Comparative Study Of The Political Thought In "The Analects" And "The Republic”

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and the Age of Greek City respectively lies at the beginning of the development of Chinese and western political thought.The two political thoughts entered the peak period simultaneously and completely developed in parallel in space and shared something in common in Ethical and political ideas.The similaritity of early human civilization is notable than the difference of that because of human homology which has the same mental principle and material form,which lays the foundation of the comparative analysis of “The analects” and “The Republic”.Three-dimensional comparative analysis is made to both classics from political thinking,political order and political personality to roundly display the panorama of the political thought in them.Different ways of expression of the two classics form the two thinking models of empiricism and transcendentalism.As ideographic systems,noun-centered Chinese language with sentence in chronicle style makes Chinese people form the preference of scattering thinking and seeking governance becomes the intention of thinking of “The analects”.As phonographic system,Greek language with the verb-centered SVO sentence pattern makes Greeks form the preference of focusing thinking and exploring the essence of City becomes the purpose of thinking of “The Republic”.Analogism with representation of metaphor becomes the common thinking method of the two classics.Confucian Polaris Metaphor shows the governmental thinking of “Humanitarian administration is the most important” statically while Platonic navigation metaphor shows the regime thinking of “polis justices” dynamically,which become the circulation of combat confusion and that of regime in political order in political order.In analogism,holistic approach is applied in both classics to hold their respective world.Confucius forms “instinct quality once established,principles be produced”,the political tradition of pragmatism,in the choice between the principal and the subordinate.As is shown as “shi wu wei xing” in “The analects”,i.e.starting with behavior and ending with speech andConfucius focuses on exploring the principle of political order in an principled way so that moral personality is shaped.Plato forms “Logos”,the political tradition of rationalism,in the choice of the internal and the external.As is shown as “shi wu wei yan” in “The Republic”,i.e.speeches are both what starts and ends with and Plato focuses on The Soul of Justice's exploring mode of the political order,so that intelligent personality is shaped.As a result,Dialectics is Political dialectics in China and Philosophical dialectics in Greek.Different ways of thinking in the two classics construct two political orders of ritual and idea.Authority was born in family,the most basic social organization once primitive society begun and “The analects” and “The Republic” both constructs perfect political order with families being the starting point.Based on “housekeeping”,“The Analects”politicizes ethical ideas and provides value basis of rites and music for political order,so that ritual collapse certainly leads to the political chaos.That benevolence is the core of rite is what Confucius builds old ideas into new ones,based on which denying self and returning to propriety salvation is put forward.Physical-mental balanced personal order and family order are built and enlarged to be state order and world order.Based on“abolishing family”,“The Republic” ethicizes political idea and provides value basis for political order so that Ruler's soul corruption would collapse the order of City.The Republic is reasoned from the top idea of “good”,based on which Plato puts forward salvation claim of communism and communal education and proves the just live the happiest by means of structural analogy made between City and soul.“Harmony” is the common target of the perfect order constructed by the two classics.Pragmatic Confucius rebuilds capital order from the close to the distant in hopes that the ruler could self-cultivate to get harmonious monarch-subject relationship.So that unity could be achieved inside hierarchy and harmonious coexistence with ruled class be achieved by raising,benefiting and educating and stilling the people.Reasoning Plato rebuilds soul order from external to internal in hopes that the ruled and ruler escort could be induced to each take his place and perform his duty by means of Noble Lie.So that overall harmony of City could be achieved and the brave Defender could be cultivated to be Police Dog by the intelligent Protector to protect herds and unity of hierarchy could be guaranteed.“Distribution” is the important means to achieve perfect order.Confucius puts forward the claim of justification on the basis of the principle of harmony since it is based on moral and emphasizes equality while Plato pus forward the idea of justice on the basis of the principle of that division is determined by reason since it is based on skill and emphasizes efficiency.Different value orders in the two classics mold two personality types of moral and knowledge.Confucius claiming Rule by Virtue focuses on “a saint inside and a king outside” and divides people into five kinds of moral personality in “The analects”— sage,virtue,gentleman,scholar and villain.With the political appeal of the unity of virtue and position,moral personality is represented by “liberty culture”.Plato claiming rule by intelligence focuses on “perfecting soul” and divides rulers into five kinds of knowledge personality in “The Republic” — the kingly,the timocratical,the oligarchical,the democratical and the tyrannical.With the political idea of the unity of virtue and fortune,knowledge personality is represented by “military culture”.For perfect ruler,Confucius basing on history constructs sage-king who thinks on the basis of the world while Plato constructs philosopher-king who perfects his soul.As virtue model,sage-king is the embodiment of human moral in world order while philosopher-king is the embodiment of human intelligence in idea order.For eligible assistant ruler,Confucius constructs gentleman being cultivated by liberty culture and as the elite being cultivated personally,gentleman could move forward and backward freely when assisting ruling,as is summarized by Mencius as “In poverty,one should still hold himself to a high standard;when prosperous,one should contribute to the wellbeing of all.” Plato constructs Defender who governs people by force.As soldiers being educated and trained by City,Defender could become both philosopher-king and descend to wolves biting herbs at the same time.For the ruled,Confucius and Plato both tacitly approve the legitimacy of pursuing profits by villains and producers.But in the ideological subject people's inquiring,Confucius is inquired as subject of a kingdom while Plato is inquired as citizen.Political culture of subject of a kingdom focuses on “for the people” but not “by the people”,as establishesthe tradition of people-oriented Chinese politics.Civic political culture focuses on “by the people” but not “for the people”,as establishes the tradition of western democracy.Based on texts,this thesis with the second volume being the introductory theory,views from political thinking,political order and political personality,inspects the two classics and discovers that “The Republic” and “The analects” are coincident in compiling sequence and conception.“The analects”,with “learning proficiency for officialdom”being the introductory part,finishes in the finals of “He that knows not what he is,thinks not a gentleman”.Confucius teaches people to be gentleman consistently in the entire dialogue.“The Republic” begins with the talk between Socrates and Glaucon and Adeimantus in volume two and ends with the talk between Socrates and them,neatly answering the questions they raised in volume two.The entire dialogue begins with “what is justice” and ends with “The just live the happiest.” Plato teaches people to be a sage in the entire dialogue.In the sight of the two Philosophers,there will not be perfect people and perfect politics unless there is perfect personality,as is one of the most important Political and cultural heritage of the two classics.From Mencius and Aristotle on,eastern and western thinkers had discussed a lot about how people acquire political knowledge and how people adapt to political life,which went down to 1960 s when political socialization became the important field of politics study.So when tracing to the source of the subject or touching on “reproduction of relations of production”,people will invariably think of the insight of “self-cultivate and govern simultaneously” in “The analects” and“The Republic”.