Confucianism

Confucianism is a tradition of ethical and political thought that began with the teachings of Confucius in China around the sixth and fifth centuries BC. As a political tradition, it holds that government should rest on moral example rather than force or punishment, that rulers and officials should be selected for virtue and learning, and that a stable society is built on proper relationships, starting with the family. For about two thousand years it served as the official ideology of Chinese imperial states, and it deeply shaped Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Today scholars and some governments revisit it as a possible alternative or complement to Western liberal democracy.

Confucius taught in a period of political fragmentation and presented himself as a transmitter of older traditions. Mencius later argued that human nature is good and that the people may rightfully reject a tyrant, while Xunzi stressed education and ritual to restrain human nature. The Han dynasty adopted Confucianism as its official ideology in the second century BC. Imperial civil service examinations based on the Confucian classics later became the main path into government and lasted until 1905. From the eleventh century, Neo-Confucian thinkers such as Zhu Xi reshaped the tradition, and their interpretation became orthodox in China and in Korea's Joseon dynasty. In the twentieth century, reformers in the May Fourth Movement of 1919 blamed Confucianism for China's weakness, and it was attacked again during the Cultural Revolution, before reviving in scholarship and public life from the 1980s.

Classical Confucianism includes the differing views of Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi. Neo-Confucianism added metaphysics and self-cultivation. Thinkers such as Huang Zongxi criticized absolute monarchy and argued for limits on rulers. Reformers like Kang Youwei sought a constitutional Confucianism. Twentieth century New Confucians, including Mou Zongsan, tried to reconcile the tradition with science and democracy. Contemporary political Confucians debate whether it supports democracy, meritocracy or a mix of the two.

Liberal critics argue that Confucianism's emphasis on hierarchy, obedience and family roles is hard to reconcile with individual rights and equality, and feminist scholars point to the subordinate place it historically gave women. May Fourth reformers and later Marxists argued that it preserved a feudal social order. Some critics also argue that governments use Confucian language to justify authoritarian rule, as in the Asian values debate of the 1990s. Defenders reply that the tradition contains strong ideas of moral limits on power, duties to the people and meritocratic public service.

Confucian ideas shaped imperial bureaucracies, legal codes, education and family law across East Asia for centuries. In modern times they influence attitudes toward education, public service and family in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam. The Chinese government has promoted Confucian heritage in recent decades, and leaders such as Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew invoked Confucian values in defending their models of government.