| En is a significant concept in China’s traditional culture. En means that a kind of complexion of appreciates and sense of debt, there are two reasons lead to it:①Mingfen (a person’s status) that includes En;②Benefactor has no other purpose except to being kind, and it is relative meaningful to Receiver.In this paper, semantic analysis, inductive method and deeply comparison are used to discussing En and Bao-En’s connotation and psychological mechanism. According to the definition of En, stories of Chen Shou’s History of Three Kingdoms are classified and discussed:(1)En in History of Three Kingdoms can be classified as two categories:①En caused by advance behavior,②En contained in Mingfen.(2)There three aspects of Bao-En:①Repay far more than giving,Equal repay&Repay less than giving;②Delayed repay&Immediate repay;③Repay benefactor’s families at same time&Repay benefactor himself (herself).(3)The psychological mechanism of Bao-En based on En caused by advance behavior.①it is relative meaningful to Receiver. Benefactor has no other purpose except to being kind.②And it would be better that, there is a long time before Receiver repay.③And what Receiver pay back is different from what Benefactor gave in quantity and form.(4) The psychological mechanism of Bao-En based on En contained in Mingfen:①En contained in Mingfen, not triggered by advance behavior, is eternal.②Once it was renounced, Receiver would lose all social credit.③And there exist stories that Receiver phony treat En contained in Mingfen. In addition, tangle between Loyalty and Filial piety is discussed.④Finally, Chinese have the tendency that using Mingfen to explain relationships.Meanwhile, to some extent this paper provide some enlightenment to modern moral psychology:(1) When someone repay to En, he(she) should follow the rules of justice and moderation. En is a private concept, when it encounter public domain, none have right to use public resource to cater someone. In addition, repay should be moderate.(2) Vulgarization and overuse of En should be restrained. Overuse may lead En to vulgarization. En is becoming superficial, even worse it has being used as a tool.(3) Transition from benefaction to charity. Charity isn’t advertising media, modern charity should be organized in a planned way without profit motivation.(4) Returning to En’s soul is vital. Either benefactor or receiver, they both behave follow their "heart"(kindness or gratitude), the heart is named as Liangxin in China’s culture. |
