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Merit is a self-cultivation text that takes the concept of "karma" as the core and measures people's good and evil behaviors according to certain moral standards. This character "character" can be understood as "rules" according to the scholar Tadao Sakai, which means that various meritorious qualities are organized and arranged in a regular and standard way. It can also be seen as a format for recording and counting ethical behavior.
The purpose of merit is to encourage people to improve their behavior, so it is classified as a "good book". Although the earliest surviving meritorious qualities are the Taoist Taiwei Immortal Monarch Meritorious Qualities, its merit-accumulation system based on self-cultivation has existed for a long time. This core idea stems from the belief in supernatural retribution in ancient Chinese philosophy, such as "the house of accumulation of goodness will have Yuqing, and the house of accumulation of unwholesomeness will have aftermath" in the Book of Changes" and "Do good, descend to a hundred auspicious" in the Book of Shang; If you do not do good, you will be doomed." These ideas have long become an important part of Confucian philosophy.
In addition to Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are also propagators of the concepts of "accumulation of virtue and merit" and "karma". Therefore, merit can be seen as a combination of three ideas. American scholar Bao Yunya pointed out that in some Taoist and Buddhist scriptures, the merit accumulation system has many different forms. Because of this background, meritorious qualities became an important text of the "Exhortation Movement" in the late Ming Dynasty. The goal of this movement was to re-establish an ideal moral order, spreading the ideas that "good and evil are rewarded" and "bad results are rewarded". As a kind of good book, meritorious qualities were widely spread in this "persuasion movement" and had a profound impact on society.
The active dissemination of merit by the people not only contributes to their own well-being, but also to the moral improvement of society as a whole. By providing detailed and specific moral principles, the scholar can practice moral concepts in all aspects of daily life, so as to achieve the goal of "accumulating goodness and seeking happiness". This also led to the gradual transformation of Buddhism and Taoism into "Confucian merit".
"Being an Official Meritorious Qualified" is a kind of meritorious qualification, specially designed for the self-cultivation of officials, and more emphasis on the administrative ethics that officials should follow. However, most of the existing research focuses on the promotion of "meritorious qualities" by the late Mingshi people in the "persuasion movement", and relatively few studies on "meritorious deeds when officials are exhorted" to persuade and warn officials.
In "Meritorious Achievement as an Official", Yuan Huang emphasized the self-education of officials, requiring them to practice Confucian official ethics in specific administrative matters. This text emphasizes the concept of "a hundred good things to do, and a hundred disasters to do bad things", and its content mainly covers the responsibilities of local officials, including management, governance, thrift, fairness and other aspects.
Yuan Huang's "Being an Official Meritorious Qualities", like other meritorious qualities, pursues the theory of "good deeds are blessed, and evil is evil", but the content is more focused on local government affairs. The process of this text is very ritualistic and includes steps such as choosing a day, fasting, declaring heaven, burning incense, and taking vows. Self-practitioners need to calculate their merits before falling asleep, conduct a self-examination at the end of the month, and liquidate a year's merit record at the end of the year. This intensive process of moral quantification can help self-practitioners gain a clear picture of their own moral behavior and motivate them to actively do good.
Meritorious content includes Confucian official morality and administrative affairs graded according to difficulty, including matters directly related to people's livelihood. Yuan Huang set different levels of "gong", including immeasurable gong, thousand gong, hundred gong, ten gong, and indefinite gong. These "exercises" cover the duties that local officials should perform in their daily work, such as upholding the law and protecting the people.
Corresponding to "merit", Yuan Huang's "Passing the Qualification of Being an Official Meritorious Person" also includes "passing the qualification". However, there are relatively few "overkills", and the content covers some improper behavior, such as sending more food, killing one person with a rod, destroying others and promoting oneself, etc. These "passes" are consistent with the purpose of "meritorious service", and all emphasize the official moral qualities of officials who should be considerate of the people and put the people first.
In general, merit is an ancient self-cultivation text based on the idea of karma and designed to help people improve their moral behavior. It blends Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist ideas to emphasize the idea that "good and evil are rewarded." "Meritorious Service as an Official" is one of them, focusing on the self-cultivation and administrative ethics of officials. Through a ritualized process, this text helps self-practitioners to clearly understand their moral behavior and motivate them to actively do good, while emphasizing the duties that officials should perform to maintain social harmony and fairness.
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