Marxist Perspective Of Chinese Confucian And Western Liberal Political Thought

China is being involved in the process of modernization. "Modernity" is a relative conception in the sense that there is no an unbridgeable gap between tradition and modernity. In other words, modernity embeds its root in the ground of tradition.Modernization is not only an event that continues the blood of tradition, but also has to face foreign cultures. In the process of comparison and interaction, our culture more or less but must assimilate the cultural peculiarity of other societies which are in the same times with us.Chinese Confucianism is the main culture from which we begun our modernization. As an official ideology in the past times, Confucianism deeply influenced the political, economic and social lives of our society from Qin and Han Dynasties on. Till now, Confucianism still deeply influences the soul and life of contemporary Chinese. It is the main cultural background of Chinese modernization.Western Liberalism represents the most basic ideas that were followed by the political and economic life of modern western society. It makes up the main political and cultural background of developed western countries at present. It is also the political reality with that we have to interact.Undoubtedly, we should compare and analyze, from Marxist standpoint, the political ideas of both Confucianism and Liberalism by historical and logical methods, which will be very meaningful for us to construct our modernized country with characteristics of socialist market economy and democratic rule of law. Just in this sense, I compared in this paper, based on the research achievements of our predecessors, the political thoughts and institution designs both Confucianism and Liberalism provided. I also studied the meeting and conflict, the warning and revelation of Confucian and Liberalism provided for us. This paper consists of four parts:Part one: The biggest difference between Confucianism and Liberalism is that in the process of constructing their own theories, the former aims at public interests and the latter seeks individual rights. In this part, I try to compare and analyze the nature of individual rights and public interests, the meaning of positive and negative freedoms,and the variety of equalities both defend. The basic aim is to understand the essence of both political ideas from the viewpoint of human nature.Part two: Different political ideas produce different political institution designs. The theory of Goodness of Human Nature Confucianism provided tries to establish the rule of Sages by cultivating oneself strictly, putting the others in order, and making for perfect morality and sovereign good. So, the nature of Confucian political idea is autocratic monarchy, and its idea of treating people as the foundation of country is only a kind of non-coerce rule. In contrast, Liberalism chooses the democratic rule of constitution according to its gloomy theory of human nature. It advocates indirect democracy, public participation and elite politics. So, its core is individualism. It stresses the rule of law and the restriction to applying power.Part three: In modern history of China, Chinese Confucianism met and conflicted with Western Liberalism. This awoke some Chinese to reflect their own culture and therefore began the process of fusing Chinese culture with other cultures in the world, and of Chinese modernization.Part four: Contemporary Chinese Marxism overcomes the limitation of political thoughts in both Confucianism and Liberalism and provides the warning and revelation for us to construct Chinese political institution. Firstly, Marxism reveals the two characteristics of human freedom, i.e. subjectivity and passivity. It gives the conception of freedom almost complete significance. Secondly, Marxism stresses the integration of individual with society on the basis of practice. Therefore, its aim is the combination and integration of individual rights and public interests. Thirdly, Marxist equality means that everyone should have equal opportunity to live and develop oneself freely. It is the organic combinati...