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Why is “heart” a “good” – Mencius’ meaning of defining “heart” by “good” is pursued
Author: Ye Shunyu (Associate Professor at the Nankai University of Philosophy)
Source: “Nankai Journal. Philosophy and Social Science Edition”, 2019 Issue 2
Time: Confucius was in the 2570s and March 15th of Jihai Bingxu
� The previous meaning is well known, while the next meaning is still to be discovered. Before Mencius, “good” did not mean the mind and nature. It was the first time that Mencius used it to the combination of mind and nature to define the emotions of the “heart” that appear from “nature”. This definition must be related to the term “good”. First, the good meaning of “good” points out the nature of “good” of this “heart”; secondly, its first meaning (related to its original meaning) emphasizes that this “heart” is the “heart” of the head and the greatest “heart”; again, the “good” truth emphasizes and confirms the “heart” in the true nature of each person. In Mencius’ multiple regulations, the model of “conscience” is far smaller than that of “good intention”. Mencius applied the same regulations to the relevant manifestations of “heart” (“knowledge”, “energy”, and “principle”), because these four are all based on “benevolence and righteousness”. Therefore, Mencius made a “good” determination of the “nature” of “benevolence” on the most basic basis, which means that this “nature” is not only good, but also the first of all goodness. These “first goodness” and “real” exist in the “heart”. From this point of view, Mencius’ humanitarian theory is not only a “good nature theory”, but also a “good nature theory”.
1. Proposal of the question: Why did Mencius use “good” to define the “heart”?
Mencius wrote in history that he advocated “nature good discussion”, but every person who studied “Mencius” would be infected. He was not talking about the “nature” of people, but about the “heart”. At that time, humanitarian issues were a public topic that the master paid great attention to, and Mencius’s statements were a one-stop shop. This not only reflected his strong advocacy of “good nature”, but also took a different approach in the discussion method, leading the master’s humanitarianism to the human heart, and responding to the essence of “nature” by expressing the expression of “heart”. [1] Mencius realized that the reason why people talk about “sex” must be related to the abstract and subtle nature of “sex”. Therefore, he changed his focus to observe the appearance of “sex” – “heart”, and through the activities of “sex” (obscene, shame, reluctance, and shortness), he specifically determined that “sex” is “good”. [2] The basis for “nature goodness” was discovered in the activity of the “heart”, which has to be said to be a year-on-year invention by Mencius. [3]
Mencius’s meaning in this regard has attracted widespread attention from the academic community, “to express nature with the heart”It has now become a basic idea to understand Mencius’ humanitarian theory. As we continue to explore Mencius’s thoughts, we find that there is another level of problem that needs to be further focused: under the thinking of “speaking nature with the heart”, “heart” is the basis for “nature”, so how did Mencius define this “heart” that is slandered with “nature”? This problem not only concerns Mencius’s basic understanding of “heart”, but also concerns Mencius’ most basic understanding of “nature with heart”.
In this regard, we can say that Mencius “has good at nature with his heart”. He is “good” to the boundary between “heart” and “nature”, which is also the origin of what we believe is a good person. In the main theory, this judgment is possible; but what needs to be clear is that this judgment is based on our current thinking and we have studied the comprehensiveness of Mencius’s original words. Mencius actually did not effectively define “good” for the “heart” that was uttered with “nature”. [5] Instead, he used another intriguing concept – “good”, which led to the word “conscience” that we are familiar with. [6] Of course, for the “good” here, if we understand it in ordinary terms – “good” means “good”, then using “conscience” to discuss “good nature” is an expression of “good nature” or “good heart to speak of good nature”. But the problem is that it was common to discuss “nature” with “goodness” at that time. Mencius also used “goodness” to make regulations when talking about “nature”. Since he wanted to turn the problem into the situation of “mind”, why not define this directly with “goodness”?
According to this question, we can also find that Mencius not only used “good” to define “heart”, but also used “good” to regulate several related concepts. In his speech, the “knowledge” that expresses moral self-consciousness, the “energy” that expresses action talent, and the “pride” that expresses morality are defined as “good”, so there are three concepts: “confidant”, “good ability” and “good value”. Regarding the three aspects of “knowledge”, “ability” and “principal”, and then the comprehensive thinking of “nature is visible from the heart” by Teacher Mou Zongsan, we can further say: “heart” contains “energy” and develops as “knowledge”. This is the basis for the reason why people are “principal”. That is, the latter three can be understood as the implementation or extension of the “heart” in terms of differences, and they are the main components of Mencius’s mind and nature discussion. But the problem is still, why did Mencius use “good” to define these objects? Mencius applied the unified regulations regarding the “heart” and its related “knowledge”, “energy” and “primeness”, which explained that in addition to the above-mentioned relationship, the four should also contain a certain internal unity. So, where is their unity?
For some concepts in history, we can forget the profound meaning of them when they were finally created because they were considered common. For example, the above-mentioned concepts of “good X” [7], especially “conscience” and “confidant”, are the classics here. Here, we need to understand something. “Conscience” and “confidant” are already commonly used words tomorrow, but in the same year of Mencius, is a creative application. Before Mencius 博官网, “liang” as a popular word, means the emergence and good situation of people or things in ordinary conjunctions, and is not used to define the nature of people; but in Mencius, the application of “liang” has undergone the most basic change, and it was first used to define the properties of “heart” and its related expressions (“knowledge”, “energy”, “principal”). In other words, in terms of “heart” and its related concepts, Mencius did not define the “good” that he acted at that time and was often used by himself, but chose a “good” that had previously been unspecified in meaning of mind and nature. Through his creative application, this word has an unprecedented meaning, and the concepts of “conscience” and “confidant” that are limited by it have been used to this day. When we return to Mencius’s thinking environment at that time, we can see that his choice and application are actually very unconvincing.
In the current study of Bengali studies, we also paid more attention to several concepts of “good X”. Masters often use “conscience” and “confidant” to discuss Mencius’s understanding of the problem of mind and nature. However, we focus more on their meaning as a concept as a whole, and for the “good” between them, it is not difficult to be affected by traditional perspectives and often does not conduct detailed research. The ordinary approach is to explain the disagreement of “good” in the concept of divergence: for “conscience”, explain “good” as “good”; for “confidence” and “good ability”, explain “good” as acquired; for “good” as “good&#
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