A Study On The Two - Way Characteristics Of Mencius' Ethical Thoughts

Bidirectional means parallelity, reciprocity and mutuality,which is a medical term and usedin medicine usually. Mencius introduced the concept of bidirectional to his ethics to interpret ofthe ‘virtue’ thought of Confucian, which made greater significance of practical utility. Thethought of Mencius has the characteristics of multi-direction, also the unidirectionalcharacteristics. But because the Confucian ethics thought of pre-Qin period grew out of the strictpatriarchal hierarchy, it is customary to consider the unidirectional characteristics of the thoughtof Mencius, but ignore the multi-direction for a long time. And the significance of this paper is toclarify this misunderstanding. The bidirectional ethic thought of Mencius mainly reflects in itshandling of ethical relationship, that is, starts with the blood affection in families, and meanwhileinvolves the level of political ethics of monarch-subject relationship and the level of social ethicsof friendship. It explains the reciprocity and equality of the between fathers and sons, husbandsand wives, and brothers who are the moral subject. It also makes virtue requirementssimultaneously for both sides of monarch-subject and friends who are the behavioral agent. Thebidirectional ethics thought of Mencius is not only reflected in the code of ethics, but also in themoral method and its realization bodies. It is abundant in content an covers many aspects.The paper,“The Bidirectional Characteristic in Mencius’ Ethic Thoughts”, is divided intothree parts. The aim of the thesis is to acquire a thorough understanding of the bidirectional ethicthoughts of Mencius and to examine its historical and practical significance after discussing thethree parts. To make it specific, the paper will first analyze the favorable conditions for theformation of directional characteristic to discuss how this character come into being. As we allknow, all water has a source and the Mencius thoughts must have its own basis. Changes inpolitics, economy and ideology under the social root all have an impact on Mencius and also theformation of his ethnic thoughts. What’s more, the directional characteristic of his ethnicthoughts has much to do with his special family background because he represents not only theinterests of loyal families but also the intellectuals’ interests so that his complicated andconflicting background adds charming to his thoughts. He has inherited the thoughts of“morality” and “filial piety” in the Western Zhou Dynasty (c.11th century-771B. C.) orearlier and explored the Confucianism, which are all source of his thoughts. In the second part,the author will focus on the concrete manifestation of the directional characteristic and state five directional ethnic relationships, that is, piety of son and kindness of father, mercy of monarchand loyalty of minister, faithfulness of husband and blandness of wife, friendship and respectbetween brothers, and honesty between friends from the perspective of ethic criteria andhandling the five ethic relationships. Besides Mencius was also concerned with moral standards,namely standard rules and their weighing, and the paper will also focus on the manifestation ofthe directional characteristic of his moral thoughts. The directional characteristic also includesthe achievement of the subject direction, as a result, the paper will state from the point ofinter-subjectivity situation. In a word, the second part will grasp the main idea of directionalcharacteristic from a broad sense. The third part will focus on analyzing the value of directionsince the directional ethic thought has strong vitality and plays an important role in his ethicthoughts. The directional ethic thought has not only enriched directional ethic thought but alsodisplayed the special value of applied ethics, showing the advantages of traditional ethicthoughts both in theory and practice. The directional ethic thought laid a solid foundation for theimportant role of Confucianism in the traditional culture of China and greatly enriched the ethicthoughts due to the inter-subjectivity situation contained in achievement of the subject direction.Although the directional ethic thoughts has gone thousands years of changes, it still sparksin the river of history, and has profound impact on the descendant Confucians. The thought wasinherited and absorbed by descendant Confucians, developing the family ethics focusing onkindness to social ethics focusing on respect. The four moralities, sense of duty, wisdom, and(ceremonial) propriety has turned into five virtues, benevolence, justice, ceremony, wisdom, andcredibility, and the relationship between scripture and tact in his thoughts is still developing andevolving. At the same time，we can learn from the history. The directional ethic thought can alsoguide the social practice nowadays. The five cardinals can provide guidance for the constructionof sound family and social ethics because it contains the elements of equality, democracy, and soon. People in the society are driven by interests, but if they can do their own job and display hisown ability so that all works of society can achieve good interactivity, the goal of building aharmonious society can soon be fulfilled. Of course, his bidirectional thought is not perfect,because it is still limited by the hierarchical system and its main aim is to safeguard the rule ofthe ruling class. Therefore, many people blame Mencius thought and Confucius as they think thethoughts are responsible for the imprisonment of human thoughts and they suffered crushing blow in the New Culture Movement and the early stage of reform and open up. However, itsadvantages have outcome the disadvantages. Nowadays, we are facing up with many moralproblems, and we can borrow from direction of the standard rules and their weighing, andinter-subjectivity situation thoughts. As a result, the directional ethic thought is not only a ethicentry, but also started the applied ethic mode from the point view of moral weighting, which is agood combination of theory and practice.