Being Sage Inside And Being Kingly Outside": The Historical Evolvement Of Confucian Ideal Personality

"Being Sage Inside and Being Kingly Outside" is the centralized embodiment of the Confucian ideal personality. Its' connotation consists of high perfection of individual inner morality and achievements of administering the state well and ensuring national security as a result. In nature, it is the observation about the educational proposition on "What is man?'\" What man should be? " that were made by the Confucian who viewed from the high plane of philosophy. It is also the basis of the theory of Confucian educational goal. So we can thoroughly understand the Confucian educational idea by reviewing the developmental process of Confucian" Being Sage Inside and Being Kingly Outside "from the angle of values. Many well-known scholars have stated their opinions on it. But this thesis strives to show the traits and trends of Confucian ideal personality from the unique angle, i.e. educational philosophy by centering on the different arrangements on the relationship of "sage" and"king" that were made by different Confucians in different periods. Then, the text reveals the unique psychic characteristics of ideal personality in different periods by discussing the main theoretic questions and the representative ideas argued by the Confucians of corresponding eras through the writing thread of question mode.Firstly, the text analyzes the Confucius's ideal personality that was established on the basis of humanity. Confucius extended the "filial piety', "reverence" of slave and patriarchal society to "benevolence", "rite" ,and transformed the "Merging the Clansman and King Into a Single Whole" to the "Combining Sage and King Into One" on the basis of uniting the "benevolence" and "rite" .Then he settled the Confucian value trend of "Establishing King By Sage" in later ages by the idea of "A Good Scholar Can Become An Official." Sage Inside and Being Kingly Outside" of Mencms, Xunzi an Then this part elaborates the inheritance and evolvement on Confucius's idea of "Being d The Great Learning. Mencius initiated the idea of benevolent government of "the Politics of Compassion" from"the Heart of Compassion" by the theory of "the Original Human Nature Being Kind". Mencius established his ideal personality of "Being Sage is Just Being king" and "Being King by Sage" on the basis of it, which displays the side of "Being saint inside". With the opinion of "Nature is Different From Education" by showing "Nature is Different From Man", Xunzi settled the theory of "the Original Human Nature Being Evil". He established the ontological position of rite by stressing "Changing the Nature Through Education" and held rebuilding a society ruled by rites by quoting law into rite, which shows a side of "Being kingly outside". The Great Learning summarized the Confucian ideal personality and settled a theory model of "Cultivate yourself, put your family in order, run the local government well, and bring peace to the entire country" by means of "three guidelines" and "eight clauses" .Then the text discusses the biased development of the idea of "Being Sage Inside and Being Kingly Outside" of Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties and the criticisms on it. This consists of two sides: one is the excessive development on disposition of Neo-Confucianism; the other one is rectification a deviation on Neo-Confucianism and stressing "Being kingly outside" by utilitarian and philosophizes in late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. On the one hand, Neo-Confucianism scholars strengthened the trend of "Being sage inside" from Mencius. They made the ideal personality of Confucian founded on the basis of "humanity" in the scope of heaven and earth a summation of the scope of society. They pursued the integration of consciousness and willingness in "The Way of Becoming Useful Personnel", and pursued the tranquility in the scope of heart and the pure Confucians of lofty virtue. On the other hand, utilitarian and philosophizes in late Ming and early Qing Dynasties held that they should cultivate the "hero personality" of "Practicing Bot...