The earliest book of songs in which the word "benevolence" appeared was the Book of Songs. There are two places where the word "benevolence" is written in the Book of Songs: one is "Zheng Feng Yu Shutian": "Uncle Yu Tian, there is no one living in the lane. No residents? Not as good as uncle. It is beautiful and kind. " Another place is Qi Feng Luling: "Luling is beautiful and kind." Uncle Yutian was written by Duan Shu, the younger brother of Zheng Renge in the early Spring and Autumn Period, and Luling was written later than the early Western Zhou Dynasty. It can be said with certainty that the word "benevolence" should have existed since the Western Zhou Dynasty and the early Spring and Autumn Period. What does the word "benevolence" mean in the Book of Songs? Zhu's explanation of "goodness" is: "faith"; "beauty" is good; "Benevolence" means loving others. [1] Gao Feng's explanation of "benevolence" is: "benevolence, goodness." In terms of words, "benevolence" and "beauty" are used together. "Beauty" in The Book of Songs refers to the beauty of appearance, and "benevolence" and "beauty" are used together, while "benevolence" refers to the beauty of mind and morality. Although there is no clear definition of "benevolence" in the Book of Songs, it can be clearly seen that it refers to morality comparable to appearance.
By the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, the word "benevolence" appeared in large numbers. According to preliminary statistics, it appeared 24 times in Guoyu and 33 times in Chunqiu Zuoshi Biography. For example, "Thirty-three years of Zuo Zhuan Xi Gong" records: "When you smell it, you are a guest, you are a sacrifice, and you are kind." Going out seems to be seeing guests, and taking on things seems to be participating in sacrifices. This is the principle of benevolence. There is also a record about "benevolence" in Mandarin Today: "You taught Li Ji (Jin Xiangong's wife) very well. She cried in the middle of the night and said to Jin Xiangong,' I have never heard anyone say that benevolence is different from China. For the benevolent, loving relatives is called benevolence; For the country, benefiting the country and the people is benevolence. The word "benevolence" in Zuo Zhuan and Guoyu means respecting, loving relatives and benefiting the country. In the Spring and Autumn Period, someone once gave a short definition of "benevolence". For example, Zuo Zhuan quoted Xi Gong Xin as saying: "Poetry says,' Be soft but not rigid, be rigid but not spit, be few and not humiliated. Not afraid of being strong, only the benevolent can do it. It is not brave to bully the weak, and it is not kind to take advantage of others' appointments. "[2] The soft ones don't bully, the hard ones are not afraid, they don't bully the old, the weak and the young, and they are not afraid of rape. This can only be done by caring people. It is not brave to run away from the strong and bully the weak. It's not benevolence to take advantage of people's danger. The public's interpretation of "benevolence" here is obviously that, as far as human morality is concerned, the public and Confucius are contemporaries. Confucius clearly defined the ideological connotation of the word "benevolence". In the Analects of Confucius, the word * * * appeared 109 times, each time with different meanings and from different aspects. For example, The Analects of Confucius, Yan Yuan, said, "Fan Chi begged for benevolence, while Confucius said' love'". "The Analects of Confucius Learning": "Disciples are filial when they enter, and filial when they leave. They are sincere and believe, they love others and are kind. " "The Analects of Confucius Yongye" said: "It can be said that it is a benevolent side to draw inferences from others." For the first time, Confucius clearly defined "benevolence" as "love", which was an unprecedented and unprecedented innovation. In the early Western Zhou Dynasty, there was only the idea of "protecting the people" and "enriching the people", and no one had clearly put forward the word "love". Although in the mid-Spring and Autumn Period, Ran Ming and Zi Chan both said "Love the people as a son" when discussing political affairs, they did not clearly define "benevolence" as "love". In the history of China's ancient thoughts, Confucius was the first to put forward "love" and defined "benevolence". Confucius defined "benevolence" as "love", initiated the theory of "benevolence" and established the Confucian school with "benevolence" as the theoretical core.
Second, the ancient feelings of love
During the Warring States period, Mencius inherited Confucius' thought of "benevolence" and made the ideological system of "benevolence" complete. Mencius put forward the same definition of the concept of "benevolence" as Confucius: "Benevolence has a heart", [3] "Those who love others always love them; Those who respect others will always respect others. " [4] "Lovers don't kiss, so different people have different opinions." [5] It is believed that "benevolence" is in people's hearts, and the main meaning of "benevolence" is "people", so we should treat all people with "people". People, regardless of you, me and him; Regardless of gender, age; All people are "people" and treat others with "people". This is "benevolence". People must first give love and respect to others, and then they can get love and respect from others. When you give love to others, you can't get love from others in return. At this time, you should not criticize others, but reflect on whether you have paid enough for the love and help of others. So, "benevolence" is among them.
