Confucianism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Criticism== {{New Culture Movement}} Confucius and Confucianism were opposed or criticised from the start, including [[Laozi]]'s philosophy and [[Mozi]]'s critique, and Legalists such as [[Han Fei]] ridiculed the idea that virtue would lead people to be orderly. In modern times, waves of opposition and vilification showed that Confucianism, instead of taking credit for the glories of Chinese civilisation, now had to take blame for its failures. The [[Taiping Rebellion]] described Confucianism sages as well as gods in [[Taoism]] and [[Buddhism]] as devils. === Contradiction with modernist values === {{See also|New Culture Movement}} In the [[New Culture Movement]], [[Lu Xun]] criticised Confucianism for shaping Chinese people into the condition they had reached by the late [[Qing dynasty]]: his criticisms are expressed metaphorically in the work "[[Diary of a Madman (Lu Xun)|Diary of a Madman]]", in which traditional Chinese Confucian society is portrayed as feudalistic, hypocritical, socially cannibalistic, despotic, fostering a "slave mentality" favouring despotism, lack of critical thinking and blind obedience and worship of authority, fuelling a form of "Confucian authoritarianism" which persists into the present day.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-11-23 |orig-date=1918 |title=The True Story of Lu Xun |url=https://www.chinafile.com/library/nyrb-china-archive/ |access-date=2022-08-26 |website=ChinaFile |language=en}}</ref> Leftists during the [[Cultural Revolution]] described Confucius as the representative of the slave-owning class.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 20, 2005 |title=The evil life of Confucius |url=https://people.reed.edu/~brashiek/syllabi/Poster/running.html#:~:text=2.,%E2%80%9COld%20Number%20Two%E2%80%9D%5D. |archive-url=https://perma-archives.org/warc/20240121070125/https://people.reed.edu/~brashiek/syllabi/Poster/running.html#:~:text=2.,%E2%80%9COld%20Number%20Two%E2%80%9D%5D. |archive-date=21 January 2024 |access-date=January 21, 2024 |website=Reed University |url-status=live }}</ref> In [[South Korea]], there has long been criticism. Some South Koreans believe Confucianism has not contributed to the modernisation of South Korea. For example, South Korean writer Kim Kyong-il wrote a book in 1998 entitled "Confucius Must Die For the Nation to Live" ({{lang|ko|공자가 죽어야 나라가 산다}}, ''gongjaga jug-eoya naraga sanda''). Kim said that [[filial piety]] is one-sided and blind, and if it continues, social problems will continue as government keeps forcing Confucian filial obligations onto families.<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 September 1999 |script-title=ko:공자가 죽어야 나라가 산다고? – 시사저널 |url=http://www.sisapress.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=39088 |access-date=2012-06-10 |publisher=Sisapress.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last={{lang|ko|하늘날아}} |date=2011-04-18 |script-title=ko:지식이 물 흐르듯이 :: 공자가 죽어야 나라가 산다 |url=http://zerocdh.tistory.com/97 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415153841/http://zerocdh.tistory.com/97 |archive-date=15 April 2012 |access-date=2012-06-10 |publisher=Zerocdh.tistory.com}}</ref> ===Women in Confucian thought=== {{See also|Women in ancient and imperial China}} Confucianism "largely defined the mainstream discourse on gender in China from the [[Han dynasty]] onward."<ref name=Adler/> The gender roles prescribed in the [[Three Obediences and Four Virtues]] became a cornerstone of the family, and thus, societal stability. The Three Obediences and Four Virtues is one of the moral standards for feudal etiquette to bind women.<ref name="Gao">{{Cite journal |last=Gao Xiongya |date=2003 |title=Women Existing for Men: Confucianism and Social Injustice against Women in China |journal=Race, Gender & Class |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=114–125 |issn=1082-8354 |jstor=41675091}}</ref> Starting from the Han period, Confucians began to teach that a virtuous woman was supposed to follow the males in her family: the father before her marriage, the husband after she marries, and her sons in widowhood. In the later dynasties, more emphasis was placed on the virtue of chastity. The Song dynasty Confucian [[Cheng Yi (philosopher)|Cheng Yi]] stated that: "To starve to death is a small matter, but to lose one's chastity is a great matter."