| "Cheng" ideas of Confucian initially arise from bona fide mental state and emotional pursuit. Originally, its object is spirit. With the development of ritual culture and prosperity of humanistic spirit of Western Zhou, respecting for ethics has become the main content of "Cheng", which is the basic concept of "Cheng" ideas of Confucian. Later, Confucian scholars of Simeng (Zisi and Mencius) School detached the core of "real" from pious faithful affection which should be upheld by Confucian values and norms. Docking the sincere heart and real Heaven, they persuaded the world to accept the theory of Confucianism by means of authority and supremacy of Heaven.After the transformation, "Cheng" is attached to the concept of the ontological content. It runs through the development of Confucianism and is one of the core concepts of communication between heaven and human beings. Therefore, it has a very important position in the Confucian philosophy. In the Pre-Qin Dynasty, the greatest society background of Confucius and his seventy followers is Ceremony Disintegration which brought about human relations disorder, hypocrisy clustering and the confusion of right and wrong. Confucius has already started to address this problem. However, he set about from the metaphysical ethics dimension and did not play so much strong effect on the public. Inheriting the behest of Confucius, Zi Si and his followers tried to build a bona fide basis of humanitarian order from resorting to Heaven. The specific content of the order is humane Confucian code of ethics. This means that the maximum theory interest of Simeng School lies in the argument of Confucian ethics rationality, legitimacy and humane. "Cheng" was positioned as both an essential rule of Heaven and a course of the humane. "Cheng" is a kind of emotion and the characteristics of "Cheng" in Simeng School are objectification of subject emotion, ontology of experience and generalization of individual experience. Expansion of " Cheng " philosophy is under the Heaven and humane framework, while the main turning point of Simeng School is a new discussion between Man and Nature.After the Simeng School, Xun Zi is an extremely important figure in Confucianism development of Pre-Qin. He criticized Simeng scholars in order to reverse the bias of Confucianism because of his a strong sense of orthodoxy. Criticism and reconstruction of Simeng’s Heaven-human being relationship play a more important part in his thought. At the same time, he reconstructed "Cheng" and the biggest feature of his new thought is trying to cut off the association between Heaven and humanity with emphasis on the humanitarian level for rites.In the Han Dynasty, religious color of Confucianism is distinct and Confucians sounded off about things working out if one only trusts. That is to say, theory of "Sincere moving Heaven" is the spiritual core of Divination theological system in Han Dynasty. The construction of "Cheng" philosophy in Han inherited basic way of "Cheng" in the Pre-Qin, but more prominent in mystiques and politics. It not only has become the excuse for rulers of the Han Dynasty establishing the legitimacy but also helps the intellectuals to limit the monarchy by means of the Heaven. However, it laid much stress on "Cheng" and easily leaded to process to its opposite, false and pretentious. Therefore, some rational thinkers launched a systematic deconstruction and tried to eliminate false and deceptive factors attachment on it. The history of Han Dynasty tells us that the real object of "Cheng" should not be mysterious world but rather human power. Some contemporary Confucians inherited studies of Confucian classics in Han Dynasty. Although their efforts should be affirmed, we should also keep a clear mind.After the Han Dynasty, Confucians’ discussion on "Cheng" ideas did not break the unity of Heaven and Humanity. They expressed to seek truth and excluded false ideas by expounding "Cheng" in traditional Confucian theories. In the early and middle stage of the Tang Dynasty, religious color in "Cheng" has been wakened and moral integrity construction has abnormal development, so integrity has become the rule of managing state affairs. In the late Tang Dynasty, some Confucians are respected by Han Yu and Li Ao trying to use benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom for occupying the virtual moral position. Its fundamental purpose is to promote the Confucian way. In the Song and Ming Dynasty, the basic meaning of "Cheng" is real and means a sincere heart in unfeigned state. Meanwhile, it combines new ontology because of its nature of Heaven. In this stage, Confucian transformed from vague Heaven ideas to unite and clear ontology thesis. That is, truth ontology considers "truth" as "real existence"; idealism holds "heart" as the "Cheng"; Qi ontology sees "Qi" as the most fundamental and most real existence. The author believes that they use the construction of "Cheng" ideas in the Pre-Qin Simeng School to express their new ontology thoughts. Comparing to Simeng School, although discourse of Confucians in Song and Ming Dynasty is increasingly profound mysticism, it did not escape arbitrariness, faith and intuition stereotype of Simeng School. Thus, both Pre-Qin and Song Ming Dynasty, theories of Confucians constructed from humanity speculating Heaven and using Heaven to regulate humanity is not so secure. However, there is no doubt that pragmatic and conformity containing in "Cheng" philosophy has positive significance for human goodness politics, society and living order shaping."Cheng" is a synonym for "real", but wrestling between "real" and "virtual" is always in it. On one hand, in the view of scientific positivism, it is difficult to get a valid proof for the nature of "Cheng". On the other hand, facts have proven that even if we treat ontology creation of Confucian with religious beliefs and practice the Confucian ethics with a sincere attitude, once lacking of external supervision and restriction, people may fall into a ridiculous superstition or duplicity hypocrisy. Both of these negative factors should be abandoned by Confucians.There has a certain significance of "Cheng" theories for the development of contemporary Confucianism. "Truth" and "pragmatic" in "Cheng" is still beneficial to enhance the quality of establishing an individual moral and social order. However, it depends on us to find a rational way to promote" Cheng" for playing an active role. The author holds the view that our society can try to establish a kind of "Cheng" as the core value system of civic enlightenment. It not only respects for the nature of the universe and laws of human society but also complies with kinds of regulations and ethics. We should pay more attention to self-discipline as well as heteronomy. Confucianism will show the maximum value for modern society only in this way. |
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