Will the Confucian stress on obeying authority stay relevant for China in the 21st century?

I have a collection of busts, gathering which has kept me busy on visits abroad. There are beautiful marble ones of figures from ancient Greece and Rome, and alabaster ones from Prussia and porcelain ones from Southeast Asia. The Indians ones are probably the worst-made (which has always struck me as strange in an idolatrous society). Most of the figures are exact likenesses except for two. One is the Buddha, who appears in idealised form, bearing the 32 signs of the great man (hands that reach below the knees, long ear lobes, a fully sheathed penis and so on). The other, a man who lived around the same time as the Buddha, is Confucius.

It’s not actually a bust, but a full figurine, about 6” tall, in red lacquer. It shows an old man of indeterminate age and shape, wearing a long gown with very wide sleeves. He has a topknot and he’s holding his hands in front with palms crossed.

For a unified society

He lived around the 5th century BC, a remarkable period in world history that produced Plato, the Buddha and the sage of China. Confucius’s writings are called The Analects, a word that means a collection of short philosophical extracts. This work expresses the philosophy, which is a sort of conservatism, called Confucianism. Like Hindutva, it is “a way of life” (as our Supreme Court has described the philosophy we are being ruled under). It stresses order, emphasises the family, and reduces the individual. The highest ideal for the individual is to be a sage — again much like India, though Confucius himself denies that he is a sage.

Readers may know that Confucianism is seen as the philosophy that guides us towards respecting elders and obeying authority. Peace will come from orderliness, which in turn will come from a unified and harmonious society.

The Analects sets great store by tradition, as this saying will show: “If people are led by law, and kept in line through punishments, they will try to stay out of trouble with the state but have no sense of shame. If they are instead led by virtue, and kept in line through ritual propriety, they will possess a sense of shame and come to you of their own accord.”

Keep trying

Some of the conservatism comes from the fact that Confucius himself lived through a time of turmoil and longed for the return of the past and the revival of traditions. The book’s opening theme is goodness, meaning that virtue which is obtained by observing ritual and gaining knowledge. It is not easy to achieve, and may take a lifetime, but one must keep trying. The gentleman is the person who lives by a moral code and is not attracted to individual gain or to any particular ideology, but continuously improves himself through learning. However, he has to accept his lot.

For example, one of his disciples asks Confucius what he thinks of the saying: “Poor without being obsequious, wealthy without being arrogant.” He replies that it is not bad, but improves it thus: “Poor yet delighting in the Way, wealthy and yet observant of the rites.”

The Master

Though it is a brief work (my translation by Penguin Black Classics is about 100 pages), it is not easy to grasp, because the chapters and their components may seem to be haphazard and random.

The Analects were compiled by Confucius’s disciples about a few decades after his death. Again, this is the same as the discourses of the Buddha, which were compiled about 50 years after his passing. The Analects unfolds as a series of brief conversations with Confucius, who is referred to as The Master.

There is a strong emphasis on restraint. As when The Master says: “At 15 I set my heart on learning; at 30 I took my stand; at 40 I was free of doubt; at 50 I understood the Decree of Heaven; at 60 my ear was attuned; at 70 I followed my heart’s desire without overstepping the boundaries.”

It is said that Confucian thought has kept China an ordered and orderly society, not subject to the internal upheavals of the rest of the world. Confucian philosophy and logic was seen as essential and imperial examinations tested the knowledge of candidates on this till 1905, when it was officially removed from the curriculum. One wonders, looking at the turmoil in Hong Kong, if it will continue to be relevant in the 21st century.