The Geneticist Study Of Pre-Qin Confucian Deontology

Since human beings enter into civilized societies, how to deal with the relationship between interest and virtue has been the core problem which great sages pursue and ponder, which appears in the debate on interest and virtue in the ancient China. In the Chinese traditional thought of interest and virtue, deontology, whose representatives are the Confucianists, has been playing a decisive role.This article focuses the Chinese pre-Qin Confucian thought of interest and virtue and researches it from the genetic perspective. This article lays it particularly in the period of humanism in the Western Zhou Dynasty and researches the meaning to the formation of pre-Qin Confucian outlook of interest and virtue which the genetics of pre-Qin moral outlook and Early Confucian thought of interest and virtue bring. Then analyze Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi's outlook of interest and virtue one by one, seeing how they form in and inherit from the debate with these thoughts above. We can see that pre-Qin Confucian outlook of interest and virtue always appears in two layers including individual virtue and social justice from the genetics of pre-Qin moral outlook and Early Confucian thought of interest and virtue, which is the differentiation and evolution of pre-Qin moral outlook. "Esteeming virtues" changes into the supreme of justice, while "Sympathizing subjects" the people-oriented thoughts. In a word, "Esteeming virtues and sympathizing subjects" is the first principle of Chinese traditional outlook of interest and virtue.Firstly, this article has analyzed the genetics of pre-Qin moral outlook. In the thought of Western Zhou Dynasty ethics, the genetics of pre-Qin moral outlook is a process which gradually dispels religious beliefs, secularizes and rationalizes. Then, this article has investigated the genetics of pre-Qin Confucian outlook of interest and virtue. The Confucian outlook of interest and virtue has inherited the Western Zhou Dynasty ethics thought as well as the early Confucian thought of interest and virtue. He is the first person to answer what is the ultimate good and has laid the foundation of Confucian deontology. Mencius has inherited from Confucius and has raised the debate on interest and virtue to that on human and animals in the argument with Yangzi and Mozi, where virtue becomes an essential attribute of human beings. As a great thinker who is an agglomeration of pre-Qin thoughts, Xunzi proposes the more reasonable thought of interest and virtue and he also elaborated his outlook of honor and dishonor for the first time. Finally, this article agues that pre-Qin Confucian thought of interest and virtue possesses important contemporary values including attaching equal importance to interest and virtue, giving consideration to both public and private interests and laying stress on the supreme of justice.