Research On Morality And Moral Environment In The Pre-Qin Period

As a kind of cultural phenomenon, the morality has always been endowed with high importance and universality in human history and social life and we should not ignore its existence. In Chinese society, moral phenomenon has been paid close attention especially for its typical position and distinctive value. Just like most modem scholars have summarized that the traditional Chinese society is a "moral-oriented society" (from Liang Shuming) and "Chinese culture and its moral aspects are often reflected mutually" (from Xu Fuguan); on the other hand, in recent one 100 years Chinese society has been experiencing with great changes from the traditional stage to the modem stage, and in this long epoch various moral problems erupts in great numbers. To some degree, because traditional values have already deeply rooted in present society and we cannot do without them, and can not we solve today's moral problems effectively unless those innate characters and functions of the traditional morality have been accurately discovered. As we know, the pre-Qin period is an important one and in that period the explication of the Chinese ancient morals have been taken shape and continually perfected. And by means of careful research on the moralities of this period, we can disclose moral rules of early stages; at the sarhe time, it can help us solve today's moral problems. In this dissertation, the author tales to make a study on moralities in the pre-Qin period by cultural analysis method.The paper includes three parts as below:Part one: The author will sum up the merits and demerits of the moral research in Chinese academic circles in the 20 century by giving a though reviewing of them, and then the author will put forward the research viewpoint of this paper on moral science.As an overlapping field, the past research on the moral history involves two kinds of methods: the traditional historical one and the ethical one. The influences of those methods cover three aspects: (1) some regard the restoring and recounting of the moral explanation of the pre-Qin period as the main task in the researching process of moral history with an attempt to acquire the moral laws. But those "acquired laws" are not reliable because they can not understand the laws as the laws are; (2) lots of scholars attempt to establish the relations between the historical moral phenomena and the modem moral problems so as to combine the history and reality, but the results of such method will make their conclusions paradoxically, what's more, this kind of research practice will inevitably result in the academic research both shallowly and superficially; (3) the utilization of the notional analysis and explanations of ancient words make scholars treat the morality only as a simple idea, but they in fact neglect the relations between the moral facts and the social and cultural elements.The author holds that the moral phenomena are both social and cultural present, and they are also the result of interactive process of those factors. The co-functioning of those factors constitutes the macro moral-environment, and various moral facts should be explained according to their environment. And the purpose of moral science is to uncover the inner relations between moral elements in themselves and other cultural factors, and among of them, those laws with universal and essential values are the moral laws by themselves. As we know, the research of moral history in the field of moral science will not cause the relation between the history and reality in a disconnected state; on the contrary, only the research effects are used to solve the realistic problems can the history serve the reality better.Part two: The author will select six cultural elements as the main factors of the pre-Qin period, such as the family (or patriarchal clan),the country (the political community of many states with one in the leading position),the ritual and musical system,the religion and witchcraft,the violent laws and division of labor in society, and the author also carry out an analyses of the relations between moral facts and those factors. And the research in this part will point out the following results: (1) in the pre-Qin period, the family is the most important social organization with its structure being complicated,its function being strong and its status being sublime, and the family moralities are resulted from those features. With the function and status of family being declined, the roles that the family moralities play in the society have been weakened slowly; (2) by taking such steps as giving alms to the poor in the tribes by the rich, giving the crown to the talented person willingly and establishing the authority of the country on the basis of the family, the country in ancient shape come into being step by step. And under the influence of the above-listed cultural factors, the ancient political moralities with peculiar characters are formed, which are involved with the relations between the rulers,officials and the common people. Concretely speaking, the rulers should endure humiliation,be responsible for himself and take the policy of love without distinction; and the officials should be loyal to the ruler,be independent in their judging and deciding and be thankful to the ruler; And the common people should be faithful to the rulers. And during the East-Zhou Period, with the forming of the country in new shape the above-mentioned moralities have been de, constructed; (3) in the choice-making period of the pre-historical civilization, the roles and functions enjoyed by the religions and laws had always been in an underdeveloped state for the limiting and pressuring from the political side, and in this case the ancient rites and etiquettes began to function themselves in the aspect of society-controlling, and after long period they had been transformed into the so-called ritual and musical system in the pre-Qin period. And under the guidance of the titual and musical system, the core elements in that system have been played the essential roles in controlling society, and the religions and laws functioning secondarily. And under this environment, the prospering and declining of the ritual and musical system will be related to the moral functioning directly——its prospering will go along with the consolidation of the social moralities, bur its declining will go along with the dissolving of the social moralities. To some extent, the religions and laws in the pre-Qin period will function themselves regulatively, but once their development threats the ruling position of the ritual and musical system, they will be provided with anti-moral characters; (4) the division of labor in pre-Qin period was characterized with fixed specialization and sexual division, but it cannot acquire enough development to become the social mainstay for its being confined by the family organization. After all, the clear-cut and definite division of labor will hold a direct proportion to the moral facts.Part three: Basing on the summarization of the viewpoints in this thesis, the author holds that the key to solve the moral problems is to find the effective ways to organize social members into harmonious communities, and the perfect moralities will originate from such communities. In moderu society, the kinship,the ritual and musical system and religion have already declined, and the laws, as a compulsory means, can not solve moral problems. On the contrary, the division of labor being ever developed has been replacing the traditional society-controlling forces and playing a more important role in re-organizing people. In a sense, it cannot be used temporarily to guide the division of labor to a better route; it is essential and inevitable as far as the moral environments are established at present. Without the help of division of labor, but laying emphases on the other social organizing forces or shallow ethical creeds as well as those idealized proclamation, our moralities will become artificial and the moral problems will not be effectively solved.