Interpretation Of "An" In "The Analects Of Confucius"

The "An" in The Analects of Confucius is the inheritance of the thought of "An" of the Xia-Shang-Zhou Dynasties,and the expansion and development of it.As a psychological state that is closely related to human survival experience,"an" expresses people's overall understanding of their own living situation and is a kind of primitive basic emotion of people.Its negative form "non-An" not only has the meaning of the original basic emotions,but also can be regarded as a further differentiation and expansion of this emotion on another level,that is,the presentation of a variety of human emotions(such as happy or angry,sad or joyous).Compared to the richness of the "non-An","An" has the "single" state:no matter what causes "non-An" and how to recover from "non-An" to "An",the state of inner"anxiety" finally reached is similar.However,such a recovery process usually requires the active participation of people,reflecting the overcoming of moral cultivation to emotional needs.The role of "An" is mainly manifested as motivation and code.Recovery from"non-An" to "An" is the natural tendency of people which contains a kind of motivation of human conduct,both in rational cognition and moral conduct.In addition,another manifestation of this motivation is that "An" gradually became a "realm"(the benevolent is at ease of benevolence)pursued by gentlemen and benevolent person,attracting them to cultivate their morality.If the motivation of "An" works repeatedly and for a long time,then "non-An" can also be used as a code for personal conduct(if you feel at ease,just do it).This code of conduct can not only be a reasonable supplement to universal moral code,but also conflict with universal moral code.Unlike the concepts such as "benevolence" and "righteousness" that have been the focus of later Confucianism,the continuation and evolution of "An" are often not obvious,but are still reflected in the school of Zisi-Mencius,Xunzi,and neo-confucianism,which mainly contains two aspects:one is "An" as the effectiveness of motivation and the meaning of "realm";the other is "An" as the tension between the personal code of conduct and universal moral code.It can be said that The Analects of Confucius provides a hidden historical clue for Confucianism.