Lu Jianhua | return to Confucius: the road to unifying Mengxun

Back to Confucius: The Road to Unifying Mengxun

Author: Lu Jianhua (Professor, School of Philosophy, Anhui University)

Source: China Social Science Network

Mr. Li Zehou posted an article in the 4th issue of 2017 "Exploration and Controversy", proposing to "raise the Meng banner to practice Xunxue", hoping to develop Xunxue thought under the appearance of Zun Meng, with the intention of breaking the situation of "Zun Meng suppressing Xun" since the Tang and Song Dynasties. As a result, the integration of Meng Xun has become a new hot spot in academic research. To this end, the second issue of Wenshizhe in 2020 also published a set of pen talks written by Guo Yi, Liu Yuedi, Liang Tao and others on the "Mengxun Controversy and Unification".

Judging from the current discussion on the integration of Mengxun, most of them talk about the value of Mengxun from the dimension of the modern reconstruction of Confucianism, and talk about the changes in the status of Mengxun in history from the dimension of the history of the development of Confucianism. This is limited to the periphery of the Mengxun unification, or does not face the Mengxun unification itself. Regarding the method of the integration of Meng Xun, it is generally advocated that Meng Xun should be treated equally, neither Meng Xun xun nor Xun Xun, otherwise, it would become Meng Xue's annexation of Xun Xue, or Xun Xue's annexation of Meng Xue. Regarding the specific practice of Meng Xun's unification, some scholars have tried to integrate Meng Xun from the dimension of the category shared by Meng Xun, trying to integrate Meng Xun through the integration of heaven, sex, emotion, and heart in Meng Xun's thought. This attempt deserves attention.

Li Zehou proposed in his "Dialogue on the Ontology of Love" in Chinese Philosophy (Wenshi zhe, No. 3, 2014) that "Meng Xun is unified with Confucius", and some scholars believe that this can also be used as a method of unifying Meng Xun. In fact, Meng Xun was born of Confucius, not unified with Confucius. However, Li Zehou's statement still inspires us, that is, we can integrate Meng Xun from the perspective of Confucius, or integrate Meng Xun based on Confucius philosophy. In short, it is to unify Meng Xun by "returning to Confucius".

One

We know that although Confucius said: "My Way is consistent" (Analects of Liren), it is not clear what his consistent path is, and although ZengZi said: "The way of the Master, loyalty and forgiveness are enough" ("Analects of Liren"), but it is not accurate and insufficient. Later generations' understanding of confucius's way includes ren, liturgy, benevolence and propriety. Objectively speaking, it is not enough to understand the Way of Confucius as benevolence or etiquette, because Confucius philosophy has both the nature of benevolence and etiquette; the understanding of Confucius's way as benevolence and etiquette, although it can summarize the nature of benevolence and etiquette of Confucius philosophy, confucius philosophy has two cores, which is equivalent to saying that there is no real core. This makes Confucius philosophy rich in content, including benevolence and etiquette, involving the metaphysical level of nature and nature, the saints and gentlemen at the level of life, and the political level of virtue and etiquette, but at least in form there is no internal logical structure, there is no clear logical system. In addition, "the Master's speech and the Heavenly Dao are unobtainable and unheard" (Analects of Gongyechang), resulting in the vagueness of the discourse in Confucius's philosophy on important areas such as the Heavenly Dao and human nature, which aroused the interest of Confucianism in later generations and also caused disputes in Confucianism in later generations. All this brought some uncertainty to the development of Confucianism in later generations.

However, the above shortcomings of Confucius philosophy have brought some uncertainty to the development of Confucianism in later generations, so that Confucianism in later generations may develop in the opposite direction in some important aspects, and at the same time, it has brought a broad space for development and a high degree of freedom to the development of Confucianism in later generations.

After Confucius, Confucianism developed greatly to Mencius and Xunzi. Mencius inherited and carried forward Confucius's thought on benevolence, and constructed a philosophical system with benevolence as the core and human nature as the characteristics; Xunzi inherited and developed Confucius's liturgical thought, and constructed a philosophical system with etiquette as the core and sexual evil as the feature. Thus separating the two sides of benevolence and etiquette that are difficult to integrate in Confucius philosophy, and bringing Confucianism into two distinct development directions. Their theories of sexual goodness and sexual evil have created problems for Confucian scholars since the Qin and Han dynasties.

The development of Confucianism since the Qin and Han Dynasties has generally followed the model of returning to Confucius and being compatible with Mengxun, and as far as the compatibility of Mengxun is concerned, there are generally models of Meng-based, absorbing Xunxue and taking Xunxue as the mainstay, and absorbing Mengxue, but the model of taking Mengxue as the main and absorbing Xunxue is more common and more influential. However, whether it is based on Meng, absorbing Xunxue, or taking Xun as the main and absorbing Mengxue, it is biased in its position, and there is a clear purpose of taking one side as the standard and excluding the other.

