Abstract
Voluntary service refers to the social public welfare in which human kinds take part in social activities, facilitate social progress and push forward human development of their own free will for no material or any spiritual rewards. Yet, volunteer spirit refers to a sort of altruistic and voluntary attitude or concept for public welfare but not for any reward. This sort of concept has something different in approach but equally satisfactory in results with the thought of “universal love” by Mo-tse. The thought of “universal love” by Mo-tse is a kind of thought that is altruistic, mutual love and mutual benefit, which comes down in one continuous line with the thought of “universal love” by Mo-tse. Of course, connotation of the volunteer spirit we are going to mention can no longer be contained by the thought of “universal love”. To a certain extent, these two have something in common.Based on love for the entire human kind, Mo-tse advocated that the universal love could transfer people’s self-interest, that human kind expanded their love of themselves to love of others, extended their care of the land of the living to each class and hierarchy under obedience to the “will of the heaven”, and gradually re-established the social order that had gradually lost its order. He expected to change the atmosphere at that time in which people struggled with and invaded each other through promotion of the thought of “universal love”. Mo-tse invented the theory of “universal love”, and resorted to the target of “mutual love and mutual benefit” to convince the king at ancient times to play their role of “where the wind passes, the grass bends”, so as to direct people in making contributions and showing fraternal love and mutual benefit and reciprocity. Therefore, his concentrated attention and efforts were clearly known. Through our analysis of the thought of “universal love” and explanation of the volunteer spirit, we can find out the similarities and differences lying between the two, which helps us to better understand the connotation volunteer spirit and explore, therefrom, the ideological succession relationship of traditional Chinese moral culture implied.
Highlights
Voluntary service refers to the social public welfare in which human kinds take part in social activities, facilitate social progress and push forward human development of their own free will for no material or any spiritual rewards
The thought of “universal love” by Mo-tse was established in the worldly reality with the ultimate care of “will of God”, and constructed a universal world with “mutual love and mutual benefit”, with the “universal love” as the foundation to re-construct the society
Mo-tse firmly believed that human being had the capacity of exercising universal love
Summary
In foreign countries, volunteer spirit is usually expounded as an altruism and charity spirit, which refers to a sort of social principle in which an individual or a team depends on their own free will and interest to pursue the goal of assisting others and improving the society but not for personal gains or rewards. Volunteer spirit is the general term of the standards, principles and ideas with universal value that has been gradually formed by volunteers in the voluntary service social practice This sort of standards, principles and ideas can be summarized in an abstract way as dedication, fraternal love, mutual assistance and progress, etc. In China, the volunteer spirit is concentratedly embodied as “dedication, fraternal love, mutual assistance and progress” This inherits the traditional virtue of the Chinese people to be forward to help others and to support the poor and those impoverished, and reflects the objective requirements of socialist ideological and ethical progress, so it is the soul and core of voluntary service and is the internal motive and spiritual support for voluntary activities to be held effectively in the long run. It can be seen that, the essence of the volunteer spirit is the conscious attempt of human beings based on certain consciousness of the community, consciousness of care (altruistic spirit), consciousness of responsibility, consciousness of participation, consciousness of cooperation and spirit of dedication --- individual preferences (such as, freedom, voluntariness, pursuit of the significance and value of life). (Chen Xueming, 2006)
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