In order to evaluate the role of Confucius and the significance of Confucian teaching in history,we resort to a comparative perspective opened by a historical philosophical concept dubbed“Breakthrough of the Axial Age”.Compared with the Hebrew spirit embodied in its religion of revelation,the Confucian thought was rather a teaching of natureDifferent from Socratic's teaching on virtue focusing on reasoning,the Confucian teaching more emphasizes humanness,highlighting the connection of the original Confucian doctrine with ethicsThe development of the Confucian thought from the aspect of humanness to that of ritual propriety and Confucius inheritance of the political,cultural tradition represented by former sagekings,helped establish a new tradition of Chinese civilization in which political and cultural teachings supported each other,the characteristics of the breakthrough of the Axial Age in early Chinese thinking