The Thought Of Mencius’ Ideal Personality And Its Value For Contemporary Moral Education

Confucianism has pay more attention to the cultivation of personality. The thought ofMencius’ ideal personality is an important part of Mencius thought and the thought providesmany references for people’s personality cultivation. The purpose of the contemporary moraleducation is to promote people’s free all-round development and cultivates the ideal personality.Although the contemporary ideal personality is very different from the Mencius’ idealpersonality, The thought of Mencius has many references for contemporary moral education.Along with the rapidly development of the social economy, moral problems gradually revealedsuch as lose righteous to pursuit of benefit. There are some problems in moral education in ourcountry and we can’t solve them well if we learn the western moral education pattern only.Wemust find a pattern conform to the reality of our country. The thought of Mencius’ idealpersonality has abundant traditional culture connotation and profound national spirit foundationto development up to now.We can find its era essence to develop the socialist core values andimprove the whole moral quality of the Chinese nation. This article through the study ofMencius’ ideal personality thought to find its valve for contemporary moral education. Thearticle is divided into four parts.The first part mainly introduced the thought’s background offormation and its theoretical basis. Other parts are respectively from different angles to explainthe thought of Mencius’ideal personality and its contemporary moral values.The first part of this paper mainly introduced the basis of the thought of Mencius’ idealpersonality. The formation of any theory has historical background and theoretical basis.Mencius living in the middle of the Warring States Period，which period is more chaos thanConfucius’.Every country is busy prepare the war and social unrest in the period oftransition.Mencius hope saints can come to realization of national peace.He put forward the idealpersonality thought with his good nature doctrine and Confucius’ thought of ideal personality.The second part of this paper mainly introduced the model of the Mencius’ ideal personality.Different from Confucius’ thought,Mencius divided his ideal personality into threelevels:saints,gentlemans and true men.Different level has different characteristic and has theworthy for contemporary moral education.Different personality levels make the goal ofpersonality has reality and transcendence.At the same time,the goal has the ideal state andfeasibility. Contemporary moral education need to set up a reasonable goal to ensure the rightdirection.In the while,we should focus on people’s subjectivity and arouse the consciousness ofthe people’s self-cultivation.The third part of this paper put forward an overall generalization for the characteristics of thethought of Mencius’ ideal personality:dwell in benevolence and righteousness,rich and poornever confused,golden mean and flexible,sincerity and responsibility.These characteristics areworthy to pursue for contemporary people although there are some aspects are different forcontemporary.We should culture independent personality and guiding people in good faith incontemporary moral education.People should take responsibility for themselves and coordinatethe relationship between benefit and righteousness.The fourth part of this paper is to research the cultivation way of Mencius’ idealpersonality.Mencius thought the ideal personality cultivation is own matter,so he explain the wayfrom personal point.Keeping conscience,fosting moral character, looking at ourselves andawaring practice are four ways.Everyone can enhance their personality by great efforts.Weshould provide a good social environment for contemporary moral education.In the sametime,we should advocate personal accomplishment and social practice,so we can upgrade themoral standards of our society.