Abstract
At the beginning of the 20th century, democracy and communism were introduced in China to counterbalance Confucianism and in order to overcome the deep social crisis and strive for the modernization of Chinese traditional culture. The contemporary history of China is the history of struggle between Confucianism, democracy and communism. No foreign ideology can survive in China unless it has capacity of harmonizing itself with Confucianism. Learning from the Italian experience of the development of culture in order to successfully modernize the country’s traditional culture, China needs to recognize and protect more the individual rights and freedom and build up a society in pursuit of the truth by the elimination of the traditional bureaucracy-oriented mentality and money-worship idea. A political order modelled on the Roman Principate, characterized by the centralization of powers in a head of state and rule by law, can be a realistic and interim solution for China to realize at low cost the passage from totalitarianism to republicanism. Before reforming successful its traditional culture, it is convenient for China to implement continuously Deng Xiaoping’s so-called ‘24-character strategy’.
The prosperity of a country depends, not on the abundance of its revenues, nor on the strength of its fortifications, nor on the beauty of its public buildings; but it consists in the number of its cultivated citizens, in its men of education, enlightenment, and character; here are to be found its true interest, its chief strength, its real power.
– Martin Luther King
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The translation is cited from Mishira (2012), p. 160.
- 2.
“The state was neither the embodied product of free will nor an impersonal encroacher upon individual autonomy. Instead, at least in theory, the relationship with the state was far more one of trust, modeled after the family, in which the Emperor and his representatives were conceived of more as senior than public figures …. As was the case the Chinese family, those in position of power owed an enormous, fiduciary-like obligation to those over whom they exercised power”. See also Alford (1986), p. 945.
- 3.
At the beginning, some promoters of democracy were also the spiritual leaders of Communism and even the founders of the Chinese Communist Party, for example, Duxiu Cheng (1879–1942) and Dazhao Li (1889–1927).
- 4.
Mao (1950), pp. 1–45. The ‘People’s Democratic Dictatorship’ is embedded in China’s constitution of 1982 as the form of government in the PRC.
- 5.
Deng Xiaoping’s famous motto “ No matter if it is a white cat or a black cat,a cat that can catch rats is a good cat!” is a perfect manifestation of the pragmatism applied by the Chinese political leadership in that period.
- 6.
- 7.
For details, see Coase and Wang (2012), p. 175 et seq.
- 8.
This widespread thought in China is tellingly expressed by a girl with her famous declaration “I prefer to cry in a BMW car than to laugh on a bicycle” during a Chinese popular television show ‘If You Are the One’ (非诚勿扰) in 2011. For related analysis, see also Zavoretti (2016), pp. 1190–1219.
- 9.
The 1989 Tianan Men Square Accident, the 1990 collapse of the Berlin Wall and the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union alarmed the Communist Party in China.
- 10.
For the change of Xi Jinping’s administration on Chinese political policy, see Ross and Bekkevold (2016), p. 155.
- 11.
- 12.
Montesquieu (1689–1755), the creator of the theory of separation of powers, after studying with accuracy the history of Roman Empire, concluded that one of the main reasons for the decline of the Roman Empire is the formation of the totalitarianism. See Montesquieu (1734), p. 62.
- 13.
In 1915, as the first formal president of Republic of China, Shikai Yuan (1859–1916) restored a very short-lived monarchy (3 months). After his death, China was divided in warlord factions known as Beiyang Cliques from 1916 to 1928 and after that China was governed by the Chinese Nationalist Party until 1949 under Chiang Kai-shek. From 1949 to 1976, especially in period of Culture Revolution, the Mainland China was ruled practically by Mao Tse-Tung alone. Only in the last 30 years—gradually and with difficulties—have the people in Mainland China begun to demand the introduction of democracy. Even in Taiwan, the real practice of democracy started from year 2000.
- 14.
In four generations of Chinese political leadership after 1979, all leaders, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping, exercised unchallenged authority and maintained control over the army and the final decision-making for all most important national issues. Each of them was (in the case of Xi Jinping still is) the core Chinese political leader of their respective generation. At the same time, formally, the exercise of their power is always under the control and supervision of the parliament and the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party.
