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Talking the sage's talk, but walking...
By Wang Yong |
September 30, 2010, Thursday
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IT'S difficult to maintain cultural diversity in this age of globalized worship of capital and consumption. It's one thing to have a dialogue at conference tables between Christian and Confucian scholars, but quite another for the descendants of Jesus and Confucius to honor their respective traditions in daily life.
"Old superstition is the worship of ghosts and spirits, while new superstition is the blind belief in science and technology, which can meet our secular needs and even offer more than needed, but it can't meet our soul's need and may even obsess our soul," warned Xu Jialu, president of the organizing committee of the First Nishan Forum on World Civilization. The conference was held last Sunday in Shandong Province, the birthplace of Confucius.
Indeed, both Christianity and Confucianism are more about the soul than about the body, and more about meditation than about materialism. But those ancient values are dying today as a culture of capital and consumption stalks and stifles the world.
Ask any young Chinese boy or girl today to even consider the frugal life that Confucius led, and chances are that you will be rebuffed. Most antithetical to Confucian values today are the many prime-time TV programs that unscrupulously advocate possession of material things and pleasures as the ultimate aim in life. And this gospel is mostly preached by vain women who proclaim that they would rather weep in a rich man's BMW than laugh on a poor guy's bike.
China began to chip away at Confucian values in 1919 as the country's elite literati lost confidence in Confucius in the face of Western science embodied in gunpowder. It was a mistake that would cost the nation dearly, and still takes its toll. Confucian values further withered in the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976) that aimed to sweep "feudal thoughts" into historical oblivion. It was another mistake.
Now Confucius is back as China becomes more confident and open-minded after 30 years of fast economic growth. But make no mistake: Although Confucius is back - to "enliven and enlighten" academic dialogues and tourist sites - he may well be a lonely visitor in the land that once nourished his thoughts. The sage will find abundant lip service paid to his ideas that, in fact, have been abandoned to modern foreign principles of profit and pleasure - ideas alien to his ears and heart.
What would Confucius say if he walked in downtown Beijing or Shanghai and got stuck in the roar of automobile traffic?
What would Confucius think if he saw financial wizards who had engineered the world into an unprecedented crisis elevated and eulogized as "talents"?
"Old superstition is the worship of ghosts and spirits, while new superstition is the blind belief in science and technology, which can meet our secular needs and even offer more than needed, but it can't meet our soul's need and may even obsess our soul," warned Xu Jialu, president of the organizing committee of the First Nishan Forum on World Civilization. The conference was held last Sunday in Shandong Province, the birthplace of Confucius.
Indeed, both Christianity and Confucianism are more about the soul than about the body, and more about meditation than about materialism. But those ancient values are dying today as a culture of capital and consumption stalks and stifles the world.
Ask any young Chinese boy or girl today to even consider the frugal life that Confucius led, and chances are that you will be rebuffed. Most antithetical to Confucian values today are the many prime-time TV programs that unscrupulously advocate possession of material things and pleasures as the ultimate aim in life. And this gospel is mostly preached by vain women who proclaim that they would rather weep in a rich man's BMW than laugh on a poor guy's bike.
China began to chip away at Confucian values in 1919 as the country's elite literati lost confidence in Confucius in the face of Western science embodied in gunpowder. It was a mistake that would cost the nation dearly, and still takes its toll. Confucian values further withered in the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976) that aimed to sweep "feudal thoughts" into historical oblivion. It was another mistake.
Now Confucius is back as China becomes more confident and open-minded after 30 years of fast economic growth. But make no mistake: Although Confucius is back - to "enliven and enlighten" academic dialogues and tourist sites - he may well be a lonely visitor in the land that once nourished his thoughts. The sage will find abundant lip service paid to his ideas that, in fact, have been abandoned to modern foreign principles of profit and pleasure - ideas alien to his ears and heart.
What would Confucius say if he walked in downtown Beijing or Shanghai and got stuck in the roar of automobile traffic?
What would Confucius think if he saw financial wizards who had engineered the world into an unprecedented crisis elevated and eulogized as "talents"?
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