Mencius Personality Cultivation Thought And Its Modern Enlightenment

Personality cultivation has always been one of the important contents of Chinese traditional culture.Nowadays,people should not only have advanced scientific and cultural knowledge,but also have lofty moral sentiment,sound personality and strong will quality.Only with these,can we achieve the full development of the individual to the greatest extent.At the same time,in order to achieve the full development of the individual,a long and arduous process of improving personal moral accomplishment is also indispensable.Necessary,in-depth discussion and analysis of Mencius' personality cultivation thought can help us to cultivate and improve personality,thus becoming a modern newcomer who keeps pace with the times.On the basis of reading the seven articles of Mencius and referring to the annotations of several famous experts,this paper fully absorbs the research achievements of the predecessors and scholars,tries to systematically expound Mencius' personality cultivation thought from the perspectives of what is human,what is human value and personality values,and at the same time,combines with many challenges people encounter in personality cultivation nowadays,tries to draw on Chinese classics.The book seeks new enlightenment on improving contemporary people's personality cultivation.This paper is divided into four parts.The first part of the paper mainly expounds the concrete conditions for the formation of Mencius' personality cultivation thought.No idea or thought can be created out of thin air,and it will be influenced by specific historical background and other factors in the process of formation and development.This part is mainly from the analysis of the background of Mencius' life,the specific analysis of the impact of his personal and family factors on Mencius,while seeking the ideological origin of his thoughts.The second part of the paper combs the concrete content of Mencius' personality cultivation thought.Starting from Mencius' theory of human nature,this paper explains Mencius' answer to the question of human nature through the proposition of "the difference between human beings and fowls",which holds that human beings are the existence of morality,while the concrete implementation of the corresponding social relations is the existence of human relations;and then,through its affirmation of human dignity and nobility,it expounds Mencius' thinking on human values,that is,to think of human beings.All the values come down to the realization of morality;at the same time,it specifies the concrete connotation of the Confucian personality values of Mencius;secondly,it elaborates the specific ways to improve personal accomplishment from three aspects: seeking self-interest,reassuring and cultivating the spirit of vastness;lastly,it points out people with three specific ideal personality models of "sage","gentleman" and "great husband".The hierarchical goal of personality accomplishment.In the third part of the paper,Mencius' personality cultivation thought is evaluated from three aspects: historical status,positive role and limitations.Mencius' thought of personality cultivation has great influence in the history of Chinese thought,which also contains rich theoretical and practical values.Nevertheless,its ideology is restricted by its class nature and historical conditions,and will surely be branded by the times.Therefore,while exploring its value,we should also recognize some limitations in its ideology.The last part of the paper mainly explores the modern enlightenment of Mencius' personality cultivation thought.This part begins with Mencius' thought of personality cultivation,pointing out a series of problems arising from the errors of contemporary people's understanding of what is human,what is human value and the need for continuous moral cultivation,and analyzing the practical significance of strengthening contemporary people's personality cultivation from the three levels of state,society and individual.The essence of it is to discard its dross and explore the reference of Mencius' personality cultivation thought to strengthen contemporary people's personality cultivation.