- 15.
This is also Deng’s concern as cited by Kissinger (2011), p. 438. In the Chinese official version, Deng’s 24-charter strategy was further developed into 28 character one, by adding other four character ‘Strive to make achievements’ ( 有所作为).
References
Adler JA (2014) Confucianism as a religious tradition: linguistic and methodological problems. Kenyon College, Gambier Ohio, USA, p 10
Alford W (1986) On the limits of grand theory in comparative law. Washington Law Review 61(975), p 945
Bell DA (2008) China’s new confucianism: politics and everyday life in a Changing society. Princeton University Press, Princeton (USA), p. 20
Berling JA (1988) Confucianism. Focus on Asia studies, vol II(1), Asian Religions, p 6
Billioud S, Thoraval J (2015) The sage and the people: The confucian revival in China. Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, p. 3 et seq
Cheng A (1997) Histoire de la pensée chinoise, Le Seuil Presse, Paris, p. 62 et seq
Coase R, Wang N (2012) How China became capitalist. Palgrave Macmillan Press, London, UK, p. 175 et seq
Fan R-P (ed) (2011) The renaissance of confucianism in contemporary China. Springer Press, Heidelberg, London, New York, p 1 et seq., p 17 et seq., p 33 et seq
Hornby L (2017) China’s top judge denounces idea of judicial independence. Financial Times, 17 Jan
Huntington SP (1993) Clash of civilization? Foreign affairs, vol 72(3), Summer, pp 22–49
Huntington SP (1996) The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. Simon & Schuster Press, New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, p 47
Kissinger HA (2011) On China. Penguin Press, New York, p 438
Liang Q-C (1899 reprinted 1999) On trends of competition between the peoples and the future of China (论近世国民竞争之大势及中国前途). In: Qichao Liang’s complete works (1999). Beijing Press, vol 1, p 949
Liang Q-C (1901 reprinted 2009) Biography of Hongzhang Li (<<李鸿章传>>). Shanxi Normal University Press, Xi’an, p 288
Liang Q-C (1936) Collection of works of Yinbing Room (饮冰室合集), vol 11. Zhonghua Book Press, Beijing, pp 1–2
Littlejohn RL (2011) Confucianism: an introduction. Palgrave Macmillan Press, New York, p 20
Mao T-T (1977) On agricultural collectivization and the transformation of capitalist industry. In: Selected works of Mao Tse-Tung, vol 5. Foreign Language Press, Beijing, p 212
Mao T-T (1960) On new democratic constitutionalism. Foreign Language Press, Beijing, pp 1–15
Mao T-T (1950) On people’s democratic dictatorship. Foreign Language Press, Beijing, pp 1–45
Mishira P (2012) From the ruins of empire: the intellectuals who remade Asia. Farrar, Straus and Giroux Press, New York, p 160
Montesquieu (1734) Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline, Translated by Lowenthal D (1965). The Free Press, New York, pp 91-93
Ross RS, Bekkevold JI (eds) (2016) China in the era of Xi Jinping: domestic and foreign policy challenges. Georgetown University Press, Washington, DC, USA, p 155
Yao X-Z (2000) An introduction to confucianism. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p 30
Yeung A, Fung CH-H (2011) The soft power in the confucian ‘kingly way’. In: Fan R-P (ed), cit., p 109 et seq
Zavoretti R (2016) Is it better to cry in a BMW or to laugh on a bicycle? Marriage, ‘financial performance anxiety’, and the production of class in Nanjing (People’s Republic of China)’. Mod Asian Stud 50(4), pp 1190–1219
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Zhang, L. (2017). Confucianism, Communism and Democracy: A ‘Triangular’ Struggle in China-Reflections on Italy’s Historical Experience with Cultural Reform. In: Beretta, S., Berkofsky, A., Zhang, L. (eds) Understanding China Today. Understanding China. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29625-8_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29625-8_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-29624-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-29625-8
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)