The Modern Predicament Of Confucian Merchant Spirit And Its Overcoming

With the development of the socialist market economy system,a variety of business ethics problems emerge one after another under the malpractices of the market economy system.The development of the economic market is troubled by the wealth and moral ethics problems caused by selfishness,and wealth and morality become an irreconcilable contradiction in the market economy.The contradiction between righteousness and profit is more prominent,which puts forward higher requirements for modern entrepreneurs.How to inherit and develop the essence of Confucian businessman spirit,it is particularly important to study Confucian businessman and economic ethics.Based on Adam Smith’s economic ethics,this paper explores the modern predicament of Confucian businessman spirit under the comparative study of Chinese and western economic ethics,and puts forward a modern approach for the development of Confucian businessman spirit by combining marxist thought.Its contents mainly include the following aspects:The first chapter studies the historical evolution of Confucian merchants and their spirit.From the point of view of many scholars,the author believes that Confucian businessmen are businessmen who can respect the traditional Confucian thoughts and ethics under the socialist market economy system,apply the essence of Confucian thoughts to commercial activities,respect the rules and institutions in market economic activities,and have high quality and cultural characteristics.Confucian businessman spirit,as the product of Confucian businessman,mainly refers to the internal spiritual quality that Confucian businessmen need to have.Generally,it means that Confucian businessmen need to pay attention to personal cultivation,honest management,high cultural quality,pay attention to the cooperation between businesses,and have a strong sense of responsibility.However,different scholars have different explanations for it.The second chapter mainly explains the basic connotation of Confucian businessman spirit.This paper mainly divides the spirit of Confucian businessman into three levels: economic ethics,business values and management principles.The economic ethics of Confucian merchants are mainly expounded from two aspects: on the one hand,the economic ethics of taking profit by righteousness;on the other hand,the moral and ethical spirit of benevolence and kindness.Its commercial value mainly includes the thought of managing the world and benefiting the people,while the management principle of Confucian businessman mainly includes three aspects:people-oriented,diligent and dedicated,honest and trustworthy.To sum up,the spirit ofConfucian businessman starts from the Confucian traditional moral ethics,integrates the Confucian traditional ethical norms into the economic field,and restricts the development of commerce through the moral norms.But in essence,Confucian spirit of business is based on the moral ethics of economic ethics.The third chapter takes Adam Smith’s economic ethics as a reference,analyzes the difference between Confucian businessman spirit and Smith’s economic ethics,and reveals the modern predicament of Confucian businessman spirit.As two important economic ethical thoughts in China and the west,there are many differences between them due to the differences in their times and environments.Their thoughts are quite different from each other in four aspects: standpoint,attitude towards the market,understanding of the purpose of commercial development,and expectation of commercial subjects.In the author’s opinion,Smith’s economic ethics thought,starting from economics itself,holds that the main body of business development is "economic man",whose nature is self-interested,whose behavior produces altruistic effect under the action of "invisible hand".Therefore,he believed in the free development of the market and advocated the development of free economy.On the contrary,the spirit of Confucian businessman from the moral ethics,based on the ideal personality of a gentleman as the main business put forward the moral and ethical requirements for business,hope to restrict the development of business by external means,in order to achieve the ideal goal of economic and social benefits to the people.The fourth chapter is based on the modern interpretation of Confucian spirit of business.Mainly from the following aspects: one is to seek a balance between the traditional righteousness and the interest,from the interest of the essence of the internalization of the meaning,so that the two achieve a real integration;Second,the combination of national culture and market mechanism should guide the internal unity of "economic man" and "moral man".Third,explore the significance of commercial activities from a broader and deeper level,regulate the benign development of commercial activities in China;Fourth,under the guidance of marxism,it provides new personality for the main body of business activities and promotes the spirit of modern entrepreneurship.