Comparison Of Confucian Rites And Jewish Law

As a typical Chinese concept, Li constitutes an important part of the Chinese civilization. Pre-Qin Confucianism established the value judgment and main spirit of Li, which has been featured with humanism, while Jewish Law, the significant embodiment of Jewish civilization, has been featured with monotheism. Otherwise there are similarities and complementarities between Li and Jewish Law : both have origins related to religious worship of primitive era ; both involve rich ethical ideas; both advocate for benevolence and kindness, and emphasize on family orders and education ; both focus on the realization of human value and spiritual ideal in social life ; both concentrate in the balance between human nature and social rules ; both show much concern about everyone' s life target and ultimate value; and both can fuction as a management foundation to build up social orders and adjust social conflicts, so as to provide favorable resources for the establishment of a modern harmony society. On the other hand, there are essential differences between Li and Jewish Law: Li stands for the view of "Heaven-man", for being ruled by social customs, for hierarchical social orders, for discriminative benevolence, for self-restriction, and for inner-oriented promotion ; while Jewish Law stands for the view of "God-man", for being ruled by laws, for impartial social orders, for the consciousness of equality, for "other-disciplined" by God, and for religious surmounting.Both of them believe that "Never do to others what you do not want them to do to you." Such a maxim has becomed one of the basic rules of the Global Ethic , and is also doing contribution to the reconstruction of the moral value system of modern society.