Confucian Integrity Of Germany And Its Modern Significance

This dissertation tries to investigate the characteristics of Confucius' virtue of sincerity which expressed in the Confucius classic text of the Four Books, such as "Analects', "Mencius', "the Great Learning" and "the Doctrine of Mean", and at the same time, treats of its meaningfulness in modern social life.According to Zhuxi, the reason why "The four Books"is so important is that it refers to the "attempt of changing the tradition and custom by the government" and " the method of scholars' teaching and self-cultivating". The virtues of "Sincerity " and "trust" is systematically expounded in "The four Books", therefore, it is of extraordinary importance to further study the "Sincerity " and "trust" today."The Analects" says more about trust, but the trust means faith and honest, very similar to the "Sincerity ". The concept of "Ren" is the essence in the book of "The Analects", but "Ren" is shown in practical life, and it can not be separated from "trust" in reality. Confucius deemed that "Sincerity " and "trust" were not only the fundamental qualities for a human being, but also the crucial rule for establishing the politics. In "Mencius", "Sincerity " and "trust", as laws of heaven, have ontological and superorganic meanings. Anyone who wants to be a gentleman must cultivate their persons and get to he Heaven by self-training and self-culturing. "The Great Learning" attaches more importance to self-culturing and confirm the meaningfulness of "Sincerity " and "trust" in manifesting one's virtue and in resting in the highest excellence. Everyone has such emotions as pleasure, anger, sorrow, or joy, which are easily made one deviate from "Sincerity " and "trust" to self-cheating. So "Mind"should be "rectify", and "thoughts" should be "sincere", in order to get to the real spirital world of purity and trustfullness. "The Doctrine Of The Mean" is the conclusion thesis of "The Analects", "Mencius", and "The Great Learning", namely, it sets forth two routes (through Sincerity way and intelligence way) to realize the goal that "the gentleman regards the attainment of sincerity as the most excellent thing". In detail, "The Doctrine Of The Mean" combines accordance with the nature and the regulation of the path, casting light both to Sincerity and self-cultivating, stressing both ethics and knowledge, and, at the same time, it expresses the most importantthought theoretically in Confucianism that "man and the heaven are one entity". That means "Sincerity " and "trust" have close relations to the Heaven, as the book has it, "Sincerity is the way of Heaven", "What Heaven has conferred is called The Nature", "entire sincerity there belongs ceaselessness", and "completing himself and completing other men and things".From the point of market society in present days, the study of the terms "Sincerity " and "trust" in Confucianism has actual meaning. The development of market economy causes some special intentions, which prusue material benefits so eagerly as to forget the virtues such as sincere and trust. So establishing morality and building a real moral personality through the study of "man" and market's characteristic will play a significant role to guarantee the healthy development ofsocialist market economy.