Erudite confusion
By Chitralekha Basu (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-09 10:23
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The colossal political philosopher (551-479 BC) and ideologue who held sway over the culture and lifestyles of East Asians and the Chinese for centuries, before being temporarily banished from China during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), is not known for taking a very charitable view of the second sex! Sample: "Women and people of low birth are hard to handle, if you let them get close, they presume and if you keep them at a distance, they resent it."
In both her show and the book, Yu says she followed the line taken by Confucian scholars Yang Guojun and Qian Mu, who felt women and the "low-born", who might be read as "children", were clubbed together, as they were often seen as similar in temperament.
"There are several interpretations and while catering to the mass media I don't have the time to list all of them, I choose what I think is the most appropriate," she adds.
Indeed, there are versions and versions of how Confucius might be read. Confucius is in the spotlight following an atavistic return after the hiatus during the "cultural revolution", and interpreters with diametrically opposite approaches are out to claim the palimpsest of spiritual and ethical discourse handed down by him.
Even as President Hu Jintao's key slogan, Goujian hexie shehui (to build a harmonious society), is informed by Confucian thought, resonating with the elder statesman's message on the eve of the Olympics of putting sportsmanship over nationalism, best-selling authors and academics are staking a claim on the Confucianist pie.
