Cultural Confusion Sends China Back to Confucius

"Confucianism and communism are contradictory in nature. But they have one thing in common: Both were used by ruling classes to keep society in order," says one scholar. "To maintain their rule, the communists changed Confucianism so that loyalty to the emperor became loyalty to the chairman."

Today, in Qufu, a bustling tourist hub of almost 1 million people in southeastern Shandong province, Confucius is once again king. The government has spent millions of dollars to repair damage to the temple and mansion of Confucius and his descendants that was caused by marauding Red Guards. Much of the Confucian legacy was saved through the intervention of Premier Zhou Enlai and the secret efforts of local residents.

Confucianism also is making a theoretical comeback, say local young people who claim the philosophy gives them a moral anchor.

"This has been passed down from generation to generation for 2,000 years," says Wu Lixin, who reads Confucius' teachings regularly and plans to study hotel management in the United States. "The reason it has lasted is because it is truth."

But another side of the philosophy justifies oppressive politics and social conservatism, Chinese observers say. Recently, public-security officials here blocked a rock concert by an Australian band, which went ahead only after intervention by the Australian Embassy in Beijing. When pro-democracy protests swept China in 1989, the response in Qufu was muted.

"The older people said the students were wrong because [the older people] are still very conservative and worried that the public good would be harmed," a young man says. For legions of uninterested young Chinese, though, Confucianism is irrelevant in a modernizing but callous China swept by crime, cynicism, official corruption, and the rush to get rich.

"Young people in Shanghai don't believe in Confucius," said a visiting Shanghai businessman who was touring the old mansion. "But we still regard him as our old ancestor."

"We've had enough of Confucius," said a taxi driver in the Shandong capital of Jinan. "His teachings are too strict."

Still, Chinese scholars say that Confucianism is here to stay, contending that any moral vacuum is temporary and part of the evolution under way in China.

"With the change from the rigid economic structure to the market economy, the old rigidity is under shock and is being smashed," says scholar Sun Changjiang. "As the old ideology fades, a new ideology is growing."

"The impact of Confucianism, positive and negative, will last for a long time," says Tan Yijie, president of the International Academy of Chinese Culture in Beijing. "There are a considerable number of people in China who have real ideals. Though they may not constitute the majority of the population, they represent the future."

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