The Sage Returns , livre ebook

The Sage Returns
SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture
—————
Roger T. Ames, editor
The Sage Returns
Confucian Revival in Contemporary China
Edited by
Kenneth J. Hammond and Jeffrey L. Richey
Cover image from shutterstock.com
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2015 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The sage returns : Confucian revival in contemporary China / edited by Kenneth J. Hammond and Jeffrey L. Richey.
pages cm. — (SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5491-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-5493-1 (ebook)
1. Confucianism—China—History—21st century. I. Hammond, Kenneth James, editor. II. Richey, Jeffrey L., editor.
BL1853.S24 2015 181'.112—dc23 2014009551
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Illustrations
Foreword
Daniel A. Bell
Introduction: The Death and Resurrection of Confucianism
Kenneth J. Hammond and Jeffrey L. Richey
P ART O NE . C ONFUCIANISM AND I NTELLECTUAL L IFE
Chapter 1. The Tenacious Persistence of Confucianism in Imperial Japan and Modern China
Robert W. Foster
Chapter 2. Scientism and Modern Confucianism
Jennifer Oldstone-Moore
P ART T WO . C ONFUCIANISM AND THE S TATE
Chapter 3. Selling Confucius: The Negotiated Return of Tradition in Post-Socialist China
Anthony DeBlasi
Chapter 4. The Return of the Repressed: The New Left and “Left” Confucianism in Contemporary China
Kenneth J. Hammond
Chapter 5. Chat Room Confucianism: Online Discourse and Popular Morality in China
Jeffrey L. Richey
P ART T HREE . C ONFUCIANISM AND P OPULAR C ULTURE
Chapter 6. Like the Air We Breathe: Confucianism and Chinese Youth
Robert L. Moore
Chapter 7. The Sage’s New Clothes: Popular Images of Confucius in Contemporary China
Julia K. Murray
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations Figure 7.1. Altar of Confucius with sculptural icon (restored in 1984), Dachengdian, Kongmiao, Qufu, Shandong. Author’s photo. Figure 7.2 Shi Ke 石可 , Confucius Pays Homage to Ji Zha, from Kongzi shiji tu 孔子事蹟圖 ( Scenes from the Life of Confucius), 1989, incised stone tablet, Qufu, Shandong. Author’s photo. Figure 7.3 Miscellaneous souvenirs of the San Kong 三孔 , Qufu, Shandong (playing cards, enameled metal bookmarks, postcards). Author’s photo. Figure 7.4 Offerings, merit box, and incense burning in front of the Dachengdian, Kongmiao, Qufu, Shandong. Author’s photo. Figure 7.5 Confucius’s grave with merit box, Konglin, Qufu, Shandong. Author’s photo. Figure 7.6 Kongzi Shengxian ci 孔子聖賢祠 (Shrine of Confucius, the Sages and Worthies), Qufu, Shandong. Author’s photo. Figure 7.7 Lifesize clay figures of Confucius’s disciples and railing hung with votive placards, Kongmiao, Beijing. Author’s photo. Figure 7.8 Altar of Confucius with painted portrait by Wang Hongxi 王宏喜 (1991), Dachengdian, Fuzi miao, Nanjing. Figure 7.9 Bronze statue of Confucius by Xu Baoqing 徐寶慶 (1989), racks of votive placards, and incense burning outside the Dachengdian, Wenmiao, Shanghai. Author’s photo. Figure 7.10 Bronze statue of Confucius donated by Tang Enjia 湯恩佳 (1997), with incised picture on the stone base, Guozijian, Beijing. Author’s photo. Figure 7.11 Statue of Confucius donated by Tang Enjia 湯恩佳 and topiary bushes behind the Shanghai Library. Author’s photo. Figure 7.12 Stone statue of Confucius, carved and donated by Yang Qingqin 楊清欽 (1993), outside the Dachengmen, Kongmiao, Beijing. Author’s photo. Figure 7.13 Portrait of Confucius, traditionally attributed to Wu Daozi 吳道子 (ca. 689-after 755), rubbing of an incised stone tablet in the Kongmiao, Qufu, Shandong. Photo from Edouard Chavannes, Mission Archéologique dans la Chine Septentrionale (Paris, Leroux, 1909), pl. CCCC, no. 874. Figure 7.14 Gold statuette of Confucius, designed for the China Confucius Foundation by Qian Shaowu 錢紹武 (1999). Photo from the China Confucius Foundation publicity pamphlet. Figure 7.15 Bronze statue of Confucius (the “Standard Portrait”), designed for the China Confucius Foundation by Hu Xijia 胡希佳 (2006), Qufu, Shandong. Author’s photo. Figure 7.16 The child Confucius plays at performing rituals, from Kongzi , animated cartoon series, Episode 1 (“Lanhua” 蘭花 [The Orchid]), Part 1. Screenshot from CCTV.com (http://space.tv.cctv.com/video/VIDE1254189206723884). Figure 7.17 Pixiu 皮休 , Lanhua jiejie 蘭花姐姐 , and Confucius, from Kongzi , animated cartoon series, Episode 43 (“Huiyan” 慧眼 [Mental Discernment]). Screenshot from CCTV.com (http://space.tv.cctv.com/video/VIDE1266979112057881). Figure 7.18 Poster advertising the film “Kongzi” directed by Hu Mei 胡玫 (2010). Screenshot from zvod.net 中影网 (zvod.net/news/201001/83.html). Figure 7.19 Cover of booklet for the film “Kong Fuzi” directed by Fei Mu 費穆 (1940). Figure 7.20 Confucius lottery tickets, Qufu (2010). Screenshot from Xinhua English (http://english.sina.com/china/2010/0201/302715.html).