Mencius mentioned many times in his works that as a good ruler, he should "worry about the joy of the world first", have compassion for the people, and enjoy the joy of the world. Mencius saw Liang, Wang Li was in the marsh, and Gu Hongyan was an elk. He said, "Are saints happy about this? Mencius said to him, "the sages at that time were happy, but those who were not sages were unhappy even with these." ... the ancient people enjoyed themselves with the people, so they could enjoy themselves. [6] This is a famous article in which Mencius and Liang discuss what is the pleasure of life. Mencius visited Liang. Standing by the pond, Liang looked at birds and animals such as Hongyan and Elk, and said, Do sages also enjoy it? Mencius replied: "Only the wise can feel this kind of happiness. Unprincipled people will not really feel happiness even if they have rare birds and animals ... ancient sages and sages enjoy happiness with the people, so they can enjoy real happiness. It is clearly pointed out that as a king, only by "having fun with the people" can we enjoy real happiness.
Mencius was in the middle of the Warring States Period. Because of the low productivity and underdeveloped commodity economy, social wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few rulers who held state power. Therefore, a few people "have fat, stable fat horses", while the vast majority of people "food is the sky, hunger is the sky", and the distribution of social wealth is extremely unreasonable. Moreover, after years of war, the rulers, in order to rule the interests, "scramble for land to kill people for profit;" Fight for the city, fight for the city. "Innocent people died tragically in the canyon. Starting from his lover, Mencius hated war and sympathized with people's sufferings. He sharply exposed and mercilessly lashed out at the successive years of annexation wars and their extravagant and decadent lives launched by the rulers to dominate the vassals, and demanded that the rulers "share happiness with the people", "share happiness with others" and "share happiness with the world and worry about the world", which reflected Mencius' deep love for the people.
Mencius not only advocated "love", but also extended from "love" to caring for everything. He said: "Kissing is kind to others, being kind to others and loving things." "Kissing" means loving your parents and siblings. "Benevolent people" means loving, benefiting, benefiting, nurturing, enriching, comforting and teaching the people. "Loving things" means pushing the natural affection of loving each other in life to all things in the universe, from the love between people to the inner harmony between people and society and all things in nature. This idea is called "loving the people" by later generations. "Caring for people and loving things" embodies Mencius' broad mind and noble spiritual world. Mencius' thought of "having fun with the people" is an improvement to the realm of Confucianism.
Third, clean and honest, "worry about the world first, and be happy after the world."
Fan Zhongyan inherited Mencius' thought of "having fun with the people" and developed it. In Yueyang Tower, he put forward: "Worry about the world first, and enjoy it later." This is the inheritance and development of Mencius' thought of sorrow and happiness, and it is a higher ideological realm than Mencius.
Fan Zhongyan (989- 1052), a famous official in the Northern Song Dynasty, was a famous politician, writer and strategist in the history of China. When I was a teenager, my family was poor and eager to learn. I used to study in Liquan Temple in Changbai Mountain, and my life was extremely difficult. I cook a pot of thick porridge every day, cut it into four pieces after cooling, eat two pieces in the morning and two pieces in the evening, mix some pickles and half a jar of vinegar juice. Continue to study after dinner, and you will be tireless in the morning and evening, and your knowledge will increase greatly. Fan Zhongyan is not ambitious and takes the world as his responsibility. During his study tour, he saw that many people in Guanzhong died of illness and bones were everywhere, and his heart was full of pity. He believes that "a gentleman's duty is to benefit the people", and he must be determined to learn useful knowledge and save the whole world as his duty. 23-year-old Fan Zhongyan left his mother and went to Yingtianfu Academy (now Shangqiu, Henan Province) thousands of miles away to study for four years (10/year). At that time, Yingtianfu Academy was one of the four famous academies in Song Dynasty, with abundant talents and books. Fan Zhongyan is like a duck to water here He hasn't taken off his clothes to sleep for five years. He often takes Yan Hui, a sage of Confucius, as an example. He never changes his pleasure. He only reads sage books, forgets to eat and sleep, and stays up all night. He has been in Zhixia since spring and enjoyed the Six Classics since autumn. He is interested in poetry, books, I ching, ceremonies and so on.
