Rusty OLD FOOL, you should not blame Confucius for your ignorance. You
should blame your chop suey parents keeping you in their chop suey
restaurant kitchen too long that made you a chop suey idiot. Now, here
is another Confucianism for you to learn, let's see if you can be less
chop suey idiot!

Your Confucius

China embraces Confucius again

Confucius has returned. In fact he was never far away, not even in the
darkest days of the Cultural Revolution. For years the government
reviled Confucius as a representative of "old ways of thinking", a
lackey of the feudal class and oppressor of slaves. Lin Biao, the
disgraced heir apparent of Mao, was condemned not only as a traitor
but as "a close follower of Confucius". It has always been like this
in Chinese history. In the 3rd century BC, Chin—the first emperor and
unifier of China—wanted to do away with history and tradition so that
he would become the cornerstone of a new China. He ordered the
Confucian classics to be burned and the scholars massacred, much as
Mao Tse-tung did.
What happened after Chin is happening after Mao: Confucius is making a
comeback. it could hardly be otherwise. China is not China without
Confucius.

The ideology of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is in deep crisis.
Even among Party leaders, it is hard to find a convinced Marxist, even
though a portrait of Mao is still hanging in Tiananmen Square. From a
pragmatic perspective, the CCP needs to justify its grip on power
using the old dynastic rationale: Mao is the founder of a new dynasty
and the CCP is his heir. The CCP is no longer a revolutionary party;
but a political aristocracy that claims a monopoly on power to steer
the country through an economic and social transformation
unprecedented in human history and make it a great power. There are no
obvious alternatives. The history of China in the 20th century has
been so volatile, violent, chaotic and miserable that its citizens
appreciate the relative prosperity and freedom, even if there is room
for much improvement.

But this leaves the CPP with two great problems: consistency and
solidarity. For 30 years the Party has followed the pragmatic approach
suggested by Deng Xiaoping: "To be rich is to be glorious." Hence it
has followed capitalist development policies. But this has created a
problem of consistency within the Party. The Marxist structures and
slogans remain, but the ideology has evaporated. What is the source,
then, of the regime's legitimacy?

The other problem is social solidarity. China has the largest number
of millionaires in the world and the companies with greatest market
value. But there are vast differences between the well-developed
coastal regions and the poor interior provinces, and between rural and
urban areas. Corruption is rife and the socialist safety nets of the
1970s are being undone with nothing to replace them. Demonstrations
and complaints have been increasingly frequent. Can the government
withstand the stormy seas ahead?

In view of this social turmoil, the Chinese Prime Minister, Hu Jintao,
deliberately revived the ancient sage at the CPP's recent five-year
congress in Beijing. Hu's slogan of the "Three Harmonies" is clearly
Confucian: he-ping (peace in the world), he-jie (reconciliation with
Taiwan), he-xie (social harmony). This is clearly a Confucian
program.

Ever since Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao took control of the main political
positions of China at the end of 2002, they have consistently acted as
ruler-scholars at the service of the people, in keeping with the
Confucian ideal of a good ruler. Many of their slogans, such as
"people first", "running the Government at the service of the people",
and "seek harmony in differences," are literal quotations from
Confucius or his follower Mencius.

The rebirth of Confucian values is everywhere. The Chinese Government
has fostered the creation of Confucius Institutes all over the world
to promote Chinese language and culture; the curricula in schools and
universities pay now more attention to the Chinese classics; it is
becoming fashionable in the media to use expressions with Confucian
undertones. One of the outstanding publishing success stories of the
last few years has been the sale of almost four million copies of a
simplified version of Confucius’s Analects.

Confucius’ moral and social philosophy goes directly against the
moribund Marxist orthodoxy but the CPP likes its emphasis on order,
harmony, sense of responsibility, and authority. As the heirs of the
Mao dynasty, they are seeking support for their position.

However, this novel emphasis on Confucian values may be motivated by
an honest drive to seek a solid foundation in the quicksands of social
transformation. Hu and Wen are fully aware that Confucian ethics
imposes reciprocal rights and duties on rulers and citizens. It
demands obedience to authority, but imposes on the Government the duty
of moral behaviour in favour of the people, to the point that it
justifies rebellion against tyranny. They have begun a one-way trip
away from Marxist ideology. Furthermore, the new generation of Chinese
leaders believes that their first loyalty is to China and its people,
not to the CPP. They have a deep sense of mission and responsibility
rooted in the Confucian ideals of a good ruler -- even if the West
views them as a despotic autocracy.

