文档介绍：54
The Old Order
largest state. Nowhere else have the sanctions of government
power been based for so many centuries upon a single con•
sistent pattern of ideas attributed to one ancient sage.
Naturally, in the course of two thousand years many
changes have occurred within the broad limits of what we call
Confucianism-periods of decline and revival, repeated move•
ments for reform, new emphases and even innovations within
the inherited tradition. The range of variety may be a bit
less broad than among the multiple facets of Christianity but
it is parable. Consequently the term Confucian•
ism means many things and must be used with care.
As a code of personal conduct Confucianism tried to make
each individual a moral being, ready to act on ideal grounds,
to uphold virtue against human error, especially against evil
rulers. There were many Confucian scholars of moral gran•
deur, promising foes of tyranny. But their reforming
zeal, the dynamics of their creed, aimed to reaffirm and con•
serve the traditional polity, not to change its fundamental
premises.
That Confucian ideas persist in the minds of Chinese poli•
ticians today should not surprise us. Confucianism began
as a means of bringing social order out of the chaos of a
period of warring states. It has been a philosophy of status
and consequently a ready tool for autocracy and bureaucracy
whenever they have flourished. Unifiers of China have been
irresistibly attracted to it, for reasons that are not hard to see.
When Chiang Kai-shek on Christmas Day 1936 was re•
leased by the mutinous subordinates who had forcibly held
him at Sian, he returned to Nanking amid unprecedented na•
tional rejoicing. Yet four days later he submitted his resigna•
tion. "Since I am leading the military forces of the country, I
should set a good example for my fellow servicemen. It is ap•
parent that my work failed mand the obedience of my
followers; for otherwise the mutiny ... would not have oc-