Xiong Heart-centered Personality Ideal Study

Personalities fall into group personalities and the individual personalities. What we discuss in this essay focuses on the ethical independence and rationality in personality. Xiong Shili accepted critically the Confucius and Taoist philosophies of personality, such as the concepts of "man of honor" and "great husband", which actually mean the spirit that manipulates one's action and the independent moral will, put forward respectively by Confucius and Mencius, the representatives of Confucianism; "true man" by Zhuang-zi, which means the pursuit of liberty and independence of personality; "personality of independence and subjective consciousness" by Lu Jiuyuan; and the "working to the conscience" by Wang Yangming. All those become the sources of his own concept of personality.Xiong Shili based his theory of the realm of personality on the ontology, and expounded it from the following three aspects: First, the object and the function are inseparable. Second, spiritual and material phenomenons are convertible. Third, the noumenon equals the mind, it is gained from the inside, not from the outside.The theory of realm of the personality of Xiong Shili is characterized as follows: Firstly, he found out that the real tradition of Chinese culture is the spirit of being energetic and strong as put in ZhouYi. Secondly, he accepted Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism critically, and put forward his ontology. Thirdly, he stressed the liberalization of personality. Only after the establishing of liberal and rational society can the ideal personality be realized. Finally, his theory is closely integrated with life. With the unique personality and practical activities, he became a model person of the later generations.Facing the loss of value, the crisis of the moral consciences and the puzzlement about the nature of life, he feels concerned with the nation and the people, thinks seriously about the nature of human beings, and introspects the significance and the value of life. His theory of personality holds great practical meaning in our construction of modern spiritual and ethical civilization. That is why we should still study his philosophy today.