Confucianism and government

Confucius (551-479 BC) is the most influential thinker of China of the
past 25 centuries. He shaped the culture not only of the "Central
Kingdom," but also of Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam. The
canonical texts of Confucianism, the Four Books, including the
Analects by Confucius, the Book of Mencius, The Great Learning, and
the Doctrine of the Mean. These are not philosophical treatises with
the logical rigor of Greek thought, but suggestive thoughts open to
many interpretations. Confucian orthodoxy today is based on an
interpretation made by scholars of the Sung Dynasty, in the 10th to
13th centuries.

Confucianism is a system of personal and social ethics. It does not
rely upon supernatural arguments or God, although it is not closed to
transcendence. Confucius simply pleads ignorance about the fate of man
after death, while insisting on the importance of venerating one's
forefathers as a sign of filial piety. Confucius would not regard
himself as a secularist. Secularism disdains man’s spiritual needs,
but there is nothing in the thinking of Confucius which suppresses
man's spiritual dimension.

Confucianism’s starting point is the unity of the three great
realities: Heaven, Man, and Earth. The universe obeys its own order
and laws and ethical behaviour consists precisely in following those
"natural laws." For Confucius, the evil and disorder that visit human
beings are a consequence of immorality. In particular, rulers have
authority because they have received it from a higher power (tiandao)
by means of a Mandate of Heaven (tianming). What exactly Heaven means
in Confucian thought is disputed since it is, like many other notions
of Chinese philosophy, a vague intuition rather than a formal
metaphysical concept. In any case, it is something more than just
mechanical laws.

The rulers lose the Mandate of Heaven when they fail to behave
ethically. Then the people can legitimately demand a change in
government. But so long as the rulers enjoy the Mandate of Heaven, the
people are obliged to obey and follow docilely the ruler's decrees.
When Hu Jintao invokes Confucian values he is implicitly renouncing
both the dictatorship of the proletariat and the tyranny of the
market, as well as encouraging his fellow citizens to follow the order
that heavens have given to human nature in order to reach personal
perfection and social harmony.

Like his Greek contemporary Aristotle, Confucius follows an ethics of
perfection. Human beings must be in harmony with the universe, which
assumes obedience to laws decreed by heaven. Obedience to the laws of
nature requires learning them with self-knowledge and study. Knowing
the laws leads to li, a characteristically Confucian virtue that
implies the internalization of good social forms. Correct social
behaviour results from consistency between external social conventions
and internal personal dispositions. Li is the root of ren, a higher
virtue, which could be roughly translated as "benevolence": wishing
the best for everyone. For Confucius, the virtue of ren begins at
home, with one’s family. From there it spreads in wider ripples to all
people. Confucian ethics carries a strong domestic flavour: family
relations are the foundation and model of all social relations. Ren
implies the practice of zhong (fidelity, loyalty) and of shu (mercy,
compassion). Benevolence (ren) also leads to the practice of the
principles of justice and equity, which are at the core of the virtue
of yi.

A virtuous individual reaches moral perfection by seeking in
everything a proper balance, the virtuous equilibrium of the just
mean, which could be summarized as "know and respect the mandates of
Heaven." For Confucius, society must be ruled by virtuous scholars.
The calling and mission of a virtuous person is to rule others. This
is not seen as an honour or an opportunity for personal benefit, since
this should never be in the mind of a person aspiring to perfection.
It is simply done in obedience to a mandate from Heaven, which a
superior person knows and obeys.

If the current rehabilitation of Confucianism in China is sincere, it
confirms that the CCP intends to transform itself into a political
aristocracy. It will no longer aim at the dictatorship of the
proletariat, but at rule by the best equipped to govern the nation. In
this it will connect with previous dynasties, since meritocracy has
been for thousands of years a part of the administrative organization
of the State through empire-wide competitive examinations.

Another relevant point of Confucian ethics is its emphasis on
responsibility. Western liberal democracy is based on an
individualistic ethic which focuses on rights and freedom. In
Confucianism, however, the individual is a person-for-others. Hence
Confucian virtues always have a social dimension. For instance,
Confucianism insists on the importance of study and knowledge; but
their main aim is not mere personal satisfaction, achievement, or
power over nature, but cooperation with others to achieve a harmonious
relationship within society and within the universe.

Confucianism and democracy

Confucianism (particularly in the writings of Mencius) is optimistic
about the natural goodness of human beings and their progress in
perfection. It views society as an expanded version of the family. The
patrilineal family system of China created rights and duties for the
individuals unconnected to their condition as subjects of the State.
In this sense, the Chinese people have enjoyed a high degree of
autonomy in relation to the State, although they were subject to
important family bonds.

On the other hand, State controlled individuals through those same
lineage and family bonds. It depended upon the network of family and
clan relationships to function. Therefore, the Confucian emphasis on
family relationships, on filial piety, on the need of solidarity among
siblings, and on domestic harmony, reflects a political perspective in
which it is expected that the basic units of the social pyramid will
exercise self-control in favour of the State.

