| The interaction between China and the West has made comparative research gradually become the focus of academic discussion.Confucius and Jesus respectively served as the complete presentations of Chinese and Western cultures,have many possibilities of dialogue in economy,politics,education,nature,life and death,and so forth.Among them,the analysis of the Wealth Views can not only provide reference for people to establish a correct and rational attitude towards wealth,but also regulate and guide the operation of material wealth at the level of reality.Against this background,the comparative study of Confucius' and Jesus' Wealth Views based on the roots of their respective realities,is devoted to the interpretations and treatments of the following four issues: the rich meanings of wealth concept,the practice mode,the spiritual aspects and the humanistic orientation of it.Meanwhile,these four aspects correspond to the question of "what","how","why" and "wealth and human",so that they have a clear text structure to present more comprehensive content,to release more meaning.First of all,the realistic foundations of Confucius' and Jesus' Wealth Views are concentrated in three points,the background of era,the personal survival experience and their ideological origins.The social reality of the vassal wars and the ruined rituals,Confucius' life experience of traveling to other nations and opening the private schools,the cultural traditions paying attention to rite and virtue of the Western Zhou Dynasty,have greatly influenced the formation of Confucius' Wealth View;Largely,the Romanization in politics,the Hellenization in culture and the Judaization in religion,shape Jesus' Wealth View directly.Secondly,to clarify the rich meanings of Confucius' and Jesus' Wealth Views,that is,to solve the most essential question of "what".How Confucius and Jesus,or Confucian and Christianity define the concept of wealth and the nature of it,is the greatest substantive prerequisite for the Wealth Views.Wealth can be everything that human beings want and is valuable to them.So,the broad concept of wealth makes it have the dual attributes of material and spiritual.It is practiced as a material entity in reality and has a spiritual aspect that points to ultimate concern.At the same time,it corresponds to Confucius' and Jesus' specific attitudes towards wealth: first,in terms of the pure materiality of wealth,static quantification inevitably leads to the polarization of poverty and richness;but poverty is not a condition of virtue,richness is also not the evil of curse.The moral support behind them is the value tendency of Confucius' and Jesus' Wealth Views,and the relationship between morality and materiality is the dialectical relationship between righteousness and interests.Thirdly,to compare the practice of Confucius' and Jesus' Wealth Views,that is,how wealth as a material entity manifests itself in reality,how to play its basic position,how to operate in a surviving world,and how to demonstrate its action,namely the question of "how".Confucius,based on the hierarchy,implements his Wealth View in this four-class,"scholar?farmer?worker?merchant",and the five-class,"from the emperor to the common people".Jesus' Wealth View is to ensure that the wealth can become the material basis for human beings,from the source and direction(or production and distribution)of wealth in the religious position.In this practice,Confucius' and Jesus' views of wealth not only show the differences on the premise and the basic spirit,but also include the common tendency of external action and inner emotion.Then,to continue comparing Confucius' and Jesus' Wealth Views,from the perspective of the spirit of wealth.The spiritual aspect of wealth refers to where the most profound connotation of the concept of general wealth points to,and where the belief in the operation of material wealth is rooted in reality,in other words,the question of "why",the question of ultimate concern.Confucius' Wealth View regards the ultimate ideal of Confucian society-"Sageliness Within and Kingliness Without",as its final goal,and Jesus' treats "realizing Eternal Life and entering the Kingdom of God" as its ultimate direction.These two ultimate concerns can enrich the broad concept of wealth as spiritual one,and lead the material practice of wealth in the real world as a guiding light.In addition,although the "Sageliness Within and Kingliness Without" and the "Eternal Life and the Kingdom of God" are different in their fundamental nature and implementation,they are the common wisdom of regarding the wealth as a tool and handling with the various relationships.Finally,to sublimate the comparison between Confucius' and Jesus' Wealth Views to human studies,and to connect the wealth with human.Therefore,"human studies within the Confucius' and Jesus' s Wealth Views " solves the problem of "what is human" and "how to be human".Human is a combination and a contradiction between material wealth and spiritual wealth,and is consistent with the material and spiritual aspects of wealth.However,just as the material nature of wealth becoming the whole connotation of it,human is increasingly being the machines that only pursuing the material wealth.Fortunately,the dual alienation of human and wealth can find a way out of improvement in Confucius' and Jesus' Wealth Views,making wealth be wealth,human be human,be free human. |
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