Abstract: The development of Confucianism in the past two thousand years has two clues: the main line is the problem of moral practice, which has existed since Confucius founded Confucianism; the auxiliary line is the problem of moral existence, which was gradually formed after the Song Dynasty under the influence of Buddhism. Ming Dao not only introduces the principle of heaven and opens up the direction of the study of heart, but also embodies in the area of moral existence. After Heng Qu, Ming Dao’s idea of “a benevolent person is in harmony with things” formally unfolds the lineage of moral existence, giving shape to the overall pattern of Confucian moral practice and moral existence as one main and one subsidiary threads. The statement that “things cannot extend themselves, but human can”contains the profound implication that the subject of constructing moral existence can only be human, not heaven. There are many different understandings about the moral being theory, and one of the focus is how to treat the nature of the subject of the creation of moral being.
Key words: Confucianist;Ming Dao;moral existence;Shengsheng Ethics of Confucianism
The Chinese version appeared in The Central Plains Culture Research, 2022,(02).