On Moral Life of Scholars in the Qing Dynasty

Because the living situations of the scholars in the Qing Dynasty who had accepted Chinese traditional education differed from one to another, their moral life was more complicated than that of the scholars who lived in previous dynasties. With the development of commodity economy and the ruling of the Manchu people, scholars in the Qing Dynasty had to reconsider the ideas of justice, profits, rightness, desires, and political ethics that were previous advocated by Confucius, so as to adapt their own ethical behaviors to the changed actual life. Meanwhile, they also expressed their attitude towards the ruling of the Manchu people which was influenced by their ethnic consciousness and morality.