中国人的精神

小瓜茵

reader：郭佳茵
time：week12-13
content：What exactly is the Chinese-style personality? From the perspective of books, it is roughly what is called the "perfect combination of soul and wisdom". Although they have the rationality of adults, they still lead a life with a childlike heart. In short, we Chinese people have always led an emotional and spiritual life. Such a spiritual life directly shapes the typical trait that Chinese people endow with compassion. It seems more appropriate to call this compassion empathy, that is, Chinese people can always put themselves in others' shoes and understand their feelings. This manifestation of compassion is the courtesy of the Chinese people for thousands of years. However, this courtesy is by no means overly arranged like that of the Japanese. Instead, it gives people a feeling as if bask in a gentle spring breeze. So what exactly enables Chinese people to retain the rationality of adults while still not losing their rich inner emotions? Tracing back to the source, the spiritual qualities that Mr. Gu believes have been formed by the Chinese people over thousands of years are all inseparable from the Confucianism founded by Confucius.
He enabled the Chinese people to form a true concept of the country, thereby establishing a real, rational, permanent and absolute foundation for this country. Mr. Gu said so. China has had no religion since ancient times. This does not mean that the Chinese nation is one without faith or a sense of awe. On the contrary, we have an ideology recognized by all Chinese people, namely the Confucian principles of honor and disgrace and the teachings of the gentleman. Therefore, I think that the reason why China has not developed a legal system with complete procedures and comprehensive provisions like Roman law is largely closely related to Confucianism. What Confucius advocated was to teach people to become filial sons and good citizens, from the family to the country, gradually enabling people to have an understanding of the state and faith in its rulers and monarchs. This faith that originated from the heart gradually developed into a sense of honor and disgrace, and then into a set of moral standards. To some extent, this set of moral standards played a role in Western law.
However, perhaps the greatest difference between the two lies in that the connotation of Western legal norms, apart from the constraints of state violent institutions, is mostly stipulated by organizations such as churches through regulations. For the majority of the public, they do not understand why this is done. They merely abide by it out of fear of violent constraints, such as the extremely violent handling of pagans. Therefore, the feudal regimes in Europe were extremely unstable. Once a certain force expanded, the entire ruling region would fall into instability. On the contrary, Confucianism in China is a study for all. Therefore, the stability and longevity of the country, the continuation of the national bloodline and the eternity of the race have become matters for all. Based on such ideological understanding, people's compliance with moral norms no longer relies on violence but on inner moral sense and sense of honor and disgrace. The previous text mentioned that the stability and longevity of a country are "a matter for all", which means that this sense of morality does not adhere to individual justice but adheres to the true laws of humanity. It is exactly the opposite of Western individualism. People live for their families and countries. Thus, this inner sense of morality and honor and disgrace gradually formed a way of the gentleman.