China: The coming of age of Political Confucianism? · Global Voices
Andy Yee

Confucius is enjoying a revival as the state ideology of China. Over the past few years, ‘national studies’ (guoxue) focusing on Confucianism and traditional culture is popular among officials, scholars, students and the public at large in China. Overseas, hundreds of Confucius Institutes have appeared around the world. Confucius is also evoked to declare China’s view on peace, as the Confucius Peace Prize was created in 2010 as a response to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. The most symbolic official endorsement yet comes last month, when a Confucius statue was unveiled on Tiananmen Square, the political heart of China.
Political Confucianism as state ideology
The origin of this Political Confucianism might be traced to Jiang Qing, a leading scholar of mainland China New Confucianism. Jiang calls for a restoration of Confucianism as the state ideology, distinct from both Western-style democracy and Soviet-style communism. As Xujun Eberlein wrote in The China Beat in June 2008:
Democracy is Westernized and imperfect in nature, Jiang Qing points out. If applied to China, a western style democratic system would have only one legitimacy – popular will, or civil legitimacy. Such uni-legitimacy operates on the quantity of votes, regardless of the moral implications of decisions taken. Since human desire is selfish by nature, those decisions can be self serving for a particular majority's interest. Because of this, Jiang Qing argues, civil legitimacy alone is not sufficient to build or keep a constructive social order.
The uni-legitimacy criticism makes senses to me because western countries, which have evolved the concepts of sufferance, law, tolerance and community standards over hundreds of years, have a broad base for governance. China, on the other hand, does not have this same evolution. Western democracy simply dropped onto China is likely to face pitfalls parallel to those seen in Iraq. The foundation of majority rule alone is not sufficient to provide good governance.
In contrast, the Confucian state Jiang proposes is tri-legitimate: it carries numinous, historical, and civil legitimacy simultaneously. In particular, the governmental body consists of three mutually constraining institutions that represent religion (members chosen through community recommendation and Confucian examination), cultural tradition (members based on sovereign and sage lineage and by appointment), and popular will (members elected), respectively. Jiang Qing believes that such a structure would avoid many of the mistakes that appear inevitable under a uni-legitimate system.
In 2009, Prof. Wang Rui-Chang of the Capital University of Business and Economics further summarized the rise of Political Confucianism as follows:
Political Confucianism is a newly emerged school of thought addressing political and social reform in Mainland China. It challenges the current prevalent democratic movement, both inside and outside of China, which proposes governance with legitimacy wholly resting on the ballot. Instead, Political Confucianism advocates the wisdom of “centrality and harmony” contained in Confucianism, especially the Confucian tradition of Gongyang School that flourished in the Han and late Qing dynasties in China. It is aimed at revitalizing Confucianism and reconstructing the politics of the Kingly Way in the modern global context.
The symbolic erection of the Confucian statue in Tiananmen has renewed the debate about Political Confucianism in China. As Cheng Li, Chinese politics expert at the Brookings Institution, comments, Confucianism ‘is such a big basket you can select whatever you want. They will ask people to behave appropriately, not too aggressive, not use violence and don't pursue revolution.’ Several writers and bloggers view it through a Machiavellian lens, arguing that it is a tactic adopted by the ruling Communist Party as a solution to the various social problems in China, while maintaining its political dominance. Human rights activist Guo Baosheng recently wrote in China in Perspective:
政治儒学对中国当代的诸种政治问题给出来自己的答案，那就是在宗教领域以儒教为国家宗教，在意识形态上以政治儒学来修正和美化马克思主义，在制度层次以王道政治、等级政治来粉饰和修补中共专制、抵御民主宪政、自由平等（“政治儒学认为中国今后政治发展的方向是王道而不是民主，而王道就是所谓‘圣贤政治’”—-蒋庆语），在道德伦理上以儒家人伦挽救世道人心的堕落败坏、在文化上以儒家文化取得本土对西化的胜利、在外交上以儒家文化消除世界对共产主义的恐惧并在全球领域实现政治儒学的渗透和扩张。
Political Confucianism provides the answer to various political problems in China. It can act as the state religion, modify and beautify Marxism, invoke the hierarchical politics of the Kingly Way to whitewash authoritarianism, and act as a defense to constitutional democracy, freedom and equality (‘Under Political Confucianism, China’s future development is the Kingly Way and not democracy, and the Kingly Way means the “politics of sages”’ – Jiang Qing), promote ethics and social responsibility to save China from a moral crisis, defend local culture against Westernization, alleviate the world’s fear of a rising Communist China, and act as a culture for global penetration and expansion.
