A Study On The Ethical Thoughts In Zhu Xi's "Family Instructions Of Zhu Zi

The family motto of the Song Dynasty was a great development period of the ancient family motto.Zhu Xi’s family motto was not handed down alone,but appeared in the Genealogy of Zhu in Ziyang.The full text is only 300 words.It is an important document for Zhu Xi to tell his descendants the truth of self-cultivation and family harmony and his personal responsibilities and obligations in his later years.The ethical thought of Zhu Zi’s Family Motto is based on his philosophical thought,which is embodied in three aspects: the succession of reason and Qi,the differentiation of reason and difference,and the unification of mind and temperament.The specific content of Zhu Zi’s Family Motto contains three parts: personal level,family level and social level.First of all,the ethical thought at the individual level includes two aspects.On the one hand,it emphasizes that we should adhere to the norms in dealing with people and things,and on the other hand,it emphasizes the social responsibility concept of promoting the good and suppressing the evil.Secondly,the ethical thought at the family level is the final part of Zhu Zi’s Family Motto.This is not only because the family instructions is the norm for family members to carry out education in the family place,but also because the family is the key place for individuals to develop virtue before entering the society.The ethical thought at the family level mainly includes three pairs of ethical principles that should be upheld in the ethical relationship,namely,father kindness and filial piety in the father son relationship,brotherhood and brotherhood in the brotherhood,and husband and wife softness in the husband wife relationship.Finally,in the ethical relationship at the social level,it mainly involves three pairs of ethical relationships:monarchs and subjects,teachers and students,and friends.Zhu Zi’s Family Motto stipulate that monarchs and subjects should be loyal to each other,teachers and students should treat teachers with courtesy,and friends should be honest and trustworthy.In these three levels of ethical thought,there are five basic ethical thought characteristics,which are to take “natural reason” as the spiritual noumenon of his ethical thought,to run through “benevolence” from beginning to end,to guide people to “goodness” as the ultimate goal,to turn “reason” into “ritual” to make it more practical,and to guide people to return to virtue with good customs.The ethical thought in Zhu Zi’s Family Motto helps to maintain the rule of the feudal society,the stable development of the family,and the improvement of the education level in the Song Dynasty,but it also has its historical limitations.For example,it solidifies the human relations order in the feudal society,which to some extent has the negative factor of fatalism.We should discard its dross and take its essence for today’s use.The ethical thought in Zhu Zi’s Family Motto still has beneficial enlightenment for contemporary people’s life.It enlightens us that for individuals to deal with the world,we should cultivate good moral consciousness in doing things,pay attention to the practice of etiquette in daily life,and maintain a friendly and tolerant attitude when dealing with others;for the family,we should pay attention to the family education of children,the harmony between husband and wife,and the important value of filial piety in maintaining the harmonious relationship between parents and children;for the society,social development should pay attention to the harmony between people,and the traditional thought of family unity can be used to create a harmonious social atmosphere.