QUFU, China — Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius, has become the center of a burgeoning personality cult built around a philosopher who died in 479 B.C. It’s a movement endorsed by the government and provides cover to some who question China’s direction.
A revival of interest in Confucius and other aspects of what Mao Zedong vilified as China’s noxious feudal past has been underway for years, spawning best-selling novels, television dramas and films.
The Communist Party, tapping into a deep vein of cultural nationalism, has encouraged the trend, in part as an antidote to Western ways.
But a Confucian revival sanctioned and initially steered by the party has grown into something more vibrant and unpredictable.
It has become a quest for alternative ideas that challenge not only foreign imports such as democracy but also some homegrown results of China’s dash to modernity.
Confucianism, an elaborate system of moral philosophy and political theory, has always been a two-edged sword, both deeply conservative and potentially subversive.
Confucius prized hierarchy and order, but he also believed that virtue, not wealth or power, should decide who governs: “If a ruler departs from benevolence, how can he be worthy of that name?”
Entrepreneurs who trek to Qufu to worship at the Confucius Temple are by no means dissidents. But, well-off and well-educated, they relish a once rare privilege: While proud of China’s achievements, they have questions about where their country is headed.
“If Confucius were alive today, he would probably join the Communist Party,” said Kong Xianglin, deputy director of state-financed Confucius Research Institute. Confucius, said Kong, citing a popular maxim, “believed in ‘harmonious while different.’ ”
