A Study On The Moral Theory Of Duan Zhengyuan

The philosophical thought in modern China is the history that shocked comprehensively by western culture. During the period when the formation of Chinese tradit ional culture was drasticly influenced by western culture, Duan Zhengyuan, a popular confucianisn, always adheres to Chinese tradit ional Confucian orthodoxy, and forged ethical and ideological system with its core as middle way.In his system, Tao is the highest ontology and ultim ate basis. Everything is generated by Dao and runs after its disciplines. De is an ontology idea only second to Dao, and its ultimate goal is to carry on natural law, improve intuitive knowledge, perfect personal characters as well as make everything in the world develop in a right way and choose good method to live on.The essence of integrating heaven and man is to stay in middle-of-the-road(we call it "Zhong"). "Zhong" is divided into congenital and acquired one, while the former one is equal to Heaven and the latter one is equal to Human. The core of Moderation depends on the implementat ion of acquired one. To achieve it, it is a must to make sure the unification of congenital and acquired one, as well as heaven and human, only by that can rich acquired one and open congenital one. After gaining the truth of w orld, you can find out the highway to come through, which is called a consistent way. To sum up, the moral thought of Duan Zhengyuan dates back to Confucian orthodoxy in pre-Qin days(over 2,000 years ago), and combines with current situation of modern culture and though. Today, the way he handle with the relation between Chinese tradit ional culture and western culture provides a valuable reference to develop Chinese traditional culture and establish Chinese philosophical theory system in a multicultural soc iety.This dissertation will conduct its specific discussion on three parts, namely the source of content, and its relationship with human relat ions, polit ics of Duan’s moral thoughts. The first one is the understanding of Duan to The Great Learning, The Doctrine of Mean and The Tao Te Ching, and it also lays the foundation of its academic system. The second one is re-interpretation in the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean and the introduction of its central theory. The third one is methods or ways to nurture moral character and advance virtue. The last one is a comment on its whole system of Confucian orthodoxy.