Concept Of Confucian Sage Evolution

Confucianism is the principal part of Chinese traditional culture, while sage is the highestideal personality pursued by the Confucians. The concept of saint is not only the link ofConfucian political philosophy and life philosophy, but the motivation for the temperamenttheory to put forward and develop. Meanwhile, it is also the legitimate source ofCultivation Theory. The Pre-Qin period is the formation stage of the Confucian sage view,which plays an important role in the whole development of the sage view. By analyzing theevolution of the saint view in Pre-Qin period, it is helpful to comprehend the originalsource of the saint thoughts, so that a clear clue of development is formed. To seize thewhole development of the Confucian sage view thoroughly is advantageous to understandthe Confucian thought framework and it can provide more resources for Confucian studies.This paper is focused on finding the regularity and reasons of the sage conceptdevelopment and changes in Pre-Qin period by systemizing different Confucians’ views.First of all, the first chapter explores the origin of "holy" from two aspects: one is from theliteral meaning and the other is from "holy" in the literature. In the second chapter, we setPre-Qin period as an example, based on the analysis of past dynasties Confucians’ belief ofthe theoretical framework--"inside the saint, outside the king", to study different conceptsand comprehensions about saint. No matter from Confucius to Zengzi, or from Zengzi toZisi, or in the bamboo and silk documents, and also from Mencius and Xunzi, the conceptsof saint from different Confucians have their own features, which has gone through acourse of development and changes. The third chapter analyzes the saint concept from allclasses of authors, comparing which with the Confucian sage viewpoint. On the basis of theabove chapters, the fourth chapter summarizes the proposal of the temperament theory insage view and the law of development in reducing saint standard. The analysis of evolutionregularity and reasons is advantageous to master the whole development of Pre-QinConfucian sage view thoroughly and to study the Confucian sage view systematically. The last chapter mainly focuses on the influence of the concept of Pre-Qin Confucian sage onthe later generations and the criticism and transcendence by the contemporary newConfucianism.