Research On The Economic Ethics Of Mencius

Mencius made mainstream of traditional culture in china - - Confucian thoughts become the complete system and had the pivotal status in feudal society in china. The Mencius's thought is broad, profound and far-reaching. The cultural achievements of the Mencius's thought of economic ethics came into being during the intermediate stage of the Warring States in which the politics and economy was transforming rapidly. The view of his"to hold righteousness in mind and not to pursue benefit"and people-based thought provides a valuable theoretical basis and has a beneficial enlightenment in our present society in which we are now fighting the corruption, attending the livelihood of the people and constructing the socialism harmonious society .Through the ages, studies on Mencius's monograph were too many, in which the annotation to text are the most and only the electronic books have nearly 200 kinds. However, studies on the Mencius's thought of economic ethics have never been seen until now and only some dissertations can been seen here and there in the world. There are only 5 dissertations,i.e. study on Mencius Economic ethics Thought by Tang Kailin and Chen Kehua in Hunan Normal university ,Studies on Mencius Economic ethics Thought Initially by Xie Jinlin and Qiu Feng in Jinggang Mountains Normal school , The analysis of Mencius Economic ethics View Briefly by Li Shaobo in Qinghai Normal university, The Economic interest Principle about policy of benevolence and the thoughts of moral Enlightenment of Mencius by Wang Jie in CPC Central Party and The Practical Character of Mencius Economic ethics Thought by Wen Min in School Southeast University. Reach of experts achieved the great results that should not be underestimated, but has not been able to grasp Mencius's thought of economic ethics comprehensively and profoundly. This paper tried hard to begin with text , probe in source material systematically, comb the literature material, search and analyzes Mencius's thought of economic ethics profoundly. This paper elaborated the thoughts of Mencius economic ethics from four parts:The first part dealt with the origin of Mencius's thought of economic ethics, mainly from three aspects, i.e. the social and historic condition, the origin of thought, the theoretical basis. Mencius lived in intermediate stage of the Warring States, when the social productive forces had progressed by leaps and bounds compared with Spring and Autumn Period and the new feudal landed property and the feudalism productive relations had formed gradually. During this time, the feudal lords strived for hegemony and fought for power and profit and the big and strong countries always bullied and intruded the small and weak countries, so the war was continuous. The intense transformation in the domain of politics and economy caused the formation of contending of hundred schools of thoughts in the ideology domain. In dealing with the challenge in the contending of hundred schools of thoughts, Mencius, as the representative of the emerging landlord class, on the basis of his absorbing the thought of economic ethics of Duke of Zhou, Rui Liangfu, Guan Zi, Yan Zi and Confucius and the theory On the Original Goodness of Human Nature, he argued for his ideas of moral and economic ethics i.e."to be the Saint inside but to be the king outside"and"to attach importance to agriculture but not to restrain business"The second part probed in the primary Mencius's thought of economic ethics. Mencius's thought of economic ethics involves many aspects, however, this part only centered on two aspects of it i.e. the Concept of justice and benefit and the people-based thought which is important content of Mencius's thought of economic ethics, The Mencius's Concept of justice and benefit used"to pursue profit with righteousness"and"to hold righteousness in mind and not to pursue profits"as the ethical value guidance and used the"View of Reason and Desire"as the supplement. It opened the beginning of argument of"profits and righteousness and intellect and Desire"from Song and Ming dynasty. In view of the different benefit main bodies, Mencius's view made value judgment respectively on"to be righteous first and then to pursue profits"and"to pursue profits first and then to be righteous". Mencius's people-based thought held that people were important than the ruler and that only the ruler valued the people, attended the livelihood of people and considered people by every possible means, could the society be long-term peace and good government. Mencius's view of"Constant production and perseverance","to impose less tax and to enrich the people","to lessen desires and to cultivate spirit"and"to share happiness with the people", the thought of business ethics of"to make up for the shortage with envy",the social division of"work with the heart"and"work with the hand"and the ecological and economic ethics of"to get things in right time"was deeply reflecting Mencius's people-based thought.The third part dealt with historical influence of Mencius's thought of economic ethics. Mencius's view of justice and benefit has the characteristic of unifying principle and flexibility, but later generations of thinkers and politicians more inherited and developed the principle of concept of justice and benefit. A few of them also took note of its flexibility. But the government always emphasized the moral values of"to weigh righteousness and to light profit",so basically it became the dominant position basically in economic and social life. Mencius's people-based thought had a deep or shallow effect on different historical figure in different historical periods. For example, Xun Zi,Jia Yi, Dong Zhongshu, Zhang Zai, Fan Zhongyan, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Qiu Jun, Huang Zongxi, and etc. had varying degrees of absorption and the development of the view of people-based thought .This developed this view continuously, made the concept of "to impose less tax and to enrich the people" more public , reinforce the thought of commercial freedom, add new content to the people-based thought constantly during its impact to the later generations .The fourth part dealt with the modern value of Mencius's thought of economic ethics. Mencius's thought Arose from Self-sufficient natural economy based on the small-scale peasant economy, so the limitations of class and history is an objective reality and inevitable. In the operation of modern market economy and the construction of the thought of economic ethics, we need to grasped the good and abandon the bad, and make a conversion of it in our modern society. we should be aware of the negative and positive role of the guidance of Mencius's concept of justice and benefit ,grasp positive meaning of"to hold righteousness in mind and not to pursue benefit"and converse it into"to hold righteousness in mind and to pursue profits at the same time"and"to unite righteousness and benefit".we should also put the interests of the country and the people in the first place and fully respect the legitimate interests of individuals. And finally, we should use the positive role of Mencius's view of justice and benefice to push on cultivation of national ethical spirit and the construction of clean government.Now,Mencius's concept of"Constant production"and"Perseverance"has been applied to the police that ensure the ordinary people have Property income and protect legitimate income; the concept of"to impose less tax and to enrich the people"has been widely applied to the new rural construction ;the consumer concept of"more good and fewer desires"and"to have fun with the people"has sounded the alarm to warn of corruption; and leading cadres who embezzle public, enlarge the income gap between cadres and the mass, and damage to social equity are unpopular.Insisting the Marxism materialistic dialectics and the historical materialism, using the history and logic- unified method, the literature law, the case- analyzed method, this article try hard to grasp the main content of Mencius's thought of economic ethics systematically , profoundly, and completely, and on the basis of it ,this paper try hard to make some Breakthrough. First, this paper clarified the true meaning and modern value of Mencius's view of justice and benefice which was always divergent and cannot be decided which is right.Second, consider reversing the traditional mode of arguing from the perspective of politics and Political Ethics, this paper dealt with content,value and significance of Mencius's view of people-based thought from the perspective of economic ethics.