The Dao Of Ming-fen

On the problem of how to realize the synthesis of the Confucianism culture and the value of modern democracy, the most difficult subject that perplexed the Neo-Confucianism who do exploratory research along the route of Mencius and Wang-yangming, is that they have failed in trying of deducing logically the "Outer King" of human rights and system constructing from the "Inner Sage". Based on the summation of this historical lesson and the deep acknowledge of democracy value, this dissertation upsets the established pattern and chooses the Xunzi's thought that was defined "Non-pure Confucianism" as its excavated-target. Its aim is to uncover the connotation of another aspect of Confucianism culture and its inner trend, and get rid of single-aspect comprehension for Confucianism culture, and expand the meaning of the concept of Confucianism culture. More important, based on the study and the creative explanation, it tries again to seek the possibility of the realization for the dialogue and synthesis of the Confucianism culture and the value of modern democracy.Differentiated from the traditional research pattern of keeping eyes on looking for and collecting the separate and ready-made views and factors of thinkers' thought, this article applies the method of Structuralism, tries hard to see through the semantic meaning of its surface in Xunzi's thought, and gets at its deep structure for the sake of exploring its inner thinking method, logic threads and its potential development trend. At the same time, it doesn't regard the threads as now-being facts, but to open up and create them by explaining creatively in the light of the method of philosophical hermeneutics. The concrete means is to excavate and catch the inner existing contradiction of Xunzi's thought, to analyze them, and to try hard to push them forward, then draw out its potential thinking pattern and developing trend, finally make the potential become reality.As a kind of explanatory framework, the article analyzes the logical arrangement of freedom deeply and originally by introducing the temporal horizon in modern philosophy and the method of Phenomenology. The fundamental standpoint in this article is: Freedom pursuit for people embraces abundant meaning ofmany-arrangements, and freedom itself is destined to be infinite and to be transcendent unceasingly. Not only in view of its historical formation, but also its foundation of theory and methodology, in the democracy value system as a kind of embodiment form for freedom pursuit of people, the subject of right and the object of the system operating is and only is the now-being, substantial and common individual who has universal nature necessarily. The universal and equal rights are only placed on such common individual. And finally all of these rely on the method of analytic thinking, and only with the guides of this method the design and the construction of the system may put into practice and be perfected gradually. As a more original comprehension for freedom, the inner transcendent trend, which Mencius and Wang are the representatives of, reveals deeper connotation of freedom, certainly it is the important embodiment of the freedom spirit of the Confucianism. But the theory of "the Inner Sage", not only in the way of thinking and theoretic base but also in the direction of their thinking, is basically different from the democracy value. This kind of theory is destined to be only helpful for promoting the person's moral quality, but it is very difficult to bring about "the Outer King" of right and system. Although Xunzi's thought is full of all sorts of contradictions and some opinions are against democracy, different developing trends are contained among these contradictions, these developing trends provide a much wider space for explaining. In all of these, thinking method of Ming-fen, which is owned only by Xunzi, constitutes his basic methodology and initiates the inner trend, has much deeper value undoubtedly. The thinking pattern provides a much closer possibility for communicating and synthesis between the Confucianism and modern democracy value.The inquiry of this article begins with the methodology as its entering point and as its main thread: Based on the clear explanation of methodology connotation of Ming-fen method for the construction of Xunzi's thought system, and its concrete connotation, analyses are gradually to be done from some basic aspects, such as the connotation of Ming-fen method in political philosophy, separate-united relation of human and heaven, the theory of human nature and the doctrine of rite. The argument that is put forward in the article is, Xunzi's thorough analyses for the relation of human and world, especially for the concrete meaning of ego show his "man" is spatial, social and experiential individual basically. This kind of "man" is not definitely equal to the atomic "individual" in modern west culture completely, but thethinking pattern which bypasses the link of "family" and regards the group as assemblage of the individual directly, and the way of distinguishing man by spatial differentiation begins to contain the bud of individual concept. The thought, which insists that both of the role and the status are the result of one's free choice, means that human is separated from one's role and one's status. All mentioned above are one important feature of modern human being of which modern communitarianism is critical. The direct meaning is that: powered and guided by Ming-fen methodology, Xunzi's thought, which from the beginning to the end starts from the reality and emphasizes the feasibility of the theory and its realistic effectiveness, presents a feature of obvious empiricism and external trend. The aspect mentioned just now is undoubtedly good for making the value pursuit carried out and realized in the reality in the form of system.This kind of thinking pattern is fully embodied in Xunzi's theory of human nature. Although Xunzi's theory of human nature is classified as "theory of evil-nature", in fact, its essence is to approve of the innate nature. The approval is contained in the full affirmation of human for the intrinsic and universal nature. The essential difference for Mencius and Xunzi on nature is not the difference between "nature is evil" and "nature is good," but it is that: Xunzi's theory of human nature are based on the presence, and humans are regarded as universal being, as a result all the values are just the possession of men. But Mencius faces the future, and regards human as a process of becoming. For him, the values are composed of what humans are. From the view of political philosophy, the now-being human for Xun-zi is much closer to the subject of the democracy value, and his affirmation for the rationality and correctness of natural nature of human, provides realistic content for the concept of human's rights. But because of transcendence of natural nature, the future-facing human for Mencius and Wang-yangming cannot define the connotation of right, even results in dissolving and infinitely delaying of rights.As the result of the use of this thinking style, Xunzi turns the weight of his thought to the external rites, and gives the rites new connotations. On the way of expounding, Xunzi mainly explains the origin and the nature of the rites from the standpoint of utilitarianism. Then, he defines Ming-fen method as the core content. This thought is good for getting rid of moralism which perplexes the Confucianism. What is more, there is the notion of "deserving interest" which is the kernelconnotation of the right concept hiding in the thought of estate classification. If reformed critically, probably it will produce the right concept as the quintessence of democracy value. Xunzi's affirmation for the transcendent Heaven contained in the thought about the relation between Heaven and human will be helpful for the realization of the transformation from internal nature to universal sacred right.While logically revealing the internal trend contained in Xunzi's thought, this article finally turns to the historical reality, further investigates the history of Xunzi's thought and its positive effectiveness on culture, and sums up and analyses the reasons resulting in all sorts of misunderstandings and its theoretical lessons. And it points out that we should do away with the Chinese misunderstandings for the democracy value which insists that equality overrides right or even replaces of right. While criticizing the weakness of the thought of estate classification owned by the Confucianism of which Xunzi is one of the representative, we should try hard to have an insight into and find the more reasonable resources contained in it, so the possibility of creative transformation of Chinese traditional culture including the Confucianism culture may turn into reality.