A Research Of Pre-Qin Confucian Yi

There is a long history in the Chinese traditional culture. Without any doubt, Confucianism is the mainstream of the context in the long river of ideological culture. Confucian was first set up by Confucius, who put forward the ethical thought system which took "benevolence" as the core content,"etiquette" as the form,"Yi" as the moral standard and code of conduct. Inheriting from Confucius’theory of "benevolence", Mencius made progress on the goodness of humanity based on his own "Four Seeds" theory. While Xun Zi illustrated his understanding about "Yi" and "justice" on the basis of human nature’s evil side.There are24cases of "Yi" in the book of "Confucian Analects". Once upon a time, the philosopher Yu said,"When agreements are made according to what is right, what is spoken can be made good", which means only when one’s words and appointment were in accordance with justice can it come true. Confucius advocated "heroic" and in his eyes, a gentleman should put "Yi" on the first place. He himself takes "Yi" as the noblest moral. In the history, Confucius was first consciously aware of the importance of the relationship between "justice" and "interest" in ethics. Even though he insisted on his ethics theory, he did not deny the importance of "interest".There are108cases of "Yi" in the book of "Mencius". Mencius promoted "Yi" to the same height with "benevolence"."Benevolence" is a person’s settlement and the inner basis of human good nature. At the same time, it is the core content of people’s morality and highest state. While "Yi" is the essential rule that people should follow the direction and the scale to the moral realm. The relationship between "Yi" and "etiquette" is that "Yi" is the rule, while "etiquette" is the circle. Only with inner basis and the rule can a circle be set up. Mencius inherited and developed Confucius’ valuing thoughts. He thinks that as a principle, people can only note "Yi", but cannot talk about "interest". It is also suit to people’s education and to deal with the relationship between countries and people. Even so, Mencius still advocated common people should be supplied with sufficient material and to live a wealthy life. There are three meanings in Xun Zi’s thoughts of "Yi". First of all, as a philosophical saying,"Yi" is the propriety of righteousness including an important concept and marks the intrinsic essence and regulation of all things. Secondly, in the moral field,"Yi" refers to the moral consciousness and moral behavior of self-consciousness. Thirdly,"justice" is a concept of moral standards. It is related with the provisions of the social relationship between people. He put forward another view of "Yi". He is the first Chinese philosophy in history who takes "justice" as a category. Xun Zi thinks that justice is the value standard to tell right from wrong. He raised the theory of "people have the moral of Yi, while they also have the desires of the wealth and interest".The pre-Qin Confucian "Yi" gave moral social theory suggestion is:"The superior man holds righteousness to be of highest importance", people should always be introspection; the "benevolence" and "Yi" lies in deep innocence, so people should attach importance to elevate mind.