<ref name="ebrey" /> It was during the Song Dynasty that the value of chastity was so severe, Confucian scholars criminalized the remarriage of widows.<ref name="Gao"/> widows were revered and memorialised during the [[Ming Dynasty|Ming]] and [[Qing dynasty|Qing]] periods.The principle of chaste widowhood was made an official institution during the Ming Dynasty. This "[[Cult of widow chastity|cult of chastity]]" accordingly condemned many widows to poverty and loneliness by placing a social stigma on remarriage.<ref name="Adler">{{Cite web |last=Adler |first=Joseph A. |date=April 2005 |title=Daughter/Wife/Mother or Sage/Immortal/Bodhisattva? Women in the Teaching of Chinese Religions |url=http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Women.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060320105840/http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Women.htm |archive-date=20 March 2006 |access-date=12 July 2010 |website=ASIANetwork Exchange, vol. XIV, no. 2}}</ref> Though the repercussions for widows at times went beyond poverty and loneliness, as for some the preservation of chastity resulted in suicide. The ideal of a chaste widow became an extremely high honor and esteem, especially for a woman who chose to end her life after her husband's death. Many instances of such acts were recorded in, Biographies of Virtuous Women, “a collection of stories of women who distinguished themselves by committing suicide after their husband’s deaths to guard their chastity and purity”. Though it can be contested whether all these instances can be deemed self-sacrificing for the virtue of chastity, as it became common practice for women to be forced to commit suicide after their husband's death. This resulted from the honor which chaste widowhood garnered, lending itself to the husband's family as well as his clan or village.<ref name="Gao" /> For years, many modern scholars have regarded Confucianism as a sexist, patriarchal ideology that was historically damaging to Chinese women.<ref name="Gao" /><ref name="Rosenlee" />{{rp|15–16}} It has also been argued by some Chinese and Western writers that the rise of neo-Confucianism during the Song dynasty had led to a decline of status of women.<ref name="ebrey">{{Cite book |last=Patricia Buckley Ebrey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GDPskRXfl5cC&pg=PA10 |title=Women and the Family in Chinese History |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-28822-4 |pages=10–12, 24–25}}</ref>{{rp|10–12}} Some critics have also accused the prominent Song neo-Confucian scholar [[Zhu Xi]] for believing in the inferiority of women and that men and women need to be kept strictly separate,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Anders Hansson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Ibp1RTW0AoC&pg=PA46 |title=Chinese Outcasts: Discrimination and Emancipation in Late Imperial China |publisher=Brill |year=1996 |isbn=978-90-04-10596-6 |page=46 |doi=10.1163/9789004487963_005 |s2cid=243925416}}</ref> while [[Sima Guang]] also believed that women should remain indoors and not deal with the matters of men in the outside world.<ref name="ebrey" />{{rp|24–25}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=Robin |title=Images of Women in Chinese Thought and Culture: Writings from the Pre-Qin Period to the Song Dynasty |publisher=Hackett Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-87220-651-9 |page=14 |chapter=Precepts for Family Life |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xQiJWZNQZfgC&pg=PA414}}</ref> Finally, scholars have discussed the attitudes toward women in Confucian texts such as [[Analects]]. In a much-discussed passage, women are grouped together with {{zhl|c=小人|l=small people}}, meaning people of low status or low morals) and described as being difficult to cultivate or deal with.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee Dian Rainey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ID4gMCaLr0MC&pg=PA55 |title=Confucius and Confucianism: The Essentials |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4443-2360-3 |page=55}}{{pb}}{{cite book | title= Analects | script-title=zh:論語 | script-chapter=zh:陽貨 | chapter= Yang Huo no. 25|chapter-url=https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&id=1561#s10028160 |author1= Confucius | quote= Original text: {{lang|zh-hant|唯女子與小人爲難養也,近之則不孫,遠之則怨。}}}}{{pb}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wpcSq6aTcgMC&pg=PA5 |title=Reconceiving Women's Equality in China: A Critical Examination of Models of Sex Equality|author= Yuan Lijun |publisher=Lexington Books |date=2005|isbn=978-0-7391-1228-1 |pages=5–6}}</ref> Many traditional commentators and modern scholars have debated over the precise meaning of the passage, and whether Confucius referred to all women or just certain groups of women.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Qiu Chong ({{lang|zh-hant|邱崇}}) |date=December 2013 |title=Yi 'wei nü yu xiaoren wei nan yang ye' |script-title=zh:释 "唯女子与小人为难养也" |url=http://yj.nuist.edu.cn/ch/reader/create_pdf.aspx?file_no=20130621&year_id=2013&quarter_id=6&falg=1 |journal=Yuejiang Academic Journal |volume=6 |pages=141–145 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180405214741/http://yj.nuist.edu.cn/ch/reader/create_pdf.aspx?file_no=20130621&year_id=2013&quarter_id=6&falg=1 |archive-date=5 April 2018}}<br />The article points out the various disputes among traditional Confucian commentators on what the passage really means. It also summarizes the debate in contemporary academia regarding the phrase's meaning.</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Liao Mingchun (廖名春) |year=2012 |title="Wei nüzi yu xiaoren wei nan yang ye" liuzhu ji xinjie |script-title=zh:“唯女子与小人为难养也”疏注及新解 |url=https://www.rujiazg.com/article/11256 |magazine=Renwen Zazhi (人文雜志) |issue=6 |access-date=2023-03-17}}</ref> Further analysis suggests, however, that women's place in Confucian society may be more complex.<ref name="Adler" /> During the Han dynasty period, the influential Confucian text ''[[Lessons for Women]]'' was written by [[Ban Zhao]] (45–114 CE) to instruct her daughters how to be proper Confucian wives and mothers, that is, to be silent, hard-working, and compliant. She stresses the complementarity and equal importance of the male and female roles according to yin-yang theory, but she clearly accepts the dominance of the male. However, she does present education and literary power as important for women. In later dynasties, a number of women took advantage of the Confucian acknowledgment of education to become independent in thought.<ref name="Adler" /> Joseph A. Adler points out that "Neo-Confucian writings do not necessarily reflect either the prevailing social practices or the scholars' own attitudes and practices in regard to actual women."<ref name=Adler/> Matthew Sommers has also indicated that the Qing dynasty government began to realise the utopian nature of enforcing the "cult of chastity" and began to allow practices such as widow remarrying to stand.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sommers |first=Matthew |title=Sex, Law and Society in Late Imperial China |date=2000 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford |page=319}}</ref> Moreover, some Confucian texts like [[Dong Zhongshu]]'s ''[[Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals]]'' have passages that suggest a more equal relationship between a husband and his wife.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dong Zhongshu |title=Chunqiu Fanlu |date=1988 |language=zh |script-title=zh:春秋繁露 |chapter=Ji Yi |script-chapter=zh:基義 |author-link=Dong Zhongshu |orig-date=100s BCE |chapter-url=http://ctext.org/chun-qiu-fan-lu/ji-yi/zh |via=中國哲學書電子化計劃}}</ref> More recently, some scholars have also begun to discuss the viability of constructing a "Confucian feminism".<ref name="Rosenlee">{{Cite book |last=Rosenlee |first=Li-Hsiang Lisa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTvLQbaH81wC&pg=PA16 |title=Confucianism and Women: A Philosophical Interpretation |publisher=State University of New York Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7914-6750-3 |pages=4, 15–16, 149–160}}</ref>{{rp|4, 149–160}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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