Revering Confucius and "Sinicization" 

By Sheshui Nongfu ("The Farmer of the She River"). Originally published on Utopia (Wuyou zhi Xiang), September 26, 2014. Translated by Vero Publishing.

Editor's note. This essay appeared two days after Xi Jinping attended the conference marking the 2,565th anniversary of Confucius's birth and delivered his speech there. It is a direct response from the left to the official revival of Confucius. The original ends with two appended articles for comparison; this site keeps the first, a report from the Changjiang Daily, and omits the second, a forum post. Readers may compare this essay with three other texts on this site: Lu Xun's "Confucius in Modern China," Mao Yuanxin's "Remembering Chairman Mao on Criticizing Confucius," and Xi Jinping's speech at the 2014 Confucius commemoration.

Like everything else in the world, Confucian doctrine has two sides. It cannot be denied that, as a symbol of Chinese culture, it once played a progressive role in China's historical development and contributed to the brilliant civilization of feudal society. But we must also recognize that once the feudal ruling classes refashioned it into the orthodox ideology that upheld their order, it gradually turned from a positive force into a negative one. In modern times especially, it seriously obstructed social development and left China lagging behind the West. That is why every movement, from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to the New Culture Movement after May Fourth and every revolutionary struggle since, began by "opposing Confucius," in order to break the old ruling order and the shackles on people's minds. And every ruling class that hated popular resistance and strove to preserve the existing order appeared in the guise of "revering Confucius," from the feudal emperors of every dynasty to Yuan Shikai, the Beiyang warlords and Chiang Kai-shek. Revering and opposing Confucius thus became, in effect, a contest between revolution and counter-revolution, between the advanced and the backward. The Communist Party of China, as a revolutionary Marxist party, made its start precisely by opposing Confucius, and went on to overthrow the old semi-feudal, semi-colonial China and found a new socialist China.

As with China's other long-standing traditions, the correct attitude toward Confucian doctrine is to "take the essence and discard the dross": to carry forward its positive, progressive side and criticize its backward, reactionary side. We must neither reject it wholesale because of its negative, backward aspects, which would in effect sever China's history, nor inherit it without principle, which would in effect take the old and crooked road of the feudal reactionary rulers who used Confucianism to dull the minds of the people! Socialism by its nature seeks to build a social system without exploitation or oppression, and so it is objectively bound to be a long process of revolution and continuous revolution. Confucian doctrine, by contrast, stresses supra-class notions such as "harmony is most precious," "restrain the self and return to the rites," and "the benevolent love others."[1] In essence these dissolve and numb the people's will to resist and their revolutionary spirit, and run fundamentally counter to the revolutionary purpose of the Communist Party. That is why Chairman Mao, in his later years, launched the Cultural Revolution to combat and prevent revisionism, and with it a great criticism of the reactionary hypocrisy of Confucian learning. At the age of eighty he wrote what was to be the last poem of his life,[2] "Reading 'On Enfeoffment': Presented to Guo Lao," in which he declared plainly that "Confucius's name is lofty, but his teaching is chaff," sounding the alarm for building an ideological dike among the masses against revisionism.

History seems like yesterday. Yet what we see today is that the Communist Party, which made its start by opposing Confucius, has once again raised the banner of revering him, and in the name of "Sinicization" and the guise of nationalism. Admittedly, "Westernization" and "national nihilism" have already sunk very deep roots in China today and seriously harm the fundamental interests and future of the nation. But is revering Confucius a life-saving straw that can rescue us from peril? History answered that question long ago. It could not save the feudal system from its decline, and it cannot save any exploiting class or system of exploitation from its coming demise.

If the Communist Party, in the name of "Sinicization," transplants into its own genes the poison in Confucianism that upheld the feudal order, it will have completely changed its own nature. How then would it differ from all the exploiting classes in history? Can it be that a century of exploration by the Chinese revolution was meant to end with a return to Confucianism to find its roots and nourishment? What a farce that would be! More absurd still is the idea of promoting Confucian notions such as "restrain the self and return to the rites," "the benevolent love others" and "harmony is most precious" to the world as universal values "with Chinese characteristics," to compete with the Western universal values of "democracy, freedom and human rights," all under the label of a contest between Eastern and Western civilizations. This is truly baffling. Leaving aside that history has long since proved Confucianism to be declining and regressive, even in essence, how does its hypocrisy, likewise founded on a supra-class basis, differ from that of Western universal values? Are both not tools for numbing the people's minds and preserving the rule of the exploiting classes?

So however many reasons are given for "revering Confucius," none can escape its purpose: to use Confucianism to numb the people's revolutionary will and preserve the system of exploitation. How could raising the banner of Confucius in the name of so-called "Sinicization" be any exception?

Appendix: Why Commemorate Confucius with Such Fanfare?

From the Changjiang Daily, compiled from Xinhua and China News Service reports

September 28 marks the 2,565th birthday of Confucius. A series of commemorative events will be held wherever hundreds of millions of Chinese people live.

According to public reports, this is the first time a Chinese head of state has attended a conference commemorating Confucius's birth. Previously, the national leader attending such conferences was usually a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Political Bureau serving as chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

On October 9, 1999, Li Ruihuan, then a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Political Bureau and chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, met in the Great Hall of the People with Chinese and foreign experts and scholars attending the conference commemorating the 2,550th anniversary of Confucius's birth.

On October 9, 2004, Jia Qinglin, then a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Political Bureau and chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, attended and spoke at the conference commemorating the 2,555th anniversary of Confucius's birth. In 2009, Jia Qinglin again attended and spoke at the 2,560th anniversary conference.

Why commemorate Confucius with such fanfare? Some theorists believe that the Sinicization of Marxism, the guiding ideology of the CPC, necessarily involves its continuous integration and development with traditional Chinese culture. Cut off from traditional Chinese culture, it would become water without a source, a tree without roots.

Wang Xuedian, executive vice president of the Advanced Institute of Confucian Studies at Shandong University, holds that Confucius's thought is something basic and mainstream for humankind. Traditional culture, represented by Confucianism, can provide stable values, strengthen social cohesion and a sense of identity, and bring inner stability to people during China's period of transition.

Analysts believe that re-emphasizing the importance of traditional culture, represented by Confucius's thought, is meant to show the world that after a century of exploration, the CPC has found its own DNA in China's broad, profound and long-standing traditional culture: the nourishment for its growth and the foundation for its development. This highlights national self-confidence and self-respect.

Confucian thought, represented by Confucius, stresses "restraining the self and returning to the rites" and "the benevolent love others," and aspires to a world of harmony and Great Unity.

Some scholars believe that Confucian thought plays an enormously positive role today in governance, moral improvement, ethnic integration and cultural identity.

Zhang Yiwu, a professor at Peking University, believes that China in its period of transition faces many problems and challenges, such as handling the four great relationships: between humans and nature, humans and themselves, humans and others, and humans and society. Legal regulation is fundamental, but there are many areas the law cannot resolve and that can only be adjusted by traditional thought. "The attention of the leadership, the popular craze for national learning, and the successful experience of Chinese communities such as Singapore together form the combined forces driving the revival of Confucianism in China," he said.

Notes

Utopia (乌有之乡). The leading website of China's Maoist left, founded in 2003. It was temporarily shut down in 2012 after the fall of Bo Xilai.

"Sinicization" (中国化). Here the author turns the official formula "the Sinicization of Marxism" (马克思主义中国化) against itself: if Sinicization means grafting Confucianism onto Marxism, he argues, the Party ceases to be Communist.