Preliminary Research Of Ernst Faber's View On Confucianism

Confucianism was formulated by Confucius, and the core of it was humanity. After thousands of years, Confucianism became the backbone of Chinese national spirit. In the history of China, there were four times that Christianity came to China, but Christianity was still excluded from the mainstream culture in China. Many missionaries realized that Confucianism was an important factor in this situation, and one of them was Ernst Faber. Aware of the situation Ernst Faber changed his missionary strategies, decided to do some research in Confucianism and promoted missionary work by criticism and reform to Confucianism.There are four aspects of Ernst Faber's criticism and reform to Confucianism. First, God was dimly known in Confucianism. So, he criticized polytheism, emphasized that everyone should believe in the unique God, and explained"Shangdi"in details with the principle of Christianity. Second, in Ernst Faber's opinion, human nature was either good or bad, and God was the origin of humanity. He also discussed the relation between human nature and humanity, pointed out that Gewu, Zhizhi, Chengyi, Zhengxin played very important part in completion of human nature. Third, Ernst Faber said the five ethics was only the relationship of people in blood, and it's only small part of relationship among men. Because of this he criticized the three cardinal guides fiercely. Four, Confucius was a great politician rather than a philosopher. From the comparison of Confucianism and Christianity, Ernst Faber drew a conclusion that Christianity was apparently better than Confucianism.In traditional opinion, Ernst Faber's view on Confucianism seems incredible. Some scholars criticized that the aim of Ernst Faber's research in Confucianism was obvious to mission. Of course, it's the fact. But we can't criticize his view neither rhyme nor reason. His criticism to three cardinal guides hit the nail on the head. And part of his comment on the differences between Confucianism and Christianity was impersonal. Ernst Faber's view on Confucianism basically stood for the views of missionaries in Late-Qing Dynasty. And maybe it will be helpful to reflect the mingling of Confucianism and Christianity.