The Initiation And Formation To Reverence's Consciousness Of Confucian

The research about consciousness of reverence has always been the focus of Confucian, especially in the modern time while people gradually lack faith. The research has already been taken more and more attention by scholars and ordinary people. However, the initiation and formation to reverence's consciousness of Confucian haven't been done a systematic arrangement in the academic circle. The studies about consciousness of reverence largely focus on a certain person or a certain work, or as a whole concept compared with western consciousness of reverence or religious consciousness. This article attempts to do a systematic arrangement from Primitive Society to the last years of the Spring and Autumn Period, in order to obtain a reasonable explanation about the initiation and formation to reverence's consciousness for clues on Confucian classics. And combined with the past research achievements, the article also attempts to come to a deeper knowledge about reverence's consciousness. Obviously, the formation of reverence's consciousness experienced a long historical process, which initiation maybe can be tracked back to Primitive Society. In Primitive Society people lack the basic cognition on natural objects and natural force, so they very likely to form fearfulness and powerlessness which results in some primitive worship such as the worship to natural god, animal and totem etc. From the original worship resources of the Primitive Society, consciousness of reverence starts to originate through the worship of "God" in Shang Dynasty. "God" in Shang Dynasty has been different from the objects of original worship, which has already crossed over nature and personnel and turned into Almighty. But the God at that time hasn't risen to supreme God. The God's power matches the big God in ancestors and the Earth God, so there is no clear subordination among them. From the Western Zhou Dynasty, people began to worship "Heaven", which gradually replaced "God". And Heaven or God turned into supreme God. From then on, the clear subordination appeared between Heaven and the other Gods. With the discovery of "virtue", Heaven's color of reproduction and personal God was further weakened. In the early years of Western Zhou Dynasty, the reverence's consciousness assumed strong consciousness of hardship and basically formed, becoming the real concept in philosophic meaning. In that time, the typical event was "Zhi Li Zuo Yue" by Zhou Gong, reflecting the humanism in early Zhou Dynasty. However, in the last years of Western Zhou Dynasty, for a variety of reasons, destiny theology had been shaken. As followed, the concepts of "Heaven" and "Virtue" were also under suspicion. In the last years of Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius restored Zhou Li as the mission and reconstructed the tradition of reverence's consciousness. As a result, the reverence's consciousness had been restored and perfected for the foundation of Confucianism. The reverence's consciousness has great influence on the later Confucian's theory about moral cultivation, creating studies of "Self-supervision" and "Honesty-respect" etc. In addition, the research of reverence's consciousness has practical significance and a salutary lesson for protecting the ecological environment, personal accomplishment, citizen's moral education and other aspects. On the one hand, the consciousness of reverence has religious significance. The people in modern time are in a state of a shortage of faith, and they seem fearless. If we establish a reasonable view of reverence, we can have an advantage of setting up correct world outlook and outlook on life. On the other hand, the reverence's consciousness itself is also a kind of methods to moral cultivation. The part of theology should be pulled away in reverence's consciousness. But it has eternal life as an attitude of moral cultivation.