‘Disciplining Oneself’and‘Disciplining Others’in Social Life:On the Contemporary Significance of Confucius’s Principle of Loyalty and Reciprocity

摘要

In a moral sense,there is an essential di erence between“disciplining oneself”and“disciplining others”in that the former means one setting rules for and giving orders to oneself in regard to one’s own conduct,which are unconditionally compulsory,while the latter is exible in the sense that one’s rules and orders for oneself are not compulsory to others and cannot prohibit others from doing something.In principle,Confucius’s sayings,“do not impose upon others that which you would not wish for yourself”and“establish others in seeking to establish yourself and promote others in s eeking to promote yourself”have epitomized the line of demarcation between them.His doctrine of“not imposing upon others that which you would not wish for yourself,”though based on self-preservation and self-interest,represents a standard of conduct of highly universal value.If the overwhelming majority of a society follows it as their standard of conduct,refraining from harming others in order to protect oneself from harm,then the whole society will endure little,if not no,strife and struggle.