Once, a student of Confucius saw a child fall into a rushing river, so he jumped into the river to save the child. Afterwards, the child's father gave him a cow to thank him, and he accepted it gladly. Many people say that he is too greedy. But Confucius' attitude is surprising. Confucius said to his students, "You did the right thing, because your behavior announced to the society that as long as you save people in danger, you can accept it no matter how much the reward is, which will encourage more people to help others."
Confucius' attitude will certainly surprise most people today. Because the great scholars in our impression regard money as dirt, didn't Confucius say that "a gentleman is poor in wealth"? In this story, Confucius not only did not advocate doing good deeds without leaving a name, but encouraged his students to accept material thanks from others. What happened to our Confucius?
Open the Analects of Confucius and read every sentence carefully, and gradually understand that the important reason why Confucius' thoughts can be passed down through the ages is his respect for human nature.
Even in today's highly developed material civilization, people's lives are closely related to the word "benefit", not to mention in the Spring and Autumn Period more than two thousand years ago. The times are changing and the environment is changing, but human nature will not change. After thousands of years, Confucius was portrayed as a saint by later generations, and I think Confucius at that time also had the same human nature as ordinary people. He also yearns for a well-off life, hopes to master power to realize his political ideal, and is as willing to enjoy the comfort of "bending his arms" as ordinary people. "A person's heart is also the heart of thousands of people in Qian Qian." Confucius understood that it is inevitable for people to love money and enjoy a carefree life, but unrestrained human nature will lead to social unrest. How to solve the contradiction between the two? The clever Confucius created a man called a "gentleman". A gentleman is noble and knowledgeable, and is recognized and respected by the whole society. However, there are conditions for being a gentleman. Confucius told people that a gentleman loves money and takes it wisely. A gentleman is not party member. A gentleman learns to love others. A gentleman worries about Tao but not poverty. It is human nature to expect praise and respect from others, so some people will take the initiative to strive for the highest realm of gentlemen. Confucius understood and respected human nature, guided and controlled human nature reasonably, and knew how to use human nature to realize his ideal of building a "harmonious society". This is the wisdom of Confucius.
However, with the changes of the times, Confucianism has become a tool in the hands of rulers of past dynasties, giving people a different feeling. Dong Zhongshu's "divine right of monarchy" made Confucianism rise rapidly and become the "leader" of feudal ideological circles, but at the same time he lost the opportunity to enrich himself in the contention of a hundred schools of thought. When Confucianism developed to the Song Dynasty, Zhu, who thought that he had the true meaning of Confucianism, shouted "Preserve justice and destroy human desires", and completely degraded Confucianism as a coquettish slave at the feet of the ruler. Fortunately, history is sober and fair. For thousands of years, Chinese descendants have not been fascinated by Confucianism, which has been revised beyond recognition. We are all trying to improve our moral cultivation, rather than fighting for the extinction of humanity.
The universal love of Mohism ignores human nature, the cool method of Legalism stifles human nature, and the carefree of Taoism allows human nature. Only Confucius' Confucianism properly respects human nature. I think: this kind of respect is just an easy-going way of "I'll go there before the mountain comes", a kind of nature of "relying on heaven and relying on people", and a kind of wisdom that can make Confucianism spread for thousands of years and never stop.
For 2,500 years, Confucius' studious spirit and constant pursuit spirit have become an important feature of our Chinese national spirit. Today, I read the Analects carefully, from which I realized the wisdom of Confucius.
Teacher Confucius is the first person in poverty education since ancient times. Before Confucius, only people with doctors or above and their children could receive education. Teacher Confucius accepts all his disciples, rich or poor, as long as they study. Confucius said, "I have never failed to teach myself how to restrain myself." You can also bring ten pieces of dried meat as a meager tuition fee. Since then, children from poor families can receive a good education as long as they have aspirations. Teacher Confucius changed history with his own actions and promoted the progress of history and the prosperity of the nation. What a hero of the Chinese nation.
Confucius said, "A gentleman is not good." Man is not a container, but a purpose. A gentleman should have all kinds of abilities.
Confucius pays attention to teaching students in accordance with their aptitude. Confucius gave different answers to the same questions raised by students with different personalities, aiming at giving corresponding guidance to the shortcomings of different students and making them consciously correct in their daily work.
Confucius said, "It is better to learn from it and keep pace with the times." "Review the past and learn the new." Study should be reviewed frequently. In the study of knowledge, Confucius emphasized the method and attitude of learning. He taught students to study hard and think hard: "Learning without thinking is useless, and thinking without learning is dangerous." Confucius also emphasized the importance of thinking with his own personal experience: "I try not to eat all day and stay up late." It's useless to think, it's better to learn. "
There are three realms of learning: "The knower is not as good as the doer, and the doer is not as good as the musician." In the evening, Confucius learned the Book of Changes, and the words were difficult to understand and obscure, so Confucius read them repeatedly and broke the leather rope connecting bamboo slips. This is the origin of the idiom "Bian Wei's Three Musts". Confucius used his own behavior to tell future generations that learning is a lifelong thing.
