Exploration And Analysis Of The Confucian Thought On Interpersonal Relationships And Its Contemporary Values

Confucianism takes the adjustment and normalization of interpersonal relationships as its main content, for, containing a wealth of thoughts on interpersonal relationships, it not only had a profound impact on the interpersonal relationships in China’s long-lasting feudal society, but also has a unnegligible influence on the interpersonal relationships in today’s society. Therefore, digging deep into the rational and glittering elements of Confucianism and seeking for contemporary values can provide today’s college students with a beneficial reference in the establishment of harmonious interpersonal relationships. Proceeding from the point of view of interpersonal relationships, this paper analyzes the theoretical essentials of Confucianism on interpersonal relationships, and comes to a conclusion that the ideal personality is the inherent foundation of establishing harmonious relationships;"the Five Cardinal Virtues" are the basic principle guiding interpersonal relations, and "harmony" is the ideal status of interpersonal relationships. In the light of the principle of "Absorbing the quintessence and removing the dross", the author of this paper expounds the practical value of Confucianism on interpersonal relationships from the perspectives of the Confucian personality thoughts of molding college students’personality,"the Five Cardinal Virtues" as a basic principle for college students dealing with interpersonal relationships, as well as the idea of "Too much water drowned the miller" and "To seek harmony but not uniformity" as the dialectical thoughts for students to establish interpersonal relations, and the like. This paper also approaches characteristics of college students’cognition of idealized interpersonal interaction, its broadening scope, diversified ways, and complicating motives, and studies other problems related with students’ interpersonal relations, such as deficiency in their character accomplishment, utilitarian trends of their communication motivation, dishonest behavior in their intercourse, self-centered communication, lack of communication skills, and the like. Based on the above-mentioned points and deriving positive value factors from Confucian ideas on interpersonal relationships, this paper comes up with some countermeasures of establishing harmonious interpersonal relationships of today’s college students, such as molding healthy personality traits, fostering the correct motivation of interpersonal communication, observing rules of credibility in interpersonal communication, sticking to the dialectical thinking in interpersonal communication, grasping correct conduct of interpersonal communication, and others.