The Study On The Mind Thought Of Confucianism In Pre-Qin Period

In the cultural system of pre-Qin Confucianism,the category of mind,at the beginning of its birth,was immediately connected with heaven and Tao as the root of value.The source of value is not outside,lies in the human life itself.Confucian philosophy emphasizes self-realization and self-achievement,and advocates that the transformation of the subject and the improvement of the realm are accomplished through inner cultivation.Just because of the importance of the theory of mind,with Confucianism becoming the backbone of Chinese traditional culture,the theoretical construction of Confucian value theory of mind has become a grand system lasting for more than two thousand years,and has become the essence of traditional culture.The pre-qin confucians had a lot of elaboration on the concept of mind,such as mencius and Xuncius who specifically discussed the theory of the formation of mind system,and also such as the Analects,Great Learning,Mean,which only had a little elaboration of mind.The concepts of heaven,nature,emotion and knowledge are also closely related to the discussion of the category of mind.Because the above categories as individual connotation,extension,or the relationship between the definition are very vague,and the content is very rich.Therefore,in order to understand the category of mind deeply,we need to investigate the theoretical basis and evolution process of the initiation,development and formation of mind and related categories through the original Canon in the context of the overall thought of pre-Qin Confucianism.The first chapter examines the historical background and ideological source of the pre-Qin Confucian theory of mind.In the pre-Qin period,when rituals and music collapsed,when injustice aggression were committed,and when the people's mind were drowning due to the decadence of the world,philosophers had the ambition to reshape the people's inner spiritual beliefs and seek for a place for their spiritual lives,thus giving rise to the issue and philosophical concern of the mind.The Book of Changes,Book of History,Book of Songs and other classics,as the source of the theories of various schools of thought,derive new meanings from the original meanings of oracle bone inscriptions and inscriptions,showing the future development direction of the category evolution of the mind.The mind is the sum total of thinking,reflection,choice and will.It is full of moral will and emotional desire.At the same time,the mind inherits the heaven of nature and knowledge,contains the body and has emotions and desires,coexist with the good and the bad,and Outlines the logical connection between the mind and its related core categories such as heaven,nature,knowledge,emotion and desire.Taoism,Moism,Legalist School and Guanzi had many thoughts and cognitions about the mind in the period of Zixue.The uniqueness of Confucianism lies in the affirmation of the mind as the value attribute and subjective power of the moral subject,endows the mind with transcendence,and attaches importance to the cognitive ability of the mind.The main difference between the Confucianists of pre-Qin Dynasty in their theory of mind lies in Zisi,Mencius and Xuncius.Zisi and Mencius came out with an inwardly reflective theory of the moral origin of the mind,in which the mind knows the nature and knows the heaven;Xuncius came out with an outwardly seeking theory of the cognitive knowledge,in which the mind learns and thinks about ritual and righteousness.Each of them has its own commonalities and uniqueness,and can be regarded as two complementary and unified lines of Confucianism in the pre-Qin period.The second chapter focuses on the relationship between heaven or the mandate of Heaven and human mind,heaven is the basis for human beings to imitation and ultimately follow.From the Shang Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty,Chinese culture largely underwent a paradigm shift from external to internal beliefs,from heaven to human,which was marked by the transformation of the belief category from the god of Yin to the heaven of Zhou Dynasty.The Zhou Dynasty inherited the concept of god and heaven in the Shang Dynasty,and on the basis of profit and loss,completed the transformation from the personality god to the morality heaven.On this basis,when Confucius formulated the study of Confucian classics,the meaning of the unity of heaven and human originally contained in the culture of the Zhou Dynasty was fully revealed and developed.The classics represented by Yi regard human as one of the three talents parallel with the heaven and earth,and therefore human beings have the character of governance heaven and earth.The pre-Qin Confucianists' theory of mind first takes heaven and earth as the criterion,believing that the Tao of heaven endows human with virtue,and virtue is in mind.Because of the existence of human's subjectivity,human virtue also influences the heaven in the way of governance heaven and earth.According to this logic,the knowledge of the human mind is also a gift of heaven and is completed by the exercise of human subjectivity.At the same time,through the bond of virtue,there is a corresponding resonance between the innate sanctity of the external mandate of heaven and the subjective consciousness of the inner moral dignity.The meaning of the coincidence between the human mind and the Tao of heaven is vividly visible.The third chapter focuses on the similarities and differences of the theory of mind and nature,constructed by Confucian scholars according to the close relationship between mind and nature,and discusses the historical context of the development of the theory of mind and nature in Confucianism.In order to maintain the Confucian orthodoxy,responding to the different theory of the hundred schools.On the main line of mind theory,the Confucian scholars follow The Times,auxiliary with the theory of nature,responding to the problems raised by The Times and showing the unique humanistic concerns of Confucianism.The original meaning of nature