Raymond Zhou

Appreciate Guoxue as it is

By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-06-30 15:03

Guoxue is hot, it is sizzling.

Guoxue, of course, is the study of traditional Chinese culture, especially Confucianism. In much of the past century, it was the target of relentless criticism, something to be thrown out, bath water, baby and all. Now, it is dangerously close to being overhyped as the panacea for all social ills.

Just this week, a principal of a painting and calligraphy school in the Central China city of Zhengzhou knelt down in piety while handing out 5,000 free copies of a Confucianist booklet that is the equivalent of "Dos and Don'ts for Students".

In my mind, people like him are not showing respect for our cultural heritage, but making a travesty of it.

I understand why people of previous generations went to extreme lengths to trash Guoxue. They needed to get rid of Guoxue's constraints that had bound us for thousands of years. The country was in dire need of an injection of fresh air and new thinking.

In a time of peace and prosperity like ours, we should not be cynical about Guoxue, but appreciate it for all the wealth and beauty of civilization it embodies. Our education should include mandatory teaching of a sampling of the Guoxue classics.

But, as they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Some who are recently exposed to Guoxue tend to place it on a pedestal that even normal criticism and academic analysis is seen as heresy. In essence, they want to revert to the old days when Guoxue was a force of suppression rather than a source of inspiration.

Many people get their Guoxue inklings from such channels as CCTV's Lecture Room, where eloquent speakers like Yu Dan offered a chicken-soup-for-the-soul interpretation. There is nothing wrong with this populist methodology, but hers is far from a definitive account. Instead, it is more an appetizer that should lead to a feast of the main entre, which is the original work with its complexities and subtleties that her feel-good preaching could not possibly incorporate.

This is like claiming McDonald's and KFC are the greatest American food, or Hollywood is the representative of American culture. This line of reasoning leads to the boom of rebuilding old architecture while the real thing is happily destroyed to make way for more development.

Many want the facade of reverence with the soothing spirituality and regained self-esteem. They are not unlike the proverbial Ye Gong, who prays for a dragon all his life, but when the dragon descends, would flee in panic.

People who revere Guoxue as God Almighty do not really understand how civilizations evolve. They believe it is this rigid thing that must be crammed down the throat of youngsters and never accommodate their questions. Most traditional style schools (si shu) that have sprung up in recent years resort to this gorging-without-digesting approach.

Think of it, the turmoil in the past century kept many Chinese untethered from the rich heritage of our culture. Now some would use scrapes of it as a paper-weight and a refuge, so that they have a sense of belonging to something great, not something to be pounded by a newer, more aggressive culture. It has become a defense mechanism, so to speak, against uncertainties of the ever globalizing world.

The purists reject any outside influence, oblivious that many of what they consider authentically Chinese, such as the traditional musical instrument erhu, were originally imported. They want to crown the Han-style costume as the national standard, not realizing those who conquered and ruled central China have long been part of the big family of China's multiple ethnicities, therefore their way of dressing just as authentic Chinese as the Han's.

What the Guoxue fundamentalists have ignored is something preached by Confucius - understanding and tolerance.

Email: raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn