On the Confucian "Benevolence" and the Christian "Universal Love

The Confucian benevolence and the Christian are the cores of Confucianism and the moral principles of Christianity, which have contributed a great deal respectively in the long history of the development of Eastern and Western civilizations. The difference of the two concepts is that the Confucius Benevolence means love for people according to their different social status with family, filial piety and fraternal duty as its basis, while the Christian universal love stresses an equal and unconditional love for others, even including one's enemies. These two ancient ideas are still of great significance today in modeling a new type of harmonious human relationship as well as in regulating the relationship between man and nature, man and society and his fellow beings.