As to how Confucianism is applied in China’s conduct of foreign policy, writer Zhu Jiangguo provides us with a recent example from last month. Writing in Hong Kong’s Cheng Ming Magazine, he links the unveiling of the Confucius statue in Tiananmen with Chinese President Hu Jintao’s state visit to the US one week later:
一方面，它是胡錦濤刻意向美國示弱，可以說，胡打著向孔子投降的白旗訪美，意在安慰美國不必擔心中共繼續堅持馬列主義──儘管中共對內口頭上仍然聲稱堅持馬列主義，不過是「減兵增灶」的虛晃，其在國際上早已緊緊高舉儒旗：在九十個國家辦了三百二十家孔子學院，卻從未在海外辦一個馬列毛鄧學院或黨校！此次更以「孔子入主天安門」讓美國人放心：今日中共正式改「馬教」為儒教，棄共產主義而圖民族主義，充其量也不過一「儒家社會主義」。另一方面，「孔子晉京」又委婉表達了中共堅決拒絕「全盤西化」的決心，中共可以放棄馬列，但決不終止「普天之下莫非王土」，「師夷長技以制夷」，「中學為體，西學為用」的儒家傳統。
On one hand, it is a show of weakness to the US by Hu Jintao. Hu wants to reassure the US that Marxism-Leninism doesn’t need to be afraid of – although the Chinese Communist Party still internally upholds Marxism-Leninism, it is just an illusion. Globally China is holding the flag of Confucianism. 320 Confucius Institutes are opened in over 90 countries, but never a Marxism-Leninism-Mao-Deng school! The act of ‘Confucius stationing in Tiananmen’ will further reassure the US – today China officially switches from Marxism-Leninism to Confucianism. At most, China is a ‘Confucius socialist society’. But on the other hand, it represents a rejection of ‘wholesale Westernization’. Marxism-Leninism is what can be abandoned, but not Confucius traditions such as ‘all land under heaven belongs to the emperor’, ‘learning advanced technology from barbarians to fight agasint them’, and ‘Chinese learning for the substantial, western learning for the useful’.
Mao and Confucius side by side: irony or harmony?
In the middle of Tiananmen Square sits a mausoleum holding the body of the revolutionary leader Mao Zedong. Now that Confucius is placed side by side with Mao, many see the irony – under Mao’s revolutionary campaigns, much of China’s traditional culture, symbolized by Confucius, was destroyed. But others view it as evidence of the progressiveness of the Chinese government, which is ‘saying goodbye to revolutions’. Blogger Sima Huangyuan wrote:
作為中國革命的倡導者，毛澤東對孔夫子的反感是眾人皆知的事情，毛澤東甚至斷言，如果共產黨哪一天請孔夫子「回來」，那就表明共產黨統治不下去了。毛澤東的這番感言，是對中國歷史，尤其是儒家高度政治化歷史的概括，因為歷代統治者，都喜歡抬出孔夫子，來維護千瘡百孔的政治統治。如今，北京當局高調推出孔子，是否會應驗毛澤東的預言，恐怕沒有幾個人會去當真，但是，有一點是肯定的，中南海並沒有將毛澤東和孔夫子視為「不能兩立」的政治符號以及文化符號，而是可以在天安門廣場並立不悖，遙相呼應，彼此互補的形象，這種多元共存的現象，顯示著當政者正在進行「告別革命」的歷史進程，彰顯出「與時俱進」的寬容。
As China’s revolutionary leader, Mao Zedong’s antagonism against Confucius is well known. Mao even said that if the Communist Party one day invites Confucius back, it means that the party cannot rule any longer. This is Mao’s generalization of the highly politicized history of Confucianism. This is because ancient rulers in China liked to use Confucius as a defense for their bad governance. Today, no one will take Mao’s generalization seriously. But one thing is certain; it is that the Chinese government does not view Mao Zedong and Confucius as conflicting political and cultural symbols, but complementary and echoing with each other. This pluralism shows that rulers of China are in the process of ‘saying goodbye to revolutions’, and are progressing with time.
Some go even further to say that placing Confucius side by side with Mao is the very application of and an important development to Mao Zedong’s revolutionary thoughts. One blogger wrote:
人们还议论：马克思、恩格斯、列宁和斯大林的巨幅画像没有了，如今来了个孔夫子，我们伟大领袖毛主席怎么看？当年“批林批孔”可是我们“毛老头”倡导的呀。我觉得这没有什么大惊小怪的，你看人家不少外国人在他们的国家里不都成立了孔子学校吗？说明孔子“理论”逐渐被世界所认可，那是咱国家的骄傲和荣耀。
People are debating: Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin have all left. Here comes Confucius. How will our great Chairman Mao think? Don’t forget that the ‘Criticize Lin Biao and Confucius’ campaign was led by him. But I think that we don’t need to be surprised by it. Don’t you see that Confucius Institutes are opened in many countries? This shows that Confucianism is widely accepted, which is our country’s honor.
当年我们嘴边不是经常挂着一句“打到美帝国主义，打到日本复活军国主义”的口号吗，在毛主席他老人家提倡下，后来不是也与他们建交了吗。咱们要学习他们先进的科学技术，来强国强民壮大自己。所以我们要“用发展的眼光看待发展的中毛泽东思想”，这才是辩证唯物主义，这才是继承和发展马列主义毛泽东思想。
In the past, we shouted ‘Down with American imperialism! Down with the revival of Japanese militarism!’ Under Mao’s leadership, didn’t we build diplomatic relationships with the US and Japan? We need to learn from their advanced technologies to strengthen our nation. Therefore, we need to ‘adopt a developmentalist angle to view the still-developing Mao Zedong’s thoughts.’ This is the essence of dialectical materialism, and the way to inherit and develop Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought.