Communists turn to Confucius
"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves."
"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop."
"Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart."
If you're Chinese, you probably knew the author of these sayings by the time you got to the word "Before". If you're not Chinese, you probably got it by the end. These proverbs are some of the sayings of China's first moral teacher, Confucius (551- 479 BC) - a man whose teachings are now back in fashion in this country.
This week, it was announced that Chow Yun-Fat is to star as Confucius in a state-backed film to mark the 60th anniversary of Communist rule in October. A recent book about Confucius' teachings has sold more than 10 million copies.
For centuries, Confucianism provided the moral foundation for the conduct of life in China. Confucius and his followers designed a system of government and society based on harmony and respect for social order.
But during the early years of Communist rule, Confucianism came under attack. Chairman Mao decreed that there was room for only one belief system in China: his own.
During the decade-long Cultural Revolution, Red Guards attacked the home of Confucius and tried to destroy all forms of religion and tradition. Many were killed for their beliefs.
Then, at the end of the 1970s, Deng Xiaoping began to introduce capitalism. The certainties of Mao-style Marxism began to fall away.
A few years later, the Communist Party started to worry about a growing vacuum of belief in China. Universally-mandated faith in Communism was being replaced by a new belief in money, and also by a growing number of religious movements. One of these movements, the Falun Gong, was seen as a dangerous cult which posed a threat to the Party's rule.
The Party needed an alternative - a faith that might help to guide its citizens through life in a country that was trying to jam several centuries' worth of change into just a few years. In the end, it chose to do what every political party does when it faces a crisis - it went back to basics. In this case - to Confucius.
After he took office in 2003, China's President Hu Jintao began to talk of building a "harmonious society" - a deliberate echo of Confucius. Communist Party officials talk as much as they can about harmony (conveniently, the need for harmony is often used as a pretext for stopping all forms of dissent).
Here in Beijing, the 14th Century Confucian Temple is a popular destination for Chinese tourists. Harmony within the grounds clearly needs a little vigilance. A sign warns that there will be "No Admission for Drunkards and People with Mental Problems".
A colleague and I asked some of the visitors for their favourite Confucian sayings.
"I work for a very big company," one woman told us. "Every day I have to work in a team with colleagues. I practise and experience one of the mottos of Confucius: 'When three people travel together, one must be the teacher.'"
"Confucius says a noble man can love a beautiful woman but not have lust," a man told us. "That philosophy taught me a lot. My son is still young but when he grows up I will teach him about it and show him the root of our culture."
Do you follow the teachings of Confucius? Do you have a favourite Confucianism?
I’m 
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There are over 3,000 Confusious institutes around the world now, all of them are rooted in the universities, which shows the ambition of Chinese government to wide spread Chinese thought and cultures.
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The Confucian have strict definitions of social relationships, the basic five are - ruler to ruled; father to son; husband to wife; elder brother to younger brother; and friend to friend. There are also defined behaviours that are expected of each side of these pairs. For example, the "ruled" and the "son" are expected to be absolutely loyal to the "ruler" and the "father".
This goes so far that the son is even expected to tolerate and help covering up the father's faults, however serious/criminal they are. This is what "righteousness" means in this context. That is why Confucianism has been favoured by Chinese rulers over the past 2000 years. That is why we have people who always defend CCP's wrongdoings, however ridiculous they are.
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China is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. My description of China as a `riddle' centres on my belief that China, as a country and a civilisation, cannot be fully understood by the application of conventional theories in political science. That China has stood when other civilisations have fallen is itself a mystery, but that China is powering towards superpower status with all the wrong ingredients, at least theoretically, is even more astounding. Is there something worldly unique about China, and Chinese identity, that has enabled the country to be the world's longest continuous civilisation? Certainly China suffered many of the ills, such as disease, overpopulation, natural disasters, economic disruption, political incompetence etc, that brought down many of the great civilisations - the Maya, Mesopotamia, Mali etc - but this does not explain the complexity in its entirely. China, uniquely, also had to deal with massive foreign aggression, ideological madness, ethnic tensions and, for a large part of its history, complete inconsistency in written and spoken language. Yet it survived. And today, it is rising, economically and in political influence, at a rate unprecedented in human history. This achieved without the apparent institutions, independent judiciary, independent media and representative government that have been the bedrock from which Western nations have prospered.
