A Comment On The Chinese Tradional Philanthropic Thoughts

The history of philanthropy is very long in China. The emergence and vigorous development of Chinese ancient Philanthropy connected closely with its traditional culture with distant sources and long steams. During the pre-Qin, Confucius and Mencius, Laozi and Zhuangzi, the various schools of thought and their exponents were pregnant with the quintessence of philanthropic thoughts, such as benevolence of Confucianism, universal love of Mohism, accumulated-merit of Taoism. After the Han Dynasty, the ideas of mercy benevolence, benefaction in Buddhism, retribution for sins also became one of the thoughts resources of the rising and development of philanthropy in ancient China.The thoughts of Chinese traditional philanthropy were rich. While unique, they also have some general character, such as: "love" to maintain emotion; with the theory form of looking others as ourselves and the ideas of equality; emphasizing on moral training and practice; with the supervision of external forces. These philanthropy thoughts had great theoretical significance and real value. They made significant function and influence to the Chinese traditional society's philanthropy ethics' construction and philanthropy practice. At the same time, the Chinese traditional philanthropic thought itself also has some problems as well as some unsuitable factors to the present-day, so that it needs to be treated carefully.This article starts from the prosperous philanthropy of ancient Chinese society, and draws out the analysis to the Chinese traditional philanthropic thought. The article mainly includes three major parts:Partâ… , it discusses the etymology explanations of philanthropy and the multiple localizations. Then it traces back to the source of Chinese traditional philanthropic thought.Partâ…¡, it summarizes the Chinese traditional mainstream philanthropic thought's inheritance and the evolution, and focus on the theories of Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism and buddhism, expounds their rich and unique philanthropy viewpoints. Partâ…¢, on the basis of the second part, it analyzes the Chinese traditional philanthropic thought, key by the philanthropic theories of Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism and buddhism. First it analyzes the characteristics of the traditional philanthropic thought, then summarizes the theory and real value which these philanthropic thoughts have, finally points out some questions of the Chinese traditional philanthropic thought itself existing. Thus, the article emphasizes that we should harbor the careful and critical manner when we learn from the traditional philanthropic thought.