What are the positive significance of the pre-Qin Confucian idea of shame education? And what are the historical limitations? (ii)
2. Practical significance: guard the moral bottom line and maintain social harmony and stability
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the rise of the economic privatization movement, the rapid changes in the political pattern, and the chaos and disorder of the social order brought unlimited impacts and challenges to traditional moral values. People's greatest concerns are no longer the spiritual interests of "benevolence", but the shift to their own money, power and status. They pursue all the criteria for choosing "profit" for honor and shame, and their desire for power has far exceeded the original righteousness and flesh-and-blood feelings of kings and subjects, and they are not ashamed of "disobedience" and "disobedience" but are proud of it, resulting in the increasing prevalence of profit-seeking in the whole society, the lack of shame awareness, and the moral bottom line being repeatedly broken.
In order to solve these problems, the pre-Qin Confucians put forward the theory of shame education, incorporated the idea of shame education into their own theoretical system, and constructed a more complete and reasonable system of shame education, the focus of which is to arouse people's sense of shame in their hearts, rebuild the internal constraint mechanism of the ethical spirit, learn to correctly distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil, consciously and actively stay away from shame, and urge people to return to the spiritual development track of shame and glory, and then make the whole society re-embark on a harmonious and orderly development track.
The logical path of pre-Qin Confucian shame education is: from knowing shame to avoiding shame to seeking glory and then to being kind, becoming a gentleman who "acts with shame" and perfecting his own moral character. The system covers a wide range of contents, a brief overview, including emphasizing that shame is an important basis for human beings and an important criterion for distinguishing between humans and animals; clarifying the criteria for judging shame, namely benevolence and righteousness; clarifying the specific manifestations of "what is shame" and "what is not shameful"; highlighting the characteristics of self-cultivation methods such as introspection and self-seeking to improve moral character and stay away from shame. This series of ideas and viewpoints is all about guarding the moral bottom line, providing important help for the turbulent society at that time to re-enter harmony and stability, not only arousing people's inner moral conscience in thought, but also helping people distinguish between good and evil, honor and shame in practical actions, so as to reorganize the morally corrupt social atmosphere.
3. Personality shaping: emphasize the shame of doing oneself and strengthen the integrity of the Chinese nation
The pre-Qin Confucian idea of shame education originated in an era of frequent wars and disasters. At that time, people were not ashamed of "disrespectful" and "unrighteous" acts, but were proud of it, and society fell into a disorder of moral degeneration and human desire. To this end, the sons of the pre-Qin Confucians put shame education on the agenda, aiming to cultivate people's self-discipline personality of "doing their own shame" and building a self-discipline society of "shame and dignity", so as to promote people to return to the spiritual development track of knowing shame and glory, and then form a noble moral character and achieve a higher level of ideal moral realm.
From the perspective of the pre-Qin Confucian idea of shame education, shame is "the moral bottom line that people should follow and adhere to, and it is an important value concept and basic spirit of the traditional morality of the Chinese nation", and traditional Chinese virtues such as benevolence, righteousness, and wisdom and faith can only be elaborated and formed on the basis of "knowing shame" and "having shame". Therefore, shaping the self-disciplined personality of "doing one's own shame" has played an important role in shaping the spirit of the Chinese nation and strengthening the integrity of the Chinese nation. On the one hand, the pre-Qin Confucians attached great importance to "righteousness", took pride in abiding by morality, and were ashamed to deviate from morality, tempering the national integrity of great righteousness and giving up small families for everyone.
If a person, under the interaction of external social laws and self-disciplined moral self-discipline, physically practices "doing one's own shame" and strictly restraining oneself with shame, one will become righteous and good. Xun Zi applied "righteousness" to governing the country and put forward the view that "the prosperity of the world emphasizes righteousness, and the chaotic world is heavy on profit". If people can take "righteousness" as their creed in life, act in accordance with morality, put national interests first, and always cherish the national sentiment of "worrying about the world first", they can improve the centripetal force and cohesion of the Chinese nation. On the other hand, the pre-Qin Confucians were ashamed of the country's external insults, and linked the glory and shame of the individual with the rise and fall of the country, creating a national spirit with patriotism as the core and a mighty and indomitable national integrity.
Although the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were an era of collapse and happiness, the princes of various princes still attached great importance to national shame, and King Hui of Liang was ashamed of the defeat of the country and the loss of land; The king of Qi Min and the king of Meng Yijun also became a great shame and humiliation in the world because of the fall of the country. When facing the aggression of foreign enemies in their own country, people should consciously shoulder the heavy responsibility of the rise and fall of the country with the enterprising spirit of "knowing shame and then being brave," not fear violence and fight with blood, adhere to the belief in victory with indomitable perseverance, and forge ahead with the national integrity of preferring to die unyieldingly.
