A Comparative Study Of The Educational Ethics Of Confucius And Jesus

With the development of globalization,the cultural exchange between east and west is becoming more and more frequent.Confucius is one of the important Chinese traditional cultures.Christianity consists of the main part of western culture.Therefore,the comparison between Confucius and Christianity becomes obviously necessary.With the development of history,the original meaning might be altered by the authorities to adjust to the requirement of the special times.Thus,the original meaning may not be the same.Just as a saying in The Analects “Not the men justified by Tao but Tao is justified by men.” In order to reach the nature of Confucius and Christianity,we should analyze the founders of these two culture— Confucius and Jesus.Of course,the comparison of the two could from various perspectives.But considering both figures are teachers and dedicates their lives to ethical education.Therefore,it is necessary to explore their ethical thoughts in education.The Culture is natured by environment and history,so in order to get a better understanding of Confucius and Jesus,we should first explore their living environment at that time and their personal experiences.Confucius was born in a turbulent period called Spring and Autumn Period and he was raised mainly by his mother.His political career was not smooth.All such elements contribute to his harsh and modest personality,meanwhile he also held a positive attitude towards life and loving ancient culture.Jesus was a Jew and lived under the rule of Roman empire,so he gradually had a rebellious and pious personality.What`s more,he also showed great benevolence to people,because the process of education is an interaction behavior.After analyzing historic background and the feature of educational subjects,the educational objects should also be analyzed.The author picks two pairs of their students to analyze,ZiLu and Peter;ZaiWo and Judah.They may not their teachers' favorite students but their behavor definitely reflect the ethic educational thought of Confucius and Jesus.The interaction between educational subjects and objects involve educational content.The educational content of Confucius and Jesus includes two aspects.One is moral education,the other is ritual.“wisdom”,“benevolence “and “braveness” are main moral educational content of Confucius.“faith”,“love” and “hope” are main moral educational content of Jesus.Moral education is an abstract concept,so it needs some form to apply.Confucius brings moral education in “Six Skills”.Jesus uses Sacrament to perform moral education.In order to better impart morality,some educational skills should be employed.The educational skills of Confucius can be divided into two kinds.One is forward direction,which is teaching students according their aptitude.The other is backward direction,which uses shame as a way to teach students.The educational skill of Jesus can also be divided into two kinds.one is directly preach.The other is to employ miracles and metaphor as ways to educate students.The final aim of Confucius and Jesus is to nurture an ideal perfect personality,for Confucius which is called “Junzi” and the ideal state for them is to be sage inside and to be a king outside.The perfect personality for Jesus is righteousness.The righteous people believe in God and seek heaven life as their final destination.Through analysis of the educational ethic thoughts of Confucius and Jesus,we could see the similarities and differences between eastern and western education and probably handle the relationship among Confucius,Jesus and Marxism to construct the educational ethic thought system with Chinese feature according to Chinese situation.