The difference between the Dharma and the Confucian concept
Using "force" and "technique" as means to eliminate and overcome the typical Dharma thoughts of man and self. To brand "self-awareness" as a private concept.
The personal self, the material desire, and the realism of calculation everywhere, so as to base on the utilitarian outlook on life, society, and nature, have led to the emergence of ideas of good and bad work, seeking advantage and avoiding harm, and survival and death. However, at the same time, the concept of advocating competition, paying attention to strength, and paying attention to the rule of law has great theoretical and practical values to promote social development and scientific and technological progress.
The sages have a duty of life and death, and have nothing to fear, so they do not care about life or death. The vulgar people are afraid of many things, and they are easy to move. The nobles of the Jin Dynasty lacked to say: integrity, use, and welfare are called three things. Zhengde refers to the right character; use refers to the use of convenience devices, but also refers to the invention and improvement of various tools and utensils; and health care refers to the enrichment of life. Zhengde is to improve the spiritual life, and utilization and welfare are to improve the material life.
Uncle Shen, a nobleman of the Chu State, said: The people's livelihood is thick and virtuous, and the use of profits is modest. Qi Guoyan said: Husbands and wives, born thick and profitable, so Hu Zhengde is generous. That is to say, utilization and welfare are the foundation of righteousness, and zhengde is the purpose of utilization and welfare, and when virtue is correct, we can also restrain the use and welfare.
This is the fundamental difference and conflict between values, Confucianism emphasizes righteousness over profit, reveres virtue and low power, and the Legalists emphasize profit over righteousness and Shangli dethronement.
"Sincerity" is the foundation of the five constants and the source of a hundred actions. The dry road changes, each is righteous, and the sincerity is standing. Natural change has its own order, which is the sincerity of the heavenly way; human behavior is moral, which is the sincerity of humanity. Zhang Zai believes that there is a sequence of births, so it is a heavenly order, small and large, and dwarfed by each other, which is a wrong rank. The creatures of heaven are also orderly, and the creatures have both form and rank. Knowing the order and then practicing the right, knowing the rank and then performing the ritual.
Han Feizi said: The ancients competed for morality, the Middle Ages competed for wisdom, and today they compete for strength.
By extension, this is also true for a country. As Yan Yuan said: "Justify their friendship for their own benefit, and know their way and count their merits"; Wang Chong said: "There are two ways to govern the country, one is to cultivate virtue, and the other is to cultivate strength. Those who cultivate virtue, those who are famous, to show that they can respect the virtuous; Those who cultivate strength, those who nourish their strength, can use soldiers with clarity. This so-called civil and martial arts can be set, and the moral strength is also sufficient. Things may be virtuous or destructive. Independence from external virtue, self-preparation with internal strength. Fu De cannot rule the country alone, and he cannot directly serve to resist the enemy.
Xinhai Guan tide 2021.10.28