A Research On Confucian Gentleman Personality Of Pre-Qin Period

Gentleman personality theory which is a very important part of the traditional Confucian culture in ancient China stands for an ideal personality. It has been accumulated in the nation’s consciousness and has composed the national character. The picture of the theory had been drawn in the pre-Qin period. Confucius, Mencius and Xuncius were represents of Confucian culture of that period. Confucius’s "Analects of Confucius", Mencius’s "Mencius" and Xuncius’s "Xuncius" recorded their ideal personality thoughts of that, they left lots of words about the "gentleman" personality. This paper attempts to analyze the gentleman theory of those three books, combining with the modern personality psychology involved, discussing the shape and design of the ideal figure. Digging the Chinese Confucian scholars’theory in this paper deeply, united the modern personality psychology, this paper integrates the Confucian thought to modern life with a image of bright, brave, qualified, perfect personality of gentleman. Besides, a compare among Confucius, Mencius and Xuncius differs the conceptions of their ideal personality in each. Furthermore, the similarities and differences between Chinese and western personality theories depict the usability to gentleman image in nowadays.This paper is divided into three parts to discuss the gentleman personality and its applicability in modern in the view of psychology. The first part includes the foreword and the first chapter. In the foreword, it is mainly about literature review of foreign and domestic research status of Pre-Qin Confucian gentleman personality, and with the modern psychology researches on personality and ideal personality, too. The first chapter briefly discusses the main characteristics of a gentleman and personality in philosophy and psychology, and puts forward the definition and understanding of personality. The second part includes the second,third and fourth chapter, separately discussing Confucius"s, Mencius’s and Xuncius’s theories of personality. The three chapters dissertates the gentleman’s behaviors and characters, and makes analysis on the basis of gentleman’s social role and social status.The third part includes the fifth, sixth and seventh chapter. The fifth chapter has made the summary analysis to the Confucius’s, Mencius’s, Xuncius’s gentleman personality theories, adding the contribution and defects of the Pre-Qin Confucian gentleman personality theory to the paper, too. The sixth chapter combining western "Five Factor" personality theory and China’s "Seven Factor" personality theory makes a comparison and matching of the personality of gentleman and the modern psychology. The seventh chapter provides a comprehensive treat of the modern value of the gentleman personality.Gentleman personality thought not only has a huge social and cultural effect in ancient times, which is also playing an important role in the modern times. During the process of building a harmonious society, it is necessary for us to study the Pre-Qin Confucian "gentleman personality" seriously, to explore its practical significance which contained in the resolute and enterprising personality.