| Confucian thought is the rule of the Chinese traditional culture, and has been affecting the lifevalue orientation of Chinese people since ancient times. From Confucius, the confucianists in pastdynasties tried to construct Chinese ethics system, ethics system, and value system etc continuously.But Taoism is staring with the nature view to criticize confucian “benevolence†thought which is unjustand immoral. This paper will study the traditional “benevolence†thought based on the statements ofdifferent groups, then make a further exploration to the traditional “benevolence†thought, to find outthe value of practical reference, especially focus on studying the influence of benevolence thought tothe contemporary citizens’ morality, and the social significance and value of the study.Benevolence and morality or moral righteousness, shows there is a link between them. Thetraditional “benevolence†thought is the most basic and core thoughts in Confucianism, is recognizedas the universal thought, also is the cornerstone of the ideological system of Kong Meng, also isimportant content of Chinese traditional thought. Today, society is in the transition period, the economydevelops rapidly, under the impact of the market economy, people are more interested in the pursuit ofeconomic and realistic interests. Then many serious social problems appeared, like morality landslide,devoid of conscience, even lost humanity etc. So it is necessary for us to explore and carry forward thetraditional Chinese idea of benevolence, track the relationship between benevolence and moral, andprovide solutions to the existing problems. In view of the current situation about the little combinationbetween benevolence thought and citizens’ moral construction, then through the more crystallization ofthe core thought of benevolence, and the analysis of the traditional ideas, analyze the causes ofcontemporary civic moral problems, in order to make the past serve the present purpose, to find outthe useful references for modern citizens’ moral construction.The first part of the paper is mainly from the origin and the connotation of the Chinese traditionalbenevolence thought, focusing on the basic meaning of benevolence thought, and formed a basicunderstanding of the benevolence thought. The second part mainly analyzes the different groups of theChinese traditional benevolence thought and the differences between the Chinese traditional andwestern benevolence thought, to make further analysis the basic meaning and essential characteristicsof the Chinese traditional benevolence thought, to lay the theoretical foundation for the traditionalbenevolence thought and Chinese modern citizens’ moral construction. Then the third part mainly studythe causes of the problems in the contemporary citizens’ morality and culture, to point out the maincause is the imperfect system of the market economy. At last, the fourth part of the paper is mainlyabout how to construct the modern citizens’ moral system from traditional benevolence thought, fromconstruction of the two parts of theory and reality to establish universal concept of moral value, savethe moral crisis. |
