Confucianism and Christianity
There are some common teachings in Christianity and Confucianism.
Among them, the most noteworthy ones are the teaching about Ren for Confucianism and that about love to neighbors for Christianity.
Ren (仁) is the Confucian virtue denoting the good feeling a virtuous human experiences when being altruistic. 仁 is exemplified by a normal adult's protective feelings for children. It is considered the outward expression of Confucian ideals.Concerning Ren (Jin in Japanese), Confucius said to love others, not to do to others what you want others not to do for you, and to make others take higher positions if you want to take a higher position than others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren_(Confucianism)
The worldly love imposes restraints on others to satisfy the mind of one who pursues this love. But Confucius meant that a man of virtue must have higher love above the worldly love. Ren means such higher love. This love emerges or is generated in one's mind targeting another, but it works to make the another person happy rather than to make oneself happy.
In other word, Christ Jesus said that people needed to practice Ren to enter the kingdom of God or Heaven.
But why is it important for religion which concerns life and death or God and human beings?
It is because God is true love and true love can be realized through practice of Ren.
Ren means also to promote good as is meant in the teaching of Christ Jesus. The kingdom of God and Heaven are filled with good without any bit of evil. Again, it is because God is true love and true love is felt to be good by one being loved.
So, there are some common teachings between Christianity and Confucianism. But Confucius did not aim at reaching the kingdom of God. He wanted to revive a legendary moralistic kingdom of ancient China Zhou (Chou). Specifically Confucius respected the Duke of Zhou, a member of the Zhou Dynasty who played a major role in consolidating the kingdom established by his elder brother King Wu.
Duke of Zhou
Personal name Dan, he was the fourth son of King Wen of Zhou and Queen Tai Si. His eldest brother Bo Yikao predeceased their father (supposedly a victim of cannibalism); the second-eldest defeated the Shang Dynasty at the Battle of Muye around 1046 BC, ascending the throne as King Wu.
Only two years after assuming power, King Wu died and left the kingdom to his young son King Cheng.[2][3]:52 The Duke of Zhou successfully attained the regency and administered the kingdom himself,[3]:54 leading to revolts not only from disgruntled Shang partisans but also from his own relatives, particularly his older brother Guan Shu.[4] Within five years, the Duke of Zhou had managed to defeat the Three Guards and other rebellions[2] and his armies pushed east, bringing more land under Zhou control.
The Duke of Zhou was credited with elaborating the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven, which countered Shang propaganda that as descendants of the god Shangdi they should be restored to power. According to this doctrine, Shang injustice and decadence had so grossly offended Heaven that Heaven had removed their authority and commanded the reluctant Zhou to replace the Shang and restore order.
On a more practical level, the Duke of Zhou expanded and codified his brother's feudal system,[2] granting titles to loyal Shang clansmen and even establishing a new "holy" city at Chengzhou around 1038 BC.
Duke of Zhou is also known as the "God of Dreams". The Analects record Confucius saying, "How I have gone downhill! It has been such a long time since I dreamt of the Duke of Zhou."[10] This was meant as a lamentation of how the governmental ideals of the Duke of Zhou had faded, but was later taken literally.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_of_Zhou#cite_note-10
http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/Chinese_dynasties/Zhou_dynasty_map.htm
So, Confucius was not a son of God. He had to find an example of realization of of his ideal in the past history or among his ancestors. "Once the society was good and ideal. We have to return to the old wonderful state." This was the core of the philosophy of Confucius. In this context, Confucius was akin to the Buddha; they both did not recognize the sole creator of the universe, the God Almighty.
But Christ Jesus taught that people must advance to the kingdom of God and eventually to Heaven. Those who have learnt the philosophy of Confucius can of course easily change their direction to the kingdom of God from the ancient kingdom Zhou Confucius so idealized.
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Mar 4:25 For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.