A Study Of Contemporary Chinese Folk Moral Power

The cultivation and development of a bottom-up folk moral force is an important and realistic issue of moral construction in contemporary China. From its source, moral strength can be classified into the official and the folk moral force, and the former is completed by the moral intervention of the state; the latter comes form the masses and is the function and potency of non-official moral consciousness, ethnics and moral practices, and is the impact on the individual or society from the non-official free will of the masses. The folk moral force not only includes the practice of traditional virtues of filial love for the old and beloved, being honest and faithful, etc. but also the modern citizens' active participation in public life. The main body of folk moral force are ordinary people, including folk moral individual, non-profit organization and temporary citizen groups. Humanity, human nature, human relations and human sympathy are the foundation of folk moral force, with the characteristics of spontaneity, timeliness, simplicity and purity.Official moral force and folk moral force together constitute the two dimensions of moral construction. Moral development is a shared responsibility of the government and civil society. Official moral force needs active response from folk moral force to achieve resonance, and folk moral force demands effective guidance from official moral force to avoid being left drift. In previous moral construction, official force is relatively strong, while attention paid to folk moral force is less, thus affecting the effectiveness of moral construction. People's historical status, limits of state moral intervention, and moral integration all determine the necessity of folk moral force construction. It is not just an officially top-down "monologue" while public opinion is very important. Making folk moral force work is the inevitable trend of socialist moral construction. Folk moral force's growth in contemporary China has its material, mental and social motivation. Accumulation of private wealth, improved living standards of citizens and rapid development of mass media brought by the development of market economy provided the material motivation for the growth; profound traditional Chinese cultural heritage, awakening of civil subject consciousness during civil society process, and the modern concept of charity with humane care is the main spirit motivation; Social motivation is mainly based on the beginning of the development of civil society in transition as social tolerance gradually increases, state morality control weakens and the public sector is expanded to create opportunities for the rejuvenation of civil society. From a practical perspective, charity deeds of folk moral force take civil actions as the main means of expression, affecting moral construction in contemporary China from the individual, community and national levels. However, the growth of folk moral force in contemporary China is not sufficient, still relatively weak on the whole, and not stable enough. Growth process constraints are:concept of "private morality" over "public morality", modern cynicism indifference, limited institutional space and unspoken rules as well as the prevalence of hidden powers.To foster folk moral force in the future, the focus is the cultivation of its main body. The transition from traditional moral education to civil education is an important way. Effectiveness of moral education stage low inertia of thinking behind the national utilitarianism. The low effectiveness of current moral education attributes to the inertial thinking of the national utilitarianism. Free, just and equal moral education of an era is measured by whether good citizens can be cultivated, who have common values in different poses. Citizen education should refer to the cultivation of the ideal citizen with the principles of equality, openness, and tolerance as to inspire feelings, teach knowledge, cultivate awareness, and train capacity for action.Future development of folk moral force depends on the joint efforts of government and civil society. Under the horizon of "good governance", official moral force's role is to guide, advocate, and lead, while civil society should also respond to their own development as individuals and organizations. The development of folk moral force in today's China can not be isolated and the government's "rational" pushing hand is indispensable. Future development of folk moral force needs:the economic base-improving the socialist market economic system and achieving wealth with the people; political base-standardizing and limiting the public power, expanding citizens' orderly political participation; public opinion environment--building responsibility media and creating civil opinion atmosphere to form the external force for the development of folk moral force. In a word, the logical approach of its development is:enhance the moral subjects by civil education; expand its moral influence by spontaneous to conscious citizen action; by the interaction folk and official moral force, promote civil moral development and moral governance, and then the economic and political ethics of the entire society. And in such a benign interaction the basis and conditions for the development of folk moral force can be achieved. Still this is the process of folk moral force going gradually to subject consciousness.