On Confucian Thought Of Shen Du

As a method of cultivating virtue,the thought of Shen Du originated from the expression of "a gentleman should(must)keep prudent and sensible all the time" and has a history of more than 2,000 years so far,never fading charms.There were many exegetical versions of the word "Shen" and "Du" in successive dynasties,which expanded the connotation of Shen Du respectively from the dimensions of "Virtue","Law" and "Destiny" and so on,but never broke through the expression paradigm of"a gentleman should(must)keep prudent and sensible all the time".The expression is common in the Confucian classics,indicating that Shen Du,as the principle of the gentleman’s behavior,is the requirement for shaping the personality of the gentleman in ancient times,and it also shows that Shen Du is supreme,progressive and autonomous when compared with other moral requirements.Since the end of the Three Kingdoms,the word "Shen Du" has been used directly for the first time and has become popular as a kind of concise expression of Confucian requirement,which indicates that Shen Du became an independent ethical category and attracted more attention from Confucian scholar.Through the interpretation of Liu Zongzhou in the Ming Dynasty,Shen Du completed the promotion from moral doctrine to theory system,becoming clearer and systematic.Since the popularity of the thought of Shen Du,there has been a realistic basis——The contradiction has always existed between the Chinese people’s pursuit of harmony between heaven and human and the separation of heaven and human,between the pursuit of the union of body and mind and the separation of body and mind.In addition,the need for localization of the Marxist principle of "all-round development of human beings" still exists.Nowadays,we believe in the fact that Shen Du is highly esteemed in "be blameless in one’s private life" or the temperance in mind,trying to play its best utility under the supervision of no one.With the unearthing of literature from Mawangdui relics,it was found that the early Shen Du focused on sticking to the heart of good and praised highly of "(Cheng)sincerity",which was biased with the practice of "caution and fear" in the later Song Dynasty.Actually,Shen Du not only has a narrow meaning and way of practice,referring to caution,self-examination,but also has the concept of self-cultivation in a broad sense,which is related to moral behavior such as courtesy-saving,reflexive sincerity and righteousness and so on.According to the research or the practice of Kung Fu,the cultivation of disposition and the rule of virtue by scholars at home and abroad,this paper holds that although Shen Du has some deficiencies in binding force,it can still manifest its due significance in the aspects of professional ethics,moral sentimentalism,the mechanism that heteronomy drives self-discipline,and the course to break the hypocrisy in Face-culture(involving honor and dignity)and to pay attention to ultimate concern.