Whereas, crudely speaking, the United States was conceived with a set of principles that acts as a point of unity for the nation, and for example Japan has always been a uni-ethnic, uni-linguistic nation, China has many ethnicities, many dialects, many cultures, and many local religions. What is the glue that holds (contemporary) China together?
China is both chaotic and orderly. It is both conventional and completely contradictory. It is stable, yet has the propensity to self-destruct. It is outward-looking, yet has the Great Wall. It seeks acceptance from the West, yet mistrusts it deeply.
China is the construct of thousands of years of culture and learning, with Confucian thought being particularly influential. Yet, his rites were largely discredited by Mao. Yet they are now being adopted in CCP officialdom.
There is no word that I can think of that accurately describes the sheer complexity of China. "Riddle" may be an amusing choice, but probably it offers the best chance.
Pre-historic China, to ancient China, to imperial China, to modern China: these are all fragments of Chinese history that, I would argue, do not give rise to what we understand by China and Chinese identity, but rather they were (are) efforts at moulding China to the abstract (and indefinable) notion of what China should be. The rulers and the way of ruling are transient, but the striving is perennial.
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I'm so disappointed of myself... I'm Chinese and I couldn't recognize the first quote.
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The fact that the government advocates the concept of Confucius harmony does not prevent Confucianism from being helpful in daily lives for a Chinese.
And generally speaking, the influence of traditional wisdom is far from over in China. China by far is the least traditional country compared to Japan and Korea, as she is the least confident. As confidence grows, traditions will be revisited and restored.
I hope that Western people will come to appreciate this. Do not be wary yet. The Chinese quest to the image of the 'self' is in itself not dangerous to the world as a whole, but the so-called peaceful rising will require the world to lower their level of enmity and suspicion at the same time.
I see that James, and the Western world in general, are able to understand the weakness of the Chinese quite well. It's not that criticism or whatever is wrong, but so far the West have not used their knowledge of China wisely enough to form a win-win scenario. Handled correctly and you will have a friend; and I pray that there will not be a case for 'otherwise'.
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The attack upon Confucianism definitely started before Communist era. The first scholars who attacked Confucianism dated back to pre-World War II, like Lu Xun, Hu Shi. But these attacks did thrive during Cultural Revolution.
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'When three people travel together, one must be the teacher.'"
I think a more accurate translation would be – If three people who ‘travel’ through their life journey together, then one can always learn certain beneficial philosophy from another.
It teaches us to always be humble to learn from others.
By translating word by word from Chinese to English will not always show a phrase’s in depth meaning.
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When I was 14 years old, I went to a Christian school and I also read "The Analects". While the Bible had some influence on me, Confucius had an even greater influence on me. The Analects is a great book which teaches us how to live our lives. Obviously, many of his teachings about rites and rituals and the role of women in society are no longer applicable in the 21st century, but many of his teachings still apply today.
"Isn't it a joy to revise what you've learnt? Isn't it a joy to receive a friend who has come from afar?"
"When you travel far from home, the first thing you do after reaching your destination is to write home to your parents and tell them if you're healthy, eating well and sleeping well, for that will be their top concern"
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James,
"When three people travel together, one must be the teacher." This is not a good translation for "???,?????"? Literally it says "When several people are walking together, there must be one who can be my teacher (one of them is bound to be good enough to act as my teacher)". It means "we can always learn from others", or "everyone has his merit worthy learning from". "?" in this sentence doesn't mean "exactly three", but "several".
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Chinese people are influenced by Confucianism traditionally and historically and it's not easy to get rid of Confucianism out of Chinese bones. In the 10 years' cultural revolution, the whole Chinese nation is crazy, confusing and out of control. Thanks to Granpa Deng. It's hard to imagine if today's China were still in this kind of stiation.
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In school, I met a descendant of Confucious. Whether or not the person was legit, I have no clue. People say the lineage of the man is legitimate.
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Confucius is the famous star in culture in china
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"Confucius' teachings" - Surely "Confucius's teachings" ?
What is it with dropping the 's' on proper nouns all of a sudden ?
Is this some kind of American English trend of which I've been unaware ?
Or are we a victim of a 'BBC Style Guide' situation ?
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Not sure if it is Confucius - But the Chinese proverb about not chasing the 'butterfly of happiness', but allowing it to alight on one's shoulder is always a good one - although almost universally ignored in the West...
