Chinese Confucian phenomenon comes to the West
Yu Dan, is a megastar. Most in the west have never heard her, but she's sold over 10 million books in China (and half of those were even legal versions!) She's riding the new wave of enthusiasm for all things old that is currently sweeping China. They've been revising ancient sacrificial ceremonies and building new cultural edifices faster than I can keep up with. Communism is dead and buried in China. So what made Yu Dan so famous? Basically she likes to talk about the ideas she gets from reading Confucius' Analects, and then she tries to apply it to modern life. That's it. Now her book Confucius from the Heart has been released in an English language version.
One last comment: Confucianism is a very nice political philosophy. I mean really nice. It's an entirely positive development that China is moving away from communist ideology just as fast as she can, straight back into the arms of her much-missed traditional culture. Don't make the mistake of thinking this is purely some government inspired program. From what I can tell, it's more that the government has let it be known that it doesn't mind, and the people themselves have launched this Old Culture Movement.
this is my first time reading here. I sure hope you're into sarcasm. Otherwise you're an idiot. Confucianism is all about submission to your
"superiors", meaning those who are above you in society. It's still a collectivist system, just a different one. Hooray status quo! That said, i trust that you are just being sarcastic.
Comment by boose — May 8, 2009 @ 7:53 am
Boose, welcome. As a first time reader, I know I shouldn't be rude to you, so I'll try to restrain myself despite the provocation. I was about to say that you don't know the first thing about Confucian ideology, but in fact that is the problem. You know one thing about it but you don't know anything else, thus leading you to make such a grossly inaccurate statement. I would compare it to reading a single passage of the bible concerning obedience and then saying "Christianity is all about submission." Here's the challenge: go off and read the Analects and then when you're a little better informed perhaps we can continue this discussion. I would be delighted to have a discussion about the aspects of Confucian hierarchy and its potential for creating rigid social structures, but as it is you clearly don't know enough to actually do that. Here's a link to an online version of the Analects: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/confucius/c748a/part1.html
Comment by Filthy Stinking No.9 — May 8, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
Confucianism is very friendly to the status quo, and that is the main reason that the government in China is willing to let the official ideology drift in that direction. The aspect of Confucianism that was originally revolutionary, namely the idea of government by a classless meritocracy, is not revolutionary now. The Chinese government thinks they have that bit covered.
Still, as an official ideology Confucianism is a big improvement over any variety of Marxism. (1) It is not as hostile towards trade and property (obviously another attraction for the current government). (2) It is humane in the sense that it aims to make the system of government fit human nature, rather than aiming to make human nature fit the system of government. (3) It's not totalitarian - the idea that government should encompass every aspect of human life is simply absent. (4) Confucianism can easily be read as favouring minimal government, even if it doesn't exactly contain the western ideal of limited government.
That last bit is the main reason why it is a mistake to simply lump Confucianism in with the authoritarian and collectivist philosophies of the 20th century like Communism and Fascism. Instead of an ideal government that controls every detail of life with perfect and inescapable power, the Confucian ideal is a government that barely does anything.
Comment by Dr. Strangelove — May 8, 2009 @ 11:45 pm