is a quality that exists in human life,even possess before human born.It must be seen through the mind,so that there is a close connection between nature and mind.Confucian scholars have different definitions of nature,and thus have different views on the relationship between mind and nature.In Confucius's theory,the mind and nature have not been clearly separated and discussed separately.The nature and mind are unified in a higher philosophical category--"benevolence".With the discovery of new historical materials in recent years,such as Guo Dian Chu Jian,the theory of mind nature has been greatly supplemented and enriched.which discusses the relationship between mind and nature in the chapter of"xing zi ming chu",in which the mind is the most crucial between nature and things,and the connection with things and nature lies in the mind.Mencius reveals the connotation of mind through the speech of the mind.Through the relationship between the four minds and benevolence,righteousness,propriety and wisdom,we can further understand the double connotation of Mencius' mind and nature:The first is the nature of the Tao mind corresponding to the level of goodness,which is from the level of the nature of the righteousness;One is to evaluate the level of goodness of the nature corresponding to the mind,which is the level of goodness capacity to be expanded and cultivated.Xuncius thinks that the nature has the innate faculties and the emotional desire generated by the contact of innate faculties with external objects.If the emotional desire in human nature is not restrained,it will produce evil consequences.However,the mind has the knowledge ability to distinguish evil and tendency to good,and the mind can know benevolence,righteousness,law and righteousness.Therefore,Xuncius advocated using the subjective initiative of the mind to establish the relationship between the mind and nature that "the mind controls the nature".Mencius' and Xuncius's theories seem to be discordant,but in fact they are more complementary to each other.Only in connection with the specific era and historical and cultural context,we can clearly understand their differences and complementaritiesThe fourth chapter explores the inner texture of the Confucian theory of mind by analyzing the categories of emotion and desire.The mind contains both nature and emotion.Nature is the pure goodness and is the principle;once nature is activated,it is emotion.when emotion is out of control and unrestrained,it becomes desire.In the Confucian doctrine,the unity of heaven and human,the consistency of the internal and external,and the unity of the upper and lower forms are evident.In the same way,the meaning of Confucian emotion has experienced the transfer and sublimation from physical to metaphysical,from natural emotion to moral emotion.The origin of human desire thought can be traced back to the early years of the Zhou Dynasty.Since Confucius,there has been the idea that everyone has desires.Confucius' division of desire includes the desire of physical sensibility and the desire of moral emotion to realize the inner desire of benevolence.Mencius believed that desire is the concrete expression of human sensory desire and material desire,has no moral content,itself has the tendency of evil.Xuncius believes that nature,emotion and desire are only differences in different stages of the process of human nature.The senses such as ears,eyes,nose and mouth belong to nature,and when the nature activated,emotion arises,when emotion meets with external objects,desire arises.If desire left unrestricted,will lead to evil results.Confucianism affirms the rationality of the existence of emotions and desires,but unrestrained emotions and selfish desires can lead to irrational behavior.Therefore,it is advocated to govern the desire with the mind,to regulate and restrict the desire with the role of the mind,which not only limits the desire,but also neutralizes the emotion.The fifth chapter focuses on the consistent use of the pre-Qin Confucian mind theory,explains the establishment of the ontology of the mind in the inner sagelihood dimension to the exploration and implementation of the benevolent government in the outer kingliness dimension.The unity of nature and human is the basic character of the Confucian discourse system.The Tao of heaven is the theoretical basis for Confucius and his later Confucian scholars to solve the rationality of moral existence.The construction of the moral mind is the real purpose of the Confucian study of the theory of mind nature.With the help of the Tao of heaven,the pre-Qin confucians found the inherent noumenal foundation for the moral power,and placed this foundation in the mind of human beings.By integrating the moral connotation and moral practice in one mind,the confucians carried out their inner saintliness by virtue of the central ontological content of their doctrines system.that is,they constructed their grand moral ontology mind based on the philosophical foundation of mind.The essence of the arguments held by Confucius,Mencius,and Xuncius lies in the rectification of the mind and the cultivation of the body.the ultimate goal of which is to cultivate the inner sage's virtue based on the connotation of the mind.The Confucians of the pre-Qin Dynasty took the goodness of conscience that exists in the human mind as the moral noumenon,first established the order of the human mind.After their own benevolent mind was perfected,the practice of benevolence and virtue was developed to become the great use of the outer kingliness to pacify the world.In the perspective of philosophy and scholarship history,the academic construction of the pre-Qin Confucian theory of mind has been instrumental in the subsequent development of Chinese culture.In particular,it inspired the academic brilliance of Neo-Confucianism in Song-Ming dynasty for nearly a thousand years.Under the background of the blending of Chinese and Western cultures,it is still of great enlightening significance to re-examine the epoch value of the pre-Qin Confucian mind theory.