The emperors and subjects in the west are governed by the emperor in the name of God, according to the sacred contract and according to the will of God.
China's ancient political system centered on autocratic centralization. Autocratic centralization has lasted for more than 2,000 years in China, which has had a far-reaching impact on the formation and development of China's unified multi-ethnic country, state system and political power, bureaucracy and administration, and even culture and education.
The origin of western political civilization lies in ancient Greece and Rome. Both the legal system they created and the political wisdom of philosophers provided valuable ideological wealth for future generations.
The differences between ancient Chinese and western political systems are reflected in the following aspects:
1. The ancient history of China is actually a genealogy of emperors and princes. It is full of omnipotent events of emperors and generals, and humble civilians are insignificant, and all living beings have never recorded them. However, the history of ancient Greece and Rome is a history of civilians pursuing democratic rights. Here, there is no full-time monarch in charge of everything, only various struggles and reforms around the basic rights of citizens.
2. The relationship between absolute monarchy, individual centralization and patriarchal clan system runs through the ancient political system of China. During the transition from ancient China to class society, primitive democracy disappeared. The ancients didn't have the pride and sense of ownership of the citizens of ancient Greece and Rome, but they finally established absolute monarchy in China. In Greece and Rome, in the city-state era, the democracy of the citizens of the western group appeared, and more remnants of primitive democracy were retained. They take the form of collective leadership by nobles or all citizens in charge of state power.
3. The political reform debate and political reform in ancient China revolved around strengthening the absolute monarchy. The contention of a hundred schools of thought created the basic theory for absolute monarchy; The essence of ancient Chinese law is to strengthen the absolute monarchy, and its connotation is to punish hundreds of officials and people, so as to strengthen the deterrence of kingship and bring about the loss of human rights. Most of the political reforms in ancient Greece and Rome were carried out under the background of the struggle between civilians and nobles, and the content was to consolidate and expand citizens' democratic rights; The legal system is to maintain the democratic system, and its connotation is the rights of the people and the protection of civil liberties and equal human rights. This political system, in which sovereignty belongs to the people and law is supreme, is the value concept of * * * and the country as the center, which is incompatible with China's imperial thought and officialdom culture.
4. From the advantages and disadvantages of ancient Chinese and Western political systems, we can see that the unification of China and the combination of Confucian orthodoxy and autocratic imperial power have created national unity, national unity and social stability. Among them, absolute monarchy is the power center of integrating society. Every time the old China was changed or unified, it was a powerful monarchy, which maintained the unity of the empire and the continuation of civilization. Therefore, although dynasties changed frequently in ancient China, the inheritance and development of civilization came down in one continuous line. Western democratic politics and legal thoughts have become the driving force of human modernization. Modern western countries took the lead in establishing capitalist democratic system, which was the result of the development of capitalist commodity economy on the one hand, and had an inherent inheritance relationship and profound historical origin with the democratic tradition of ancient Greece and Rome on the other.
To sum up, China practiced the rule of man in ancient times. First, it attaches importance to imperial power, and there is no democracy and human rights. The imperial power imposed harsh laws on its subjects, forcing people to abide by rules and regulations; Second, China attached importance to family ethics. Family is the most solid social pillar of imperial power, which is strictly restricted by the norms of blood etiquette. There is imperial power above and family below, so rewards and punishments often involve families.
The ancient west practiced the rule of law. First, it attaches importance to human rights, and human rights and freedoms are protected by law. Second, western ethics advocates individualism and utilitarianism, and is relatively indifferent to family and local concepts. Therefore, the sanctions against political opponents are relatively tolerant and do not involve families.