Research Of Confucian "Harmonious Mind"

The realization of modernization, first and foremost, is the modernization of humanthemselves. And also, the construction of harmonious society has to fundamentally start withthe harmony of human themselves. Considering the negative effects of the reform andopening-up policies which had already showed or possibly existed, especially the anomie ofbelief and morality, Deng Xiaoping repeatedly emphasized the importance of giving equalemphasis to material advancement and ethical progress. Material progress will suffer delaysand setbacks unless we promote cultural and ethical progress as well. Therefore, it isnecessary to improve the cultural awareness and moral accomplishments of the whole public.Jiang Zemin stressed that the construction of ethical modernization need to inherit and carryforward the valuable traditions of Chinese culture, and fully reflecting the socialist spirit ofthe times. Since1990s, people concerned more about a series of social problems accompaniedby modernization. It is generally agreed that people’s choice between material wealth andpersonal value is indeed the most severe issue. Obviously, the truth is about how constructions of modernization profoundly change the long-established form of production and life in China.The social transition in China directly led to the imbalance of cultural outlook, social valuesand individual mind. In particular, significant progresses have been achieved in economic andscientific fields since the execution of reform and opening-up policies; meanwhile, there aroseseveral serious social problems, such as moral apathy, honesty absence, corruption andemotional emptiness of some people. Centering on such confusions,“ark complex”, people’sneed of finding their spiritual homeland, has been increasingly arisen. This can explain theemergence of every “Cultural Upsurge” and “Confucianism Craze” after the reform andopening-up. Scholars spontaneously associate the spiritual imbalance and cultural dislocationnowadays with the consideration of destiny of Chinese nation, because modern constructionsprimarily require a stable environment of society, culture and spirit. From what can bedetermined, a modern society should be a highly stable and comprehensively harmonioussociety, but it is exactly the process of radical changes generate all kinds of disharmonies andinstabilities. So, during the construction of modernization, enlightened people from academiafocalize on how to coordinate the conflict between human and nature, human and society andinside human themselves. This consideration aims at building a moral, aesthetic andharmonious relationship, as well as optimizing the general environment for human’s existenceand development. Hu Jintao, as the General Secretary of CPC Central Committee, attached importance to the great goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way, and thendemonstrated the strategic measure of constructing a harmonious society from2004to2005.On one hand, it proves that the social disharmony in China has already been widely concerned;on the other hand, it means inheriting the traditional thoughts of harmony in modernenvironment. There are many heated discussions and serious researches about this topic inacademia. Scholars elucidated the logic line of traditional thoughts of harmony, in order toseek the meeting point for traditional theory and modern construction of culture, ideology andspirit; meanwhile, providing a theoretical reference for constructing spiritual homeland.Through analyzing and summarizing research achievements of traditional thoughts ofharmony, the main discoveries are as follows.(1)Although there are several disputes on the connotation of “mind”, most applicationsare about the meaning of virtue, emotion and will.(2) Giving general concerns on spiritual harmony of human, and recognizing the affinitybetween social harmony and mental balance.(3)All researches are restricted to general discussion of meaning, neglecting theintension, the method and theoretical weakness of “Harmonious Mind”. Moreover, academiadid not provide enough attention to the reason why “Harmonious Mind” is considered as thelogical starting-point of social harmony. Therefore, in a sense, this research about “Harmonious Mind” based on Confucian thoughtshas innovative significance.The major approach of this research is literature study, namely, interpreting classicaldocuments of main representatives of Confucianism according to chronological order, as wellas making comprehensive analysis. Then answering the question in previous paragraph basedon summarizing the meaning and methods of “Harmonious Mind”.Book1of this research mainly covers about the ideological connotation anddevelopment process of “Harmonious Mind” in the context of Confucianism, outlining itsessence and characteristics.(1)Obvious features of the age. From the angle of Confucian phylogeny, just as peopleperceived, there existed no other ideological culture share the same close relationship with thetime’s pace of development as Confucianism. The Confucian thoughts on “HarmoniousMind” also reflect such feature.(2)Showing the subject thinking. Confucian thoughts on “Harmonious Mind” typicallyreflect the subjective thinking of traditional philosophy in China. Confucius pursued the stateof “following my heart’s desire, without transgressing what is right”, created the“Benevolence” system of philosophy of mind that “one principle runs through it all”.(3)The unification of morality and standard. The benevolence in morality and standardare two inseparable aspects of Confucian thoughts on spiritual balance. Later Confucian scholars adequately proved this point based on theory of human nature, or in the view ofnature justice. Mencius’“unified by inwardness”, neo-Confucianism’s “unified by principles”and Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming’s “unified by mind” are all expressions of the unificationof morality and standard in Confucian system of mental balance.(4)The unification of emotion and state. Emotion, on whatever level it based,objectively exists independent of human consciousness. And this reasonable existence isexactly “Zhong” and “He”, which means appropriate actions and moderation, withoutoverdone or undone. Appropriate emotion is precisely the interpretation of spiritual harmony.Book2mainly focuses on the value orientation of “Harmonious Mind”, including“personality orientation”,“harmony orientation”,“human-nature orientation”,“governingorientation” and “peace orientation”. These chapters explicitly point out the dimensionalvalue of harmonious society and its modern meaning that Confucian thoughts on“Harmonious Mind” implied.Following conclusions are arrived through research:(1)Confucian theories of “Harmonious Mind”, in emotional sense or moral sense, onlyhave one core---the benevolence which can cover all virtues in Confucianism. Thus, theresearch of “Harmonious Mind” in this paper studies Confucian benevolence from a newperspective.“Harmonious Mind”, as it were, is the worship of benevolence.(2) The connection between internal spirit and external world depends on intentionality.Researches on “Harmonious Mind” and orientations of harmonious society show that social harmony has its inner reasonableness. Spiritual harmony and harmonious society are adialectical unity, which supplement each other and interact on each other.(3)The orientational analysis of Confucian theories of “Harmonious Mind” only shows“ought-to-be” instead of inevitability and possibility. Inevitable weaknesses of Confuciantheories on “Harmonious Mind” can explain the reason why there are so many discordsbetween moral awareness and actions. Theoretical weaknesses of “Harmonious Mind” arereflected in the following: First of all, compared with the religious doctrine of Buddhism andChristianity,“Harmonious Mind” thoughts are lack of fearful and sorrowful contents. In asense, people are awed by religions; whereas, Confucian thoughts on spiritual harmony totallyrely on moral consciousness. Obviously, morality cannot be achieved by everyone in thesociety. Secondly,“Harmonious Mind” theories seldom emphasize the obligatory intervene asa result of the overconfidence of moral consciousness. In the development process, thedeficiency of law reveals its one-sidedness of “Harmonious Mind”.Although Confucian thoughts on “Harmonious Mind” are impracticable and inapplicablein a way, generally speaking, the defects cannot obscure the virtues. After all, Confucianismgrasped the most valuable factor in the universe---human mind, and has already becomeprofound culture psychology of Chinese nation. This is the greatest contribution to Chineseculture.