> 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. ...
>
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