Chinese Political Culture

Shiping Hua, Andrew J. Nathan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780765605658
• eBook ISBN:
  9781315500478
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Until this book, there has been no comprehensive, methodologically aware study of all aspects of Chinese political culture. The book is organized into three major areas: Chinese identities and popular culture (regional identities, anti-politics attitudes, Hong Kong identity); public opinion surveys (the Beijing area, Chinese workers, the Shanghai area); and ideological debates (the "new" Confucianism, masculinity and Confucianism, why authoritarianism is popular in China, the decline of Chinese official ideology). Here is the first work that reveals just how much, how rapidly, and how dramatically China is changing and why our perceptions of China must keep pace.

Part I

The Chinese Cultural Tradition and Its Modern Face

1

Sage, Teacher, Businessman: Confucius as a Model Male

Kam Louie

This chapter examines the constructions of Chinese male identity in the modern world. In particular, it looks at perceptions of Chinese masculinity as embodied in the scholar-intellectual (wenren, or man of letters) ideal exemplified by the wen god Confucius. My previous work has shown that in configurations of Chinese masculinity, the ideal man demonstrates both civil and military (wen-wu) accomplishments. The term wen-wu has no English equivalent, although approximate renderings are “literary-martial” or “mental-physical.” In this chapter I focus on the wen half of this dyad. After first establishing the significance of the wen god Confucius in the framework of Chinese masculinity and then examining its significance to both sexes, I outline how Communist scholars in the 1990s constructed Confucius as a progressive educationalist whose “modern fate” is not a terminal one. In the final part of the chapter, I examine the iconic status of Confucius in the last two decades of this millennium to show that in the 1980s and 1990s wen ideals were fundamentally transformed so as to encompass commercial expertise alongside its traditional tenets.

Indeed, Confucius as capitalist entrepreneur definitely turns the orthodox understanding of wen as an exclusively moral and political force on its head. If this thesis is correct, constructions of Chinese masculinity have undergone a revolution the implications of which are truly cataclysmic. The “real man” in China today need not possess wen-wu attributes as they are traditionally understood—he may in fact be neither politically nor morally motivated—but he will acquire and flaunt such trappings of economic prowess as the latest and most powerful in mobile phones and laptop computers. The Chinese male ideal is therefore moving closer to the image of young executives found in in-flight magazines read by the international jet-set.

Confucius and the Framework of Chinese Masculinity

The theoretical basis of this paper derives from my research on the subject of Chinese masculinity. I have already demonstrated elsewhere that although yin-yang philosophy is the most commonly invoked paradigm in discussions of Chinese sexuality, this philosophy cannot be used to define masculinity precisely, because yin and yang are characterized as elements of femininity as well as of masculinity. I therefore proposed an alternative conception of masculinity in China by characterizing it as an expression of the dyad wen-wu (Louie and Edwards 1994). Unlike yin and yang, the wen-wu paradigm is exclusively male, invoking both the mental and the physical as essential. Of course, as a cultural construct, wen-wu is constantly evolving, and at times of social upheaval, such as the twentieth century, it is likely to undergo drastic transformations. As the social critic Zhang Kebiao caustically observed, the men of letters had by the early part of the twentieth century become dilettantes, trying to lead the privileged lives traditionally accorded them, yet at the same time imbibing superficial Western fads and tastes (cited in Lee 1973, 39–40). Nonetheless, no matter how the paradigms change, Chinese men continue to construe the more ostensibly refined features of wen as ingredients of manhood equally important as those of wu.

The operation of this dichotomy is summarized in the Confucian Analects in the admonition that “superior men may possess more and inferior men may possess less, but all men have something of the way of wen and wu in them” (Yang Bojun 1958, 211). The ideal man necessarily embodied the separate essences of wen and wu as well as an optimal balance of both, although at certain times only one or the other was expected. Importantly, either was considered to be acceptably manly. Nonetheless, wen has long taken precedence over wu as the ultimate masculine ideal, and the expression wen-wu always has wen preceding wu, never the other way around. This pre-eminence of wen is hardly surprising, as success in civil service examinations has always been the key to power and privilege.