Learning is not only the study of knowledge, but more importantly, learning to be a man. Confucius paid special attention to learning from excellent people and improving himself through introspection. "A threesome, there will be my teacher. Choose good and follow it, but change it if it is not good. " There will be something worth learning between any three people, and only a clear-headed and broad-minded person can say it and do it. "See Xian Si Qi Yan, see Xian Si Qi introspection."
The value of Confucius lies in that he not only imparts knowledge to students, but also pays attention to the education of character, morality and the way to make a living. Confucius' noble moral cultivation made him a "teacher of all ages" and a "saint". His words and deeds give students more important enlightenment, so that they can grow up in humanistic care.
1988, 75 nobel prize winners issued a joint declaration in Paris, calling on the world that "if human beings want to survive in the 2 1 century, they must learn the wisdom of Confucius two thousand years ago." -inscription
Confucius, the greatest thinker and educator in China, is said to be to China what Jesus was to the West. Indeed, the moral principles revealed in his speech have been influencing the people of China for two thousand years.
When it comes to Confucius, we can't help mentioning The Analects of Confucius and The Analects of Confucius, which explain the core connotation of Confucianism-benevolence. The word "benevolence" appeared 109 times in The Analects of Confucius, which is the center of all theories. When the Analects explains "benevolence", it is by no means an empty sermon; On the contrary, there is tenderness between the lines from time to time. I have long been moved by a story in The Analects of Confucius: "The stables burned. Zi retired from the DPRK and said,' Does it hurt the people?' Don't ask the horse. "Simple plot, but like hot wine in winter, makes people warm to their hearts. Yes, Confucius is such a person, a benevolent person who regards human life and health above everything else. Whether this person is a senior official, a noble or a peddler, his care and love are the same. It is this compassion that made Confucius and his Analects of Confucius.
Confucius said, "Be open-minded, a petty man is anxious and worried.." . How profoundly this sentence expounds the essential difference between a gentleman and a villain, which is not only Confucius' most direct classification standard for gentlemen and villains, but also his expectation for every benevolent. Think about Lin Zexu, who was famous for killing opium in Humen in history, but was exiled by Daoguang. But after all, he is an "magnanimous" aristocratic gentleman, who still digs canals for the people of Xinjiang to build water conservancy projects and "imperial canals" for the benefit of one party. Even if he stopped being an official, he never violated the life creed of "the survival of the country, or every cloud has a silver lining avoided it".
Confucius said, "The knower enjoys water, while the benevolent enjoys Leshan." Confucius himself was a benevolent gentleman who loved love the water. In fact, the basic norms expounded in The Analects of Confucius are not so much morality as wisdom, which is a great wisdom of life derived from extremely simple natural laws. In The Analects of Confucius, Voltaire, a French enlightenment thinker, spoke highly of "Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you" and "Return evil for good", and thought that "no matter how western people use proverbs and mathematics, they can't compare with this pure morality". In the pre-Qin era when human civilization just dawned, our ancestors had such profound wisdom in life. How can we not be sincerely proud of the long history of China culture?
At the opening ceremony of the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing, 2008 actors sang "It's a pleasure to have friends from afar". In the sound of guqin, Confucius disciples wearing ancient robes and holding bamboo slips read the Analects of Confucius in unison, such as "All men are brothers within the four seas" and "Harmony is the most precious gift". The 887 movable type printing tray transforms the word "harmony" into three different fonts, expressing China's humanistic concept of "harmony without difference" and "harmony is precious". Confucius is a treasure given to the world by God. He hung the lamp of eternal kindness and spread the seeds of wisdom everywhere. The Analects of Confucius is Confucius' most essential understanding of life and the world. With the Yangtze River, it has nurtured generations of Chinese sons and daughters.
Double-breasted hugging, temples are full of spots. For a lifetime, Hua Ze was delayed.
This is Confucius, a scholar-bureaucrat, a true scholar in China, and an eternal Homo sapiens in the minds of future generations.
Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are three schools in Chinese history, but they have different positions in China culture. Confucius' Confucian ideology and culture is the main body of China culture, which has exerted great influence on China society and even all nationalities in the world in history. So, will it have a great impact on human society today and even in the future? Confucius' Confucianism will undoubtedly remain a valuable legacy of human civilization today and even for a long time.
The biggest problem facing human society today is "peace and development", that is to say, in order to survive and develop today's human society, it is necessary to achieve "peace", that is, to solve the relationship between good people, and to expand is to solve the relationship between nations, countries and regions. Confucianism can provide us with very useful resources.
