On Yu Xin's Contradictory Personality And Its Cultural Reasons

Yu Xin's life could be divided into two periods by the year 554 in which he moves to the North. During his later life, his feelings, thinking and behavior is full of contradictions. As a nostalgic man, on one hand, he feels regretful fors his wronged service in Wei and Zhou dynasties. On the other hand, he does not refuse the benefits supplied by the royal court; on the other hand, he even flatters them deliberately to show his gratitude. In order to persue a tranqility in his inner part, he has being hasitated between a hermit and a chancellor since 554, but he depends on the new dynasty until his death. The conflict between his moral worship and his manners in his later life embodies his split personality. Not only the conflict between"ideal personality"and"external personality"exists in Yu Xin's mind, but also the conflict of his attitude towards"ideal personality"(believing, doubting or giving up) and"external personality"exists. Among all of them, the conflict between his attitude towards life and his value leads to his later's life's betrayal to his moral courage as well as his severvice to the adversary. However, the formation of each ideology, values and behavior patterns has its own specific historical and cultural backgrounds and its own objective foundation in which it can form and develop. It is obviously that many facts may lead to Yu Xin's personal tragedy, such as hardship of the age, unfortunate fate and so on. However, his tragedy roots deeply in the conflict between phylosophy on life and value which exists in Chinese traditional cultural system. In fact, Yu Xin's split personality roots deeply in those cultural reasons, such as the interaction and conflict between Confucianism and Taoism, his less cognition to the main idea of Confusianism and the influence of the social environment of his times.