Fan Zhongyan is ambitious and studious. In the spring of the eighth year of Dazhong Xiangfu (10 15), he was admitted as a scholar in one fell swoop and was given the rank of Guangde Army (now Guangde County, Anhui Province) to join the army. This is the starting point of Fan Zhongyan's career, showing extraordinary talent. After several transfers, ups and downs, career is not very smooth. However, he always took the world as his responsibility, had a strange mood, cared about the future and destiny of the country, was honest and frank, reformed social ills, and pursued the Confucian principle of self-cultivation and family harmony all his life. No matter in the temple or far away from the rivers and lakes, he always insists on benevolence, integrity and selflessness, thinking for the people, being anxious for the people, and digging wells to find springs. Build dams, pacify border chaos, resist strong enemies, and repeatedly make meritorious military service. Hao Yuan rebelled. He once ran to Shaanxi with the straight bachelor of Longtuge and Xia Song. He runs the army well, Xia people dare not commit crimes, and Qiang people are afraid. When he was in Song Renzong, he was involved in politics as an official, and he deeply felt that there were serious drawbacks in politics. He advocated reform, taking the post of deputy minister as the post of restructuring. During Li Qing's three years (1043), he boldly put forward "ten essentials", namely, reforming the official system, attaching importance to agriculture and mulberry, reorganizing military equipment, implementing the legal system, and reducing slaves to help the people. Known as the "Qingli New Deal", the "New Deal" is a good strategy for strengthening the country and enriching the people. However, any reform will always touch the vested interests of some rulers, and Fan Zhongyan's "Qingli New Deal" is no exception. Soon after the reform was implemented, it was hit hard by conservatives, which led to the premature death of the reform. Fan Zhongyan was demoted to Shaanxi No.4 Road, both as a propaganda ambassador and as a magistrate. Because of lung disease, he could not stay in the border area, and was appointed as a well-known person in Dengzhou. Then he moved to Hangzhou and Qingzhou. Be an official and benefit one party until the end of life. Did you seek personal gain for your family or yourself? How can a benevolent person who has a country and a great love in his heart pursue his own happiness regardless of the life and death of the people all over the world? How can you be greedy for the wealth of the world, enrich yourself and accept bribes for your own wealth?
"Worry about the world first, and enjoy the world later" shows compassion and love, and shows lofty and noble emotional temperament. Caring about the future of the country and the destiny of the people, having a high sense of responsibility and mission, always taking care of the worries and joys of the nation, the country and the people as its own responsibility, sharing the same fate with the nation, the country and the people, is a grand duke spirit and the ideological source of the country's prosperity. For hundreds of years, this idea of the Grand Duke with an eye to the whole world has nurtured the Chinese nation and inspired generations of people with lofty ideals to live, fight and die for the nation, live with strange feelings, care for the people, give up themselves and take the world as their responsibility. From Confucius and Mencius to Fan Zhongyan, and then to Gu in the early Qing Dynasty, this benevolent feeling has always maintained a strong vitality and supported the standing and development of the nation. After Fan Zhongyan, Gu put forward that "every man is responsible for the prosperity of the country". By the May 4th Movement, "every man has the responsibility to prosper the country" has become a powerful driving force to mobilize hundreds of millions of people in China to save the nation and explore the truth of saving the country. One thousand years later, it still inspires the people of China to make unremitting efforts for the prosperity of the Chinese nation and the harmonious development of the world.
Although the Sri Lankan people are dead, they have been affectionate for thousands of years. Tracing back to history can let us know how to live; Remember the sages and let us know how to be human. The great achievements and moral demeanor created by the sages and sages have made them a mountain in the history of Chinese civilization, which is admired by future generations. When Sima Qian visited the Confucius Temple, he praised Confucius with great admiration and said, "When the mountain rises, the scenery stops." . Although I can't reach it, I am eager for it. [7] This eulogy is not only about Confucius, but also about the noble character, thoughts and feelings of the whole Chinese nation. May we always remember these China sages, follow their example, and practice: "If you live in a temple, you will be worried about the people;" "If you stay away from rivers and lakes, you will worry about your husband ... first you will worry about the world, and then you will be happy!" Only in this way can we constantly improve our ideological realm and moral sentiment and be a noble person who has contributed to the nation and mankind.