First of all, the influence of Christian belief and Confucianism has resulted in the different work ethics in two cultures. American people are influenced by the protestant work ethics, which, to put it simple, can be summarized as “work hard to indicate god’s favor.” Protestant is a branch of Christianity. It began to take shape and finally break away from the control of Roman Catholic Church during the Reformation. As the capitalism was burgeoning in Europe, the newly-raised burgeons want to simplify the ritualistic and luxurious ceremony hold by the church so that more money could be invested to economic development. Instead of considering the priest as the middle man, they believed that man could find salvation and be connected with god by their own interpretation of Bible. Everyone’s fate is destined by god and one can only work extremely hard to indicate that you are god’s chosen people. American people are famous workaholic. It is not because that they love money and are eager to accumulate wealth to better their life, but also because of the influence the Protestant work ethic. According to the statistics, those multi-millionaires, such as Bill Gates and Michael Dell, all have donated a proportion of their own property to charity. This phonomena can also be explained by the work ethics. This people work hard enough to gather wealth to indicate that they are god’s favorite. Thus, they are endowed with the sense of mission to save the world and help people in need. Their wealth comes from god and they have to give it back to the society to fulfill god’s will. Since more and more people are exerting themselves to get ahead in order to indicate god’s favor, the economy begin to prosper. Following the economic boom is the increasingly fierce competition and the greater economy growth. People have to work harder to survive and the protestant work ethics have always being the driving force.
Unlike Americans’ materialistic work ethics, Chinese people live a quite spiritual life. The notion of “proper conduct” is more important than the accumulation of wealth. The proper conduct is a general term which includes every virtue that is required for a person to be a “junzi”, which means an exemplary person. Among them are, filial piety, the rectification of names, the harmony of character and emotions, the respect of ritual propriety etc. Those ideals become the driving force for Chinese people to achieve the higher form of self-cultivation. They believes that only in achieving the proper conduct and achieve self-cultivation can they be affiliated to the “tian” so that his spirit can become a part of family legacy and be passed on to the next generation. . Everyone can get nearer to god through self-cultivation. Some one who has got the correct way of doing things and keeps correcting his way of doing things according certain rules can present the “tian” and demonstrate “tian”. For example, Confucius can be regarded as an example of “tian”. In 19.22, 19.23 and 19.24, there are sentences like these “the master’s wall, on the other hand, is massive, rising some twenty or thirty feet in the air. Without gaining entry through the gate, one cannot see the magnificence of the ancestral temple on the lavishness of the estate inside.” “The superior character of other people is like a mound or a hill which can still be scaled, but Confucius as a symbol of god for his character and his proper way of doing things.” As a result, people pay more attention to the spiritual cultivation rather than the materialist well-being, considering the moral virtue the ideal of life. In 4.5The Master said, "Riches and honors are what men desire. If they cannot be obtained in the proper way, they should not be held. Poverty and meanness are what men dislike. If they cannot be avoided in the proper way, they should not be avoided.
"If a superior man abandons virtue, how can he fulfill the requirements of that name?
"The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it." From this, we can see the emphasis on the proper conduct rather than the accumulation of wealth. If you can not avoid poverty in a proper and upright way, you have to accept it contentedly, for you haven’t done anything that is going to undermine your spiritual well-being.
to be continued