The Bias and Consequences of Prioritizing Public Morality over Private Morality in Modern China

Abstract According to definitions put forward by modern Western scholars, personal morality refers to conduct or qualities that concern only oneself and do not involve others. In ancient China, however, most virtues were not purely individual matters but were closely tied to one’s attitudes toward others. As for public morality, traditional Chinese society did possess certain forms of it, but these differed from the public ethics and etiquette as understood in modern social and civic life. Liang Qichao was influenced by Japan’s modern emphasis on public morality, but his advocacy for “public morality” focused primarily on civic morality, namely political morality, whereas Japan’s approach centered on general social morality. Although civic and social morality can both be understood as “public morality,” a stable and mature modern society relies more fundamentally on the latter to maintain order. China’s unique modernization trajectory has led to an overemphasis on political-civic morality, overshadowing the conceptual development and societal promotion of social ethics. The core issue lies in how political morality has replaced, marginalized, and even abolished personal morality, while social morality has been similarly neglected. This has disrupted the proper balance between political, social, and private morality. To rethink contemporary moral discourse in China, it is imperative to restore the independence and significance of personal morality, while actively cultivating a culture of social morality.