儒家圣人政治与西方契约政治比较

The Politics of Confucianist Sages in Comparison with the Politics of Western Politics of Contracts

中国的传统政治是以圣人为核心的圣人政治,基于社会契约的西方传统政治是契约政治。在中国文化中,圣人是理想和价值的体现,因此形成了“圣人为王”的传统,这个传统逻辑地预设了圣人的万能和常人的无能,常人需要圣人的指导,按照圣人的意图来生活,常人没有自己的权利,因此无法形成民主思想。与儒家的圣人政治形成对比的是西方的契约政治,它基于西方的基督教文化,形成了一种平等与民主的政治传统。这是中国社会政治的追求方向。

The traditional politics in China was politics of sages, with sages as the center while the traditional Western politics was politics of contracts, based on social contracts. In Chinese culture, sages were the embodiment of ideals and values and led to the tradition of 'sages as kings', which logically presupposed the omnipotence of the sages and the importance of ordinary people. Ordinary people with no right of their own needed the guidance of sages and lived according to the intentions of sages, which could not form the notion of democracy. What contrasted with the politics of sages was the Western politics of contracts based on the Western Christian culture that formed a tradition of equality and democracy. This is an orientation which the politics of China's society pursues.