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it's not translated as "When three people travel together, one must be the teacher.'"
it should be "When three people travel together, one of them must be MY teacher. "
Confucius always talked about the ideal man, who he called ??(jun zi), yet when asked, he always said that he was not a jun zi. He said that he was not an innovator, but that he was merely a transmitter of ideas from a glorious antiquity. He possessed humility, which we can all agree is a pleasant personality trait. Perhaps Confucius was a ?? but just wouldn’t admit it. In this saying, we can see this humble character.
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I'd no idea how many of Confucius' sayings are regularly in use in the English language.
I also confess to not being a "noble" man.
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James,
Are you sure Confucious said those?
Gee, I can't find neither of those two graves that you said you digged, only half a heart...
Don't say a word that I am out of fashion now. I told myself ' Don't use canons hit mosquitos ' before I log in here every single time.
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"A few years later, the Communist Party started to worry about a growing vacuum of belief in China. Universally-mandated faith in Communism was being replaced by a new belief in money, and also by a growing number of religious movements. One of these movements, the Falun Gong, was seen as a dangerous cult which posed a threat to the Party's rule."
This is an interesting point of view, James. In 1998, I brought my daughter to China. She made a comment in front of a group of Falun Gong. She really meant to talk to me. Nevertheless she was physically attacked by several of Falun Gong members. My daughter was 9. I was trying to call police. But onlookers told me that these people were powerful. They even attacked local news paper office after some writer criticized them. So I should simply leave before things get worse.
Falun Gong is dangerous. Perhaps it also pose a thread to theso-called Party rule. It certainly posed a thread to general population.
Unfortunately it was allowed to attack people for quite long time until
they were banned.
After it was banned in China, I was informed that the US Congress gave a large amount of money to it as support to "non-traditional religion". Now I encountered them in LA, and last year in Toronto. A member of Falun Gong push my bike down after I refused to accept their propaganda in Toronto's Chinatown.
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"When anger rises, think of the consequences."
As an oversea Chinese who believes in Christianity, I still have much respect for COnfucius. His sayings are universally applicable and it's a good belief for the people in China. The university I will be attending, Texas A&M University, also has a Confucius Institute. Seems like it's not just a Chinese thing =)
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As a Buddhist, I only find Neo-Confucianism such as Wang Yangming school of thought more appealing; it resonates more with Buddhism, and also with individualism. The old Confucist school's teaching developed based on China's environment two millenia ago, to emulate Confucist's saying literally is obsolette and misguiding. Rather, one should try to understand the fundamental spirit behind Confucianism, which is to love all humanity selflessly.
Old Confucianism deals much with behavioral conduct and social organization. I won't voice my qualm about it here, as the situation is, any kind moral certainty is desperately needed in China.
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My family's names are based on confucian ideas:-
Clean Money,
Shining glory as snow,
To establish oneself, establish others,
To enrich oneself, enrich others;
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Marxist plus Capitalism plus Confucianism, where this hybrid is going? Can anyone make a prediction?
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James:
Do you follow the teachings of Confucius? Do you have a favourite Confucianism?
To the first question...Yes (and) to the second question..No, I don't have a favourite...
~Dennis Junior~
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"For centuries, Confucianism provided the moral foundation for the conduct of life in China."
Confucianism is a fundamental part of society not just in China, but also in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. In fact, any Koreans today believe that Confucius was actually a Korean.
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Only Mr Chow could get away with playing Confucius himself!
Asking an (East) Asian person if they follow the teachings of Confucius is a little like asking a Westerner if they follow the teachings of Christ. The teachings are so deeply engraved in society that whether by choice or not, his teachings are adhered to. I hope some of this ancient wisdom will filter through to the lazy British benefit claimants churning out 7 kids a time. Maybe they will then start to show some respect for the rest of society, and perhaps even contribute something.
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Communists turn to Confusius?
The true is China return to Confusiusm.
After 30 years (1949-1979) China with Communism, The communism as an ideology is collapsed.
Then 30 years with Capitalism, The Capitalism is about to fail as we seen today.
The Confusiusm as a philosophy, as an ideology, as a foundation of living is thrive.
"....You shall learn to China". Read the Hadist from the Holy Book of Al Qur'an.
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I'd also like to take this opportunity to mention an inherent bias within the English language. Ru, Fo, Tao are the three main religion/semi-religion (although distinction between theology/science/philosophy is a western thing, we're already falling into the linguistic paradigm trap!) within China, and they are respectively translated in English commonly as Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. "Ru", by any means is not equivalent to the teachings of Confucist alone. The correct translation of "Ru", should be Chinese literarism. Misrepresenting the breadth of Chinese philosophies as "Confucianism," is like categorizing all of western philosophy as "Platoism". I also question the motivation of the English linguist whom adopted the Portugese word Confucist rather than Kung Tzu; perhaps they want to imply it is confusing and wanted to discourage its teaching of love in the west?
