BOOK REVIEW The people's new opium China's New Confucianism by Daniel A Bell
Reviewed by Sunny Lee
BEIJING - As China is slowly reeling from the terrible earthquake that jolted
the nation, Bi Baokui praised, in a piece titled "Reflection on the
earthquake", Premier Wen Jiabao, who within two hours of the earthquake was
already on an airplane en route to the disaster site, as embodying "the
Confucian spirit of humanity". Bi forgot to praise the Chinese Communist Party
- which many people would customarily do in such situations. Perhaps he can be
forgiven on that; Bi is a Confucian scholar. [1]
Confucianism is resurgent in China. Once regarded as a defunct "reactionary"
ideology against Chinese progress towards
modernity during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, Confucianism is now back
in place with a mission to prop up the moral skeleton of the nation that is
undergoing a dizzying array of sociopolitical changes.
In recent years, Beijing has particularly encouraged the revival of
Confucianism as a psychological sedative amid growing public discontent over
the nation's widening income gap and social growing pains.
Chinese top leaders themselves have become avid evangelists of Confucianism.
President Hu Jintao's key slogan, goujian hexie shehui or "to build a
harmonious society", is a conscious evocation of the old sage's emphasis on the
value of harmony and balance. As with most slogans, however, this is a
self-admission that the nation is not yet harmonious and Confucianism is
expected to help the nation to achieve the goal.
But the key question is, will China's all-out embracing of Confucianism deliver
the nation? Surprisingly, a strong endorsement comes from a Westerner.
"It is not entirely fanciful to surmise that the Chinese Communist Party will
be re-labeled the 'Chinese Confucian Party' in the next couple of decades,"
Professor Daniel Bell at Tsinghua University in Beijing predicts.
The Oxford-educated scholar does something quite unusual in China. He teaches
Confucian philosophy to Chinese students. This may sound like teaching a fish
how to swim, but that's exactly what he does.
In addition, he has just finished a book, titled China's new Confucianism:
Politics and Everyday Life in a Changing Society. In it, he talks about
such subjects as why Communist Party leaders invoke centuries-old Confucian
values now? Why do senior communist leaders dye their hair black? Why the
Chinese view that human rights should not have priority over national
sovereignty? The adventurous professor even talks about why sexual intercourse
with karaoke bar girls in China is often preceded by singing a duet. Bell draws
on various social scenes in today's China and provides a Confucian explanation.
Bell came to Tsinghua four years ago. That was the first time the elite school,
the alma mater of President Hu Jintao, hired a foreigner in the humanities
since the Cultural Revolution. Now, Bell is a full professor. He is also a
faculty advisor to doctoral students - a very rare honor in China for a
foreigner. In fact, he has gained so much trust from the Chinese leadership
that he was even invited to attend a closed-door conference at the secretive
Chinese Communist Party School where senior communist cadres discussed
sensitive political topics.
In the book, Bell offers his personal observations on some Western
"misunderstandings" about China. For example, he says, "China is not as
totalitarian as it may seem. Much thinking and policymaking in Western
countries [on China] is based on crude stereotypes about China. Compared to
Singapore, China is a paradise of academic freedom."
Obviously, some readers are not accustomed to such "panda-hugging" statements.
"People think I am brainwashed by the Chinese government," Bell explains in a
two-hour interview at a restaurant near his school.
But, on the other hand, he also has some unflattering words to say to the
Chinese government. For example, he believes that the Chinese government has to
apologize to the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen protests. "Almost everybody in
my private circle I talked to, said the government shouldn't have used so much
violence to the peaceful protesters," adding, "I think once the government
becomes more stable and legitimate, it will [apologize]."
In China, where many other religions attract a growing number of followers,
such as Buddhism and Christianity, Bell sees that if China is ever going to
choose its national religion, it will be very likely be Confucianism.
"Christianity for one sense is a religion that is hard to be accepted by
Chinese because it talks about the empirical world and also says there is a
completely separate transcendental world. The concept is quite foreign to
traditional Chinese teachings," Bell says.
Professor Liu Yiqing of Peking University agrees: "... the Cultural Revolution
did a lot of damage to Confucianism, but Confucius advocated good virtues such
as filial piety, loyalty to family. He also taught us to treat other people in
good ways. So, I believe Confucianism will find its place back in China."
In China today, more than 10 million children study the Confucian classics in
school. In Chinese colleges and universities, courses on Confucianism are among
the most popular, while courses on Marxism struggle to get students unless they
are made compulsory, Bell says.
