Jesus’ teachings in ‘Sermon on the Mount’ compared to Confuc

In a section of the New Testament referred to as ‘Sermon on the Mount’, many examples of Jesus’ teachings can be investigated. By looking at this piece of text, several recurring themes in Jesus’ teachings can be selected, some being: love, equality, forgiveness, modesty, humility or abstention, and non-materialism. For example, as Jesus sat his disciples down to preach to them, he said: “Humble men are very fortunate! For the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them” and “Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired, for then you will lose the reward”. Looking at these quotes, one can conclude that Jesus supported a humble lifestyle, valuing humility and modest

For Confucius, his viewpoints are more philosophical; he had no intention of starting a religion. However, Confucius did have a set of principles that according to him, would structure the ideal man. He called this concept or set of properties jen. “A person who possesses five virtues may be said to have possessed jen… …They are reverence, kindness, sincerity, sagacity and generosity”. From this it can be seen that Confucius was also in favor of a more peaceful, simple lifestyle. Similarly, when describing a model leader, he says: “Let him honor the five excellent, and banish away the four bad”, the five excellent being “when the person in authority is beneficent without great expenditure, when he lays tasks on the people without their repining, when he pursues what he desires without being covetous, when he maintains a dignified ease without being proud, when he is majestic without being fierce” and the four bad being: cruelty, oppression, injury and ‘acting the part of a mere official’. Studying these qualities of the ideal leader, one can see similarities between Confucius’ ideal leader and his ideal man of jen. Both must be fair, generous and selfless people. From the previous quote however, one can also see an example of the concept ‘moderation’ which was prominent in many of Confucius’ teachings. The ideal leader must lay tasks on people, without their repining. He must pursue what he desires without being covetous. Confucius also goes on to say: “Wealth and honor are the things desired by every man. But I shall not have them if I have to obtain them in an improper way”. Here the concept of moderation emerges again: as long as not acquired using cruelty, deceit or other wrong methods, Confucius sees no harm in wealth or material possessions. He sees that it is only human that we desire such things.

Though both teachers lived in two very different places in two very different times, much of the groundwork; the basics of their teachings (as well as some of their themes) are surprisingly similar given the diversity of the societies they lived in. Both aimed to improve society by teaching people to live morally good lives.

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