Advertisement Hundreds of temples were destroyed. other countries in East Asia. Genera­ tieing Falun Gong, the banned spiritual movement.) LETTEI\ FI\OM BEIJING By the nineteen-eighties, Confucianism tions of Chinese thinkers had dreamed was so maligned that the historian Yu of finding the optimal recipe for "na­ The Confucian revival has been es­ ON THE TOWN Ying-shih called it a "wandering soul." tional studies"-the mixture of philoso­ pecially visible in the city of Qyfu, the BE THE. FIRST TO HEAR ABOUT EVENTS, In September, 2010, nine months phy and history that might insulate sage's home town, in present-day Shan­ CONFUCIUS COMES HOME China from the pressures of Western­ dong Province. In 2007, the city's Inter­ PROMOTIONS, AND SPECIAL OFFERS after I moved in, I was at my desk one FROM OUR ADVERTISERS ization. Mter the democracy demon­ national Confucius Festival was co­ Move over, Mao. morning when I heard a loudspeaker crackle to life inside the temple. A strations at Tiananmen Square in 1989 sponsored by the Confucius Wine ended in a violent crackdown, leaders Company. Thousands of people filled a BY EVAN 05N05 booming voice was followed by the sound of a heavy bell, then drums and a needed an indigenous ideology that local stadium, giant balloons bearing the flute, and the recitation of passages from might restore the Party's moral credibil­ names of ancient scholars bobbed over­ writings by Confucius and other ancient ity. Top Communists gave speeches at head, and a Korean pop star performed · masters. The performance lasted twenty meetings devoted to Confucianism, and in an abbreviated outfit. Near the cave minutes.·An hour later, it was repeated, state television launched a series about where Confucius was said to have been and an hour after that, and again the traditional culture intended, it said, "to born, a five-hundred-million-dollar next day. boost the people's self-confidence, self­ museum-and-park complex is under The wandering soul, in one form or respect, and patriotic thought." In 2002, construction; it includes a statue of another, has been stirring. As China the Party officially stopped calling itself Confucius that is nearly as tall as the undergoes an economic transformation a "revolutionary party'' and adopted the Statue of Liberty. In its marketing, ten times the speed of the first industrial · term "Party in Power." The Prime Min­ Qyfu has adopted comparisons to Je­ revolution, people are turning to ancient ister, Wen Jiabao, declared, ''Unity and rusalem and Mecca and calls itself ideas for a connection to the past. The stability are really more important than "The Holy City of the Orient." List Enjoy a season's worth of anything else." In February, 2005, the year, it received 4.4 million visitors, sur­ classics have become such reliable best­ great theatre when you sellers that, in 2009, the company be­ Party chief, Hu Jintao, quoted Confu­ passing the number of people who vis­ hind National Studies Web, a site that cius' observation that "harmony is some­ ited Israel. join Roundabout! Choose thing to be cherished." No one has harnessed the interest in sells digitized Confucian texts, went from "Cabaret," "Dinner public on the Shenzhen stock exchange. Soon, "harmony'' was on billboards Confucius more successfully than Yu To appeal to entrepreneurs, Peking and in television commercials and in­ Dan, a professor of media studies at with Friends,': "Violet," toned by apparatchiks. In 2006, a teain Beijing Normal University. She pre­ University .and other respected schools "The Real Thing," and created mid-career courses that prom­ of government-backed historians sented a popular series of lectures on ised to reveal "commercial wisdom" in marked Confucius' 2,557th birthday by state television and wrote a book, "Con­ more. From the best prices unveiling what they called a "standard­ fucius from the Heart" (2006), that is the classics. to V.I.P. access, Roundabout Confucianism has no priesthood or ized" portrait: a kindly old figure with a said to have sold ten million copies. rites of conversion, and is not generally luxuriant beard, his hands crossed at his Today, she occupies a position in Chi­ has a package for you. considered a religion, but new members chest. The Chinese Association for the nese pop culture somewhere between of China's middle class regard an inter­ Study of Confucius, supported by the Bernard-Henri Levy and Dr. Phil. S}fe roondabouttheatre.org/packages est in philosophy and history as a mark Ministry of Civil Affairs, introduced plays down themes that irritate modern of cultivation and cultural nationalism. traditions that had never existed before. readers-such as Confucius' observa­ Parents have enrolled their children at It arranged