Le Morality

It is a major thought of pre-Qin Confucianism to consider morality as joy.Mencius developed the thought of Confucius about the ‘Joy (Le.乐)’ and broadenedthe content of the thought about moral joy.‘Joy (Le.乐)’was mentioned as much as55times in the context of Mencius. To discuss Mencius thought of ‘Joy (Le.乐)’,many important core concepts in Mencius have been involved. No only because thehigh frequency of usage of the concept of ‘Joy (Le.乐)’, meaning of this concept isabundant. The work to fully exam and systemically organize the Mencius thought of‘Joy (Le.乐)’is not as much as it should be as considering its importance. In hence,we need to study Mencius thought of ‘Joy (Le.乐)’systemically from beginning toend.‘Joy (Le.乐)’which mentioned by Mencius can not be simply concluded asinner emotional feelings or outside emotional expressions; it is not equal to pleasureor happiness which are two important concepts used by ethical discussion in westernphilosophy as well.‘Joy (Le.乐)’is related to the problem about self-realization andmoral happiness. Hence,‘Joy (Le.乐)’is an important clue to understand therelationship among Mencius views of epistemology, ethics and politics. To discussMencius view about the moral joy through ethical aspect, we can not only find theunique meaning of the Mencius suggestion in morality；This discussion can also helpus to communicate with the western philosophers and develop modern Chinese ethicaland moral study as the thought of ‘Joy (Le.乐)’is related to many core philosophyproblems.This dissertation tried to exam and organize the core content of the Menciusphilosophy thought of moral joy by discuss ‘Joy (Le.乐)’in Mencius context in orderto offer further clue for the future study of Mencius thought of ‘Joy (Le.乐)’.