Two

Since the development of Confucianism in history has both the model of Mengxue and the model of Xunxue and the model of Xun and Mengxue, and neither of these models has properly handled the relationship between Mengxun and Confucianism, scholars have put forward the idea of integrating Mengxun when discussing the new development of contemporary Confucianism, with the intention of objectively and equally viewing the role of Mengxue and Xunxue in the construction of contemporary Neo-Confucianism. The problem is that by unifying Meng Xun, meng Xun will certainly unconsciously focus on Meng Xun's choice, it is impossible to treat the two as absolute equals. In my opinion, instead of thinking about the "neutrality" of the position of the unification of Meng Xun, the respective positions of Meng Xun and Xun during the unification of Meng Xun, and the "share" of each of them, it is better to return to the common source of meng and Xun's thought, that is, "back to Confucius", take Confucius philosophy as the coordinate, integrate The philosophy of Meng and Xun, not only eliminate the inherent shortcomings in Confucius philosophy, but also merge and integrate Meng and Xun into a complete philosophical system, thus creating a new Confucian system. Here's how:

In Confucius's philosophy, heaven is the highest category, with obvious dominance and morality, but there is also a certain degree of naturalness, but Confucius did not take heaven as the cornerstone of his philosophy, did not associate benevolence, etiquette, etc. with heaven, resulting in his philosophy lacking internal logic, the tension of benevolence and etiquette, and the lack of metaphysical basis. Mencius changed this phenomenon, highlighting the dominance and morality of heaven, and using heaven as the highest basis for benevolence, but ignoring etiquette. Xunzi exalted the naturalness of heaven, severing the connection between heaven and ritual, making his ritualology lack a metaphysical basis, and at the same time, ignoring benevolence. To unify Meng Xun, from the perspective of the core level of philosophy, is to reshape the supremacy of heaven, at the same time to give it morality and naturalness, and to put its morality and naturalness on an equal footing, as the common cornerstone and metaphysical basis of benevolence and etiquette, and to dissolve the tension that should not exist in Confucius philosophy.

Although Confucius spoke of human nature, that is, "sex is close to each other, and habits are far away" ("Analects of Yang Goods"), he did not explicitly state the content of human nature and good and evil, let alone associate it with his benevolence and etiquette. In order to construct his benevolent system and emphasize the goodness of human nature, Mencius mainly determined the content of human nature as "morality"; in order to construct his etiquette system, Xunzi emphasized the evil of human nature, and for this reason mainly determined the content of human nature as "feeling" and "desire". From the Meng and Xun theories of human nature, and combined with Confucius's relevant expositions on morality, feelings and desires, it can be inferred that Confucius's theories of human nature have two tendencies: sexual good and evil, "virtue" as sex, and "feelings" and "desires" as sex. To integrate Meng Xun, from the perspective of human nature, is to base itself on "sexual proximity, and xi is far away" (Analects of Yang Goods), integrate the content of human nature into "virtue", "feelings" and "desires", and change the certainty of the value orientation of human nature into uncertainty, so that it has two tendencies: good and evil.

Confucius philosophy emphasizes at the level of life that through the practice of benevolence to reach the gentleman and even the saint, Meng and Xun recognize the ideal personality of the gentleman and the saint proposed by Confucius, and their difference lies in how to achieve the ideal realm of the gentleman and the saint, that is, the path to the gentleman and the saint. Mencius believed that this path was "by benevolence and righteousness" ("Mencius, Leaving Lou Xia") and "nourishing the heart" (Mencius under the heart), and Xunzi believed that this path was "false from nature" ("Xunzi Sexual Evil"), learning etiquette and keeping etiquette. Integrating Meng Xun, from the level of ideal personality, can be seen that it is necessary to practice benevolence and righteousness morally under the premise of adhering to Confucius's observance of virtue and benevolence, to abide by etiquette and righteousness politically, and to combine the external behavior of abiding by benevolence and etiquette with the internal cultivation of the mind.

Confucius's philosophy was intended to serve politics and realize its political ideals, and for this reason, Confucius put forward two propositions at the political level: the rule of virtue and the rule of etiquette. Mencius developed Confucius's idea of rule by virtue into benevolent government with both theoretical depth and operability, and Xunzi further systematized Confucius's idea of rule of etiquette and incorporated elements of law. To unify Mengxun, from a political point of view, is to integrate Mencius's benevolent government and Xunzi's ritual rule into one, and on the basis of Confucius's "Tao of Virtue, Qi Zhi Yi Yi Zheng" ("Analects of The Analects of The Government"), properly handle the relationship between benevolence and etiquette, between benevolence and etiquette, let Ren be under the constraint of etiquette, and construct a political model of etiquette as the way of governing the country; or let etiquette be under the constraint of benevolence, and construct a political model of benevolence as the way of governing the country.

In this way, the new Confucian system that unified Meng Xun with the path and way of "returning to Confucius" took heaven as the highest existence and core category. From the logical level, from the heavens there is benevolence and etiquette, from the internalization of benevolence and etiquette, and the complexity of human content and the tendency of human nature to be complex and the good and evil tendencies of human nature, from the practice and observance of benevolence and etiquette to the ideal personality of saints and gentlemen, and from the combination of benevolence and etiquette in the political field, there is a rule of etiquette with the characteristics of benevolence or a benevolent government with the characteristics of etiquette. In this way, benevolence and propriety originate from heaven in the original sense, and exist within man himself. In this way, by "returning to Confucius", it not only solves the shortcomings of the lack of internal logic in Confucius philosophy, but also solves the shortcomings of Meng Xun's various biases.