How was the "strength of personality" of ancient Chinese Qing officials formed?

In ancient China, ordinary people often referred to honest officials as clean officials. In the official official title, the Qing official is called a clean official, a good official, and so on. Yan Bao, Zhang Zai, Zhang Pengfei, Li Xun, Sima Guang, Bao Zheng, Zhao Zheng, Hai Rui, Yu Chenglong, etc., are all typical representatives of ancient Chinese Qing officials, and the strength of personality they show is an important reason why the people love them and is a valuable spiritual wealth.

To study the formation of the personality strength of ancient Qing officials, in addition to paying attention to the individual factors of Qing officials, it is more necessary to use the materialist view of history to analyze them as a whole from the multi-dimensional perspectives of Qingguan culture, the election system, and family education, so as to reveal the generation context, development direction and inheritance path of the personality strength of ancient Qingguan, provide ideological resources and path reference for the in-depth promotion of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities in the new era, and shape the Personality of Qingguan that belongs to the spiritual characteristics of the new era.

The culture of Qingguan with a clean and healthy atmosphere: the social nourishment formed by the strength of the personality of Qingguan

The core view of the Qingguan culture is "to be honest with the government." To put it simply, it is to be honest in government, to take advantage of the way, and to strictly self-discipline and self-examination, which is also the inherent requirement of the traditional Confucian culture of "inner saint and outer king". Confucius said: "The politician, the righteous; the son of the handsome is righteous, who dares not be right" ("Analects, Yan Yuan"), Confucius clearly proposed that the honesty and honesty of officials has an obvious guiding effect on society, "the upper good is the lower good" ("Analects of Liren"), "the upper evil and greed are the lower shame and contention, and the upper honesty is the lower shame festival" ("Confucius Family Language, Wang Yan Explanation").

As a clean official, we must restrain ourselves and discipline ourselves, and under the leadership of the above, we must set an example with practical actions. It was in this cultural atmosphere that the ancient Chinese Qing officials heard about it, consciously accepted the constraints of the Qingguan culture, and worked hard to "cultivate themselves", forming a unique personality force. Many of the stories of Qing officials have gradually been rendered and deified in the continuous praise of the people, but the personality strength of the Qing officials has also been continuously passed down and developed in this process.

In traditional society, the people have too many expectations and desires for qingguan, which shapes qingguan into a value symbol of positive significance, a moral model of "respecting the elderly and filial piety", a sage who is "frugal and honest for the government", a savior who is "diligent in government and compassionate to the people", and a fair judgment with "iron face and selflessness". In the new era of China, the various anti-corruption and clean government education bases set up by the government and society have integrated elements of various types of clean-up culture. We must admit that the culture of clean officials plays a positive role in leading cadres in strengthening their original mission and abiding by the right path.

The Four Precepts of the Mortals belong to the self-cultivation and world-class education books. The author Yuan Yifan, an important thinker of the Ming Dynasty, integrated Zen and science, persuaded people to accumulate good deeds and reforms, and emphasized self-cultivation starting from the management of the mind. The whole text explains how to change destiny through four parts: the study of destiny, the method of reform, the formula of accumulation of goodness, and the effect of humility. Originally, in order to teach his son a lesson, he took the name "XunziWen", and then changed his name to enlighten the world.

The system of electing officials with both ability and political integrity: the institutional guarantee for the formation of the personality strength of clean officials

The people praise clean officials not only because they enforce the law impartially and seek redress for the people, but also because they have inherently high moral sentiments. In the old days, the imperial court attached great importance to the moral character of officials. The legal criteria for electing officials in the Western Zhou Dynasty were the "Six Virtues" (Knowledge, Benevolence, Holiness, Righteousness, Loyalty, and Harmony) and the "Six Elements" (Filial Piety, Friendship, Harmony, Marriage, Ren, and Compassion). The Han Dynasty put ethics in the first place, and examined the quality of officials in the order of morality, talent, and ability. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Jiupin Zhongzheng system became the institutional norm for the selection of officials, and initially emphasized that morality was the first.

From the Sui and Tang dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the system of selecting officials by examination was implemented. Judging from the content of the imperial examination, "from the Sui and Tang dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the scope of the examination has not deviated from the Confucian classics, and the Confucian 'morality, benevolence, and etiquette' has become the content that candidates must master, aiming to cultivate the moral quality of future officials." At the same time, it is also emphasized that "under the premise of good conduct, talents with both ability and knowledge can be hired." Although there are many drawbacks in these official selection systems, in a specific historical period, these official selection systems have also selected many Qing officials and officials who have left their names in history. These Qing officials and officials may be on the side of the government and become the highest local administrators; or they may occupy the height of the temple and become the emperor's right and left arm, and they will work hard for the development of the country. Therefore, the system of electing officials is the institutional guarantee for the generation of the personality strength of qing officials.

