平等作为法的价值之一,无论在中国还是西方,在历史上都是呈多元演变的。从古希腊古罗马到中世纪、文艺复兴,西方的平等思想源于并始终体现了人们对人生意义、价值的认知和关怀。中国的平等思想虽也有深厚传统,但大都以平均主义为出发点并以经世致用为基本取向,其内涵与西方的平等观相去甚远。通过比较中西平等思想发展的历史,有助于厘清当代中国需要何种平等,进一步践行以人为本的和谐价值理念。 As one of the values ​​of law, equality has evolved in history both in China and the West. From ancient Greece and Rome to the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the western equality thought originated from and always embodies people’s cognition and concern for the meaning and value of life. Although there is a profound tradition in China’s equal thinking, most of them take the principle of egalitarianism as the starting point and take the utility of the society as their basic orientation, whose connotation is far from the concept of equality in the West. By comparing the history of the development of the Chinese and Western ideas of equality, it is helpful to clarify what kind of equality China needs in the contemporary era and further practice the concept of harmony based on people.