Confucius can speak to us still - and not just about China: "Confucius said, 'Harmony is something to be cherished'," observed President Hu Jintao in February 2005, promoting the Communist party's proclaimed goals of a harmonious society and world
abia...@my-deja.com
There is a simplistic way to read this renaissance of an ancient
tradition. The truth is very much more interesting
Timothy Garton Ash in Beijing
The Guardian, Thursday 9 April 2009
When I was a young child, China was, for me, a vaguely comical
Chinaman with a wispy moustache, dressed in an embroidered silk robe
and conical hat, exclaiming in a funny accent: "Confucius, he say ..."
Later, it was black-and-white photos of a Mao-period sculpture of a
pre-revolutionary rent-collection courtyard, shown me by an
enthusiastic English schoolmaster. Then it was the naively
misinterpreted madness of the cultural revolution and the Red Guards.
(I still have my student copy of the Little Red Book.) And now it is
an American-educated Chinese academic, in a dark suit, telling me in
excellent English, "so what Confucius says is ..."
In China, Confucianism is back. A popularisation of Confucius by a
media-friendly Chinese academic, Yu Dan, has sold more than 10m
copies, about 6m of them apparently in pirate editions. Her book has
been called Chinese Chicken Soup for the Soul. On the campus of
Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University there used to be a statue of
Chairman Mao. Now there's Confucius. A Confucius film is to be made
with funding from a state film company. Chow Yun-Fat, better known as
a tough guy in Hong Kong gangster movies, will play the master. And
there are explicitly Confucian private schools.
This revival is both a private and a public, a social and a party-
state affair. "Confucius said, 'Harmony is something to be
cherished'," observed President Hu Jintao in February 2005, promoting
the Communist party's proclaimed goals of a harmonious society and
world. "From Confucius to Sun Yat-sen," averred premier Wen Jiabao a
couple of years later, "the traditional culture of the Chinese nation
has numerous precious elements", among which he mentioned "community,
harmony among different viewpoints, and sharing the world in common".
In a book called China's New Confucianism, the political theorist
Daniel Bell quips that the Chinese Communist party might one day be
renamed the Chinese Confucian party.
At an exhibition in the largest Confucian temple in Beijing, pinpoint
electric lights on a wall map plot the spread across the globe of the
country's Confucius institutes, China's counterparts of Germany's
Goethe institutes and our British Council offices. While these
Confucius institutes are at present mainly devoted to teaching the
Chinese language, the exhibition clearly implies that the world could
benefit from a better understanding of Confucian thought.
There's a simplistic way to read this renaissance of Confucianism, and
a more interesting one. The simplistic way is to seek in Confucianism
the key to understanding contemporary Chinese society, politics and
even foreign policy. This is an instance of what I call Vulgar
Huntingtonism, a dumbed-down version of the cultural determinism that
you find in Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilisations: "Chinese are
Confucians, so they'll behave like this ..."
Well, for a start, there are many contrasting versions of
Confucianism. Bell distinguishes liberal Confucianism, official or
conservative Confucianism, left Confucianism, and depoliticised pop
Confucianism (the Yu Dan chicken soup). More important, Confucianism
is just one ingredient in the eclectic mix characteristic of China
today. Many features of its society and political system can be
described without any reference to Confucianism, and some would have
the master writhing in his tomb. Beside Confucianism, you can discern
elements of Leninism, capitalism, Taoism, western consumer society,
socialism, the Chinese imperial tradition of legalism - and more.
It's precisely the mix that defines the Chinese model, which is anyway
not yet fully formed. For China is still a developing country, in
every sense of the word. Only when it is more developed will we know
exactly what the Chinese model is. Meanwhile, if we must seek a single
label for China today, then a better candidate than Confucianism would
be Confectionism. The secret is in the confection.
