the effect of Confucius’ doctrine-MEAN-on Chinese`people`s common life

The issue of man 's innate nature has long been held and debated by ancient philosophers and Chinese philosophers . On this issue , Confucius established his ground claiming that men are innately good

Confucianism after Confucius was greatly developed in the classical period in Mencius , Hsun Tzu , and in the works of the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean . Mencius explicitly forms the doctrine of the goodness of human nature as a foundation for man 's capacity for self-cultivation toward perfection . He appeals to the natural sentiments of man , such as

compassion , shame , modesty , reverence , and like and dislike , as the bases and beginnings of virtues such as jkn , yi , li and chih . Thus it is asserted in Mencius that virtues have a natural foundation in man and that the nature of man is nothing other than the ability to pursue virtues . The goodness of human nature is therefore nothing but a fulfillment of the inherent nature-virtue in man , whereas badness is but the abandonment and deviation of one 's natural sentiments and nature under circumstances which dominate man . But man cannot really lose his inherent goodness and his innate ability to know and see what he needs for the preservation of his goodness . Thus Mencius is fond of talking about collecting oneself in return to goodness . His doctrine of government by the love of people and by becoming a good example in the person of a ruler is based on this doctrine of the goodness of human nature

In spite of the obvious difference of approaches and attitudes between Confucianists and Taoists in their metaphysical conceptions of the world and man 's place in it , we must immediately note that the metaphysics of the I Ching and that of Taoism share the following in common (1 ) They both recognize the world as a harmony or a harmonizing process in which all differences and conflicts among things have no ontological ultimacy but serve the purpose for completing a state of harmony of multitudinous life or for bringing forth a multitude of life in the creative momentum of the changing reality (2 ) They both recognize that man can experience and encounter conflict and undesirable situations in life , but man can overcome them by developing his understanding and by accommodating his actions . In this sense conflict and antagonism are resolvable by human cultivation and human adjustment to nature which are within human power to achieve

Metaphysics will determine a way of looking at things in the world as well as will present a way of resolving difficulties and conducting inquiry . Metaphysics will also provide a way for analyzing , evaluating and guiding affairs and problems of life . In this sense we may speak of the dialectics of harmony and conflict as based on the metaphysics of harmony and conflict . In light of the generality of the Confucian and Taoistic metaphysics of harmony and conflict given above , we may speak of a common dialectics for both Confucianists and Taoists as a means and...