《理想国》与《礼记》社会经济思想的比较

柏拉图的《理想国》和《礼记》社会经济制度的设计,是中西方古代思想家对动荡不安的社会现实反思的结果,在人类思想史上产生了深远的影响。本文从经济思想史的角度对两书的经济制度的设计与经济观念进行了比较。柏拉图设想建立一个正义、共和的理想城邦,城邦内“正义”的体现就是经济上财产共有、政治上共治和社会福利的共享。《礼记》虽推崇“大同”社会,但强调“大同”只存在于远古的“五帝之时”,更推崇维护现实私有财产和个体利益的“小康”社会。柏拉图生活在雅典商品经济和对外贸易比较活跃的时期,《理想国》强调经济生活中的分工与交换,重视对商业贸易和货币的讨论,反映的就是这一经济形态的特点。中国先秦时期以农业为主的自然经济占据主导地位,故《礼记》中对诸如分工、交换、商业贸易以及货币问题的讨论很少见到,讨论最多的是土地和赋役问题,这彰显了东西方传统经济思想研究重点的不同。柏拉图的“理想国”鼓励商业贸易,小康社会则强调国家要对市场进行严格的管制,凸现了政府主导地位和作用。《理想国》与《礼记》作为中西方两种不同文化类型的代表,对东西方社会经济形态的发展具有深远的影响。
Abstract：The design of social and economic systems in Plato's The Republica and The Book of Rites were the reflections on the reality of social turbulence by the Eastern and Western thinkers respectively, both of which had profound influences on human thoughts. This paper compares the design of social and economic systems in the two works from the perspective of social economic thoughts. Plato envisioned the establishment of a nation with justice and republic, in which the justice meant the sharing of property, democracy and the sharing of welfare. The Book of Rites advocated a society of universal harmony. However, it stressed that such a society only existed in the age of the Five Emperors, and was unreliable in modern society. The Book of Rites gave more support to a well-off society attaching importance to the protection of private property and individual interests. Since Plato lived in a period when commodity economy and foreign trade in Athens were active, The Republica emphasized the division of labor and the exchange in the economy and the discussion of commercial trade and the currency. Because of the dominant position of agriculture-based natural economy before the Qin Dynasty, The Book of Rites focused on land, tax and corvee issues instead of the division of labor, exchange, commercial trades and currency issues. The Republica encouraged domestic and foreign trades whereas a well-off society emphasized that the state should strictly control the market, highlighting the dominant position of the government. The two works, as the representatives of Chinese and the Western cultures, would continue to have profound influences on the development of Eastern and Western social-economic formation.