Confucian Thought and Chinese Law
George Cressey wrote in his 1955 work, The Land of the Five Hundred Million,
“More People have lived in China than anywhere else. Upwards of 10 billion human beings have moved across her good earth; nowhere else have so many people lived so intimately with nature. A thousand generations have left their indelible impression on soil and topography, so the scarcely a square foot of earth remains unmodified by man. With so many people to feed, only the most painstaking care can provide and adequate harvest,. …Other lands are older, but none have developed a more mature adjustment between man and the environment.”
If ever a people group has followed the Biblical precept to be fruitful and multiple and replenish the earth it is the Chinese. If ever there was a people group that attempted to honor the family structure it was the Chinese. If ever there was a people group that honored authority it was the Chinese. They are the ultimate test case for the confirmation of denial of the redemptive gifts I have sited. They were in 1955 and are now, not a very Christianized group. Approximately, 6% of the Chinese population is Christian at this time. They are therefore not following the precepts I have set forth based on Biblical policy but on cultural memory as set forth in pervious articles. Much of this has changed in recent history.
Cressey, quoted above, is writing when Mao Zedong’s communist revolution was very young and long before the 1979 one child policies began to be enforced. Moa himself understood the redemptive value of children in 1949 he said ‘Of all things in the world, people are the most precious.’ The communist government condemned birth control and banned imports of contraceptives.”
The problems that developed with population in China were not people but policy. They made an attempt to move from and agricultural society to a industrialized society in a manner that proved be destructive: “with many communities collectivized and the with conversion from farming to steel production, food supplies slipped behind population growth; then by 1962 a massive famine had caused some 30 million deaths. These policies have only gotten worse in the aftermath a Moa’s death. The Chinese social/capitalistic experiment has lead to out of control pollution, drug use, and sexual perversion among the its people. The one child policy has lead to the infanticide of numerous female children, and a population that is predominately male with few options for the fulfillment of the God given sexual appetites. The result has been increased prostitution and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. This is a long way from Confucian structures that supported Chinese culture for millennium and the redemptive nature of the philosophy as a whole.
Confucian thought along with Taoism has dominated Chinese thought for more than 2,500 years. It has been easier for missionaries to ‘baptize’ Confucian thought than it has for other people groups. Much of this has to do with the advances that Chinese culture made in the areas of literacy, invention, and governmental structure. My quest is to find the redemptive gifts that I have listed in these series of posted articles present in the Chinese culture. China becomes the perfect case study for my thesis because of it longevity. To paraphrase one of Nixon’s entourage in his 1972 visit, he said a visit to China is like visiting Egypt, only Pharaoh is still in charge and hieroglyphics is still the used as the written language. The Chinese have an entirely different context for ancient and modern. Chinese educators when making a distinction between neo Confucianism and ancient Confucianism are making a distinction between ‘the modern’ that comes from the 12 century and ancient Confucianism from the years 500 BC. The interchange between Chinese culture and western culture was profound in the first century of their contact. The interchange was primarily between Jesuits and Confucian scholars.
“Rome not only collected the books from many foreign cultures; in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it became the center of missionary enterprises that spanned the world. In China, Jesuits like Matteo Ricci and Adam Schall von Bell performed an incredible task of translation and interpretation. They learned the language; they made converts, some of high rank; and, in order to impress the cultivated Chinese elite with western forms of knowledge, they translated into Chinese the classical western science of cartography and the radically improved astronomy of Galileo. They also argued to their western superiors that Chinese classics--like the Greek and Egyptian ones so prized by some Roman scholars--had a core of values and tenets that matched those of Christianity. Eventually the Jesuits' openness to China led them into trouble; but for the first century and more of their mission, they did a remarkable job of bringing western forms of knowledge to China and Chinese forms of thought to the West. The Vatican preserves remarkable materials from both sides of this cultural exchange.”
In regards to the individual Confucius sought to train the conscience by developing ethical constructs in what would come to known as ‘sacred names’ that had to do with ones place within the given society. The idea was that whatever you are called from Father to Emperor that the name and the role were sacred and were granted by heaven and would be taken away if not stewarded proper. The responsibility of the individual and the leader are found in both the below quotes.
“Taoism and Confucianism provided ethical guides to the proper behavior of individuals and officials. Both of these systems originated in China during the so-called Golden Age of Chinese thought, several centuries before the beginning of the Christian era. Taoism sought to promote the inner peace of individuals and harmony with their surroundings. Confucianism, based on the teachings and writings of the philosopher Confucius, is an ethical system that sought to teach the proper way for all people to behave in society. Each relationship--husband-wife, parents-children, ruler-subjects--involved a set of obligations which, if upheld, would lead to a just and harmonious society. Following his teachings would also promote a stable, lasting government.”
Confucius taught that most of the ills of society happened because people forgot their stations in life and rulers lost virtue. He advocated a return to the golden antiquity of the emperors Yao and Shun, when rulers were virtuous and people knew their places. Therefore, Confucius' primary concern lay in social relations, proper conduct, and social harmony. Confucius defined five cardinal relationships: between ruler and ruled, between husband and wife, between parents and children, between older and younger brothers, and between friends. Except for the last case, all of the defined relationships are between superiors and inferiors. He emphasized the complete obedience and loyalty of the inferior to the superior but also mentioned the benevolence of the superior to the inferior. The ideal Confucian family was an extended one of three or four generations, in which authority rested with the elderly male members. Filial piety (obedience to parents) was one of the most important virtues emphasized by later Confucians.
Confucius reportedly spent his last years editing and completing some of the books that came to be known as Five Classics. These include the `Classic of Poetry', `Classic of History', `Spring and Autumn Annals', `Record of Rites', and `Classic of Changes', or `I Ching'. Memorized by scholars for generations in China, these books and four other works, including the `Analects', a compilation of Confucian teachings, were the subjects of civil service examinations for over 2,000 years.
“His three main tenets were the basic good nature of human beings, the notion of society with a distinct distribution of functions, and the ruler's obligation to the people. On the last point, Mencius elaborated on the concept of the mandate of heaven, which allows that rulers lose support of heaven when they cease to be virtuous. The concept served as the basis of revolts in China and the succession of new rulers.”
“The `Meng-tzu', meaning "Master Meng," was written by the philosopher Mencius (a Latinized form of the name Meng-tzu) in the 4th century BC. The work earned for its author the title of "second sage" in China. The book deals with government and asserts that the welfare of the people comes before all else. When a king no longer is good to the people, he should be removed--by revolution if necessary. Mencius, like Confucius, declared that filial piety was the foundation of society. One unusual doctrine that Mencius supported was that of the natural goodness of mankind, for which he found proof in the natural love children have for their parents.”
China has been a resilient culture. But so were the Cherokee. Each faced the expansion of a materialistic and expansionistic western culture around them that initially just wanted to do business. The Cherokee were compromised before they were conquered. The guardian of their great traditions could have been and in some respects has become the Christian Church. The expansion of the Body of Christ in China is well documented. Bob Vinnicombe of the Asiatimes online sites 10,000 Christian coverts per day. He draws very interesting conclusions in his article on the growth of the church in China.
“Christianity will have become a Sino-centric religion two generations from now. China may be for the 21st century what Europe was during the 8th-11th centuries, and America has been during the past 200 years: the natural ground for mass evangelization. If this occurs, the world will change beyond our capacity to recognize it. Islam might defeat the western Europeans, simply by replacing their diminishing numbers with immigrants, but it will crumble beneath the challenge from the East.”
Vinnicombe describes Christianity as “the great liquidator of traditional society, calling individuals out of their tribes and nations to join the ekklesia, which transcends race and nation. In China, communism leveled traditional society, and erased the great Confucian idea of society as an extension of the loyalties and responsibility of families. “ It has been unfortunate that the church has indeed been a ‘liquidator of traditional societies’. The great commission calls us to teach the nations not liquefy them. China provides an opportunity for us to do it right.
Bob Finley is the founder of Christian Aid Missions. He was one of the missionaries that were deported from China in 1949 when the communist took over the country. His lament at the time was ‘what would the church do without missionaries’ or words to that effect. To his surprise and utter joy the Church in China has grown and prospered. This has happened in large measure because the church is indigenous and allows the church to develop local gifts i.e. redemptive gifts in a manner that honors God and has its placement in a time and a generation that is specific to God’s purposes. When Finley recognized the model he dedicated his life to the funding and equipping of indigenous ministers. The results are that, “Over the years, Christian Aid has provided more than $100 million in assistance to more than 800 evangelistic ministries based in 122 "mission field" countries overseas. These boards deploy a combined total of 100,000 missionaries serving in the most unevangelized nations of the world.”
Cressey, George, The Land of the Five Hundred Million, A Geography of China (McGraw Hill, 1955) pg 3
Adherents, “Christian Statistics, Largest Christian Populations, copyright 2000 http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_christian.html
Fitzpatrick, Laura, “China’s One Child Policy” July 27, 2009. Time http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1912861,00.html#ixzz12oa7hGBU
Fitzpatrick, Laura, “China’s One Child Policy” July 27, 2009. Time http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1912861,00.html#ixzz12oa7hGBU
Navarro, Peter, Waking the Dragon, The Modern Scholar Lecture Series, ISBN 9781440732638
Navarro, Peter, Waking the Dragon, The Modern Scholar Lecture Series, ISBN 9781440732638
MacMillan, Margaret, Nixon and Moa, The Week the Changed the World, (Southworth, David, 2007)
“Missionaries and Mandarins, Jesuits in China.” http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/i-rome_to_china/Jesuits_in_China.html
Prothero, Stephen, Religions of the East, Paths to Enlightenment. (Recorded Books, 2005)
Compton’s Living Encyclopedia, “Chinese Cultural Studies, Philosophy and Religion of China” (August 1995) http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/chinrelg.html
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/chinrelg.html
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/chinrelg.html
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/chinrelg.html
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/chinrelg.html
http://www.nickmaine.info/Documents/Christianity%20in%20China.htm
Forwarded by Vinnicombe, Bob, “Christianity Growing Fast in China From Hong Kong Asia Times Online http://www.nickmaine.info/Documents/Christianity%20in%20China.htm
Finley, Bob. “About the Founder” http://www.christianaid.org/About/AboutTheFounder.aspx
http://www.christianaid.org/About/Default.aspx
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