That wen-wu is intricately tied to class considerations is best illustrated by the two icons which represent the separate parts of the dyad. In temples throughout China and the communities of the Chinese diaspora, Confucius is worshipped as the wen god and Guan Yu as the wu god. Thus, Confucius is known as the ‘wen sage’ (wensheng) and Guan Yu the ‘wu sage’ (wusheng), and Confucian temples are also appropriately known as ‘wen temples’ (wenmiao). While Guan Yu is more popular in temples, comics, operas, and other forms of mass culture (Hodge and Louie 1998, 119–142), Confucius is much more highly revered by the elite, and until the twentieth century his teachings formed the basis of formal education in China. While these two icons represent the dual ideals of Chinese masculinity, therefore, Confucius is the one we must deconstruct if we are to understand the kind of manhood sought by those men who operate mainly with their minds, which is to say those who have inherited the functions of the traditional scholar-gentry class.

Of course, the proposition that both academic attainment and controlled physical prowess are necessary ingredients of manhood may also be true of other cultures. As Andrew Nathan has convincingly shown, we have a long way to go before we can prove empirically that Chinese culture is unique (Nathan 1997, 136–151), and I certainly do not want to imply that Chinese masculinity is an exception and somehow distinctive. The objective of this chapter lies elsewhere: while Confucius and Confucianism have for centuries been seen to embody the very essence of Chinese-ness, recent interpretations of the philosophy and its founder have moved closer to a universalistic than to a particularistic position. While the figure of Confucius has frequently been invoked for nationalistic purposes, the traditional strategy of equating him with Chineseness may, in the computer age, quickly become outdated. In this latter context, the Confucian icon will be unreadable even by the latest applications and platforms.

Traditionally, Confucius was regarded as a sage (shengren). Such status, although the ultimate goal of the neo-Confucians, was understood to be beyond the capabilities of the average man. For the last two millennia, therefore, most Chinese men have aspired instead to the Confucian ideal of the junzi. The word junzi appears in the Analects 106 times. Roughly translated as “gentleman,” “refined man,” or “virtuous man,” it is for our discussion best rendered as “exemplary person” (Hall and Ames 1987, 182–192). The close relationship between the junzi and wen is reiterated several times in the Analects, but the junzi is rarely associated with the wu aspect of masculinity. One of the best-known expressions linking junzi and wen occurs in Verse 27, Book VI, of the Analects, where Confucius says “the junzi is well-versed in wen” (Yang Bojun 1958, 68). A more elaborate description occurs in Verse 18, in which the Master explains that “when a man has more zhi than wen, he will be vulgar. If he has more wen than zhi, he will be a pedant. If he has a well-balanced mixture of these two qualities, he is then a junzi” (Yang Bojun 1958, 65). Most commentators agree that zhi is a relatively straightforward concept that refers to the basic or innate substance of a man (see for example Lau 1979, 37–38). Through the process of wen education and enculturation, a man with the right amount of zhi substance will turn into a genteel junzi. Wen thus encompasses all the qualities that allow for nature to be refined into culture.

In practical terms, wen is the product of a proper education. It is said that Confucius taught four subjects: “cultural refinement [wen], moral behaviour [xing], loyalty [zhong], and faith [xin]” (Yang Bojun 1958, 78). Since the latter three of these are ethical concepts, we can assume that the skills we know he taught—literature, music, archery, charioteering, writing, and mathematics—belong to the category of wen. During the Communist era, these qualities became the subject of debates on education. Here, I should reiterate that, in general, the accomplishments Confucius considered to be the pre-conditions of junzi-hood apply only to men.

As a model of masculinity, the junzi is contrasted with the xiaoren (inferior man). The Analects contrasts the junzi and xiaoren in numerous places. Of most interest to us is the declaration by Confucius that “the junzi understands the importance of morality [yi] and the xiaoren understands the importance of profitability [li]” (Yang Bojun 1958, 42). In the context of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods this is an important pronouncement. The biggest challenge to Confucians at that time was the doctrine put forth by Mozi, who unashamedly advocated profit and utility as desirable goals. The Confucian hatred for the utilitarian profit-motive continued right into the twentieth century, with merchants and business people theoretically placed at almost the bottom of traditional Chinese society in terms of social status. One of the most striking illustrations of this Confucian outlook appears in the Qing novel The Scholars (Wu Jingzi 1972), where the ostentatiously unambitious and talented Wang Mian is touted as the ideal man and all the scholars and officials lusting after power, privilege, and money are portrayed as despicable fakes. In many ways, Wang Mian is the reincarnation of Yan Hui, Confucius’ favourite student, a perfect junzi who died without achieving office, wealth, or fame and who has since been canonised as a sage.

