Abstract: Chinese ethics is a concept with cultural specialty. Based on the life world of Chinese people, it takes advantage of Chinese language and Chinese ways of thinking and knowing. However, it should reveal universal principles in universal issues. The principles valid both in ancient and modern times that we explore and reveal are certainly not about the ritual hierarchy in a patriarchal clan system, but are consistent with the mainstream of human civilization today. Chinese ethics should be in a plural rather than simple form. Chinese ethics should be written with various personal characteristics. Only at the forefront of the age and based on the reality can Chinese ethics today create its own discourse of the time. In order to write a vital Chinese ethics of the time, we should insist on the distinction between "what it is" and "what it should be", the objective certainty of the standard of moral values, the unity of ethics and morality, that of mind order and life order, and that of China in particular and human beings as a whole.

Key words: Chinese ethics, discourse, rewriting Chinese ethics