Communist Revolution and Confucianism - Essay Example

In fact, culture is so compact in China that instead of considering China as a political State, a lot of reviewers regards China as a cultural State. In this regard, two major cultural eras (political regimes) can be identified with China. There could be more than two eras but for the sake of this essay, the Confucian and Communist eras are discussed. In the Confucian era, China was to possess the dynastic system, which was overturned in 1911 to make way for the second era, which was the communist era after a supposedly a weak republican form of government existed until 1949 and through the civil war.

The communist era continues to exist in China it started. The coming of the communist government was actually informed by a number of factors against the Confucian era. However though, it is evident in present day communist rule in China that traces of fundamental Confucian ideas exist. This essay seeks to explore why the communist revolution originally sought to quell Confucianism and why it has recently changed its tack and encouraged the renewal of Confucian ideas. Why the Communist Revolution originally sought to quell Confucianism One kingdom overthrows the other with a mentality to the citizenry that the latter has better options in terms of political rule.

In contemporary world, overthrow of governments come commonly with democratic elections. In the case of the communist rule in China however, it all started with a revolution. Political revolution is said to be “a complete overthrow of the established government of a country or state by those who were previously subject to it; a forcible substitution of a new ruler or form of government” (Calvert in, 1970 in Pleuger, 2009). Because political revolutions are accompanied with forcible substitutions, it has always been expected that the overthrowing government has convincing reasons as to why it is the best and most pressing option.

With the communist revolution, two major reasons why it wanted to originally quell Confucianism can be discussed. Debate over classification and identity In the first place, there was a great debate and outcry over the classification, identity or otherwise, mandate of Confucianism. Right from the onset, Confucianism was thought by many as not having a clear-cut and straight forward mission of existence. Even in some circles, it was said that Confucianism was thought to be of a heavenly mandate instead of a political one (Hays, 2008).

This is to say that Confucianism was not well placed either as a religion, political party or a social club. Because of this, communists argued that Confucian rule had no political authorization to rule China. Because of the seemingly unclear mandate of Confucianism, it was argued that they were not able to rule with clearly defined political system, program and agenda. The communist revolution therefore criticized several fundamental political ideas of the Confucianism including the following documented by Hays (2008).

"Govern for the benefit of the people, reduce taxes, and recruit 'superior men' of any origin” “Promote the straight and throw out the twisted and people will keep order.” “The powerful must be benevolent in treating the weak: the weak must be wise in dealing with the powerful” (Hays, 2008). The communist therefore had a general perception that Confucianism