How to understand the benevolent person "loves the lover" and "kisses the benevolent"?

Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out many times that to carry forward and inherit China's excellent traditional culture, "we must have a benevolent heart" and "stress benevolence". Benevolence, the core connotation of traditional Chinese Confucian culture, has laid the spiritual temperament of the entire Chinese culture. The in-depth excavation and elaboration of the idea of benevolence can provide an important reference for the cultivation of the core values of socialism.

What is benevolence? In the Analects of Yan Yuan, Fan Chi asks what "benevolence" is, and Confucius replies "love people.". In this answer, Confucius interpreted benevolence as "love" and pointed out that the object of love is man. "Man" is a universal concept here, and what "lover" embodies is that a gentleman should have "love" for all people. But "love" is not only universal, but also special, and it reveals many aspects of its connotations as benevolence unfolds.

"Pan love the crowd" and "pro-benevolence"

Interpreting ren with "loving people" reflects the universality of the feeling of "love". The most typical expression of this universality is Confucius's idea of "pan-love for the masses". "Multitude" refers to the masses, the multitude, and therefore the broad love of the masses and the "lover of others" have the same meaning: the benevolent love of the people is the extensive love of the masses and the love of the multitudes. But Confucius did not only talk about "pan-love for the masses", he also asked for "pro-benevolence" and "pan-love for the multitude and pro-benevolence" also.

Unlike the relative certainty of the meaning of "pan-love", "pro-benevolence" requires more explanation. The "benevolence" of "benevolence" is the opposite of "multitude", and usually refers to a special person who is different from the masses--a person with benevolence. "Virtuous man" is a relative concept and does not equal "benevolent man" whose virtue is absolutely perfect, because the latter is in fact an unattainable goal. According to the Analects, Confucius divided the realm of life into saints, benevolent people, good people, and those who have eternity, he has never met a saint, nor has he ever praised anyone as a benevolent person, lamenting that even good people have not been able to see, "Those who have seen eternity, Skokyun." Even Yan Yuan, who was the most praised by Confucius and was listed as the head of the "Four Branches and Ten Philosophies", was only "Huiye, his heart is not against benevolence in March, and the rest is only a day to a day." Although "March" is not necessarily a real reference, there is no doubt that it is related to "sun and moon" as a quantity.

Including confucius's other students who "sun to yan", "qinren" refers to people who are close to benevolence. "Closeness" is naturally an expression of the meaning of "love", but if "affinity" is interpreted as love, it is inseparable from "pan-loving", which originally includes people with benevolence. Confucius also called "loving the people" and "loving benevolence", with the intention of saying that the two are different. The key point of this difference is that the general principle of "love" as universal love must always be upheld, especially for the rulers of the country. In the Book of Rites and Lamentations, when Confucius answered how the Duke of Lai "governed", the core concept was that "the ancients are the government, and the lovers are the great (first)". In the management of the state, loving people is the first priority. However, whether it is a ruler or an ordinary reader, the giver of love himself also has the problem of improving his own moral realm, and it is a realistic choice to be close to a person with benevolence, and the so-called "supplementing benevolence with friends" in the Analects expresses this aspect of thought.

Kindness is also pro-morality

"Being close to a person with benevolence" is only one understanding of "benevolence", and usually there is another understanding associated with it, that is, the object of closeness is not "person" but "virtue", and "kindness" refers to the virtue of being close to "benevolence". In confucius's life, the most important thing is benevolence, and close to benevolence can start by choosing a person's residence. The so-called "Li Ren is beautiful." Choose not to be benevolent, but to know (wisdom)? "If a person knows that if he chooses a place of refuge with benevolent demeanor, the improvement of his realm will be more effective with half the effort. As far as the relationship between benevolence and wisdom is concerned, Confucius likes to make comparative comparisons, such as "the knower enjoys the water, the benevolent leshan; the knower moves, the benevolent is quiet; the knower is happy, the benevolent life" and so on, and so on. But here in "Li Ren", benevolence and wisdom are unified: if you do not know how to choose a good place to live, you must be an unwise and unwise person.

Choosing benevolence and being close to benevolence leads to the peaceful settlement of the body and mind, so the purpose of "pro-benevolence" is "Anren". "Benevolent Anren" is Confucius's expectation of people with benevolence. Whether people are in good times or bad times, whether they are poor or rich, poor or reached, they need to adhere to benevolence and morality without wavering. Obviously, such "benevolence" is inseparable from people's willpower, and this is a character that needs to be adhered to for life: "A gentleman does not violate benevolence between the final food, and the creation of the second will be so, and the turbulence will be so." If people can be content with benevolence, there will be no big mistakes in their lives, "Gou is willing to be benevolent, and there is no evil."

