中西平等思想的历史演进与差异

Equality Ideology between China & West: Historical Evolvement & Difference

平等思想作为建构理想社会的基本价值取向和原则,在人类思想史上源远流长。从最早毕达哥拉斯学派提出的正义要求的平等,到古希腊后来形成的自然平等、古罗马的法权平等、中世纪在上帝面前的生命平等、文艺复兴时期的人类平等、自然法学派主张的人人生而平等、近代资产阶级革命所确立的法律面前人人平等、近代以来西方国家政治经济实践以及新旧自由主义、自由主义与保守主义之间关于平等与自由的两难选择,平等思想在西方的发展从一个角度浓缩了西方政治实践和政治思想的发展。在中国,平等思想也是自古以来很多思想家以及农民起义和农民战争领袖的理想,但这种平等思想相对于西方平等思想的纷繁复杂而言,显得异常单调和不成体系;而且,西方平等思想总是与正义、自由、法治等价值观联系在一起,而中国历史上的平等思想却局限于物质上的"均贫富",从而使其革命性大打折扣。

As the basic value tropism and principle for construction of ideal society, the equality ideology has a long standing in human history. From the earliest Pythagoras' equality demanded for justice, to the natural equality formed in the ancient Greek, equality of law right in the ancient Rome, life equality before the God in Medieval, human equality in Renaissance, being born equally claimed by School of Natural Law, everyone's equality before the law established by modern bourgeois revolution, dilemma of equality and freedom in practice of modern Western countries' politics and economics, as well as of new liberalism and old liberalism, liberalism and conservatism, the development of equality ideology in the West concentrates the development of the Western political practice and theory. In China, equality ideology is also the ideal of many thinkers and leaders of peasant uprising and peasant war from of old. But it is very monotony and unsystematic relative to the numerous and complicated Western equality ideology. Furthermore, the Western equality ideology is always related with values such as justice, freedom and law, while equality ideology in Chinese history is only limited to halve the material of the rich and the poor, as weakens its revolution in the end.