The "People's Almanac" published in the United States in 1980 once listed the world's top ten thinkers, and Confucius was elected as the top ten thinker. According to statistics, "The Analects of Confucius" ranks second among the ten most important classics in the world in the number of languages ??it has been translated into. The famous sinologist Joseph Needham speculated in "History of Chinese Science and Technology": "As early as the 2nd century AD, some legends about Confucianism seem to have been introduced to Europe."

Matteo Ricci, Italy: Wearing Confucian clothes, Wearing a Confucian crown and calling himself a Confucian

In the 13th century, the Italian Marco Polo praised the wealth and prosperity of the East in his "Marco Polo's Travels", which opened the door for Westerners A coveted oriental window.

In 1582, Matteo Ricci came to China. According to the record in "Hao'an Xianhua" written by Zhang Erqi of the Qing Dynasty:

When Matteo first arrived in Guangzhou, he disembarked from the ship, with his head bare and his shoulders exposed. People thought he was a Western monk. also. Then he studied Confucianism with his master Yan Guan. Within one or two years, he understood all the four books and five classics and entered the capital.

At the suggestion of the Chinese Confucian scholar Qu Taisu, Matteo Ricci changed his monk's clothes and dressed up as a Confucian scholar. From 1594 onwards, he began to wear Confucian clothes and crowns, and called himself a Confucian. Huang Jing, a contemporary, said that he "had the style of a great Confucian". In 1594, Matteo Ricci published a Latin translation of the Four Books, which was the first time a Confucian classic was translated into a Western language. Because of Matteo Ricci's great contribution in bridging Chinese and Western cultures, he has received many honorific titles, such as the first person to bridge Chinese and Western cultures, the erudite Western Confucian, the pioneer of Western Sinology, the originator of European Sinology, etc., and the most famous one is One nickname is: Confucius of Christianity.

French Voltaire: "The East has found a wise man"

Confucius' thoughts aroused strong repercussions in France from the 17th to the 18th century. It played an inspiring role in France under the rule of medieval theology, and even in Europe as a whole. In France in the 18th century, China received widespread attention from princes and nobles to common people. People rushed to understand, talk about, and study China.

Holbach, the leader of the Encyclopedia School, opposed the barbaric monarchy system in France and Europe, and admired Confucius’ political ideas of governing the country by virtue. He believed that “in China, reason has had an incredible effect on the power of the monarch. The morality of the sage Confucius, which is based on the eternal foundation of truth, can conquer the conquerors of China." Although the conquerors could destroy pastoral villages, "the morality of the sage Confucius can withstand this violent storm and has been preserved to this day, so that the barbarian conquerors must also respect it and regard it as the goal of government administration."

The Enlightenment thinker Voltaire admired Confucius' thoughts very much. He lamented: "It is a great misfortune that we cannot be like the Chinese." In the "Philosophical Dictionary", he listed seven of Confucius's maxims , and then wrote: "A wise man was found in the East... He taught people how to live happily more than 600 years ago."

The Jacobin leader Robespierre drafted the The 1793 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen quoted Confucius' motto, which became a legend. He wrote: "Freedom is the right of all men to do whatever does not infringe the rights of others: its principle is nature, its rule is justice, its guarantee is law; its moral boundaries are in the following motto: Do ??what you do not want others to do. , don’t do it to others.”

Germany Leibniz: Warmly praises Confucianism

Leibniz was the first Western scholar to admit that Chinese culture has made significant contributions to the West. . He studied the Chinese "Book of Changes" and found that if the yin lines represent 0 and the yang lines represent 1, then the images in the "Book of Changes" from 0 to 64 are exactly a continuous binary sequence, which is consistent with his own invention in 1678. The binary arithmetic is exactly the same. Accordingly, Leibniz was convinced that Chinese philosophy had sufficient scientific basis. Therefore, he enthusiastically praised Confucianism and even openly declared that the Chinese were superior to Europeans in moral and political aspects.

He rebuked those European scholars who were arrogant in the face of traditional Chinese thought: "We latecomers, who have just emerged from the barbaric state, want to condemn an ??ancient doctrine just because this doctrine seems to be in the first place with us. The concepts of ordinary scholastic philosophy are inconsistent with each other. This is really arrogant!" Leibniz's emphasis on Chinese culture attracted the attention of the world. A Japanese scholar named Gorai Shinzo believed: "Confucianism not only made Leibniz Nitz was affected, and Germany was affected."

British Joseph Needham: "Confucius is the 'Uncrowned Emperor'"

Johnston, the English teacher of Puyi, the last emperor of China, He believes: "Chinese political and educational culture is based on Confucianism... No matter how beautiful foreign teachers are, they cannot stand alongside Confucianism in China." "The Four Books and Five Classics are to Chinese education what Greece and Latin are to British education. You can’t leave it for even a day.”

Joseph Needham believed that Confucius’ teachings were not limited to the field of humanities, but also made great achievements in the field of natural sciences. He believes: “In the field of calendars, mathematics belongs to the category of orthodox Confucian knowledge in society.

" He found: "Historically, indefinite analysis was called the 'Dayan Technique', which is derived from a difficult statement in the "Book of Changes", "The number of Dayan is fifty." "Confucianism has ruled China for a long time. Joseph Needham believes that it is because "Qin established a system of prefectures and counties, which has continued ever since. The management of many counties and counties requires the development of bureaucracy, and the need for administrative officials created conditions for Confucianism to control Chinese society for a long time... It is for this reason that Confucius became the uncrowned king of all China. Emperor'".

In 1988, 75 Nobel Prize winners issued a joint declaration in Paris, calling on the world "to survive in the 21st century, we must learn from the wisdom of Confucius two thousand years ago. "[

American Emerson: "Confucius is the Washington of philosophy"

American poet and philosopher Emerson believes that "Confucius is the glory of all nations in the world", " "Confucius is the Washington of philosophy", expressing his "extreme admiration for this oriental sage" and often quoting Confucius' famous saying: "He who hears the Tao in the morning will die in the evening." "

The poet Pound once translated Confucius' "The Analects". When he lived in Rome in his later years, a reporter interviewed him and saw that "the most eye-catching things in the room were two suitcases and three books: "Cantos", "The Analects of Confucius" and Robinson's version of "Chaucer"." Pound told reporters: "Only the form of music can accommodate all materials. The universe of Confucius in my mind is the universe where rhythm and tension interact. Talking about the relationship between language and government, Pound said: "Bad language will inevitably create bad government, but good language will not necessarily create good government."

Confucius said it well: ‘If the name is not correct