The Conservatism Of Confucianism And Mencius

This paper mainly researches the thoughts of Confucius and Mencius from the perspective of the western conservatism political philosophy and Immanuel Kant's moral philosophy.As the official ideology of ancient China for more than 2,000 years,Confucianism is very familiar to the Chinese people.Scholars have so many researches in this field.The history of the introduction of Kant's philosophy into China has been almost a hundred years.Immanuel Kant has an important place in the history of western philosophy,and his philosophy is in the position of inheritance in the western philosophy.The ideological system of Kantian philosophy is extensive,especially his moral philosophy is the most representative achievement of this field in the West.In the past hundred years since Kant's philosophy was introduced,many scholars have tried to compare Kant's moral philosophy with Confucian morality system,and the greatest achievement belong to Zongsan Mou.However,the opposition voice is also quite loud.One of his major problems is that he mainly focused on the Confucian "inner holy" side.Different from the traditional Confucian"for daily use" lesson,his research mainly focused on the study of "the nature of mind",but there is less research on the political areas that Confucius and Mencius are most concerned about.The political philosophy of conservatism in the West,especially Britain and the United States,is a school of thought that has been introduced to China quite recently,and it didn't systematically introduce into China until the 80s and 90s of the last century.However,the research in this field has become a significant issue in the Chinese today.However,the comparative study and researches of western conservatism and traditional Confucianism has not yet started in China.Therefore,the author hopes to review the thoughts of Confucius and Mencius from the perspectives of Western conservatism and Kantian moral philosophy,and Hope that can lead to more research by other scholars.First of all,this paper introduces the feudal politics and clan structure of the Western Zhou Dynasty,which is the time and social background that Confucianism originally generated.Then,it will focus on briefly introducing the ideological and origins of Western conservatism and makes a brief description of the western medieval feudal politics as the background of Western conservatism.The Confucianism and Western Conservatism has a really very similar historical background.Second,Confucian political thought has a very special way of thinking.Through analysis,the author believes that Confucius's way of thinking in the political realm is a kind of political "empiricism",specifically "the way of golden mean" based on the principle of "holding the two and using the middle--impartial".The characteristic of this way of thinking is that it does not presuppose specific political ideas,nor even provide a clear political idea.Like Oakeshott's "boat metaphor" for society,the feature of Western conservatism thoughts is that it does not set the political direction with human reason,but just moves in the traditional direction.Confucius's "The Golden Mean" is so similar that it does not provide political ideas with human reason.Therefore,the Confucius and Mencius take the tradition as key value and regard it as the basic political principle of "respecting the God and ancestors"."Confucius restatement Yao and Shun,and take Wen and Wu as the charter",Confucius "just restatement without creating,believe in the ancestors",Mencius "doesn't speak without mentioning Yao and Shun".Such performances are all derived from the thinking way of "respecting the God and ancestors" and "following".At the same time,this practice of observing the "examples" was implemented in the Song Dynasty and obviously played an important role in restricting the imperial power objectively.In addition,Confucius and Mencius are in contrast with Taoism and Mohism in the moral field.Unlike Taoist's moral relativism and Mohist's utilitarianism,Confucian's moral philosophy shows strong absolutism.In the specific political strategy,the Western-style conservatism is even more remarkable in Confucius's thoughts.Consistent with Burke's Conservatism,Confucius strongly defends hierarchical order.On the one hand,hierarchical order was rooted in the social concept of "community" at that time,and the Confucian idea of "Reject the load for the father,but don't reject the father for the load " is a clear reflection of this concept.On the other hand,the strict hierarchy provided a precious order for the society at that time.The hierarchical order in the feudal era is not an absolute dictatorship but focuses more on the principle of "Authority with Corresponding Responsibility" between the loads and the vassals and both sides are ineligible to violate this principle,they are required to act in accordance with ritual laws.In addition,in politics,Confucius highly praised the nominal,such as "Don't sit on a chair without right position" and "Don't eat the meat without right cutting",so from this point of view,Confucius values the "name" and "form" very much,and one of the major features of Western conservatism is the emphasis on "formal justice".Confucius's emphasis on "form" is reflected in the "ritual",and from a ritualistic point of view,the sacred "ritual" has a strong religious meaning,they are of great significance both in regard to the lord's correct attitude and to the obedience of the"vast".In addition,Confucian respect for the rules is also an extension of this "formal justice."One of the major features of Confucius and Mencius was the opposition to the absolute dictatorial political formation.Confucius demanded that the power should follow the ritual laws and should be subject to the restriction of ritual laws.Mencius strongly opposed the autocracy that was created by the legalists,he called the authoritarian ruler as "Yi Fu".For the relationship between monarch and minister,the thought of Confucius and Mencius called for returning to the "Authority with Corresponding Responsibility" in the feudal order of the Western Zhou Dynasty and strongly oppose absolute monarchy.Because of this political tendency,Confucius and Mencius advocated the harmonious coexistence of pluralism and pluralism in society,and they fought against the overall planning and design of society and suppressing different voices as legalists' theory.In addition,from the view of "the ancient and the modern" of Western conservative political ideas,the political thought of Confucius and Mencius obviously belongs to the "traditional" political theory,while the political science of legalists has a remarkable "modernity".Confucius and Mencius value the importance of morality for politics,and politics will become tyranny without morality as the basis.Because of the belief of "moral politics",Confucian "Liberal Arts Education" is based on moral education and does not involve specific production skills.Although Confucius and Mencius's political thought has obvious Western-style conservatism,its moral philosophy is very different.Western conservatism attributes the origin and supreme basis of morality to its traditional religious beliefs;while Confucianism has attributed the origin and supreme basis of morality to "God"derived from ancient religious traditions,but Confucius was not limited to this and he was still trying to find an understandable basis for his moral philosophy relying to the human reason successfully.Therefore,Confucius is a traditional successor in terms of politics,but in terms of moral philosophy,Confucius is a great pioneer.