Research On The Zhang Junmai' Ethics Thought

In modern history, China had suffered greatly the national crisis. The intellectual elite concerned about their country and people were all seeking the way which could get rid of the national crisis and move towards modernization. In view of the track of modernization in China, many excellent intellectuals paid attention to the reform of the culture and began the New Cultural Campaign after the technology-oriented Westernization Movement and the Reform Movement of 1898 and the 1911 Revolution which were both centered on the reform of the system. The New Cultural Campaign started the layout of three powers of modern thoughts in China including Liberalism, New Confucianism and Marxist which presented three different paths towards modernization. New Confucianism and Liberalism both tried to solve the problem of modernization in China through the reform of ideology and culture, the difference of which was that Liberalism thought the solution to the problem lay in the wholesale Westernization but New Confucianism in the revival of Confucianism, which insisted on returning the "Original Heart" of Confucianism and expanding new external cause based on internal self-cultivations and tried to steer a path of modernization with Chinese characteristics.The Modern Neo-Confucianists attributed the national crisis to the cultural one, who thought the basic reason led to the backwardness of China lay in the degeneration of traditional morality and the crisis of Confucian ethics. Only through reviving Confucianism and reconstructing moralities to reform the outlook of life could China survive the crisis. As an important role of The Modern Neo-Confucianists, Zhang Junmai firmly believed that the outlook of life was the core of the culture and the construction of the new culture needed to start with the reform of the outlook of life and the shaping of "New Man". As for how to reform the outlook of life and mould "New Man", Zhang Junmai urged the revival of Confucianism and the creation of humanism ethics to foster the ideal citizens who had independent personality and modern consciousness through the development of "Mental effort". China could realize national independence and embark on the path of modernization under the guide of the national culture with free spirits created by independent individuals.Firstly, this article analyzed Zhang Junmai's theory about the revival of Confucian ethic thoughts. Zhang Junmai elaborated the necessity and basis of the theory. He thought the Confucian ethics had encountered the grave crisis, which was caused not only by the impact of Western culture and the domestic movement of rebellion against feudal ethical codes, but also by the backward of Confucian ethic thoughts whose concrete principles couldn't adapt to the changing time. Zhang Junmai thought the core values of Confucianism were in agreement with the spirit of modernization in the essence, while the decline of Confucian ethic thoughts was temporary, which could be rejuvenated in the end. Zhang Junmai attempted to search for the rationality of the modernization Confucian ethic thoughts by clearing up the contradictory relations between the changing and unchanging of ethical codes which had being existed beyond time and space. Zhang Junmai emphasized that the revival of Confucian ethic thoughts depended upon that of Confucian "The Study of Disposition", which, in his opinion, was characteristic of humanistic ethic, where man had free will and the ability to judge what was right or wrong, good or evil, but also had to take the responsibility for his behaviors and choices. The humanistic ethic was built on the individual subjectivity. Zhang Junmai also elaborated the key point of reviving Confucian ethic thoughts was to pay particular emphasis on the moral cultivation and accomplishment of one's inner life, which could keep bright in one's mind, enable the free will to display smoothly and form the correct value judgment about right or wrong, good or evil, which also could abolish one's greed smoothly, so that the people might obtain "the right outlook on life".Secondly, this article investigated the theory of "free will" which was treated as the basis of morality by Zhang Junmai. The Modern Neo-Confucianists all affirmed that "the heart is the principle", but differed from each other about how to explain and prove it. Zhang Junmai prioritized the principle of will and thought morality was the free choice based on one's will. His theory of "free will" derived from Wang Yangming's conscience theory and mixed the viewpoints of Bergson's life philosophy and Kant's "free will", which combined the strengths of the east and the west and reflected his effort to go through the values of eastern and western civilization from their sources of morality. Zhang Junmai demonstrated the characteristics of "free will" in details. He thought "free will" was innate, which was not controlled by the law of cause and effect, but dominated by "the heart", in other words, was a representation of "free will" in a manner of one's conscience. Zhang Junmai thought that "free will" was a nature of man, who had the innate ability to judge what was right or wrong, good or evil. Zhang Junmai proposed his moral ontology centered on "free will", which established the intrinsic root of morality and had one's subjectivity of morals stood upright. His theory of "free will" laid the foundations of humanistic ethic from the viewpoint of metaphysics.Thirdly, this article outlined Zhang Junmai's theory about the relation between the knowledge and the morality. Zhang Junmai's humanism ethics was presented as the very opposite of the scientism ethics. Above all, Zhang Junmai had to find the solution to the problem about how to deal with the relation between the knowledge and the morality in order to establish humanism ethics. Zhang Junmai had drawn a dear dividing line between the research content and research method of the knowledge and the morality. He had delimited the disputable sphere between sciences and