Abstract: Ethics and "morality" have been regarded as similar concepts that can replace each other in the ethic circle for a long time. However, this was not true in history. They were different in ancient Greece and Hegel even strictly made a distinction between them. The Chinese terms respectively for ethics and morality, that is, lunli(or renlun) and daode, did appear in ancient China. Ethics means objective human relationships, in which people love the beloved and respect the senior, while morality means the duties of an individual in accordance to his or her ethical roles, which shall be internalized as virtues through cultivation. Morality thrives with right ethics and declines when ethics is in disorder. That is to say, the chaos of ethics leads to moral disorder. It is of great theoretical and practical significance to examine the difference and connection between ethics and morality. It is the premise as well as the starting point of generalizing the ethics in ancient China. Meanwhile, it provides logic and experiential foundation for discussing moral issues such as the "unity of Heaven and human", the "distinction between the mind-heart(xin) and nature(xing)", the "distinction between righteousness(yi) and profit(li)" and the "distinction between harmony(he) and sameness(tong)". By inheriting the tradition in a critical way, we can find out appropriate subject for today's Chinese ethics and hence provide an indispensable theoretical premise for rewriting Chinese ethics as well as theoretical foundation for moral construction. The distinction between ethics and morality can serve as an important "theoretical paradigm" for rewriting Chinese ethics.

Key words: ethics and morality, ethic entity, ethics as the essence, ethic spirit