On Cheng Hao’s Theory Of Moral Cultivation

The theory of moral cultivation is the core content of Chinese Confucianism,because Confucianism is fundamentally a doctrine of “being a saint inside and being a king outside”.Among them,“inner saint” refers to individual moral cultivation,and “outer king” refers to its social function.As real founder of neo-confucianism,Cheng Hao finds against the opposition between things,think of one body,for vision,for as a core category of Confucian metaphysics basis is provided for “benevolence”,advocated“benevolence” knowledge,“qualitative” simple accomplishment,the final achievement of its unique “inside the saint outside the king”,Confucianism has produced profound influence to the development of future generations.As a continuous ideological tradition in Confucianism,the “unity of heaven and man” in the sense of the connection between heaven and life is the main source of Cheng Hao’s harmony.One theory refers to the view of all things as a whole,emphasizing the perspective of unity or unity,and the realm of harmony.To observe the world from the perspective of a book,Cheng Hao believed that there was one thing between man and nature,one thing between Tao,one thing between body and body,and one thing between ourselves...One of Cheng Hao’s theories runs through the whole philosophical system and is reflected in both his theory of mind nature and his theory of cultivation.Among them,a thought of “mind is reason” was the“bridge” of Cheng Hao’s philosophy from ontology to cultivation.Through the critical inheritance of the Confucianist theory of“benevolence” and Zhang Zai’s thought of “human beings and things”,Cheng Hao proposed the theory of “benevolence” with “the universe as one” and“love the universe”,which laid the ontological foundation for the Confucianist theory of “benevolence”.“Loving heaven and earth and all things” is the inevitable result of the realm of “taking heaven and earth as one”,and is also the final expression of “benevolence” of Cheng Hao.The most critical point of scholars’ efforts is to seek for understanding benevolence by reflecting on the inside.In terms of empathy,in addition to the sense of the “life” of things,the empathy for the happiness of others is also an important reason for the “happiness of benevolence”.Moreover,helping behavior induced by empathy can be regarded as altruistic behavior in a sense.Cheng Hao’s thought on “qualitative” is mainly reflected in his reply to Zhang Zai’s perplexity that “qualitative is not fixed,and is still affected by external things ”.In Cheng Hao’s philosophy,“qualitativeness” means a state of single-mindedness,and “forgetting both inside and outside” is the way to achieve “qualitativeness”.The state of “qualitative” and the state of“benevolence” are intrinsically consistent and perfectly compatible.Compared with the state of “qualitative”,the state of “benevolence” is more fundamental.In addition,“benevolence” in Cheng Hao’s philosophy has not only the realm meaning,but also the ontological meaning,which is the expression form of “reason”,the world’s origin in man.Therefore,as the core concept and category of Cheng Hao’s philosophy,“understanding benevolence” has a primary and main significance in his studies.