Good Confucianism book (pdf) - Department of Physics

188 Confucianism and ModernityRevolution had been a hoax and now the very foundations of communismwere changing too. Communism, which had given people a set of values,was bankrupt. Confucianism could be used to replace those values in waysthat would be “ natural ” to Chinese culture. Confucianism promised, aswell, to help with economic growth.As time went on and capitalism took hold in China, the governmentbegan to worry about what they saw as the bad effects of that capitalism:dishonesty, corruption, 33 selfishness, drug use, and pornography. By the1980s it was decided to have Confucianism taught in schools to counterthe evils of capitalism and Western “ spiritual pollution. ” As in Singapore,the level of Confucian scholarship in China was so low, given the CulturalRevolution, that foreigners had to be brought in to set up courses and textbooksat public, high school, and college levels. 34 The Confucian classics,with annotations, have been reprinted and are for sale everywhere, alongwith comic book versions of the Analects and other stories about Confucius.The government established the Academy of Chinese Culture ( ZhongguoShuyuan ), sponsored conferences on Confucianism, and has now set upthe China Confucius Foundation that has established Centers for ClassicalStudies all over China and abroad. In 1994, the Chinese Communist governmentsponsored a major conference in Beijing to celebrate the 2,425thanniversary of the birth of Confucius – a conference attended by manyscholars and dignitaries, including Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore. At this celebration,the International Confucian Association ( Guoji Ruxue Lianhehui )was formed. It continues to hold conferences and publishes a journal,International Confucian Research (Guoji Ruxue Yanjiu ). 35The textbooks in schools in Singapore, China, and Taiwan all draw aline between “ core ” Confucianism and the Confucianism practiced in thepast. In some cases “ core ” Confucianism is described as different from the“ folk culture ” of the past that developed things like the concubine system orfootbinding. Texts teach students to have filial piety, to extend that respectto teachers and authorities, to be loyal to their family and country, to studyhard so as to make their family proud and contribute to the economic andsocial well - being of society. In general, Confucianism is taught as supportiveof capitalism, but also as the antidote to some of the consequences ofcapitalism like individualism, selfishness, and materialism.It is not just textbooks but government policy and the laws it enacts thatreflect their support for Confucianism. For example, in China, Taiwan, andSingapore there are laws requiring adult children to provide support fortheir parents. Critics point out that it is laws of this kind that allow thegovernment to avoid providing old - age pensions.Why are dictatorial governments so happy to promote Confucianism?When some scholars and government officials define Confucianism asfocused on filial piety, loyalty, and hierarchy, then it is a Confucianism