CONFUCIUS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 182, 22 October 1927, Page 11

CONFUCIUS

CHINA’S FORSAKEN GOD Last week China celebrated the 2478th anniversary of Confucius. Shops and houses were decorated, historical scenes were depicted in the theatres, portraits of the sage were hung above millions of altars, and the grand ceremonial of “kow-tow” were part of the ritual. I have often heard in China, says a writer in an Australian exchange, a very strongly expressed view on the part of a section of Chinese, backed by a respectable body of foreign opinion, that the salvation of China lies in retracing her steps toward the w.ell-tried code which has prevailed lor many decades in China —back to the old customs. The grand ceremonial

and the delicate courtesies of everyday life, about which Confucius laid down such minute rules. China has changed. Those who have lived there for many years have watched the ancient and picturesque customs pass. There was the silent, efficient service; the long, strange queues; the flowing robe; the stately manners; the inscrutable, immobile countenances, and the slow movement; all added charm and dignity to the setting. These have gone, and have been replaced by the alert young man who has some knowledge of foreign ways, a youth who is no longer reticent nor restrained, but greatly daring and assertive. Confuciuc would not recognise him as of his own race. He would consider him an abandoned heretic, or, worse still, a renegade. It is impossible for China to recapture that ancient tradition. The Chinese have been infected with Western ideas, and it is doubtful whether Confucianism is compatible with themIn the old days the classical system was maintained by the various dynasties, which imposed the culture. The road to official positions lay through a knowledge of the classics, which were thereby accorded a prestige and an assured position in the scheme of

tilings. The Confucian doctrinq had i the privileged position of a State religion, which all found to their advantage to embrace. Confucius and modern China are distinct entities. Some two years ago I was present at the trial of some rioters in Shanghai. The assessor in the Mixed Court asked one of the students on trial whether he ever studied the Chinese classics. On hearing that the student did, the assessor inquired whether he remembered the observation of Confucius that a man must be 60 years of age before he was capable of deciding a question justly. “Yes, I know that,” replied the student, “but that is a 2,000 years’ old saying: we cannot use it for the present age.” That remark typifies Young China’s attitude toward its country’s past. Many Chinese students who have completed their educaton abroad treat their own customs on their return in a flippant and sometimes even con-

temptuous manner. Confucius would certainly not approve of China’s present-day student politicians. He is quite clear in his definition of good government. At bottom he declares repeatedly that it always depends on the loyalty and gratitude of the people, not on brute force. On being asked what kingcraft was, he declared: “Food enough, troops enough, and a trusting people.” Of the three, trust was the most necessary. The bells of thousands of Confucian temples will ring soon in China. Millions will hear them, millions will not hear- Young China is forsaking the god of Old China.