Confucian "benevolence" provides valuable resources for coordinating the relationship between "people" (including countries, countries, regions and regions)
The relationship between people is established from feelings, which is the basic starting point of Confucius' "benevolence". Confucius' disciple asked Ren, and Confucius replied, "Love." Where does this concept of "love" come from? Confucius was quoted as saying in The Doctrine of the Mean: "A benevolent person is also a human being, and a relative is great." The spirit of "benevolence" is possessed by people themselves, and it is the most fundamental to love their loved ones. However, the spirit of "benevolence" cannot stop there. "Guodian Bamboo Slips" says: "Love it with love; Love the father, and the successor, Ren Ye. " Love the person you love very much. This is just love, love your father, and then extend to love others. This is called "benevolence". "Filial piety, love the world." Filial piety to parents should be enlarged to those who love the world. In other words, Confucius' theory of benevolence is extended from "kissing" to "being close to the people", to "pushing oneself and others" and achieving "providing for the old" and "being young", which is "benevolence". It is not easy to put yourself in the other's shoes. We must take the principle of "don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you" and "stand if you want to, and reach if you want to" as "benevolence". If we want to spread "benevolence" to the whole society, this is what Confucius said: "self-denial is benevolence, once a day, the world belongs to benevolence." "For benevolence, for yourself, for people?" Since ancient times, "self-denial" and "complex ceremony" have been interpreted as two parallel aspects. I don't think this can explain "self-denial" very well. The so-called "self-denial is benevolence" means that only self-denial based on "self-denial" can be called "benevolence". Mr. Fei Xiaotong also explained this. He said: "Self-denial is the only way to return the gift. Returning gifts is a necessary condition for entering the society and becoming a social person. Self-esteem and self-denial may be a key to the cultural differences between the East and the West. " I think this statement is very reasonable.
Regarding the relationship between "benevolence" and "propriety", Confucius has a very clear statement: "What about people? What is the fun of being heartless? " Rites and music without benevolence are hypocritical, so Confucius believes that with the conscious requirement of pursuing "benevolence" and realizing this "benevolence" in daily society according to certain norms, society will be harmonious and peaceful. This idea based on the pursuit of "benevolence" is put into practice in real life, which is the "extreme clarity and moderation" in The Doctrine of the Mean. "Extremely bright" requires us to pursue the highest principle in philosophy, namely "benevolence"; The doctrine of the mean requires us to follow certain rules in our daily life, and "extremely bright" and "the doctrine of the mean" cannot be divided into two. This is the highest ideal in China's traditional culture, that is, "the way of being sage inside and king outside". Traditionally, in China, only the person with the highest moral personality (Inner Sage) is fit to be king, and the person with the highest moral personality can't just "be alone", but must benefit the world at the same time. Therefore, "cultivate one's morality, keep one's family in order, govern the country and level the world" is connected into a series in "University". In my opinion, this set of thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism cannot be said to be meaningless to the "rule" of a country or to the ruling groups of developed countries in the world now. Governing the country and leveling the world should be benevolent and kingly, not overbearing.
Although Confucius' theory of "benevolence" can't solve all the problems of "interpersonal relationship" in today's human society, it is undoubtedly still realistic as a moral requirement of "self-discipline" based on moral metaphysics and as a criterion for regulating people, expanding "interpersonal relationship" and making "nations" and "countries" live in harmony.
"Harmony without difference" advocated by Confucius is an important law of the development of social things and social relations and the true meaning of the coordinated development of human civilization.
It is not easy for "people" to live in harmony, so Confucius put forward the idea that "gentlemen are harmonious but different, and villains are the same but not harmonious". He believes that a moral and learned gentleman who practices "loyalty and forgiveness" with "harmony" should be able to live in harmony in differences; And immoral and uneducated people often force others to accept his ideas and can't live in harmony. In other words, Confucius regards "harmony without difference" as the principle of dealing with things when there are differences between people. This principle should have a very positive significance for solving disputes between different countries and nationalities today, especially for the contradictions and conflicts caused by cultural differences (such as different religious beliefs and different values). It should be more meaningful to take "harmony without difference" as the principle of dispute settlement.
The highest ideal of China's traditional culture is that "all things coexist without harming each other, and the Tao is parallel but not contradictory". "All things coexist" and "Tao parallel" are "different"; "Mutual harm" and "mutual contradiction" are "harmony". This thought provides an inexhaustible ideological source for multiculturalism.
Different nations and countries should be able to acquire some "* * * knowledge" through cultural exchanges and dialogues, which is a process from "difference" to "mutual recognition" in a certain sense. This mutual "recognition" is not that one side destroys the other side, nor that one side "assimilates" the other side, but seeks the intersection of two different cultures and promotes the development of the two cultures on this basis, which is the function of "harmony". Due to geography, history and some accidental reasons, different nationalities and countries have formed different cultural traditions. It is precisely because of cultural differences that human culture is rich and colorful, forming a complementary and interactive pattern in the long river of human history. We must strive to achieve harmony between different cultures through dialogue.