days and died.
■ The main words and deeds of Confucius' life were compiled into The Analects by his disciples and re-disciples, which became the classics of later Confucianism.
Introduction of Mencius
Mencius (372 BC-289 BC) was born in Zou during the Warring States Period. He is a disciple of Confucius Sun Zi 'en and the master of Confucius' theory. I once lobbied Liang to promote my idea, but it was useless. When he returned to his hometown in his later years, he co-wrote a book with disciple Zhang Wan, which became Seven Chapters of Mencius, and recorded his academic opinions, words and deeds.
The main points of Mencius' theory
Theory of mind and nature
Goodness and Four Purposes —— The Root of Moral Value
Mencius' theory of "good nature" mainly shows Confucius' concept of "benevolence" Confucius' "benevolence" lacks theoretical basis and has not explained the "root of moral value".
Therefore, Confucius should establish a kind of "conscious consciousness of the root of moral value", and think that goodness is the basic consciousness of human beings, which is manifested in compassion, shame, resignation and right and wrong. The "four ends" show that moral value consciousness is innate. This can supplement the deficiency of Confucius' theory of "benevolence"
Debate on Righteousness and Benefit —— Argument on Moral Value
Mencius believes that "four ends" are inherent in the conscious mind and belong to the "essence" of human beings, that is, the so-called human nature. Human nature is necessarily different from animals, and this kind of "different from animals" means "dying well". He pointed out that people are not good because they are blinded by selfish desires. Therefore, people should give up self-interest in order to achieve social justice. The purpose is to establish a good personal morality.
Yiqi Chengde
Mencius put forward that we should rely on self-cultivation and the exertion of goodness to fully develop the "four ends" in our hearts, which Mencius called "perfection" The cultivation of "doing one's best" cultivates noble spirit, makes people become "gentlemen" who are rich and powerful, but can't move or bend, and then control their emotions with "mind" to achieve virtue.
Mencius believes that the real world is a moral world, and the standard behind the moral root is "heaven", which is manifested in people and is "sex". If people have enough self-cultivation, they can know the nature and achieve the "harmony between man and nature". Mencius pointed out that "the people are the most important, the country is the second, and the monarch is the light", and that the government should protect the interests of the people and the monarch should take care of the people as the premise. Therefore, the destiny lies in people's hearts, not in you. The bitter king has no way, and the people can overthrow it. But if the monarch has a purpose, the people should stick to their posts. Mencius, the former king, advocated benevolent governance, and he must follow the example of the former kings (Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, and) to govern politics in order to implement benevolent governance in the world. Benevolence and Wang Dao Mencius advocated that benevolence should be implemented after benevolence. Mencius believed that "people can't stand it" is "politics can't stand it", and benevolent politics is a necessary condition for unifying the world. The concrete manifestation of benevolent government is kingly way, making the family serve the people and enjoy folk music, and implementing kingly way and "respecting the kidney to enable people".
The concept of rule by virtue Confucius' theory of "benevolence" is conscious morality; Mencius' "benevolence" has educational function. The monarch should cultivate virtue, which is the condition of benevolent governance. Therefore, he advocated "ruling by virtue". Mencius advocated the benevolent governance of serving people with virtue and opposed the hegemonic policy of serving people with force, with the aim of alleviating the pain of people's livelihood and easing social contradictions. Therefore, Mencius advocated "kingly politics" and opposed bullying and being afraid of hard work to serve the people. Mencius believed that the ideal economic system was "minefield system". The "mining field system" means that the land belongs to the state, and the state grants farmland to the people for cultivation, but the people also have to help cultivate public land as a tax payment. So farmers have "constant production" (constant and fixed cultivated land), and the country will be stable.
Educational proposition-implementation from beginning to end
Mencius believed that it was necessary to "cultivate talents in the world" and advocated personality and moral education. He said: "We should respect the teaching of order and apply it in the sense of filial piety." . Moreover, Mencius believes that self-cultivation is the basic point of reading, but he also believes that human goodness cannot be cultivated from the outside (education can only play an influential role), and ultimately it must be realized by one's own thinking. In the method of self-cultivation, we advocate free development and guide the situation.
In addition, Mencius also attached great importance to the learning environment. Only by putting students in a good environment and giving them spontaneous education can they succeed. The influence of Mencius' theory on later generations inspired the unknown Neo-Confucianism. Mencius put forward the theory of "inner sage", pointing out that human nature is good, as long as everyone develops goodness, suppresses material desires and reflects on themselves. This method of introspection became the mainstream of Confucianism in later generations. Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Lu Jiuyuan, Wang Yangming and other Song and Ming Neo-Confucians all inherited Mencius' theory in this respect.
When Mencius formed the concept of "orthodoxy", he even regarded Yao, Shun, Yu, Yu, Wen Wang, Zhou Gong and Confucius as Confucian "orthodoxy" (a knowledge system of the same strain). Since then, the concept of orthodoxy and Confucianism have become an inseparable whole. The influence of people-oriented thought Mencius' people-oriented thought and benevolent government thought are based on the people's hearts. This revolutionary theory became the original idea of China's traditional political theory. However, this theory lacks modern democratic spirit, but it has become the rational source of restraining absolute monarchy in the traditional governance system.
Mencius' thought of "making production for the people" became the highest ideal of economic systems in past dynasties, such as the land equalization system in Sui and Tang Dynasties.