The Gentleman Ideal In The Analects And The Moral Personality Cultivation Of Contemporary College Students

The gentleman ideal in The Analects is the essence of the traditional Chinese culture, the ideal image advocated by Confucius, and the ideal moral personality promoted by Chinese for hundreds of years. Recently, China has been at the key stage of transformation from the traditional planned economy to the market economy; the change of economy system has huge impact on citizens’ moral personality. And under the “reform and opening up” policy, some negative ideas from other countries get to Chinese college students and make ill influence on them, and therefore Chinese college students who now feel confused about construction of moral personality, tend to have a long way to go in comparison with the gentleman ideal. The noble morality in The Analects including benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and integrity, are ignored by college students. Instead, college students are tired of learning, greedy for name and fortune, and indifferent to the weak. Also, they lack the spirit of devotion and worship money. College students, as the elites of society, are precious human resources, the builders and successors of socialism, and the dominant force to build a harmonious socialist society. College students have an essential function on the future development of China. The gentleman idea in The Analects including “The gentleman has three fear: fear of heaven, fear of adults, and fear of sage words”,“The gentleman pays attention to justice while the person with a low position to the profit”,and “The gentleman is worried about his ability; but not worried about whether others know him or not”, and etc closely fit with the requirements of the contemporary college students’ moral personality. Dig in The Analects to find out the gentleman idea and carry out the requirements Confucius has for gentlemen, to contemporary college students, and provide effective reference for the cultivation of healthy moral personality.This research will analyze the gentleman ideal in The Analects, and try best to restore the moral personality characteristics of "gentleman" described by Confucius. On the base of knowing the current situation of contemporary college students’ moral personality, and a rational analysis of the reason of the loss of the traditional gentleman ideal, this research will find out a common spot between contemporary college students’ moral personality cultivation and the Confucius gentleman ideal, and provide practical suggestions to build healthy moral personality for college students, and effective reference to moral education for universities and colleges. To reach this goal, this research adheres theory with practice, and makes contribution to practice. This research mainly uses text analysis and literature method to analyze the problems and carry out the analysis.Firstly, conclude the development of the connotation of gentleman in different periods and dig out the gentleman ideal described in The Analects, and analyze the traditional process of becoming a gentleman, based on The Analects of Confucius Shu Zheng, and the literature concerning Confucius’ s backgrounds and life.Secondly, combine with the reality to analyze the typical cases of morality loss of college students happened in recent years, conclude the main features, analyze the reasons from home education, school education, and individual initiative, and review the current problems of college students in the aspect of moral personality.Thirdly, provide practical suggestions for healthy moral personality cultivation. Put the cultivation of college students’ moral personality into the socialism society building backgrounds. On the basis of adhering the core values of socialism, keep pace with time and absorb the main thoughts of gentleman ideal described in The Analects, draw energy from traditional culture to help cultivate college students’ healthy moral personality.