중국인의 문화와 사상

A Study on the Chinese culture and thought

"While the social philosophy of the Occident was built on individ ualism, that of Confucianism was built on mutual relationship and ethics. In a scene of conflict of social interests and individual ones, therefore, Oriental societies give consideration to the former before t he latter." This connotes Confucians lay stress on ethics and harm ony. Governors of the ancient Chinese society had maintained publi c order by ethics built on feudal code of clan regulations, so they n aturally value much of moral education. The Confucian said, "People ruled by punishment are shameless. But people ruled by virtue and regulated by courtesy respect therns elves and eventually attain the stage of good." This means, on the one hand, people will have no sense of shame on their crime if you rule them by politics and law. But on the other hand, it also me ans people will have a sense of shame and conscience when they a re ruled by ethics and inspired with virtue. It' s a typical assertion of the thought of benevolent government, which lays more weight on the education of ethics than on law, and pursued by Chinese rulers of many generations. This is the reason we find ideas of Chinese morality or mental characteristics in their system of vocabulary.