| In 1993, the bamboo slips of the Warring States Period were unearthed from the Chu Tombs in Guodian, Jingmen, Hubei Province, which had provided a new change for the reconsideration of the history of Chinese Confucianism and ideology. These bamboo slips that embody Confucianism are called Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips. Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips is one of the Confucian literatures which connect Confucianism with Mencius’thoughts. There has been a study boom since these bamboo slips are unearthed especially in the aspect of the interpretation of characters and writings. Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips will be a brand-new subject of research on the whole. Taking ancestors’ experience in explaining characters and analyzing texts as a reference, this article will be developed from the same perspective in the historical background to express the humane spirit in Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips. Just as explained below.Chapter One. IntroductionTaking all research findings into consideration, this part highlights the significance of the subjec, the research status as well as the research ideas and methods. And then the innovations and inadequacies will also be displayed. Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips as the research object, the humane spirit will be explained thoroughly and deeply and the development of the pre-Qin humane spirit will also be manifested so that today’s society can draw lessons from it. The research findings will be worked out by analyzing the status and clarifying the mind to show a new way of comprehensive study. In the process of studying humane spirit, the writer should be objective, refer to the previous writings and analyze these slips wholely and historically. As for the research methods, the writer should try to get out of the shackle of history, philosophy and philology as well as the restriction between Xiaoxue and Daxue and employ a multidisciplinary way. After clarifying and summarizing the research findings, the innovative point can be displayed which means throwing the text separation away and regarding all the bamboo slips as a whole. Humane spirit will finally be expressed from the perspective of characters and argumentations.Chapter Two. Orientation of the article and definition of the conceptionGuodian Confucian Bamboo Slips will be defined in this chapter whose main idea is that these slips are Confucian writings of Zisi Period. The definition of Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips is chiefly about whether they are written by scholars of Simeng School or not. However, the term, school appears later and its division principles are pretty complex. In the history of pre-Qin scholar ideology, different thoughts may belong to the same school while the same thoughts may come from different schools. To represent the historical materials realistically and comprehend the slips objectively, the writer takes time as standard, combines characters with meanings and classifies these bamboo slips into a kind of Confucian writings of Zisi Period so that nowadays deadlock about defining Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips will be broken. What’s more, humane spirit is defined in this part, too. Humanity is corresponding to astronomy. Humanity belongs to the category of history, not like the humanism, it is mainly involved individual values, group coordination and unitary harmony. Also, different period makes different forms of humane spirit. But the outer form is just a side of inner meanings. Placing humans under the background of the total universe, humane spirit mainly shows people’s life conditions and meanings as well as subjectivity to highlight the values of them. The main parts of the humane values of Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips are to explore humanity, perfect personality, develop human relations and put administration into effect besides these text forms.Chapter Three Character identification and humanizationTo study the humane spirit of Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips, characters are the most fundamental and crucial. They are not only a group of symbols. As a kind of self-integrated ideographic systems, characters are endowed with independent function of culture interpretation. In Phonetic writing system, tone is slightly different from conception while ideographic characters are more closely related with that. The appearance of character formation, pronunciation and meanings is not groundless and all of them are affected by times and the development of ideology. Character formation reflects China’s people’s way of thinking, which is a basis of explaining national cultural psychology. This chapter makes a detailed analysis of seven most typical Chinese characters, Ren(benevolence), Yi(righteousness), Li(courtesy), Zhi(wisdom), Sheng(men of virtue), Zhong(loyalty), Xin(honesty) as well as Wuxing(five elements, metal, wood, water, fire and earth)and Liuwei(terms in the Book of Changes). On behalf of Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips, these characters are inextricably bound up with times and circulate human civilization. The development of these characters varies with that of ideology. Character formation and meanings also embodies the humane spirit of Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips.Chapter Four The Exploration of HumanityThe exploration of human nature is a primary part in the process of studying the humane spirit of Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips and seeking the essence of humanity. The humane spirit of Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips is a theoretical system which consists of not only the Xing but also many kinds of conceptions and relations such as Tian(heaven), Dao(conceptions of things), Ren(people), Wu(thigns) and Xi(coventions) on the basis of it. It’s said that Tian is closely interacted with Ren and man is the most important among all the things coming out of Tian. So, on the one hand, Xing refers to human nature. Based on the theory of vitality as Xing, the writer chiefly elaborates Xing from the perspective of Qi(mental state), Yu(desires) and Cai(abilities), which has a certain impact on Xunzi’s theory of original evil of humanity; on the other hand, it refers to the nature of Heaven. Xing is related with Tian and Dao. It is why Xing can be self-defined. All of these are the basis of the essence of human nature and Mencius’ theory of original goodness of human nature. Xing interacts with Wu, Yue(pleasure), Gu(family bond), Yi(righteousness), Shi(force), Xi and Dao and the system of the theory of anthroposophy is shaped after gaining Xing through Xin and Wu, using Xi to nourish Xing as well as developing Xing by Dao. Taking the interaction of Tian and Ren as the primary background, the exploration of human nature in Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips affirms human subjectively, highlights human values and uplifts humane spirit.Chapter Five The Perfection of PersonalityMorality is the most important part of humanity exploration when there continued to be wars in the Warring States Period. Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips takes Wuxing as the core to illustrate the perfection of personality. First, this part makes textual criticisms and explanations of Wuxing and describes Xunzi’s theory of Wuxing as Ren(benevolence), Yi(righteousness), Li(courtesy), Zhi(wisdom) and Xin(honesty). In addition, Wuxing on these slips is compared with that of Xunzi. On this basis, the thought foundation of Guodian’s theory of Wuxing is rearranged and these two terms, De Zhi Xing(put morality into effect) and Xing are compared. Then the writer makes it sure that Guodian’s theory of Wuxing highlights Sheng and Zhi and pursue gentleman’s personality to reach a position where Heaven is interacted with Ren. Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips points out that man is the main part of developing morality and the perfection of personality also requires outer objective conditions. As far as the article concerned, the subjective condition of morality is heart and mind while the objective one is Li and Le. There are two aspects about Chengde, De Zhi Xing which stresses inner part and Xing which is the opposite of the former one. For one thing, the inner personality De will be understood through Si to let a person be careful and finally reach the status of Le; for another thing, gentleman’s personality can be pursued from outside to inside, that is to say, one should draw a conclusion from what you have seen and heard about virtues and learn something good from a wise man you have met. These two sides are not separated and the perfection of morality will be completed under the function of them. The description of morality on Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips makes a big difference to Siduan (the beginning of four virtues, Ren, Yi, Li, Zhi) and Wuchang (five constant virtues, humanity, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, fidelity).Chapter Six The Formation of Human RelationsWuxing restrains morality from the inner perspective and helps shape human spiritual order with the outer form which means planning human social order. The essence of this part is Liuwei and then the formation of ethics order of Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips is discussed. After making the source of Liuwei thought clear, the writer compares Liude (six virtues, knowing, benevolent, trust, justice, loyalty) with Liuwei without using inter-textual method. Liuwei mainly involves three primary relations- ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife. Wei isn’t meaningless with the inner part De (virtues) and outer part Zhi (positions). On these slips, the specific way to form ethics order mainly consists of the following sections- governing through Li and De; Tian creates constant virtues and a wise man is endowed to form the system; a man should be benevolent inside and show his righteousness ouside. As the subject of metaphysics values, the heaven can make constant virtues, however, it cannot form any specific ethics order unless a wise man do it under the influence of Shi (times) and Ming (fate). Employing Li, Xiao (filial) and teaching Liuyi (six classical arts) so that Liude can be developed. Liude normalize Liuzhi(six duties of government); Liuzhi is corresponding to Liuwei. A harmonious ethics order should be formed through De and a good quality that a man is benevolent inside and show his righteousness outside. The formation of ethics order of Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips not only affects descendants like Jia Yi but also provides ideological materials for Sangang (three cardinal gudes, ruler guides subject, father guides son, husband guides wife).Chapter Seven The Rule of HumanThe idea of governing people through courtesy is a traditional Confucian political viewpoint and it is also a political practice of the humane spirit of Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips. Three dimensions are described in this part, that is, the conception of rule by virtue, the strategies of rule and the mode of benevolent government. Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips carries on the thought of Zhou Dynasty that a ruler should learn to be benevolent, punish his subjects with discretion and rule the country by virtue. It stresses what a ruler should do, that is to say, a ruler should cultivate his morality, govern by virtue, what’s more, he should make himself an example. As for the conception of rule, rule by virtue, loyalty and Datong (the ideal of Great Harmony) are proposed. When it comes to specific strategies of rule, they mainly involve the transfer of power, the construction of the government system and governing affairs. The way to transfer power, Shanrang (only capable candidate can become the following ruler) is elaborated on these slips. In the process of constructing the government system, the focus is the relationship between rulers and subjects, in other words, a ruler should put his subjects in the first place, love them, respect them, protect them, raise them and make their life well-off, so only by this people-oriented thought can a harmonious relation between rulers and subjects be developed. Mencius’ thought that the people are more important than the ruler and Xunzi’s thought of rule by justice and force are partly influenced by this conception.Chapter Eight The features and significance of the humane spirit of Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips.Being important writings of Zisi Period, the humane spirit of Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips reflects the development of Confucian humane spirit. From the foregoing analysis, the chapter summarizes the features of humane spirit- man is more important than ruler in their interaction; morality is put in the first place; practice is extremely important. Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips has been buried underground for several thousand years, but the Confucian humane spirit contained in them has gained inheritance and development. The values of these slips’ humane spirit should be utilized for today’s society. For example, the thought that Tian is interacted with Ren can provide a lesson for solving ecological crisis; the exploration of humanity will be a guideline for self-awareness; the perfection of personality encourages the physical and mental harmony of human beings; the formation of ethics order can be used as a reference to handle human relations; the rule of human is helpful to today’s social governance. At present, we should take full advantage of the modern values of Guodian Confucian Bamboo Slips, promote the sustainable development of man and nature and keep nature and man harmonious. |
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