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The communist party is looking for death. Having thought that since more than two thousand years ago a number of Chinese dynasties had begun to establish confucianism as the national religion that was the must study and the only right theory for young people if they wanted to become an official. It was also the law that everyone should abide by. All of the above is for one aim that is to prolong the life span of their regime.But none of then could succeed.
Could the poor communists do harder than that? When communism proves to be a huge bubble and have bursted, and even a capitalist can join the party, the communist party has turned out to be a walking corpse that is seeking a soul to make itself like a human being. But unfortunately, if confucianism works, why China has so many dynasties?
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You know Chinese history, but you do not understand his culture, Deng Xiaoping had never gone through the capitalist road. You say is absurd, Confucius Say you desire rather than the so-called pure, he is referring to sex in violation of ethics
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This seems the best piece the reporter has ever wrote on this blog. Besides those sarcastic (sorry) type of reportings, this is the one that really touches the heart of what China's wisdom is.
An economically prospering communist nation supported by the bedrock wisdom of Confucius and Tao, China will reach in one go the seat of world superpower economically, militarily and wisdom wise.
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I don't know how questioning the research methods of your reporters broke the house rules but my concern was that none of the first three sayings was said by Confucius. Maybe you'd like to do a bit more research than just googling stuff next time.
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I am Chinese though it does not mean I will automatically know Confucianism without even trying. Confucius agrees.
Having been lost in a fire and then left at the altar, his books suggest that as a humanist it is unlikely for Confucius to open schools (or back a film) of Communism.
I like the word of admission displayed at the Beijing Confucian Temple as a motto. Also, the Confucius saying quoted by the last man sounds somehow incredible.
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To #2 Heyone
When u say that Confucian have strict definitions of social relationships. I think you should understand that its not that son or ruled should cover up the wrong doing for the fater and ruler. The rule is more about take the responsibility at the role you play in the social world. If you are ruled, actually in chinese term of that rule, that means if you are goverment official working for the goverment. You should take full responsibility of your duty. Work hard on your post. As a son, you should take responsibility as a son, looking after parents and take care of their living when they getting old.
I dont think you understand confusious or even simple chinese culture. In chinese culture, work hard on your post is important. Looking after you parents is important. take care of your children's future is important. Looking after your brother and sisters is important. Loyal to your partner is important. These are the real meaning of confusious.
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My favorite saying is
"Don't do to others what you would not like them to do to you"
which is promoted as the golden rule by Karen Armstrong in the Charter for Compassion.
If most people, most nations could live up to this teaching, what a wonderful world we would live in.
Don't cheat on others if you don't want to be cheated on.
Don't hurt others if you don't want to be hurt.
Don't bomb others if you don't want to be bombed.
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To 32 by freequind:
"But unfortunately, if confucianism works, why China has so many dynasties?"
But after so many dynasties and thousands of years, China is still there. I wouldn't say it's purely because of Confucius, but there is no doubt that it helped the Chinese to stand together with a distinct culture and endure all the hardships.
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To #2 heyone,
No I don't think the Confucius requires a son to go to such extremes as covering up his father's sin. Confucius has been in place for thousands of years and has been subject to countless interpretations, and some interpretors may have brought it to certain extremes. But I'm sure that you are aware of the term "da yi mie qin", which means for the sake of general or large "yi" (a word that can only be roughly translated into justice or right-eousness) one may sacrifice his family. I'm also sure that you are aware of the thousand-years' debate about which one to choose between "zhong" (which again can only be roughly translated into loyalty to your country or countryman) and "xiao" (which means, roughly, the obligation towards your parents)when one can not have both, and the fact that the most respected heros (for example, Yue Fei) almost all chose "zhong" ahead of "xiao". If anything, the CCP encourages "da yi mie qin" and my text books when I was a child were full of stories of heros who sacrificed himself/his family for the sake of the general justice/the wellbeing of the country or society. So if you want to use the Confucius doctrine about father-son relation to attack the CCP you've picked the wrong tool.
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Some in positions of power seem to be encouraging the interpretation of confucianism that equates it with blind, unquestioning obedience. At the same time, those same authority figures conveniently forget that other confucian principle: it is their duty to be benevolent and virtuous to those they govern.
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