孔子道德本位的社会秩序论

Confucius’ View of Morality-based Social Order

春秋末期处于社会失范状态,孔子提出以道德为本的整合社会秩序的主张。道德本位相对于武力本位、刑罚本位而言。孔子以为,由乱而治,最重要的措施是维护和重建“周礼”所确立的道德秩序,对人们施以道德教化,调节社会行为,以此化解现存社会问题。推行道德教化的主体是君子,作为外在社会规范的“礼”和人的内在自我完善属性的“仁”则相辅相成,共同构成道德教化的主要内容。

In the last stage of Spring and Autumn period, the society was in complete anomie, and the social order was in turbulence. At this Confucius put forward his idea of reconstructing morality-based social order. In Confucius’ view, the most important measure was to reestablish the moral order that had been constituted in the beginning of Chou Dynasty but had deteriorated in order to moralize the people and solve the existing social problems. The social moralization was to be mainly conducted by the gentlemen (“Qun zi”), and the most important factors for the moralization were love (“Jen”) and propriety in social behaviour( “Li” ).