孔子社会学说的逻辑构成(下)

孔子是在“仁”、在对人类的这种整体关怀的基础上建构起自己的思想学说的。在孔子思想中,能够遏制无限膨胀的私利欲望的是“义”。在当时“家”、“国”同构的社会关系中,孔子特别重视“孝”和“悌”。在孔子思想中,“忠”、“信”都是处理一般人际关系的原则,“臣事君以忠”并没有后代儒学家所强调的“尊尊”的人身依附性质。“法”和“礼”是当时社会的两种联系方式。“法”体现的是人与人之间的权力关系,“礼”体现的是人与人之间的合作关系。孔子重视“礼”和“礼治”,其根本意图在于强调合作关系而淡化和消解权力关系,以改善人类和人类社会的整体存在状况。孔子思想的产生,标志着决定中国社会和中国历史存在与发展状况的不再仅仅是政治的权力,而是由政治权力与文化权力构成的对立统一关系的合力。

Logical Composition of Confucius' Social Theory ( Part Two)

Confucius lays the foundation of his theories on the holistic concern of “benevolence”. In the thoughts of Confucius, it is the “unrighteousness” that can contain the seemingly unlimited private desires. He values the characters of “filiality” as well as the love and respect to one’s elder brother especially among the social relationships at that time with the family and state in the same structure. Simultaneously, “loyalty” and “belief” are both the principles dealing with common interpersonal relationships, and the statement that an official serves the monarch with loyalty does not contain the meaning of personal dependence as “respecting the senior”emphasized by later Confucians. “Law” and “propriety” are two styles integrating the society at that time. The law reflects the interpersonal power relation, and the propriety embodies the cooperative one. The fundamental intention that Confucius values the “propriety” and “rule by propriety” is to emphasize the cooperative relation as well as to weaken the power relation, aiming at improving the overall existing conditions of man and society. The birth of Confucius’ ideology symbolizes that the conditions which determine the existence and development of Chinese society and Chinese history are no longer the political power alone, but the unity of opposites of political power and cultural power.