Researching On Social Civilizing Idea Of Morality Books In Ming And Qing Dynasty

Morality books were to urge us do things that were benefit but not harmful to persons, sothey were also called shan-shu. They were written by local scholars to improve the moralawareness and behavior of the people by popularizing Confucian teachings. They were just inthe Song Dynasty that the fist morality books or shan-shu appeared, as the last and mostdetailed manifestation of China's ancient moral tradition, applied to the everyday life ofordinary people. The social civilizing role could be shown through the morality books inMing Dynasty and Qing Dynasty because in which they were the most popular, and thedistribution of the period was almost quality to the Sishu-Wujing. Analyzing and criticizingthe social civilizing idea in the morality books, a support will be given on thinking theory andmethodology to strengthening the construction of the citizen morality, especially to buildingthe harmony society. This paper is divided into four parts: The first part discusses the ancient social civilizing and defines the morality book, andthen it will give a survey of the early studies. The second part is to introduce the developing situation after analyzing the social andhistorical background of morality book in Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty which were itsmost popular periods. The main contents of the third part include an analysis about the theory background ofmorality book in Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, a statement about the main idea and itspeculiarities, and a summarizing on the methods what were ever used in it. The significance of the social civilizing idea what the morality book in Ming dynastyand Qing dynasty comprises to the morality construction and harmony society, and thereferences that it provides to the social civilizing theory in the new period, all the above arethe main contents of the fourth part.