Learn Mandarin online - Appreciate Guoxue as it is

Opinion / 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

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