Wei Yuan’s Economic Ethics Study

Wei Yuan lived before and after the Opium War when Chinese society has a drastic change. China’s feudal system in the Ming and Qing dynasties have gradually lost it’s vitality, you can see this point more clearly in the the coordination of Western learning to the east. Eastward spread of western culture since the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty began, but then the western advantages than Chinese in political, economic, and cultural field had not fully displayed, so the knowledge about West from the western missionary was only some mathematics, geography books. With the collapse of Ming and the victory of Qing Dynasty in China, the cultural exchange between Chinese and Western is basically only limited in the curiosity of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty to interesting technologies and skills from West. Until the period of the Opium War,the western country whose capitalist had developed forced to open the door of china. Thus, eastward spread of western culture reaches a climax, until the Westernization Movement and the reform initiated by K’ang Yuwei and Liang Qichao. Throughout eastward spread of western culture, we could say, the Opium War was a turning point. This turning is mainly reflected in the collapse of the natural economy, and in the changes from discussing ideological guidelines in traditional Confucian to Practical Statecraft,and in Chinese begining to use a new world view to look at the world. To face the serious crisis of China, as the landlord class reformist with the emerging capitalist tendencies, Wei Yuan put forward a series of reform plan, involving political, economic, and military aspects, his economic ethics thoughts are very important in his system.Wei Yuan’s thought of economic ethics mainly has the following several aspects: firstly," learn from the west to defeat the west" is the basic concept of ideology. Secondly, about the relations between agriculture and business, he emphasized to develop industry and commerce, and even in a short period of time,we can put the development of industry and Commerce in the first place in the economic development. Thirdly, in the theory on luxury consumption, he gave recognition and encouragement to some extent. Fourthly, in the trade theory, he emphasized to abandon the closed-door policy, and advocate developing trade with western countries on the basis of the principle of equality.Fifth, in the monetary theory, Wei Yuan advocated learning from the west to cast silver.Wei Yuan’s economic ethics thought is rich in content, not only inherits the traditional factors, but also make innovations. Its thought generally has the characteristics of the times, the characteristics of saving, and the characteristics of tradition. Specifically, his thoughts of the economic ethics can be evaluated from positive and negative perspectives:its value is mainly manifested in thoughts that morality and justice is above benefit. its problems are mainly embodied in retaining strong traditional factors in his thoughts. For example,in the treatment of relationships between agriculture and business, he still thought agriculture is more important than business; in the relations between thrift and luxury, he still respected thrift, thought frugality is in favor of the moral cultivation which is manifested the traditional supremacy of the concept of virtue.The significance of Wei Yuan’s economic ethics thought in the reality of our times lies in:on the relations between morality and economy, he asked us not only to the pursue after personal interests, but also,in the process of pursuing, to consider the interests of others. On the principle of justice, we should abide by the law and contract, because law and contract is on behalf of the reciprocity of rights and obligations; the government should avoid direct interference in corporate economic activities, but must complete the "gatekeeper" role; in the distribution, should try to narrow the gap between rich and poor, to achieve social stability.