Hence, for Confucius the family is school of virtue and foundation of
society. If there are many virtuous and learned individuals, they will
be able to run their families properly and the result will be a rich
and well governed State. In turn, a prosperous and properly managed
State will be in a position to encourage individuals and their
families along a path of moral and civic virtue and thus reach social
harmony.

Towards a Confucian China

What lies ahead for China if it shrugs off its socialist ideology
completely? It is difficult to say, but certainly 21st century China
will be deeply influenced by more than 2,000 years of immersion in
Confucian values. It will value strong authority; social hierarchies;
political consensus; a political elite; and social meritocracy. Some
of the forms of Western democracy, even universal suffrage, will
exist, but it is likely that political power will continue in the
hands of a political aristocracy that will still call itself Communist
Party of China, at least for the next few decades.

What happens afterwards, when China has high living standards, a large
middle class, and a dynamic ecnomy is anyone's guess. But one thing is
certain: China will not allow the West to impose on her a political
model. "Study the past to define the future," said Confucius. When
Chinese study the history of their encounter with the West, they find
a century of humiliation, from 1843 (when China was forced after her
defeat in the opium wars to cede Hong Kong to Great Britain) to 1949
(when Mao proclaimed the People’s Republic of China).This is bound to
define the long-term political future of China.

Confucius and Chinese foreign policy

Is a powerful China good for world peace? Will it pursue the logic of
power, the logic of self-interest, or the logic of benevolence? The
opinion of my Chinese friends is unanimous, as if springing from a
collective historical memory. China, they say, has never been an
aggressor. The trend of its foreign policy is to attract rather than
coerce. As Confucius said: "If those who are close are happy, those
who are far will be attracted."

For Confucius and his followers, only selfish and petty people, of
those he calls xiaoren -- stunted individuals -- engage in power
struggles. A virtuous person, a junzi, must not seek power, but the
good of society at large. His internal goodness (ren) comes out in the
form of external good manners and propriety (li). These virtues are
not merely individual qualities. When a State is truly civilized,
which for Confucius is the same as virtuous, it will exert a
beneficial influence over the entire world and contribute to global
stability, peace, and harmony among nations.

One of the traditional concepts of Chinese culture is the awareness
that all peoples form a global community (datong): "All are one under
Heaven." This notion goes beyond the vague idea of one human race to
which all men belong. In Confucian thought, datong is based on the
unity between Heaven, Man, and Earth. This means that the human
element (the individual person, the family, the clan, the State, or
the whole of human society) has a duty to seek harmony with both
Heaven (that is with the superior ethical laws) and Earth (natural
resources, the economy, and the management of material things). If
humanity clashes with the moral or the economic order, the world
becomes a place of conflict, injustice, exploitation, and suffering.
Mankind has then lost the Way (dao). When conflict and disunity
predominate, the Way is being lost -- a far cry from Marxist
dialectics.

Therefore, the great question is how far is whether the contemporary
Chinese state is at the service of the dao, or is the dao a tool in
the hands of the State? In the last few years China has shown great
restraint in her foreign policy, has supported multilateralism, and
developed an "charm offensive". But critics accuse her of having
exploited the dao to enlarge her sphere of influence (particularly in
the Pacific), to isolate Taiwan, to expand her exports, and to secure
a supply of raw materials for her economic boom, all of it supported
by the modernization of her armed forces and the acquisition of
civilian and military advanced technology.

Another key element in China’s foreign policy is the Taiwan question.
This is directly linked to domestic policies since those far away will
feel attracted only if they see that those close by are happy. While
the official relationship between Beijing and Taipei continues to be
chilly, the economy of Taiwan is increasingly dependent on China: more
than a quarter of Taiwan’s exports and 95%% of its external investments
go to the Mainland. Hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese work there. It
is a typically Confucian challenge: how to achieve a harmonious
relationship in spite of differences.

*****

Modern China is basically traditional China garbed with Western
technology and an Enlightenment ideology. China is recovering her
confidence and rediscovering her authentic self, which is thoroughly
Confucian. A modern re-interpretation of Confucian values could help
her cope with rapid social and economic transformation without
succumbing to Western excesses of individualism and relativism. Hence,
my reading of Hu's promotion of Confucius is that the West should be
very positive about China's potential for contributing to world
stability and peace. Much will depend on the vision and honesty of her
leaders -- on their wisdom and virtue, as Confucius would put it.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/china_embraces_confucius_again/

On Jul 22, 12:10 pm, rst0wxyz yahoo.com> wrote: