儒家经典中的“诚”与“信”

Sincerity and Credit in the Classics of Confucianism

"诚"与"信"在儒家经典中是两个既有联系又有区别的概念:"诚"侧重于内心的真诚不欺,"信"侧重于外在的践行承诺。儒家提倡"诚"与"信"的统一,即"内诚外信",但更重视的是"诚",因此在二者发生矛盾时为了"诚"甚至可以牺牲"信"。这种观念迄今对国人的诚信观仍是有影响的,因此在对大学生的诚信教育中,既要重视道德诚信,也不能忽视契约诚信。

Sincerity and credit are two related concepts in the classics of Confucianism, but they are different ideas： the former mainly expresses honesty in the heart while the latter expresses the actions to keep one＇ s word. What the Confucians advocate is to unify both of them, but they place more emphasis on the sincerity, so they think that the credit may be given up once it conflicts with sincerity. This idea still has a great influence on current Chinese, so we should pay attention to both moral integrity and contract credibility equally in the student education.