A Comparison Between Confucius And Jesus' Political Ethics

With the deepening of Chinese and western cultural exchange, the dialogue of the both Culture has gradually from the material level, system level to the spirit level.As the spiritual kernel of Chinese and western culture, the comparison of Confucianism and Christianity plays an important role in the communication of Chinese and western ethical culture. As the founders of Confucianism and Christianity, assessment of the political ethics thought of Confucius and Jesus, can be better understood the similarities and differences between Chinese and western political ethics thought.Comparing the political ethics thought of Confucius and Jesus, the author of this paper study mainly the Analects and the New Testament Four Gospels, and attempts to explore the political ethics in terms of the origin,the ontology,the principle, the system and the deal.The theory of political ethics origin is the origin of Confucius and Jesus political ethics thought which mainly embodied in three aspects:the era background, the ideological source and political experience. First of all, Confucius’s and Jesus’s political ethics thought is produced under the influence of the era background. Confucius’s political ethics thought is generated under the background of political disorder and the emergence of humanism. The political ethics thought of Jesus is influenced by the Hellenistic Palestinian, political situation in the Palestinian and political attitudes between jewish factions, growing expectation to jewish messiah and unique environment in the galilee area north of the Palestinian. Second, political ethics thought of Confucius and Jesus also has a rich thought source, the thought of Confucius inherited from xia-shang-zhou dynasties, especially the ritual, rule of virtue and people-oriented concept in the zhou dynasty.And as jews, the idea of Jesus must be deeply influenced by Judaism, which subtly shaped Jesus’s words and deeds; John the Baptist as the pioneer of the "kingdom of movement", his idea also will inevitably have an effect on Jesus. Also in the flow of the hellenistic jewish society at that time, Jesus also subtly influenced by Greek culture. Once again, Confucius and Jesus of the political experience of ups and downs, sending out a rich ethical implication, also constitutes the origin of the political ethics thought.The theory of political ethics ontology is the foundation of political ethics thought of Confucius and Jesus. To truly understand Confucius and Jesus political ethics thought, it is necessary to start from the foundation, to understand the relationship between the heaven-man and god-man, understanding of human nature. On one hand, the political ethics thought of Confucius and Jesus is rooted in the view of heaven-man and the view of god-man. Confucius’s view of heaven-man is mainly embodied in people derived from nature, human and nature harmony, relations betwwen mandate of heaven and human. While Jesus’s view of god-man are highlighted in three aspects:the creator and creation, redemption and redeemer, father and son. On the other hand, the political ethics thought of Confucius and Jesus are also rooted in the understanding of human nature. Confucius highly trusted humanity, obviously tends to believe human nature is good, and Jesus is very question of human nature, obviously tends to malignant. The theory of political ethics ontology lays the foundation of the political ethics thought of Confucius and Jesus, which fundamentally determines the development of their political and ethical thought system.The theory of political ethical principles is the core of political ethics of Confucius and Jesus, mainly reflected in three aspects:the care of love, the relationship between the individual and the group, the value of righteousness. First, Confucius takes humanistic love as the principle, while Jesus takes god’s love as the principle, the humanistic love is inequal, the fraternity is universal, but both tends to altruism, adhering to the principle of extending one’s own feelings to others. Secondly, Confucius empathizes groups value, and Jesus reveals the individual value,which has also led to obviously different attitude towards the family, the nation and the society. Once again, Confucius considered moral is higher than interest, and Jesus makes moral commander interests, although the connotation of the interests and moral is different, they coincide to advocate the importance of righteousness, and build political ethics through morality and interests. The theory of political ethical principles constitutes the central of the theory of Confucius’s and Jesus’s political ethics system, inherits origin and ontology theory of political ethics, open system and ideal theory of political ethic.The theory of political ethic system is the externalization of the political ethics thought of Confucius and Jesus. After illustrating the theory of political ethical principles, external system must be discussed. The theory of political ethic system first embodied in Confucius’s secular state system and Jesus’holy belief system. Confucius takes secular as foundation to build the system of political ethics, linking politics and secular ethics, on the basis of cultivating one’s morality to put extension outward to governing the country. While Jesus takes the holy faith as the principle to build the system of political ethics, highlighting the strong political and religious theology political color, including politics in the sacred belief, making the holy belief system sends out a unique connotation. Confucius combines politics with education, advocating a king should be centralized political power and education power, setting a good example in the moral training, to influence and guide the public, so as to maintain their own political rule. And Jesus separates politics from religious, advocating politics and religious should be mutually separated, maintaining their independence. The theory of political ethical principles and the theory of political ethic system support each other, jointly forming the core of political ethics thought of Confucius and Jesus.The theory of political ethics ideal is Confucius’s and Jesus’s goal and ultimate pursuit of political ethics thought. Datong as Confucius political ethical ideal matches the analects of Confucius, "rites", "Confucius home language" which records Confucius’ words and deeds, has the feature of multidimensional, and has a profound impact. The kingdom of god as Jesus political ethical ideal, has the profound origin and distinct characteristics. Entering the kingdom of God, one should meet the requirement of the transformation of both the individual and the society. Datong and the kingdom of heaven are the ultimate ideal of Confucius’s and Jesus’s political ethics, are the crystallization of their thoughts, they send out their innovative idea, inspire their motivations, and deeply shape the evolution course of the later Confucianism and Christianity.In a word, Confucius and Jesus as the founders of Confucianism and Christianity, their political ethical thought have a profound impact on Confucianism and Christianity even Chinese and western political ethics thought. Analysis of the similarities and differences of the political ethics thought of Confucius and Jesus, not only help us examine the political ethics thought of the Confucius and Jesus, and but also assist the construction of contemporary Chinese characteristics political ethics system.