European Journal of Social Sciences Studies issn 2501-8590

3. Regarding the nature, the inherent character of human and the human morality
 
3.1 Regarding human nature 
Human nature is what separates humans from animals. The reason why humans are 
separated from the life of animals is that human nature is formed in relation to the 
community and society. Confucianists have explained a lot about human nature and also 
formed two opposing views between the two schools of idealism and materialism. 
According to the idealist school, Mencius said that, thanks to “goodness” that 
people can perform three fundamental bonds and five constant virtues; understand the 
moral relationships between the king and officials, father and son, husband and wife, 
upper and lower. Accordingly, officials must be absolutely loyal to the king, the wife 
must absolutely obey and be faithful to her husband, the relationship between upper and 
lower must be hierarchical and order. According to Mencius, those must do this to be 
called human beings. He said that 
the implementation of “Universal Love” (jiān'ài, 
兼愛
) (the doctrine of Mozi) or “Egoism” (the doctrine of Yang Zhu) is very the beast. This 
view of Mencius, later developed by Song dynasty theorists, they said that it was human 
nature to perceive “Virtues” (ie Humanity 
- Righteousness - Propriety - Wisdom), that 
meant, to perceive the religion of being a servant, a wife, and a child. 
Looking back over the development of the Chinese feudal system, we realize the 
view that human nature must have “goodness” has become the feudal moral standard. 
The feudal classes used this point of view as a basis for moral education for all classes of 
people in order to keep their dominant position, enslave and dominate the people. 
Contrary to the above idealistic views, three typical representatives have given 
very rich and diverse materialistic views on human nature. Those are XunZi, MoZi and 
Dai Zhen. XunZi said that humans are different from animals in that they have 
“Righteousness”, surpass animals in that they know “sociality”, so you can control the 
animal. Mozi said that humans are different from animals in that they have labor. Thanks 
to labor, people know how to cultivate to eat, weave cloth to wear, build houses to live 
in. Meanwhile, all animals only know how to use their fur to make clothes, rely on nature 
for food and drink, but cannot create it themselves. This was a very progressive 
viewpoint, because he was a representative of the handicraft class, he saw the role of 
labor in shaping human nature. In the Qing Dynasty, Dai Zhen said that humans differed 
from animals in that they used consciousness instead of instinct.