1. INTRODUCTION
1.2. TERMINOLOGY
1.2.3. Confucianism
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religious or philosophical traditions. This syncretism – sometimes interpreted as tolerance – is often seen as an expression of the (Confucian) pursuance of harmony, and in this sense ‘typically Chinese’ or ‘typically Confucian’. It is not uncommon for people in Confucian countries to consider themselves to be a follower of multiple religions at the same time. One can be a Christian and a Daoist, without feeling the need to choose a
‘truth’. Choosing a truth, and denouncing other religions as false, indeed does not correspond with values like ‘moderation’ and ‘harmony’, which are values with high standing in the Chinese/Confucian culture. It is moreover not uncommon to find Buddhist statues in a Daoist temple, and vice versa.
Fan gave a classification of the Chinese culture by distilling 72 cultural values, which she describes as “the norms and standards by which everything in society is judged.”58 The most dominant values are an expression of all the above religious traditions, but arguably show most overlap with Confucianism: filial piety, loyalty, obedience, paternalism, avoiding confrontation, collectivism, gentlemanly behavior, harmony and moderation are among the most important ones.59
Finally, it should be mentioned that the description in this chapter mainly features the Han Chinese culture, which encompasses approximately 92% of the Chinese population. Naturally, China contains strong regional cultural differences. There are 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities with their own distinct culture, as well as myriad others without official recognition. 60
1.2.3. Confucianism
What is Confucianism? Lee would answer this with a counter-question: “which Confucianism”?61 Over time it took on many forms. Confucianism as preached by Confucius, Confucianism adjusted by interpreters such as Mencius, Confucianism during the Warring States period (ca. 475-221 B.C.), Confucianism elevated to state ideology by the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – 220 A.D.), Confucianism as state doctrine during subsequent dynasties, Confucianism as interpreted by the May 4th Movement,
58 Fan, “A Classification of Chinese Culture,” 4.
59 Ibid, 5-7.
60 “Fifty-six ethnic groups,” accessed June 15, 2014, http://english.gov.cn/2006-02/08/content_182626.htm.
61 Lee Dian Rainy, Confucius & Confucianism, the Essentials (Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, 2010), 192.
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Confucianism as interpreted by the New Life Movement of the KMT, Confucianism as contemporary ‘New Confucianism’, Confucianism as ‘Left Confucianism’, and many others. It is described by Lee as “discourse with a thousand faces.”62 In order to still get a broad impression, let’s first take a look at Confucius’ life, teachings, as well as later interpretations.
In a similar fashion as with other religious/philosophical figures, with regards to all the texts that claim to give information about his life or teachings, none is written by himself. After Confucius’ death, his students generated texts and supposedly collected them in the Analects – a collection of his sayings – which became the primary source for his teachings. Together with Analects, The Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean and Mencius are often considered to be the four basic Confucian books.63 There are many other sources that claim to describe elements of his life and wisdom, with at least doubtful reliability.64
During Confucius’ lifetime (551 - 479 B.C.), he and his contemporaries reflected on a civilization – with accompanying political structures – which already stood for around 1.5 millennia.65 The idea of sage-kings – early rulers with characteristics of demigods such as immeasurable wisdom – represented the cultural heritage of this civilization. Its heritage – such as the pivotal position of ancestors, heaven and the
‘choice of heaven’ – was subsequently reinterpreted and immortalized by Confucius.
Moreover, he reflected on the traits of the time in which he lived; a time of war, intrigue, and great economic and social change. Confucius saw a world that was falling apart. His remedy was to focus on becoming a good person, which can be done by self-cultivation.
By becoming a good person, the family prospers. When all families prosper, the state will run well. When all states run well, the whole world will be in harmony. Becoming a good person can be done through self-cultivation, by adhering to such values as filial piety, dutifulness, honesty, sincerity, rightness, wisdom, compassion, and gentlemanly behavior.
These virtues will subsequently lead to an attitude of humanity. To cultivate these virtues,
62 Lee, Confucius & Confucianism, 192.
63 Next to these four sources, often mentioned are the ‘five classics’, which also became part of the Confucian traditional curriculum, being: Classic of Poetry, Book of Documents, Book of Rites, Book of Changes, Spring and Autumn Annals.
64 Lee, Confucius & Confucianism, 9-11.
65 Confucius is the name given by Catholic missionaries in the 16th century. The Chinese term is Kongfuzi (孔夫子), whereby Kong (孔) is his family name, and fuzi (夫子) means master or teacher
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education is crucial. He moreover redefined rituals to weave these virtues into the social-cultural web of Chinese society.66 Confucius justified his teachings by stating that he only passed on the wisdom from the past, and did not create anything new. However, there are strong indications he did exactly what he denied to have done.
