A Preliminary Study on the Thought of "Sincerity" in Zhengmeng
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jmsd.202412614
Author(s)
Ma Chengxiang
Affiliation(s)
School of Philosophy and Social Development, Northwest University of Political Science and Law, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China
Abstract
As one of the classic expressions in the ontology of Confucian philosophy, "sincerity" is not only mentioned repeatedly in the pre-Qin classics, but also plays an important role in the development of new Confucianism after the Tang Dynasty. As a representative of this tradition, "Zhengmeng" inherits this tradition. It interprets "sincerity" at the ontological level as "continuous and uninterrupted" and "no deception and no deception", and uses it to explain the changes in the universe and various phenomena in people's daily lives, and derives the ultimate value destination of the whole existence. In this regard, "sincerity" also has two meanings at this level of effort: "When sitting in meditation and cultivating, keep the inner goodness uninterruptedly" and "When interacting with others, keep the purpose simple without selfishness." The former is the inevitable product of the maturity of ontological thinking, and the latter is the specific operational wisdom in a specific situation. Finally, when the individual's effort reaches perfection, he will reach the corresponding realm. The state of the realm will be manifested at the two levels of "ontology" and "universe". "Zhengmeng" pays less attention to the former, but has a wonderful discussion on the latter.
Keywords
Zhengmeng; Sincerity; Theory of Effort; Theory of Realm
References
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[3].Zhang Zai (author), Wang Fuzhi (notes), Tang Qinfu (introduction), Zhang Zizhengmeng [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House
