Confucius Comes Back
By PAUL MOONEY in Beijing
Inside a classroom on the campus of Tsinghua University, Tang Wenming
is having an animated discussion with 10 doctoral students about the
differences between the Greek and Confucian concepts of virtue. The
blackboard behind Mr. Tang is nearly covered with Chinese
characters — heaven and earth, morality, virtue — and a
smattering of English words.
He
pauses to
take a drink of water, jumps into the differences between Taoism and
Confucianism, and then continues on to other classical Chinese
concepts: the I Ching, yin and yang. The students tap away on their
laptops or scribble in notebooks.The three-hour class, which began at 8
a.m., should have been over 25 minutes ago, but the students continue
to ask questions, and Mr. Tang, an associate professor of philosophy,
shows no sign of breaking away.
His course, "The Ethics of Qin Confucianism," is just one of
the many manifestations of a Confucian fever sweeping across China.
Scholars and students are dusting off classics once banned from the
classroom, while the general public is snapping up books and attending
university lectures on this formerly taboo topic.
For more than 2,500 years, Confucian thought held sway in
China, advocating a state guided by highly ethical scholar-bureaucrats
and a society ruled by morality and a strong emphasis on hierarchical
relationships. But by the end of the 19th century, the Chinese state,
powerless to fight off foreign encroachment and growing public
dissatisfaction, was tottering on the brink of collapse.
Leading intellectuals pointed an accusing finger at Kongfuzi
(551-479 BC), better known outside China as Confucius. During the May
Fourth Movement of 1919, intellectuals frustrated by China's failures
shouted "Down with the Confucian store!" and called for science and
democracy to take the seat of the Great Sage.
Confucius was even more harshly attacked when the Communists
came to power, in 1949. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76),
Confucian temples throughout China were damaged by rampaging young Red
Guards, and Confucian scholars were frightened — and often
beaten — into silence.
"The Chinese are probably the only people in the world who
have sought to thoroughly abandon their own thought, culture, and
traditions," says Peng Guoxiang, an associate professor of philosophy
at Tsinghua University.
Now, almost a century after Confucianism first came under
attack as an obstacle to development, it is being heralded as a
solution to the many political, economic, and ethical problems China
faces.
In addition to impressive economic gains over the past 30
years, China has experienced a growing gap between rich and poor and a
rise in corruption, crime, and divorce. Academics say few people still
believe in Marxism or Communism, but nothing has risen yet to take its
place, leaving an ideological vacuum. People clearly feel something is
lacking.
China has "moved from ideology to free-market economy so
quickly that there's a perception that there are no values," says Roger
T. Ames, a professor of philosophy at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.
Many Chinese, academics included, find Confucianism an
appealing alternative to both free-market economics and hard-line
Communism, in large part because it is an indigenous philosophy. "As
China has come into its own as a world power, Chinese want their own
story about what this means," says Stephen C. Angle, a Fulbright
scholar at Peking University, and a professor of philosophy at Wesleyan
University.
A Ratings Success
Confucian scholars are basking in a newfound popularity that
none could have imagined just a decade ago. Books and DVD's on
Confucianism, including a growing number of translated works by Western
scholars, are prominently placed at the front of bookstores. Leading
universities are advertising courses on Confucianism, aimed at
executives. Peking University, for example, offers a 12-month program
in Confucian studies for businesspeople at a cost of nearly
$5,000 — a huge sum in China.
Some 18 universities around the country offer courses on
Confucianism or have set up Confucian institutes. Academic conferences
on the philosophy have become regular events at home and abroad. "I've
been to 14 in the past year alone," says Mr. Peng, who is also the
general secretary of the Chinese Society for Confucian Studies.
Daniel A. Bell, a professor of political philosophy and
ethics at Tsinghua University, writes in the Spring 2007 issue of
Dissent that there has been "an explosion of conferences and books on
Confucianism in China, to the point that even the most dedicated
Confucian could not keep up."
The door began to open after China enacted economic reforms
in 1979, signaling the first move away from central planning. Books on
Confucianism began to appear on university shelves, many written by a
handful of distinguished scholars from Taiwan and Hong Kong, known as
the New Confucianists, who had kept Confucian precepts alive outside
the mainland.
Chinese scholars on the mainland who had long hidden their
intellectual interest began to write openly about Confucianism. In
recent years, many experts trained in Western philosophy have switched
their focus to Confucianism or other traditional Chinese studies.
The national fascination with the topic was made evident last
October when Yu Dan, a 41-year-old media professor at Beijing Normal
University, appeared on Lecture Room, a television program. Ms. Yu
stood at the podium in a series of seven nightly episodes, putting the
Analects of Confucius into simple words and tossing in her own insights.
Tens of millions of people around the country tuned in. A
book based on the lectures sold three million copies over the next four
months, double the sales of the best-selling Harry Potter book.
"People are looking for some sort of spiritual values for
everyday life," says Mr. Angle, "and Yu Dan was speaking to this need."