This does not mean, of course, that Chinese concepts of masculinity tended towards asocial or apolitical behaviors, traits normally ascribed to the Daoists. Wang Mian did not actively seek office, but he gave advice freely to the ruler. Confucius, too, is said to have wandered from state to state seeking a kingly patron to whom he could offer counsel. (In contemporary terms, he was a political lobbyist.) By definition wen implied verbal skill, and wenren thus influenced society through rhetorical rather than more physical means of social action. In short, the wenren saw himself as an enlightened moral and spiritual guide to society. Confucius, certainly, sought only the company of the power elite and shunned the common folk, the xiaoren, and advised his followers to do likewise.

Confucius and the Sexes

Interestingly, in the same passage where Confucius admonishes his followers to shun the xiaoren, he directs them also to keep women at a respectable distance (Yang Bojun 1958, 198). Women, therefore, are another troublesome class of people to be eschewed. Since masculinity is often associated with sexuality and is also often analysed in terms of its relationship to femininity, it is important that the status of women in the wen-wu framework be clarified. I have shown elsewhere that the wu ideal has a multitude of defences against women, such that the wu god Guan Yu, as popularly imagined, would rather decapitate a beautiful woman than be tempted by her (Louie 1999). This attitude also underlies all the sadistic murders of women in the classic novel Water Margin (Shuihu; see Hsia 1968, 75–114). By contrast, in the typical ‘scholar and beauty’ (caizi jiaren) formulation of male-female affairs, the scholar always beds the girl. One would thus expect the wen god to be surrounded by women, but this is simply not the case—Confucius is never shown in the company of women. In traditional stories, wen men indeed consort with women in ways not possible for wu men, but this difference has little to do with ideal conceptions of masculinity. Indeed, although the caizi jiaren genre is by definition the “romance between talented men and beautiful women,” the moral of most such stories is that it is foolish and even dangerous for scholars to become attached to women. The women in these stories are often prostitutes, demons, or fox-fairies who use their wiles to bewitch and ruin their men. Thus, although the impeccable Wang Mian has a significant man and a significant woman in his life, the man is his old peasant mentor and the woman is his old mother: he does not marry and has no romantic attachments as such.

This sexual exclusivity was traditionally taken for granted: women were barred totally from entering the realm of wen-wu. Those who did, such as Zhu Yingtai, who tried to gain recognition for wen accomplishments by entering a scholarly academy, had to do so in the guise of men and usually met with tragic ends. Similarly, women who were good at wu, such as the woman warrior Hua Mulan, had to conceal their sex in order to receive credit for their accomplishments. Once these women applied rouge and adopted feminine attire again, all their wen-wu attributes disappeared. Wen-wu is wholly a male quality and is never conferred onto women. If women were to worship at the feet of a Confucian idol, they did so to facilitate their sons’ success at examinations. This is not a problem but for the fact that references to “the concept of man” are often confused with the concept of humankind, in which “man” is made a universal signifier for both men and women, so that gender and sexuality issues are ignored (see for example Munro 1969, 1977).

Indeed, as we observed above, Confucius himself unambiguously classed women with the detested xiaoren as a class of people to be avoided. He would rather have women kept far away than have them offering sacrifices at his feet. In the Analects, Confucius seems to live up to his principles in this regard. All of his disciples and associates are men, and all the exemplars in his teachings are male. He seems most at ease and happy in the company of men, and he is most openly and unashamedly grievous at the death of Yan Hui, his favourite student. The only challenge to this homosociality occurs when Confucius visits the beautiful Nanzi and is immediately criticized by his outspoken disciple Zilu, whose displeasure prompts the Master to protest innocence (Yang Bojun 1958, 68).

The homosociality and misogyny that characterize the wu god Guan Yu can thus also be found in the wen god, albeit in a different form and in a less dramatic way. While it may seem self-evident that Confucius’ philosophy is male-centered,...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Studies on Contemporary China
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Tables and Figures
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Original Half Title page
• Introduction: Some Paradigmatic Issues in the Study of Chinese Political Culture
• Part I The Chinese Cultural Tradition and Its Modern Face
• Part II Socialization: Official Ideologies, Literature, and the Media
• Part III Comparative Political Culture Studies: Social Strata and Regions
• Contributors
• Index