leaders China's rediscover Confucianism - Print Version - International Herald Tribune China's leaders rediscover Confucianism Daniel A. Bell International Herald Tribune THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2006 BEIJING Marxism no longer serves as Chinese society's guiding ideology. But that doesn't mean the end of ideology. Western experts hope liberal democracy will fill the void, but they will have "joined Karl Marx," as the Chinese used to say, before that happens. In China, the moral vacuum is being filled by Christian sects, Falun Gong and extreme forms of nationalism. But the government considers that such alternatives threaten the hard-won peace and stability that underpins China's development, so it has encouraged the revival of Confucianism. Like most ideologies, however, Confucianism can be a double-edged sword. "Confucius said, 'Harmony is something to be cherished,'" President Hu Jintao noted in February 2005. A few months later, he instructed China's party cadres to build a "harmonious society." Echoing Confucian themes, Hu said China should promote such values as honesty and unity, as well as forge a closer relationship between the people and the government. The teaching curriculum for secondary schools now includes teaching of the Confucian classics, and several experimental schools have been set up that focus largely on the classics. Abroad, the government has been promoting Confucianism via branches of the Confucius Institute, a Chinese language and culture center similar to France's Alliance Franaise and Germany's Goethe Institute. For the government, the promotion of Confucian values has several advantages. Domestically, the affirmation of harmony is meant to reflect the ruling party's concern for all classes. Threatened by rural discontent - according to official figures, there were 87,000 illegal disturbances last year - the government realizes that it needs to do more for those bearing the brunt of China's development. Internationally, the call for peace and harmony is meant to disarm fears about China's rapid rise. How does Confucianism resonate in society at large? At some level, especially regarding family ethics, Confucian values still inform ways of life. Filial piety, for example, is still widely endorsed and practiced: Adult children have a legal obligation to care for their elderly parents. Many intellectuals have turned to Confucianism to make sense of such social practices and to think of ways of dealing with China's current moral and political predicament. But their interpretations of Confucianism often diverge from official ones. Perhaps the most influential contemporary Confucian is thinker Jiang Qing, author of "Political Confucianism," in which he argues that for contemporary China, political Confucianism is more appropriate than Western-style liberal democracy. Jiang could not develop the institutional implications in that book. In a Taiwanese publication, however, he puts forward an interesting proposal for a legislature that includes representatives of Confucian elites, of elites entrusted with the task of cultural continuity, and of the people. In an article widely distributed on the Web, he argues for the establishment of Confucianism
as a state religion (as with state religions in Britain and Sweden, other religions would not be prohibited). Intellectuals have also been applying Confucianism to foreign policy. Confucians favor rule by moral example and oppose the use of force to promote morality. Hence, Confucian intellectuals were severely critical of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. But here, too, interpretations of Confucianism may diverge from official ones. The idea that Taiwan should be reintegrated into the mainland by being threatened with invasion and bloodshed is far removed from Confucian ideals. Perhaps the biggest challenge to the government is the Confucian emphasis on meritocracy. The Confucian view is that political leaders should be the most talented and public-spirited members of the community, and the process of choosing such leaders should be meritocratic, meaning that there should be equal opportunity for the best to rise the top. Historically, Confucian meritocracy was implemented by means of examinations, and there h...