for couples to renew their tion that "women and small people are private Confucian academies; I visited a wedding vows in front of a statue of hard to deal with"-and writes, reassur­ the sage. ingly, "The truths that Confucius gives n my fifth year in Beijing, I moved in the sixth century B.C., traditionally weekend school where children aged As a gentler alternative to Mao, Con­ us are always the easiest of truths." into a one-story brick house beside had a stature in China akin to that of three to thirteen were learning the clas­ I fucius has been enlisted as an avatar on Scholars mock her work-one critic at­ the Confucius Temple, a seven-hun­ Socrates in the West. He stressed com­ sics by rote, reciting each passage six the world stage. The opening ceremony tended book signings in a T -shirt that dred-year-old shrine to China's most passion, ritual, and duty. "There is gov­ hundred times. Around the country, of the 2008 Olympics made no mention read "Confucius is deeply worried"­ important philosopher. The temple, ernment when the prince is prince, and Chinese tourists flocked to the surviving of the Chairman but featured recurring but within a year Yu became the sec­ which shared a wall with my kitchen, the minister is minister; when the father Confucius Temples, where they filled references to harmony and to the classic ond-highest-paid author in China, after was silent. It had gnarled cypress trees is father, and the son is son," Confucius out prayer cards. "The overwhelming texts. In the past decade, China has Guo Jingming, a writer of young-adult and a wooden pavilion that lOomed said. Chairman Mao believed in "per­ number are about exams," Anna Sun, a opened more than four hundred Con­ fiction who travelled with guards to above my roof like a conscience. In manent revolution," and when the Cul­ sociologist at Kenyon College, who fucius Institutes around the world to hold back the crowds. · the mornings, I took a cup of coffee tural Revolution began, in 1966, he ex­ studied the cards, told me. "They are teach language, culture, and history. At Yu Dan's headquarters in Beijing, outside and listened to the wakeup horted young Red Guards to "Smash primarily wishes for the college entrance ROUNDABOUT Many universities have welcomed them; a suite of offices on a high floor at the ) sounds next door: the brush of a the Four Olds": old customs, old cul­ exam, but also the TOEFL, the G.R.E., .. THEATRE the program provides teaching materi­ edge of the campus, her assistant ushered broom across the flagstones, the ture, old habits, and old ideas. Zealots law school." ..,.COMPANY als and cash. (Some scholars have com­ me into a modern conference room. Yu squeak of a faucet, the hectoring of the denounced Confucius fo~ fostering It would have been anathema to plained that the institutes seek to limit Dan arrived, smiling broadly, and asked magpies overhead. "bad elements, rightists, monsters, and Chairman Mao, but his heirs have expression. In July, McMaster Uni­ the assistant to prepare tea. Yu Dan, who It was a small miracle that the shrine freaks," and one of Mao's lieutenants changed their view on revolution. In the eighties, when China set itself in pursuit versity, in Canada, closed its Confucius is in her late forties, has high cheek­ newyorkeronthetown.com had survived. Confucius, who was born gave the approval to dig up his grave. --------------- of prosperity, the Party studied how Institute after a teacher complained bones and a short, severe haircut. I Follow us on Twitter: @NewYorkerPromo that she had been prevented from prac- The Communist Party has decided to embrace classical ideas ifauthority. Confucian values had helped to stabilize asked what prompted her to embrace the ILLUSTRATION BY VICTO NGAI THE NEW YORKER., JANUARY 13, 2014 31 30 THE NEW YORKER, JANUARY 13, 2014 classics. She said that, like others her was an era of war and corruption, and companied by its proper sauce, he would pher. But I was curious about the show age, she had grown up denouncing the Confucius argued that rituals could not eat." But in times of war or instabil­ in scholars' robes; each song-and-dance had happened. Some of those edits were and arranged to visit the head of the ancient scriptures. 'When I began writ­ teach people to reconcile their desires to ity his dictates on how to dress, how to routine was named for a line frorri the ordained from above: for years the peo­ temple, a man named Wu Zhiyou. Wu ing 'Confucius from the Heart,' a lot the needs offamily and community. He govern, and how to live held out the tan­ classics-the Analects, the Book of ple were barred from discussing the looked less like a theologian than like an of people asked me, Why are you writ­ was an optimist.