| Four Cardinal Principles and Eight Virtues | |||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 四維八德 | ||||||||||||||
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TheFour Cardinal Principles and Eight Virtues are a set ofLegalist (and laterConfucian) foundational principles of morality. The Four Cardinal Principles are propriety (禮), righteousness (義), integrity (廉), and shame (恥). The Eight Virtues are loyalty (忠), filial piety (孝), benevolence (仁), love (愛), honesty (信), justice (義), harmony (和), and peace (平).[1][2]
| Four Cardinal Principles | |||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 禮、義、廉、恥 | ||||||||||||||
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The Four Cardinal Principles are also referred to as thefundamental principles of conduct, orfour social bonds. They are derived from theLegalist textGuanzi, attributed to theQi philosopherGuan Zhong, although it is unlikely he was the actual author. The Four Cardinal Principles can be understood as the following:
In some renderings of the principles, the concept ofchi is replaced with honour (耻).[2][1]
In a speech in 1934, GeneralissimoChiang Kai-shek invoked the importance of the four principles as a guide for theNew Life Movement.[5] The movement was an attempt to reintroduceConfucian principles into everyday life in China as a means to create national unity and act as a bulwark against communism.
The four pockets on aSun Yat-sen-style suit jacket are said to represent these four principles.[6]
| Eight Virtues | |||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 忠、孝、仁、愛、信、義、和、平 | ||||||||||||||
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The Eight Virtues were taken from a speech made by the late ChineseNationalist statesman DrSun Yat-sen, founding president of the ROC, as he was outlining hisThree Principles of the People.
| Chinese original | English translation |
|---|---|
| 講到中國固有的道德，中國人至今不能忘記的，首是忠孝，次是仁愛，其次是信義，其次是和平。這些舊道德，中國人至今還是常講的。但是現在受外來民族的壓迫，侵入了新文化，那些新文化的勢力，此刻橫行中國，一般醉心新文化的人，便排斥舊道德，以為有了新文化，便可以不要舊道德。不知道我們固有的東西，如果是好的，當然是要保存，不好的才可以放棄。此刻中國正是新舊潮流相衝突的時候，一般國民都無所適從。[7] | "What are China's time-honored virtues? Loyalty and filial piety come first. Then we have love, faithfulness, and love of peace. Some who crave the new form of civilization want to throw away these virtues. They say that these old relics have no place in modern civilization. They are wrong, however; because China can ill afford to lose these previous virtues."[8] |
The influence of the Eight Virtues is particularly obvious inTaiwan, where many major streets in larger cities are named for them.