| The Cheng Brothers refers to a pair of brothers in Northern Song Dynasty, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi. They were born in Luo Yang (in today's Henan province). Following their father's advice in their childhood, they learned after Zhou Dunyi and were infatuated with Confucius and YanHui's Cheerfulness. The brothers'view of Confucius and YanHui's Cheerfulness rooted in the society and history in Northern Song Dynasty is just developed and explained from the basis of Zhou Dunyi's thought.The brothers'view of "Confucius and YanHui's Cheerfulness" is made up of four aspects as follows. Firstly, it is the joy from self enjoyment. This joy is attained by getting enlightenment, and it is based on the intrinsic sudden enlightenment. The second joy is from truth following. Here "truth" includes both natural law and rules and the social system and norms. The joy of truth following refer to the spiritual pleasure and happiness based on the conformity with the natural law and social standards. Thirdly, the joy is like "kite flying and fish diving". The joy is of spiritual freedom and it transcends the secular fame and gain, and the embarrassment of mundane life. Finally, the joy is "homogenize with things". In essence, this kind of joy is the recognition of one's self value and the sagacious grasp of being one's own kind.The theoretical basis of the accessible way to "Confucius and Yan Hui's Cheerfulness" is to promote Mencius's idea "human nature is good". The stand point of joy seeking lies in one's self transcendence. Here "transcendence" is a dialectical negation, that is, originating from it but higher than it. The brothers'"knowing kindness", "knowing principle" is essentially self transcendence. The stay point of the way to seek point is institutive experience. Intuitive experience does not need specific theory to argue or concept to explain. Their notions like "selfishless" "no intellectual" and "sudden enlightenment" are all the inner institution experience.The Brothers'view of "Confucius and Hui's Cheerfulness", which is the important content of philosophical ethics thoughts of Cheng Brothers, enjoys a very important and outstanding position. It is believed that the Brothers'view of "Confucius and Hui's Cheerfulness" is the scale presentation of science of life; the truth level, moral level and aesthetic level implied in "Confucius and Hui's Cheerfulness" inherently constitute the spiritual level of Neo-Confucianism; academic atmosphere brought about by "Confucius and Yan Hui's Cheerfulness" is the natural scientific foundation of sage's academic atmosphere. In addition, when we focus on the theoretical contribution of "Confucius and Hui's Cheerfulness", we should also realize its limitations, namely, this view has the connotation of "moral reason" overwhelming "Life Desire" as well as relief of poverty behind cheerfulness.In modern society, the study on "Confucius and Hui's Cheerfulness" is of great time significance and value. In today's society, the tide of the economic market in updates utilitarianism, expanses instrumental rationality and deconstructs value rationality. Cheng Brothers'view of "Confucius and Hui's Cheerfulness" has a dramatically referential significance to cultivate super heroic, promote truth-seeking spirit and uphold faith ethics. |
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