ethics, which, he stressed, were never trespassed and replaced by each other during the Debates on Science and Metaphysics Movement. He also stressed that the solution to the problem of the outlook on life depended upon metaphysics (ethics) instead of science. During the Debates, Zhang Junmai thought that the difference between the culture of China and West lay in the metaphysics and the science, or the knowledge and the morality later on, which, in his opinion, both hadn't made right the relation between the knowledge and the morality. The Chinese culture laid particular stress on the morality rather than the knowledge, which led to the backwardness of former modern China resulting from the underdevelopment of natural sciences. While the West culture stressed more on the knowledge rather than the morality, which led to the outbreak of the two World Wars drawing the human into the destructive edge due to the misuse of science and technology. Zhang Junmai affirmed that there were respective independent values both the knowledge and the morality, which were of equal significance and mutual benefit. Zhang Junmai attempted to combine the relation between the knowledge and the morality by the integration of metaphysics and concrete. But he didn't realize it because we can still discriminate its characteristic of morality-oriented.Fourthly, this article elaborated Zhang Junmai's thoughts of "To obtain the freedom and independence of the Chinese nation by the development of the individual freedom. Not only Confucianism, but also Zhang Junmai's humanism ethics attached great importance to foster "Ideal Personality". Zhang Junmai thought that it's a precondition for the formation of modern nation-state to foster the citizens possessing independent personality, which was influenced by former thinkers such as Liang Qichao. Zhang Junmai thought that pre-Qin Confucians praised highly the ability to think independently, but with the emergence of "world idea", which brought about the politic autocratic monarchy and the social system centered on the kin, individuals lost independent values. With the corrosion of independent personality, the servility became the chief feature of subjects, which, in his opinion, was the main cause for the backwardness of China in modern history. Zhang Junmai examined and judged carefully the essence of the cultural development and the social progress in Europe and America. He thought that they both promoted the development of people's rationality and personality through a series of movements, thus they formed the new outlook on life and established the modern nation-states. So we had to pay great attention to the development of people's rationality and personality on the path towards modernization. Zhang Junmai thought that the freedom of individuals and that of nations are consistent, inseparable. Zhang Junmai discussed the culture of people's independent personality in order to realize the transformation of people's personality from subjects to citizens, which indicated the upright of the individual moral subject; on the other hand, in order to raise the free independent national spirit, and to foster the new Chinese national characteristic and realize the upright of the national moral subject, thus realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.Fifthly, this article outlined Zhang Junmai's thought of "personalitism" and its ethnic meaning in the areas of politic and economy. How to deal with the relations between the individual, the society and the country is a fundamental problem of ethics. With regard to how to solve this problem, Zhang Junmai proposed the principle of "personalitism", which paid equal attention to the individual and the country, on the other hand, also advocated the thought based the country. There was no contradiction between the two principles in Zhang Junmai's ethics ideology. He believed that the individual is the little ego, which constituted the big ego called the country. The benefit of the individual and that of the country were highly consistent, close related. "Personalitism" was characterized by seeking the balance of freedom and power in the ideal democracy, however, in different history periods, "the modified democracy" had a bias towards freedom and power. "Personalitism" was also characterized by coordinating the contradiction between individual freedom and social justice. Generally speaking, "national socialism" laid particular stress on the social just. Zhang Junmai's discussion still had certain value in both theory and the practice today.Sixthly, this article outlined Zhang Junmai's thought of "Mental effort". Many modern thinkers believed that it was a must for the establishment of a modern nation-state to carry on the social reform. Influenced by the thought of "Mental effort" of the thinkers such as Gong Zizhen, Tan Sitong and Liang Qichao, Zhang Junmai thought that the social reform should begin with morality and paid great attention to the development of the national "mental effort". His thought of "Mental effort" tried to survive the national crisis and realize the revival of Chinese nation through the start of free wills, in essence, which was idealism moral determinism. Zhang Junmai elaborated the relationship between the body of "mental effort" and the utilization of politics, economy and law by the social organic theory. Zhang Junmai's so-called development of the national "mental effort" mainly referred to the establishment of modern consciousness including "National Consciousness", "national psychology" and "democratic awareness". Zhang Junmai hoped to establish a westernized system in politic, economic and social areas by establishing national modern consciousness so as to realize the founding of Chinese modern nation-state and to urge China to move toward modernization. All in all, Zhang Junmai was seeking the path which combined the Traditional Confucian Theory of "expanding new external cause based on internal self-cultivations" and the Modern Neo-Confucian thought of "returning the "Original Heart" of Confucianism."...