Cultivate Moral Integrity and Good Conduct

This means that one should cultivate him/herself and manage interpersonal relations well. The idea is fully expressed in The Great Learning (Da Xue), a Confucian classic. According to the book, everyone from the ruler of a state to ordinary people should cultivate morality first by studying things, then acquiring knowledge, being sincere in thought, and rectifying one's heart. This empowers people to identify the principles of all things, expand knowledge, and then cultivate virtues such as uprightness and good faith. Then, the book offers the three steps to conduct oneself in society after achieving self-cultivation: manage one's family well, govern the state properly, and bring peace to all under heaven. In short, self-cultivation is the prerequisite and foundation for participation in society, and an important way to realize self-cultivation is by participating in society. A person lacking moral integrity cannot easily manage relations with others, and a person living in isolation can hardly achieve meaningful self-cultivation.

The concept reflects the general attitude of the Chinese towards self-cultivation and interpersonal relations. In history, the Chinese have accumulated considerable wisdom on how to cultivate moral integrity and conduct oneself in society, which injects confidence, endurance, and strength into Chinese culture.

修身處世

修身處世，即修養(yǎng)好自身的德行，處理好與他者的關(guān)系，這一理念集中體現(xiàn)在儒家經(jīng)典《大學(xué)》中。關(guān)于“修身”，《大學(xué)》強(qiáng)調(diào)，上自國(guó)家元首，下至平民百姓，人人都要以修養(yǎng)品性為根本。要做到修身，需要首先做好格物、致知、誠(chéng)意、正心，就是要盡可能地研究清楚萬(wàn)事萬(wàn)物的道理，拓展自身的認(rèn)知，進(jìn)而讓自己的意念真誠(chéng)篤實(shí)、心思端正無(wú)邪。關(guān)于“處世”，《大學(xué)》提出了齊家、治國(guó)、平天下的次第，就是要為管理好家族、治理好國(guó)家、把和平與秩序帶給天下作出應(yīng)有的貢獻(xiàn)。總體而言，修身是處世的根本和基礎(chǔ)，一個(gè)人如果德行不好，很難處理好與他者的關(guān)系；處世也是修身的重要方法，一個(gè)人如果離群索居、遠(yuǎn)離他者， 很難談得上有意義的修身。

修身處世是中國(guó)人如何要求自己、對(duì)待他人的基本態(tài)度。在歷史上，中國(guó)人積累了大量修身處世的智慧，賦予中華文明獨(dú)特的自信、耐力與定力。