Beyond Confucius and communism(ZT)

Oct 3, 2007
AsiaTimes

SUN WUKONG
Beyond Confucius and communism
By Wu Zhong, China Editor

HONGKONG - Confucianism ruled China intellectually and for real for morethan 2,000 years - until early in the 20th century. Hence Confucianismhas formed the backbone of the Chinese cultural tradition, in spite ofsome contemporary efforts to weed it out.

Ritual, or li, is no doubt a core concept of Confucianism.

Thereare conceptual rules to maintain the order of a hierarchical society.In the Analects, the Master said: "Put people in their proper placesthrough roles and rituals, and let them gain a sense of shame, thenthey will be orderly and live harmoniously."

To put it in asimple way, rituals in Confucianism are a set of norms to maintain theorder of a hierarchical society. In daily life people must strictlyfollow rituals assigned to their social status - from how one should bedressed and in what color, to the size and form in which one's houseshould be built, to how one's funeral should be arranged.

Ifone performed rituals reserved for those on the higher rungs of thehierarchical ladder of society, they would be regarded as oversteppingtheir authority - or even rebellious.

For example, in somedynasties, the color yellow was reserved for the emperor. Anyone elsewho dared to wear anything in yellow would be beheaded. Also, thedragon was the symbol of the emperor, and no others were allowed to useit. The only exception in history was Confucius himself. The ConfuciusTemple in the sage's home town of Qufu, Shandong province, is one storyhigher than the emperor's office building in Beijing's Forbidden City.And the nine stone pillars of the Confucius Temple are inscribed withdragons. This was because Heaven and Confucius were the only two iconsthe emperor, self-proclaimed Son of the Heaven, had to revere.

Inmodern China, particularly under the rule of the Communist Party, whoseoriginal ideal was to eliminate social classes and build an egalitariansociety, many Confucian rituals have been dumped. And during theCultural Revolution (1966–76), Mao Zedong even launched a campaign todiscredit Confucius in an effort to scrap the ancient sage's remaininginfluence.

But ironically, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)today practices Confucian-like rituals of sorts in its officialdom. Forinstance, according to both written and unwritten codes, the size ofhousing allocated to officials varies according to rank. A ministerial-or provincial-level official can have a house or apartment of 200square meters, and a prefecture-level official may have 140 squaremeters. A ministerial-ranking official can be assigned an Audi 2.0sedan or its equivalent at public expense. And only ministerial-levelofficials or higher can fly first-class. There are even stipulations onthe numbers of dishes for official banquets hosted by officials ofvarious ranks.

Further, after three decades of reform andopening up, China has successfully turned the Stalinist socialism builtby Mao into capitalism "with Chinese characteristics". But in doing so,orthodox communist ideas have also been dumped, leaving the nation inan ideological vacuum, which many Chinese sociologists agree is a majorsource of moral confusion among mainland Chinese people today. Thereare signs that the authorities are trying to revive traditionalthought, particularly among the young, to fill the ideological void.

Whetherthe CCP is willing to admit it or not, today's China remains in essencea hierarchical society. Hence, for Chinese authorities, Confucius'concept of rituals, in its essence but not necessarily in itstraditional form, can still be used of to maintain social order.

However,the market-oriented economic reforms over the past 30 years havedecentralized not only the country's highly centralized command economybut also its highly centralized political structure. This is evident ifone looks at the broad regional practices across the country. Policieshanded down by Beijing are often circumnavigated or totally ignored. AsZhang Baoqing, retired vice minister of education, once put it,political orders from the power center "cannot go beyond Zhongnanhai"(the complex of buildings in Beijing adjacent to Tiananmen Square thatserves as the central headquarters for the CCP and the government).

Underthis rampant regionalism, it's common for local officials to oversteptheir authority. As reported recently in Chinese media, a countygovernment in Shanxi province modeled its office building afterTiananmen in Beijing. Many of the local officials have housing muchlarger than is permitted for their ranks and their cars are posher thanthose assigned to cabinet ministers in Beijing. Were Confucius' ritualsto be truly observed, these local officials would have been at leastsacked immediately, an action that would surely be applauded by thepublic.

So last week, another piece of news drew the wide attention of the Chinese media.

Thecentral government currently requires all freshman university studentsto receive military training on campus, beginning in September, andlast week pictures were posted on the Internet showing Wang Chunqiu,president of Shandong University of Science and Technology, inspectingShandong freshmen undergoing military training.

Wang, wearinga Western suit and white gloves, and accompanied by a uniformed armyofficer, was shown in an army-green jeep with the ceremonial licenseplate Yuebin (Parade)-001, waving his right hand to a parade ofstudents lined up on a sports field. Wang's pose and clothes resembledthose of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin inspecting the People'sLiberation Army in Tiananmen in 1984, in his capacity as the chairmanof the Central Military Commission (CMC). After the pictures hit theInternet, several newspapers also carried follow-up reports.

Grilled by the media, Wang's office explained that the president did it "to boost the morale of the students".

Thereports immediately sparked public anger. Many wrote to newspapers orposted comments on websites slamming Wang for his "disgusting"performance. They said a military parade was a serious matter andshould be conducted properly (note the influence of Confucian conceptof rituals here). They questioned whether it was necessary for Wang todisplay himself before a few thousand students on campus in a militaryjeep.

"A military parade is something sacred and solemn. Notanyone can organize a military parade without authorization," said onepost on the official website of China's state news agency, Xinhua.

Thewriter reminded readers of the downfall of Li Xingmin, the former partychief of Bozhou city, Anhui province, a couple of years ago. Tocelebrate his promotion as the No 1 leader of Bozhou, Li had organizedthe largest-scale military parade in the city's history, spending 2million yuan (about US$265,000) of public funds and mobilizing localtroops. His conduct obviously overstepped his authority, as in Chinaany mobilization of troops must be authorized by the CMC. After beingexposed, Li was put under investigation and later convicted and jailedfor corruption.

It remains to be seen whether Wang will be punished for any wrongdoing.

It'sprobably safe to say that Li and Wang did these things to inflate theiralready large egos, and to show off their power. It is also safely saidthat they aren't alone - quite a number of local officials have asimilar mentality, judging from their conduct.

Such scandalsprovide further evidence that China lacks a new set of moral norms andcode of conduct to keep in check the behavior of officials and businesspeople in particular and all citizens in general, after the onessuitable to socialism have been smashed.

Aware of the problem,President Hu Jintao has put forward his idea of "Eight Honors and EightShames", which is expected to be written into the revised partyconstitution in the upcoming 17th Party Congress this month.

They are:

Love the country, do it no harm.
Serve the people, do no disservice.
Follow science, discard ignorance.
Be diligent, not indolent.
Be united, help each other and make no gains at someone else's expense.
Be honest and trustworthy, do not spend ethics for profits.
Be disciplined and law-abiding, not chaotic and lawless.
Live plainly, struggle hard and do not wallow in luxuries and pleasures.

However,the Eight Honors and Eight Shames need to be clearly detailed beyondstandard CCP dogma into an operational standard of moral norms andconduct - all of which could be regarded modern "rituals".

Forhis part, Confucius dismissed the rule of law in favor of rule by acode of ethics. However, it is evident that today's China needs both tobecome a truly modern nation.