民本与君主:孔子思想的二重性

The People-Oriented or the Monarch-Oriented: the Duality of Confucius’ Thoughts

周代民本政治用人性统治取代鬼神统治,强调统治者应以德裕民、明智驭民,才能据有天命、受享国祚。但"君为民主"的权力等级又使得以民为本的政治设想不能落到实处,从而使天命失落,政治衰败。孔子应春秋时期人民主体性确立的时代要求,将周代贵族民本政治发展为以人为本的平民民本思想,建立了仁学或儒学。但作为孔子民本思想出发点的人(平民)也并不平等,而是君王凌驾君子、君子凌驾小人的新的等级制度。民本与君主的冲突,形成了孔子思想的二重性。只有剔除君主维度,改造和发扬民本维度,才是儒学现代性转化的关键。

The people-oriented politics of Zhou Dynasty replaces the rule of ghosts and gods with the rule abiding to human nature, emphasizing a governance of people with virtue and wisdom, so as to enjoy a doomed destiny given by the Heaven and an eternal governance. However, the power of "monarch being the owner of the people" fails the policy and leads to the loss of destiny and political decline. Confucius later transforms the people-oriented politics of Zhou Dynasty into the people-oriented thoughts, and established "Ren Xue" or Confucianism. However, people(civilians), as the starting point of Confucius’ people-oriented thoughts, are not yet equal, but a new hierarchy in which the king is superior to the gentleman and the gentleman is superior to the villain. The conflict between being people-oriented and monarch-oriented forms the duality of Confucius’ thoughts. The key to the transformation of the modernity of Confucianism is to eliminate the monarch and rework on the peopleoriented dimension.