Forgiveness Of Psychology Of The Chinese People Study

The principle of "shu", which means put oneself in others'place and be tolerant, is an all-pervading unity of Confucius doctrine. Confucius takes the principle of "shu" as the only thing that could serve as a rule of practice for all one's life, so it has an important influence on the interpersonal cognition and interaction of Chinese. This paper firstly has a theoretical study on the psychological components, process, function of the principle of "shu", as well as makes an elaboration among "shu", empathy, and forgiveness. Then we do an empirical study with the method of questioner, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to verify the psychological elements of "shu" and its relationship with empathy and forgiveness. With the result of both theoretical and empirical study, we find that:a) In Chinese culture, the principle of "shu" is a way of interpersonal cognition, attitude, and rule of interaction. It has two main psychological components, first, put oneself in others'place, which could further be defined as be benevolent, understanding, and respect others; second, be tolerant with others. Confirmative factor analysis shows that, the second-order model with four components fits well with data.b) The relation between the principle of "shu" and empathy is that the former contains the later, the practice of the principle of "shu" needs involvement of empathy. As a way of interpersonal cognition, put oneself in others'place is largely equal to empathy. The principle of "shu" and empathy have same purpose, assumption of human nature, psychological mechanism, and result; But they have differences on moral implication, connotation, effort of will, purpose of cognition, and cultural background. Among the four psychological components of the principle of "shu", benevolent, understanding, and respect have very significant correlation with empathy. Among the factors of our self-made questionnaire and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRC-C), the correlation between factor "benevolent" and "empathy concern", and the correlation between factor "understanding" and "perspective taking" are both specifically significant.c) The relation between the principle of "shu" and forgiveness is that the former contains the later. In Chinese culture, the meaning of forgiveness is contained in the meaning of tolerance which further contained in the principle of "shu"; and it is in the background of moral improvement that Chinese practice the principle of "shu". Our self-made questionnaire of the principle of "shu" has very significant correlation with the factor "forgiveness toward other" of the Hearland Forgiveness Scale, much higher than that with the factor "forgiveness toward self".