孔子的德治思想是中国古代政治文明的突出体现，对中国的历史和文化产生了不可估量的深远影响。本文通过对孔子之前先秦德治思想动态变化的把握，并与同属人类精神觉醒“轴心时代”的古希腊柏拉图的政治思想相比较，力求揭示出孔子德治思想整体和真实的面貌以及所具有的特点。全文约17万字，除前言、导论、结语外，由五章组成。导论 主要从研究动机、文献史料和前人研究状况及对“德治”思想的考辨，论证本课题的意义以及对比的可行性。第一章 孔子德治思想的理论基础是他的仁礼学说。孔子将以修己为本、安百姓为旨归的仁礼之道导入了体现“亲亲尊尊”的君臣父子之制中，使政治道德化，从而确立了孔子以道德改造政治的基本路径。孔子德治思想渊源于周初的各种传统，而其孕育的土壤则是剧烈动荡的春秋时代。第二章 孔子在对周初分封、宗法、等级三位一体的社会结构做出继承和修正之后，根据家国同构的特点，提出了身国共治之道。他既重视宗法等级的礼，倡导为臣者忠君尊王，更强调修己安百姓的仁，主张为君者圣王合一。孔子坚持为政以德、以德化民的正民之道，他重德礼、轻政刑，强调道德教化以防患于未然的作用。他主张德主刑辅，希望宽不失法度，猛不失仁心。柏拉图对古希腊存在过的五种政体说进行了评析。柏氏认为最好的政体是哲学王统治下的城邦体制，并主张以“正义”、“善”和美德治国，其途径是先城邦，后个人。柏氏晚年政治思想有所变化，逐渐重视起法在治国中的作用。第三章 “人本”是对“神本”而言,“民本”是对“君本”而言的。孔子的德治思想体现了民本的政治文化特色。他初步完成了由旧的天命观向自然天道观的过渡，在人本思想的基础上，孔子提出养民、富民、均平、以义致利等一系列的以民为本、以德治国的经济主张。柏拉图主张“以德生利”和反对贫富悬殊，但他把理想国中第一、二等级的公有制建立在第三等级的私有制和奴隶劳动的基础之上，是脱离现实的设想。而孔子的经济主张是其仁政德治的核心内容之一，在当时有进步意义。第四章 举贤才是保证德治推行的必要手段，孔子首创私学，提出“有教无类”的招生原则和“学而优则仕”的培养目标，特别重视道德教育，普遍地进行道德教化，其目的是为德治培养人才及保证德治的实施。这些都是孔子德治思想的创新在教育上的表现。柏拉图的教育目标是为实现正义，教育中以德为先，倡知识即美德。他重视自然科技知识的教育，主张男女有均等的受教育的机会，分年龄段组织教育，有其先进之处，但他认为接受教育者应有等级差别，逊于孔子的“有教无类” 。第五章 孔子提出“和而不同”、“和为贵”的思想，旨在构建等级有序、仁爱和谐的社会。他试图通过实施德治来实现社会和谐，这是孔子德治思想的终极目标。柏拉图企图建立一个实现正义原则和善的理念，使三个等级各司其职的理想社会。不同的是孔子的和谐社会建立在家国同构宗法制的基础上，具有以道德教化代替宗教的特点，对中国传统文化有极大的影响。而柏拉图的理想国中没有家庭，但宗教却有相当的地位。

Confucius’ Thoughts of Rule by Morality is a prominent embodiment of political civilizeation of ancient China. It has endured inestimable far-reaching implications on Chinese history and culture. Through a profound analysis of changes on thoughts of "Rule by Morality" in pre-Qin Dynasty and by comparison of Confucius’ Thoughts of Rule by Morality to the Plato’s political thoughts from ancient Greek, both thoughts came from the same historical awakening period of human Spirit called “Axial Age”, This paper strived to reveal the overall Confucius’ thoughts of Rule by Morality and its true faces and all its features. The full text is about 170,000 characters. It is composed of five chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusions. Introduction: A textual research of Confucius’ Thoughts of Rule by Morality mainly through study its motivations, publications and literatures, previous research from others and a proof of the significance of this topic and the feasibility of comparison made to Plato.Chapter I: The basis of Confucius’ Thoughts of Rule by Morality is his “benevolence and courtesy” doctrine. Confucian introduced his philosophy of “cultivate your own characteristics and made all others happy as purpose” into an orderly social system featured as Monarchy-Minister-Father-Son, moral-transformed politics, which founded a basic path of using moral strength to change politics. Confucius’ Thoughts of Rule by Morality originated from various feudal traditions of early Zhou Dynasty, and it was nurtured by the soil of the turbulent Period of Spring and Autum.Chapter II: After Confucius made inheritance and revision to social structure of early Zhou Dynasty that featured as “Three in One” of the aristocratic feudal, patriarchal and grades, he put out the idea of administering self and country in the same way according to the structural characteristics of family and country. He not only advocated to the “ritual” of patriarchal hierarchy, and asked ministers to pay loyalty to the King, but also emphasized the benevolence of cultivating self and making others happy and advocated that the people as a ruler who also had to be an ecumenical divine. Confucius adhered to the policy of moral value in politics, rule by moral, heavy in “moral” and “ritual”, light in law and punishment, and stressed the role of moralization to prevent crimes in the first place. He advocated moralization first and punishment as secondary. He hopes loose treatment but still in the frame of law, severe punishment yet in terms of benevolence. Plato assessed five past and present government systems and concluded that the best system is the one that ruler is the philosophy king in the city-state system. He called for "justice", "good" and the virtues of ruling, and advocated that the city-state was the first and individuals was the secondary. Plato changed his political thoughts in his late years, and emphasized the important role of the law in policy making.Chapter III: The thought of “take human as foundation” is opposite from the thought of “take God as foundation”. The thought of “take people as foundation” is opposite from the thought of “take monarchy as foundation”. Confucius’ Thoughts of Rule by Morality reflected the political and cultural features of the thought of take people as foundation. He relatively completed the transition from the old Heaven Fate Theory to the Natural Heaven Morality Theory. Based on the thought of take human as foundation and Rule by Morality, Confucius advocated a series of economical policies, which included nurture people, enrich people, equality and making profit in a moral way. On the other hand, Plato advocated the “rule of virtue on profit” and opposed the big wealthy gap between the rich and the poor. However, Plato’s ideal country was just an unrealistic hypothesis, in which his public economy system of the First and Second grade citizens was established and build up from the private economy system and slavery laboring of the Third grade of citizens.Chapter IV: Giving the capable people a chance is a necessary means of ensuring the implementation of Rule by Morality. Confucius established the first private school, and adopted the enrollment policy of "education for all without discrimination". His training objective is that the “student who excel should work for country as officials”. He paid particular attention to moral education in order to moralization of educated people in general; its purpose is to cultivate talented people to ensure the implementation of the rule by Morality, which reflected some of the Confucius’ innovative thinking in the aspect of education. On the other hand, Plato's educational goal is to achieve justice through the principle that the moral education is the priority and the knowledge is the good morality. Plato emphasized the importance of education in natural science and technology. He advocated that men and women should have equal educational opportunities. He also pointed out that different education should be provided to people of different ages. Plato’s above educational ideal had some advanced impact for the society. However, He thought that people from different social class should receive different class of education, which is less advanced compare to Confucius’s "education for all without discrimination." Chapter V: Confucius advocated the thought that “peace and harmony with differences”, and "peace and harmony is righteousness" in order to construct an orderly hierarchical, harmonious and caring society. This is Confucius’ ultimate objective of his Thoughts of Rule by Morality. Plato tried to achieve an ideal society, in which the three classes all play their best role, by implementation of the rule of virtue, justice, and kindness. Compare to Plato’s ideal society, Confucius’ harmonious society is founded on the patriarchal system that the family and state are structured in the same way, which featured using moral value to replace religion. Confucius’ ideal of harmonious society has utmost great implications on traditional Chinese culture. In contrary to Confucius’ ideal society, Plato's ideal state is without family but instead religion enjoys a considerably high status.