A Study On The Theory Of Zhu Xi's Heavenly Principle

The current construction of modernization should be based on the understanding of the traditional culture, especially on the understanding of its ethical culture. This understanding can be divided into: first, the inheritance and development of our excellent traditional culture of ethics. The other is the criticism of the backward and stereotypes of our traditional culture of ethics.Zhu Xi's theory of heavenly principle is the outstanding element in the traditional history of ethical culture. Based on the theory of Cheng Brothers, Zhu Xi put Confucianism thoroughly forward to its philosophical thinking, and responded to the challenge of the Buddha and Daoism, especially to the former, and then made Confucianism's commission to obtain its continue and further development. As an ideological system in the history of our country even in the history of the east neighbors to play a tremendous impact on every fields, Zhu Xi's theory of heavenly principle is still have its significant inspiration for Chinese today's construction of modernization. We believe that, the most significant inspiration from the theory of Zhu Xi's heavenly principle can be identified by its"universal values"respected. We recognize that the universal values should be based on the historical understanding, that is to say, the understanding of universal values should be based on its times and its relativity. However, the times and relativity of the universal values only lies in its acknowledgement and its realization in reality, as the principles of common values for the condition of human existence, universal values should have a certain objectivity, it should be universal in an certain conditions. With the frequent events of global economic, political and cultural communication, the in-depth development of globalization and the coming of global village era, the time of founding and understanding of what is universal values has come. Our respecting to universal values with sincere heart can play its irreplaceable historical significance in today's China, and the significance can be mainly reflected in two aspects: first, if the universal values can be sincerely respected by our Chinese, we can win the emotional recognition of all countries and people in the world, and obtain the rapidly integration into the mainstream of the civilization, by which we can seek the best external environment for China's modernization. Second, the good faith in universal values can build a new driving force base for our Reform and Opening-up, thus we can avoid the badly bad situation, which caused by some people who earn their money by the excuse of so-called"China's special condition". Only in this way can China's Reform and Opening-up obtain her further development. In this article, firstly, we discuss the theoretical connotations and theoretical original sources of the theory of Zhu Xi's heavenly principle, and in which we mainly analyze the concept of the heavenly principle and explore its theoretical original sources. Secondly, we discuss the basic contents of the theory of Zhu Xi's heavenly principle, in which we respectively discuss the concept of moral values of the theory, the concept of"Xin Xing"of the theory and the concept of moral practice of the theory. Through the detailed discussion of the basic contents of the theory, we can disclose the main theoretical purpose of the theory of Zhu Xi's heavenly principle. Thirdly, we come to the criticism and the discussion of the theory and through which we can explore its contemporary values. In this part, we first discuss the major criticism and the basic issues of the theory of Zhu Xi's heavenly principle, analyze the theoretical defects and the limitation of the theory. Further, we come to seek the reasonable contents of the theory, through which we explore the potential contemporary values from it.At present, the research of ethical culture of tradition has basically abandon the extreme way which is common in the past, the innovation and application of the traditional ethics are gradually enriched, which is a good thing to Chinese people. However, the absorption and consumption in traditional ethical resources often remain in the cultivation of individual morality. It is still an empty area in innovation and application from the social level to use the resources of our traditional ethics. The innovation of this article lies in that: we explore the potential contemporary values of the theory of Zhu Xi's heavenly principle from the social angel, we hope that, through which we can seek the available resources for the construction of our modernization.