The family style and family training of self-cultivation and morality: the family cultivation of the formation of the personality strength of the Qing official

Since ancient times, the Chinese nation has paid attention to the family, to tutoring, and to family style. Since the establishment of the Han Dynasty, family training has gradually become popular, and the Song and Yuan Dynasties have reached their peak, and the "Yan Family Training", "Zhu Zi Family Training", "Zeng Wenzheng Gong family book", "Wen's Mother Training", etc., are all classic family trainings that we are familiar with.

The names of ancient family training are diverse, roughly including admonitions, testaments, letters, aphorisms, and writings, and such family training is often related to the summary of life experience, how to treat others in the world, and the cultivation of moral integrity. Through their own experiences, the elderly complete the shaping and nurturing of their personalities before their children enter society. In the family training, such as "the eldest husband would rather be crushed by jade than for the whole of the tiles", "a porridge and a meal, when thinking is not easy to come by; half a silk and half a wisp, the constant thought of material strength is difficult" and other famous aphorisms, as well as classic stories such as "ZengZi killed pigs" and "Meng Mu Three Migrations", as well as the Ming Dynasty Yuan Yifan's "Four Trainings of Fan Fan", which still has positive significance and era value.

Family training has become the most common magic weapon for traditional Chinese families to educate their children's ideals and beliefs and moral character, a family has good family training, family rules, in order to effectively cultivate a good family style, in order to guide future generations to cultivate morality, for their adult life path to lay a moral foundation. In ancient China, Qing officials grew from a young and ignorant child to a model of feudal officials and honest officials, and their qualities such as abiding by the law, worrying about the country and the people, and being honest and upright were not produced out of thin air, but were shaped by long-term family education, such as Yang Zhen of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who angrily rebuked the bribers with "heaven knows, God knows, I know, self-knowledge", and also made an example for future generations to resist corruption and serve honesty with the way of ruling the family with the way of leaving money is not as good as leaving clean. In the Ming Dynasty, Yu Qian was born into a family of officials and eunuchs, his grandfather was strong and loyal, his father was kind and charitable, Yu Qian was deeply influenced by the words and deeds of his elders, and when he was young, he wrote the eternal sentence of "shattering his bones and not being afraid, he must stay innocent in the world", vowing to be a loyal and patriotic minister, love the people, and adhere to the great righteousness of the country and national integrity.

The Ideal of Qingguan of the Inner Saint and Outer King: The Shaping of the Subject of the Formation of the Personality Force of the Qingguan

Attaching importance to honor and honor is the life creed of ancient Chinese scholars. They always regard "my three provinces and my body" as the basic requirement of strict self-discipline, and at the same time, there is no lack of desire in their hearts to be famous for thousands of years and to be passed down through the ages, which is the so-called "determination and holiness are holy, and determination and wisdom are virtuous.".

Throughout ancient and modern times, people always have different views of fame and fortune, especially the values of "meritorious service, speech, and morality" advocated by Confucianism, which has affected the psychological state of scholars. They believe that a good reputation can better reflect the style and bones of the scholars. Therefore, shaping their personality strength through self-examination and self-discipline has become their life pursuit.

For example, Hai Rui regards "must be a sage, not for the countryside" as his goal of life; Zeng Guofan comes from the province through the "thirteen daily lessons" every day, purifies his soul through "studying a few" every day, and admonishes himself to restrain greed and constantly introspect and change his true colors so that his incorruptible nature will not change color and not deviate. In the feudal era, under the atmosphere of extravagant and serious officialdom, successive generations of Qing officials were still able to adhere to the pure land in their hearts, not to collude with corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and to have the courage to fight against unhealthy trends, because the main body of The Qing officials could always strictly restrain themselves with the moral standards of "inner saint and outer king", use their own "purity" to purify the "turbidity" of the official field and society, use words and deeds to impress the people, and make this way of behavior a habit, so as to achieve the purpose of saving the world and saving the country and the people.

The ancients said: "Taking history as a mirror can know the rise and fall, and using people as a mirror can know gains and losses." While deeply understanding the profound connotation of the personality strength of the qing officials in ancient China and carrying out modern inheritance, we should also adhere to the historical attitude of "choosing those who are good and following them, and those who are not good and going away", giving full play to their positive role and learning from them, inheriting and carrying forward them in the practice of the new era, and making every effort to promote the comprehensive and strict management of the party to develop in depth, so as to gather strength for the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

(Author Affilications:Special Researcher of Jiangsu Xi Jinping Research Center for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, School of Marxism, Nantong University)