It follows that it's a great mistake to conceive of a political and
intellectual conversation with China as a "dialogue between
civilisations". In this conception, we westerners put on the table
what we call "western values", the Chinese put on the table what they
call "Chinese values", and then we see which pieces match and which
don't.
Stuff and nonsense. There is no such thing as a pure, unadulterated,
separate western civilisation or Chinese civilisation. We have all
been mixing up for centuries, especially over the last two. Cultural
purity is an oxymoron. Yes, Confucianism is more important than
Catholicism in China, and Catholicism is more important than
Confucianism in California; but there's more of the west in the east
and more of the east in the west than most people imagine. Moreover,
even 2,500 years ago, when China and Europe really were worlds apart,
Confucius was addressing some of the same issues as Plato and
Sophocles, because these issues are universal.
So the interesting way for westerners to engage with Confucianism - in
a conversation that China's official Confucius institutes would do
well to support - is quite different. This way starts from a simple
proposition: here was a great thinker, who still has things to teach
us today. Rich schools of scholastic interpretation over more than two
millennia not only reinterpreted Confucius for different times; they
also added thoughts of their own. We should read him, and them, as we
read Plato, Jesus, Buddha or Darwin, and all their interpreters. This
is not a dialogue between civilisations but a dialogue inside
civilisation. Human civilisation, that is, the thing that makes us
better than beasts.
For this conversation, most of us must depend on translators. Here in
Beijing, I have been re-reading Simon Leys' translation of the
Annalects of Confucius, with its notes full of vigorous cross-
reference to western writers. With Leys's help, I find the Annalects
infinitely more accessible, enjoyable and rewarding than the central
text of another cultural tradition with which we Europeans must
engage: the Qur'an. Of course, some passages are obscure or
anachronistic, while others - stressing the rule of men rather than
the rule of law, for example - are in stark contrast to contemporary
liberalism. But many of the sayings attributed to Confucius breathe a
remarkably fresh secular humanism.
I prefer his cautious formulation of the golden rule of reciprocity -
"what you do not wish for yourself, do not impose upon others" - to
the Christian one. What should government do? "Make the local people
happy and attract migrants from afar." How should we best serve our
political leader? "Tell him the truth, even if it offends him." Best
of all: "One may rob an army of its commander-in-chief; one cannot
deprive the humblest man of his free will."
If these are familiar thoughts in an unfamiliar place, there are also
very distinctive emphases, such as that on a kind of extended family
responsibility to generations both past and to come. Not such a bad
idea, at a time when we are ravaging the planet that our grandparents
left us. Earlier this year, one of Britain's education ministers
reaped some mild satire for suggesting that English schoolchildren
could benefit from studying Confucius. But why not? Couldn't we all?
We would not merely learn something about the Chinese. We might even
learn something about ourselves.
Anti-DabianchenVirus
lesbian Philippino whore abianchen, real name Meichi. Ignore her.
Facts about abianchen/Meichi the despicable ugly lesbian Philippino
whore:
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.china/msg/ca085dc133ad3cae
Abianchen is not Chinese. She is a fraud, and above all, she is damn
UGLY!
Picture of "abianchen" the Ugly:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64156901@N00/3415206204/
On Nov 19, 4:16 am, "abianc...@my-deja.com" <abianc...@my-deja.com>
wrote:
Anti-DabianchenVirus
lesbian Philippino whore abianchen, real name Meichi. Ignore her.
Facts about abianchen/Meichi the despicable ugly lesbian Philippino
whore:
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.china/msg/ca085dc133ad3cae
Abianchen is not Chinese. She is a fraud, and above all, she is damn
UGLY!
Picture of "abianchen" the Ugly:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64156901@N00/3415206204/
On Nov 19, 4:16 am, "abianc...@my-deja.com" <abianc...@my-deja.com>
wrote:
report2009
did someone kill that one too? Haha!