Foreword
On December 9, 2010, China awarded the “Confucius Peace Prize” to Lien Chan, Taiwan’s former vice-president, for having “built a bridge between the mainland and Taiwan.” The prize was awarded one day before the Nobel Peace prize honored the imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. Outside China, the “Confucius Peace Prize” was widely derided as a crude attempt to counter the Nobel Prize. The Confucius Peace Prize also set off alarm bells that Confucianism is being officially promoted to justify an authoritarian form of government and to counter growing calls for political liberalization, similar to the way the “Asian values” discourse was used by the Singaporean government in the early 1990s to counter its pro-democracy critics.
Whatever the truth of such accusations, it would be wrong to indict Confucianism in China on the grounds that it is nothing but a slogan used to justify the political status quo and to counter social critics. This fascinating book demonstrates that the revival of Confucianism is taking place at different levels of society, often outside the government’s sphere of authority. For example, Robert Moore shows that the Confucian ideal of harmony strongly influences family dynamics in China (in contrast to the United States).
Chinese media, as everybody knows, are subject to government control. But Anthony DeBlasi’s chapter shows that government interests must be increasingly balanced by consumer needs. And it turns out that there is substantial market demand for Confucianism, which helps to explain why it increasingly featured in the media. Several contributors discuss the Yu Dan phenomenon: a charismatic female academic who has sold millions of copies of a book on the Analects of Confucius. Julia Murray shows that new representations of Confucius have proliferated in a variety of media, including movies and animated cartoons. Murray adds that ordinary people prior to the twentieth century were not likely to encounter representations of Confucius, and Confucius himself did not have a popular following. In some ways, Confucianism may be more deeply embedded now than in Imperial Chinese history, when it was the official ideology of the state and promoted by male elite intellectuals but did not always impact the ordinary life of the “masses.”
This book also shows that the political uses of Confucianism are not always as conservative as they seem. While Yu Dan’s “feel-good” version may deflect attention from social problems, more politically minded Confucian-inspired critics pose substantial challenges to the status quo. In Imperial Chinese history, Confucianism served, as least intermittently, as a challenge to and check upon the abuse of power. Ken Hammond’s contribution shows that Confucianism also serves similar purposes today. Hammond argues that there is a convergence between socialists who draw on China’s political culture to promote a more just and equitable society and Confucians who seek to revive Confucianism as a basis for public life and political ethics within a modern socialist state.
Another important contribution of this book is that it sheds historical and comparative light on some of the reasons for the revival of Confucianism. Jennifer Oldstone-Moore shows that political leaders in Nationalist China drew on the language of scientists to promote Confucianism in the 1920s and 1930s. In the same vein, the Chinese Communist Party today has deemed Confucianism to be an appropriate working partner with scientific socialism that serves to promote a “rational” form of ethics. Robert Foster compares official support by the Chinese government to the promotion of Confucianism in Meiji Japan. However, what Foster calls “popular Confucianism” is driven more by psychological than political factors. Concern over moral decline that accompanies economic modernization motivates many social reformers. Jeffrey Richey shows that popular Confucianism is also supported by a growth in national pride and a search for identity that differ from Western-style ethics.
In short, this book deepens our thinking on the revival of Confucianism in China. It also opens up new questions. One of Confucianism’s strengths is that it has demonstrated an amazing flexibility in assimilating the challenges of other value systems, from Daoism, Legalism, and Buddhism in the past to socialism, liberalism, and capitalism today. Obviously, Confucianism has changed via the