The ideological value significance of the concept of righteousness and profit under the conditions of market economy

Righteousness and profit are the primary issues that human beings must face for survival and development, and the debate of righteousness and benefit is at the core of the Chinese Confucian system, and the pursuit of ideal values advocated by Confucianism is the ideal value pursuit advocated by Confucianism, representing the moral spirit of Confucianism and even ancient society.

The pre-Qin Confucian concept of righteousness and benefit

The debate of righteousness and benefit was a common concern of pre-Qin thinkers. Generally speaking, Confucianism values righteousness over profit, Mojia values both righteousness and profit, Legalism respects concise righteousness, and Taoism abandons both righteousness and profit. The Confucian concept of righteousness and benefit, represented by Kong Meng, was the mainstream value of the pre-Qin period and accumulated as the core value of the Chinese national spirit.

Emphasizing righteousness over profit, seeing righteousness and righteousness, and prioritizing righteousness before profit are the core contents of Confucius's concept of righteousness and benefit, which laid the basic pattern of the Confucian concept of righteousness and benefit. "Zihan Yanli" (Analects Zihan) means that Confucius rarely talked about profit. "A gentleman has no food and no peace to live in" (Analects of Linguistics) "Walk in favor of profit and complain more" (Analects of Liren), indicating Confucius's value orientation of valuing righteousness over profit; "Blessing and nobility are what man desires; Not by its righteousness, not by its righteousness. Poverty and destitution are the evil of man; Do not get it with its righteousness, do not go" (Analects of Liren), embodying Confucius's value orientation of "seeing the righteousness of the righteousness", one cannot ignore the interests, but when encountering interests, one must think about whether it is in line with "righteousness", "unrighteousness and wealth and nobility, to me like a floating cloud" ("Analects of Speech"). It means that when a person encounters gain, think about whether it is righteous? When it is righteous, accept it, or reject it. "Zenya asked! First things before virtue, non-virtue and virtue? When Fan Chi asked how to improve people's moral character, Confucius said: This question is a good question, first do before gain, first righteousness before profit, isn't it a person with lofty morals? It embodies Confucius's idea of righteousness before profit. Of course, when righteousness and profit are irreconcilable, when national interests and personal interests are faced with a choice, Confucius advocates "killing oneself to become benevolent", sacrificing personal interests and even lives to achieve national righteousness!

Compared with Confucius, Mencius's concept of righteousness and benefit has distinct characteristics of putting righteousness first and sacrificing life for righteousness. Although Mencius did not deny profit, he once proposed that "the family is poor and the elderly, not for Lushi" is one of the unfilial piety, which means that the family is poor and there are old people who need to be supported, but it is not filial piety to obtain mercy for officials, but Mencius's point of putting righteousness first and taking whether it meets righteousness as the criterion for profit is very obvious. He said: "It is not its righteousness, it is not its way, it is not its way, it is the whole world, and it is also the Gu Gu; Tie's horse Qianxi, Fu Shiya. It is not its righteousness, it is not its way, one does not take others, and the other does not take others. Mencius's words that inspired countless people with lofty ideals were: "Fish, what I want, bear paw, and what I want, you must not have both, and he who gives up fish and takes the bear's paw." Born as I want; Righteousness is also what I want. He who gives birth for righteousness shall not have both. His "wealth cannot be adulterous, poverty cannot be moved, and mighty cannot be yielded" ("Teng Wen Gongxia"), which is even more shocking for eternity!

Of course, Mencius did not deny people's material interests, and should pursue personal interests under the premise of morality. Mencius said, "If it is not his way, he shall not receive food from others; If it is the way, then Shun is subject to the world of Yao and does not think that it is Tai. This means that if the wealth obtained is not moral, even a basket of rice cannot be accepted, and if it is moral, it is not exaggerated to accept Yao's throne like Shun.

Ercheng's view of righteousness

Ercheng's concept of righteousness and benefit is the inheritance and development of the pre-Qin Confucian concept of righteousness and benefit. On the basis of inheriting the basic essence of Confucius Meng's righteousness before profit, Ercheng incorporated the concept of righteousness and profit into the category of moral cultivation, profoundly pointed out that the essence of righteousness and profit is the relationship between public and private, and put forward the basic moral ideal of profit and righteousness, which has become the basic moral principle of ordinary people.

First, let's look at Ercheng's discussion of Yili. Although Mencius proposed that the benevolent are also the hearts of the people, and the path of the righteous, which means that righteousness is the path that people should take, what exactly is righteousness? What is the concept of righteousness? Mencius did not give an accurate positioning. The basic meaning of righteousness is justice; Proper morality, conduct or reasoning. On the issue of the relationship between righteousness and profit, Kong Mengdu put forward the view of righteousness before profit, and seeing righteousness, but are righteousness and profit completely separated? Is it irreconcilable? Pursue righteousness without pursuing profit? Ercheng gave a clear answer. Cheng Yi said: "The saint takes righteousness for profit, and righteousness is profitable." (Cheng Yi) (Ercheng Collection, p. 173) In his view, righteousness is profit, and if a person does something beneficial to others and society, if he does something righteous, he will bring benefits to others, and he will also be at ease and bring benefits to himself. This sentence actually means that righteousness contains profit, and righteousness and profit are complementary to each other, not diametrically separate. Cheng Hao also said the same thing: "Whatever is righteous is profitable, and profit is righteous." The things of the world are only righteousness. (Ercheng Collection, p. 124) In the past, people believed that Confucianism was unprofitable, and the typical representative was Dong Zhongshu's "righteousness does not seek its own interests, and its way does not seek its merits." In fact, from the perspective of the Confucian classics, there is no objection to the reasonable pursuit of interests, Mencius once proposed that "the family is poor and the elderly, not a lushi, but one of the unfilial piety", Confucius once said, "Rich can ask for it, although the whip is a man, I am also for it." If you can't ask for it, take what I like. "Rich and seeking" here means profit under the premise of righteousness. When explaining Confucius's "Zihan Yan Li", Cheng Yi said: "Zi Han Yan Li" does not make people benefit but harms, and covers people with improper interests as their hearts. "Yi" said: "The sum of righteousness of the beneficial", with righteousness to Lis. Those who speak less are also great in their ways. (Ercheng Ji, p. 383) Confucius rarely spoke of profit, not to let people go away from profit and do harm, but to say that people should not take profit as the starting point of all their actions. The I Ching says that "the sum of righteousness and righteousness of the beneficial" means that profit appears under the premise of righteousness, which is the result of righteousness, not the premise of righteousness, and it is okay to use righteousness to obtain profit. The reason why Confucius rarely talks about profit is because he has a great road in mind and thinks deeply about problems. Taking righteousness for profit and righteousness for profit is the fundamental principle of people's behavior and behavior, and it is also the moral norm that businessmen should respect. When a person uses moral standards to engage in business activities, he will not be pitted or deceived, he will definitely gain a good reputation and reputation, and can usher in customers and make profits; Otherwise, adopting the method of abduction and deception and making ill-gotten gains may win temporary gains, but after all, it will not be long-term.

On the issue of the relationship between righteousness and profit, Cheng Yi has a saying that clarifies the fundamental difference between the two: "Wealth, people can do what they want, and they can ask for justice and righteousness, although they can bend themselves; If righteousness is not sought, keep the poor and keep their aspirations. If you are not happy to be poor, you cannot go away. (Analects of Confucius, Ercheng Collection, p. 1144) This should become the "gold standard" for dealing with righteous interests under the conditions of market economy, and there is great room for interpretation.