For much of the latter half of the twentieth century, Marxism has been the prevailing ideology in China, as advocated and imposed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Given the stringency of such a regime, there was little room for ideological tolerance and so efforts were made to eradicate the traditional Confucian values upon which Chinese culture had been founded. Despite these efforts, however, recent revival of Confucianism seems, at least on a social if not necessarily political level, to have been far more easily achieved than one might assume. A possible reason for this? The deep-rooted, and thus enduring, nature of such values.<\/p>\n
Following the Ming Dynasty, there was huge popular support for a radical overhaul of the existing values and system as a whole, something which Marxism represented and fulfilled. Hindsight of the Communist regime, however, suggests that the most successful Marxist policies were in fact those which resonated most closely with \u201cdeeper Confucian roots\u201d.[1]<\/a>The Marxist emphasis on the importance of human needs and the accompanying socio-economic equality needed in creating a utopian society, for example, seems in parallel with Mencius\u2019 notion that material desires must also be satisfied in order to create an environment in which the ancient Confucian value of following \u201cthe Way\u201d and achieving moral transformation can be fulfilled. On a slightly more trivial level, interestingly even the Maoist tradition of senior Party leaders dyeing their hair black can be traced back to Confucian ideas; Mencius believed that those with white hair should be taken care of, hence the Communist leaders\u2019 desire to reassert their dominance and capability by preserving their original black hair. These similarities have led to a somewhat controversial conclusion (which requires and deserves much more attention than is possible within this post), reached by the scholars Li Zehou and Jin Guantao: Chinese Marxism can instead be seen as a continuation of traditional Confucian ways.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n \u201c[Marxism] has been so discredited by its misuses that it has lost almost all legitimacy in society\u2026for practical purposes, it\u2019s the end of Marxist ideology.\u201d[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Taken at face value, the implications of this assertion are that China is in need of a moral and ideological foundation, distinct to Marxism, upon which to rebuild its political authority. The government\u2019s solution to this problem? Revival of Confucianism. With a particular emphasis on the Confucian notion that \u201charmony is something to be cherished\u201d, and the threat of both internal and international discontent and conflict, it is clear why such venerable traditions are being encouraged by the government. Whilst such ulterior political motives seem to undermine the idea of ideologically enduring Confucian values, however, a radically different picture emerges when examined on a more social, everyday level.<\/p>\n The central Confucian value which seems to have endured most prominently throughout Chinese history, is the importance placed on family ethics. The notion of filial piety, for instance, whereby children have a lifelong duty to care for their elderly parents, is one which is still incredibly widespread and pervasive even today. One example of the impact of the significance placed on this value can be seen through the effects of the 1979 One Child Policy, wherein the tradition of wives becoming part of their husband\u2019s family and thus taking care of his parents rather than her own, and the resulting desirability of sons, led to millions of unwanted girls \u201cgoing missing\u201d through abortion, abandonment and infanticide. On a different level of impact, yet similar in principle, it has been shown that crime rates spike just before Chinese New Year, a time when sons and daughters traditionally present gifts to their parents.[4]<\/a>Not only does this suggest that even criminals respect the value of filial piety, but also that it bears such importance that people are willing to turn to crime to fulfil their duty, a concept which in itself is fascinating.<\/p>\n Despite the attempts made to fully extirpate \u201cevery root and branch\u201d of Confucianism, and despite the fact that politically, a revival of a committedly Confucian governmental system is \u201ca long way away from\u2026reality\u201d,[5]<\/a>many of the central Confucian values have successfully remained deeply rooted in Chinese life and society. Whilst this post is by no means a comprehensive representation of the ways in which such values have shaped culture in China, it seems as though a full-scale \u201crevival\u201d of Confucianism, at least on a social level, is unneeded.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a>Daniel A Bell, China\u2019s New Confucianism: Politics and Everyday Life in a Changing Society<\/em>(New Jersey, 2008). p10.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a>Ibid.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a>Ibid. p8.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a>Ibid. p11.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a>Daniel A Bell in Jiang Qing, A Confucian Constitutional Order: How China\u2019s Ancient Past can Shape its Political Future<\/em>(New Jersey, 2013), p24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For much of the latter half of the twentieth century, Marxism has been the prevailing ideology in China, as advocated and imposed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Given the stringency of such a regime, there was little room for ideological tolerance and so efforts were made to eradicate the traditional Confucian values upon which … Continue reading “The Revival or Endurance of Confucian Values within Society?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}