Confucius And Marx's Thought Will Pass

Happiness and nobleness are human being's eternal pursuance. However since modern history the infinite pursuance of happiness spurned the pursuance of nobleness, the ultimate value that ensures human being be themselves. That resulted in the plight of non-human being in which human being lost their personality, life dignity and life meaning. It will undoubtedly jeopardize subsistence base of human being, resulting in a comprehensive existence crisis. In fact it is the crisis of human being themselves, a crisis of human nature and the heart of human, a crisis of human being as a human being. Therefore the key to the settlement of this crisis lies in saving people, and the ultimate way of saving people lies in saving heart, viz. cultivating the heart of people so as to change human being themselves. According to Marx's sagacious principle of'It is human being who act as the nature and foundation of all activity and relation of human beings'and'the root of human is human being themselves', the society and history attribute to real-life human beings and the human being themselves and real-life world where human beings live in must be understood from the eye of'human beings'. Beginning with 'human being themselves', the thought and their overlap of human beings of Confucianism and Marxism which have deeply influenced Chinese existence and development, is tentatively researched in this paper. Of course there is no judgment of advantages and disadvantages between the two thoughts. Both of them are doctrines featuring life practice because they propose human beings must be as themselves through changing existence surrounding and self-transformation and progress of human beings to accord with the nature of human being. The thought of human beings in Confucius and Marxism is summarized and studied so as to reveal and glorify the principle of life. The aim is to provide some existence wisdom of settling down so as to awaken life consciousness, to cultivate their soul, transform their nature, to fulfill their virtue for modern human being, to inaugurate an inner humanity world with perfection and nobleness, viz. human beings as themselves. There are three chapters as following in this paper: Chapter 1, The philosophical reflection on human nature which about'according to what, does a man become a real man'; Chapter 2, The value speculation on how human being should be a real man; Chapter 3, The practical activity on how human being should become a real man.The thought on human nature in Confucius'and Marx's doctrine and their overlap is discussed in Chapter One. As a human being, he owns his nature viz. humanity or human nature. This humanity is benevolence ('Ren') in the context of Confucius and freedom in the context of Marx. Confucius said:'Is benevolence far away from yourself? No. If you commit yourself to benevolence, then you could achieve it.''People need more benevolence than water and fire'. Confucius regarded benevolence as not a knowledge but a life existence for oneself and the inner nature of human beings as themselves. That is, it is benevolence that serves as the nature of life root of human beings, just as the Confucius' well-known saying showed:'Benevolence is the nature of human beings'. Marx put forward the nature of human being lies in the nature of life activity of human being viz. freedom. He said,'the genus character of human being's just lies in free and self-conscious activity'. Thus the genus character of human beings lies in not the form of perceptual life and activity but the nature of life and activity. Both' benevolence' and 'freedom' indicate the nature of human beings based on fundamental definition of human beings as themselves, but not on biological nature such as dining and sex. And both 'benevolence' and 'freedom' also show a free and self-conscious life status and spiritual status of human beings.The thought on the value of human nature from Confucius'and Marx's doctrine and their overlap is discussed in Chapter Two. The value of human being does not mean his social utility but the pursuit of realization of his essence viz. achieving selfhood in the direction of nature of human beings. Thus everyone is subject of his life value. Confucius confirmed 'man of honor' as his value aim for human being, an all-life ideal and ultimate care of Confucius. He not only demonstrated the man of honor but also advocated the life aspirations of 'You must not be a Confucian as a villain but one as a gentleman', the spirit of human dignity of 'sacrificing his life to achieve humanity e' and 'a man cannot be deprived of his will'; the gentleman demeanor of committing oneself to Tao and holding benevolence and 'Only in cold winter does one know that the pine and the cypress are the last to shed their leaves'. Marx confirmed the free and comprehensive development of human being as his value aim for human being. He believed the aim of human being should be getting nobler whether for the whole human being or for himself and one must commit himself to pursuing 'the happiness of the whole human beings and the perfection of the human beings'. He asserted the real dominate of the essence of human being through human being and for human being so as to realize the reversion for human being themselves according with humanity that confronts human beings and society. The overlap of the two are as following:the first, both 'personality as gentleman' and 'free development of everyman' are value aim that aimed at resolving the plight of non-human beings such as 'human beings without benevolence' and 'completely lost of personality'. So both of them attach importance to ultimate value care. The second, personality implies the free and comprehensive development of everyman and vice versa. The third, Both of them aimed to the perfection and nobleness of human beings, personality and dignity based on the development of personality.The thought on the practical activity of human nature from Confucius' and Marx's doctrine and their overlap is discussed in Chapter Three. Confucius's thought on human being was a practical one and five outlines in the practical methodology as following:the practice of benevolence lies in oneself; self-reflection; filiality-oriented; learning for himself. Marx's theory on practice are listed as following:establishing 'real collectivity'; the existing productivity summation should be processed by individual; the self-transformations of human being and so on. The overlap of the two are as following:the first, Confucius and Marxism emphasized the practice of life, advocating the finding of human beings in the course of conducting oneself. So they are a thought of human beings featuring practice. The second, both Confucius's methodology and Marx's one emphasize the practice 'by oneself' viz. self-disciplined progress so as to realize the self-transformation of human being and make life of human beings better. The third, both Confucius and Marx argued a good society that comforts with personality must be realized through changing the plight of 'human beings are not human beings' so that everything will be functioned according with Tao and the world is united by benevolence and all people could feel they are real human beings.In the part of 'Summary' modern meaning on how to settle down and get on with one's pursuit is elaborated. Everyone's personality and dignity should be created by himself and everyone's spiritual dominance be evaluated by himself. With personality and dignity one could feel the existing as a human being and conduct himself holding base line viz.'conducting oneself with a sense of shame'. Only this one could be leisurely confronted all kind of life sufferings and bravely and self-consciously shoulder responsibility and 'practice benevolence as his own obligation'. With spirit one could own his moral integrity, sentiment and life dominance and perfect his inner personality and spirit world so as to better maintain his life and manage to settle down and get on with his pursuit.