| Master Xun is regarded as a master of philosophic thoughts before Qin Dynasty.Through criticizing and inheriting the thoughts of philosophic schools in that period,he absorbed their essence and established a massive,inclusive and comprehensive ethical thoughts system,with the view of nature as its basis,the human natures as its logic origin and the ritual as its core.The system has a significant influence on the evolvement of Chinese ethical thoughts,and even on the whole Chinese ancient society.This essay consists of nine chapters.Chapter One describes the social background and philosophic foundation according to which Master Xun formulated his ethical thoughts,as well as his criticism and conclusion of pre-Qin philosophic schools.Chapter Two is about Mater Xun's opinions toward human natures.This chapter argues that Master Xun took human natures as the logic origin of his ethical thoughts.Chapter Three reveals Mater Xun's insight into the ritual.Description of Mater Xun's views on implication,origin and social influence of the ritual leads to a sectional conclusion that the ritual study serves as the core of Master Xun's ethical thoughts.Chapter Four discusses Master Xun' s thoughts about human relations.Based on Master Xun's outline for human relations and their rules,this chapter analyzes how Master Xun contributed to the transformation of Confucian conception for human relations.Chapter Five explains Master Xun's points of view about justice and material gains.While supporting Confucian and Mencius' discipline of justice outweighing material gains,Master Xun proposed people should place equal importance on them.Chapter Six gives elucidation of Master Xun's opinion toward honor and disgrace.Master Xun classified and analyzed them and suggested that the people with noble or vile characters should be distinguished by them,which indicates his Confucian moral principle.Chapter Seven explains Master Xun's Theory of Moral Punishment.By introducing Legalist concepts into the ritual,Master Xun integrated those concepts into Confucian theory of moral punishment and thus endowed his own ethical system with inclusiveness.Chapter Eight expounded Master Xun's opinions about education and accomplishment.Master Xun came up with distinct educational ideas by arguing that people should optimize moral and improve human natures by continuous kind actions.Chapter Nine is about the vicissitudes of Master Xun's thoughts and the writer's contemplation on a modern footing.Centering on various attitudes toward Master Xun,the present writer analyzes his historic contributions and ideological limitation based on the influence of Master Xun's thoughts on the evolvement of Chinese ethical thoughts as well as on Chinese society.With his ethnical thoughts,Master Xun established a moral standards system with the ritual as its core.He not only adhered to Confucian footing,but also integrated conceptual elements of Legalism;he not only held on to moral idealism,but also adopted moral realism and faced up to the society.In general,his thoughts emphasis on rules and orders and obviously exhibited the connotation of normative ethics. |
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