Jiang Qing, a retired humanities professor who is now a guest
lecturer at Shenzhen University, and a conservative Confucianist, says
Ms. Yu was simplifying the tenets of Confucianism, but he applauds her
effort. "Chinese who once felt Confucianism had no value have now found
that it is very valuable," he says. "That's incredible."
The Communist Party has largely accepted the country's
enthusiasm for Confucius. Mr. Bell writes in Dissent that Confucianism,
with its emphasis on respect for authority, presents political leaders
with a more appealing alternative than Christian sects, the banned
spiritual movement Falun Gong, or the extreme forms of nationalism that
have been growing in popularity in recent years.
In October the plenary session of the Communist Party's
Central Committee formally endorsed President Hu Jintao's call for the
creation of a "harmonious society," clearly a Confucian concept. That
decision confirmed the shift in the party's emphasis away from the idea
that rapid economic growth alone is the solution to the country's
social ills. It was also seen as an attempt to show that the party,
which faced 87,000 protests by farmers and workers in 2005, according
to official Chinese figures, is concerned about the less fortunate.
But there are limits to the party's tolerance. "If the revival of
Confucianism begins to threaten their power, they'll stop it," says one
Chinese scholar, who asked not to be named for fear of getting into
trouble.
Perhaps for this reason, it took five years for Mr. Jiang to get
approval for the publication of his book, Political Confucianism. Many
of his scholarly articles can now be published only outside of the
mainland in Taiwan or Hong Kong, or on the somewhat freer Internet.
Similarly, when Mr. Bell tried to publish an article in a
Chinese academic journal calling for rule in China by a "modern
Confucian democracy," with leaders chosen based on a Confucian-style
examination, government censors were quick to order the article yanked.
In Beyond Liberal Democracy: Political Thinking for an East
Asian Context, published by Princeton University Press last year, the
Montreal native writes about the relevance of Confucianism in East Asia
for democracy, human rights, and capitalism. The book is being
translated into Chinese, and Mr. Bell hopes government censors will
approve publication.
Devout Advocates
As Mr. Bell's views suggest, many of the academics who study
Confucianism are also its most devout advocates. They talk unabashedly
about how the complex philosophical system can provide an ethical code
that now seems to be lacking in Chinese society.
"Every day in our newspapers and on TV, all we hear and see
is bad news about the collapse of morality," says Mr. Jiang. He ticks
off a long list of recent scandals, including fake baby formula, the
sale of bogus medicines and spirits, counterfeit diplomas, plagiarized
theses, fake Ph.D.'s, doctors taking bribes, universities selling
degrees, and shoddy infrastructure projects.
Mr. Jiang is probably the most extreme example of this
scholarly love affair with Confucianism. In many of his articles he
argues that only a Confucian revival can save China. Political
Confucianism, a 462-page work, calls for a tricameral legislature made
up of elected officials, the successful candidates of a rigorous
examination based on Confucian texts, and elites charged with ensuring
cultural continuity. The last group would be filled by people who could
show that they were descendants of Confucius.
Mr. Jiang says further that he'd like to see required college
courses on Marxism replaced by courses on Confucianism. "Confucian
principles teach one how to be an upright person and the right way to
do things," he says. "No matter what you do, you need to know this."
The 53-year old scholar, who was originally trained as a
lawyer, has opened his own Confucian Academy in the mountainous Guizhou
province, in southern China. He invites scholars there to participate
in discussions, conduct research, and occasionally participate in
Confucian rites. He has also been known to dress in Ming-dynasty
clothing (he feels the alien-run Qing dynasty betrayed Confucianism).
Some academics find such uncritical advocacy of Confucianism
troubling and argue that proponents are simply replacing one
all-consuming ideology — Marxism — with another.
Wu Yun, a graduate student in political ethics at Tsinghua
University, says she studies the works of foreign scholars of
Confucianism because many Chinese scholars treat the classics as a
"creed that can't be violated."
"The so-called revival of Confucianism is not very rational in academe
in China," she says.
Mr. Peng agrees that "narrow-minded nationalism" causes some
scholars, such as Mr. Jiang, to reject concepts such as democracy,
liberty, and human rights "just because they originated from the West."
He says that proponents of true Confucianism are open to many different
concepts, seeing the philosophy as one of several ideas —
including democracy, liberty, and human rights — that can help
China. "The real spirit of Confucianism," he says, "is rather rational
than emotional, rather inclusive than exclusive."
No matter what form this revival takes going forward, it's
not likely that Confucianism will disappear anytime soon. The
2,500-year tradition permeates Chinese society and culture in ways that
many may not even realize. "It's all become so deeply rooted in our
culture," says Ms. Wu. "We're born Confucianists."
After all, Confucianism survived the attacks of the
influential May Fourth generation and more than three decades of harsh
persecution by the Communists, in the end outlasting even Marxism.