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“Countryside Confucianism”: Organizing the Confucian Revival, Saving the Villages, and Cultural Authority

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Abstract

This article examines the Party-State-led Countryside Confucianism experiment based in the rural vicinities of Qufu. There has been, since the 1980s, a renewed interest in Confucianism from both mainland and foreign scholars. More academic to begin with, the focus has recently shifted toward more local and popular groups spreading Confucian teachings across the People’s Republic. This popular resurgence, often described as disjointed and fragmented, has sometimes expressed a more religious or politically charged Confucianism. Recent developments in the Shandong province are now pointing to a more organized—through the involvement of the Party-State—local revival. I argue that this recent government involvement in local Confucian revival comes as a way to compete and reposition itself on the local “cultural market” in order to reinstate its cultural authority over Confucianism, to curb certain practices and possibly restrain the growth of foreign beliefs in the Confucian city of Qufu. This objective of the article is first to document this countryside experience as to frame it in the more general Confucian revival. Furthermore, it will examine its ties to previous rural experiences conducted in Shandong as well as some of its more indirect sociopolitical objectives. To a certain extent, understanding this Party-State-led organized form of local Confucianism will shed light on its renewed role in terms of cultural authority, cultural governance, and local Confucian revival.

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Notes

  1. Academic Confucian revival started before the 1990s with a reappraisal of modern Confucians such as Kang Youwei, Liang Shuming, Xiong Shili, Zhang Junmai, Feng Youlan, Tang Junyi, Mou Zongsan, Tang Yijie, Li Zehou, Yu Yingshi, Liu Shuxian, Zhang Liwen, and Mou Zhongjian to name but a few. Makeham makes a superb description of this revival [5].

  2. Religious Confucianism has been the object of intense debates amongst the Chinese academia since the early 1980s. These were started mainly by intellectuals like Ren Jiyu and Li Shen and opposed by Feng Youlan and later on by more “controversial” characters like Chen Ming and Kang Xiaoguang.

  3. Considering how recent this topic is, most of the work has been done following some of the first reports.

  4. Site-based approaches allow for the study of more cases while focusing on similarities and differences. Single visits were performed on selected sites as no prolonged immersions were needed to access the latter. As Read puts it, necessary information can generally be determined and gathered in a single visit [21].

  5. Vice-director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of World Religions’ Confucianism Research Office and General Secretary of the Nishan Holy Source Academy. I first met Zhao back in 2012 at the CASS to discuss Confucian revival and religious Confucianism for my doctoral dissertation.

  6. The Party still has an ambiguous stance toward Confucianism. The latter keeps a certain distance yet remains “interested” in its cultural appeal [1, 2]. Recent events involving Xi Jinping praising Confucianism to then partially withdrawing his “blessing” are also supporting the idea that there is no clear consensus inside the Party regarding the function or the role of Confucianism in Chinese politics.

  7. The Foundation, Hanban and the Association and the Confucius Temple are not related to Countryside Confucianism.

  8. We can think here of cases like the Shenzhen’s Kongshengtang or the Virtous Becoming Study Hall [10].

  9. Sishui is part of the prefecture-level city of Jining, yet only 28 km from the county-level city of Qufu.

  10. Zhao was born in the county-level city of Qingzhou, which is administered by the city of Weifang.

  11. Zhao already expressed these worries to me during our exchanges.

  12. I had a discussion with Zhao regarding the notion of “Care” and the influence of current Confucian revival on the latter. For him, this moral decay can be at least straightened by more systematic Confucian teachings on family values and morals.

  13. Mou comes from the prefecture-level city of Yantai, 600 km from Jining.

  14. For example, Zhang Jian, Wang Dianqing, Liu Shifan, Yan Binggang, Zhang Yingxin, Chen Hongfu, and Kong Weifeng, to name but a few.

  15. When I first met Zhao in 2012 at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences to discuss about Confucian revival, he mentioned several times the importance of ritual teachings for the latter and their inseparable nature.

  16. Email exchanges with Zhao. April 15, May 3, 2015.

  17. The township of Shengshuiyu is administered by Jining and the township of Yedian, by the city of Linyi, 160 km east of Qufu.

  18. This individual, as a local Party member, does not wish to be identified for security purposes. Email exchanges with C.F. September 30, 2014; December 14, 2014; June 29, 2015.

  19. This of course echoes the work of James Scott [43].

  20. This framework was previously applied to a Beijing-based Confucian group, the “Virtuous Becoming National Studies Hall” [10].

  21. Sharing similarities with the philosophy of Liang Qichao, Chen Duxiu, and Hu Shi and also part of the New Culture Movement of the early twentieth century, Liang Shuming (1893–1988) is considered one of the early representatives of modern new Confucianism in Mainland China [44].

  22. See Liang’s Theory of Rural Reconstruction [45].

  23. Email exchanges with Huang. May 26, 2015.

  24. Email exchanges with Chen. May 26 and 31, 2015.

  25. Zhou or the Kongshengtang—of a local private initiative—is unrelated to Zhao Fasheng and the Countryside Confucianism.

  26. Email exchanges with Kang, Tang, Yu, and Zhou, May 20–26, 2015.

  27. The tone and phrasing used by the individual we contacted from the “Spring Ploughing Garden” Academy expressed a sort of disdain as well as a haughty attitude.

  28. These two are not related to Countryside Confucianism nor tied to any of the Party-State institutions.

  29. Email exchanges with working personnel from the Qufu National Studies College, April 15, 2015; Email exchanges with working personnel from the Qufu “Spring Ploughing Garden” Academy, April 17, 2015.

  30. Despite being not Government-led, the School of Ceremonial Culture does welcome lots of local officials and Party Cadres for seminars and retreats. However, it is unrelated to the Countryside Confucianism movement.

  31. This information was first brought to our attention by Huang Yushun which led us to the Shandong government website for further verification. This information can also be found at http://www.sdwht.gov.cn/html/2015/ggtz_0115/17881.html

  32. Yang is the Vice-Director of the Advanced Institute of Confucian Studies at Shandong University.

  33. Interview with working personnel of the China Confucius Foundation, June 21, 2013, Jinan, Shandong.

  34. We can observe similar dynamic between the Central Indian State and local interpretation of Hindu nationalism [55].

  35. According to Liang, more than 60 % of Chinese Christians converted because of sickness [57].

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Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge the invaluable help of my research assistant Sun Guorui (孙国睿) [MSc Cand. London School of Economics] during first rounds of literature review, data compiling and for his extensive editing work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Alex Payette

  2. Political Science Department, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

    Alex Payette

  3. Department of History, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

    Alex Payette

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Correspondence to Alex Payette.

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This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) (435-2014-0584). Funds accepted in April 2015—Coverage starting from April 2015 until December 2015.

The article cites previously conducted interviews (i.e., with members of the China Confucius Foundation). They are in no mean an overly important part of the paper and represent but a few citations. Furthermore, these interviews comply with ethical norms of the University of Ottawa under the #12-12-05 certificate.

The manuscript has not been submitted to any other journal for simultaneous consideration. Lastly, the author acknowledges no conflict of interests between this research, himself, or third party.

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Payette, A. “Countryside Confucianism”: Organizing the Confucian Revival, Saving the Villages, and Cultural Authority. East Asia 33, 73–90 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-015-9251-5

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