Hey psycho Xangdi, just because abianchen exposed your racist act when
you pretended as a black guy using ID "Leroy B Jones" to harass black
people in November 2007 so you wanted revenge against abianchen for
the rest of your life? Get over it! Anyway, don't you think that's
hilarious when you got exposed, one netter said you got caught pants
down! Because of that, you abandoned your infamous ID "Chairman Mao
Says". That's also hilarious. Hehe!
Abianchen, a Filipino whore Meichi? No kidding! Hey, anyone believes
you and Rusty Old Fool's lies? Haha!
Oops, psycho Xangdi is going to repost his stolen Filipino girl's
photo to "prove" (frame actually) Chinese guy abianchen is "Filipino
whore Meichi" for revenge. Abianchen has become the most important
person in his life. Psycho Xangdi even calls himself "Virus for
Dabian". Can you believe it?!
Hey Psycho Xangdi (Dabian eater), you said (lied actually) that you
live in Taipei and graduated from Chinese Culture University, Taipei,
but how come you don't understand the following Chinese 打油詩:
賈潘叔, 真蜈蜙, 甘霖老木賽羚羊! 聽不懂吧?! 好爽! 哈哈!
On Nov 19, 7:32 am, Anti-DabianchenVirus <wuso...@rocketmail.com>
wrote:
> > learn something about ourselves.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Anti-DabianchenVirus
lesbian Philippino whore abianchen, real name Meichi. Ignore her.
Facts about abianchen/Meichi the despicable ugly lesbian Philippino
whore:
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.china/msg/ca085dc133ad3cae
Abianchen is not Chinese. She is a fraud, and above all, she is damn
UGLY!
Picture of "abianchen" the Ugly:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64156901@N00/3415206204/
> ...
>
> read more >>- Hide quoted text -
report2009
Anti-DabianchenVirus
lesbian Philippino whore abianchen, real name Meichi. Ignore her.
Facts about abianchen/Meichi the despicable ugly lesbian Philippino
whore:
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.china/msg/ca085dc133ad3cae
Abianchen is not Chinese. She is a fraud, and above all, she is damn
UGLY!
Picture of "abianchen" the Ugly:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64156901@N00/3415206204/
> > learn something about ourselves.- Hide quoted text -
Anti-DabianchenVirus
lesbian puta abianchnen/Meichi, other than the same old childish and
girlish taunts you've been dishing out year-in, year-out? As always,
your response has got absolutely nothing to do with my accusation of
your being a troll and a liar. Instead of defending yourself, you
launch into more lies, accusing me of being someone else. This shows
clearly that you are uneducated and that you are incapable of what you
yourself call a "discussion". In other words, you are a pathological
liar and a mental retard, ugly Philippino lesbian whore abianchen/
Meichi!
Never could write any of that in Chinese after all these years, could
you, ugly lesbian puta abianchen/Meichi? So, what have you got to show
for your claim of being able to "speak, read/write perfect Chinese"?
NOTHING! All you can do is cut-and-paste infantile girlish insults you
cut-and-pasted from the internet!
You are just a moron and pathological LIAR, and damn UGLY:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64156901@N00/3415206204/ .
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/8055
On Nov 19, 4:42 am, Anti-DabianchenVirus <wuso...@rocketmail.com>
wrote:
> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
report2009
Anti-DabianchenVirus
report2009
Anti-DabianchenVirus
Anti-DabianchenVirus
heritage, do you? You just want to troll the net and insult the
Chinese from Taiwan by impersonating as one of them and giving them a
bad name. That's because you have no life, and all the Filipino people
hate and despise you! How pathetic!
rst0wxyz
wrote:
> Confucius can speak to us still - and not just about China
Qin Shi Huang was right over 2,000 years ago. Burn all Confucius
books and Confucius scholars alive and bury them alive. Confucius had
been the death bed of China.
rst0wxyz
within soc.culture.china wanted Confucius. Everyone else wanted him
dead and gone.
On Nov 19, 4:36 am, report2009 <repost2...@yahoo.com> wrote: