The Study On "Theory Of Perfect Good" Of Mou Zongsan And Its Significances

"Theory of Perfect Good" is one of the most complex parts of Mou Zongsan’s philosophical monograph, and so far it is the only work in the Chinese philosophy discussing on relation of virtue and happiness. The theory involves a wide range, a lot of problems, and a deep ideology, which other writings can’t achieve, and it is established by using moral metaphysics on virtue and happiness of Chinese philosophy. The monograph adopts the principle of "destruction before construction", beginning with the comparison of Confucian’s "REN YI NEI ZAI" and Kant’s self-discipline morality, elaborating the more rich thought of Chinese philosophy, but the results are not systematic. Then, the monograph does detailed analysis of Kant’s "highest good" theory and gives out criticisms and queries, pointing out that there is no need to define the absolute objects, entities, the personification of the concept of God in order to assume the being, and saying that only the infinite wisdom heart can be said to being. Despite the "deconstruction" effort, Mou further establishes the Chinese philosophy "perfect good" theory, beginning with Chinese infinite wisdom heart, and creatively analyzes Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, after differentiating the perfect good between Confucianism and Taoism, Buddhism from "ZONG GUAN ZONG JIANG" and "ZONG GUAN HENG JIANG" theory of being, and establishing the perfect teaching for Confucianism’s "ZHENG YIN JIAO" and the Buddhism and Taoism’s "PLAN YIN JIAO". Finally, from perfect teaching to the perfect good, Mou constructs the three teaching and good theories of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, and determines the Confucianism’s perfect teaching "DA ZHONG ZHI ZHENG", and all perfect good questions can be resolved by Confucianism. This is so-called "Round teaches all sorts, said Nigeria was in fact the father". After this long journey with delicate thinking, Mou thinks he has completed the relation construction of virtue and happiness.The introduction overviews the origin of the research work, the theoretical premise of the thesis (philosophy prototype and the highest good), the purpose and range, status and limitations both at home and abroad and points out the innovation of this thesis.The main body of the paper contains five chapters. The first chapter investigates the fundamentals of perfect good, including the analysis of differences and similarities between Mou Zongsan’s discussion on Mencius’s "REN YI NEI ZAP’and Kant’s self-discipline morality, and general inspection of Chinese philosophy on virtue and happiness, and summary of Mou Zongsan’s discussion about Mencius’s theory on it. The result shows that Confucianism contains more abundant thoughts on virtue and happiness, but the complete theory is not formed. The author also finds that there is a misunderstanding on Confucianism, who is only taking accounting of virtue rather than happiness.In fact, Confucianism divides happiness into different levels and the moral happiness is the ultimate happiness.The second chapter mainly focuses on analysis of Mou Zongsan’s query on Kant’s "the highest good". The first section gives out general investigation of western philosophy on virtue and happiness, and author thinks that Kant’s self-discipline morality is a big turn to western heteronomous morality, and keeping God as a guarantee of happiness is one big inheritance of tradition; The second section gives out the complementary of Kant’s "highest good", in order to increase the readers’ interpretation of it, and also provide a reference of comparison with Mou Zongsan’s perfect good theory in the last chapter; The third section mainly analyzes Mou Zongsan’s explanation and query on Kant’s "highest good" systematically, firstly, interpreting the understanding and grasping of Mou Zongsan on Kant’s "the highest good", then, giving the full recognition and specific criticism, that is, Mou Zongsan acknowledges the significance of Kant’s concept of "highest good", but criticizes the concept of god, which is thought as "the root beings" and which can not show the slightest impact on "consistence between virtue and happiness", therefore, he attributes the possible root of perfect good to the infinite wisdom heart.The third chapter mainly probes Mou Zongsan’s theory’s evidence of infinite wisdom heart in the traditional Chinese philosophy of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. First of all, the author analyzes the Mou Zongsan’s renovation to the concept of "thing itself" of Kant, and gives out the meanings and functions of intellectual intuition, in order to illustrate the apperception of its "content" is to give value to its "content", that is, the object of the infinite wisdom heart intuition is the value means "of content in its own". On the basis above, the author gives out summary and explanation on Mou Zongsan’s evidence of infinite wisdom heart in Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism smoothly.The fourth chapter discusses the intrinsic logic of Mou Zongsan’s "perfect good proved by perfect teaching". In the first section, author explicates the differences in theory of being in practice of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, differentiating the theory of being of them by "ZONG GUAN ZONG JIANG" and "ZONG GUAN HENG JIANG", highlighting the perfect teaching of Confucianism as perfect real teaching of "DA ZHONG ZHI ZHENG", Buddhism and Taoism of "PIAN XU JIAO", this demonstrating the inner differences of perfect good of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. The second section mainly researches Mou Zongsan’s discussion on Buddhism’s perfect teaching and good, establishing a "SHI JIE HU JU DE XING JU" system under the means of "YI NIAN SAN QIAN" in Tian Tai,"SAN DAO JI SAN DE", and the reflection of "BU DUAN DAUN", and the attainment of perfect good of Buddhism; The third section analyzes perfect teaching and good of Taoism, under theory of being theory of Taoist realm morphology and through the way "GUI JUE DE XIANG JI" of "JI MING JI YU BEN, BEN MING JI YU JI", keeping the accordance between virtue and happiness. The fourth section analyzes the perfect teaching and good of Confucianism, the perfect teaching is preliminarily established by "practice benevolence knows density" of Confucian, done with intellectual of Mencius, inner concentration of "the doctrine of the mean", heaven and earth of "Yi", and further completed by Wang Yangming’s "SI YOU", and accomplished by Wang Longxi’s prefect teaching of "DA ZHONG ZHI ZHENG" on "SI WU" and Hu Wufeng’s prefect teaching of "TIAN LI REN YU TONG TI YI YONG, TONG XING YI QING". God sensing himself done in the supra-meaning theory of being, XIN YI ZHI WU is a thing, and one doing thing following one’s will by self-discipline is virtue, but detected by sense being a matter, which rotates with heart smoothly is happiness. The fifth chapter gives out the specific evaluation and significance on Mou Zongsan’s perfect good theory. We can arrive at the following judgments by detailed analysis:the perfect good theory written by Mou Zongsan is an import work on virtue and happiness relation in Chinese philosophy based on a comprehensive study of Kant’s works, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and using the thought of supra-meaning theory of being. The work is not only an important work for Mou Zongsan himself, but also has milestone significance for the modernization of Chinese philosophy. Firstly, the treatise is Mou Zongsan’s culmination work, representing his integration of Chinese and western philosophy theory achievement, regardless of its theoretical maturity, showing his contribution to raising the questions and solving problems creatively, and reflecting his innovation, daring to explore; Secondly, Mou Zongsan’s prefect good theory is the only specialized treatise on virtue and happiness relation in the history of Chinese philosophy, reflecting his thoughts about it in Confucianism and philosophy construction, therefore, the work has milestone significance for the modernization of Chinese philosophy.The innovations of this thesis is summarized as follows:Viewing from the structure of the thesis, the author analyzes and researches from the two sides of "destruction" and "construction", revealing the complete picture of perfect good theory of Mou Zongsan, breaking through the pass scholars’study only on "construction". There into, Chapter1and2represents the theoretical basis of perfect good of Mou Zongsan, and increases the content of Kant’s "highest good", in order to provide a reference for Mou Zongsan’s query and criticism on Kant’s theory; Chapter3and4make a deep exploration on perfect good theory’s structure, increasing the related theories description, breaking through the original theoretical framework. Though the above research, the author systematically evaluates the Mou Zongsan’s perfect good theory and modern significance in the chapter. Three points in theory value were highlighted:the first point is the contribution and influence of perfect good theory in Chinese philosophy, the second point is the emphasis on the supra-meaning of the perfect good to highest good, basing on their differences and similarities; the third point is the times meanings and realistic difficulties for the understanding thoroughly on Chinese and western philosophy. Two points in moderation were highlighted:one is the theoretical analysis of perfect good for the significance and influence of Confucian culture, the other is for the practical significance and influence of Confucian ethic.