Television lecture series on Confucianism are also very popular. Books written
by a TV Confucianism lecturer, Yu Dan, have sold 10 million copies - much more
than the number of J K Rowling's Harry Potter books. Yu Dan's latest
book on the Analects is ranked second on the bestseller list by the local
newspaper Beijing News.
Bell spares considerable pages on this "Yu Dan phenomenon". Although he
believes "it's fine to popularize the Confucian idea", at the same time he, as
an academic, is concerned about her approach that primarily focuses on
alleviating the modern-day anxiety of an individual.
"Yu Dan neglects the aspects of social responsibility - the key to
Confucianism," he says. "It's not just for individuals to cope with problems in
life. The key is social responsibility and how we develop that. That's really
unfair to the philosophy. I think she almost completely neglects that part of
Confucianism." Bell also adds that Yu Dan interprets Confucianism through the
eyes of Taoism: "She is using the wrong moral perspective to interpret
Confucianism."
But despite such academic demand for fidelity to the original teachings, people
are nonetheless more interested in, and are willing to settle for, the
practical side of the old teaching on how it can help them cope with their
daily life as a person - just like a self-help book would do.
Like most ideologies, however, Confucianism can be a double-edged sword. Bell
says some moral mandates of Confucianism can constitute a formidable threat to
the Chinese government. "Confucius taught us that one should rely on moral
authority rather than physical force as the ultimate way to right the social
disorder." This Confucian teaching can be used to criticize the government for
its use of force during the Tiananmen protests.
Bell continues: "Leaders need to be trained in humanities to cultivate moral
sensitivity, not just engineering or science." Incidentally, Chinese President
Hu Jintao has a degree in engineering at Tsinghua as well as many other ranking
officials - the "technocrats".
Bell also notes that the Confucian teachings emphasize meritocracy and call for
a more open and transparent system by which government officials would be
selected. "China is certainly not yet as meritocratic as it can be and should
be," he says.
The Chinese government should then treat Confucianism with care because while
Confucius doctrine of suppressing one's desire and adhering to a high moral
standard can be beneficial for the government, people can also demand moral
sensitivity of government officials, transparent government and meritocracy
based on the same Confucian teachings. It's like Christian ethics, which on one
hand teaches obedience to the higher authority in the New Testament, but on the
other hand can be also used to encourage people to grab guns and fight to
overthrow the government, as seen in South America's "liberation theology".
But all in all, China's revival of Confucian values today as the solution to
the state's current lack of a guiding ideology does seem to deliver more
positivity for China and is also beneficial for the rest of the world.
As Gao Pengyi, a Confucian scholar in Beijing observes, "The key idea of
Confucianism is to follow the 'middle way' (zhongyong) that avoids any
extremes and conflicts. In China's history, this Confucian idea is adopted
during peace times. In warring periods, Confucianism is not promoted." That is,
Confucianism can be a bellwether, indicating that the Middle Kingdom is heading
towards peace, not war.
With the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in August, Bell wants to make another
Confucian point. "Some Western media still tend to see China as a 'closed
country' or 'anti-foreign country'. In the Analects, there is this famous
saying: It is a great pleasure to have friends visiting from afar. This shows
China has a long history of openness to the outside world. The Olympics will be
such a great opportunity to welcome friends from all over the world."
China's New Confucianism: Politics and Everyday Life in a Changing Society
by Daniel A Bell, Princeton University Press, 2008. ISBN13: 978-0-691-13690-5.
US$26.95, 258 pages.
Note
1. Confucius, September 28, 551 BCE-479 BCE) was a Chinese thinker and social
philosopher whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese,
Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese thought and life. His philosophy emphasized
personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships,
justice and sincerity. These values gained prominence in China over other
doctrines, such as Legalism or Taoism during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD).
Confucius' thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as
Confucianism. It was introduced to Europe by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, who was
the first to Latinise the name as "Confucius".
Sunny Lee, a native of Seoul, has lived in China for the past six years,
working for the United Nations and as a journalist and writer. Lee is a
graduate of Harvard University and Beijing Foreign Studies University.
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Chinese top leaders themselves have become avid evangelists of Confucianism.
President Hu Jintao's key slogan, goujian hexie shehui or "to build a
harmonious society", is a conscious evocation of the old sage's emphasis on the
value of harmony and balance. As with most slogans, however, this is a
self-admission that the nation is not yet harmonious and Confucianism is
expected to help the nation to achieve the goal.
