Chinese President Hu Jintao’s lofty vision for the nation he leads is captured in his slogan, “To build a harmonious society.” This is actually based on a piece of ancient guidance from Confucius: “To aim always at harmony.” For Confucians, the fact that the leader of the communist country is openly endorsing a Confucian saying is, well, kind of a big deal.
Despite its tradition being interwoven throughout Chinese history for millennia, Confucianism took some nasty hits in the wake of the formation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 (enter: communism). As time went on, Confucius came to be cast as the ultimate symbol of anti-progressivism; Confucian books were burned and his hometown statue smashed.
Recently, however Confucius has been making a bit of a comeback. In addition to being quoted by high-up Communist Party officials, university programs dedicated to the way of life have been materializing all over the country; according to Religious Studies Professor and author Stephen Prothero, many Chinese are “beginning to imagine that Confucianism could soon replace Marxist-Leninism as the official state ideology.” This is of course quite unrealistic for the short-term, but it has been observed that at some point in the future, the letters CCP (Chinese Communist Party) could take on an entirely new meaning.
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