Rescuing a key Confucian text from centuries of ignominy

From around the turn of the century, a revived Confucianism was all the rage. Mainland Chinese academia heavily promoted it. Beijing politicised it as compatible with communist ideology. For state propaganda departments, Confucianism was repackaged as a cultural product for foreign consumption.

So why study Confucius today? Well, why read any great philosopher? But there is a more immediate answer: Confucianism is more relevant than ever.

We live in a time of democratic retreat and authoritarian rise around the world, including in the West. Western political discourse, at least in its popular, newspaper variety, tends to be binary: democracy good, authoritarianism bad. But the reality is that both exist on a spectrum of good to bad. There isn’t one form of democracy or authoritarianism, but many.

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Confucius makes comeback under communism

To really understand and achieve a more enlightened authoritarianism, you need a political philosophy that appreciates the inner workings of non-democratic consensus, its moral basis and justification, especially with its notions of hierarchy, responsibility and ethical training.

Kongzi Jia Yu is one such text. Princeton University Press kindly sent me its latest bilingual edition, translated here as Dialogues of Confucius. It’s beautifully bound and printed. For once, you really can judge a book by its cover.

South China Morning Post