Hand in hand and heart together to overcome difficulties
Xu Xiaoyue, a professor from Nanjing University invited by China nengjian human care lecture, explained that conscience is the basis of human being and virtue, good deeds, Yuan Quan proposed the practice methods of heart, affection, giving, respect, tolerance, sharing, etc
Xu Xiaoyue on how to practice goodness
I'm very grateful to China Energy Construction Group for holding such a meaningful activity as the lecture hall of humanistic care in this special period. I'll tell you today about how to practice the good.
The so-called practice of good is to practice good. As we all know, the good and evil of human nature has always been an active issue in traditional Chinese culture, especially in Confucian culture. Philosophy of life and philosophy of life based on the nature of mind are always the center of Chinese traditional culture. Is human nature good or evil? This question has been debated for thousands of years. The most well-known sentence for Chinese people is "human nature is good at the beginning of the Three Character Classic". How to understand human nature is good? Or the theory of good nature? Here we need to define the concept of human nature.
Mencius, as the second figure of Confucianism, is called the sub saint. He emphasized that the so-called human nature does not refer to the physiological attributes of human mouth, nose, ear, knowledge and limbs, such as taste, color, voice, smell, comfort, etc., but refers to the unique attributes of human beings that can produce morality such as benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom.
Mencius said that the gentleman's nature, benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom are rooted in the heart. In short, human nature is not the nature of human nature, but the virtue of human being. Although the proportion of human body is very small, it is extremely valuable. It is the essential existence that distinguishes human from animals. In this regard, Mencius has a famous saying: "why people are different from animals?" The so-called "difference" means difference and difference. The so-called "Jixi" is just a little, very little. The whole sentence means that the difference between human beings and animals is actually a little. What we should pay special attention to is that it is because of this that people become human beings. In other words, the basis of human behavior lies in such a little hope, which is human nature.
So what is this "Jixi"? Mencius tells us that it is the conscience, the virtue and the morality of human being. So we can come to the conclusion that human nature is the conscience and the morality. This nature is unique to human beings, but not to animals, so it is called human nature, not the nature of wolves, tigers and so on.
Human nature is good. Mencius called goodness as "compassion" because it can't bear to hurt all the objects. Mencius called goodness as "compassion". Mencius called goodness as "the heart of shame and disgust" because it has the heart of justice that should be done and shouldn't be done, and the heart of shame and disgust that hasn't been done. Mencius called goodness as "the heart of shame and evil". Goodness as "the heart of resignation" because it has the heart of respect and resignation to things. Mencius called it "the heart of resignation". Goodness as "the heart of judgment" The heart of right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness is what Mencius called "the heart of right and wrong". These four kinds of hearts are the beginning of the four virtues of benevolence, righteousness and reason. Mencius said, "compassion is the end of benevolence; shame and evil is the end of righteousness; resignation is the end of ceremony; right and wrong is the end of wisdom." We have noticed that the morality, such as benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom, is of course good, which is why we call these morality virtue.
Of course, we also know that there are many traditional Chinese virtues, such as benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and trust, filial piety, loyalty and shame, courtesy, leniency, sensitivity and benefit, gentleness, courtesy and frugality, but the core virtue, or the core value, is the benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and trust, which is also known as the "Wuchang". Since the virtues of "four hearts" are the innate nature of human beings, if human beings don't have them, are they still human beings? Definitely not. So Mencius said, "no compassion, no shame, no resignation, no right, no wrong."
Speaking of this, in fact, we have to talk about how to practice the good, that is, to preserve conscience, to brighten conscience, to carry forward morality and to show morality. Generally speaking, it means to act according to conscience and morality. We say that the preservation of conscience and the promotion of morality are "one and two, two and one". They constitute a concrete way to practice good. That is to say, if you have conscience, you will have morality. If you carry forward morality, you will keep conscience. So Mencius told us that "benevolence is the key to heart, and propriety is the key to heart", that is, through the implementation of "benevolence" and "propriety", conscience can be preserved.
What is benevolence? Confucius and Mencius both believed that the so-called "benevolence" is love. What is "Li"? The so-called "ceremony" is to respect people. What we should pay attention to here is that love and respect are mutual emotional exchanges and feelings. Generally speaking, as long as you love and respect others sincerely, others will love and respect you in turn. So Mencius said, "the benevolent love others, the polite respect others. He who loves, he who respects, he who respects. "
Love must do the following to be called love. This is what I have learned over the years by studying Chinese traditional culture, especially Confucian culture. I summarize it into six sentences.
First, have a heart. Love must be intentional. We all know that the traditional character of love "love" is intentional, so it is said that love should not be changed into simplified characters. How can love without heart?
Second, love. The original meaning of "benevolence" is to be close to each other. The so-called affinity means that the object should have the feelings of amiability, intimacy, intimacy and so on.
Third, give. Love must be giving and giving. In other words, the essence of love is giving and giving.
Fourth, respect. That is to say, we should respect everyone's personality.
Fifth, tolerance. Tolerance for others' mistakes, tolerance for others is different from you.
Sixth, sharing. To be successful, to be outstanding, and to help others achieve this. And if you don't like someone or something, don't impose it on others. This thought is summed up as two famous Confucian sayings, the first is "you want to stand up and set up people, you want to reach and reach people"; the second is "you don't want to do to others what you don't want".
Let me summarize that love must be implemented on the basis of heart, affection, giving, respect, tolerance and sharing.
Mencius said that "the desire is good". That is to say, as long as you want to do good, have this desire and demand, and want to be a good person, that is good. Many people think that there are many evildoers in real life, and it is not easy to do good, which is wrong. It's hard to see others have difficulties to help and the old man to respect them? It's not hard at all. Goodness is the instinct that the nature of heaven and earth gives to human beings. To do good is our freedom and our independent ability.
Confucius once said: "I want to be benevolent, and benevolence is the best." for benevolence, let yourself, and let people do it That is to say, if I want to love and do good, then benevolence will come true. We do good by ourselves and have nothing to do with others. Therefore, it is human's instinct to be desirable and to be good, while it is our duty to be good, to do good, to follow the morality of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trust. What is the vocation? Sacred duty and mission. Our Chinese nation, our traditional culture, calls on us to work hard and be good in order to accomplish this sacred vocation.
So capable of evoking praises and tears of novel coronavirus pneumonia, soldiers of the Liberation Army, and the masses of all walks of life in this battle against the new crown pneumonia, it is a great display of conscience, a great display of virtue and a great display of good deeds. Once again, the Chinese nation has proved to the world how kind a nation it is!
Xu Xiaoyue, doctor of history, Professor of Chinese philosophy and religion of Nanjing University, doctoral supervisor, director of the center for Daoism and oriental culture of Nanjing University, honorary curator of Nanjing Library, counselor of Jiangsu provincial government. "Four talents in one batch" (theoretical circle), the first batch of leading talents in philosophy and social sciences of the "ten thousand talents plan" of the state, the chief expert of the central "Marxist research and construction project", the expert of the subject evaluation group of the National Social Science Foundation, the expert of the government special allowance of the State Council, the expert of the speech of the "hundred forum of core values", the key research foundation of philosophy and Social Sciences in Jiangsu Universities Di - director of the center of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and Chinese traditional culture, President of Jiangsu Zhouyi Culture Research Association, and President of Laozi Daoism Culture Research Association, a national level association. He has published more than 200 academic papers and monographs, such as "Zen and Laozhuang", "interpretation of Zen forest treasure", "Luojiao, Buddhism and Zen", "Chinese traditional culture and Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism", "what is Chinese traditional virtue".
Source: Official wechat of "China energy construction"