On Wei Yuan's Ethical Ideas Of Talent

Wei Yuan's ethical ideas of talent are not only a reflection of his unique thought system, but also an urgent requirement of his time. His personal experiences, ideological developments, historical changes, demands of his era constituted the basic historical background of his ideas. Being a patriot bred, influenced and cultivated in Hunan province, Wei Yuan was not an ultranationalist who closed the country to international intercourse. Rather, with broad mind and strong national confidence, he was the first person who raised the strategic idea that to defeat the enemies is undergone learning from them. Meanwhile, he called for reforms of late Qing's academic atmosphere with " to study in order to apply" as principle. All of these established a solid cultural foundation for his ideas of talent's ethic. In conclusion, Wei Yuan's ethical ideas of talent can be generalized to three aspects:1. The ethical idea of evaluation. In Wei Yuan's opinion, talents can be classified into sage, wise man, man of honor, hero and scholar basing on different levels and contributions they make. Tracing on characteristics of ability, there are intelligent man, able man and man both intelligent and able. Meanwhile, Wei Yuan exquisitely observed that there were some persons who deceived others by claiming that they were talented although they were not. Wei Yuan called them "Bi Fu"(fake talents) and gave them a severe attack. According to Wei Yuan, the above people are transferable under certain conditions.Following the mainstream of historical Chinese evaluation standard that a talent should combine high ability with moral integrity and the moral integrity should be first stressed, Wei Yuan put forward separately evaluation standards for talent such as the moral standard, the ability standard and the combination of morality and ability. He held that the moral standards included moral responsibility for nation and people, moral concern with nation and people, moral achievement of pleasure in giving, moral regulation of communication, modest moral attitude, moral restraint of extravagance, moral awareness of honor and disgrace, and moral objectives of establishing morality, achievement, saying and virtue. Generally speaking, Wei Yuan's ethical idea of evaluation is a combination of motivation and effect, sense and sensibility.2. The ethical idea of talent's selection. Through reflections on the ancient selection systems of talent, Wei Yuan explored their advantages as well as disadvantages and concluded his own moral principles and methods in selection by putting emphasis on people's morality. Those represent his ethical ideas and preferences in selection issue. From ethical point of view, Wei Yuan made a profound reflection on old selection principles such as "san dai si er hou shi gong" and "jiu pin zhong zheng zhi" which the appointment of a person to a certain official is mainly relied on his inherited family background. What's more, he criticized fiercely the imperial examination system. According to the situation of his time, Wei Yuan proposed his reform program of selection system on the foundation of former experiences. In order to find out more talents to meet the nation's urgent need, he suggested that the selection of talents should be judged overall by neglecting the minor shortcomings. He also thought that talents should be respected by everyone including the emperor.3. The ethical idea of use and training of talent. In accordance with the situation, it was Wei Yuan's innovation to combine the appointment by ability and the appointment by relationship instead of selecting one at the expense of the other, which not only made an important progress in people's appointment system, but also reformed the system in moral aspect. Besides, Wei Yuan held that in urgent cases, people of low social statues could be used as a supplementary appointment method. As for the methods of using people, he suggested making use of one's advantages and avoiding his shortages. Another way to use people was to appoint him according to his ability. Wei Yuan thought that only when a good environment was offered to talents, could they make contributions and be correctly used. With regard to the training of talent, Wei Yuan concentrated on the importance of moral teaching and suggested a set of ethical ideas of training including moralizing, experiencing, restoring personality in adversity, morally self-criticism and practical learning.Wei Yuan's ethical ideas of talent are very important in that firstly, his ideas are consistent with the traditional Chinese ideas of talent. He inherited and further developed the ancient ethical ideas. Secondly? Wei Yuan's ethical ideas of talent constitute the most important part of his whole ideological system. Its theoretical characteristics are vivid and special because it is a forerunner to call for national character's reconstruction, to explore time's spirit, to strengthen the country by talented man. Finally, Wei Yuan's ethical ideas of talent objectively influence latter ideas of talent and ethical ideas of talent.