Despite his focus on morality and the popularity of his teachings, none of the governments – which often employed scholars – ever hired Confucius. Lee explains this by the nature of his political ideas, which were quite subversive. He believed that governments exist for the benefit of the people, for which heaven grants exceptionally fit persons the right to rule. But if these rulers don’t benefit the people, this ‘mandate of heaven’ is revoked, giving the population the right to rebel.67
After Confucius’ death, his followers had to deal with what later was termed as
‘opposing schools of thought’. Indeed, during the Warring States Period, Confucianism was just one of the many ideas.68 Interpreters of Confucius’ teachings, of which Mencius ( 孟 子 371-289 B.C.) is often considered to be the most important, had to defend Confucianism against these competing schools. Mencius mainly had to stave off Daoist teachings, and argued that many evils happen because humans don’t develop the innate goodness of their human nature. His influence on Confucianism gave him the reputation as ‘second sage’. Next to Mencius, there were others interpreters, such as Xunzi (荀子 312-230 B.C.) who instead believed that human nature is evil.69
The state of Qin succeeded in conquering all other states in China, and ended the warring states epoch. It is known that during this time, Confucians were divided into different sub-groups.70 Qin was succeeded by the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to 220 A.D.), in which scholars organized all schools of thought and classified them as either Confucian, Mohist, Daoist, logician or strategist. This is an oversimplification of the wide variety of thought during the Warring States Period – sometimes referred to as ‘hundred schools of thought’ – which was in its turn made possible by the absence of a strong political center.
Now, with the establishment of a solid, long-lasting dynasty – instead of being just one of
66 Ibid, 1-9.
67 Ibid, 45-46.
68 Ibid, 63-85.
69 Ibid, 87-105.
70 Ibid, 119.
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morality through education – could facilitate the training of excellent officials for imperial service, which was later institutionalized through state examinations.72However, this elevation to state doctrine meant that Confucianism was reinterpreted into a desired official discourses in line with state interests. Bell argues that this meant that the state manipulated Confucian meaning to facilitate social and political hierarchy, obedience, and harsh punishments for those breaking the rules.73 A wide range of malpractices, ranging from the subordination of women, feudal exploitation, slavery, and all kinds of other inhumanity, were therefore later partly blamed on Confucianism. It is undoubtedly true that Confucianism, the political rule and social hierarchy of China became deeply intertwined for centuries, making it difficult to mentally re-entangle them later. This gave birth to movements such as neo-Confucianism, which were calls to go back to ‘pure Confucianism’.7475
Another possible reaction to this entanglement of Confucianism with the state and society came into life during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). The May the 4th Movement blamed the failings of the Qing dynasty – partly because of repeated humiliations at the hands of the West and Japan – its successor, as well as Chinese society in general, partly on Confucianism. Therefore, they adopted the previously mentioned combination of nationalism and iconoclasm. The KMT’s ‘new life movement’ was partially a response to
71 Ruichang Wang, “The Rise of Political Confucianism in Contemporary China,” in The Renaissance of Confucianism in Contemporary China, ed. R. Fan, (New York: Springer, 2011), 33.
72 Lee, Confucius & Confucianism, 132-134.
73 Bell, China’s New Confucianism, XV.
74 Lee, Confucius & Confucianism, 159.
75 Neo-Confucianism, which came into being during the Southern Song (1127-1279) dynasty, was partly a reaction to the popularity of Chan Buddhism, but also partly a reaction to the marriage of Confucianism and the state. Elite families used the state examinations as a way to get family members to be influential officials, and by doing so only benefit the wealth and power of their own families. At these state academies, they also read Buddhist and Daoist texts, which resulted in the fact that they were supposedly not ‘real Confucians’. Neo-Confucians moreover saw Buddhism as dangerously concerned with karma, leading Buddhists to be unconcerned with the problems of the world here and now. Neo-Confucian thinkers wanted to go back to ‘original Confucianism’, with its focus on becoming a gentleman through self-cultivation, which should also become evident in the (moral) conduct of state officials.
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the latter movement’s criticism, and held that the Qing dynasty’s failings were not due to Confucianism. They hoped that values like filial piety and loyalty could turn people into patriotic and obedient supporters of their party. The Communist Party of China adopted the May the 4th doctrine, whereby Marxism added an extra level of criticism.At the same time, Confucian scholars outside the People’s Republic of China – often called ‘New Confucians’ – tried to reevaluate Confucianism and answer the May the 4th Movement’s criticism.76
This will have provided enough background for the analysis in the next chapters.
For now, it is important to remember, that as Lee concludes, “Confucianism has been interpreted in all sorts of ways, by all sorts of people, in all sorts of times (….) these interpretations depend a great deal on the time: the things people were talking about, the ideas floating around, the problems people in the Confucian tradition found themselves facing.”77 Indeed, in the next chapters it will become clear that this is exactly the case for modern-day China’s re-embrace of Confucianism, and the CCP’s tentative dance with the former devil.
Before going on to the next term, one final issue should be discussed first. How should we view Confucianism? Is it a religion or a philosophy? This naturally fully depends on which interpretation is consulted. The Analects does make references to spirits, the dead, gods, afterlife and heaven, but they are relatively few, and seem to represent the religious ideas of Confucius’ time. Despite Confucianism consequently sometimes being interpreted as religion, Confucius’ favorite topics seem to be humanity, the gentleman and rituals, and his focal point is on self-cultivation and ways to build a good society. In most interpretations of Confucianism, behavior on earth is not consequential for the wellbeing in an afterlife – there is no Abrahamic hell and heaven, nor the likes of Buddhist karma which decides the contours of a next life – instead, behavior is just consequential for being a ‘gentleman’ or not. It is this lack of ‘sanctions’, which according to Lee explains much of the malpractices in imperial Chinese society.78 However, on the other hand it can also be seen as a merit, which is the author of this thesis’ view. Good behavior should not be ensured by guild-tripping or the threat of
76 Ibid, 178-181.
77 Ibid, 192.
78 Ibid, 202-204.
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eternal fire. Arguably, it is more ‘adult’ to be pointed towards the responsibility to take a good look at oneself, and to reform one’s own behavior not in return for a reward, but because it is humane.