Confronting the King, Constructing the Future: A Comparative Analysis of Confucius and Jeremiah

This paper blurs the lines demarcating the categories of Hebrew prophet and Chinese sage. By analyzing the political situations of Confucius and Jeremiah during the Axial Age, this paper will demonstrate that both were forced to confront corruption among rulers in political climates where they were often personally in danger. Both used wisdom traditions unique to their own traditions but similar in sapiential tactics to hold kings accountable to a higher divine order and construct a vision of a renewed society. It will note seven points of intersection, among them: a sense of internal compulsion from Heaven/God, a reliance on an idealized kingship from the past to judge the present, and the transmission of this subversive, future-oriented hope through a band of disciples. Confucius uses China’s golden age as a model to repristinate the present to create an ideal future. Jeremiah’s vision points forward to a new eschatological day.