In Confucius's view, whether it is An Yu ren or Zhi Yu Ren, it is generally "pro-benevolence". So, how to achieve "pro-benevolence"? Choosing benevolence is naturally an external way, as well as an internal way, which is what the Analects call "erudition and dedication, earnest questioning and close thinking, benevolence in it." People's closeness to or toward benevolence is not an empty conceptual feeling, but a real practice of "learning and thinking", whether people "do not violate (benevolence)" or "zhiyan (benevolence)", it is a dynamic process, "benevolence" exists in this unremitting "pro-benevolence" (seeking benevolence) efforts, which also shows the distinctive practical characteristics of Confucian benevolence.

Pro-benevolent (human) and new

Whether it is "close to a person with benevolence" or "pro-morality", the focus of the "benevolence" of "benevolence" falls on the "virtue" of (people). However, if we directly understand the "benevolence" of "benevolence" as "human" in the Book of Rites and The Middle Way, and directly understand the "benevolence" of "pro-benevolence" as "human", it can also be established in the history of ideas. As early as Confucius, the "Six Years of Zuo Chuan Yin Gong" recorded that in the early Spring and Autumn Period, the fifth father of Chen Guogong advised Chen Guojun (Chen Huan Gong) to agree to Zheng Guo's request, and the two countries made good relations, and emphasized that "benevolence and good neighborliness are also the treasures of the country", but Chen Huangong could not listen to it, resulting in national difficulties. In this statement, "benevolence" and "good neighbor" are intertextual, focusing on inventing the meaning of goodwill, friendship and love for neighbors (countries). Confucius's demand for "benevolence" at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period should also reflect the summary of this historical experience. Obviously, here, "benevolence" has gone beyond those who are close to the benevolent, but to the people who love the neighbors. In this sense, the original gap between "qinren (person)" and "lover" has actually dissolved, and "qinren" has become another saying of "lover". This is not irreconcilable in Confucius, who in different contexts originally had a variety of provisions for benevolence.

Caring for and treating one's neighbor – this is where people from neighboring countries paint the practice of benevolence with a touch of "near and far". In fact, it is difficult to "love the masses" from concept to reality, and "the size of the near and far are the same", because this requires the support of sufficient material conditions. As for the more ambitious "Bo Shi Ji Zhong", so it is "Yao Shun qi Yu Zhi The statement that "distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors" formed in Chinese society also objectively shows that the implementation of loving relatives has to be constrained by realistic time and space conditions.

Interpreting "qinren" as "relative" will also have another meaning. That is, if it is not from the perspective of the object of love, that is, "person" or "morality", but considering the "pro" itself, the content is richer. Because "pro" can be understood not only as "close", but also as "new". In connection with the "Way of the University, in Mingmingde, in the people, in the end of the supreme good", from Ercheng to Zhu Xi, this "pro" is interpreted as "new". In this way, "close to the people" as a "new people", "pro-benevolence (people)" also becomes a "new person", which means that the people (people) will be old and innovative. In this understanding, Confucius's teaching of "loving the multitude and being benevolent" becomes a widespread love for the masses and the need to make the people new.

Based on the perspective of "making the people new", "pro-benevolence" embodies the function of Confucius's benevolent thought in applying to social and state governance. With the expansion and promotion of "lovers", from the neighbors to the distant places, from relatives and respects to the sons and sons, to the people of Laibaigong, and the people of Rouyuan, the "people of the five directions" finally "reach their aspirations", "understand their desires", "love the masses" or "love the people", or "fraternity", and gain its more general and universal meaning.

In summary, it can be seen that Confucian thought on benevolence has a very rich connotation, which is based on emotions and carries forward virtue; both embraces ideals and bases itself on reality; pays attention to theory and is linked to practice, involving humanitarian care, moral cultivation, love for the people, politics of love for the people, and social indoctrination, and through the practice of benevolence such as loving the people, pro-morality, new people, and good neighbors, it shows its spiritual leading role in the country's political life and social customs. Benevolent "love people" and "pro-benevolence" are the most concise expressions of the idea of benevolence and its role, and only by truly understanding it can we better appreciate the shaping effect of Confucian benevolence on Chinese spiritual civilization in different aspects. As General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the 2019 Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations, "benevolence and good-neighborliness and harmony among all nations are the consistent ways of Chinese civilization in dealing with the world."

Deeply excavating and elaborating China's excellent traditional culture with renxue as the core can provide spiritual concept and value support for better building a community with a shared future for mankind. Our cultural self-confidence, to a certain extent, is enriched and promoted by the confucian system of renxue and its historical practice. The in-depth elaboration of the Confucian concept of benevolence and love can help us better understand the values of the times that General Secretary Xi Jinping called for "emphasizing benevolence", and provide excellent cultural resources for extensively cultivating and practicing the core values of socialism.

【Author Affilications:School of Philosophy, Chinese Min University.] This paper is a phased result of the 2019 National Social Science Foundation's major project "History of the Development of Renxue in China (Multi-volume)" (project approval number: 19ZDA024). 】